So I don’t entirely lose your attention…

…although I am well aware that I fail at being a tourist, here are some lovely pictures of myself, my dear former host Madia (who is now currently on vacation), and food that I’ve made while here. I think the general quality of food here is better and some of the pastry is just… well there aren’t words.

T-3 days. Crazy.

This is not the update I expected to be writing

This is not the update I expected to be writing. I expected to be writing about the Collectif National this past weekend that UNEF had, where 300-350 representatives from AGE’s of the student union from across France converged on Paris. I expected to write about the hours of gauchiste French political debate I heard/attempted to understand, the registration workshops I sat in on, the workshop on learning about the different services UNEF offers to students, the endless endless debates, the “liberals,” the “militants,” and the “majorité,” and the final voting. I had every intention of writing about how I maybe I understood about 50-70% (but really more like 50%) of what went on this past weekend and how this week is when high schoolers get the results of the bac back and decide what university they will attend. I swear I was going to write about how this week I’m going to be tagging along with a girl who’s helping oversee the registration project at a bunch of universities but that today I was feeling a little under the weather so I stayed in (plus it’s raining ridiculously). I probably should be writing about how I moved into my new apartment and how that’s terribly exciting. It’s definitely something I should do to write about visiting the Sacre Coeur Basilica and the area of Montmartre in the northern part of Paris. It is imperative that I write about hearing Jonathan Safran Foer read excerpts, one from his new unpublished book, at the Shakespeare and Co. bookshop by Notre Dame. Yup, I should be doing all that.

But picking up and moving, uprooting myself again, threw me into some introspection in the way that happens regardless of visiting a famous monument or attending a national collective. Instead, I think I should note that Nietzsche and I used to have a lot more in common (and for those Social Studies folks who are going to be all up in my grill, I mean with respect to the one quote I’m going to talk about here :P). Especially this past academic year, often all I could see was the ugliness, the hypocrisy, felt like I was just experiencing acute frustration and pointlessness. As good (ha) ol’ Friedrich said,
“Ah, reason, seriousness, mastery over the affects, this entire gloomy matter called reflection, all these prerogatives and showpieces of man: how dearly they have been paid of! How much blood and horror there is at the base of all ‘good things’!” (Genealogy of Morals, 39).
I wish there weren’t quite so much truth in that, whether it’s the foie gras sitting by the salt shaker or a merely transient “peace” that will dissolve next month into an ever-increasing body count, how much blood and horror there is at the base of all ‘good things.’

I think some of the novelty of Paris wore off about a week and a half ago. I went through a period of time where I just got so irritated at everything, stupid metro, stupid people, stupid not speaking French, stupid metro, stupid tourists, stupid difficulties, stupid metro, stupid apartment search, stupid time alone, stupid metro, stupid things not being what I expected them to be, stupid stupid stupid everything (and did I mention stupid metro?). I still have yet to do a lot of the touristy type things, still have yet to do a lot of the “OMG I’M GOING TO PARIS AND MUST DO X Y AND Z!” type things mostly because I try doing the immersion thing and even when I went and sat by the Seine outside the Musée d’Orsay, I heard SO much English. On some level, I feel like Paris might be a city where I always feel like a tourist, even if I’m fluent. It’s a strange place, definitely different. It’s a city who sends love letters to itself written in flowing script, but the mailbox door is cracked. On some level, I feel like Paris can be really real, it’s a city that appreciates food, grime, wine, sex, cigarettes, attention… and I mean, let’s be real, that often takes up a ton of brain space in the average person’s grey matter. But it’s also where Sartre and Beauvoir argued over existentialist principles in the company of the tiniest cups of coffee, where Henri de Saint-Simon visioned utopia-lly, and where people identified as SDF (“sans domicile fixe,” which sounds somehow more romantic than “homeless”) sleep next to ATMs while tourists and Parisians alike barter with the machines, while the fluctuation of markets and exchange rates, not entirely distant from the lapping of the Seine, which is not a clear stunning sapphire blue but a murky grey-green punctuated by floating plastic bottles on the surface, provides a silent ticker-tape background that accompanies the ever-clicking heels that Parisian women somehow seem born to walk in.

