Abbie Abroad: Au revoir, Paris

By Abigail Lin
@abbielin

Picnicking (and drinking) on the Champs de Mars underneath the Eiffel Tower was the perfect end to an imperfectly exciting semester in Paris/ PHOTO BY Abbie Lin

Picnicking (and drinking) on the Champs de Mars underneath the Eiffel Tower was the perfect end to an imperfectly exciting semester in Paris/ PHOTO BY Abbie Lin

At the close of my time in Paris, it’s jarring to think about the difference between the Paris I imagined and the Paris whose streets I traverse every morning on my way to work. Just like I have struggled with washing machines, irons, and electricity, I have had difficulty finding the unconditional love for this city I was sure would come so easily.

The first day I left my apartment to head to the BU Paris campus, the sky was a muddled dim grey, peeling back the layers of black in the sleepy morning. It was 8:30 AM.

Shockingly enough, Paris rested under (a lighter) gray sky for the rest of the day – and then for another 3 months.

For every error in judgment regarding the French language, crisis in the home of my host mom, and flash rain storm whilst I’m out walking, there’s also been tulips in bloom in Tuileries Garden after a long winter, falafel tasting on the Rue de Roisiers in the Marais, and the reassuring searchlight of the Eiffel Tower after a weekend spent far from home.

But Paris isn’t just the Eiffel Tower. It isn’t the Champs Elysee, the Louvre, the Notre Dame. It’s the violent dark blue glow of the pre-dusk sky reflected in the glass café windows in Montmartre, distorted reflections of the corner bistro cursive on the sodden sidewalks of the Latin Quarter, crackling neon lights advertising peep shows behind lush drawn curtains in Pigalle.

After exploring arrondissement by arrondissement, pockets of Paris far from the Seine, and hidden passageways in between corridors of alleyways – I’ve found myself incongruously falling in love and will be leaving justifiably enamored.

It wasn’t long ago that I was a senior in high school, sitting in what I was to be sure to be my last French course ’till the end of time. I happened to glance over at the door and through the glass window, to see my friend Jason knocking discreetly. With the confirmation of my eye contact, he grinned sheepishly, and pulled up a poster for me to view through the glass that read: ABBIE LIN – MOI ET TOI – PROM?

Well – suffice to say, that wasn’t my last run in with French.

And like how my supposed last French class was never to be, I am sure that before long, Paris’ contradicting charisma will pull me back for more.

Is Catholic school really that bad?

By Samantha Wong, Staff Writer
@saaaamwong

If you went to Catholic school, this pattern will bring back memories/ PHOTO VIA etsy.com

If you went to Catholic school, this pattern will bring back memories/ PHOTO VIA etsy.com

A few months back, Buzzfeed produced an article titled “24 Signs You Went to Catholic School,” and being Buzzfeed, the article was naturally relatable and hilarious. Admittedly, though, there is some element of sadness with being able to relate to the signs. Some signs are normal (e.g., “4. You probably still write in cursive.”), but some hit a bit too close to home for comfort (e.g., “13. You only learned about one sexual orientation”).

For a good four years, I attended a Catholic school. In the Philippines, most schools are Catholic or align their views with the values of some version of Christianity. This is not limited to primary and secondary education, but universities as well. This might have something to do with the fact that Spain is mostly Catholic and the Spanish colonized the Philippines for a couple hundred years (read: about 400).

In all honesty, I didn’t enjoy Catholic school. I was there for middle school but not high school but middle school. Still, coming into a non-Catholic high school from Catholic school was a bit confusing. I definitely will say I missed some crucial moments of growth as a tween. Growth, that I personally feel, I would have gotten otherwise from a non-Catholic institution.

Whether or not a school emphasizes certain values or not, as long as one is learning to be more knowledgeable, I don’t think it necessarily matters what kind of institution one goes to. Socially, I don’t know if I can say the same thing since Catholic schools are definitely more rigid in comparison with social norms. But otherwise? Education is education.

