finally, pictures!

view while walking to school, the corner of

boulevard de la tour-maubourg and rue st. dominique

Sunday: it was absolutely beautiful today, so after sending the latest e-mail to everyone, i decided to study out on l'esplanade d'hotel des invalides. there i was, sitting in the grass, reading descartes when two guys came along playing football (known in the states as "soccer"). "uh, oh," i thought, "this might be dangerous for me or for them." needless to say, they eventually took their game elsewhere after running over a man laying in the sun and almost hitting me with the ball (i never said a word; i merely looked at them from behind my sunglasses). then, a couple tromped past me to sit and started screaming out to their friends in hindi. this time, i moved, but they were so loud that i returned home to study. it really doesn't matter, because this is the view from my desk, which i find charming and lovely. (by the way, you do realize, i hope, that i am writing right now to procrastinate, don't you? i'll get back to rené in a few minutes; there's just so much to him that my head is about to explode and i needed to get the artichoke started, since it's huge.)

the "hair pants" (air france) building on the esplanade of

les invalides

hotel des invalides, the final home of my famous neighbor, napoleon, taken from where i was almost hit with a soccer ball

i refer to this as "my bridge" because it is pont alexandre (my

middle name is alexandra)

THIS is my building, and it's a lot nicer inside than out

the recycling here is out of this world; we recycle everything, and the recycling bins are twice as large (and there are four times as many) as the rubbish bins. saran wrap? recyclable, as is aluminum foil. all plastic bags are recyclable. it's really fantastic. i have some professors who are so into not using paper that everything is done online, which is perfectly fine with me. and yet, the school does not recycle. that, of course, will be changing while i am here, and i've already made that known in the admissions office.

i just read today that quite a few buildings in paris have rooftop beehives. isn't that great? they're trying to combat the problem of the disappearing bees by using the roofs of public buildings. of course, anytime one is outside eating, bees help consume lunch, but it's worth it, isn't it? now that i know this, i really need to get a bee epi pen. if i manage to survive the peanuts and the bees, it will be spectacular.

Still Sunday: as i'm sitting in my room reading descartes (still!) with the window open, i could hear the sounds of dinner conversations, flatware touching plates, and someone practicing a jazz piece on a piano. marvelous.

the view from my desk

my new plant

I think my neighbor might be dead, and he is (or was) really cute. he disappeared around the same time the hallway started to smell like what i've been told is a dead person (the only dead bodies i have been around were embalmed, and as those smell like formaldehyde, they aren't helping), i am genuinely concerned. i told my landlady (madame fusco, who is like a pocket grandma with fabulous shoes) yesterday (saturday), and she suggested i knock on the door, explaining who i am. i didn't have the heart (or the french vocabulary) to point out just why that wouldn't work: if he is dead, he wouldn't answer; if he's a zombie, i wouldn't want to disturb him because he would eat my brain, thereby adding the smell of my own decomposing flesh to the hall. madame did tell me that his father lives in the building and that she would have him look in on him (thereby saving my brain from the potential zombie). yes, yes, i know, there's probably no such thing as zombies but, really, do any of us really know? and i probably scream with an american accent, so no one would understand that i was in danger; i need a local to take care of this.

Monday: while discussing descartes, my professor mentioned zombies. see, even descartes knew they may exist. ok, i just got an assignment asking that i research whether cartesian thought on dualism justifies the possibility of a zombie, or a body without a mind. isn't this hysterical? i'd never even written the word before yesterday, so now i really should not knock on that door! oh, and the hallway stinks again (of zombies?).

until the next one....