Normandy Pictures

Just kidding...I tried to upload them this morning, but my computer fizzed out on me. I'll try to upload them tomorrow morning when I'm less annoyed at this computer. Anyway, my day was pretty boring. In my ENS class, we talked about Plato's Republic (good thing I've read that) and how he said that artists and poets were just imitators. He said that they only had an idea of everything, whereas philosophers really understand everything. There go philosophers again, tooting their own horn. He goes on to say (we didn't discuss this in class, but I remember it anyway) that, in his perfect republic, the ruling class should be philosophers because they're naturally the most capable of ruling. Anyway, in class, Guido talked about how we (all the wonderful people in the class) actually do care about Plato's "imitators" because they're the ones who are the best at representing life - man in an environment. It was an interesting discussion. And at the end, some of the students actually talked and they are so smart! Man are they smart! Part of it might be just because they were so good at speaking French, and that might have thrown me off a little bit because obviously, that's not a big deal for them. But, they asked very interesting and specific questions, and each one elaborated on his/her question with at least three or four classic novels. One mentioned Anna Karenina and Middlemarch! The best part of the class was when Guido handed out a sheet with a quote in English on it. This excerpt included the expression: "Get the whole hog" and M. Murat (one of the actual professors) goes: "But what does this hog part mean?" It was pretty funny!

And that was pretty much my day today. Tomorrow we're going to Pere Lachaise cemetery. I'll get to see Marcel Proust and Oscar Wilde, among others. I am seeing so many dead authors here - it's pretty cool. Oh, and I forgot to mention a pretty funny expression I learned in Saint Malo. There was a little book in a gift shop with love proverbs from all over the world in it. I flipped to a random page and found a really funny Brazilian one: "L'amour est aveugle, il faut donc toucher" or "Love is blind so you need to touch!" Just figured I'd share that.