A little bit about me.

My name is Sloane Martin and I’m studying abroad at NYU in Paris for the 2008-2009 school year. I’m a sophomore in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, and I haven’t yet decided what my concentration will be. I’m interested in studying literature, travel, and bookmaking, but I’m not sure in what way I want to combine my interests. I am originally from San Francisco, and I went to the public arts high school there to study creative writing.
I don’t quite know what my goals are in terms of studying abroad. I’d like to do as well as possible in my language classes to advance my fluency as much as possible, but I don’t have a definitive point that I’d like to reach during my stay in France. I’ve never lived abroad, though I have traveled a lot, and I’m excited for the experience of being out of the realm of comprehension. I love the unique isolation that traveling in a foreign country affords. It heightens awareness and observation, because of the lack of distraction from language.
I’m still unsure why I chose France to study abroad. I’m not a particular Francophile, and I don’t have an especially good grasp of the language. I wanted to go somewhere that wasn’t London, so that I could try and learn a new tongue, but mostly Paris just seemed to be a better fit than most other places. Though I love New York also, San Francisco is my home and always will be and I passionately love and miss it whenever I’m away. Paris, to me, has the same odd urban-yet-provincial feel that San Francisco has, and it was important for me to travel somewhere that meshed with my likes and dislikes. I like bread, I hate being out late, etc., etc.
For the class, I’m reading Julia Child’s My Life in Paris, Edmund White’s The Flâneur, two volumes of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time: Swann’s Way, and Within a Budding Grove, and Raymond Queneau’s Zazie Dans le Metro. I love cooking, and Julia Child, and I thought it would be great to read her book. Edmund White explores quirky aspects of Paris and the tradition of wandering in his book. Paris is such a walking city, and wandering plays an important role in many of the literary works based here. Proust is completely fascinating, and I hope that his attention to detail will feed my desire to absorb and observe. Zazie Dans le Metro is a kind of screwy book, and will be a fun break from non-fiction towards the end.