Tuesday, I had Romantisme, which I honestly cannot remember that well, because it was on something we read. I believe I mentionned before, that University of Illinois had to make this class harder, and add a reading/literature component, even though we get NO credit for a literature course if we take this. The readings are not that exciting, and even my professor isn't thrilled to be having to do this (he told us.) You can see his passion lies within the artwork, because he becomes so animated when he shows us sculptures and paintings. But the reading - well quite monotone. After, Kate and i made a made dash across the Luxembourg gardens, luckily both of us made a sandwich to-go so we didn't have to stop anywhere, and met up with Maya for our contemporary French film class. Have I mentioned before that French films can be quite bizarre? or weird? or make no sense. Yeah... we watched a film called Rosetta, which won the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Movie Festival in 1999. It is about a 17 year old Belgian girl who lives in a trailer park with her alcoholic mother, and she tries to maintain a job so she can get somewhere in life. It was sad and ended so abruptly. When the film ended everyone was like "what" and our professor laughed. Needless to say, I hope the next movie is much better. The French love their sad movies, I have no idea why. The cool thing about this movie though, is it inspired Belgium to create a law saying all teenagers who work must receive minimum wage - because they were not beforehand.
Wednesday was theatre class, and although it is "only" an hour and a half long, it seems to dragggg byyyy slowlyyyy. My professor is funny, but he hasn't captivated me as much as he did the first day - but maybe that will change. This is the class I have to be on my best behavior in - because of the whole debacle with the earplugs (oops!) I get off class at noon on Wednesdays, so the rest of the day we walked around Paris, stopping at Gibert Joseph, a huge book store, with 4 other stores attached to it selling art supplies, cds/dvds, etc. to get a book for one of my classes, then we went to an umbrella store so I could by a new NOT 5 euro umbrella, that is sturdy enough that it won't break (hopefully!) and then went to Notre Dame...again. I could never get sick of seeing Notre Dame. I keep forgetting my camera though :( I forgot it when I went to Sacre Coeur the other day too! Near Notre Dame, I bought yet another pashimina scarf (hehe) and then we walked to the Hotel de Ville, and then around the Centre Pompidou. We were supposed to go in to visit the Centre Pompidou, much to my disliking, but somehow we ended up not going (yay!) So we walked some more, to get a crepe (woo!) and then I came home to do homework...kind of. I am such a procrastinator (like I am writing this now instead of doing homework.) I just really enjoyed walking around and seeing everything. I would walk around everyday if I could. Yes me. Actually walking and working out in a sense. Shocker I know. But everywhere you turn is a gorgeous building, or a national monument, or a sculpture, or a cool bridge, or a palace, or a garden, etc. You don't find that in Champaign, and definitely not Rockford.
Thursday is one of my longest days. I have class from 10:30 to 5pm, however my day started at the Louvre, so I guess it can't be too bad. During Romantisme, we finished learning about Jacques Louis DAVID, and learned a lot about Antoine Jean Baron GROS and Gericault. I now know how to distinguish between Romantic paintings and Neoclassic paintings - they are very similar because they are overlap during the same time periods. I would never have known the different styles between the 2, but I am slowly learning how to distinguish between them. For instance, in Romantic paintings they almost always have a diagonal structure to them - meaning something in the picture, usually in the middle, is painted in a diagonal form "x" but it can be very subtle. i.e. a horse with 2 legs in the air, a man holding a sword up the air etc. Neoclassic paintings are usually all about being horizontal and vertical "+" i.e. horse standing on all fours, with a man sitting straight on top of him. I know this is not translating very well onto...er...not paper...but the internet (ha)... I would need to show you, but hopefully you can get the gist. I just find it soooo interesting! Who knew I would find art history and such so fascinating (no offense mom!!!) After Romantisme, is the class I dread. French Contemporary Literature. This is 3 hours of absolute torture. The professor is an adorable young French woman, but I swear she forgets she is teaching a bunch of international students. She talks extremely fast, uses so much slang, and drops letters in words like you wouldn't believe (i.e. in English - I want to = I wanna. Yeah they do it in French too.) I start to zone out because I can't handle it after awhile. There is a woman from Algeria in our class, and her native language is French, but she was telling us the other day that she can't even keep up with our professor. After our break, she ready from this packet she gave us for the remainder of the class. I paid attention to .01% of that entire spiel - only because she mentioned Honore de Balzac - one of my favorite French authors. What did I do the rest of the time? Planned my Lady Gaga concert, and like 7 weekends of outings. No one paid attention. I figured I could just read the packet on my own time. It's awful. I have no idea what I am going to do with this class. Oy vay.
Friday was French theatre once more, and it was another, long, hour and a half. After, we walked around, yet again, but in a new direction! No Notre Dame today! Instead, Adam, Brian, Beth, and I headed towards Montparnasse, the only skyscraper in Paris (it's ugly) and walked around there. We lost Adam, not really he just went home, then we walked towards Les Invalides, which is where Napoleon is buried. Oh, and did I mention I forgot my camera AGAIN? Zut alors! It was chilly, but in the sun it was wonderful. After Les Invalides, we started walking towards the Eiffel Tower, and Brian decided to wander around himself, so it was just Beth and I left to fend for ourselves against the street men peddling touristy crap i.e. eiffel tower keychains, lighters, lights, etc. I mean, I will totally get some of this at some point while here - 4 keychains for a euro is a good deal haha, but these guys are ridiculous. Beth and I made sure we spoke French the entire time in front of them, so they wouldn't both us which worked for most, but I seriously have that sign above my head that flashes AMERICAN. They immediately switch to English and start yelling and cat-calling to get our attention to buy their stuff. One, went so far as to try and ggrab my hand to wrap his bracelet around my arm (they trick you into doing this, and then you have to pay a ton of money for the bracelet since it is on you.) I was NOT pleased, but I shook him off and he got the picture. 4 years ago I totally would have fallen for it, but luckily I am more prepared for it now.
Again, this is getting too long, not only because I procrastinated a whole week to write about my week, but also because I tend to be a bit wordy... I always have been oops! So tomorrow (shock!) I will write again once more about my crazy adventures in Reims - Champagne Country!
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