looking for good places to eat
So I've been trying to find a website that offers good recommendations for restaurants. Alas, all the restaurants I found online on such websites were either terrible or not "French" enough. Up until now, I've been depending on hours of perusing through foodie blogs to find restaurants that I want to dine at or through friends who force me to go to these restaurants.
I did find a semi-useful site for eating out in Paris especially on a budget.
Chowhound is a general board about eating, and I did find one person named "mnaughton" who writes excellent reviews on the restaurants he visits (and cheap ones too). It's fascinating to see how many people are blogging about their food.
Recently, my friend and I went to La Grande Ourse, a tiny restaurant in Montparnasse. My friend got this recommendation from a friend who also blogs about food. It had an intimate atmosphere and great food to match.
Who knows? Maybe I'll start my own foodie blog when I get back to Chicago. Meanwhile, I'll just enjoy high quality French cuisine (while attempting to be on a student budget).
crank call over VOIP
Funkycall is a way for me to have a little fun over Valentine's Day (or any other holiday for that matter). I can use funny pre-recorded voices such as Yoda or George Bush to make amusing calls to my friend (or I can be less fun and use my real voice). There is also a lot of interaction on the site as users can upload and share their own pre-recorded messages and other users can rate each other.
You can also embed these clips into most social networking sites (i.e. Blogger, Facebook, MySpace, etc) using Flash player.
what would a chicago student in london do?
I did a lot of catching up with my friend at LSE this past weekend. We compared our experiences as "international" students in our respective countries. There were definitely some differences especially given the time lengths of our programs (and the vast difference in day-to-day expenses).
Currently, I've been writing from the experience of an "international student" only staying for a quarter. My friend is participating in the year-long program at LSE. While I worry that I don't have enough time to visit every European country for my 10-week stay, my friend worries about whether she will have enough money to last her the entire year. Thus, our lifestyles are very different. Although UK and US use the same language, the two have vastly different cultures. My friend could try to assimilate into her temporary home for the year while my relatively short time (and associated language barrier) prevents me from fully appreciating my temporary home.
We do have similarities at the same time. It's really hard to meet actual people who are British or French. Most of the people that my friend hangs out with are American students as well. Many British people who are in my friend's dorm are first years who have just gotten out of high school or master's students who can't afford to live in a flat for a year. Many British upperclassmen either live at home or off-campus with their friends from high school. That seems to be the case for my dorm as well as it is called the "Foundation of the United States." I meet my fair share of American students in the dorm, and I got really lucky meeting French students (unless it's at a bar and they're clearly tipsy).
British and French people do take their relationships very seriously and definitely demand to be connected constantly either via phone or in person. Not many of them actually use online social networking tools because they see these relationships as very casual. If they do participate in social networking, it's often among people who know each other very well. This is very similar to Americans as well. Many American students here see Facebook as a way to complement their relationships with people they know very well. They spend a lot of time with the people they care about. Everything from meals, coffee, work, conversation, "short" run-ins on the street. It was actually a pleasant break from the bustle and "efficiency" of American life. (However, I do appreciate functional and fast internet. I can't find that in my dorm.)
I think we are picking up some European mannerisms though. I am texting a lot more than making a phone call. I take my time in everything. I make sure that I interact with 110% attention to one person. I do get a lot of new phone numbers to text every week. It's nice to get all these restaurant and club recommendations too. I wish I can keep track of who recommended what places, so that I can check them off or find out more information about them.
wandering about london
I just got back from my trip to London this past weekend. I had a blast, and it was great to see one of my friends again after such a long time without seeing her. (In fact, it has been at least 6 months since I've seen her face.)
Of course, while I was out and about, I figured I should write about a few observations in the way in which British people communicate and network in their everyday lives. These observations range from the Tube, in the dorms, in Borough Market, and other random places in London.
First thing I noticed, the British people of London have similar communication characteristics as the French people (and most other Europeans). They text a lot more than they talk on the phone. As discussed with my friend at LSE, this can be attributed to the lifestyle of people in London. They spend significant proportions of their time riding on the Tube, walking from point A to point B to point C.. then maybe back again to point A, doing errands, shopping on the bustling areas of Carnaby and Bond streets, cheering on their favorite football teams in pubs or live, going out and having a drink, and making fun of tourists (just kidding). In summary, British people lead very busy lives and need quick and discreet means of communication in order to stay connected all the time.
