Episode 9 - French Collegiate Athlete 🇫🇷🏐
Getting schooled in strategy games by a 6-year-old, unexpected BCG interview, and a lovely lunch with the gang :)
I have been pondering an interesting dilemma this week that I heard from a science fiction audiobook I’ve been listening to (said by Skippy the Magnificent, of course!): If you know that someone will do something stupid when you tell them something, and they inevitably do that thing, is it your fault that they did it?
I think so. Food for thought 🍕
Tuesday 10/17/2023
I came home from London and got a very strange email from Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Long story short, I had previously interviewed for a summer internship for their Seattle office and was rejected when I applied a second time and received an email requesting to meet with their Seattle recruiting director. I scheduled the meeting for later that day at 7 p.m. Paris time.
Then I went to bed.
I woke up surprisingly well rested and Velibed over to class. I really paid attention today (we’re learning about monopolistic competition between countries, and it’s actually quite interesting), and Nikita and I had our group presentation analyzing Trump’s 2018 tariff increases.
We nailed it! Even the professor complimented us after class.
After class, I headed over to the language department to work for a little bit. That building has a coffee machine that makes large coffees (large by European standards, not American ones). 15 whole deciliters!! I am in shock.
I processed all the pictures from the London trip this past weekend, and then started writing a bit of the London blog, then headed over to a boulangerie to get 2 baguettes for the rest of the day. The weather also seems to be turning south this week — living in Northern Europe seems to have finally caught up with me:
10 minutes later, I was at the Crous cafeteria (the French student cafeterias located throughout Paris), ordered lunch (it was ok), and walked across the street to do some work at the Apple Store.
I love Apple Stores!
I spent the next 2 hours doing some work there, then decided to go to the Musee d’Orsay before my next class at 5. Unfortunately, Apple decided to release a new Mac update (a big one, at that), so I had to sit in the Apple Store for another 30 minutes while that was happening. I didn’t want my Mac to have any issues while I had my BCG meeting later that evening, so I decided to stick it out and studied a bit while waiting for the Mac to update.
By the time it finally did, it was 4 p.m. and I didn’t have enough time to go to the museum. I decided to go on a lovely walk to the Luxembourg Gardens instead, where I saw lots of retired folks playing chess, pretty plants, and happy people sitting on park benches. I will need to come back next week to play some chess!
French class today was super exhausting, I’m mentally done with that class at this point. I let my teacher know that I had to leave 30 minutes early for my interview (in French, of course), and biked home just in time for the BCG meeting.
Long story short, they’re having another cycle of interviews (I assume the Seattle office didn’t take enough interns, or can now take more than expected), and they invited me to interview again since I had interviewed there previously.
I happily accepted!
I now have a week to get back into casing shape, ooooooof. It has been several months since I cased. Time to call my casing buddies and get my ducks in a row.
When an opportunity like that falls from the sky, you must seize it with everything you have! Fortune favors the bold, after all.
I called Emily and Papa while cooking dinner, and was super happy that Emily finally found herself a nice apartment in SF! She is moving in this weekend :)
Amelia (the fake British girl I met on the Normandy / Brittany trip and chatted with last week) and I planned to meet tonight for a pint at 9.
I walked in front of the bar exactly at 9 o’clock. This punctuality New Year’s Resolution is going very, very well! Amelia was perfectly on time as well.
We proceeded to have 2 pints over the next 2 hours and had one of the most interesting and fun conversations I’ve had this entire exchange.
She was so interesting and so much fun. We have a lot in common and also wants to move to Europe. Somehow, we started talking about my London trip, and of course, I had to mention Twickenham (and how I didn’t go).
She told me a really funny story of her pursuing this German guy Tim (not just because marrying him would give her EU citizenship) and how she really likes him despite not meeting any of the 4 pillars of her type:
Dark hair. Tim is blonde.
Dark eyes. He’s blue-eyed.
Older than her. Tim is younger than Amelia.
Speaks a Romance language. Tim speaks German and English.
I literally could not stop laughing!
Even better, the first pub we went to had the Czech bartender I met last week, Adam and I had a great conversation about the Czech gaming sector and he gave us discounted happy hour prices for the pints.
Connections go a long way, it seems!
Wednesday 10/18
I woke up at 9 a.m., planning to meet Joe at 9:30 for coffee and to chat. I was so tired that I could barely leave the bed, so I called Joe and let him know the bad news.
I proceeded to fall back asleep and sleep until noon. I bought a new eSim card (my old one expired since 28 days had passed), studied for a bit, made lunch, then biked to northern Paris to tutor Eliana (the 6-year-old French girl) in English.
The 5 hours flew by this week! Eliana LOVED the paper airplanes last week, and that was the first thing she wanted to do was make and throw paper airplanes. We made a couple and proceeded to throw them all over the house.
She can practically make them herself from memory at this point. A few more classes with me and she’ll be a nuisance to all of her teachers at school.
