Goodbye Danish Delegation, MFA, OECD, DAC, DCD, INCAF, ExCom and Council!

Friday the 30th of January was my last day working at the Danish Delegation to the OECD. It was a really strange day. I had a lot to do in order to finish a report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and when four interns stop at the same day it tends to be kind of an unproductive day. Everyone is just too chatty and of course that is really nice!

I now have to replace my entire mental dictionary! From acronyms such as DAC (Development Assistance Committee), DCD (Development Cooperation Directorate) WP-EEF (Working Party on Aid Effectivenees) and INCAF (International Network on Conflict and Fragility) to real, normal language when I return to Denmark to finish my thesis.

Actually the latter acronym was a fusion of two groups: FSG and CPDC, respectively Fragile States Group and Network on Peace, Conflict and Development Cooperation. I worked a lot with those. Very interesting themes and I was lucky enough to get some ideas for my thesis from this work.

However getting adjusted to “normal” academic language might only be for a short while. I am already scouting the opportunities for employment after the thesis. Which I have to give in on the 24th of April. Then I might be faced with another insider culture with yet another vocabulary of strange acronyms.

For now I’m still in an OECD mode languagewise. Other words that I have heard so often that I dream of them at night are: ODA (Official Development Assistance), OOF’s (other official flows). And that’s just the work on the development side of things. Then there was work in the ExCom (Executive Committee) as well as the Council, which is OECD’s governing body. Here phrases like renewal of mandate, evaluation of committee for this and that as well as ministerial council meeting (MCM) are some of the most common.

But of course there is more to the OECD than just pure language. Even though there are two official ones (that can become a problem for some people when the translators leave at 18 o’clock sharp regardless of whether or not the meeting itself continues!).

A lot of the things you learn by working in such a place is to small talk and you discover how political alliances are forged. An intercultural dialogue is necessary and lets just say I have discovered a lot of new things about the people from other countries! For instance that it is not the French or Italians who have the sexiest accent in English. Rather it is the Czechs. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that one Czech delegate bears a very strong resemblance to the lovely Russel Crowe. Also I have learned that the IMF must be a very boring organisation to work for as one IMF delegate always fell asleep in the meetings. These are all examples of very important intercultural lessons I bring back home with me ;-)

Pink & Purple in Paris

Get it? Two times Paris ;-) Funny. She is not my favorite person though, however I have one great memory with this song so I chose it anyway. Btw. the music selection is not that vast so that's another excuse :-)

January in Paris

Though the blog has been hibernating in January I haven’t. I have been at work to complete my tasks at the Danish Delegation to the OECD while also doing some other things such as wandering around unfamiliar neighbourhoods in Paris, which on one day lead my to find no less than four really nice churches that I took great pictures of. I also got a little insight into the anger of the Palestinians when I was out for a walk and met the demo at the Boulevard Beaumarchais on the 17th. There was police officers everywhere. When I got back from my walk the entire Place Bastille was occupied by people demonstrating. I guess I was lucky that I could even get to my appartment!

I have also been to Shakespeare and Co to buy a couple of more books which are going to be difficult to bring home with me! I hope I have room for everything. One thing I am very proud of is that I have completely avoided the January sales. I haven’t bought a single thing. Ok, well the books in Shakespeare and Co but they weren’t on sale and besides the soul needs nourishment! On the 24th I went to the Louvre and visited the entire section on French paintings from the 17th to the 19th century. I found some paintings I liked, I mostly do, but apart from them this section wasn’t my favorite one, but I still appreciated visiting it because you can also learn a lot from what you don’t like.

My mom and dad’s visit to Paris

My mom and dad came to Paris on the 12th of December and I took two days off during the following week before flying back to Denmark with them on the 21st. So we had a fair amount of time to go sightseeing together which was great!

On Saturday 13th we took the train out to Versailles and managed to see a bit of the garden before the weather got really bad. I bought a nice print of a painting of Marie Antoinette and another print which depicts three nice dresses from that time. The experience in the restaurant was really bad though – they forgot to bring us our drinks and even though reminded (twice!) didn’t bring them until my dad had finished his meal. Very bad service. The visit to the castle was very nice however and much less crowded than in October when I visited with my boyfriend. Except for the entrance to Marie Antoinettes bedroom where it is always crowded and we had to wait in line to get to the room. It was a very cold day as most of the days my parents were here so on the way back to the train station we escaped into a couple of the souvenir shops and those souvenir shops are actually really great.