Second thing, British people like their slider phones. In fact, all the advertising that I saw had slider phones in the spotlight. In the Tube, I see many colorful ads of Sony Ericcson's Walkman mobiles for the music lovers. Many young people are texting away with their Samsung sliders with giant posters from Orange promoting the same product in the background. Nokia had a huge presence too. I forgot how many people (both young and old) passed by with a Nokia mobile phone (either a candybar or slider). Like France, the trendsetters and fashionable elite are definitely toting their sleek sliders. I actually found it amusing when some British people asked about my Motorola mobile phone asking if it's the new handset from Nokia or Samsung. After saying Motorola, they were pretty surprised. Motorola definitely weren't high on mobile phone makers with fashionable sensibilities.
Third thing, only American people are into Facebook. British people have Bebo. The British are definitely proud of their social networking site, Bebo, and are very territorial about it. Maybe it has to do with the whole thing about how much British people hate uncivilized Americans.
Next entry will be dedicated to how foreign students try to cope in the new environment. Everything from finding new restaurants, finding each other, and making your pound stretch due to unfavorable exchange rates.
Bebo launches Minicards
In conjunction with printing startup Moo, Bebo (a popular social networking site in the UK) launched Minicards for its members. For around US$19.99, members can convert 100 photos from their social networking profiles into 100 minicards with text and other add-ons.
Moo has its own Bebo
profile. In order to promote its service, Moo is giving away 10 free cards for members who want to give it a try.
Will this work? It's hit-or-miss. Flickr became wildly popular as family and friends could view and share photos among themselves and print out their favorite pics. Meanwhile, Facebook has a similar photo-sharing service in which members could choose to order prints of their favorite photos that they see online. However, in my personal experience, most of my friends on campus use Facebook as means to share and view each other's photos rather than using it as a print service. (In most cases, we would just use photo paper and our own color printers to print them out.)
social networking for pet lovers
Pawspot is apparently where local pets and people meet. Currently in the beta stage, this site offers a place for people and their darling pets to arrange play dates, exchange pet-sitting, and discuss pet-friendly stuff with your neighbors.
Considering that Parisians are pretty obsessed with their dogs, this seems to be the perfect spot for them to exchange caring and training tips with other dog-lovers. Dogs are even allowed in all sorts of public places ranging from restaurants to in the subway. This was completely different from the U.S. where dogs (and other animals) are only allowed inside if it's an assistant for people with disabilities. Unless I'm completely blind and ignorant, I have a feeling that dogs are welcome everywhere in France.
Funny thing is that I've never seen a Parisian with a cat. Maybe all the cats stay indoors.
return to attempts to sync my pda and smartphone to the web
So I find this interesting post/thread on
Ask Lifehacker inquiring about how to sync one's PDA/smartphone to the web. My friend Varun has attempted for a long time to sync his many toys to Google Calendar, but he only managed one-way link rather than two-way link.
Reading the comments to the thread is the most interesting part of this post. Many users have suggested using programs such as Airset, Goosync, Gmobilesync, and SyncMyCal. Obviously, the multitude of standards for both calendars and operating systems of the PDA/Smartphones is causing compatibility issues across the spectrum.
Companies use facebook to recruit employees
According to
Wired News, the CIA has been using Facebook since December 2006 to recruit potential employees into its clandestine service. It marks the first time that the CIA used social networking to hire new employees. The CIA's Facebook page requires a log-in and provides an overview of the position with a YouTube promotional video. College students can inquire through the page for applications.
As the CIA is an "exempted agency," so it has more freedom than the normal government agency in its operations. This is an interesting experiment as the government is seeking more ways to attract qualified college students into public service. Ernst and Young also has its own profile page (log-in required) that is similar to the CIA page. It offers resume advice, interaction with actual employers, and videos of interns.
Recruiting through Facebook is nothing new. Many of my friends who were former interns at large companies like Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs use Facebook to market recruiting events on campus. However, this is one of the first instances where the company itself chooses to use social networking as a marketing tools for prospective employees.
