Normally when I don’t want to do something with someone I just pretend the text didn’t go through — one thing these phones are great for — or didn’t check facebook or something equally vague and transparent, but which precludes much confrontation.
BUT. In the efforts of breaking out of habit/routines I agreed to do something with a sort-of friend, but last minute and with time constrictions. Baby steps.
He had to babysit a friend’s dog, so we planned on taking it for a walk. As it turns out it wasn’t a dog. It was The Cutest puppy in the world, not quite 3 months old. And we ended up finding an amaaaaaazing park with flowers and trees and I suppose that’s a given but there was also a waterfall! And grass that you could sit on with no overly protective French guard to yell at you, and there’s a pretty big hill that you can walk up and look down at some big buildings. I can’t remember the name but it’s near metro Laumier on line 5, for anyone else who misses sittable grass.
Right so we walked around and the park was beautiful and wonderful and my sort-of friend became an actual friend! Success! And then as we were leaving it started to hail!!! Which was also really spectacular and I’m not entirely sure why, but that doesn’t matter so much as the fact that I wouldn’t’ve seen such marvels in my comfort zone.
I’ve been searching for grass to sit on for an unreasonable amount of time, kind of makes me wonder what other things I haven’t found (not just in Paris but in general) because I’ve been content with what I’d already found.
On the same token I think it’s more difficult to discover things when you’re looking for them. It seems a bit backwards to plan on discovering something, that’s not really discovery so much as… I don’t know. Recovery? Because you already knew about it, it’s not something new that you wouldn’t otherwise have had in your life. So hooray for discovery. And recovery too. I think just being active and engaged in the world around you on whatever level deserves some respect.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
les trucs
This weekend I took the same trip twice, and got just as lost both times. Getting great at getting lost. But it’s not really a feat at Clignancourt, the entire place is a giant maze. A very interesting, decorated maze but that almost makes it more difficult to find your way because there are so many things to distract you from noticing where you’re going. Funny because it happens in real life too.
There are just so many things in Paris. I think general world-opinion (if that exists) holds the States as the most materialistic, consumerist society and maybe we do use more than we ought to and you can buy nearly anything you can dream up, but it’s not shoved in your face the way it is in Paris. Alright so a flea market is a skewed sample and maybe so is living in the 14th but it still seems that stuff is such a large part of life here. There’s good stuff; interesting stuff and even really beautiful stuff sometimes but you would never even know minimalism existed if you never left Paris.
Even the buildings, not institutes and churches I mean (though they are certainly no exception) but supermarkets and apartment buildings have decorated edges and stone faces rising off them and those fancy curly iron fences. It’s a bit overwhelming.
It’s also very lovely and obviously enticing as Paris is one of the largest tourist destinations in the world, but what does that say about us then? That the Good Life is buying more things and eating nice meals and deserts and seeing these fancy buildings (also shoved in your face, thanks Haussman) Paris is all about fashion and beauty and food … food even feeds the materialist/consumerist mentality. We certainly don’t need the quantity or deliiiciousness of French cuisine.
I mean I love it too, and I love Paris in general, I’m not saying this is a terrible place by any means I just wonder if maybe I love the wrong things? I can’t decide. Or maybe it’s not entirely wrong to be materialistic and like things and food if you can really appreciate them and their beauty, and not take it just to take it? But as Musee Carnavalet shows the real stories are told through the Stuff. So I guess this just means that the generations after us will have lots of stories to tell.
There are just so many things in Paris. I think general world-opinion (if that exists) holds the States as the most materialistic, consumerist society and maybe we do use more than we ought to and you can buy nearly anything you can dream up, but it’s not shoved in your face the way it is in Paris. Alright so a flea market is a skewed sample and maybe so is living in the 14th but it still seems that stuff is such a large part of life here. There’s good stuff; interesting stuff and even really beautiful stuff sometimes but you would never even know minimalism existed if you never left Paris.
Even the buildings, not institutes and churches I mean (though they are certainly no exception) but supermarkets and apartment buildings have decorated edges and stone faces rising off them and those fancy curly iron fences. It’s a bit overwhelming.
