Favourite Beach

After the rather exhausting bar exam, our little family took a nice vacation to Ocracoke Island. I have to say that it is probably one of the nicest beaches I have ever been. I am not exagerating.

I am not a beach person (I really prefer going dipping my athletic body in a nice lake with a BIG mountain in the back)so when I say that the place was nice I am not making that up.

Ocracoke is an island part of the Outer Banks archipelago. It's off the North Carolina Coast.

First, you can only get there by a rather small ferry (a 2h30 traversee) which has the very good advantage of limiting the actual number of people that can be there at the same time.



Second, the height of the building is strickly limited. As a result, you don't see those rather ugly 4-5 storeys beach houses/condo that you see on the rest of the Outer Banks.

Third, only the village is open for development, the rest of the Island is Cape Hatteras National Seashore, so there's only you, the ocean, the beaches and the dunes (except some stupid rednecks with their SUV on certain parts of the beach but what can you do, Paradise does not exist on this planet).



So in the end, you have a rather cool place. everybody uses bikes to go around, the shops are nice and the seafood extra-fresh so in other words, all our little family had a fantastic time.


See you there!

My bank is merging

I learnt today in the paper that my bank, the Mechanics and Farmers Bank, is going to merge with another durham institution: the Community Mutual Savings Bank.

Thankfully, they are going to keep the M&F name. I have to say, I mainly got an account there because of the Bank's name. The Mechanics and Farmers Bank: what a cool name.
I don't know why, I think that name is great in today's technology oriented society.

(I also have to admit that I also got an account there because one of their branches is really close to my house and is opened on Saturday.)

What I did not know and discovered reading the Article is that my bank is actually kind of special. It was an historic bank founded during the segregation, one hundred years ago and that It has played a major role in promoting the development of a black middle class. This bank was part of what was called "Black Wall Street".

By the way, the bank it is going to merge with was created almost at the same time and for the same purposes.

So, good luck with its expansion plans to the Mechanics and Farmers Bank.

Bar Exam

 

New york Bar Exam July 2007

Yeah, I had the opportunity to go to Saratauga Springs, NY to take the bar exam. The exam is tought and I only 3 weeks to prepare for it. So needless to say that I was pretty nervous about it. :(

The exam took place on Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 of last month. I had decided to fly there on Sunday to better know the town to prepare myself psychologically etc...and also to avoid the stress of having muy flight cancelled at the last minute and miss the exam.

The first day of the exam was dedicated to New York questions and the second one to the multistate portion. The New York section consisted of 50 multiple choice questions and 4 essays. The multistate one consisted of 200 multiple choices questions to be answered in 6 hours.
I found the New York part relatively easy compared to the multistate one.

I have no idea about the results of the exam but I hope that I passed. I know that I did ok in the essay portion but I really can't tell about the multiple choice section.

Other than that my testing center was in Saratauga Springs, NY a very charming city. Here are some pics of the city I took while I was there. The city is very horse oriented with a Polo championship and a horsetrack.


 
 

Alaska forever

One of the most interesting parts of the US lies maybe not where you might think. I mean that New York, L.A., Washington, the Grand Canyon are all interesting places to visit, but a very unusual place to go might be the largest state of the Federation : Alaska.

Alaska has a very different history than the rest of the nation for several reasons:
- It is maybe the first American territory to be populated by settlers that would have crossed the straight separating Russia from America,
- Vitus Bering was indeed the first Russian to cross the straight in 1741, and therefore it became a Russian territory. It was only in 1867 that this huge piece of land was bought by the US for $7,2 millions.

Alaska became the 49th state on January 3rd, 1959 (Hawaii was incorporated as a state on August 21st, of the same year).

Resulting from these years of Russian occupation, several and unique orthodox churches were built in Alaska. Something unique in Northern America.

So if you're interested, the Alaska tourism bureau is a good place to begin your research otherwise you can always read this great article published in my newspaper the New York times.


Photo from nytimes.com

No border please

An interesting story was told in yesterday's New York times, the one about a sleepy little town settled on the US-Canada's border. The town is called Stanstead in Quebec and Derby line in Vermont.

There is actually some border stations on the main streets of this little town but on the other ones one can freely go from Canada to the US. Sometimes, it is even impossible to tell in which country you're in.

I know that because I travelled throught this little town in the summer of 2005. It was really cool. Some of the buildings are on the border itself like the Opera house and the library (in the picture).