There is definitely some concern for privacy online as more recruiters use Facebook to peruse through prospective employees. If you haven't noticed, there are many embarrassing photos of students on this site. Many students are even modifying their names to make it more difficult for strangers to find them. Facebook's
privacy policy asserts that outside companies sponsoring groups cannot access personal information or profiles of Facebook users. Nonetheless, it states that information may be shared with "other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies," in order to comply with the law. These vague statements would definitely raise red flags for those concerned about privacy.
As the internship recruiting season is in full swing, I'm seeing a flurry of recruiting events popping up every time I log into Facebook. Fortunately, I am employed after I graduate, but it's always fascinating to see more people embrace social networking as a productivity tool.
No more 411
TellMe is a new (and free!) Java mobile application. You can use this to find 411 information via voice activated menu. All you have to do is say the location you are searching in and the name of the business. Voila! You get phone and address information instantly. From this app, you can call the business, get driving directions, or send this business to a friend via SMS. There is also a SMS version of this service.
It looks really cool. Too bad it only works in America. It would be very useful to have in Paris as I never know where to eat or drink.
UPDATE: Apparently, my friend tried this application with his n80. The voice recognition is apparently too slow. So slow that my friend thought his phone crashed... This doesn't sound too good. Maybe I don't want to try it. I haven't heard anything about the SMS version. If any of you have tried the SMS version, let me know.
how the french converse (as opposed to the loud americans )
I ride the RER and Metro trains to class every day. With the carte orange, I actually have unlimited use of the trains. Instead of reading and minding my own business, I took the liberty to observe the French locals on the train.
1. French people converse softer with each other. It's a little louder than a whisper, but I can never hear them clearly. All the conversation seem very intimate. French people really seemed engaged with each other and will look directly at each other during their conversations. A conversation is never nonchalant but seem significant for every second. They like to take their time and absorb as much information as possible.
2. LOTS of French people have mobile phones. (In French, they would be called "portables.") However, I have never seen a French person chat on his or her mobile phone in the trains despite the prevalence of the mobile phone. Many do text or check their voicemail. So on the other hand, French love to text. I find myself that I'm forced to buy lots of text messages in order to keep up with all my contacts.
3. The young French like their sliders. These sliders which come from Samsung, Nokia, and Sony Ericcson. I see Sony Ericcson phone ads everywhere for their Walkman phones. The young French love their music, so being able to share their music seems incredibly important. On the metro, most of the young French people have music players of some sort and are listening to them to pass the time on the train.
Hopefully I will be meeting some French students this week in a more informal (and engaging) setting. The language barrier is definitely becoming an issue in meeting more people. At least there is a House of Germany on this campus, and they host a bar night every Wednesday. I may go out and try to meet some Germans as I do know German.
funny thing that i found out today from my french conversation assistant
So I asked my french conversation assistant straight out what the French people use for social networking online. He told me, "Facebook, what else?"
Interesting. Then again, Facebook did open up to regional networks. I will need to investigate this a bit further. I wish the internet at my dorm actually works.
UPDATE: So I decided to make a search for people in the France network. My search returned the vague "over 500" results. I decided to narrow it down to on search criteria, and I get numbers much smaller than 500. I wonder if only a little over 500 people are in the France network. Another theory is that people just like their privacy more and modified their settings such that only their friends would see their profiles.
I need more text messages
They were not kidding when they say that Europeans text a lot more than they make phone calls. As most phone plans in Europe cater towards giving lots of free SMS messages in mobile phone packages, many young Europeans prefer to be texted rather than get a call.
Why is this so? Well, many European students (including many of my friends in the program) are using prepaid mobile services. As texting only costs about 0.10 Euros per message versus the 0.55 Euros per call, the average student's elasticity of demand was at play. I would rather be able to text five times than make a one-minute phone call.
In addition, many young Europeans text due to convenience. They don't have to make a phone call. It takes a matter of seconds to write a SMS. It is more discreet than a phone call as you don't need to inform people around you that you are making a phone call. You can text nearly everywhere because it's discreet. In addition, you don't need to be able to hear the person on the other side in order to communicate. Lots of young people use SMS to communicate at loud venues such as concerts, jazz clubs, and nightclubs. Every time my friends and I would go clubbing, I see many young Europeans with their phones in hand ready to read/send/receive SMS at any point.
