We finally had our orientation for all of the FB participants here in France. Despite my worries about the strange people who might be here, I am pleased to say that I have found some kindred spirits among the historians, and the art historian we have brought into our little group. We're a fairly snarky group but nearly all the girls have husbands doing MFAs in film, which is an odd coincidence but pretty damn cool.
The orientation was a little too "groupy-groupy" in the words of one of the other historians. I feel a bit like Rachel on her Taglit trip, but I'm not a huge fan of the FB kool-aid. We had lots of meetings, and then a reception at the Senat in the Palais du Luxembourg, which is an incredible building. The US ambassador had one of the worst accents I've ever heard, which made me feel better about my own French skills (I'll probably get in great big trouble for saying that, but it's true!) The palace, which is in the Luxembourg gardesn was pretty amazing, as was the free champagne!
The real highlight, however, was the behind the scenes tour yesterday of the Bibliothèque nationale, a building known for its mysterious methods and the fact that the reading rooms are underground and you feel like you descend several levels of hell to get down there. But it was amazing to go back into the belly of the machine and see where the books actually live.
Well I'm starting to do work now so I should probably leave off and get back to it. Sorry I haven't had internet access for the last week but hopefully will be a better correspondent from this week on.
For those of you taking exams, remember to breathe, to sleep, and to eat. And I promise you'll do fabulous! Bonne chance!
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3 comments:
Your tale of the archive sounds remarkably like that of certain "German" professor I had my first year of grad school. Oh yeah, and don't drink the kool-aid. Any of it. Stick with the snarky people. They know what's right.
Hmm... of whom are you speaking? Give me more hints!
Think asshole
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