assorted 8th week events

Tuesday was nowhere near a Supergreve. In fact, thing were running pretty smoothly. I think they're still fucked up on other lines, but the 11, mine, was fine, as the 14, the other one I need, is also always golden because it's automated.

This would have annoyed me, since I headed out like an hour or more before our rendezvous for the field trip we were taking to the Musee Carnavalet, except that I met some other people from my group at the train station and they invited me to brunch with them, so I had something to do (and something delicious to eat).

We went to this restaurant right by the museum called Breakfast in America. It was this little hole-in-the-wall, but boy was it delightful. Its conceit is that it's "just like" (well, almost) an American diner. Our waitress, this nice young woman, spoke perfect American English (I assume she was American), and the menu was in English and had delicious American things on it, many of which are quite hard to find here. The table had ketchup waiting on it, and it was all just very delightful. I got myself a breakfast burrito and home fries. Delight. They even made us tip. I have never felt so good about paying extra money.

Anyway, the museum was pretty cool. It was a Revolutionary museum, so there were a lot of paintings from the time of the revolution and little ivory-carved guillotines and models of the Bastille and shit. We got another typically amazing tour from Steve Sawyer, and then were released. Unfortunately, I still had to go to the center for a correction session, but since that wasn't until 5:15 (which made it doubly a nuisance), I went home and corrected my paper before going to the center.

The correction was nice. This lady is much better and actually corrects grammar instead of doing a half-assed job, then whining about the paper's structure as a whole, which is not the corrector's sphere. I also got to have fun being a suck-up, because I'm like the only person who wrote this 4th paper, since it was due during break. Apparently a lot of people still haven't turned something in. I hate to say it, but I hope it shows in their grades. I mean, it's kind of irritating actually doing all the work and then ending up doing about as well as anyone else anyway.

Anyway, following that, I went to see a movie in the Latin Quarter, but got the theater wrong and so did not see the movie, but did make a big ass out of myself at the wrong theater. Also, I burned my mouth and tongue wolfing down a kebab sandwich beforehand, rushing to the movie that wasn't there. Stupid fresh-off-the-spitted-ness.

It was better anyway, though, as I could study for my test the next day.

The Next Day

Loooooong day. Class, then grammar class, then 3-hour midterm. Ugh. The annoying part was the "correct these paragraphs" section. I always hate stuff like that, because you have no idea how much to correct. I mean, I could sit there all day changing shit around. Blugh. Nevertheless, getting out, I felt that comforting and familiar post-scary-test liberation, and that was good.

What was not good was that this joy I felt led me to basically not do any of my homework. Actually, I guess it wasn't that bad. But I had less of an idea what was going on in class today. (Good lord, was that test only yesterday?!)

Anyway, class today was class, and then we were out of school, which was nice. I like getting out at 12:30. There was a little reception in the library with wine and dessert and hors d'oeuvres. It was tasty, though basically consisted of all the hors d'oeuvres we were given at the reception on the first day, so it was a bit of an acid flashback. I suppose it always is, when you ruminate on how periods of meeting new people start out. As much as you want to try to stop it and have things follow some sort of more orderly order, it nevertheless always proceeds in the same, chaotic fashion: you go around introducing yourself to everyone, make some friends and hang out with random people, and then after a few weeks, everything completely turns on its head, and the people you were seeing in the first few weeks all form their own groups and you end up with a completely new set of friends and look at the people you were hanging out with originally and can't believe you were spending time with them. I kind of hate the predictability of this, but it's bizarre how well it holds fast. That was something annoying about the trip, too: it was basically like 1st year all over again: new school, new friends, new city (well, not completely the first time, but this time). And now that I'm sick of half the people here, it's funny to look back on those days when we were all friends.

Anyway, digression. To digress again, I think perhaps the reason I'm feeling a little alienated from all these people is the smallness of the group. I mean, it's basically just been about 22 people for the last 8 weeks; I think I'm kind of getting cabin fever. Nevertheless, some gems have come out of the woodwork, so it's not so bad. Just a thought.

Anyway, following that, I headed home and promptly took a nap, because, with a 4-hour opera ahead of me this evening, I knew I would need to be well-rested.

Anyway, the nap was insanely refreshing, and the subsequent opera was amazing. The mise-en-scene was a little dry because there were no real special effects because all the fucking technicians were striking (let's do a quick count here of who is striking in France right now: transit workers, students, fucking theater tech crews...basically, it appears, everyone but me...), but it was still amazing just the same. The set design was typically spectacular, and was lit through this gaping door in a great noirish way. The play also included male frontal nudity, so it earned lots of bonus points there, too.

Anyway, now I am back, and finishing some delicious, buttery pasta I just cooked. I think I'm going to finish up Pasolini's Oedipus Rex, then head to bed. All we have tomorrow is a field trip with Steve Sawyer, so I can sleep in a little, though I don't think I will as much as I could; I hear there's good produce markets in Belleville on Fridays, so I'd like to check one of those out beforehand.