joyeux noël

Today was sad in more ways than one, but not always the bad kind of sad.

I got up at eight this morning so that I could get started with my studying before class. I made myself a bowl of cereal and my new favorite sugary coffee and was at my desk by 8:30. I started off by finishing my reading for pop (the last one!) before finishing my French composition. Great start. Next up was studied the vocab for French. I then decided to edit my pop paper. It's still coming along. Some of the concepts aren't fully formed yet. I have thoughts in place but some of them are contradictory or only occur doing one song. Analyzing a whole album is hard.

I was really struggling over my pop paper, and by the time I looked at the clock, it was almost 12. I had to leave for my histories excursion at one and I still had a ton of studying to do for French. I knew it would be another long day for me. I washed my dishes because my room was going to be cleaned today. I made myself a peanut butter and honey for lunch and then organized my apartment so that everything could be cleaned. I then turned to doing my makeup. I was horrified to find out that I've broken out everywhere. For some reason it really depressed me. I quickly finished my makeup so I wouldn't have to look at my face anymore and then got dressed. It was only 12:30 so I used my last half an hour to start studying for French.

I left for the excursion at one o'clock on the noise. We were going to the Judaism museum today. I remembered seeing signs for it a long time ago when I went on that excursion through Le Marais (remember I wound up on rosiers street and in the Jewish quartier?). I still wrote down instructions, but they consisted of "go past Place des Vosges, keep going past the front entrance of Carnavalet, turn right on Temple Street". I started walking down Daumesnil and immediately was in a bad mood. It was wet outside and I knew it would be raining soon. It wasn't even the rain that upset me. It was the Christmas lights that had gone up on the street. I had seen a crew of men putting up these large, modern balls of lights over the shops along the viaduct (I should really take a picture of them for you) and I remember being really excited. Seeing them now, in freaking November, right before Thanksgiving really upset me. It was a reminder that I'm missing Christmas and I'm not home for the holidays like everyone else. It was really sad. The lights were pretty, though.

I kept walking to the Bastille and stumbled upon a mini Christmas tree farm set up on the sidewalk. Great. Another reminder of Christmas. I continued my journey into Le Marais. The street was lined with lit stars and the shops were covered in Christmas decorations. One shop even had a stuffed lion in the window with snow everywhere. They must be kidding. Why is France plotting against me?! The decorations were beautiful, but I just couldn't shake the feeling of being sad. Maybe I'll appreciate them next week when it's actually December...or start crying because I'm about to be shipped back to the states.

As I was walking along, I saw Morgan and two other girls from my histories class in front of me. They stopped at a crosswalk and it slowed them down just enough for me to catch up to them a few feet later. I joined into the conversation without announcing my presence first and really freaked them out. The museum was fairly easy to find and Morgan and I went in while the other two girls went to find lunch. There's a security checkpoint before you get into the museum and it's even more complicated than the one for the Louvre or the freaking Palais Royal for Christ's sake. This one included the usual belt for bags and also had a double set of doors. You put your bag on the belt and then, one by one, go into the doorway. You had to step into a small area next to the second door to get scanned. If you pass then you open the door and leave. Morgan and I put our stuff on the door and then the man told us to enter. Morgan exited and he told me that I had to go back out. I knew I was in trouble.

I went back into the room and went into the small section. All of this was caused by a series of gestures, eye rolls, and grunts by the security officer. Then there were gestures to tell me that I hadn't been approved. He then spotted my necklace and told me that my necklace was probably why I wasn't approved. I took my necklace and scarf off and put it on the ledge. I went into the small space again and was once again not cleared. Now he came to the door in front of me and asked what else it would be. I had on my heavy boots with tons of metal on them so I suggested those first. He agreed, but I still wasn't approved. Next suggestion was for me to go back out and put my jacket on the scanner. My jacket has no metal on it so I was surprised, but was anxious to comply. That seemed to do the trip. Who knew wool could be such a problem.

Morgan and I then went into the courtyard and chatted for awhile before Christina came over. We talked with her for a bit and then other students joined and we talked to them about hot wine, Christmas outfits, and turkeys for Thanksgiving before class started.

The Judaism museum is set in a former palace like others found in Le Marais. The building is meant as a dedication to the people who lived in the building before being deported during WWII. The point of the museum is to give an identity to the Jewish people that is not defined by their Judaism but by the whatever culture they have assimilated into. The museum, interestingly, stops at 1939 as to not address the Holocaust at all. The French don't even use the word Holocaust, but refer to it as the disaster. The creators of the museum insist that the Holocaust is a small blip in the history of Judaism and shouldn't overtake the identity of the Jewish people.

The museum starts off with dedications to the inhabitants of the building. Most were immigrants to France because France had an open border policy before WWII. The dedications were actually their census documents blown up. The French are so used to paperwork that they didn't even question why there was a census in 1940. They didn't think anything bad would happen to them. The 1940 census was also the first, and last, census to ask for religion. After this sad welcome, we moved upstairs to talk about Jewish identity. The museum constructs Jewish people as easily able to assimilate into whatever culture they are in, thus there is nothing essential to being Jewish besides maintaining Jewish cultural and social practices.