Is there any way social networking could go on mobile? Can a facebook or myspace mobile ever be successful on the small screen? The main concern from my friends is price. As they don't pay for facebook or myspace online, many of them are hesitant to pay for mobile social networking services. In addition, many are hesitant to use social networking services on mobile phone because it would be way too much information to digest on small screen. Unless social networking applications are cheaper than sending SMS messages, many young Europeans are comfortable with using SMS as means to stay connected. Nonetheless, there is still another contingent of young Europeans that would love to access their Skyblog on their mobile phones. One guy showed me his Skyblog account on mobile, and I was surprised by the rich content crammed into a tiny screen.
Where do the French network online?
Although MySpace has recently opened its French language site, one social networking site still dominates in the French social networking world. Part of the Skyrock network, Skyblog is the site to be on if you’re a young French male or female getting in on the social networking scene. There is a counter on the top of the page that constantly updates its usage statistics. Since its inception, there have been more than 6.7 million accounts, more than 337 million articles, and more than 668 million comments. Today, more than 1500 Skyblogs have been created and 90,000 articles have been published.
Skyblog is a nice relief from the frivolous and annoying site layout of MySpace. Skyblog seems to be more focused on user-created content then who's MySpace profile has the most "bling." The site layout for Skyblog is very basic and organized. You have your basic profile on the left of the page with your blog entries dominating on the the right. Members can comment on articles written by other Skyblog members. Skyblog also has a ranking system according to categories such as music, video, and most hits.
Many of Skyblog's members are very passionate about their interests and hobbies. One Skyblog chronicles a member's love for skateboarding. Everyday he posts action photos of the moves he learned and writes about how he wants to improve himself the very next day. Another member is obsessed with her pet cats, so she posts daily entries about what she did with her cats that day. Some people comment on world affairs and local news while others make fan pages about their favorite pop culture icons. There are many small record labels and local DJs (like MySpace's humble beginnings) trying to make their names known in the French world. Skyblog also has a sizable mobile presence through SFR and i-mode. There is even a ranking for most popular mobile Skyblogs on the homepage which can only be accessed if you have a Skyblog mobile account.
Granted, some of Skyblog's most popular members often display soft-core porn which was an issue with MySpace in America. One must also keep in mind that cultures are much different between the United States and France. France, and Europeans in general, are more open to alternative means of expression and communication. I often see several magazine covers with nude women prominently on display at local newstands. Many people never take care to notice and walk right by while my American friends and I gawk for several seconds before moving on. In the Metro, advertising is definitely a lot more open than in America. A new French movie called "Cashback" displays a topless women in a store of some sort. Raunchy? Maybe to the Americans, but to the French, it's just another ad.
IPhone, next it-item?
I give mad props to Apple’s design department. They know how to design appealing and fashionable products wanted by consumers everywhere. For example, I found no practicality in carrying 60 gigs worth of music and video files along with me in an IPod, when I can carry a smaller 1 gig player for a workout that will last an hour. Nonetheless, I happen to like the IPod’s sleekness and clean design (and still mourn over the loss of my IPod due to theft). 11.6 millimeter device that includes a 3.5" 480 x 320 touchscreen display with multi-touch support and a proximity sensor. It also has a 2 megapixel camera, 4 or 8 gb of storage, bluetooth, wi-fi, quad-band GSM radio with EDGE. This tiny thing somehow runs OS X with Widgets, Google Maps, Safari, and ITunes. Apple also has a partnership with Yahoo! for push IMAP email. It will come out a bit pricey. 4 gig for $499 and 8 gig for $599. Both require a two-year Cingular contract. Is it worth it?
First, as an owner of a touchscreen phone, there are some things I love about it and some general things I hate about touchscreen phones.
Things I love about it:
1) It looks cool. As a young twenty-something, I am a victim to fashion trends and looking good. I know I sound very superficial, but it's true for the average twenty-something. People stare when I take out my phone because they have never seen it before.
2) The big screen is a plus when I read/write SMS or browse the Internet.
3) Never really had a problem with the touchscreen sensitivity when I'm talking on the phone. I never screw up and type the wrong button.
