The Princess Fusion: Blog Series

As you probably have noticed, I haven't been posting as much of my weekly series 'Let's try to cook'. Why? I'm simply too scared and don't have the time sometimes in my week to experiment and try new recipes. Cooking can be daunting. You never know if you're going to come out with a finished project. And even if you do come out with something you are unsure until that first bite if you did it correctly. Sometimes you're lucky enough to get the recipe right and have your concoction taste good. Other times you find yourself, after hours have gone by and all of the ingredients have been used, that what you had envisioned in your head to that on your dinning room table are two different things.

Of course I tend to be the latter. As someone who is just learning how to cook trial and error can be frustrating. I'm told by my family members that this process never stops. You will master several recipe's after a while but you are always learning new techniques and tips along the way. I try my best to be optimistic when it comes to cooking. Everything will turn out right if I follow what the directions say on this piece of paper. This, of course, doesn't happen all the time. Some times I have to resort to simply baking a pre-made pizza in my oven instead of trying to make the dough myself. The lack of cooking I do in the kitchen honestly makes me feel lazy. Add the fact that I'm a woman on top of it and for some I would be considered disappointing to the female sex for my lack of being able to whip up a pie at a drop of a hat.

Yes, I know that cooking will take time and patience. Yes, I know that being a woman does not give me an advantage at being a better cook than the opposite sex. And yes, I do have the want to make food on my own. What I'm trying to learn in this new and sometimes scary process of cooking is to take time. Just like when I'm baking a cake I need to breath. I need to let the cake bake and do it's thing. Staring at it endlessly until I see that that baking powder is doing its job correctly won't make the cake bake any faster. Instead I have to practice what most cooks have instilled within themselves since day one: patience. I need to remind myself that I am stepping outside of my comfort zone and that it will take time. I'm not Julia Child or even close to Julie who attempted to cook every meal and document it on her blog. I'm simply Sabrina; a girl from Minnesota who until last week was cooking eggs in the microwave instead of a pan. I'm trying to learn how to cook, and in the process I'm learning more and more about myself as a person.

So here's to another week of trial and errors. Of learning how to be patient with myself, the products that I am making, and knowing that one day I will master more recipes on my bucket list. So its time to put on the apron and get back in the kitchen, because this girl has some more learning to do!

Until next time,

By Sabrina Kennelly

On January 7th, 2015, two brothers, Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, forced their way into the Paris offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo killing twelve people. Two days later, Amedy Coulibal fired shots in the kosher grocery store, Hyper Cacher.

The deadliest terror attack since the 1961 Algerian war, French President Francois Hollande called the attacks an act of “extreme barbarity” (CNN, 2015).

Around the world, the phrase “Je suis Charlie” or “I am Charlie” was shown on social media and at public demonstrations in solidarity with the victims.

The media showed illustrations of two pencils being hit by an airplane comparing the attacks in Paris to those of 9/11 in the United States. For Jim Hoagland, contributing editor for The Washington Post, there is a difference between the attacks in Paris to those in New York. “Americans immediately understood 9/11 as a foreign attack against the homeland. We did not have to and still do not worry about an enemy within. It will require great care, and great skill, to prevent the Charlie Hebdo attack from becoming a point of division” he stated in his opinion piece after the attacks (Hoagland, 2015).

Almost a month after the attacks, on February 9th, four specialists Antoine Mégie, Sophie Fesdijan, David Vaulcair, and Dr. Jane Weston discussed the controversial magazine at a roundtable conference in Paris (Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today, Paris, 2015).

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Figure 2"Liberty I cry for your name" sign is placed on the Place de la Republique (center). On the left in purple the phrase “I am free” is marked. Photo taken by Sabrina Kennelly (2015).

A cultural clash

Dr. Weston, who studied the magazine and its controversies for her doctorate, began the Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today roundtable by explaining the history of the satirical paper. “I would encourage everyone to read it,” said Weston, calling the paper “friendly” for readers (Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today, Paris, 2015).

The weekly magazine has always been known for its controversial humor. Previously known as Hara-Kiri in the 70s, the publication was banned for mocking the death of former French President Charles de Gaulle. By 1996, the publication was re-named as “Charlie Hebdo” and has been publishing weekly issues ever since. Many of the publications issues contain cartoons mocking religious leaders (Gibson, 2015).

In 2011, Charlie caused controversy when it listed the prophet Muhammed as editor-in-chief. The next day, on November 2nd 2011, Hebdo’s offices were firebombed and damaged. Editor Stéphane Charbonnier told BBC the following day that “if we can poke fun at everything in France, if we can talk about anything in France apart from Islam or the consequences of Islamism that is annoying,” said Charbonnier (Gibson, 2015).