My eyes are brimming with tears of pride already. I’m the best role model ever!
We played a couple of games of Uno, and then transitioned to a few strategy games.
She absolutely destroyed me in each one. Elaina is wickedly smart, I could not believe how much. She would draw pieces from the deck and strategically place them on the board within seconds. I was in awe. I now want to teach her chess, because I really do think she has the potential to be a tremendously strong player. Plus, I can teach her both English and Russian terms for the pieces, helping out her future chess career.
I digress.
Eliana’s family also has a cat. Every 30 minutes, I’d say “Where is the cat?”, and we’d go find it, point at it, and say, “There is the cat!”
Her English is improving already. :)
Her dad also invited me to play rugby with them on Saturdays at 11 a.m. I might need to take him up on that one of the weekends when I’m in Paris. I am really enjoying this tutoring so far. Next week is a shorter weekend and the following week is off since France is on holiday for the next 2 weeks. Europeans, it seems, go on holiday all the time.
Breaking News: I just opened my laptop and realized the blog I’ve written for the last hour wasn’t saved. Fuuuuuuuck. The moral of the story is to make sure the blog is saved before you close the laptop.
“Things didn't turn out the way they were supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.” -The Life of Pi
Anyway, it was an easy bike ride home, where I ate dinner quickly and headed over to the volleyball gym for our first game ever!! We were playing against Dauphine, our cross-town rivals, and it was an absolute blast.
First of all, our jerseys were sick. I’m definitely keeping mine to take back home to the US.
The game took 4 sets for us to win, and I played for 2 of them! I ended up playing opposite (a front-row player who also plays defense), and I even made a few points in the process. I got a few kills and the adrenaline rush was amazing.
What can I say? It seems that I am a French collegiate athlete now!
While I was on the bench, I taught my teammates some American volleyball chants and cheers, especially my favorite one. Basically, we all quickly sit in a row and pretend we are rowing a boat, before capsizing over. It’s incredibly fun in the moment!
I called Mama as I was walking to the bar we frequent after our volleyball practices. I couldn’t find my teammates, so I just went home. Turns out they were upstairs in the bar!
I didn’t even know the bar had an upstairs.
On the way home, I got a kebab at the lovely kebab shop across the street.
“Salud, boss!”
Turns out they have a membership coupon card, where if you get 10 kebabs, you get one free. It’s basically frozen yogurt.
I already have 2 stamps. That free one will taste like gold!
Thursday 10/19
I woke up for my 8 a.m. French class, and let me tell you, it was brutal. There was no light outside because the sun hadn’t risen yet and it was terrible. I’ve always hated waking up in the dark. But hey, you gotta do watcha gotta do.
The weather forecast said there was a 40% chance of rain today, so I expected a 100% of 40% rain (meaning it would certainly sprinkle). Turns out today, it was a 40% chance of a 100% rain, and I lost that gamble.
I showed up to French class soaking wet and 20 minutes late. Now that is what I would call unfortunate.
French class was super enjoyable today, we learned about prepositions and I had a great conversation with the professor after class. We have to make a presentation about a city, and I decided to do Reykjavik because I’ve been there before and I don’t want to be the American that just chooses an American city.
On the topic of Americans, my American classmate was sitting in the most American way possible. I love it!
I walked over to the cafeteria afterward to get some food and study, and accidentally ran into my friend Allen from the Normandy trip 2 weekends ago. I also got to meet his Romanian friend Iorgus, who was one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. He was wickedly smart, really funny, and spoke better English than me. When he found out that I go to UCLA, he mentioned Terrance Tao (a UCLA math professor, Fields medalist, and mathematical wizard) because he apparently competed against the mayor of Bucharest (the Romanian capital) in the 1988 International Math Olympiad, where they both got gold medals and perfect scores.
I proceeded to show Iorgus a picture of me with Terrance Tao on Tao’s Wikipedia page. I move in mysterious ways, it seems. He was shocked!
Iorgus also said perhaps the most amazing 3 sentences I’ve heard in my entire life. When I asked if the Bucharest mayor was corrupt (I’ve heard Romania is super corrupt), Iorgus responded with, “He was not that corrupt by Romanian standards. Of course, we expect him to accept small bribes. That is what happens when you live in a society ingrained with corruption.”
Crazy.
Iorgus plans on moving to Germany. When I asked him if he was moving there for the women, he said “It’s mostly the prospect of upward economic mobility that drives me to Germany, not the women”. To be fair, I was leading the question. He prefers Romanian women anyway. That man has his priorities straight.
I met up with Magdelena (my Czech friend) for our weekly lunch, and it was so much fun. I laugh a ton in her presence, and it’s always a great time. We went to a coffee shop first, where the two baristas were from Leeds and Liverpool. When I told them I was from Twickenham (in my perfect British accent, of course), they told me they didn’t know where that was.
Does anyone know where Twickenham is?? Life is soup, I am fork.
