holy smokes!: July 2006 Archives

<-- my hubby has some photos to post.  phewie.

so how does jeorg spend another hot day in paris?  well, let me tell you.  she drags her students to some of the finer chocolate establishments in paris and makes them buy chocolates, and then eat, i am sorry, eat does not adequately express this... hmmm, shall i say gobble... yes,  and then gobble them up in the tuileries.

let me just say a few things about eating fine chocolates.  damn.  damn.  damn.  yes.  i cursed.  the smell in the stores was divine.  the sound.  divine.  the sights.  divine.  all of it was basically a moment in which we transcended the heavens and talked to god through chocolate.  chocolate, i have decided is the only mediator between us mere humans and god.

we each died a little today while eating those chocolates.  but i think it was worth it.

<--  thine photo-eth go-eth here-eth.

even in paris.  yes.  even in paris i am probably the most boring person you will meet.  as exciting as this is, i am no ms.glaze living out my kitchen fantasies.  no, no, no.  i lead a rather mundane life while abroad, or a broad since both are true.  although, i have never been a man even though the name is jeorg.

i have a routine here.  it involves grading and drinking lots of coffee.  thinking of those shoes that thomas visited with me twice over in les halles that are just so adorable and they had my size and i loves them ever so much.  i digress.  i spend my time going to the market, or walking, or reading.  really, i do exactly what i would do if i were at home in ky, but instead, in paris.

i even avoid grading journals in the exact same way.  i choose to play a game or read and in this case, post about my banal life in paris.

today, i broke from tradition and went to the movies by myself.  something i loathe doing.  i love watching movies at home, even by myself, but the cinema is meant to be shared with someone.  i gots nobody here to love me since my man (say it with a high pitch) went away.  it sounds like a blues song, don't it.

but i saw the squid and the whale and really appreciated the messed up qualities portrayed by all the people in the movie.  it was gritty, it was real, it was quirky, it was dark, it was funny in a dirty way, and it made me feel as though it said something meaningful.  it will make you want to talk about it with others and definitely lends itself to being discussed.  please, go see this film or rent it if it is out on dvd.

i do not recommend this film if you don't like going to the movies alone.  even in paris.

if someone had listened to thomas and me at dinner this evening, they would have heard the following statements:

you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him dance in it.

have you noticed that nuts dry out your mouth?

have you ever felt drunk on food?

we should be in commercials.

why must i work?  i am asking this, not as a rhetorical question, but as a serious question.this summer i have worked very hard.  now granted, i get to be in france while i do it and there is coffee and there is food and there are sales that the gods themselves worship, but work?  it interferes with my life.  it interferes with what i want to do.

i know i have it cushy and that i shouldn't complain.  but man, sometimes, the work is a bit much.  part of it is that i am having to deal with a french system, that i understand and get.  i can totally see the humor in the bureaucracy- it isn't like it doesn't exist in the states. 

but there are moments where i would just love to get to the sncf (train place) and not have to wait in line for 2 hours to buy my group tickets which can't be purchased online.  or not have to fill out a police report over the course of three hours (this i shouldn't complain about because i have actually waited five in the states before). 

work is now consoling students, letting them know that they can argue back, that it is not okay to be pushed around, to see beyond the stereotypes, to stop applying the american perspective onto the french, to show them that that church over there, well, it is more than just a photo opportunity.  all of these things add up to no small feat and i ask myself, why again am i not independently wealthy and why can't i just travel over here and do what i want? 

ah yes.  i am not paris hilton.