Things I hate about it:
1) I'm a target for thieves. Cool unique phone (+ Asian) = higher % of becoming a victim of theft
2) Sometimes the touchscreen does not respond as fast as you like it. Tactile keypad beats out touchscreen in terms of feel. It's easier to quickly and discreetly SMS someone on a phone with a keypad vs. a touchscreen.
3) Battery dies more quickly because there is a huge screen.
What about the IPhone?
As much as I would like the jack-of-all-trades phone with my media player and ability to get on the internet, it is still a bit pricey for me to fork over at least $500 and a two-year commitment. Although it does have Wi-Fi, the ability to run actual PC software (which was lacking before), and enough storage space for my music, I'm still skeptical about the battery life and the need for me to be even a bigger target for getting mugged. It is a gorgeous-looking phone, and I'm sure that this will be the next it-item that fashionistas will get to up their social status. With the increasing integration between fashion and technology (i.e. Motorola and D&G, Prada and LG), consumers are embracing viewing technology as a complementary fashion accessory for their wardrobes.
All in all, a mobile phone allows one to be constantly in touch with your group. If IPhone can't deliver on voice quality that is comparable or better than its much cheaper peers on the market, I don't see this product flying off the shelves. Then again, I said that about the IPod and the impracticality of carrying a huge amount of music with you everywhere. Now the IPods are everywhere...
Need for visual voicemail (especially if you don’t understand French commands)
I got my first voicemail messages while on my trip to Reims this past weekend. I have already figured out how to set up my greetings and my four-digit code. Here is the hard part. How do I actually check my voicemail? After several haphazard attempts to decipher French commands and code, I thought about whether there would be a better way to check voicemail. Knowing who called and when they left the message would help immensely as I sift through my voicemail. This would even help if I'm in the United States where checking voicemail counts towards your minutes if you call during the day time.
Apparently such applications exist. Citrix has a program called Visual Voicemail that allows you to view the phone numbers and names (if available) of people who left voicemail in a screen. Apple's IPhone seems to have a similar application as well. I would love to test such an application on my phone here in France.
Tomorrow when my bandwidth is better, I will check it out. Stay tuned.
Using Google Calendar to organize group travel destinations
Due to the short time allotted to the Paris Social Sciences Program, many students felt inclined to make use of their free weekends to travel to other European countries or other regions of France. This past weekend, three of my friends and I headed out to the Champagne region of France for a short two-day trip. Before leaving for the trip, we used email, word-of-mouth, and email mailing lists. We did not receive any response, but we’ve gotten many questions about our trip upon our return.
One friend (who I will call AK) suggested using Google Calendar as a way to organize when and where other students are going during the weekends and the free week. AK often uses Google calendar to coordinate plans with her roommate. They would share a calendar marked with their course schedules, club meetings, appointments, etc. One could definitely find this useful within groups of college roommates or apartment mates when scheduling group clean-up days or grocery shopping.
The use of a shared calendar is being used more and more. Since my registration for the Google calendar account, I’ve noticed an increase in my use of an interactive online calendar versus my paper-based academic planner. I still use my academic planner to keep track of assignments and last-minute things-to-do. (Besides, I like to color-coordinate my tasks by importance and to cross out tasks upon completion. It makes me feel productive.) However, I found that my planner could only hold so much information in its tiny pages. My planner is the perfect size for mobility, and I did not want to buy a bigger planner due to inconvenience. I found that I moved more established parts of my schedule (i.e. courses, long-term project due dates, work schedule, appointments, etc.) to Google Calendar. At first, I kept my Google Calendar private. Just last quarter, I started a shared calendar among my friends to figure out when to get together for coffee or a meal due to my hectic full-time employment recruiting schedule. Now, our group will soon experiment with a shared calendar to coordinate outings and trips. Interesting enough, I will probably be one of the coordinators of the shared calendar experiment.
I’m just thinking through all the possibilities that our shared calendar can evolve into. The initial purpose is to give a place (as Facebook lacks a shared calendar feature) to organize and coordinate group trips. For example, I can post on Google Calendar that I am going to London on January 25th at 8 pm. I edit the details of my post by adding transportation and housing details. I can also post what I plan to do on certain days. If anyone wants to come along, all they would have to do is send me an email to coordinate. This could be helpful for people who have no idea what they want to do. As traveling by group is usually much cheaper than traveling solo, more students look to travel to the same place if other students already planned it. We could invite more people to come along on the trip. In addition, it’s useful for friends of the program participants who want to visit Paris as they could avoid visiting their friends while they are away.