Some houses are on the US side but the driveway is on the Canadian one.



The town has been like this for ever and now the authorities are trying to change this. They are affraid of a potential terrorist threat and of illegal immigration. To me, this is just non-sense, there is no threat at all and illegals immigrants can easely avoid the border town by crossing into Canada throught the nearby fields and or forets.

On top of that the local authorities are not willing to disclose to the public what exactly is at risk. How many illegal immigrants are we talking about?

The way of life of this charming city is at risk of disappearing. People will be less likely to travel to the other side to go grocery shopping, see friends etc...

I believe that cooperation between the two countries border agencies is the best way to address security issues and not barriers that only complicate everyday lifes.

French Universities

French Universities need a serious makeover. Their facilities are cramped, the faculty unmotivated, the research almost inexistent etc....
Fortunate students try to avoid them by integrating the Grandes Ecoles: those elite institutions. For the rest, the Public University is the only available option.

I did 5 years of studies in France in 3 Universities: Bordeaux IV, Paris I and Paris II. At Bordeaux IV, some lectures were given in lecture halls with more than 1000 students! This is not education, this is mass-education.

The new reform is supposed to give more freedom to Universities' administrators to recruit top notch professors, regulate the spending etc....

All of these are welcomed reforms in my opinion. They are much needed. France must invest into its students so that they can easily find a job once they graduate.

The French Universities need more money that is for sure, and libraries that are open on Sundays!
I am a strong believer in keeping the University almost free to everyone, but not to the detriment of the education. If to guarantee a better education, students have to contribute a little bit, I don't see the problem. What is important is that they get out with all the tools that will make them more attractive to potential employers.


So will see what exactly comes out of this new reform, but I really hope that our government will be able to shake things up!

EU

I am really happy about the results reached at the Brussels Meeting regarding the future of the European Union. Apparently, the 27 members have reached an agreement on a formula that would allow the European Construction to go forward.

I had to say that I was disappointed with the Polish position that was blocking everything. The EU accepted Poland a couple of years ago and since then this country has only brought problems to the EU: Nationalism, racism, ultra conservative positions etc... Honestly, I am a great euro-enthousiast but I feel that I have nothing to do with the values this country has brought to the western countries of Europe.

I really don't understand why do you want to join a club if it is only to oppose everything the other members are trying to do.

Ok, French people were really dumb when they rejected the EU Constitution, but at least we were not actively trying to block the other members.

This agreement is a minima but I personally believe that it is still a great victory for Europe.

Regarding the way our new President conducted the negotiations, I tend to think that he did a great job. Comparing with Chirac, which was not capable to understand how Europe worked and had only in its mind the interests of the farmers' lobbies and nothing else, Sarkozy has so far demonstrated that he was capable to conduct marathon negotiations involving different types of participants, interests groups and cultures.

Bottom line, I am really happy with the conclusion of this agreement.

Passports

After the big mess surrounding the passports requirements imposed by the US to all the countries benefiting from the Visa Waiver Program (including France), the US imposed on all its citizens to present a Passport when entering the country by plane (for cars that should be for next year).
Of course, here too, things did not go well and the Passport Agency has not been able to meet the demand. Too much demand for new passports and not enough agents to process them. People had to cancel trips, go queue at the Passport Agency etc...
As a result, the rule has been suspended.

This drives me crazy. If the US want to secure their borders and control who enters and leaves this country, as they repeat constantly on TV, they should be able to produce the use of safe documents such as a passport.
This would make things so much easier.

The only good thing about this suspension is that it will annoy Lou Dobbs ;-)

Immigration

Unfortunately the immigration bill that was currently debated in the US Senate failed. Today more than 12 million illegal immigrants are in the US. Nobody really knows how they live and how they survive in America.

Although, as a newcomer in America, I have to say that there is a real hypocrisy here about this topic. One the hand, we ear all the time about how these people broke the law and that they should be deported. On the other hand, it's very easy for an illegal immigrant to come and settle in the US. They can open bank accounts, own property, cars, get insurance etc... (this is not the case in France)
For me, the greatest joke about this are the social security card. They are made of paper and are really easy to tamper. You wonder if this may not be on purpose. I don't know but this makes it very easy for illegal immigrants to forge them and almost impossible for employers to know if a person has or not a legal status.