For Dr. Jane Weston religion should be seen as fair game for satire. “When you understand a language and get the jokes, you become part of a group,” said Weston at the roundtable. “Humor is an explosive picture. You have to be in that spirit without bearing in mind of it’s consequences” (Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today, Paris, 2015).

Though Charlie Hebdo may seem easy to read with its use of common language, the question still remains if readers are able to fully comprehend its humor. This is especially true for immigrants in France. According to Pew Research Center, France was noted in 2010 to have the second largest Muslim population in the European Union with 4.7 Million Muslims living in France. Roughly 3 million of these immigrants are from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia (Pew Research Center, 2015). $C:\Users\Jim Kennelly\Pictures\France 2015\DSC05426.JPG$

Figure 3 The phrase "I am Charlie" is paved on a Parisian sidewalk. Photo taken by Sabrina Kennelly (2015).

Product of the French School System

According to CNN, all three men involved in the attacks in January were first generation immigrants in France; Coulibaly was of Malian descent and The Kouachi brothers were of Algerian descent (CNN, 2015).

“The terrorists didn’t come from outside. The terrorists were produced by the French school system,” remarked Sophie Fesdijan, professor of immigration housing, and panelist for the Charlie Hebdo roundtable (Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today, Paris, 2015).

“For immigrant children school is the opportunity to learn about France,” Fesdijan proclaimed. She went on to add that school is also an opportunity for immigrants to become liberated from religion. (Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today, Paris, 2015).

“The (French) national education system has made it necessary to give children, at the same time, help to assimilate while helping them, at the same time, to find their place within society to do well,” explained David Vauclair, author of Les religions abrahamiques: judaïsme, christianisme, et Islam and professor at Université Paris Sud at the Charlie Hebdo roundtable (Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today, Paris, 2015).

For Vauclair, secularism, or “Laïcité”, within French public schools is one of the ways French society relays the concept of living together. “Each time that religion has entered into France, it has been a catastrophe,” he said (Vauclair, personal communication, April 2015).

On January 7th, Paris became a catastrophic scene when the Kouachi brothers attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo in the name of Prophet Mohammed. In a video, Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, a member of Al Qaeda in Yemen, claimed responsibility for the horrific events saying,“As for the blessed battle of Paris, we in the organization of Qa’idatul Jihad in the Arabian Peninsula, claim responsibility for this operation as vengeance for the Messenger Allah,” (CNN, 2015).

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Figure 4 Drawings on the Place de la Republique serve as a memorial for the attacks with the phrases "freedom of expression" and copies of the covers of the satirical magazine. Photo by Sabrina Kennelly (2015).

Who’s to blame?

Since the attacks in January, fingers have been pointing at who is to blame for the attacks. “Terrorism didn’t just start in January,” said Antoine Mégie, director of the journal Politique européenne and member of the editorial board of the journal Cultures et Conflits, at the panel. Terrorism, he explained, has been going on since the creation of dynamite. “We have to realize that we constantly use the word ‘terrorism’ and that the term terrorists can cause problems,” said Mégie. One of the problems, Mégie added, is profiling certain people as “terrorists” (Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today, Paris, 2015).

For many Muslims, being profiled as a “terrorist” was a reality even before the attacks in New York. According to the French Council for the Muslim Religion, anti-Muslim acts have risen since the attacks in January. In France, 128 anti-Muslim actions and/or threats were reported from January 7th-20th alone. In addition the National Consultative Commission of Human Rights found that from 2013 to 2014 the number of anti-Semitic acts had risen to 851 from 423 (Rubin, 2015).

“Islam is in no way conductive of terrorism,” said David Vaucalir. Very often the link of terrorism and the Islamic faith is made, he said. But this isn’t the case. “There are 5 million citizens in France that are Muslim. Only 1% is considered ‘radical’. This gives an idea of what is considered a threat,” said David Vauclair (personal communication, April 2015).

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Victims of globalization

Though terrorism has been blamed for the attacks in January, it could also be blamed on effects due to globalization. According to Jim Hoagland, the cartoonists who died were “indirect victims of globalization and the communication revolution, of the electronic rubbing up against each other of societies at different levels of development and of the backlash,” (Hoagland, 2015).

According to Yahya R. Kamalipour, author of Global Communication, globalization is “the process of different cultural groups strengthening and sharing values, ideas, opinions, and technologies together”. This has created a global community with an increasingly homogenous culture in the political, economic, educational, and scientific activities. Kamalipour notes that religion, unlike other aspects, has difficulty integrating into different cultures and communities (Kamalipour, 2007, p. 165).

In order to understand how Charlie Hebdo and globalization play a role in the attacks in January I decided to sit down with David Vauclair, one of the panelists from February’s Charlie Hebdo and Paris Today roundtable. “Each culture has its own rules,” explained Vauclair. “These rules are vague but relay to the concept of ‘living together’, which corresponds to the way one eats, dresses, and interacts into society,” he explained. “The central question is this: what will it take for immigrants to adapt and feel welcomed into the local community and culture?” asked Vauclair (personal communication, April 2015).

