im going to quickly go through what we actually did today before i give my perceptions ...
1.we went to the louvre and looked at paintings (wow so interesting - you probably know how much i hate art) -- but we looked at some pretty cool furniture by napolean
2. we went to the third arrondisement to a really seedy area and looked at some egyptian architecture by napolean bonaparte -- paris is divided into 20 areas and each is called an arrondisement - they area separate areas ...
perrrrrceptions
- the louvre was ok; the paintins were pretty boring; sylvie gave us too much detail ... so i spent my morning entertaining myself taking photos of italians and french clothing; i tried to figure out the generalisation of whether french are good dressers compared to the italians who sylvie said were gaudy; go to the photos and have a look - i found some pretty trashy french clothes hahaha; then when we went to thr third arrondisment it was really deborahak k trashy clothing --- my conclusion is that while the generalisation might be true in a really really vague way --- the clothing style depends a lot on wealth income etc ...
- the best part of the louvre was seeing all of napoleans house; naploean lived in the louvre which used to be half museum, half castle -- napolean was the 'emperor' of france after the french revolution from about 1795 onwards till about 1815 -- then he tried to invade all of europe and lost because he got a big head (sort of like john howard :P) ... and took on unconquerable
- then we went to the 3rd arrodissement to look at some random egyptian facades on buildings; apparently napolean used all this random propgranada to increase his power; he played upon roman images and images of ancient dynasties ie. the egyptians to infuse an idea in the french that he was infallible and the next great king ... the 3rd arrondisement is very dirty like china town, has a maccas and kfc (one of the very very very few in paris - hardly none) ... and very very very veyr cheap trashy clothe s(took some pics for u) ... it was funny at one stage because as sylvie was talking this drunk hobo came up to our group and started yelling 'FUCK OFF" and pointing his finger' and was agreessive for like ten minutes ... BUT it was really sad :( lots of prostitutes on corners ... and they were right up close; and it was upsetting that in our world which is apparently meant to be a great democracy, people seem to be forced to choose paths like prostitution... and these women were my grandmas age (60) and looked like such normal people; the fact that they looked like such normal people was worse because it made the idea of prostitution so much more immediatre and real ...and when i say 'forced' i understand that people choose to be prostitutes ... but i mean subtly forced by situations of poverty through which they become desparate ... :( ... i mean if they were living in awesome palaces they wouldnt be prostitutes
- about the french ... and what i said in my last blog; the french area not meant to wwork more than 35 hours a week and our teacher was saying that they have different attitudes to work - apparently they don't take it as seriously as they do; maybe that explains in part what i talked about last night ie. seem less rushed when serving us at stores
- after the 3rd arrondisement i went to the latin quartier with duncan, jen sarah and gemma ...it was really nice just having free time to ourselves and walking through paris and exploring and living the 'parisian life'- - duncans mum is french so he knows paris .... i brought les liasons dangereuse (the book that cruel intentions is based on) in french and really looking forward to it; we got 'cappacios' (well sarah and jen did) - the french version haha which was a long black with whiped cream (no milk) --- and they paid $10 australian dollars!!! we accidentally sat at a table instead of the bar - which meant our coffee prices were double hahaha
sorry about the fast typing trying to tell the day all quicklky -- its about 8ish now and must head off quickly for a lecture ... then sleep sleeep
dinners great we gettttt brie every night; the french chefs keep cooking fish for every evegetarian meal hahaha because a french vegetarian eats fish --- but they cook me lots of vegies and salad yumyum and i eat it with bread and cheese :)
love you all and miss you lots xxx
