I'm afraid Bastille Day celebrations took a certain toll on the student body last night. Apparently the Métro was so crowded after the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower that it took forever for everyone to get back. But 8:30 classes come around just the same. Fortunately the coffee here is strong and, if you know where to look, cheap. A €1 espresso will set you right for at least 4 hours. My students survived the day; we are headed next to our program meeting at 5 and then to our new cafeteria destination, the FIAP Jean Monnet. FIAP is an international education complex kind of like Cité U. In fact, the EC Paris program has been housed there in the past but Dr. Guglielmi (program director) says Cité U. Is nicer and less expensive. The only drawback this year is that Cité U. has closed its "Resto-U" (
restaurant universitaire, i.e., cafeteria) for renovations. So for the next 3 weeks we are eating at FIAP a couple of nights a week and getting pizza, sandwiches, etc. delivered to Cité on the other nights. It's kind of a roundabout solution but it will work. I'll be interested to see the quality of food at FIAP. Cité U. was obviously cleaning out the pantry shelves by the end of last week and we found ourselves eating some slightly peculiar things: large quantities of buttered noodles, wax beans (made from actual wax?), frozen breaded fish fillets, etc. Of course, next year's crew will have none of these worries as the renovations will be done and they'll be able to eat at Cité the entire time. And I trust that the food there will be proportionately better as well.
In other news I am very excited that my "Dangerous Liaisons" class is going along with my harebrained scheme to add another novel to our syllabus. Last week at Shakespeare & Co. I bought Adam Biles's first novel, Grey Cats, and devoured it in 14 seconds. It is another expatriate-in-Paris story but with mysterious post-apocalyptic overtones. I was hoping they'd agree to read it so we could all go to Biles's launch party at S&Co. on the 26th and then discuss the novel at our last class meeting. They said they were interested so we are going for it. I'm also welcoming the chance to read the book again. One of the cover blurbs said you will want to start it again immediately after finishing, and that's totally true!
British Lit. class goes to the Jardin de Luxembourg tomorrow and I have cooked up a little assignment involving the garden, their cameras, and Shakespeare's sonnets. We'll see what results. I haven't yet spent any time there on this trip so I am looking forward to the visit as well as the class activity.
What else? Ah yes--Parisian Accomplishments of the Day:
-- Found post office, used self-service stamp machine, got stamp, posted letter.
-- Stared down a small van trying to cut me off at a crosswalk.
-- Got asked for directions. Not sure this is an accomplishment exactly, but it Just. Keeps. Happening.
Time to get ready for program meeting. À bientôt!
Have fun at the gardens! Caroline is reading No Fear Shakespeare for summer reading -- A Midsummer's Night Dream. Thought Shakespeare for summer reading for going into 8th grade a little heavy duty, but who am I? Very excited to get your card today, merci beaucoup!
ReplyDeleteThe cafeteria switch sounds like a bit of a hassle, but glad it will all be fixed for next year.
It's never too early to start on Shakespeare! That way when she gets to college she won't be intimidated as my students often are. "OMG, Shakespeare is harrrrrrd!"
DeleteSurely all the French were on holiday today, since the actual holiday fell on a Sunday? Does the American work ethic still have to apply even when you're in France?
ReplyDeleteIs there no decent neighbourhood resto where you can eat, or are they all closed for the summer?
Well, the American work ethic had to apply to us at least--the study abroad program requires a certain number of "contact hours" between instructor & students in order for them to receive course credit. How our program director managed to get the classrooms unlocked, I'll never know.
ReplyDeleteAs for the restaurant situation, the students (and by extension the faculty) get a certain number of meals per week as part of the program cost. So then the challenge is to actually feed the students cheaply, reliably, and repeatedly without going over the program's budget. Even the FIAP is almost 3x as expensive per meal as the cafeteria at Cité.