My projection from last week appears to be correct, since I'm here writing to you another week on in this adventure. The highlights, day-by-day:
Tuesday:
Quiet day. Long, but overall quiet. The big event is trying to explain what a screwball comedy is in French ("You can just translate literally if you're having trouble...."-- tell me, my readers, can you explain 'screwball' in English, even?). The reason it came up is because we were reading in French class the director's note about the opera we went to Wednesday evening, and he mentioned that it was being presented in a modern context, in the vein of the American screwball comedies of the '30's. So the teacher naturally asked me to explain...
Oh, and this also marks my first time acting in nearly three years. It's more difficult when you don't know the lines. Just for future reference.
Wednesday:
Since the opera isn't until seven, Armand, Sandra, Coralie, Rachel and her boyfriend and I go to the movies. 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' subtitled in French. It's a movie I'm fond of for several reasons, not the least of which are the memories I have of the people I've seen it with (Amanda!), so it was nice to see it again. It was interesting to watch the subtitles; you really lose a lot of the nuance of language and dialect. Translating art is a difficult job, especially when it depends on wordplay... (I've heard that Terry Pratchett was translated into French; I want to find a copy of one of the translations just to see how they even tried to do it).
Anyway, after the movie we split up for dinner. I went to the Kebab with Armand and Simon (who was in town for the opera but didn't see the movie with us) and had a cheese panini and another one with Nutella for dessert, and everyone else went to McDonald's. It always makes me sadder for some reason to see people at McDonald's in France. I feel sometimes like they're getting the worst of American culture over here, all the pop culture stuff without the alternatives. Speaking in terms of brands, restaurants, music, books, everything. And it's a shame, because a lot of the things I'd like to introduce them to don't seem to have been translated or are difficult to find or both. Just have to make more of an effort, I guess. Translate them myself. Oh, god, I'm trying to imagine translating Geek Love into French now...it's weird enough to explain in English...(Ayden and Fanny will know what I mean).
So, after dinner was the opera, 'Il Viaggio a Reims' (The Voyage to Reims). I'm going to call this my first real experience at the opera, because the first time I went it was outside and raining, so we left after the first act. (It was 'Don Giovanni,' if you're curious). But this was spectacular. I never really appreciated the power of the human voice until that evening, with the soloists singing so loudly, without a microphone, that I could feel it under my skin as clearly as hear...it was incredible. And also quite funny. The screwball comedy update really suited the opera well, I think. Overall, a great evening. We got home at around ten-thirty and I was completely exhausted.
Thursday:
PE in the morning again, but this time it didn't rain, luckily. There was also Math, where my brain nearly exploded again, and English, where I gave a short presentation on the differences between the French and American education systems (it sounds so formal, but really it I was just comparing Bosque to Vaucanson and it spiraled from there). I am now the class's dictionary of Americanisms. Which is funny, because I use a good few Britishisms at home. Including the spellings, sometimes. On Thursdays, students do freewrites in English, so I do mine in French. The teacher gave me back mine from last week and said she couldn't believe I'd only had one and a half years of French, so I was overly pleased with myself for the rest of the day.
Friday:
We went to the movie theater in the morning to watch a series of short films. The first two were interesting, the last three were second-rate. The two that I liked were: 1) a documentary of Times Square, edited to create a high level of tension that really wasn't there (utterly fascinating), and 2) a surreal story about an abusive father and his relationship to his family, and how his daughter changes him (literally). The third actually was kind of interesting-- it was an animated feature of an interview between a girl and her mother about her mother's life in Russia, but I'd seen the animated interview in a different context and done much better, so it dampened things for me.
Apart from that, theater, where I got back my analysis of Genese No. 2 with more impressive comments (why, yes, I am a little vain, thanks for asking...), Math again, Italian (work with the subjunctive, which was interesting considering I don't even know the indicative), and English. This time in English we listened to an old Madonna song ('Papa Don't Preach'), and the teacher promised to lend me a Sherman Alexie book. And I was berated for asking for homework (I found it unfair that the rest of the class had an assignment for the weekend and I didn't-- it was a little workbook thing on vocabulary that would have been kind of pointless for me-- so I thought I'd even the score). I think English is rapidly becoming my favorite class, even if it does feel kind of strange to speak English in the middle of a day of French, with people I'm used to speaking in French to.
At home, Catherine taught me to make a little dessert with apples that I can't remember the name of. It was good, though. I'm enjoying my forays into French cuisine.
Saturday:
After a late lunch, I went into town with Maeva and a few of her friends. I found a Neil Gaiman book in town at the English-language bookstore (The Graveyard Book)-- it wasn't the one I was looking for (Coraline), but I got it anyway since I hadn't read it and ordered the one I was actually looking for. We did a tour of downtown, went into the city cathedral, which was gorgeous (including the crypt), and saw a group of women protesting something outside of the Fnac (I think it was the commercialization of Valentine's day-- no one there really seemed to understand it, though). I also found some chocolates for my parents and a couple of books of poetry by Apollinaire (again for myself), who we've been studying in French (the specific poem we just finished with is online here, in French and English: http://www.pierdelune.com/apollin4.htm). I'm really coming to love Apollinaire; I found the poem we read in French utterly beautiful (it was stuck in my head for days afterwards. Yes, I get poetry stuck in my head), and then my interest was piqued further by the fact that we have the same birthday. So now I have 'Caligrammes' and 'Poesies Libres,' and I've read the first few pages of the former and am enjoying it immensely.
Oh, and on this day I also received a package from Sophie (my aunt in Paris) with more photos and the text of a play by Moliere that we're going to see when I visit during winter break. So I have a lot of things to read. Pas trop depaysee, moi (not feeling too far from home).
We also went to a crepe party in the evening put on by Lea's tennis organization, which was nice.
Sunday:
A quiet day. I made some calls, did my homework, lounged, went on a few errands with Catherine. I made tortilla soup for them, but it really isn't the same when eaten with Gruyere and a baguette. There's still one more packet left, so we're going to search harder for tortillas, cilantro, and a different cheese, or just go without next time. If any of my readers have a suggestion for a substitute for cheddar that might be found in France, please let me know! I also attempted to make flan, but it burned and was rubbery because we didn't add enough milk. But we ate it anyway. Because we're cool like that.
And that's it. This week is the last before the two-week winter break. On Thursday there's a carnival at school where everyone is dressing up; I'll be sure to bring my camera. If you're curious, I'm going as the ultra-Francaise, complete with beret and baguette. That's the major event, but I'm sure there will be other things to recount by next Saturday.
Until next week! Ciao, and bisous a tous.
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