So let's see what was on the itinerary for Wednesday, July 17.
That was a rough day. One of the few days where we had both three-hour classes in the API Center.
Lectures. Back to back.
The French Art and Contemporary class was from 9 to 12. Interesting stuff, but a three-hour lecture of anything is potentially fatal. I'm not going to give you all the whole architectural plan of our little classroom (you got a picture of it in Part 1). Just know that there's a window...
And I think this was the day I contemplated jumping out of it.
We all had about an hour to recover—the UF class started at 1.
We had a guest speaker for that class. A nice French woman, who is a feminist and very passionate about her studies.
She was such as nice person. And I absolutely love people who love what they do. It's interesting to see some adults who just go through life absolutely hating their jobs. C'est déprimant, en fait.
But l'll repeat for the 3rd time just to get my point across that she was a very kind lady, and you could tell she just absolutely loved the field she was in.
That being said...
We proceeded to learn about gender and the French language for the next three hours.
How can that even be discussed for so long?
I mean, merde.
I could not. I could not even.
I'm a pretty independent gal, and I like to see myself as a little black Rosie the Riveter.
But I mean, c'mon.
I couldn't handle that much feminism in English, let alone in French.
But before I give the illusion it was complete torture (though at times it felt that way) we did learn some very interesting stuff au sujet de gender in French.
Like it's more girly to emphasize the "e" at the ends of words like "Bonjoureee."
I thought that was vraiment intéressant.
And there are, of course, some occupations in the French language that pretty much only have a masculine form, which makes it pretty awk when a girl has that position (i.e. doctor).
Wonder what Mindy Lahiri would think about that.
Needless to say, there were some interesting points, but I mean, it was three hours.
Three hours.
*shudders*
But the day was not over.
I was actually looking forward to the rest of it, though. That night, we went to a theatre to see "L'école des Femmes," a work by Molière (like the French Shakespeare).
No I was not late. And after wandering for a grand total of like a minute, I found the rest of the group *cue applause*.
The inside was beautiful. I've never been to a real theatre like that to see a play with balcony seats and everything. Belle. Tellement belle.
Soon we were all situated in our seats and the play began. Earlier that day, Kelsey told me a little bit about the plot, and I was glad. I'd go into it having an idea what was going on.
So the play began and the acteurs started speaking.
I thought I understood what was going on and what was being said for the most part in the beginning. I don't know what happened later but soon the words where...
Basically incomprehensible.
Think about how Shakespeare is already difficult for an English-speaking person to understand. Now put Shakespeare in another language. Yeah. Old French.
Not forgetting we had a day of death today, my brain was already fried from the feminism lecture.
I hadn't really been sleeping at night (which is another story entirely) so just know that at some point my eyes were closed and my head went back.
I gave up.
Now, everyone next to me said I was sleeping ( thank God my professor was on the other side of the theatre) but I'm pretty sure my eyes were just closed. I think...
It was classic theatre architecture and dark and we were relatively high up, so only my friends sitting next to me could see me. Good thing because I would never be that intentionally rude.
I just know when the lights turned on and I heard clapping I felt relief.
Anddd then I found out it was just intermission.
The play started at 8:30.
If my memory serves me right, it was already after freaking 10.
At intermission.
ndsklnksnknjgnjdbfhvscfdccfcv WHAT?
I was not pleased. I was not pleased at all.
You might not think it sounds that bad, but I always have to factor in the metro too.
Even though morning class usually starts at 9 or 9:30, I had to start my alarms at about 6 every day if I wanted to get to wherever we were supposed to meet on time. Keep in mind, with the exception of the API Center, everywhere we meet in the program is a new place we've never been before. And I was traveling alone. So every morning I had to hop on the metro to find a new place.
But, the worst part really was that I was so sleep deprived I couldn't even appreciate the play. So unlike me.
I am never ever ever ever the type of person who would just zone out like that in a theatre. I love plays.
So I was determined to pay attention to the second act.
Which I did.
But I mean, ugh. Well, just know in the play a pretty basic girl is choosing between two men. And she chooses the young, dashing man instead of her freaking uncle (good ol' 17th century incest), who is old and weird.
Shocking.
OK, I really shouldn't diss a piece by Molière like that, but I mean, man that was a rough day.
Maybe it's a "you had to be there" type of thing because I don't think I'm effectively communicating how beat I was.
But eventually, the play was over and the day was over. If it was possible for that day to end.
God knew I needed to recover. Thursday wasn't too bad at all.
We were outside of the classroom for the art class, and the UF class, well,
it wasn't really a class that day.
Thank God.
We went to a café, where we turned in the journals we write each week about France and sort of chatted with each other and our professor.
This café visit was a part of the program, so our little café treats were already paid for:
Coffee, tiramisu, and some other great stuff.
If only I had the coffee the day before.
P.S.
There are so many awesome things that go unmentioned in this blog, and for that I apologize. I was just looking through my pictures and remembered we went to a pretty cool museum sometime that week for the art class.
P.S.S.
Other awesome stuff that happened this week during art class. Look familiar? They filmed scenes from "Inception" here! (Melanie I've been meaning to tell you about this for the longest time, but I forgot).
No comments:
Post a Comment