Just a thought

So I was in the library this week just looking through the English-language books (American literature more specifically) and a Carson McCullers book sort of appealed to me so much that I sat down to read and quickly had gotten through the first quarter of the book. It is called “Reflections in a Golden Eye,” and this version has an introduction written by Tennessee Williams. The book is quite interesting as most things that Carson McCullers wrote are, but the thing that I have been thinking about most in the past few days is something that Tennessee Williams wrote in his introduction. “If artists are snobs, it is much in the same humble way that lunatics are: not because they wish to be different, and hope and believe that they are, but because they are forever painfully struck in the face with the inescapable fact of their difference which makes them hurt and lonely enough to want to undertake the vocation of artists.” I find this statement  to be very telling of a certain strange rift that we have in our society… those who feel the need to appear “normal” and those who do not. I think that it is not really a question of normalcy but rather the repression of certain aspects of our own nature in order to fit what society makes us believe is right, “normal.” I suppose that we all do this to a certain extent, but I think that what Tennesse Williams was getting at is that some people are pressured to repress all that makes them who they are… these people are who he calles “artists.” I don’t know… I’m going to continue thinking this over, and I will let you know if I have any revelations. At any rate, it’s fascinating to think about and I’d love to hear your thoughts.

In more concrete news, I am on vacation this week. I am going to Paris with Hollie tomorrow to visit Marianne / the city. I’m sure I’ll have some stories and photos this weekend or next week.

Colmar pictures

Here we are taking a boat ride through “petite venise” in Colmar. Fatme and Romy (who are German) in the front and then Marieke (Belgian) and I are in the back. Funny story – so we’re sitting down after walking through Colmar and this little boat comes up and Fatme starts talking talking in German with Romy. And I obviously have no idea what they are talking about, but apparently she was saying that the boat driver was cute, seemed nice, we should take a ride, etc. So a few minutes later I went over and asked how much it cost and we decided to take a ride, and then when we were all seated and ready he asked, “would you like this to be in French or German?” hahahaha.

The Bartholdi Museum in Colmar.

The Cathedral in Colmar – very beautiful.

Colmar

So yesterday I went to Colmar with Romy, Fatme, and a Belgian girl named Marieke. It only took about half an hour to get there on the train – after we waited in line forever to actually buy our tickets. We found a nice little restaurant where we all had tartes flambees – which is sort of like a thin crust pizza, except it has a creamy white sauce… and it’s just a lot better. I don’t think I will ever get tired of them. Then we walked all around the city, seeing all the touristy things. There is a section of Colmar called “petite Venise” which is sort of like “petite France” in Strasbourg. There is a little river which they used to use to transport  fruits and vegetables etc. So we took a boat ride in petite Venise and lots of tourists took pictures of us. It was pretty fun. We also visited the Bartholdi museum, which was really interesting. (Hopefully you know that Bartholdi was the scupltor who made the Statue of Liberty.) Apparently there is a miniature tatue of Liberty in Colmar, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see it, because it was out a ways from the center of town.

It’s rather cold here today – I actually wore my winter coat for the first time this morning. On Tuesday the city of Strasbourg is having a reception to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the erasmus program, and they invited all foreign students. The mayor of Strasbourg is supposed to be there, so I am going. And if I get to meet the mayor of Strasbourg, that will just be fantastic.   

Pictures

This is the Parliament of the European Union. I live just down the street from it.

These are a couple of my German friends, Fatme on the left and Romy in the center. We are at the tram stop called “homme de fer” in the center of Strasbourg.

This is a rather famous landmark in Strasbourg – the “Ponts Couverts.” It’s right next to La Petite France, which is one of the prettiest and most touristy areas of the city.

