"The more you drink the better your studying will go"

Song of the moment: Wade in the Water- Eva Cassidy. I'd like to dedicate that one to my lindy partners in crime Marina and Tom. It's fitting cause it was my first day in the abbey and it sure was baptism by fire.
Dose of amusement: this comes recommended by my friend Henry. enjoy.
Foucault quote of the day: "The prison, that darkest region in the apparatus of justice, is the place where the power to punish, which no longer dares to manifest itself openly, silently organizes a field of objectivity in which punishment will be able to function openly as treatment and the sentence can be inscribed among the discourses of knowledge."

I woke up this morning with a bit of a mental hang over, you know that feeling when you awake and wonder if you really hooked up with that guy last night. Induced by jet lag, I wondered was I really in France? Indeed, I am, yesterday wasn’t a dream. After a pump up dance in my room I felt ready to meet the scholars.

I was the first person at breakfast and one of the chefs greeted me and then started talking to me excitedly. I told her my standard line “I’m sorry but I don’t speak French.” She laughs at me as if I was kidding and asks me to follow her upstairs. Confused, I followed. She introduced me to the chef and when she told him that I told her I didn’t speak English he went off on a rant which seemed to say “they sent us a german?” I was so confused, I just wanted to eat breakfast. Fortunately, they grabbed a chef who appeared to be my age, and not too bad looking, who had just gotten back from studying a year in America. He explained that she thought I was hired help, who was working at lunch, and apologized. After that slight ordeal, I was glad to have gotten though eating breakfast in silence. The only other scholar who came said bonjour and left me to my book, which I was quite happy about.

Next hurdle of the day was the library. It was actually quite a pleasant surprise. Two of the librarians speak English and the other speaks Spanish! I was so happy I could have cried. I had a very funny conversation with the woman in Spanish who said she didn’t blame me for not learning French because Spanish was definitely a better choice. :p The library itself is also quite beautiful! Here are some pictures of it online. I didn’t want to be the silly American girl taking pictures while everyone was studying. The archives are all in a beautifully renovated Abbey. It’s the most gorgeous thing I’ve seen. There are three floors of stacks and the floors are glass, so you see directly below you. Each shelf has a row of rope lights almost. It looks like it’s straight out of a movie. I spent all day there giddy like a little school girl listening to audio tapes and reading, all in English. I think it will take me a few days yet to muster up the courage to tackle the French. I’ve learned that Foucault is almost as difficult to understand as his handwriting. The handwriting wins out though cause it’s in French.

Lunch was also quite the experience. It turns out that the Abbey hosts conference luncheons. I was surrounded by 60 excited francophones, who, inspired by hunger I suppose, taught me there is no directionality in a buffet line apparently. If you wanted food you just had to bully your way in and grab it, and not walk down the line in order. I gave in after trying to go in a line from one end and then from the other. Politeness and order are overrated any way, so no complaint. I’ve also found that wine and coffee are like water in France. Served and drank at every meal. The wine was really good and a fellow scholar, sitting at the designated scholars table with me, kept trying to fill my glass. He kept insisting and finally said in broken English “the more you drink the better your studying will go, I have always found that.” Amen my friend amen.

The food was phenomenal, even though I was unsure of what half of it was, and by the end I was so full I thought I might be sick. Otherwise the lunch was sad because I sat in silence while the 3 other visiting scholars talked excitedly in French. They’d always look to me for my agreement and I only smiled. It’s sad they all think I’m foolish. It’s perhaps even sadder they might be right. Honestly though, it’s tragic to be sitting with some of the most brilliant Foucault scholars and not be able to speak a word. One scholar who can understand English but can’t speak it had a funny conversation with me at lunch in which he spoke to me in French and I responded in English. I actually wasn’t doing too badly, surprisingly. Because the subject matter is pretty basic, I was able to understand. It turns out that he is from Thailand but has been living in France for the past 15 years. He translated Deleuze and now Foucault into Chinese, the first person to make the works accessible to those who speak Chinese. Amazing! The woman I mentioned yesterday, who works here told me not to feel bad because several scholars come who can’t speak French and that I just came on a down time, when there happens to not be anyone. Just my luck.

I did more studying in the afternoon followed by exploring around the grounds of the abbey and I managed to get into a beautiful garden. It was kind of like the secret garden. My night then ended on a downer. Dinner was just 6 of us and three of the people who joined us worked at IMEC. I was quiet as usual for about 40 minutes and then a woman who worked there said in english "You're studying Foucault right?" "Oui" I said. And she says "ah yes I've heard about you. (*me thinking, super I'm the talk of the archives*) You don't speak French right?" The other two employees gasped "you don't speak French? well then why are you here?" I tried explaining that my school gave me money no questions asked, and I can read some french and many of the lecture tapes are in english, and how I am trying and wanted to learn French and make the most of it for my thesis. And the woman just angrily replied that "There's no way I can know anything about Foucault or have anything to say about him if I don't speak French." Then they started speaking in french, gesturing at me, and from what I gather it was to the effect of "what a silly university who sends a girl here that can't speak a word." I just hung my head. Noticing my frown the woman asked if I could understand what they were saying and I said yes and then goodnight in french and left. I guess you win some you lose some. I just think I'll eat more quickly from now on and spare myself. I think more time in the flower garden I found will cheer me up.

Well I must go do some work. Attached are some pics of my room and the building I'm staying in. More pics from my walk will come tomorrow.