It has been SO LONG.

I apologize for abandoning my blogging career for what feels like forever, but while I haven't been blogging, I've been making sweet vids! Here is my latest one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf5fIlOvSHc

School has been pretty darn awesome. I'm glad I made the oft-mocked choice of not taking any classes at the Sorbonne this semester, because Paris higher education IS ON GREVE. In other words, there's a whole lot of shit going down in Guadeloupe, President Sarko is trying new reforms to get (socialist) France to be more like capitalist America, and people are going CRAZY! For Smith peeps in Paris, that means that the girls at Paris 7 (Denis Diderot university) haven't had any second semester classes, and that the rest of the people at Paris 4 (the Sorbonne) are having classes on and off depending on whether the teachers and/or students happen to be striking on that day. I had some crazy videos and pictures that I took from when the protesters were going down Boulevard du Montparnasse right next to Reid Hall (where Smith classes are). I'll post them soonish. Hopefully.

I've been having trouble feeling a solidarity with my protesting peers. Although I think that Sarkozy is making a hella dick move by trying to capitalize France's system of higher education by putting all of the good teachers in certain schools and not continuing the democratic system of a similar education for all by thereby making students pay more to go to "better" schools, I really don't know how I'd feel marching with these students and teachers who are more or less directly related by the outcome of these reforms. Also, since I'm not feeling the repercussions of the striking and the protesting in any real way, I don't feel very strongly for participating. I'm going to try to educate myself on the whole situation further to see what's going on. For living in a city with so many pertinent issues that affect so many, I feel rather dumb on not knowing what's going on with the current French events.

In any case, although my classes are all within the confines of American universities' take on French education, they are all wonderful so far. I'm taking a theatre class, where I've already seen Hamlet IN GERMAN, IN FRANCE, DUBBED IN FRENCH. It was INCREDIBLE. The players were all wonderful, and the modern adaptation did not glaringly take away from the story in any way.

I have a creative writing class, which is a good outlet for working around the structure of the French language in a more playful way. Liking it a lot, although we have so many vocabulary words to learn.

The volunteer experience class is ever interesting, though it always makes me feel bad for not volunteering at the soup kitchen more often than I do.

My art and architecture class with the Middlebury consortium is GREAT. We go on tons of field trips around Paris to discuss the intricacies of the city's art and architecture. Although the teacher is sort of presumptuous about our knowledge of the French language and tends to undermine us by showing off her grasp of the English language, I love being able to discover/rediscover places in Paris in a new way.

In other news, frisbee is going great. I love the team, and although I still feel kind of uncomfortable speaking up in the group setting, I like that I'm being included as one of the gang now. It sort of happened without my realizing it, and I'm glad that it came without forcing it. I feel like some students, particularly the American ones, think that because they know how to do the double-cheek kiss, they should automatically be integrated into the circle of friends, and it just doesn't work that way. All the same, I'm glad that I have people outside of school.


Like Abby said in her last post, I really want to see the things that I've missed from Paris. I'm going to start by reading up on exactly what's been going on with Sarko's reforms and what's happening in Guadeloupe, with the continued promise that I'm going to read up on French news once a day.

Other things I need to do:
- picnic along the Seine
- go to the top of the Eiffel Tower
- see Sacré-Coeur
- memorize exactly which arrondissements are where
- take the Montmartre train
- actually stop at Bonne Nouvelle on the 8/9 and see what's there

I'll add more and cross things out as I do them. A la prochaine!

I'm posting my schedule, as much for your information as for mine

It's been friggin insane around here lately. My classes are all up and running, which makes me realize just how many things I wanted to take. I didn't realize that they would all clash with each other, and it seems that Smith isn't as willing to help with things as I had originally thought. I've been basically on my own as the only other person in the program taking a living Romance language, and I've been shit out of luck so far in trying to sort out my Spanish classes.

In any case, my fat lip has stopped swelling, the weather was gorgeous today, and I got to go to my teacher's apartment today by the enormous Bibliothèque Nationale (National Library, the huge François Mitterrand one). We discussed my interest in "Restos du Coeur", and she talked me through the process of applying. Also, she has a cute dog named "Eclipse". She took to me right away and even layed on me for most of the time. I'm glad I wound up going to my teacher's apartment instead of meeting at Reid Hall. I really liked getting to play with her dog, and I even found some really good pizza around the corner. The guy behind the counter playfully made fun of my accent, and when he was filling my bag with the pizza and apple juice I had ordered, he reached behind the counter and pulled out a pink straw for me. It was kind of adorable.

I also just love looking at the Bibliothèque Nationale. It's stunning! On the way back home, I took the RER, which is kind of like Metro North. It's the commuter rail, and the trains have two levels. I love sitting upstairs. I wound up taking the RER, since I knew I wouldn't have to transfer. I had never taken it alone before, and it was quite relaxing. I ate my pizza and people-watched. I got excited when we went above ground, and we even saw a Statue of Liberty that I didn't know about just along the Seine! It took probably 15-20 minutes longer than it would have if I had just taken the metro with the transfers, but it felt good to sit and look around for awhile.

Without further ado, my schedule!

Monday:
10:00 - 11:30: Spanish (Theme class) at Clignancourt
11:30 - 12:30: Spanish (Modern Version) at Clignancourt
13:00 - 15:30: La France et l'Europe (at Middlebury Center, which takes exactly a half hour to get to. Also, I got lost trying to get there the first time, so I've already missed 1.5 classes. It's going to be a pain in the ass to get from Clignancourt to Madeleine in exactly a half hour. I also have to remember to buy lunch beforehand!)
21:00 - 22:15: Indoor Frisbee Practice! (takes about an hour to get there and back though)

Tuesday:
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. YES YOU HEARD RIGHT. I'm about to fill out my application for Restos du Coeur, and hopefully I'll be volunteering on Tuesdays and Thursdays, since I don't have anything else. Except...
20:30 - 23:00: Outdoor Frisbee Practice! Less fun! Especially in the rain! (an hour there and back)

Wednesday:
9:30 - 11:30: Methodology at Reid Hall
12:00 - 13:00: Art History TD
14:00 - 16:00: Art History extra help course (every other week)
18:30 - 20:30: Art History lecture

Thursday:
Nothing! For real! No frisbee practice or anything! We might make it our salsa night, once people start getting their business together.

Friday:
14:00 - 15:00: Spanish lecture at Clignancourt
15:00 - 16:30: Spanish (Classic Version) at Clignancourt


So not too bad. It just sucks that my Mondays and Wednesdays are death. It meant that this week went by pretty quickly, which is nice. I hope that it keeps up, and I don't start stressing too much. Right now, I've just cleaned my room, I'm about to settle down to get all of my homework done that I have so far, and I have water with sirop de citron. Mmm.

Also, it's 7:00, which means dinner in an hour with all luck. I just heard my host mom come home, I think, so that's all you get for now! Bisous!