It’s also very lovely and obviously enticing as Paris is one of the largest tourist destinations in the world, but what does that say about us then? That the Good Life is buying more things and eating nice meals and deserts and seeing these fancy buildings (also shoved in your face, thanks Haussman) Paris is all about fashion and beauty and food … food even feeds the materialist/consumerist mentality. We certainly don’t need the quantity or deliiiciousness of French cuisine.
I mean I love it too, and I love Paris in general, I’m not saying this is a terrible place by any means I just wonder if maybe I love the wrong things? I can’t decide. Or maybe it’s not entirely wrong to be materialistic and like things and food if you can really appreciate them and their beauty, and not take it just to take it? But as Musee Carnavalet shows the real stories are told through the Stuff. So I guess this just means that the generations after us will have lots of stories to tell.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Derive
This entire past weekend was one giant derive. We went to Amsterdam, with no map and not much money which doesn’t get you terribly far in this age. We stayed outside Amsterdam in a tiny town in the middle of the woods which funnily enough was more comforting than the city, though it was bright and colorful and full of people all the time.
There is something nicely familiar about nature. Even when you’re lost, the birds sound the same and the trees are still trees but in Amsterdam the signs are in Dutch and streets aren’t where they were two hours ago and it’s all very complicated. Nature is much simpler, easier to deal with.
In cities, you definitely have to pay more attention and be more alert but it only helps so much when you’ve got a foreign lens. By simple virtue of being in an unknown city we had stepped out of our comfort zones and I suppose began deriving right then. It wasn’t so hard to get lost.
I suppose the hard part comes in keeping your eyes open and actually absorbing and engaging yourself in everything you’re seeing and are uncomfortable with. It’s easy to walk through the red-light district and say Well, that’s something now isn’t it. But to actually walk through those alleys (lit by red lights even) and to see the nearly naked women standing in the windows winking and waving, seducing as a business, that’s an entirely different matter. This is how they live. It’s not just a show for tourists, not a cinematic exaggeration. I think that’s the part that shocked me most about Amsterdam — how similar to stereotypes it actually is.
I remember debating about legalization of prostitution and marijuana in government classes in high school and I honestly could not understand what the problem was, free choice and all that. But actually going to Amsterdam puts things in an entirely different light. Not that my opinions have changed but maybe have just gotten a bit more comprehensive. Amsterdam is a well-run society, it’s not some sort of amoral hell hole. It’s really very lovely. But you can’t understand prostitution from a text book or statistics. This extended derive I think made me more able to look at issues of contention, prostitution just being one, with a curious, more human perspective, rather than a textbook Free Choice Because Duh perspective. Being lost and new to a place brings back that childlike simplicity of looking at things to understand them, without preconceptions of any kind. To observe and interpret what’s actually there, not what you want to see or think you ought to see; to have that blank newness and openmindedness I think allows you to understand more than going thinking you're all sorts of knowledgable, because you probably aren't anyway.
There is something nicely familiar about nature. Even when you’re lost, the birds sound the same and the trees are still trees but in Amsterdam the signs are in Dutch and streets aren’t where they were two hours ago and it’s all very complicated. Nature is much simpler, easier to deal with.
In cities, you definitely have to pay more attention and be more alert but it only helps so much when you’ve got a foreign lens. By simple virtue of being in an unknown city we had stepped out of our comfort zones and I suppose began deriving right then. It wasn’t so hard to get lost.
I suppose the hard part comes in keeping your eyes open and actually absorbing and engaging yourself in everything you’re seeing and are uncomfortable with. It’s easy to walk through the red-light district and say Well, that’s something now isn’t it. But to actually walk through those alleys (lit by red lights even) and to see the nearly naked women standing in the windows winking and waving, seducing as a business, that’s an entirely different matter. This is how they live. It’s not just a show for tourists, not a cinematic exaggeration. I think that’s the part that shocked me most about Amsterdam — how similar to stereotypes it actually is.