Often when I’m asked what I think of Paris, all I can say is that it’s different. I’m not sure if I can make some huge sweeping generalizations about whether its it’s better, more livable, more historic, more dangerous, more sexy, more delicious (ok, I lied, I’m pretty sure Paris is tastier than Boston), more comforting, more philosophical, more _______ than any where I’ve been or have yet to go. Really the closest I’ve come to being able to do the “sweeping generalization” thing is to say that there’s little that Paris does half-heartedly.

The world is boring and real. It’s not magical, per se. But I suppose there’s magic in the differences, or in singular experiences where you get a chance to step back and do your best to observe from every angle. I suppose the magic is also in the similarities, and those golden moments when universal human kindness or universal humanness gets a chance to twinkle. Or perhaps in the realization that I would not be where I am if it weren’t for someone knowing someone or something and telling someone else or for someone else’s kindness. And so I feel a little like I’m back to a place I’ve visited many times before. A greater sense of flow, still not really knowing what I’m doing, trying to take it all in, and when I get the chance, taking a deep breath, and trying to hold on to those moments where I’m overwhelmed by gratitude or inspiration. I don’t think I’ll ever understand Paris. But I think I’m becoming much more OK with that.

Fresh Prince(ss) of Bel Air

Here’s the original.

And here’s a… slightly adapted version.

“Now this is the story all about how
My life got flipped, turned upside down
And I’d like to take a minute just sit right there
I’ll tell you how I became the Prince(ss) of a ‘hood called Bel Air

In Boston town, born and raised
Now in H Square where I spend most of my days
Chilling out, maxing, readin’s pretty cool
Gettin’ students organized while I’m at school.
When, in economic crisis, administration
Started making “tough decisions” in my neighborhood.
Collective action is hard, in common parlance,
Maybe I’ll go to a place where they got this, like France

I got some money from my college, hooray!
Packed my bags, swine-flu free, and I was on my way.
Struggled with the airport, and printed my ticket
I put my on my ipod and wondered how I could kick it.

Nonstop flight, 2 hours in the airport, this is kinda rough,
Not having a working cell phone: also kinda tough.
But then, after lunch in the sunlight,
Hey, I started thinking, this might be alright!

But wait I hear there’re prissy, bourgeois and all that
But I gotta also think they’ve got some cool cats.
I’m pretty sure,
That’s why I’m there
I hope I’m prepared, gotta admit, I’m a little scared.

Well, I intern with UNEF, and yes we protest,
Definitely some differences but we’ve both got posters!
But I ain’t trying to get arrested or beat up just yet,
I’m not French!
But it’s rad to go even if I don’t rush buildings.

So since I got here, been livin’ in the burbs
But well, they’re not always superb,
So I found me an apartment, can you guess where?
The place I call ‘chez’ is now in Bel Air.

Rolled up in the metro, then to number 8
Met my new British roommate, his name is James.
Looked around the flat and I was finally there
To move in this week as Prince(ss) of Bel Air.”

(obvi I own none of the rights whatsoever to “Fresh Prince” and merely admire Will Smith from afar)

Things 1-5

I have very little attention span right now but I did just want to briefly note a couple of things.

Thing 1: What I’ve been doing with UNEF for the past week.
-Helping them search websites for universities charging illegal fees (every university in France is supposed to cost the same). Also, higher education in America is OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive… outrageous. Literally, the definition of outrageous, as in it should cause outrage. I also went to my first weekly reunion (meeting/conference), or well, half of one anyway. There were also two protests to fight the demolition of Bâtiment C (Building C) of Cité U (student housing)… this is particularly a problem because students are still living there. More to come on that first réunion.