This question of French citizens and immigrants “living together” in a hospitable manner has been put into question since the 1940’s. From 1945-1980s immigrants were housed by the French government in shanty huts known as “Bidonvilles”, which were in poor condition, overcrowded, and located on the periphery of large cities such as Lyon, Marseille, and Paris.

“Bidonvilles tend to have states of problems ranging from access to water, sicknesses, to disputes over territory,” stated Vauclair. In order to respond to the poverty of Bidonvilles, the French government constructed apartments known as “HLM’s” in the 1980s, which had low rent and access to more resources, said Vauclair (personal communication, 2015).

In addition, the Bidonvilles, which were supposedly destroyed by the French government in the 80’s, are still intact for immigrants to live in. “The government does not wish to have these and considers those who live within Bidonvilles not real ‘immigrants’ and rather people who are passing through,” emphasized Vauclair (personal communication, 2015).

According to Vauclair many of the immigrants that reside in the periphery come from former French colonies such as Algeria or Mali. “The Front National sees immigration as a problem and talks about Arabs,” stated Vauclair. For Vauclair, he hopes to break this stereotype, and show that the tendency to imagine immigrants as colored, Muslim, and from the Middle East is false. “Immigration doesn’t come uniquely from ancient colonies—it is universal,” he claims (personal communication, 2015).

Instead Vauclair hopes that people will focus on the facts, rather than stereotypes on immigrants within France. “Sixty percent of immigrants aren’t colored,” he states. “The media is only focalizing on what is the problem at the moment. We are more interested in what doesn’t work than what does work,” admits Vauclair.

Because of the focalization and negative sentiments towards Muslim immigrants in France, Prime Minister Manuel Valls has announced a plan to combat this problem. In April, Valls announced the creation of a new three year plan dedicating $108 million to combat racism and anti-Semitism nationwide through education programs and police forces (Rubin, 2015).

The question remains if programs such as these will diminish negative sentiments towards immigrants within France. “Immigration has been a problem since the beginning of antiquity,” acknowledges Vauclair. “We are still in a state of shock (from the Charlie Hebdo attacks)…it is way too early to understand what the impact of this reaction will be,” he concludes (personal communication, April,2015).

References

CNN News. (2015). Complete coverage: terror in Paris. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/specials/world/shooting-at-charlie-hebdo

Gibson, M. (2015). The provocative history of French weekly newspaper Charlie. Time.com Retrieved from http://time.com/3657256/charlie-hebdo-paris-attack/

Hackett, C. (2015). 5 Facts about the Muslim population in Europe. Pewreserach.org. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/01/15/5-facts-about-the-muslim-population-in-europe/

Hoagland, J. (2015). France’s tough task in reacting to the horrific attack on Charlie Hebdo. WashingtonPost.com. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/frances-tough-task-in-reacting-to-the-horrific-attack-on-charlie-hebdo/2015/01/07/3c2d666c-96bf-11e4-927a-4fa2638cd1b0_story.html

Kamalipour, R. J. (2007). Global Communication (Vol. 2). Belmont, CA : Thomson Higher Education.

Madi, M., Ryder, S., Macfarlane, J., Beach, A., & Park, V. (January, 2015). As it happened:

Charlie Hebdo attack. BBC.com. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-30710777

Rubin, A., & Breeden, A. (2015, April). France announces stronger fight against racism and anti-

semitism. NYtimes.com. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/18/world/europe/france-announces-stronger-fight-against-racism-and-anti-semitism.html?_r=0

Like many women, I'm TV, movies, shopping, and men play a big influence on my life. One of the shows that has impacted me greatly has been Sex and the City. As a writer myself, I found Carrie to be relatable in many ways. She's a free spirit, old soul, curly locked hair girl, with an impeccable taste in fashion.

This is how I feel everyday in Paris, and yes I might be wearing a striped shirt too right now

Naturally before my trip to Paris I had to watch Sex and the City before I left for my trip abroad. I noted all the outfits that she wore and used her life lessons as a guide for my adventure. Before I left for Paris I had to remind myself that life wasn't going to be like the movies or even an HBO show. No matter how relatable the content seemed, life could not be that great. Yes, I am an optimist but having small expectations leads to (in my opinion) more excitement and adventure.

Flashback to January when I moved to Paris. I'm living at a homestay and had google mapped where I live in Paris. I was told that there was a bar two blocks away from my place, perfect. And then came the moment when I received the perfect movie moment, which I get to live day after day here in Paris. I have the perfect movie view of the Eiffel tower, Arc de Triomphe, and Sacre Coeur. All in one balcony view. I had envisioned myself writing on my laptop, like Carrie, in a small bedroom without a view. And somehow I have found myself in Paris, with a balcony view right now typing on my laptop staring in awe at these monuments. It's no wonder I'm in love with this city more and more compared to the day before.

