Song of the moment: Semi-Charmed Life
Dose of amusement: Down with August!
Foucault quote of the day: With these themes of surveillance, and especially in the schools, it seems that control over sexuality becomes inscribed in architecture. In the Military Schools, the very walls speak the struggle against homosexuality and masturbation.
Okay, so maybe I danced to that this morning, maybe I like Hairspray (but hate John Travolta), and maybe I have a crush on Zac Efron (only in hairspray, hs musical is too lame and unattractive, unless you're lauren :p)...they blured out the tongue.
Any who...on a brief technical note, everyone has been telling me that the pics don't work via email and that the email also doesn't have spacing between paras. I'm wretchedly sorry about all of this. I've been trying to fix it, even putting 2 spaces between paras but alas it won't work. (damn you must seriously hate me for that one yesterday if had no spacing!) I think your best bet is just to go to foucaultfosho.blogspot.com and then everything is there all beautiful and um space-y!
Life in my world has been pretty good thus far every day I make small strides which feel like miraculous communication breakthroughs. Last night I got the courage to introduce myself to one of the scholars. French people really don't say hi to you, my friend the chef who speaks english told me that if you want to be included in a conversation you just have to jump in. It took me a while to figure this out, then I realized brand new people at the table who didn't know I didn't speak french (because I hadn't uttered a word in their presence would never say hi to me) wouldn't say a thing to me. Once I started talking to him he was so nice and he speaks some english. I've also found that the harder the subject matter the more cognates there are. So we actually talked about politics, and how the stock market sucks right now in the U.S. it was great! Then after dinner he sang in italian! Since we're in an abby the acoustics are amazing. It was the most random thing, right after dinner the man just bursts out in song upon noticing an echo. Delightful!
Today the guy who was translating Foucault into Chinese, who I mentioned earlier left and I was actually sad to see him go. Over the past couple days we really talked a lot and even though it was really broken little by little we understood each other. I used the really crappy freetranslation.com to write him a goodbye/thank you letter and he was so happy he almost cried! It was so cute. And then I realized that Deleuze (a pretty sweet french philosopher) wrote about Foucault and visibility, kind of like i'm doing in my thesis but much more intensely, and it turns out he translated that book in chinese! So after a whole week of trying we had this huge break through and he understood exactly what I was talking about! We missed an hour of working at the library talking about the projects we're working on. I know that this might sound trivial but when you finally understand someone after a week of trying, about a subject we're both passionate about, it's great! It will never cease to amuse me how many cognates there are in hardcore philosophical vocab. So basically I can discuss Sartre's phenomenology with people, but we can't talk about what we ate for dinner.
The rest of the day was spent researching and then I ventured to the grocery store for dinner. Sadly, the grocery store is no longer my friend. I went at 5, when people had just gotten off of work and it was so crowded and more indimidating. Trying to figure out what things are is immensely immusing, but I have chicken, bread and brie down oh and diet coke with lime. Then on my way home I stopped at this cute little bakery and I got a strawberry tart. It was almost as much as my dinner but it was worth every penny, one of the best things I've eaten. Although not speaking french makes me terribly rude, I just have to point at what I want like a child. :p
Well I must be off because my French friend the chef is taking me out with his friends. He said they all want to meet someone who speaks english. I'm really excited. We're all going for dessert and then to the beach! Attached are pics of the abbey, the outside of where I'm studying! Au revoir!