Thing 2: Erika is visiting Paris… hooray!! And we visited La Grande Mosqué along with Wendy. So very beautiful.

Thing 3: I found blue hair dye in Paris, but it was difficult. In doing so, I also went to the French equivalent of Newbury Comics… oh my god, hilarious.

I mean, honestly, how badly do I need that shirt? I’d say without a doubt it’s necessary to my life.

Thing 3: It’s Gay Pride in Paris today… !!!!!!!!!!!!!! and tomorrow starts La Fête du Cinéma. Also it’s the first weekend of the second Solde, one of two sales that Paris has every year.

Thing 4: I’m doing the apartment search thing again. Although Madia has been so incredibly wonderful. Like… there aren’t words.

Thing 5: Re: the health questions from family members on my last post. I’ll get back to you, but I don’t get how French people stay so thin, I really don’t. I think it might have to do with the walking and the smoking, but I think also it has to do with them taking a really long time to finish any meal, which I hope rubs off on me. There’s a lot of sitting around after you’re done eating. Anyway, like I said, I’ll get back to you. But there’s this one kid at UNEF who is kind of shortish, bouncy, has a REALLY French voice (I mean they all do, but somehow him especially), and he’s always bouncing around and yelling and he definitely eats like an American. Seriously, the sandwiches he eats are about the size of his head. And he’s like… pocket-sized. I don’t get it.

Fliers, a fly, and what’s fly.

Quick succession of things.

Re: UNEF – Spent the past two days translating a section of their financial aid information for international students. Will probably go on their website :) Hopefully something more interesting to come later this week/today (it’s Wednesday here). Helped distribute fliers today to high schoolers who had just taken the bac(calaureat)… felt like I was at a poorly attended SLAM rally, but with less yelling.

Re: the fly that was in my room – now outside my room. WIN!

Re: Being fashion forward à Paris-
strappy sandals? in
skinny jeans? in
large sunglasses? yep, still in.
puffy jackets in June? apparently in….
flats? in.
tights under shorts? totally in.
things with heels? always in.
tunic type dresses (over jeans/leggings or not)? in.
shirts with random English words on them? in.
the Murse/Manbag? always.
(is it a purse? is it a handbag? is the wearer a self-identified male? yes folks, we can all sleep soundly tonight knowing the murse/manbag is still “in” on the streets of Paris).

Heidi Klum will tell you, “If you’re not in… you’re out” (here’s a really weird youtube video to demonstrate).
sweatshirts? seem to be a mostly American thing… mostly out.
carrying around cups of coffee on the metro? out.
minding your own business on the metro? out.
backpacks? mostly out, unforch for me :/
showering? depends, but definitely sometimes out.
the Marais? definitely “out”…. har har.

3 More Things

Three more things about UNEF before I forget (the entry before this is RIDIUCLOUS!) and maybe I’ll post more on them later.

1. Commissions: This is how UNEF divides up the work to do what it does. Closest I can think of are SDS Working Groups (but imagine them accountable and actually national!). There are commissions for…
-Aides sociales (bourses) –> Financial Aid
-Universitaire (reformes) –> University Reforms
-Communication –> Media production (posters, websites, etc.)
-International –> Coordination of International Student Unions (UNEF is under the umbrella of the European Student Union)
-Questions de société –> Research into current societal issues
-Servies –> Social services
-Secteurs de construction –> coordination, organization of the French AGEs (I think)
—la région parisienne
—la province
It’s still up in the air, but I basically get to decide what I’m going to be doing.

2. Réunions: Every Friday, all the Parisian chapters (and maybe every French chapter? I don’t think so… maybe though) have a meeting/conference to catch up and decide what’s going on with UNEF as a whole. It takes the whole day and is divided up into two parts. I’ll explain more about this when I’ve actually been to one (I missed this Friday’s).