Of course day to day drama still happens. I have trouble understanding French electronics once and a while, But somehow I've found myself brushing these things as little life lessons and using the phrase "C'est la vie" as my mantra. So far it's worked. And let's hope for the world this new philosophy stays with me for as long as possible. It's weird not having to deal with the hustle and bustle of my day-to-day life in the States. Here, I get to explore the city (or stay in the cover of my bed sheets gazing out at the Eiffel tower) as much as a please. Yes, I do have some work to do, but the majority of it consists of having adventures like Carrie did in Paris.

And don't worry my fashionista friends, I'm showing that American's know how to rock style too. My closet is pretty much an abyss of black clothes with some sparkly pieces here and there popping out. I'm excited to show you all in the next posts what I've been wearing here in Paris. You really have the liberty to wear fabulous clothes here in Paris without feeling overdressed. I love the fact that I have to take the time to go out, making it a special event almost even if it is only finding a restaurant to eat lunch at with a friend.

So call me Carrie because really "I'm in Paris" and it doesn't seem like things could go wrong. I'm in love with this city and all that it has to offer. Here's to all the adventures that I will experience here and France and in the future.

Until next time,

xoxoxo

Sabrina

The holiday season is coming to a close. This means for me that the endless preparation for studying abroad in Paris and questions from relatives on how excited I am to leave are coming an end. I have mixed emotions about leaving the US for France. Just thinking about leaving is making my hands on the keyboard jitter (I’ve literally had to auto-correct this paragraph three times already because my hands are so jittery from both being nervous and excited for my study-abroad trip to Paris).

Here’s my not-so-simple- typical-white-girl- explanation as to why I am studying abroad in Paris for spring 2015. If you’ve noticed from my name, you might have guessed why I’m studying abroad in Paris. My name is Sabrina, and naturally I am vainly obsessed with both of the “Sabrina” movies (the Audrey Hepburn version is my favorite for the record). I’ve visited France before. The first time I went with my family when I was in junior high, and the second time I visited with my high school (my best friends went with me). Each time I go to Paris I make a promise to myself. The first time I went to Paris I promised myself that when I came back, I would visit with my best friends. Three years later, I was back in Paris with several of my class mates roaming about the streets of Paris. During my last visit in Paris, I promised myself that I would go back one day and live in the city of lights. Obviously, by the fact that I’m writing this blog post on IES’s site means that I’m big on promises, because I’m doing just that: living AND studying abroad in Paris for 4 months.

My friends and I in Paris, 2011

My mentality for traveling is a bit odd compared to others. I’m not in denial that I’m going to study abroad, it’s more so that I’m in shock that it’s actually happening. I’ve prepared myself for living in Paris. I have my clothes picked out, I’ve created a packing list, a to-do list before studying abroad, printed out maps, and have even started to plan adventures around the city. I’m in a state of utter disbelief that I’m getting the chance to go to Paris again. From past experiences, I know that the excitement won’t roll in until I land in France. My fear of flying probably plays a factor in my level of excitement. This will be the first time that I have flown by myself. Fortunately, I won’t have to face my fear totally alone. IES emailed me the roster several days ago of who else will be partaking in the program. Of course I had to scroll the list and see if I recognized any names and if someone else was from Minnesota. A total of five other IES students will be departing on the same plane as me from Minneapolis to Paris. I was thrilled when I connected with the other students from my program to hear that we would be facing this adventure and obstacle together. What makes matters even better is that some of these students that are going to study abroad with myself are some of my colleagues and mutual friends. My stress about traveling alone has now diminished to some degree knowing that on my plane I will be traveling with some of my classmates from IES Paris French Studies.

Some of my books and journals I received over the holidays

In the meantime before departure, I am catching up on saying my final goodbyes and doing some reading. It seems as if my friends and family have come in unison together and have decided that I should read some books on Paris before my departure and write about my experiences while traveling abroad. Apparently journals with the Eiffel tower aren’t hard to find because I’ve now started to create a collection of them. Regardless of the number of journals I have, I think it’s an indication that this experience will be life changing (as cheesy as it sounds). For me, writing is both something that is therapeutic as well as something that I do as a profession. I am excited to see how my journey abroad in Paris will be, and I cannot wait to write them all down in my journals.

I’ll leave you with a picture from my first page I put in my journal. I went out to eat last night to a Vietnamese restaurant and received a fortune cookie. My fortune is the following “Be yourself and you’ll feel at home anywhere”. Maybe this is the sign that I’ll be the next version of the movie “Sabrina” and discover myself while studying abroad in Paris. Only time and the pages of my journals will be able to tell.

Until next time,

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