These past few days have been much less stress than the week prior, which has been a blessing. I have all of my classes ironed out and despite the enormous amount of work due at the end of the semester, I think it will be doable. I somehow have to pull together a total of 57 pages of college level material by January, which doesn’t sound like much, but that also includes reading 7 books, 4 oral presentations, 16 hours of in-class testing, and 4 hours of one on one oral exams with the professors. Eeeek!
I think that song “I Will Survive” will become my new theme song. Every overworked and not even paid student deserves an anthem to pull their hair out to; stabbing their textbooks with gnawed on pencils and tearing syllabi limb from limb. It sounds a bit graphic in the light of day, but at 2am it’s a pretty accurate description. Not to worry though, the “Three Musketeers” at the APA office have been nothing but supportive, and it is always a joy to see them because they always seem to have the answers.
Since I last wrote a few interesting things have happened. Nothing on the scale of Bourgogne, but good nonetheless. This past Thursday we all went to see the play Dom Juan at the Comedie Française which was interesting. I was quite tired so I spent most of my time trying not to fall asleep, but what I did hear was good, and you could tell that the actors were really engaged. Sganarelle was by far my favorite as he added much of the comedy to this odd play. I’ve never heard of a comedy where the main character dies at the end, but I guess since Juan wasn’t exactly the protagonist that it is not a tragedy.
Before the play, however, was quite fun. We had all had class together near the city center two hours before, and I knew that I would just have to turn right back around if I went home, so another girl in the program and I took to walking in the direction of the Comedie looking for a place to find some dinner. We finally settled on this one panini stand across from the Louvre where all the tourist shops are and took our sandwiches to Le Jardin du Tuileries. We found a bench under a tree and sat there for an hour watching the sunset go down over debatably one of the most picturesque areas of Paris. It was a great spot to watch the last straggling groups of tourists taking cheesy photos in front of the statues and always walking much slower than I’m sure they started out in the morning.
I can’t even remember what I did Friday, but Saturday night was the Nuit Blanche. Nuit Blanche is basically an all night celebration of art where all of the museums and galleries are open for free and little tents pop up with bits of music, performance art, and live demonstrations. I ended up grouping with three other students and we walked around aimlessly looking for stuff to see. However, the rain and rather strong winds had put a damper on all but the museums, at least that we could see, so our Nuit Blanche ended around 1am and basically was comprised of walking along the Seine and visiting the Eiffel Tower. We got there twenty minutes too late to go up to the top, but it was still really pretty at night. We may not have seen much, but it was still fun to just walk and talk for four hours.
blurry, but nice :)
Another highlight of my week was getting to have lunch with Elise from AC. We met up at a metro stop and she took me to one of her favorite cafés for a sandwich and an exquisitely good chocolate mousse cake thing. It was good to catch up and see a familiar face for the first time since being here. I hope to be able to see her again soon and make lunch together a weekly occurrence. Also, a world shout out of kudos to Elise for doing unbelievably and fantastically well on her masters dissertation that she worked so hard on. I’m so proud :)
Though a bit under the weather with a cold, my classes so far this week have been a success, and I think my art history teacher is finally warming to me and coming to a full understanding of what “I’ve only had 4 semesters of French” really means. I have also made a new friend in my Fondations de l’Islam class and we have planned to grab a coffee after class next week. I have been wondering these past few classes why she is so hard to understand, and yesterday when I heard her speak English, I realized that she has a speech impediment. Yeah, that’s why.
And now I'm here, another day almost finished and time keeps flying by. Grammar homework and L'Ecole des femmes are calling so I must go bury my head in a dictionary once again. Much love to all!
-Kate Alice
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