As of yet, there is no way to color-coordinate on Google. It would be nice to separate all the travel groups by color to keep them organized. In addition, it could be lucrative if students had a way to directly book transportation and hotel through Google calendar. I can always add a hyperlink with my details; however, I, like most students, do not want to make the extra effort. I haven’t attempted it, but I’m sure Google uses its calendar to tailor their advertising to the posts’ content.
onwards to the countryside (or at least a smaller city than paris)
Today I will be heading with three other girls to Reims, the biggest city in the Champagne region of France. What kind of new adventures (besides the ever-constant language-barrier issue) will await me there? Unfortunately, I can't take my laptop with me, so I will update everyone when I get back on Sunday. Salut!
where is the nightlife in paris?
According to
Reuters, MySpace opened up their French language website which is a little late. Skyblog has 7 million visitors per month in November compared to MySpace's 1.3 million visitors. Like the U.S. counterpart, MySpace France seems to be the hotbed for DJs, clubbers, and nightclubs as they market themselves to the masses through social networking.
In fact, my friends and I discovered our Thursday night plans through MySpace. As the current exchange rate is not in favor of the American dollar, we looked for nice clubs that did not charge 20 Euros for cover. We found the Erasmus Event at Club Mix on MySpace. After viewing several of the posted videos and the numerous "friends" the club had, we decided to give this place a shot. In addition, the videos and friends hinted the young crowd like us. No cover for foreigners (male or female) is always a good deal for any study abroad student. Another plus was that it had maps to give us directions from our dorm, and we found to our liking that this club is not too far.
When we got there, we were definitely pleasantly surprised. Nice big spaces with lots of light, LCD screens, etc. Granted we got there a little early, but the place was crazy 10 minutes before midnight. (Free cover is only before midnight.) We met a lot of international students who are studying in France, and they were around our age. It was interesting to see the kind of phones they had. Most had at least Nokia (not surprised..) handsets equipped with cameras and texting capabilities. As the music inside the club was so loud, many international students used their texting apps to communicate between people at the club. One person we met downloaded a photo of his home flag because he didn't know its English counterpart.
Overall, it was an interesting and fun experience to see how language barriers and sound constraints are overcome among international students.
after going around paris.. i do care about camera quality after all
After wandering around Paris on foot for hours on end, I appreciated the fact that my point-and-shoot camera is an ultra-compact and weighed the same as two mobile phones. The photo-quality has been good enough so far, but after seeing my friend Appie's gigantic SLR camera and its gorgeous photos, I have to say that I'm a little jealous. However, I am lucky that I do have almost unlimited access to her wonderful photos of Paris.
This brings into the question of mobility and the need to share media with other people. I did appreciate that my phone had a 2 mp camera inside the Sacre Coeur this past Tuesday. As the sign read "No Talking. No Pictures," I thought there was no way to record the majestic mosaics and colorful stained glass windows of the basilica. I did manage to sneak a few photos; however, half of these photos suffered from shaking. As the phone screen is much smaller and less pixelated than most camera LCD displays, it was difficult to tell whether I have taken a good photo or not. Once I came home and loaded them onto my computer screen, these once minor imperfections turned into major problems. Compared to my friend's camera on his Nokia phone, the image quality of my phone is definitely lacking.
It's great to be able to have a camera on your phone, but if the camera can't take crisp and clear photos, there is really no point in having a camera. I would rather lug around a gigantic SLR camera that guarantees great-quality photos than to a mediocre camera phone that decides to give me a good photo half the time. Unless there is some way to guarantee that the preview version is an accurate version of the image on your phone screen, I would definitely prefer to bring both my ultra-compact digital camera and mobile phone wherever I go.
the rising acceptance of VOIP among college students
I noticed that I am increasingly using other means of communication. Sure I do have an Orange prepaid plan to call my study abroad classmates, but I find that I text a lot more. Part of it is cost. I get 50 text messages for 5 euros while I have 1 hour of talk time for 30-35 euros. That seems to be the case for a lot of European mobile phone plans. Texting is just cheaper than making a phone call despite the fact that receiving a phone call is free. Another part is that we are studying abroad. Sometimes I feel like a pickpocket target whenever I converse in English over the phone. I also get some dirty looks from the French while I’m on the phone in the Metro. Texting allows me to be discreet and blend in with my environment.
