Embracing the Diversity At ESSEC

This was a GREAT second week of school! Our classes were MUCH better than last week (partly because 2 were cancelled for the week and partly because they got slightly more interesting since we didnt spend an hour having each student introduce themselves to the professor)! We had an exchange student party on Tuesday which was REALLY fun. With 50+ exchange students, a welcome from the Dean of ESSEC, and then an opportunity to eat, drink, and mingle with the students from Argentina, India, Germany, Canada, Mexico, US, etc., we had a BLAST!

One of Mana's most exciting revelations this week was that ESSEC partners with IIM in Ahmedabad, which is one of the most prestigious institutions of India and so close to her Sunrise Park bungalow in Ahmedabad. She bonded with a student over Ahmedabad and found it so cool to be in class with him in Paris of all places on exchange! We had a debate as to the prestige level of IIM compared to IIT (Sahil believes IIT is MUCH stronger, Mana thinks IIM is just as strong as IIT if not better) - let us know if you have any input on this debate!

Wednesday was a great day because we went to our morning class and then had our afternoon class cancelled so first we went to eat lunch at the Indian restaurant on campus, which to our surprise was not as bad as expected. We've been told that Indian food in Paris is not the best, but interestingly enough, there are SO many Indian chefs at French restaurants here. We learned from our IIM friend that because Pondicherry, India was once a French colony, there are many people from that region who are now here and have taken on the career of becoming chefs! So interesting!

After lunch, Mana and her friend went shopping at the mall closeby and after finding a SERIOUS sale, bought her first pair of thigh-high gray suede boots for a GREAT deal when converted into dollars! She was jumping up and down in excitement. Sahil decided to opt out of shopping and instead began planning our trip for the weekend to Normandy and Louire Valley.

We finished classes on Wednesday and grabbed dinner at night about 2 blocks away from our apartment at the cutest little restaurant called il Tres. It was trendy and fun, with bright lights and had vegetarian food for Sahil so he was happy. We ended up befriending the manager of the restaurant who then hooked us up with an apertif and now have found a hangout spot of our own here when we don't want to go far or experiment with food!

Thursday we slept in and then made our way to the Pompidou Centre for the day. It was the first sunny day in Paris in a long time! We did some reading for class at a cafe inside for a few hours and then called it a day, came home, finished planning our trip for the weekend, and then went to our friend's place at night for some wine to hang with our friends from the US, Germay, Mexico, and Argentina. The international students here are really great and we're loving their company!

It's been a great second week but we are now off with 8 other friends of ours from school to road trip it to Normandy and Louire Valley to check out the castles/battlefields/wine region! So exciting! We'll tell you all about it early next week!