Endfinite Summer

Well, tonight marks the end of what has been a 5-month summer.  Classes at UT ended in mid-May, and tomorrow, October 12th, classes will FINALLY start at Paris III.   Meanwhile, facebook statuses (stati? I always debate this) from the States inform me that many students are already on Fall Break and gearing up for midterms.  Other students are looking a little further ahead towards study abroad plans for the Spring, which makes sense, since we'll be getting a whole new batch of etrangers in January.  Ahh!
I guess it's been a nice long summer...except I have no idea where those "extra" 2 months went.  Actually, applying for a French visa probably equates to scraping a couple months off your life...

The weather got gross this week, which put an end to my daytrips, although we should have a few more sunny days left before the sun se couche for the winter.  The weather did give me a good excuse to use my unlimited cinema pass:  I saw a film about Arabs in Israel (politically-charged, obviously, but very artistic) as well as a somewhat-rough but nonetheless enjoyable Portuguese film.  Unsurprisingly it made me want to take up Portuguese, which sounded quirky in a beautiful way to my untrained ear.  I've had a good time checking out the little art-house cinemas in the area and I think I've already found my favorite: the Nouveau Latina, just a 15 minute walk from my place and in a pretty laid-back area of town where locals dominate over tourists.  (Am I still considered a tourist?  Don't answer that.)  A guy and his girlfriend conversed on the sidewalk, he reclining on the 2 seats of his motorcycle parked on the sidewalk, she hovering next to him.  Hmm.  I'd never thought of a motorcycle as a couch before.
   
After a week of clouds and rain, Saturday was miraculously gorgeous, and all of Paris went outside to soak it up.  I planted myself at one of the many cafes around the Place des Vosges (luckily only a 5-minute walk from my place), ordered my 4.5 euro pot of Jasmine Tea, and settled in to read up on Balzac, the first author we'll be studying in my MICEFA post-revolution Literature and Politics class.  That's the first time I've done the whole "study-at-a-cafe" thing here, and I was a little nervous about whether I had picked an appropriate place and time to occupy a table for a couple of hours.  I seemed to be attracting the glances of a couple waiters, and I was sure they were discussing how annoying it is when customers do this.  But later, as the sun dipped below some clouds and I reached for my sweater, one of them was suddenly at the heat-lamp next to me asking if I wanted him to turn it on.  So I think I misinterpreted their conversation, just as I think they misinterpreted my furtive, please-don't-kill-me-for-sitting-here-and-not-ordering-a-meal glances as invitations to turn up the heat, so to speak.  So that might be a good place to go back to...too bad the prices aren't as cute as the waiters.

Athina, Laurence's 3-year-old grand-daughter, stayed with us this weekend.  Like most little girls, she's fascinated by an older girl (and it helps that we're both blonde and have similar names).  She thoroughly inspected my room, focusing on my jewelry and hair accessories, and my desk, although I think she only likes the desk because that's where the sticky notes are.  She saw me sitting here typing at my computer one day, legs covered in my throw blanket.  Later she wandered back in (on the pretense of getting my help tying her shoes) to try it out for herself.  Sitting at my open computer, her tiny legs swallowed by the blanket which protected her from a non-existent draft, she declared "C'est sympa, ta chambre"  - it's nice, your room.  Glad I've got that stamp of approval!

Other accomplishments this week:
-acquired a lightly-used copy of The Little Prince, which I've been waiting to read in French.  This took me on the first of an anticipated many trips to Gibert Jeune, the major new/used bookstore in Paris.

-My quartier is now graced by the presence of several petites annonces, flyers I made to try to find people to teach English to.  No calls yet, but my fingers are crossed!

-While searching the classifieds for people looking for english teachers, I found a family looking for a live in nanny who say they live in a castle.  That's just not something you'd see  in the Daily Texan.

On that note, I'd better think about going to bed, since my first class is tomorrow at 8AM (ouch).  Have a great week, everyone!

Writing from my sympa chambre,
Alina :)