3.Soirée: Last night UNEF held a little gathering for all the local reps because a girl named Amy who used to help them lead their meetings is leaving (que triste!). This meant a parody of their normal meetings (which I virtually could not follow) and then a par-tay :) It began as probably one of the most awkward and uncomfortable experiences I’ve had since I started elementary school (this bad French thin is so embarrassing…) but I ended up having a really wonderful conversation with a girl who spoke really good English (her dad is from England) and having some sporadic conversations in French and (gasp!) perhaps making friends!… hooray, friends. Anyway, I ended up being very glad I stayed.

BONUS THING: there was an ABSOLUTELY crazy woman who sat next to me while I was having lunch the first day I went to UNEF. Oh my god. Seriously nuts (and drunk), although not belligerent or anything. It involved her waving her glass around a lot and claiming not to be bourgeois while thinking I really didn’t understand a word she was saying (I got… a few). Although honestly, French is hard enough to understand and slurred as it is. Slurred drunk Parisian French is nearly impossible to decode (for me anyway). I suppose she could’ve had a Québecois accent…that would’ve been worse.

Il était une fois l’UNEF…

Best new word: groupuscule! = a small group (awww!… although at the same time it does sound a little like something that requires surgery… ah well).

Now I understand why blogs get neglected. It’s like, omigad, REAL writing. Well, sort of. But there are sentences and they have to make some semblance of sense for it to be worth keeping a blog of a trip that isn’t just for yourself.

And so, the blexperiment continues. I have a feeling this is going to be an epic post.

It’s Sunday now and La Fête de la Musique (!!!) is happening right now in Paris and I’ll be booking it down there when I’m done here. But it’s also the first time I’m updating since I’ve actually been to UNEF’s office… if you can call it an office. Which is not to bash it in any way, I like that it’s not all sterilized banisters, chrome elevators, spotless windows, and smooth white paint jobs (and where would the money for that come anyway?). But I mean, let’s be real. UNEF’s headquarters are behind a door covered in chipping light blue paint with a small name tag on the right hand side of the door frame (next to a buzzer of debatable functioning), up two flights of stairs that feel more like an inventory drop off point than any sort of main office, through offices with large plexiglass windows (or at least definitely not spotless windows), and up a twisty creaky free-standing staircase. And that’s just the rooms with the president, vice president, and general secretary (who are lovely… but I’ll get there). The rest of the offices are catacombed around with more large windows, more stairs, all-over mid-blue carpeting that has seen better (and worse) days, and a courtyard of concrete with some chairs, a table, and a smoking/chilling room near by. There’s a lot of yelling through these windows to each other as well. Lots of walls, especially those inside offices and ESPECIALLY those of the communication group (I’ll get to how UNEF is structured) are covered in posters and pamphlets, some current, some not so current (this one is around a lot in addition to this one. I like the second a lot hehe). But what did I expect? With a bunch of radical ~20 yr olds running around, I’d be more weirded out if everything were spotless and suits abounded.

So, what the hell is UNEF, and what exactly am I doing? Luckily, I spent yesterday reading all about the history of the organization in a handy little book they gave me called, appropriately, “qu’est-ce que l’unef? (what is unef?) by a former president of the organization (one who was around during some of its most turbulent and formative years… but isn’t any organization like UNEF going to continually be undergoing formative years? I digress).

I’m probably going to fail at this, but I’ll try and focus on what’s important, mostly because I didn’t understand EVERYTHING in the book I was reading but also because it’d be a lot to type and certain parts of the history are more relevant to UNEF’s current incarnation than others. UNEF’s history is rife with the questions, fractures, re-unifications, politicization/de-politicization/re-politicization, and turbulence not only of a group whose membership is constantly in flux, but of an organization with a mission of social change that’s still figuring out how best to go about it. I’m also apologizing in advance for something I may have misread and, therefore, now misrepresent.