There is also the problem of staying in contact with close friends and family back home. I initially bought a international calling card in France because the rates are about 0.10-0.15 Euro per minute for calls to the U.S. This is convenient in the fact that I save a lot more money than using my cell phone to call abroad. However, it’s annoying to put in all those numbers in order to make a phone call. I then realized that I should try to see if Skype works on my personal computer. At first I was worried about voice quality since my internet connection at the dorm is pretty spotty; however, I noticed many students from my study abroad program uses Skype as well. (In my group, around half of the students have Skype accounts.) Considering that it costs less than 0.05 dollars per minute when calling landlines in the U.S., cost seems to be a driving force behind the use of Skype as means to stay in touch. In addition, any call to another Skype user is free.
Even on facebook, people are putting up their Skype IDs and asking in their posts to friends whether he or she has Skype. I did not see this at all last year, but more people are figuring out what Skype is and how VOIP will change their preferences to chat with people live. Of course, this connection is still grounded. They only use Skype when seated at their desks with their laptops, but this is definitely a step towards something new. I suspect that more people are having broadband connections which allows for better connections and voice quality for VOIP. If one has dial-up, it's definitely better to have a mobile phone or a landline for international calls. I'm just waiting for one of my newfound foreign friends to ask me "Do you Skype?"
How Facebook participation has skyrocketed since we are now abroad
Earlier this year, I did a project for my internship regarding motivations for social networking. One top reason that many young people participate in Facebook is the ability to use Facebook as means to stay connected to old friends and family who are not in your immediate vicinity. Facebook provided an efficient method to keep track of all your high school friends at other colleges and see what they are up to. Since college is a very tumultuous time and I usually never have time to have meaningful conversations with my high school friends over the phone, Facebook provided the necessary tools ranging from photo albums to Wall posts in order for me to stay involved with my friends’ lives despite the distance.
Now that I am studying abroad, the importance for me to keep connected to my friends becomes more important than ever. Truthfully, I usually never have time to actively get involved with Facebook such as creating photo albums or write Wall posts. As many of my friends were just a phone call away, I never felt the need to use Facebook as means of communication. Now that I am in another country, I don’t have the luxury of using my cell phone to communicate with both my college and high school friends unless I want to pay exorbitant per-minute rates. In addition, my desire to share my experiences in Paris through photos coincided with the need to upload photo albums every day to my Facebook profile. Even the students on the program are browsing through Facebook more often and uploading several albums per day.
Does distance play a huge factor when keeping in touch with friends? Due to the need to feel connected on a tight budget, many college students will actively look for other means to stay connected and increase their online presence in applications with social networking aspects such as Facebook, MySpace, and Blogger.
Having a GPS app would've been useful for my first friday night in Paris
Considering that it was my first Friday night as an international student in Paris, I thought it was appropriate to experience Parisian nightlife. As we were coming out of a wine and cheese tasting that afternoon, we all ordered street food for dinner before heading to a bar.
Here are some things that I started to notice on this adventure.
1. Arranging meeting times is sometimes confusing. This situation is complicated as the wi-fi in our dorm is very slow and restricting. I can't even get on AIM in a reasonable amount of time. Sometimes we have to send two people to knock on people's doors to update meeting and departure times.
2.Most of us have no idea how to converse in French. Only three to four people out of eleven had some command of the language. This language barrier was a little difficult for us when we asked for directions. However, most French people knew some English (especially the twenty-somethings in the area).
3. A GPS program would've been very helpful. I recall so many instances where we happen to lose people from our group, and I would have to call them or text them to locate them. Many times, we would never be able to decipher where these people are as we are very new to the city and there are way too many cafes, street corners, etc. Especially in our small group of 10 people, it would be nice to have a GPS locator on my cell phone to know where my friends are.