What I liked about this bill was that it required the potential immigrant to know some English (not that I want to impose English as the unique language but but I have to admit that it makes me sad to talk to some people that have been here almost 20 years and not be able to get a good job because they don't speak the language), and to prioritize immigrants that have some technical skills the US needs the most. I understand that when you emigrate here you want to be close to your children and wife (I totally support that, I even think that parents of US citizens should not be deported) but I really don't see why the parents of a child that has reached its majority and its siblings should benefit of some kind of priority before other people that have a particular degree which might be helpful to the US economy.

Moreover, I also believe that you cannot have a good immigration bill without a secure border. I know this is completely political. But I believe that the US need to address this issue. I believe that a lot of people would be more willing to accept a comprehensive reform of the current law, if they knew that it would nearly be impossible to sneak in through the border.

Algeria

Interesting story published in the NY times today. They explain that a quiet revolution is underway in Algeria where women are becoming the driving force of Algeria. According to the article, they're reaching the highest positions in medicine and the legal domain. This is good news I would say. To grow a society cannot ignore half of its work force and needs the goodwill of all the members of the society.

Women represent an enormous untaped potential in numerous countries. A potential of growth for the economy of every single country. So I hope that this trend will continue in Algeria and lead the way to a more productive and richer society.


Photo from nytimes.com

D.C.

 
Hi we are back from D.C.
What a beautiful city! The monuments are just amazing and grandiose. The city is rather small in size but with very different neighbourhoods. Of course, the most impressive is the Mall with all the buildings that we have seen all our life on TV. The Capitol, the Washington Memorial, the U.S. Supreme Court, the Lincoln Memorial and of course the Vietnam Memorial were all the names of the defunct soldiers are listed.

Everything is just grandiose and beautiful. I really like Capitol Hill with the Capitol and the US Supreme Court. They are just two amazing buildings.

What is even better about this city is that everything is FREE, and let me tell you, you don't see that very often in the US. The Mall is bordered by the Smithsonians Museums and you can go as many times as you want and for as long as you want since you know that you can leave and come back any time.

This is really nice. You can also visit the Capitol for free.

That makes a huge difference to let's say New York, where you are actually bleeding money while you are there.

So I loved DC and can't wait to go back!



 
 

Graduation

 

Finally, my LL.M. has come to an end. I am sad and proud at the same time. On the one hand, it was a lot of work and I am happy that it is finally over; on the other hand, I am sad because I'll miss the fantastic group of students that made up this LL.M..

The graduation festivities were very nice despite the nasty weather we had during this week. I'll remember the thunderstorm prior to the hooding ceremony!

Graduation exercices are great both solemn and festive. I really enjoyed the one in the stadium with all the graduates from the other schools. It was impressive and miraculesly it did not rain.

I'll encourage anyone who is contemplating an LL.M. to do it. It is a trully rewarding experience. I learnt a lot during this year and also had a lot of fun.

It is time to move on though!

Tony Blair félicite Nicolas Sarkozy (en français)

Here we are. Usually, it was the UK prime minister congratulated the winner of the election. Blablabla...

Here, Tony Blair does it the right way, using Youtube. I think it's a great idea. At least, we know what he has to say.

That's being a prime minister in the 21st century!

I love my Prius

 
I got a new car, I got a new car!

The car is fantastic. It runs great, has an excellent gas mileage, and is bright RED!!!!

I love it. It's a Prius Hybrid. It's a Toyota. It's exclusively made in Japan next to where we used to live. It's fantastic.

I am so happy.

End of the LL.M.

This is it. The LL.M. has come to an end. It was a lot of work and fun, Lots of parties but also lots of exams and papers. I am quite excited about what is coming next but also quite sad to realize that this adventure has come to an end.

9 months divided into 2 semesters, that's really nothing. It goes fast, very fast. I was hoping that it would seem a little longer but as they say, time flies when you're having fun.

Anyhow I would really recommend anyone thinking about doing an LL.M. to seriously consider the option. It is a fantastic year full of adventures and discoveries. Duke for that has been a fantastic place. It was great, welcoming, exciting. I wish I could do it again.

The second semester was really really short though. Beginning in January and finishing in March, that was really a short period of time considering that most of the second semester was dedicated to looking for a job.

Now we are gearing up for the graduation festivities.

Time to party one more time with our LL.M. friends before saying goodbye.


By the way, the people in my picture are guys in my program.

Rue Cler

Hey,

Sorry about not posting too much right now, but it's finals; so I have very little time.