So, once upon a time (il était une fois…), there were groups called Associations générales d’étudiants (AGEs [I'm also sorry for using French for those who find it irritating, but the acronyms are going to make even less sense if I don't]), which were sort of like general student groups with chapters in different regions and universities. They existed to foster camaraderie among students as well as to give some power to students in bringing issues to the attention of the powers-that-be in the universities. However, on May 4 1904, all the AGEs came together to form a Union nationale des Associations générales d’étudiants, basically the birth of UNEF. However, this was more of a proto-UNEF and it would certainly morph and change in the years to come. It had a lot to worry about already, especially in terms of military service, which was a big deal to them (and every student organization since…). In 1909, at the congrès de Nancy, they laid out their demands, citing a strike as the final step. At this time, UNEF wasn’t governed by union law but by the law of associations (important– becoming an actual union was a big deal). UNEF would grow in importance during the years of WWI leading up to the world economic crisis of the 1930′s.

UNEF gained public attention, particularly when it came to lobbying, getting attention from politically important people, and bringing the interests of students onto a national scale. The fact that it was civically engaged and relatively government-y meant it wasn’t that radical or extremist and also meant it didn’t come under attack in the years between the wars by the extreme right. But, this mainstream aspect had negative repercussions: when UNEF formed the Confédération Internationale des étudiants (CIE), which was integrated into the Société des Nations (SDN) formed at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, it kept ties with fascist student groups from Italy and was anti-Semitic and xenophobic like many other international groups in the 1930′s (coughRedScarecough…). Tsk tsk UNEF. It was also against becoming larger to accommodate a lot of “boursiers” (“scholarship students,” basically students on the equivalent of financial aid). Sigh.

But things got better! In 1935, there were a lot more students on scholarship in universities in general who fell under even more control of the universities (since they controlled their money… at least I think this is what the book is saying). In 1936, UNEF announced a general strike on behalf of scholarship students, showing the new direction the union would take on behalf of non-elite students (and beginning one of the many fractures that would happen during UNEF’s lifetime). It was also the first time it used a general strike (hooray!). [Ok, this is taking way too long, I'm going to try and do highlights...I also think there are currently 3 flies in this room and I'd like to finish :s]

In 1937, the Minister of Education attempted to influence UNEF’s priorities to be more in line with his own (“aide sociale”) while this prompted UNEF, who had political recognition, to hold strong to its own demands. In 1939, UNEF had 21,000 members (1 out of every 4 students), and was really a national union (although still not officially unionized).

Many students were part of the resistance in 1945, but they did it outside of UNEF and UNEF didn’t take an official stance on the war (…). More interactions with the minister of education resulted in the invitation of UNEF onto political councils (in an effort to keep communists from influencing the young and impressionable members of UNEF). This caused UNEF to hold the congrès de Grenoble and to draft and adopt one of its central documents: La Charte de Grenoble (The Charter of Grenoble). The Charter of Grenoble lays out, clearly, what a student is, and what rights UNEF seeks to defend (here it is in French and I could only find the articles in English but here they are). UNEF was now considered part of the labor movement (and “syndicat” or union). Their subsequent strike in 1947, against the increasing rights of universities and lowering of financial aid, went smashingly. Continuing to work on the national level, on Septbemer 23, 1948, a law was passed whereby students could now benefit from social security. Win for UNEF! The AGEs became very useful in gathering student opinion and formulating demands.