MUSE: My love affair with Fort Point

By Brooke Jackson-Glidden, MUSE Editor

There’s a tiny foodie mecca hidden across the bay, a five- to ten-minute walk from South Station. Perhaps you’ve seen it on a visit to the ICA or the Atlantic Wharf. It’s a bizarre contrast between modern Los Angeles glass and classic Boston brick architecture: the waterside docks perfect for a quick dip of the toes, the restaurants for miles, indie gourmet groceries and Asian-fusion small plates.

Also known as the Innovative District, Fort Point has been exploding with new restaurants. In March alone, three different food vendors opened in the area, alongside half of Barbara Lynch’s tiny empire (Sportello, Menton and Drink). Here’s your quick guide to eating your way through Fort Point:

The Blue Dragon is a more than appropriate place to sit back and relax after a long day./PHOTO VIA Brooke Jackson-Glidden

Blue Dragon: Ming Tsai’s Asian Small Plates are a hit since opening earlier this year. His second restaurant, Tsai, keeps his atmosphere casual and fun, with tasty Asian twists on classic gastropub fare.

CHECK OUT: The escargot, dan dan noodles, shepard’s pie, and the Dragon burger

Tavern Road: This modern edition to “Restaurant Row” (Congress St., over the river) serves cool small(ish) plates late at night, with a very young atmosphere and innovative menu.

CHECK OUT: The moulard duck, grilled octopus, and the gnocchi

Sportello: Barbara Lynch’s take on a diner. This “Italian lunch counter” serves sandwiches and homemade pastas that will make your head spin.

CHECK OUT: The gnocchi, the spicy tomato soup, and the sweetbreads

Other than the Bee’s Knees, where else can you find so diverse a selection?/PHOTO VIA Brooke Jackson-Glidden

Bee’s Knees: This gourmet grocery opened last month, and we’re so glad. Bee’s Knees offers a wide variety of locally and internationally sourced cheese, produce, wine, and other food items that are sure to make any foodie smile.

CHECK OUT: The cheese selection, the café

Flour: Almost everyone knows and loves Joanne Chang’s popular indie bakery, but most of them didn’t know it was located in this tiny foodie paradise.

CHECK OUT: “Pop Tarts”, sandwiches, and sticky buns

COMING SOON: Row 34, Pastoral

MUSE: Green Monsters: A Love Letter to Avocados

By Danielle Focarile, Staff Writer

Large Avocados

I like you in any shape or form, Avocado./PHOTO VIA Flickr user Communications Mann

Dear Avocados,

Let me ask you a rhetorical question: why are you so delicious? I know I’ll never receive an answer from you, so let me tell you my theory. You are the perfect balance of creamy, fresh and bright. You are good on a sandwich, on salad or as a dip. You are as versatile as you are tasty. With you, I can make flavorful guacamole or a healthy and smooth pesto. Whether a Haas, Reed or Fuerte, your smooth green goodness makes any dish better.

It saddens me that your silky and rich flesh is only in-season during the spring (so I will have to stock up now). It makes no difference to me if you are from the East Coast (Florida) or the West Coast (California); any coast that has you is the best coast.

Are you a fruit or a vegetable? Does it really matter? Avocado and bacon, avocado and crab, avocado and corn are some of my favorite ways to eat you. Not only are you yummy and good for my health – as you are filled with Omega-3’s – but you also have magical effects to make hair shiny and face smooth.

So, even as the spring comes to an end and the warm temperatures of summer rolls in, just know that I am waiting to see you at Shaw’s next year.

Always,

An Avocado Enthusiast

Gold Flair

By Jasmine Ferrell, Staff Writer
@JasmineInBoston

A measly $250,000 could go a long way./PHOTO VIA Flickr user hto2008

Do you happen to have $250,000 lying around? Forget about your ever-increasing student debt and spend it on a shirt completely made out of gold. That’s right, you could be walking around with the most expensive shirt if you’re willing to slap down a couple dollar bills. Who cares if it’s not even attractive? It’s a gold shirt. But hey if you don’t want to invest your gold into a flimsy piece of apparel, you’ve got other options too.

- Gold Pills: Not sure of the health benefits, but it’d be pretty darn flashy.

- Gold Playing Cards: What better way to intimidate your fellow poker players.

- Gold Motorcycle: Just imagine all the looks you’d get pulling into that roadside motorcycle bar.

