Above is a drawing of my home.

Uggggggg.  Today I learned that it is way too easy to delete my weekly assignment while typing on google docs! So here is my second paper. Hmmm, what did I say in the first paper? Well, I can’t forget the feeling I got after our last class. Free. I felt free like never before and it began with our circle singing. What a powerful thing to meditate together. No research was too big for me, no city too complex to navigate.

This week I read about different parameters of research. I also spent a lot of time getting addresses of high schools in Paris. I am working with an Evergreen employee to clean up the letter that goes with my survey. I read up on the Likert scale for my survey and also read the Rick Steves Paris 2015 book, which is long but really captivating and took a lot of time. I am feeling like this is the second week of any quarter-like a boulder is about to roll over me! Well, just knowing that this feeling is a pattern is comforting. I just have to keep working hard and hope for the best.

My first priority this week is my survey. I read a great article by Urie Bronfenbrenner called Ecology of the family as a Context for Human Development: Research Perspectives. I learned
about paradigms for investigating the impact of someone’s environment. Keeping the research questions simple is best for the beginning of any research. More sophisticated surveys can be included in additional researches. For my research I am using a mesosystem model. This will provide me with results that show whether my surveyees feel that they have the amount of agency they deserve (B 723). Another aspect of research that I’ve considered is the level of explicitness and complexity. A social address model will be perfect in that I will be able to find out whether or not Paris provides the youth with enough help to this population (B 724). These youth that have siblings with intellectual disabilities will hopefully be willing to fill out my survey if its simple.

The Rick Steves book was helpful in social ways. There are lists of common phrases used by travelers in Paris and included is the pronunciations. Wi-Fi is pronounced wee-fee (S 24). This book covers everything. When using an escalator it is polite to stay to the right in order for people to pass on the the left if they choose to (S 515). Another bit of advice is to speak quietly like the French do in public so as not to appear as a rude American. There are a few differences in the way they write the numbers 1, 4 and 7 but nothing big. They use a comma instead of a period to separate thousands. When counting with your fingers you begin with the thumb instead of the first finger. If you begin with the first finger when trying to order food you’ll end up with two of something (S 727). Parisian hoteliers frown on people taking food to their rooms because of the extra cleaning needed, the extra garbage and the smells. It wasn’t so many years ago that food was not allowed in American hotel rooms. One would have to sneak it in and then take the extra trash out or receive a bill for the extra garbage (S 397). In France, it is frequent for older women to give parenting advice to young parents with children. I would like this to customary is America (S 488). Picnic lunches are a great idea but I will watch for signs to stay off the grass in some places. Also, not all of the cafes provide a fork or knife unless you ask for them (S 442). Steves recommends that you carry tissue because public toilets are frequently unstocked. The weirdest thing I read about was how there are toilets on the sidewalks of Paris encased in nothing more than a booth! I can remember my father telling about how he could see over the top when standing inside of one and he was only 5′ 6″. I am surprised that they are still there. I think this is a good idea. It probably keeps the alleys clean and may cut down on crime. A few toilets cost money or have an attendant that would appreciate a small tip (S 25). These differences don’t seem like an inconvenience but maybe when I’m faced with so many new ways I will feel different.

I am so anxious to get to Paris and in the environment that I have been studying; the smells, the sounds, the feel of the structures and the sights of the people. For now I’ll just have to consider that all this studying about Paris is the equivalent of a first trip to the city. According to Rick Steves the second trip is the best!

Bronfenbrenner, U. (n.d.). Ecology Of The Family As A Context For Human Development: Research Perspectives. Developmental Psychology, 723-742.
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