From 1947-1956, UNEF was the premier student organization in France and more centered (politically). The “majo” (majority…) lead the organization from ’53-’56 while the socialists communists paid little attention to UNEF. With its declared “apolitical” stance, UNEF did not endorse a party. However, with the War of Algeria, UNEF could not remain “apolitical” (what a stupid word…). With AGEs in Algeria and Tunisia, UNEF could not help but be involved. The long and the short of it is that after a lot of debate, on April 5, 1957, UNEF officially opposed the war (and realized it couldn’t be “apolitical” but could be “nonpartisan”…ish… although like any progressive/radical issue, it often comes down on party lines). Not only did UNEF endeavor to protect the students, but it ended up establishing direct ties with the FLN (which CLEARLY was political) and boycotted the elections of 1963 because of the continued conflict. Thus, UNEF’s power was taken from the CNO (Centre National des Œvres, official political body) and UNEF proceeded to demonstrate against fascism with other actual unions like the CGT.
(this is so long, i’m so sorry!!!!!) maybe bullet points?
-May 1968: Organizer of the revolt. Responsible for the organization of the most well-known demonstrations. As Jennifer from Paris 1 was telling me yesterday, this is also when the Sorbonne’s “faculté” system was abolished.
nope, now it’s story time again.
Begin an onslaught of acronyms and ideologies that caused the creation of UNEF-Re (Rénouveau, supported mostly by students, favorable to elections) and the UNEF-US (Unité syndicale, supported by trade and labor unions, directly influenced by the socialist party). In 1980, in Nanterre, there was an attempt to come together under UNEF-ID (Indépendant et democratique) by assembling everyone on the extreme left (except for the communists) with a founding document (la charte de Paris) inspired by the the Grenoble charter. Its main goals were to fight the creation of a hierarchy within the universities and the increase of financial aid, while disavowing “apoliticalism” from the start. With the election of Mitterand, UNEF-Re became UNEF-SE (Solidarité étudiante). UNEF-ID gained prominence. In 1993, because it was too busy dealing with its own internal fractures, UNEF lost its seats on the CNESER (Conseil national de l’enseignement supérieur et de la recherche), to which it had been elected before, so that FAGE (Fédération des Associations Générales Etudiantes) came to the forefront of student activism (they’re not a union though, just a collection of associations). In 1995, the plans for education reform from Chirac were perceived to have been compromised by François Bayrou (education minister), and resulted in an explosion of strikes and demonstrations, many lead by UNEF-ID. In such a way, UNEF-ID took back the prominence that FAGE had taken in its successful election.

1997 saw pedagogical reform as the result of conversations between ministers and UNEF-ID for two years prior (the book claims that UNEF-ID had legitimacy but I’m a little a fuzzy on how this happened… there was a lot of striking and standing in solidarity against the social security reforms of PM Alain Juppé prior to 1997). The issue of scholarships and financial aid again came to the forefront of UNEF-ID’s efforts in 1999 and in 2000, enough members of UNEF-ID were elected to CNESER that UNEF-SE effectively lost its voice in that body. Furthermore, a reunification was attempted in 1997, without success; UNEF-ID attempted to get in touch with another representative student body (Mutuelle nationale des étudiants de France) but then MNEF, run by a professional committee, was dissolved by elected officials for political reasons, and UNEF-ID remained the most powerful student-run political student organization. In 2000, UNEF-ID and UNEF-SE attempted to unite, but the December reunification failed. However, in July of 2001, after all the alphabet soup and clashing ideologies, UNEF-SE and UNEF-ID finally reunited under the name UNEF. …and this is where this part of the book effectively ends.

But history is always being written! (hooray, cliché).

UNEF is constantly trying to write, rewrite, update, and tell its history (as any self-aware organization should be). In fact, they’re putting out a new edition of this book that I was reading in the next few months and I sat in on their meeting where they were discussing changes to the book, to the interview questions they were going to ask their current president, and the new chapter they want to add to the book. Again, it’s amazing what’s the same. I could’ve sworn I was sitting in one of our very own SDS/SLAM/FUP meetings: there was an agenda, they got wrapped up in discussing the wording of about… two questions, the titling of a section, trying to decide who would take on which responsibilities, someone got a text and they all harassed him about it, impassioned arguments were made for specific wordings and, ultimately, they finished their meeting with the agenda all scrawled up, half the questions changed, but an effective plan for continuing. Maybe it’s that French goes about 3487829374x as fast as English (although I think we all probably talk really quickly too), but the meeting didn’t actually take THAT long. But it was… I guess a little reassuring to see that when you get politically engaged, passionate people in a room talking about and doing things they really care about, there are some commonalities.