- Gold Tools: You can’t repair said bike unless you have the matching tools.

- Gold Pencil: A logical choice for a college student.

So if you feel like spending a little cash, why not add some golden flair to your life?

The Dartmouth ‘Social’ Cups Program

By Danielle Cantey
@canielle17

Eating alone may not be as sad as it seems with Dartmouth’s Social Cups program./PHOTO VIA Flickr user Jim Pennucci

We’ve all experienced the anxiety of entering a crowded lunch room alone on the first day of middle or high school. In those awkward grade school years, finding someone to sit with could be a daunting task. Sitting alone generally indicated you were some sort of social pariah. But once college begins, those anxieties and stereotypes about dining hall sociability disappear…or do they? Eating alone shouldn’t be an indication of loneliness or social status, but sometimes it is.

According to an article in The Dartmouth, Christopher McMillian, a senior at Dartmouth College, has implemented the Dartmouth Social Cup Program. The program is designed to combat the awkwardness of eating alone with special red cups. When the red cups are used in lieu of Dartmouth’s regular clear cups, they indicate that the student using it wouldn’t mind company. While there are students who have made fun of the program and others who complain about the cups’ ineffectiveness, the idea behind them is brilliant.  As McMillian says in the article, “Students often feel uncomfortable or awkward when they are eating alone.”

The social cups are aimed at ameliorating some of the awkwardness associated with meeting new people.  The cups may be ineffective when most people have established solid friend groups, but the program has great potential for freshman entering in the fall. What better way to improve freshman year than with a red cup that encourages people to come up and talk to you.

College Confidential features the perilous task of eating alone as a hot topic. Go to any dining hall on BU’s campus, and you’ll see a variety of diners: people eating alone, two people eating together, and people eating with groups of friends. In college and in life, eating alone is often a result of busy schedules and convenience. Luckily for those who feel too uncomfortable to embrace the solidarity of solo eating at Dartmouth, these red cups may just be the solution.

Spotlight: Creative Minds Across Campus

By Alexandra Diantgikis, Staff Writer
@adiantgikis

Boston University is a sea of unique minds and personalities. You could meet a future brain surgeon, a published poet, a Grammy award-winning artist, a marine biologist or an elementary school teacher all in your first class here. Students come from all walks of life, calling different countries home, speaking different languages, practicing different creeds and being shaped by different experiences. All of these qualities move students through each day and inspire them in different ways, creating a diverse collection of students.
The students of EN202, a Creative Writing course, display just that in their final project, ‘Shouts and Confessions,’ a compilation of the class’s writing samples. The students said they were inspired by personal experiences when writing their stories. Many wrote about relationships with family members, traveling away from home, their own cultural identities and life experiences that impacted them on a distinct emotional level.
Other students chose to go the fictional route and develop stories from their imaginations. One student wrote about a soldier coming home from war, despite never having gone to war himself. Still, the story held a piece of his personality between the pages.
Though these personal stories were, at first, difficult to share with the class, students said it became easier with time and even enjoyable to learn about their fellow classmates through creative content.
The book offers a melting pot of narratives that truly depicts the diversity of the students in class as well as the diversity of students at BU. Everyone has their own story to tell and no two stories are alike.

‘What Would Ryan Lochte Do?’

By Devon Delfino, Staff Writer
@devondelfino

It’s official, anyone can have their own show. The new show on E!, “What Would Ryan Lochte Do?”, premiered this past Sunday, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why someone though this was a good idea.

True, Lochte has accomplished a ton when it comes to swimming. But the 28 year old’s 11 Olympic medals fade into the background as soon as he starts talking. Okay, so it’s not exactly as confusing a choice as “Keeping up with the Kardashians”, but, from what I’ve seen in the promotionals, it’s not that much better.

It’s not so much what he says (though he did once admit to wanting to be the next Kim Kardashian), but the way that he says it that makes Lochte one of the more unintentionally hilarious athletes I’ve seen.

So of course, they gave him a reality show.

The invasion of reality TV has brought with it a kind of voyeuristic obsession and a cult-like following. From the “Jersey Shore” to the “Real Housewives” series to the magic that is “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo”, we have more reality shows than we can handle.

