Propedeutique, Art, and Feminism!

Not too much to report on the past two days.

I started my propédeutique (intensive language class to get us ready for the rest of the semester) on Monday. We have class for two hours every day for the next week and a half before we start our actual classes on January 26th. We're going over semi-boring vocabulary and grammar stuff, but it's still nice to have somewhat of a routine.

On Monday I had class (which doesn't start until 11:30am, so I get to sleep in a bit!), a meeting about internships, a tour of the area around our school, and then visited the Centre Pompidou (the modern art museum). I'm hoping to do an internship in a school or one related to theatre in some way. I think it would be a great way to practice my French and would also be good in general since I haven't had an internship yet in the U.S., but it would take a lot of time...we'll see how it goes. The museum was pretty good. We went on a tour (all in French of course) of their permanent exhibits and an exhibit called Elle (she) which included only women artists. One of my favorite parts was the mural right as you enter the Elle exhibit.

The names of many famous male artists have been changed to female names (ex: Jackson Pollock- Jacqueline Pollock).

A couple of my other favorites:

 La Tour Eiffel, bien sur!

 This one changes as you walk by it, so the piece looks different from each point of view.

This is a table with all the plates, cups, napkins, etc. permanently attached to it and turned on it's side. I'm not sure of the exact statement the artist was trying to make, but it looked really cool. 

There was also a wall of Guerrilla Girl posters that was really interesting. The Guerrilla Girls are a group of feminists that wear gorilla masks at their events (they want people to focus on the issues at hand instead of them as individuals) and campaign against sexism in art and society in general. I think I've explained their campaign pretty well, but I would definitely encourage you to do more research on them. The movement is super interesting! Here is some of their exhibit at the Pompidou.

Really interesting...

Anyway, today I had more language class, got lunch with friends, and came home to take a nap. I just finished dinner with my host mom (some sort of cheese and cauliflower dish, salad, bread, cheese, wine, and fruit).

Let me know if you have any specific questions or want to hear about anything in particular!