My Weekend Day in Paris

So this weekend I went to Paris for one day to a forum called "Forum National Des Initiatives Jeunes" which translate to "National Forum of Young Peoples Initiatives"  is was quite interesting. I have been to many conferences, forums, summits, and meetings of all sorts. However, this was set up in an interesting manner. For starters it was in this massive hall aptly named "La Grande Halles" and then it was separted into colored sections that corresponded with the sector the initiative was in:

Environment - Green
Lutte Contre Les Discriminations - Red
Médias - Blue
Solidarité Internationales - Orange
Solidarités Locales - Yellow

Then within these sections there were many organizations from all over France showcasing what they were doing for the betterment of the French community. It was great. There was a solar powered car, snakes, bands, radio stations, and much more. There were also these rooms where they would show documentary movies and another area they showed indie-films. They had mimes in another area and artist everywhere. The whole experience was great. It was like a celebration of the French culture while bringing attention to what needs to be changed in the country and around the world.
I must say, though, that is was certainly attractive to a certain crowd of people. I don't think I have seen so many dreads or locks or whatever they are called on so many people in one place. There was def a hipster feel to the thing but it was still awesome. I listened to a debate on issue of homosexuality and although I didn't understand a lot because of the speed of the conversation the ambient noise and I'm sure the language was too advanced for me, it was still interesting.

It was interesting at one point the socialist candidate, who is leading in the polls in front of current president Nicholas Sarkozy, Francois Hollande, showed up which created a ruckus. I tried to take a picture of him but someone got in the way. As you can imagine he was only there for photo ops so he was moving rather quickly and tons of people swarmed around him. Right before he showed up I had went outside and there were two armed soldiers, so naturally, I took a picture. (He even smiled lol... not)

I've learned alot about different organization here in France as well as generated some ideas for Wichita State and actually some ideas I will be presenting to the program coordinator here at ESC-PAU.

At the end of the night before we loaded the buses to go back to our respective cities there was a concert that was organzed by the organizers of the conference. The opening band was pretty good. However, the actual main act was terrible and almost literally put everyone to sleep. haha and then a DJ came out that I guess is well known and livened things back up. Who ever invented earplugs, my ears are thanking you because the music was so loud but they were handing the plugs out at the doors. Great Idea!
The first band had a odd make up of intruments and one of those was the violin and that is one of my favorite intrument and the guy was really good.

This was the opening band
Bass, violin, acordian, and I think guitar, and drums

This is the DJ. I didn't take any pics of the main guy. Yes, he was that terrible

Can't wait to go back in acouple of weeks to actually see things in Paris other than a conference center. To see the sites and hang out with friends.

On a serious note, I have read about the shooting death of that 17 year old in Florida. That is quite ridiculous that the man hasn't been arrested even though he had no legal grounds for shooting Trayvon Martin. This is nothing short of a cold-blooded killing. It would be a sad travesty to let this injustice stand. Zimmerman should have been arrested long ago. I hope that I am never anywhere and "look suspicious" to the wrong person.

RIP

There needs to be justice for this young man.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

 Those words were spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr. and I think they speak volumes in this case.

Just A Thought