Adventures in Sitting

French phone – check.
French phone number – check.
Working computer – mostly check (the wifi [WEEFEE!]) times out sometimes, but aaahhh I have my computer with the sense-making keyboard! I had borrowed my wonderful host’s computer with a keyboard that looks like this… an “AZERTY” keyboard. The things you learn. I’m glad to have Qwerty back in my life.

So, continuing with my blogging experiment (“blexperiment” if you will…), I did some more wandering around yesterday. I’ve basically ended up taking the métro into various parts of the center of Paris in search of exciting things, food, and phone stores and ended up wandering around until I find another metro station. I have definitely taken at least 2 lines the wrong direction only to get off awkwardly and cross over to the other side. Yet somehow after wandering around for hours, I made it back to the station I came out of earlier that day. NO idea how that happened.

Oh and I’ve been reading. I’ve been reading Middlesex (en anglais) by Jeffrey Eugenides that I borrowed from Brandon… hm, probably back in September. Embarrassing, but it’s made for grand café and garden reading. There are so many more gardens and just general places to sit. The streets are FULL of people all bustling around and talking extremely quickly on their cell phones (that’s another thing, French people talk MADD fast) and running up and down stairs to catch their trains, but there are also lots of people sitting. There is not enough sitting in Boston. I couldn’t help thinking back to the exhibit I saw in January when I was in Montréal (the French priming probably also helped) at the Canadian Centre for Architecture called “Actions: What You Can Do With the City”. In this exhibit, there was a display on New York City, showing how, yes, there may be Central Park, but there are sitting deterrents all over the city, and when you’re not sitting, you’re standing, and when you’re standing in NYC, chances are you’re going somewhere pretty damn quickly most likely yelling into your cell as you travel there. I’d say it’s commonly accepted to think of NYC as a fast-paced, intensely driven place, but noticing how the construction of the city itself influences that was fascinating.

It’s just the opposite here. EVERY café has outdoor seating, there are street venders selling crêpes in wax paper by outdoor fountains, public gardens dotted with couples and people sitting and listening to their ipods, and all sorts of other places to SIT. I’m just thinking of Boston and Cambridge and I feel like public meeting places where you can just chill end up limited to both Commons, the Public Garden, and some small parks. But here it feels different, like it’s not so much that you have to find a place for yourself but that there are spaces where you already fit. Of course, this is not to say that you can plunk yourself down in the middle of a busy street, but there’s a chair somewhere on that street for you.

Anyway, back to the fact that I’ve been reading at a ridiculously leisurely pace, there are a couple passages that I’ve found interesting, especially in the context of a blexperiment. The narrator is talking about WWII when he says that, “nevertheless, to be perfectly honest, mostly what people did during the war was write letters. In support of my personal belief that real life doesn’t live up to writing about it, the members of my family seem to have spent most of their time that year engaged in correspondence” (189). Not sure I totally buy it, but I liked the sentence.
But I REALLY liked this passage.
“Emotions, in my experience, aren’t covered by single words. I don’t believe in ‘sadness,’ ‘joy,’ or ‘regret.’ Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. I’d like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions like, say, ‘the happiness that attends disaster.’ Or: ‘the disappointment of sleeping with one’s fantasy.’ I’d like to show how ‘intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members’ connects with the ‘the hatred of mirrors that beings in middle age.’ I’d like to have a word for the ‘sadness inspired by failing restaurants’ as well as ‘the excitement of getting a room with a minibar.’ I’ve never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I’ve entered my story, I need them more than ever. … From here on in, everything I’ll tell you is colored by the subjective experience of being part of events” (217).
But I guess that’s where poetry swoops in to save (and attempts to describe) the day.