In a recent interview on Fox29, Lochte’s surfer-dude demeanor, his inability to answer simple questions and his continuous attempts to coin the phrase, “Jeah” (in the words of Regina George, “Stop trying to make ‘jeah’ happen, it’s not going to happen”) made the anchors burst out in hysterics. At this point, the athlete has become more of a joke than I think he realizes. The weird thing is that he is talented, educated and obviously determined.

But that’s clearly not what reality TV is about, and it never will be. It’s about pure entertainment, and the hilarity that ensues when Lochte speaks might be enough to keep viewers watching.

Watch the promotional video of Ryan Lochte’s new show below:

Vine bringing the public closer to the President

Vine, bringing us one step closer to Mr. President more than this piece of local artwork/ PHOTO VIA Flickr user Robert Hoge

By Kristina Saliba, Staff Writer

One thing I never thought I would share with the President of the United States? We both Vine. That’s right America; your President was recently featured in his very own Vine, a relatively new social media app that let’s you put together short video clips that you film on your smart phone.

According to an article from Yahoo! News, the President’s first Vine features Bill Nye the Science Guy and PBS host LeVar Burton. They are promoting the third annual White House Science Fair, an event that encourages science and celebrates student winners and their projects from all over the country. During this event, Obama goes from exhibit to exhibit examining different scientific and technological experiments and designs. Fortunately for all of us, this leads audiences to the White House’s second Vine post: Mr. President himself skillfully pedaling a stationary bike in his suit and tie, demonstrating the “bike-powered water filtration system”.

This Vine is one step among many that the White House has been taking to immerse itself more fully in social media, which is a great thing to see. It takes our President down from the heightened position he has. Vine makes him seem far more approachable, more like a regular guy who also rides stationary bikes on the White House lawn to filter water.

I would personally love to see more Vine videos to get a glimpse at the daily activities and events our President and the White House partake in. The Vine of our President on a bike is just another example of how social media has made our world smaller, bringing people closer to each other for better or worse. The White House also has a Twitter that let’s us know what’s going on up there on Capital Hill. Hopefully they keep it up.

A List of Ridiculous Lawsuits

By Jasmine Ferrell, Staff Writer
@JasmineInBoston

If someone could sue over these, what else could you sue for? /PHOTO VIA Flickr user Raphael Quinet

Not every “conflict” is worth suing over, let’s just be up front about that. Through the years there have been so many outlandish lawsuits to supply a never-ending list. I even found a top ten most ridiculous “lawsuits of the month” list. That is roughly one third of the month taken over by nonsense lawsuits. Now, I am here to provide some direct proof that sometimes we shouldn’t take advantage of our right to sue.

1)    A Time Magazine article recently wrote about a man who won $1.6 million in a lawsuit over frogs. This man has a frog phobia stemming from his time spent on his parents vineyard, and after a construction project had been diverting water (turning his property into a wetland), he has not been able to even leave his home due to swarms of frogs.

2)    An online list provides 25 of some of the very best lawsuits, one being a family of a victim versus Sea World. Now the fact that it involves a victim is concerning until you know just how it happened. Daniel Duke managed to stay in Sea World after closing and was discovered the next day at the bottom of the killer whale tank. Why the lawsuit? Apparently Sea World did not clarify how dangerous “killer” whales are.

3)    On the same list is yet another dumbfounding case, this time between Richard Overton and a beer company, Anheuser-Busch. Overton is suing the beer makers after the lack of beautiful women despite how many beers he had.

4)    Another unbelievable lawsuit was RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) v. Everyone. This is a constant battle against illegal downloading, which is a just cause, but sometimes they overstep their boundaries. For instance, one case was against 83-year-old Gertrud Walton, who had not only never owned a computer but also died the previous year.

5)    Some lawsuits live entirely in the tech world, such as the case provided by MSN’s tech news page. One case was a woman suing against a driver who hit her while crossing the street. It seems pretty justified but then you consider she was walking in the dead of the night on a busy highway. How is this technology related? Well she’s also suing Google Maps, as it was their walking directions that lead her to walk there.