This is my room at the cite universitaire. It’s not bad, add a few things from IKEA and it becomes quite cozy.

my crazy week

Hello everyone. I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written – this past week was quite busy for me, and on top of that I got sick. So, I had a fairly large presentation to give this morning in my francophone litterature class on a book called Nedjma. It is sort of in the writing style of William Faulkner / James Joyce – except in French, and therefore I really struggled with simply reading the book. But I worked really hard with Fatme to prepare our presentation, and I think it went fairly well considering our situation. I honestly worked on that and almost nothing else last week and this weekend. So, I suppose that’s why I’ve been so lousy at keeping up this blog lately.

The weather is still really nice here – cool Fall weather, so I think I might try to go to Colmar this weekend. Up to this point, I’ve really stayed in Strasbourg, so I’d like to go see some things now that I’m getting finished with all my administrative stuff. I’ve been hanging around with an English girl named Hollie who lives in Robertsau also, and we have been discovering how vastly different British English and American English are. I think I said ”trash can” one night and she and another English girl just cracked up. And she says things like “bloody blokes” – it’s absolutely wonderful. I never realized that British English is quite so different from American English. Oh, and some fun news – there is a shop here in Strasbourg that sells costumes and party favors and stuff for Halloween, so I’m thinking that we will have to have an Erasmus Halloween party.

My mom and dad bought their plane tickets for April - yay! I think we’ll spend a few days here in Strasbourg and then travel around France a bit – Normandy, Paris, and maybe the Loire valley. It seems like such a long time from now, but I’m sure it will be here before I know it. The last week of October is a break for the students at Marc Bloch, so I’m planning to go to Paris and visit Marianne for a few days. For Christmas I’m still not exactly sure what I’ll be doing – I might go to Lille to spend the holiday with Nicolas and Katrina and their family. It would be really nice to spend Christmas with a French family and see the traditional French Christmas, so I hope that works out.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a lot that I wanted to write, but I should be updating this blog a bit more regularly now.

p.s. thanks to all who have sent me mail, it’s really lovely

Monsieur Strawberry

So I went to my first week of classes this past week, and I decided to go to too many so that I could find the ones that best suit me, etc. For most classes, you have a “cours magistral” and then “travaux diriges” – those are sort of like recitations that go along with lectures. So since I am taking French literature, I had to choose a century to go to, and at first I chose the 20th as I would have the opportunity to read Proust. However, the professor for this course started off the class by stating that he keeps a catalogue of the grammar / language mistakes his students make and that he would frequently interrupt his own lectures in order to point out the finer aspects of the French language which most people don’t understand as he does. He then talked for two hours (interrupting himself frequently with “langue francaise” notes) about how to present an exposé. This class is supposed to last for an hour and a half… Yes, that pretty much sums up the way this man teaches - ”well, surely you all don’t have another class until 10:00, therefore I can teach for two hours.” As eccentric as he is, it’s almost funny to listen to him. I think I will try to audit the class, because apparently this man is a sort of expert on Proust – he has written many books on him. However, I think I will take 17th century (aka Madame de Lafayette and ”les precieuses”) for a grade.

This leads perfectly to an article I read in Newsweek today (the library on campus has Newsweek in its periodicals room) about Sarkozy versus Sartre. I ended up really not enjoying the ending of this article as the writer praised Sarkozy for his lack of interest in intellectual pursuits… but the subject itself was quite interesting. Essentially Sarkozy wants the French people to become workers rather than thinkers, saying that French people really don’t get anything done because they over-analyze and over-discuss. I suppose there is validity in his request for the French people to work more, because those who are not contributing to society are certainly not all sitting around reading Rimbaud and Sartre and trying to form their own schools of philosophy. However, this article presented the opinion that thoughts are really not valuable, but rather action… work. I find this really baffling… how often do we say “think before you speak”? How often do we wish that we would have reflected on something a little longer before making a decision? I just can’t help siding with the French tradition of “le penseur.”  

My lack of snail mail correspondence

I know that I am way behind on writing / sending postcards, but please be patient with me. I have some already written… I just need to buy a bunch of stamps for the US!