Mardi Gras and Oranges

Wednesday. So, it’s a bit annoying that I don’t have steady internet access. For some reason my roommate has perfect access on his computer, but my computer won’t connect to the internet. Accordingly, I use his computer every other day to check my email/post things, but that’s why I don’t write more often or write more. Maybe it’s good for me, because I normally spend tons of time reading the news and Wikipedia.

In any event, it’s been a fun few days. We have these awesome “Art Student” cards that get us into most of the museums for free, including the Louvre. We even have one of our classes that meets there, and we have a special Louvre card to get in. It’s nice. I bought a notebook and I’ve taken to drawing again, like I did during high school. I really enjoy it. I listen to music and draw stuff. I’m still mostly drawing people and hands and eyes and stuff, but I am sure that someday I’ll branch out. Today’s not that day, but someday. I went and bought some pencils and erasers, etc, today, to facilitate it.

It’s been really great. I’m only taking 12 credits (which is insanely few for me for those who don’t know), and there really aren’t any clubs, nor any interviews, and… well, it’s a happy time of life, let’s say. I hang out in Paris for a while every day, after class I generally stay until evening hanging out with people, then I go home and I read and study all night. I have a book called “The Story of Art” (with a special shout out to Evie for helping me find it) that I read a chapter out of every night) which is especially cool because I can see the trends and the pieces he’s talking about in the architecture and paintings, etc, all around me. Then I also get to enjoy the big open fields that haven’t been planted yet and are just lush green grass all over. And with classes and my reading, I still have time to finish a book a week, draw, and spend a lot of time hanging out.

Church on Sunday was also good. There were about 100 people in the ward we attended, and another 40 in the other ward that attends the same building. It’s still a bit too much when I get surrounded by people speaking French who expect me to speak as well as everyone else, but I’m understanding it more and more. I got called on to pray, and it was pretty rocky, but not the end of the world. I have had a few times where my French pulled through in a pinch (including one coming up), which is a good feeling. Madame Welch, the professor in charge of the program, gave me a bon-bon (candy) because I was doing so well.

Well, as I mentioned, we went to Belgium Monday to Bruge (where we, like the pathetic American tourists we are, ate overpriced Belgian waffles and French fries for dinner—which are, in fact, a Belgian invention). We also got a tour of a chocolate factory and the history of chocolate, from when the Indians smoked it till when they make tasty goodies in a bar for you and me in the present day. Then we went to Binche for Mardi Gras, where there was a crazy parade where a bunch of people dressed up and threw oranges out at the crowd. Sometimes they threw it to the crowd, but mostly at the crowd. I only got pelted three times, once in the mouth, but my roommate, Mike, got slammed on his lip and was bleeding all over. Anyway, the picture shows the crazy “Gils” who are kinda like the town clowns who threw the oranges, along with another picture of me with my first orange. I was proud of it. I caught about 15 total. I ate a few for dinner last night, and some more for lunch today. I also had my first blood orange. It kinda creeped me out at first, but then I got used to it.

So, the Gils are local Belgians (and it used to be a rite that was passed on only from father to son, but now they’ve started to open it up a bit) who belong to various guilds. The women spend about 6 months every year sowing up these (incredible!!!) costumes for the men to wear around. They group themselves according to their guilds and go through the parade with their parade members. Then they thrown oranges to the people (I really never did figure out why) on the sides, favoring people that they know. If they saw that you could catch well they started to pelt you, so you had to stay on your toes. There was one fellow who climbed up on a light post or something, and was taunting the gils. He was egging them on, and they were pelting him pretty hard. They probably hit him about a hundred times (no joke) before one of them knocked the silly hat he had on off his head, and he jumped off to get it and didn’t come back. All around the stores put chicken wire over their windows and doors to protect it from the riotous gils (who nevertheless made attempts to break windows).

They say that it’s always bad weather until the parade, and then it always cleared up. Sure enough, there was terrible weather. It was windy and raining, and we were generally doubtful and cold, waiting for the parade to start (we got there a few hours early and staked out a front row spot). I really didn’t think anything was going to happen, but was shocked when the tradition held and blue skies broke over the parade and it completely stopped raining. It was pretty cool. They even had some posters around joking about how that was what always happens. All in all, it was insane. And I’m having oranges for breakfast tomorrow. J

We went to an awesome Chateau in Chantilly. The would-have-been king Henry d’Orleans (son of Louis Philip who was deposed in 1848, the revolution of Les Miserables fame) owned Chantilly, and collected royal treasures and memorabilia from everywhere, and made a huge museum of the French monarchy in his castle, and stipulated in his will that no one could ever lend out any of the things he had collected to other museums or anything, so there are a lot of things there you’ll never see anywhere else, including a Rafael, some Van Dyke’s and some furniture from Versailles. The original owner of Chantilly was the cousin or the brother (Mme Welch changed her story) of Louis XIV, and wanted to make his palace look like his brother/cousin’s, so it was filled with opulence as well. There were also some really cool gardens.

Getting home from the train station was an adventure. I lost my metro card, which covers zones 1-5 (which is huge… especially seeing that it takes me so stinking long to get there in the morning), and had to pay 105 euros (~US $150). It took me a while to figure out that I had, in fact, lost it, including calling the bus company and everything. Jack Welch (of discovering chiasmus in the Book of Mormon fame) called me and told me they had found it about halfway home… so I’m going to see tomorrow if I can return the one I bought. I spoke to a woman at our train station (all in French!) explaining what happened, and she told me she didn’t think it would be a problem.

The train ride itself is going well. I’ve taken to reading the Aeneid now, and I’ve got one of the Stanford online iTunes U classes about the Aeneid that I listen to on my iPod as I travel, so it’s a nice addition. I get to read it and listen to the teacher’s commentary. I am also really happy because there’s this awesome girl here who has a copy of Founding Brothers she’s going to lend me. Then I’ve only got a few more books to read and I might be done with the American Revolution. If anyone can think of other essential revolution-era books I ought to read, let me know.

On a happy note, I got an email from a certain Mr Pandit (of Citigroup fame), informing me that despite abnormal losses in the 4^th quarter, my job was safe and is an integral part in building up Citi as a financial institution. The same email was sent to all of my future colleagues as well, but it did make specific reference to Citi’s domination of emerging markets. Props to us! Well, think that will be enough for one day. I hope everyone is doing well. Have a wonderful day!

La vie est belle!