On Sunday we spent the morning at the Louvre which was a great experience. I have now found the format for the perfect tour: the famous highlights of the Louvre – Mona Lisa (cause you sort of have to), Venus de Milo (same thing!) and the Cheveaux Marly (which I absolutely love) – and then all my personal favorites within a three hour visit. My dad got to spend his 60th birthday among some of the greatest art of all time, which I think is very privileged. Before completing the visit entirely we went to the Café Richelieu to eat lunch and then proceeded to visit Napoleon’s appartment. This is actually a good strategy because you need a break sometime in order to appreciate everything and Napoleon’s appartment is in my opinion one of the highlights of a visit to the Louvre.

We walked through the Tuilleries and to the Place de la Concorde and then on to the Christmas market in the lower end of the Champs Elysees. This was far too crowded but it was my first French Christmas market ever so it was pretty interesting. We found great French macaroons which we enjoyed in the evening along with sorbet ice cream and a champagne birthday toast. Then it was shopping time and more precisely time to visit the Nike empire on the Champs. I loooove Nike. I am more or less raised to love sports gear and Nike is just my favorite brand ever. Though Adidas became more appealing to me than before when I lived in Berlin because they have so much more stuff to choose from than in Denmark. But Nike and I are forever friends.


On Monday I had the day off so we ventured to Galleries Lafayette to look at the Christmas decorations, especially the windows are great. They were decorated with an Alice in Wonderland theme. And I just love Alice in Wonderland. We bought a lot of nice Christmas decorations and went on to the Christmas market at the Esplanade de la Défense, which is the largest one in the city. I am amazed by the fact that there isn’t really much Christmas stuff at the markets. There was one big indoor area with Christmas decorations, where we bought some ornaments, but the rest of the market is mostly typical market stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas, and off course lots of food. There was one shop there with a really impressive display of dried fruit and then there were lots of home and décor stuff but not Christmas-themed.

Wednesday was Disney day and oh my had we selected a bad day. The weather was horrible to say the least. Very cold as well as rainy for the first couple of hours. However we had bought advance tickets so we had to go on that particular day. Buying advance ticket at a FNAC store is a great deal; you get the ticket for 29 euros instead of 50. But you have to buy the tickets three days in advance so you will not know if the weather is great or not.

Seeing the sleeping beauty castle was great. It was really lovely. We fled the rain and went sailing on a river boat in Frontierland. Then we went on to the phantom manor and the graveyards of some unlucky minors who were too greedy. Next stop was Pirates of the Carribean where we made a reservation to return for lunch at the Blue Lagoon an hour later. My mom insisted than she wanted to eat there and it prooved to be a really good choice. We were seated right next to water where the boats come sailing through the restaurant. At 16 we saw the parade in front of the Castle and then walked to Fantasyland where I got a photo of me and the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. I like that rabbit. Afterwards we went back to the castle to buy Disney Christmas decorations in the Castle (very hard to choose, because there is so much cute stuff!). Finally we walked back through Main Street and browsed through the shops there as well. Outside the park there was a small Christmas market which we visited as well and then a short trip to the huge Disney store in Disney Village. This was mainly toys though so didn’t buy anything. However when I went to the Disney store at the Champs Elysees later that week to look for a photoframe I found a Winnie the Pooh Christmas toy, where Pooh rides a sleigh, which rocks and plays music at the same time. I placed it on the floor in front of Pingo, my parents youngest dog, and it was soooo scared of it. That was really funny. Should have videotaped that. I might do that next year. I am sure she will still be scared of it. That dog is kind of weird!

Then on Saturday we went to Montmartre and walked the stairs up to Sacre Cour which we visited. I finally selected a rosary so now I have one. Due to my dad’s bad knee we didn’t climb the stairs to the dome, however it is really nice, but the stairs are very steep and narrow. We then walked through the streets to the left of the church and bought some really good drawings of Paris and proceeded to Place du Tertre where the cold weather had scared many of the artists and onlookers away.