Tooling around this city, at the moment and for the most part, alone without a working cell phone (till yesterday!) has been (in addition to, in theory, dangerous) an interesting experience. The train-car emotion would be something like ‘the freedom of having no electronic communication device accompanied by the qualified silence of walking among a sea of people without speaking.’ I realize, normally, I talk. A LOT. And sometimes I wish that I were walking around with someone else, who at least wouldn’t get mad at my terrible French or who would humor me and speak some English. But then I understand more why being alone is productive, and why I’ve got a notebook and a pen.

Today I’m going to UNEF HQ to talk to the general secretary about what the hell I’m supposed to be doing with them. I honestly have no idea what to expect ( : )+:/ ). But I’ll find out!… I guess. I’m kinda nervous and I hope they won’t hate me and my bad French.

Oh and the last thing: I guess I got immune to the sidelong American glances, but I forgot that having blue hair gets you stared at the world over. Unfortunately, I feel like I haven’t seen too much crazily dyed hair despite the fashion forward culture of the city as a whole. Maybe dyed hair is passé. Le sigh. : )

Word du moment: ENFIN.

Oh.. my.. god. Been a while since I slept for 12 hours straight.

I had quite the adventure yesterday pissing off probably about 20 French people due to
1) my inability to speak properly
2) my dumb questions
3) not knowing that you always get off at the back of the bus, not the front (thank you the T)
4) not having change
5) trying the nodding and smiling when it really wasn’t appropriate.

In fairness, this is after a 6 hour flight, 2-3 hours in the airport trying to get a métro “Navigo” card, failing to find wi-fi, paying to use the bathroom in a public space (?!!), toting my heavy suitcase and backpack all around, people waving their hands like that action actually indicates where it’s helpful to go, finding an ATM, and really just wanting to change out of the clothes that still felt like airline.  I also found out that the laws governing the consumption of alcohol aboard an airplane are entirely dependent upon the origin of the airline carrier in question:  for example, although what I really could’ve used aboard flight 146 was a drink, this would’ve been illegal given that the the carrier was American Airlines.  Air France, pas de problème.  Interesting.

I need to wrap this up (and I’m probably going to fail at it because I tend to ramble even though I still don’t really have the hang of blogging yet) because it’s past 1 pm and I need to feel like I haven’t wasted today (since SUCCESS: I GOT MY COMPUTER TO WORK!, thwart: it took 3 hours) and I still need to get the phone ish figured out. Once that’s done…well, I don’t know, “to figure something out” is what I spend my time doing. Going to a foreign country with a real plan: 1, Abby: 0. Not to mention my French really really needs to improve. Oh dear god. Doing well in school French is SO not doing well in real-life French. I’m “figuring it out”… je vais resoudre tous mes problèmes… éventuellement.

But I shouldn’t complain too much, really. My host, Madia, a teacher, activist, and divine incarnate, is probably the nicest and most patient person ever. We had a really interesting conversation last night over dinner about what her union had been up to, what the unions in France were doing in general, and the fact that she proclaims to  be “très très gauche” and that the unions of the “bourgeoisie” don’t really do very much and don’t want to change anything (which got her mad and got me happy… hurrah!). I also spent most of the day (while toting around my ish) walking around the Latin Quarter and reading in the sun in the Jardin de Luxembourg. Which is absolutely gorgeous… there were lots of random people, a fountain, (perhaps slightly less awesome…) school groups, the most photogenic pigeon I’ve ever seen, sculptures (which I’ll have to find out more about), and lots of exotic types of plants including a gigantic palm tree.

Oh look… it’s 2. Off I jet.

Technically it’s Monday

So, we’ll see if I keep this up slash whether this will actually become what I hope it will be (i.e. a record of my unimportant musings and a potentially poor excuse for observations of the very important political goings on in Paris, etc.).  I’ll be working for l’Union Nationale des Étudiants de France (UNEF for you acronymophiles) in… some capacity.  Should be interesting to say the least.

Technically my flight is today.  This time tomorrow I’ll be somewhere over the ocean.  That’s pretty terrifying.  Now, to packing and figuring out why my hair is weirdly colored at the moment.