Today, we discovered a very cool new place in downtown Durham, called Rue Cler. You've read me well a French restaurant, Downtown Durham! I mean: not in Southpoint Mall.
It's a low key cool French restaurant with the same kind of food you would find in a French Bistro. We loved it. We had a croque-madame, some moules frites and crepe for desert plus a nice rose to celebrate our food.

The place is really cool. The restaurant setting is pleasant and I was fun to be able to eat some cool French food at a very reasonable price.

Apparently, the restaurant opened less than a year ago and is already a big success.
What is nice is that there is a lot of parking available around it. That makes life easy and it follows one of my mogos: no parking, no shopping!

Long live Rue Cler!

Virginia Tech Massacre

The story coming out of Virginia Tech is just too sad. What a waste! What was on the mind of this young guy when he decided to get his gun and kill his fellow students.

I cannot imagine what the parents of the dead students must feel at this time.
Of course, the debate or better say the controversy around the necessity of a stricter gun control will start again. It is true that if guns were not so easily accessible here, events like these ones might be avoided. Anderson Cooper mentions on his blog that the suicide killer went to a local gun shop to buy the revolver and the ammunitions.
So easy isn't it?


Photo from nytimes.com

Ryanair comes to America

With the ink on the new Open Skies agreement between the EU and the US still wet, Ryanair's CEO, Michael O'Leary announced that the airline will launch low fare, no-frills flights between its European bases and the US.
The opening fare would be around $12. Amazing!
I am sure that a lot of people would be interested in this. I am!

The market is dominated by the legacy carriers (American and British Airways in particular), the prices are always too high and the service is pretty bad (although I have to say that we went to France for Christmas, flew Air France and enjoyed an excellent in-flight service).
For sure, there is room for Ryanair. I am confident that this will be a success story.

The company plans to imitate what it does in Europe: fly to secondary airports in order to avoid high taxes and reduce costs.
For example, Michael O'Leary revealed that he would fly the planes to Baltimore instead of DC, Long Island instead of NYC and Providence, RI instead of Boston Logan airport.

It will be funny to be on a Charleroix- Baltimore or on a Girona-Providence flight!


I can't wait for this day to happen and maybe my family will have the opportunity to see Europe in the summer! (dixit Sheila)

Foster's Market

 
One of the very cool places to visit in Durham is Foster's Market. The place was created by Sarah Foster, a former associate of Martha Stewart. Not only the food is excellent but the place is also very cool. There are adirondack chairs to sit in the front porch, exotic and gourmet products to buy. It's extremelly pleasant to go there to spend a couple of hours sipping a cup of coffee. I recommend the key lime pie.

Sarah Foster has published several cookbooks and is a frequently invited on numerous cooking shows in the US.

If you come visit us, we'll very likely take you to Foster's.
 

Global Warming

We just saw the Al Gore's documentary about Global Warming. It is unbelievable. The documentary is very well set up and presents the issue in a very clear way.

Of course, I was startled when I realized how bad the situation is. I knew, of course that the earth was warming up but I had no idea that It was warming up so fast!

Human activities are clearly the source of it. As I said, It is just unbelievable. The ice is melting at the poles, but extremely quickly. Soon Greenland will have lost all the ice cap that covers it. The risk is of course the impact on the sea levels (a probable elevation of 40 feet) and the effect of the ocean currents that currently regulate the weather and the climate around the earth.

The statistic that really impressed me was the following one: If the ice reverberates around 90% of the heat coming from the sun, once it is melted the ocean absorbs 90 % of it. So there is clearly a very negative path there because not only the ice prevents the warming, but the ocean accelerates it.

What is amazing and as Al Gore puts it in his documentary, the technologies exists to limit our emissions. Of course, the US are behind everyone else in terms of limiting their emissions of green house gazes. I hope that there will be a change with the next administration.

Innocent

Good news for the Duke community! The charges against three lacrosse players were dropped today. That 's a great relief for them I am sure, but also for the School and the city of Durham. This case got a national media coverage and of course the story of that black student at NCCU ( another Durham University) who alleged she was raped by three white athletes of the Duke Lacrosse team lead to a negative campaign which affected everybody here.

In the end, after the plaintiff changed her story and some DNA tests exonerated the players, the final charges against the player were finally dropped.

Anyway, I feel sorry for this woman. Apparently, nothing happened in this house but this case brought to light some dysfunctions in the undergrad programs.
The University of course took some actions to prevent underage drinking etc... and I really hope that such a story will never happen again.

