Red (Day) Alert!

So, I've had a series of funny misunderstandings with my host family (as I suppose is wont to happen when you’re living with a family that speaks a different language than you). They’ve been so nice, I thought I would go out of my way to try to do little things, like wait until I have to do my laundry to do it to save detergent, etc (rather than just doing it every Saturday). Accordingly, I waited about a week and a half, and the time comes that I’m out of socks, etc, and I have to do my laundry. So, I bring it in, and ask (more of as a formality) if I can, and the mom says that no, 8pm is too late to start because then it won’t be over until 10pm, and that’s just too late. (No one is in bed by then, but I guess they like it to be quiet as they contemplate going to bed…). Alright, that’s fine. I’ll wait till the next day. She says that’s fine, and that I should just put in my laundry and she’ll start it in the morning after everyone else has left. I arrive at home that night, and glance in to see if it’s done (I’d hate to try to start it too late again) and my laundry’s still there, exactly how I left it. Well, that’s fine, no worries, so I put in the soap, crank the handle and push the start button. About thirty seconds later the mom comes running down from upstairs, quite distressed, saying a lot of things I didn’t understand in French. Was someone in the shower? Was there a gas leak? Any other guesses?

I asked her to explain in English, which she did. It turns out that if you sign a special contract, the power company can put a “red day” on and flash a red light downstairs. When they do, it means no electricity can be used. They do it on really cold days to better ration electricity. Well, turns out that electricity is also 10 times more expensive on red days, so the family has a back up camping stove and a wood fireplace they fire up on the red days (a max of 20 per winter).

So, not only could I not do my laundry for another day, but it’s really expensive to turn on lights or run heaters, so it’s colder in here than it was outside. I’ve opened my little window to get some light, but it’s pushing on sundown, and it’ll be dark soon. Three red days in a row and counting…

I’ve begun reading Catch-22 again. I started the day before yesterday, and I've gotten about 450 pages through it. I'm on track to finish three books (in addition to all my homework and hanging out) this week. It makes me happy. I finished Next by Michael Crichton, but I don’t think I’d recommend it. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really that good, either. It took me a day and a half to finish it.

I went to the Louvre two days ago for my class (we have it every Wednesday), and it was a good time. After class I went and looked up a painter I had never heard of and did some research for my paper, and then I went and looked at the Italian painters. I was kinda window-shopping for good paintings I am going to have copied and put into my house. Even more impressive than the paintings, though, are the statues. Wow! I love the Greek/Romanesque statues. I’ll have to find one that’s not totally naked to put in my house. The picture above is of Apollo and the serpent.

I walked past the Mona Lisa. She’s a beaut, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think I ever really understood her. I don’t know that I really understand girls at large, come to think of it. Just when you think you’ve got her figured out, you get a new insight that makes you realize you haven’t scratched the surface. Take, for instance, the two different horizons on either side of Ms Lisa. Why are they different? Maybe I’d rather not know. Da Vinci can keep his secrets. What a great day we live in, where we can hop on a big sheet of metal, strap some decayed dinosaur bones to it, light them on fire and skip from Denver to Paris overnight, and then buy a dozen books about it all for cheaper than da Vinci probably paid for one of his. That’s a miracle, if you ask me.

Well, it was about that point that I then sat on a bench and started to think. I like thinking, and my mind churned over and over and ground down the things I wanted to think about, till it was all just dust. I fell asleep. A happy lazy, Sunday afternoon type of nap. I woke up about thirty minutes later. I was sitting next to a big painting of David with Goliath’s head (three or four times bigger) dangling next to him. It was a gruesome awakening, and a startling moment to realize that I had just fallen asleep in what was probably the biggest art museum I’d ever been to. I like the Louvre, but it’s not really a place for deep meditation. Not for me, anyway (although my roommate, Mike, disagrees). Go somewhere with fewer tourists for that, in case you’re wondering.

The other two pictures are me in front of the Sorbonne and Mike, my roommate, in front of the Pantheon (where Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Voltaire and Rousseau are all buried). It's meant to house all the famous French people. They've got lots of open space in the downstairs, now they just need more famous people to pass on...

Well, until next time! Life is beautiful!

Jeff