As the great Ferris Bueller said prior to taking his day off, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."
Life has been moving too fast lately for me to be "missing" it. In fact, quite the opposite; I have felt completely steeped in life.
The first thing is the heat. It's been hot in Paris since I returned last Tuesday, averaging about 88 degrees Fahrenheit. That's not really hot by NYC standards, but considering air conditioning is scarce here, it feels brutal.
The second thing is my sister was staying with me for a week. I love her dearly, and it was wonderful to catch up with each other. But six consecutive nights with anyone is a lot. Luckily, we shopped away our heatstroke and our sororal friction by escaping into the air conditioned Galeries Lafayette. Several times.
Then there were other events too sad to blog about, and ongoing turnover in my personal relationships. There's job stress and school stress. There's trying to keep together my social life and cobble together a new one, as my friends from this year's assistantship program prepare to return to the States.
But! tonight I have persuaded G to go with me to see "Les Poupées Russes," even though he saw it last week. It's the sequel to "L'Auberge Espagnol," which is one of my favorite movies because it glorifies the study abroad experience that if you are fortunate enough to have experienced, makes you susceptible to the world in a way you'd never have suspected before you left home. So I'm intrigued to see what the sequel is about... and I'm hoping I'll be able to get through it without subtitles.
Alrighty. Sorry for the absences and prosaic postings. I hope to be back to my shiny happy self soon. If only the damn heat would break...
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About Me
- maitresse
- Lauren Elkin is a PhD candidate in English literature at the Université de Paris VII and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Originally from New York, she has lived in Paris on and off since 1999 and continuously since 2004. She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle, and her work has appeared in Gridskipper, the Huffington Post, Nextbook, The Forward, Parisist, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and the Paris Voice. She is the author of the novel IN DORSODURO, which is currently under representation by Diana Finch, and is at work on novel number two, set in present-day Paris.
2 comments:
Do you know what might cheer you up? Answering this meme! Tag! You're it, Frenchie!
http://flashtopian.blogspot.com/2005/06/infuriated-but-memed.html
A perhaps, maybe, probably not very useful tip: until today, I thought the only places one could find air conditioning in Paris were department stores, Starbucks, the movies, and large museums. This, I think, still holds true, but I've found a place in Paris just as cool -- the sewers. Yup. But I suppose standing in les egouts all day isn't really that much more pleasant than sweltering in the heat.
Let me add that I am very sad to leave you, but very happy that your family is based in NY and I won't have to say goodbye for long. Yay. Bisous.
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