I remember debating about legalization of prostitution and marijuana in government classes in high school and I honestly could not understand what the problem was, free choice and all that. But actually going to Amsterdam puts things in an entirely different light. Not that my opinions have changed but maybe have just gotten a bit more comprehensive. Amsterdam is a well-run society, it’s not some sort of amoral hell hole. It’s really very lovely. But you can’t understand prostitution from a text book or statistics. This extended derive I think made me more able to look at issues of contention, prostitution just being one, with a curious, more human perspective, rather than a textbook Free Choice Because Duh perspective. Being lost and new to a place brings back that childlike simplicity of looking at things to understand them, without preconceptions of any kind. To observe and interpret what’s actually there, not what you want to see or think you ought to see; to have that blank newness and openmindedness I think allows you to understand more than going thinking you're all sorts of knowledgable, because you probably aren't anyway.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Daily Routine
So far in Paris my routine hasn’t included anything terribly French or exciting, but I guess that’s the nature of routine. So. I usually get up an hour ish before class to eat and finish homework, walk to the Catho. I pass a carousal everyday. That’s sort of interesting.
And then I usually get hungry because my family eats bread all the time, and bread just doesn’t really do it for me. I think the slices are smaller here, too. Bought some cereal the other day though so that part of the routine’s changed.
Right so then I have French, 10-1 every day except Mondays during which time I do the things I didn’t get done during the weekend, and then art history. Afternoons don’t really follow any sort of pattern, except that they usually include a lot of walking and being outside which is much more enjoyable these days than it has been.
We eat dinner at 7.30 which is invariably delicious, no matter what it is. I don’t know if it’s because I actually do like all food or because Emmanuelle’s a great cook but I always like dinner. In the evenings we have our series, we always watch Plus Belle La Vie which I don’t think I’d be able to follow even in English, but someone was electrocuted last week which I understood well enough. Aurelien and Yan (I have no idea how to spell that name but that’s how it’s pronounced) like to watch House and The Mentalist which I watch occasionally with them, but I am not such a fan of language-dubbing. I think House quite deserves his American accent. And one of the nurses’ French voice just doesn’t match up with her personality which always bothers me. That is pretty routine as well.
Then there’s homework. And bed. Occasionally I’ll a walk outside, I love Paris at night… but I also hate being cold. Hence the occasionality. It'll worm its way into my routine though as it gets warmer, I think.
My routine changed a bit this week because I was fasting with my co-locataire Nahaal (she is Bahai’i) so we had to get up before sunrise to have breakfast which was actually very nice and I had lots of extra time, love that feeling, and but then we went to Amsterdam and waking up before sunrise and not eating until after sunset just didn’t happen. And coming back into Paris and going to bed at 7 am wasn’t conducive to fasting either. Bummer. Back to the old routine.
And then I usually get hungry because my family eats bread all the time, and bread just doesn’t really do it for me. I think the slices are smaller here, too. Bought some cereal the other day though so that part of the routine’s changed.
Right so then I have French, 10-1 every day except Mondays during which time I do the things I didn’t get done during the weekend, and then art history. Afternoons don’t really follow any sort of pattern, except that they usually include a lot of walking and being outside which is much more enjoyable these days than it has been.
We eat dinner at 7.30 which is invariably delicious, no matter what it is. I don’t know if it’s because I actually do like all food or because Emmanuelle’s a great cook but I always like dinner. In the evenings we have our series, we always watch Plus Belle La Vie which I don’t think I’d be able to follow even in English, but someone was electrocuted last week which I understood well enough. Aurelien and Yan (I have no idea how to spell that name but that’s how it’s pronounced) like to watch House and The Mentalist which I watch occasionally with them, but I am not such a fan of language-dubbing. I think House quite deserves his American accent. And one of the nurses’ French voice just doesn’t match up with her personality which always bothers me. That is pretty routine as well.
Then there’s homework. And bed. Occasionally I’ll a walk outside, I love Paris at night… but I also hate being cold. Hence the occasionality. It'll worm its way into my routine though as it gets warmer, I think.
My routine changed a bit this week because I was fasting with my co-locataire Nahaal (she is Bahai’i) so we had to get up before sunrise to have breakfast which was actually very nice and I had lots of extra time, love that feeling, and but then we went to Amsterdam and waking up before sunrise and not eating until after sunset just didn’t happen. And coming back into Paris and going to bed at 7 am wasn’t conducive to fasting either. Bummer. Back to the old routine.
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