Still obsessed with these mushrooms— they are perfect for my pasta.
The most delicious hazelnut, pear and chocolate chip tart in the world will surely get me through my exam.
As I'm slowly awakening from the pleasant daze of the weekend, I'm realizing that this is my last week of French grammar boot camp (huzzah!). Although in ways I'll certainly miss the course, I can't wait to get back to a real university schedule, where I choose my courses to take up a minimum amount of time and then complain vehemently about them, only to not-so-secretly adore their bookish appeal. It's how I get off.
My French cinema class started early today— actually, it was supposed to start even earlier, but that is another story— and I discovered that academic pretension is even more fun when it's in French. Students kept leaving in the middle of lecture, coming back with tiny cafés and staring inquisitively around the room. That didn't stop them from taking full advantage of our 15-minute recess later in the session. Our professor is absolutely wonderful, by the way. I like her because she's snide in front of the class, but sweet and charming one-on-one. She also throws around the word "aesthetic" a lot. This is a good sign for me, because if I can't understand a film, at least I can write about how pretty it is.*
As a general cultural observation, I've discovered that this attitude is becoming one of my favorite things about the French. They aren't at all afraid to be total assholes in public, because making a scene or being aggressive is how they achieve what they want. But this shouldn't be mistaken for their actual personalities— not at all. For my part, I tend to bottle up my rage, thinking it's better to be polite when someone interrupts me or cuts in line, while I am inwardly plotting my sweet, sweet revenge. I think their way might be healthier, or at least more direct and honest.
Because this is my last week of practicum, I won't have much time for exploring. I will mostly be staying in and pretending to study, or alternatively, going to a café, ordering pastries and actually (kind of) working. Either way, I think there is a lot of dessert and pasta chez moi in my future.
* This is what I always end up writing about at Columbia anyway.
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