I hope that the two players that have not graduated yet will come back to Duke and challenge themselves.


Photo from CNN.COM

Obama

Obama was yesterday on the David Letterman's Late Night Show. He announced that he is not interested to run as a Vice President with Hillary Clinton as the main candidate.

Kind of funny because as Letterman said that would be a pretty strong ticket. One of the problems with Obama is that he has only been Senator for 2 years. It is not even sure that he could win his reelection. He therefore does not know very well how does Washington function. Having Clinton as the leader of the ticket could be an advantage. She has a lot more experience than him.

On the other hand, the fact that he has not been "polluted" by being for too long in Washington might help him. A lot of people might think that he might be in a better position to get something done because of that.
He does not have a lot of political friends, he does not have a long time relationship with lobbyists etc...
In any case, Obama is pretty optimistic about his chance of being the next US president. I love the sentence "I don't run for seconds." That's pretty powerful.


Photo from CNN.com

Macao forever

An interesting article was published today in Le Monde. More money was collected in the Macao's casinos than in the Vegas ones.
$7.2 Billions for Macao versus $6.6 for Vegas. What the article does not mention is how many tourists visited Vegas last year compared to the ones than went to Macao.
Today, Vegas is trying to become a more upscale destination, also a family destination.
I wonder if that may not have affected the sales.
However, the money ends up in the same pockets. The new casino developers are the same than the Vegas one. In fact, they are building replicas of the Vegas Casinos like the Venetian.

More $$$$

Exactly, Obama raised at least $25 millions. This is amazing but with Clinton that makes $50 millions dollars going to democratic candidates. This is way more that the amount of money that is available to the republican candidates. Are the big pockets of this country feeling the "wind of change"?

Anyhow, it shows that a lot of influential people are betting on a democratic president . We'll see.

The battle will be tough on the democratic side.

$$$$$$$$

This is just amazing. The numbers are just going crazy. $26 millions for Clinton and almost just as much for Romney, this campaign is really becoming crazy. I am stunned. If I remember correctly last time, Bush had raised 7 Million dollars at this time and that was already an all time high.

I am not sure what I am supposed to think when I see these figures except that It is too much. Too much money is needed to be a presidential candidate nowadays. I can't believe that we could do a better use of this money.

Clinton bis

One of the funny things about this campaign is the use made by Hillary Clinton of her husband, Bill. As few may know in France, Hillary is not really popular here. There is a big risk for democrats if they nominate her that she will not be able to get the vote of the most moderate voters who might prefer voting for McCain or Giuliani.

Right now is one of the most important time of the presidential race. At the end of the month, candidates must declare for the first time how much money they have raised.
This is extremely important because it is an early sign to demonstrate how capable you are to finance your political campaign. During his first campaign, Pres. Bush surprised everyone by raising more than 7 millions dollars twice as much as its next immediate follower John McCain.

As a result, Hillary is using her husband in order to help her raise as much money as possible before the end of the month.
This move is important because I don't know how much she can capitalize on her husband who left the White House after a succession of scandals.

Blue Ridge Parkway

 

I have to say the Blue Ridge Parkway is extremely beautiful. The Parkway is a road that travels through the Appalachian mountains of Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. This is a very scenic drive. Of course, it is referred to as America's favorite driveway.

The road passes near Asheville and Boone in North Carolina and Roanoke in Virginia.

The scenery is absolutely stunning. The light is incredible and the reflection on the mountains really makes them look blue.

We had the opportunity to drive a little bit on the parkway during our visit to Asheville.

The picture I took last week end do not really show the beauty of the site, but I hope that they actually give you a good idea of the views you can have driving on this fantastic road.

 
 

Asheville, NC

 
Asheville is a cool little city nested in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

It is about 4 hours away from the Raleigh/Durham area.

The city is really cool. The downtown was built in the 1940's and never destroyed afterwards. The buildings are gorgeous and nicely proportionated. There are cafes with terraces (the only real thing that I miss from Europe) where we lounged during the evening. It is very nice to see a lively downtown with people actually living in it. It is so rare in the US where the downtowns are either depressed areas or transformed into office parks.

The art scene is also really active. There are several art galleries and artists in residence. We saw a really cool chandelier made by a local glass blower but unfortunatelly the cost was prohibitive: over $10,000.
Next time!


 
 

Asheville, NC part II