Then we walked down the stairs to the maison du thé in Rue Tardieau for crêpes. After that we went shopping in Antoine et Lili. I had thought of a great blouse/top for my mom and it turned out I was right, it was absolutely perfect for her. Finally we walked past Amelies café and then quickly popped back to the Rue Dunkerque where my mom bought a ton of scarves!

On the 21st we flew back to Denmark – and despite some trouble we managed to land in Copenhagen only about 30 minutes late. I wont even go into that story, but let’s just say that it involved a bomb alarm and an evacuation of the airport! All in all however very nice to have my parents visit me here and I enjoyed having time with them to go sightseeing.

Yael Naim concert

Already before I left for Paris I had decided that I wanted to go to see one of Yael Naims concerts when she was to come in November and so I did on 15th. It was at Folies Bergere where Edith Piaf, among many others, used to perform. And I so regretted that I had not brought my camera. The hall of the theater is exceptionally beautiful. But on the positive side I now have a great excuse to go some other time. Yael Naim is an absolutely amazing artist. Very sweet voice, lovely poetic feel to the music and lyrics. And she has a presence on stage like no artist I have ever seen. She looks so genuinely happy that I’m convinced she is. She has fun entertaining the audience and dancing in crazy shoes and getting all of the audience up from their seats and singing along. It was definetely one of the best concerts I have ever been to. So charming and sweet. She has not left my ipod since the concert.

Weekend in Denmark

After our lovely holiday it was very nice to only be back at work for one week and then have a long weekend. It was a national holiday on the 11th of November so that was two days off! On Friday the 7th of November I went to the airport in the afternoon and got on a plane to Denmark. I didn’t arrive in Odense until half past ten in the evening, so I was very tired, but I arrived to a nice milkfree batter for pancakes prepared by my wonderful boyfriend and that’s always good for lifting your spirit!

On Saturday we picked up some photos from the photo store from our holiday because I wanted to get them back with me to Paris. We had ordered one enlargement and I think maybe 15 normal size photos and that’s what we paid for, however when we saw the photos on Sunday all of them were enlargements so we had made a great bargain! In the early afternoon we went to the Zoo to say hello to all the animals who have been missing me for these last couple of months, or at least I have been missing them!

Late in the afternoon we drove along with Jacobs parents to the birthday party venue (his moms 70th), which was really lovely. The food was alright – not usually so when I haven’t cooked myself. Eating has turned very complicated for me having discovered that I am lactose intolerant and can only ocassionally eat very small amounts of dairy products. This spring I ate 100 % vegan and now I have returned to eating a bit of egg and chicken. But I suspect it will only be a matter of time until I become 100 % vegan (for specific health reasons). The birthday party was lovely, however I’m just not that much into the formal-dinner-party-followed-by-dancing. On Sunday we had afternoon coffe at Jacobs parents’ place (her real birthday) and when his dad said that he hoped I had realised I wanted my future wedding celebration to be like that I thought to myself: there is no way I’m doing that. Ever! I want to go to Vegas! However, boyfriend is not buying into that plan!

On Monday I took the train to visit my parents and we had a late celebration of my moms 50th with a nice lunch and lots of gifts imported straight from Paris. Also nice to go for a walk in the forrest with the dogs. Tuesday I flew back to Paris and then had to go to work on Wednesday.

African Footprint

On the 5th of November I was going to the Casino de Paris to watch African Footprint. The metro wasn’t running as it should, so I was the one who ended up (almost) running in order to catch the show. And in heels I might add! The intro to the show was a bit boring, however once the real show began it became anything but boring. In contrast to the show at the Moulin Rouge some of these guys did not have that much clothing on and that really revealed their impressive muscles. Lovely! I really recommend that you and see this show if you get the chance somewhere. It’s awesome!

The Casino is a lovely venue for a show like this. I’ve actually been to the Casino once before and eaten a nice lunch in their restaurant and I think doing a before-show or after-show dinner there would be lovely. They have a very beautiful mosaic window in the restaurant which really adds something special to the room.