The shop was cool, especially because it had a mirror on the roof. Plus, the coffee was “a Kenyan coffee, made by a British hand, in Paris. God knows where the beans were roasted!” Magdelena is quite the coffee connieseur.
Lunch was onion soup for me and potatoes for her, she just loves potatoes. “I just want fries.”
We talked about Halloween for a bit, then left for a coffee shop to do some more work. It was as American as they get. American music, vibes, and decorations. Magdelena said it looked like Copenhagen, even though neither of us has ever been.
Amazing.
History class in particular was interesting today, where we learned about the European effects of the scramble for Africa and Asia. I talked to Gabby (my classmate friend) about her date with a guy down in the catacombs, and she basically said they snuck in through a manhole cover, got baptized in some sewer water, and lost her flashlight. She ended up ghosting the guy because he was short and small (tough, I know), though when she tells the story to friends back home she’ll be saying she was with the hottest man in Paris.
I thought my study abroad experiences were crazy. They are nothing compared to Gabby’s.
Now, we’re going into the craziest part of this entire blog.
I actually found my corporate governance class today…
Interesting?!
(you) “Oh my God Dennis, did you just say you found that class that you normally hate and literally count the minutes down until its end, interesting?!?!”
(me) Why yes, reader, that is exactly what I’m saying.
The reason I found it interesting is because we actually covered something real and applicable and didn’t just learn some bullshit economic models. We discussed French CEO pay of publicly traded companies, and examined trends in their wages, bonuses, and stock option grants.
I was really surprised to find how low (relative to the US) these compensation packages were. When discussing with the professor this after class, he said it’s because France is a much more equal society and it is frowned upon for there to be super-rich people. Even Bernard Arnault, the richest man in the world, keeps a low profile in French society. This lack of monetary opportunity leads a lot of young people to leave France to the US, where they can make more money.
The professor argued that was a bad trend for France, as it’s a significant talent drain on the population. I agree, and it was really interesting to learn more about the topic. Hooray!
I biked home quickly, ate granola, and got reading for…
TAYLOOOOOOOOOOOORRR!!!
I bought a TSwift movie ticket for 8 p.m. after Emma told me she and Gibs were going tonight. I biked over to the Champs Elysees for the showing and met Gibs and Emma there.
I was completely not expecting the movie to be like that. I thought it would be like a behinds-the-scene movie of how the Eras Tour was created, but it was literally just Taylor singing for 3 hours. Naturally, there was only one thing I could do:
Sing my heart out for the next 3 hours. Thank you Emily for making me listen to all her classics when we were younger. I even danced at the bottom of the theater when “You Belong With Me” was playing. Taylor is a legend.
I was also very proud of myself for representing a minority Swiftie group at that showing: adult males. 95% of the theater was high-school-aged girls, and Gibs, Emma, and I were single-handedly bringing up the average age of that theater. I love championing diversity!
We had a great debrief afterward while walking toward to Arc du Triomphe, then metroed home with Gibs. I ate some snacks and cased with Micah at midnight. My case was so fire, my laptop almost exploded. That BCG offer is mine to lose, I’m telling you. I will get that offer. I am manifesting that shit.
Thanks Micah for casing me! I miss you and hope you enjoy reading this :)
Friday 10/20
It’s Friday! Tatiana visits today!! I can’t wait :)
I woke up at 11 before studying for a bit and cleaning up my apartment. Now, it’s off to poké for lunch with the gang.
I met up with Emma, Ben, Gibs, Lara, Annabel, and Joe at a café near Sciences Po. Turns out the poké was no good, so we went to a burger place right next to it.
Burger is a loose term in this case. The burger I got was nothing like In-n-Out. It was basically a fried biscuit with some meat, sauce, and a salad.
It was delicious!! I do still miss In-n-Out, though.
We chatted a lot, then Ben had to go back to being the most important HR intern in the history of BNP Bank. Us folk that got the “burger” of the day also got a free dessert, which was a delicious chocolate mousse cake. They had an entire fridge you could choose from.
It was even better than the “burger”!
Annabel and Lara took the metro to the Pompidou Centre, and I (of course) took a Velib bike. The weather was perfect for biking!
The Pompidou Center ended up being closed, so we walked over to a coffee shop to do work there instead.
The first one didn’t let people take out their laptops.
And the second one gave out free chocolates with your coffee order!
I successfully got 3 more by asking for extra chocolate. Lara and Annabel could not stop laughing. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!
We studied for about an hour, then I went home to continue studying and prep for my casing practice with Audrey. She has her EYP super day for San Francisco the same day that I have my BCG first round! The tea and cookies I had while prepping for the case were wonderful as well.
My case went extremely well, and Audrey did well in hers too. We are both going to kill it on Wednesday, I’m sure!
And so that brings us to the end of the week! I’m off now to meet Tatiana at the train station. I can’t wait to see you! :)