4. Along the same lines with the GPS program, we often wandered aimlessly to find a bar or club that is to our taste. There is only so much the internet can tell you on directions and the entertainment venues themselves. (Of course, if one could read through French this becomes much easier on French websites.) Given that Paris is not necessarily like a grid but more of a maze, a GPS program would've been nice just to figure out where we are walking. My travel guide stated that a very lively street for nightlife is Rue de Lappe. Unfortunately, Rue de Lappe is a very small side street behind the Bastille. I was able to find it on Google Maps, but it would be nice to have a program to track our journey and tell us how far it is to the street.
5. The biggest concern was coming home. Metro and trains stop running at 1 am. Some of us were out way past this time. Specifically, two friends and I decided to join another group of students at a Latin dance club. We knew that there were night buses, and I even used the RATP (Paris transportation authority) website to figure out what routes to take. It seemed like it would be easy, but apparently it is very hard to get back to our dorm on the Left Bank from the Right Bank. We ended up walking 20 minutes in the rain to get to a main nighttime bus stop and wait for the only nightline that goes to our dorm. If only we knew about this before, then there would be no problem. We walked around in circles for about two hours until I finally got to my room at 4:30 am. Also, I found out that that the other half of our group had to take cabs back. One cab group got ripped off because they were foreigners. It is most likely that this cab group had a driver who took an extremely long route.
Luckily, my two friends and I had pretty good sense of direction. We were able to get back to our dorm just fine. Next time, I think I will make use of my free 10 minute access to Orange world and figure out where the current nightlife is.
study abroad!
Sorry for the lack of posts. I was on holiday break, but I came up with tons of unfinished posts that I will eventually finish.
I'm in Paris right now, so for the next 10 weeks I will be looking at social networking in the international student's eyes. Tons of new problems. How do I keep touch with my family and friends back home? How should I keep in touch with my new friends abroad? If I don't have a cell phone, what is the best way to stay connected with my friends abroad? If I'm party of a group of students studying abroad, what is the best way to broadcast and/or organize events? How do you find the most happening places in your new home?
Above are some of the most common questions asked by students of the UChicago Social Sciences Program in Paris. I had to contemplate the same thing. As I refuse to be ripped off by my U.S. carrier for making mobile phone calls in France, I decided to take advantage of my unlocked mobile phone and sign up for a prepaid sim card (Orange Mobicarte) in France. Figuring that 35 Euros would be enough for at least a month (I hope), I now have a way to connect with other students in my program. Some students have opted to get the prepaid sim card or rent a cell phone with sim card through a third party agency. For me, I saw that the price of SMS (50 messages for 5 Euro) is much cheaper than a phone call (.55 Euro/min); thus, I figured I would probably use SMS alot more than phone calls. Then again, all incoming calls are free which makes 1 hour worth of making calls a huge amount of time.
Some students even opted not to get a mobile phone. These students figure that they will probably be around students with mobile phone, so they bought international calling cards to stay in touch with friends and family from home. Another trend I noticed is the number of people with Skype or Google Talk accounts. 100% of the students in our group brought laptops, and we all have wi-fi access in our dorms. Given the incredibly low cost (sometimes zero) cost of making calls over these programs, many students have posted their user IDs of these account types in their facebook profiles in order for their friends and family to stay in touch.
As our program has just started, there is a feeling of camaraderie within the group. As most students in our social sciences program have little or no knowledge of French, it became very apparent that we would be together for most of the trip. The question is what would be the best way to organize and broadcast events or outings to such a large group. Suggestions included creating a facebook group or a email listhost. Others included broadcasting ad hoc SMS messages to announce locations and meeting places. I wished that we had a GPS system, so I hope to experiment with my 10 minutes of internet time to see if "Orange World" allow such a function.
Above all, students are still driven by cost. There is still a number of students that opted out of cell phones together in order to save the 50 Euros in getting activated in France. Some didn't know the difference between GSM and CDMA, or what an "unlocked" phone really is. From my understanding, most just want to have a phone that makes calls and sends/receives text messages from their family and friends. It seems like extra features like GPS positioning and contact statuses were not in the minds of the students. Of course, I could attest to the number of times when we wish we had a virtual guide whenever we try to navigate through Paris, and I've only been here for two days. Ease of use and price are definitely big characteristics I noticed to study-abroad students.