This introduction led into a discussion of self-identification and other people defining your identity for you. There has actually been a long history of Jewish people in France, thus the history of France is that of Judaism. The museum had a lot of problems actually getting artifacts from other Parisian museums (such as the Cluny museum and the Pompidou center). The Cluny museum stated that, if they gave up their Jewish collection, then the museum would only portray the history of the Christian Middle Ages. The Pompidou center insists that Jewish artists don't always represent their Judaism in their art, thus they shouldn't hand over the works of Jewish artists.

We then saw more objects that portray the assimilation of Jews into other cultures and objects that showed that Jewish people aren't always poor but are from all sects of society. We also saw some contemporary art. While we were looking at wooden models of synagogues in Eastern Europe, I spotted a work of art on the wall and instantly thought "is that a Chagall?". We had talked about him during our discussion of the Pompidou center giving over it's collection so his name was fresh in my mind. To my surprise, it was a Chagall. Go me. While we're talking about art, the museum has some really great art pieces ranging from every decade. Even if you're not into religious art, the collection is worth seeing.

Next was a discussion of North African and Middle Eastern Jews and their cultural divide from European Jews. Christina then made us jam into a corner to illustrate the liberation Jews felt when given full French citizenship. We talked about the Dreyfus affair and modern anti-Semitism. The commander of the École Militaire refused a statue of Dreyfus recently because he didn't want the memory of the affair lingering around. Next was a really sad discussion. The whole class Christina emphasized how easily Jews assimilate into other cultures. Even when the WWII was breaking out, the Jews in France didn't leave. Their identity was so wrapped up in being French that they insisted nothing would happen to them; the French government wouldn't deport them. We all know what happened. It was so sad. Not that their French identity was sad, but that their faith in the French government was betrayed. Their homeland betrayed them. I knew the museum would be sad.

Next up was an even sadder discussion. There's an exhibit on the outside of the museum that Christina wasn't to talk about but was hidden from view due to another exhibit. The piece is made of paper plaques that have been glued to the wall of the museum. The plaques are dedicated to the people who lived in the building. The paper is being slowly eroded away as was planned for in the artist's design. The point of the work is to say that, if we don't build monuments, then we are bound to forget history. The memory of the people murdered, or the people that participated in any historical event, will be forgotten if we don't record it. The last of the WWI veterans of died; they can no longer tell us their story. It's our duty to protect their memory and keep history alive.

Christina said that she was feeling emotional while explaining the last piece to us so she showed us her favorite piece in the museum to cheer us up. Then we were done.

I walked to school for my pop class instead of taking the metro with Molly and Nico. The only metro stop near the museum only has line 11. I'm pretty sure that there is no connection to the line 11 anywhere near where I live. Besides, why waste a metro ticket when it's only half an hour walk. While walking to class, it started to rain. Oh. no. I put up my umbrella and rushed inside. I wasn't surprised to see Molly and Nico sitting on the couch, but they were an unexpected amount of surprised to hear that I'd walked there in about the same amount of time that it took them to take the metro. In the battle of man verses machine, woman won.

Pop was weird today. The internet wasn't working and Mindy was in a weird, overly giggly, mood. This class talked about French museum that is made outside of France (Africa and Québéc to be precise). Mindy was so scattered that it felt as if nothing was getting done during class. Some of the songs we barely even talked about. However, I'm still singing "wine and bubble" in my head. Google it. At the end of class I made a comment about said song. The artist sings in both French and English during the song and I asked why. French artists should sing in French. Period. It turns out that singing in English, and anything American in fact, is considered sexy in Paris. Weirdos. Also, singing in English allows for him to further penetrate the totally English genre of pop.

I came home after class and was dreading the amount of work I had to do. I made myself some dinner (the last of my beans with the rest of the usual fixings) and proceeded to study for French. I had yet to receive the email from my professor about what would be on the quiz tomorrow so I just continued continued with my studying as usual. I then studied what I thought the dictation would be and finished the rest of my French studying. I decided to take my shower and was surprised that it was only 6:40. I checked my email, and lo and behold, the email from my professor arrived while I was online. I'm my usual amount of freaked out, especially since I can't remember the names of all of the parts of the body, but decided to take my shower anyway to calm down.

I went back to my desk after my shower and studied the dictation four times. Did you know that the life expectance of France is 81,1 years (4th in the world) while the United States ranks 50th in life expectancy? The powers of Free healthcare. Next up was studying the parts of the body. Hopefully I can remember la poitrine and la cheville tomorrow (maybe la coude won't be on the test). Next up was some relaxation time over the new episode of People's Court and some cookies. Then I worked on my histories monument analysis before writing to you.

I have 33 minutes until bed. I'm exhausted, but on the bright side: tomorrow is turkey day!! I'm so excited for this holiday. I'm celebrating by only working on my monument analysis paper before cooking my feast. I might make my special Thanksgiving cocktail a little early this year....