Mangez Les Religieuses!

Monday, September 24. I leave early today for school because I need to register for another two weeks of classes. On the way, I stop at the Tourist Information kiosque to pick up a free map of the Velib stations.

I love walking to the Cite metro. Here's what I see: Hotel de Ville, Notre Dame, La Conciergerie, la Marche aux Fleurs. It never gets old. I especially love the view of the Conciergerie from the other side of the river (La Rive Droite). Today it is overcast and windy, and with dark clouds behind it, the Conciergerie looks particularly foreboding. Easy to believe it used to be a prison. Between St Placide and the AF, it starts to sprinkle. I hustle the last couple of blocks and a few minutes later, it starts to pour (fortunately, I'm inside by then).

Adouane has left, and we have a new student, Ching (a young Asian woman) so we are still eight (Heiner, Ulle, Ching, Daniel, Shue, Zannah, Fabienna and me).

In class today, we read an article about "Piano Man." In 2005, a young man about 20 showed up on a beach in England, soaking wet, wearing a dark suit, with the labels torn out of his clothing. He didn't speak but according to reports, could play the piano. World-wide efforts to figure out who he was were to no avail. The article was very interesting, but ended with him staying in a psychiatric hospital in England. [This evening, I "google "Piano Man England", and it turns out that, four months later, he revealed his name and identity. He was from a small town in Germany, but still not clear what happened to him, whether he had some sort of mental breakdown or whether it was a hoax.] We had to write a summary of the article. Lots of new vocabulary and interesting figures of speech.

Later, we had an exercise in the absurd. Camille plays a CD of people holding a demonstration against Le Froid (the cold). Then we (working in groups of 2) have to come up with our own absurd "association" for or against something. So Fabienna and I decide to form a group "qui a pour but l'interdiction des calories. L'interet des citoyens est de manger tous ce que on veux, surtout les patisseries, sans grossir ou d'etre malade. Les manifestations se trouvent cette semaine a la station du Metro "Opera" (alors, amenez le chocolat et le cafe) et ensuite la semaine prochaine a la station Alma "Morceau" (alors, amenez un morceau d'un gateau que vous deseriz). Notre slogan: Mangez les religieuses sans pecher!" ("pecher" means "to sin.") In order to understand the subtleties of the humor here, you need to know that both "Opera" and "religieuses" (the French word for "nuns") are names of pastries and that the real name of the Metro station is Alma Marceau. Aren't we clever?!

Today the three hours of class just flies by. Unfortunately, this is the last week we will have Camille as our teacher. His "petite amie" is Colombian, she has just finished a master's program in Paris and is returning to Colombia, so he is going too. He hopes to have a job teaching at the Alliance Francaise in Colombia, but apparently there is a quota on hiring foreign teachers so it's not clear yet whether that can happen.

Here's something I've just learned about the AF class system. The basic levels are A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. But each level is further divided into four sections. Thus, our class is level B2-3. The "extensif" classes (3 hrs/day, 3 days/week) cover one section each month. (The "intensif" classes cover one section every two weeks.) So when I register today to continue, I am still in B2-3 until the end of September, then at the beginning of October, I will be in B2-4. Theoretically, in November, I would start C1-1. This is amazing, since some days I feel I should be back in B2-1 or B2-2!! It's the oral comprehension in particular that is hard.

After class, the sky is blue though with dark clouds still swirling around. I walk home after first fortifying myself with a chausson aux pommes. Through the Jardin du Luxembourg where I (finally!) am able to take some pictures of the flowers. I stop in Gilbert Joseph to buy a French-English dictionary and a copy of Le Misanthrope by Moliere. As I'm nearing home, the sky is very dramatic, a contrast of sun, blue sky and dark clouds, and I try to take a few pictures near the Hotel de Ville.

Stop into both little supermarkets to get yogurt and grapefruit juice (at one) and milk and muesli (at the other). Schlep everything up the 63 stairs. Finish off all the left-overs from our French "pique-nique" yesterday. Laundry. Homework. Blog. Bed. Pedometer: 8469.