biblioteca(S)

i just obtained my 4th parisian library card this afternoon :

1) BnF : Bibliotheque nationale de France (my new favorite place to work, but sadly i was only "granted" a 16-visit pass to the reservation-only research library section since my books are relatively easy to find in other libraries. shoulda lied and said i was working on a PhD!)

2) Bibltotheque St Genvieve : Paris I library, on-site consultation only. reminds me of being in Harry Potter or something. awesome place, minus the threat of having to queue up outside to wait for a free spot, precious few outlets for plugging in the laptop, and french girls that whisper loudly for hours on end rather than working. b$%^ches!

3) Bibliotheque St Barbe : Paris III library, borrowing rights in limited form : 4 books at a time, for 3 weeks, no renewal. im in there at least once a week.

4) Bibliotheques municialpes de Paris : most recently obtained card, access to all the libraries in Paris, 20 books out a time for 3 weeks, with option to renew. sadly the only books i'll be finding there is a novel for my Vichy class (the much renowned Suite Francaise, which im happy to finally have a reason to read) and the third volume of the Millenium trilogy (but i will only treat myself to that AFTER ive turned in the mémoire, aka in May!)

Plus, my student ID card gets me books from Censier/Paris III, but I haven't been there yet. The building is uggs and it's inconvenient to get to from chez moi :p
Oh, and Midd has a small lib in the Centre, from which i borrowed almost all the plays i had to read last semester..

Just thought i would share that with y'all. just gives an idea of how easy it is to lose time here - trekking books down all over the city, not being able to read most of them calmly at home, 6-hr, poorly-lit library sessions which lead to sore butts and headaches, but also kinda cool that i still get a little shiver of excitement walking through the stacks thinking about all the things i could just hide out and read :)

Madame Butterfly

so i had my first taste of the opera this week, at the Opera Bastille (still to lazy/non touristy to take my own pix, so i pulled these 2 from the internet), a building that I've loved since study abroad but the inside of which I had never seen, nor ever attended a performance. Midd offered tickets for Madame Butterfly for this past Monday night, so I jumped at the chance to have a ticket in advance of the performance that didn't cost 100E. I didn't know anything about the plotline, nor am I necessarily interested in the opera beyond sounding snobby about going to one, but hey, you dont know if you like it til you try, right?

suffice to say, i think i prefer the symphony if im going to do a soirée cultivée like that again. just as when we went to see Andromaque last semester, the mise-en-scene was very modern, cold, static. i havent looked at reviews to see if this is a new trend or if it's been well-received, but personally I had a hard time connecting to the characters since, without movement, it was all but impossible to know what was happening. either my eyes were glued to the screen where the lyrics were being subtitled, which was obviously the only way to know what was going on, or i was just soaking up the beautiful music and watching the orchestra. i guess the opera can have a second chance if the staging is a little more on the traditional, classical side :)


other than that, classes are finally in session both at Midd (as of the past 3 weeks) and at the Sorbonne (as of this week). im taking 2 history/civ classes at Midd : Vichy and les Antilles ; at the Sorbonne, i have a teaching methods class (evaluations et certification) and sociolinguistique. the workload might kill me, what with finishing the mémoire as well - because, of COURSE, with all my free time from jan til now, i did not accomplish nearly as much as i should have on that front...guess it's a good thing i enjoyed some extra sleep last month because if i know whats good for me, i'll be burning the midnight oil more often this semester...