Who would ever think that not having the internet in your room would be such a pain? I hate to say it, but I actually miss instant internet access. Oh well, you live and learn! I’m sure this is a good thing.. but it sure does make it hard to write a blog regularly. So here comes a big one.
The past two weeks have been a blur. I have officially taken ALL of my classes (including art school! Ah!) and I officially like all of them. They are all two hours (except for phonetics, or phonetique), and as of yet my restlessness hasn’t gotten to me. The conferences are well taught- the Art History professor is easy to understand and hilarious when he’s addressing the students. I’m sure it helps to have a background in most of the things he has gone over, so when we learned words like clair obscure talking about Rembrandt, I knew he was referring to the artist’s famous use of light in his works.
Anyway. Something new every day, always learning new words… blah blah blah.
ART.
Oh my goodness. I don’t think I’ve ever been challenged as much as I have in the past two days. Monday night was the first night of my drawing class (croquis et dessin) and WOW. To start, we examined a human skeleton (a real one… that was deteriorating and missing a few bones!) to see the patterns that even the skeleton alone presents when drawing a figure. We went on to draw the model, as the entire class is based around a live model each week. It was so difficult- I’m used to using a huge piece of paper and focusing on specific sections of the body- here we were instructed to draw the entire figure and I was using a much smaller piece of paper! It was frustrating, but exhilarating at the same time to work on something that challenges me so much. The professor was very descriptive and instructing, and surprisingly I understood him! That was also an accomplishment. I am the only foreigner in both classes, so it’s nerve-wracking but so cool.
On Tuesday I have painting and drawing, focusing on both live models and still lives. Coming into this one I knew was going to be tough- in painting I have always depended on either abstract figure paintings or nature/landscapes (more of the latter). Everything here is indoors! The professor is absolutely insane, and a perfect art teacher. He’s an identical Robin Williams with a ponytail, and a little bit shorter, short enough so that while you’re sitting on the stool with the canvas in front of you, he can stand and get right in your face to try and make his point.
Which is what he did. I couldn’t believe how much this guy ripped me apart. It was kind of like going to art reform school- he told me to sit up straight, slow down and hold my pencil a completely different way (as he shoved the canvas away from me and said I was too close). He said he “doesn’t understand why the young ones are always rushing- they have nowhere to go!” It was SO intimidating, but I guess it’s what I need. I do also think I’ve found someone who makes more funny noises than me… J
It’s only Wednesday and I feel like I’ve had a whole week! All of my conferences and art classes are done for the week- so just Grammar from 8-10 the next few mornings and then it’s the weekend! I can’t wait to have some free afternoons to do some exploring. This afternoon we (the CCA kids) went to the Musee Galliera- a fashion museum from the 1800s! It was absolutely insane to see how small the women were- their waists were about the size of one of my legs. The dresses were very pretty too- it was cool to go to something I wouldn’t normally look for on a day off, and it turned out to be interesting. (Although, one of the dresses had the same pattern as my parent’s bedsheets when I was little.) Shelley also gave me a list of lectures held at the Ecole du Louvre- which are once a week and a free hour lecture on something in the museum by a French professor! I can’t wait to go. And no, I have not been to the Louvre yet. The end of this week. Period.
On a side note before I head to dinner- Lauren and I took an accidental detour on the way home from school yesterday, and just happened to see a sign on a building that said, “Hotel de Marcel Proust.” And underneath, “Hemingway lived here from 1921-1925.” Oh, the things you just happen to see in Paris.
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