Pret à Paris

The entrance to my buildingPossible reasons I am behind on this blog:

1. I was homeless until a few days ago, and now finally have internet

2. I’ve already forgotten how to express myself in English

3. I spilled red wine all over my keyboard

4. I got swine flu (I knew I should have listened to NYU and brought protective masks and gloves…)

I leave it to you to decide which (if any!) of those is true, but in any event, my apologies! Here’s a bit about me and why I’m in Paris:

I’m Aniella, I’m a junior at Gallatin, and my concentration is “Writing About Art, Writing As Art.” It was a happy day for me when Gallatin declared that undergrads could do minors, as French has been a fairly constant thread in my life and I’ve never been sure how to incorporate it into my concentration. I spent two summers living in France in high school, the first time studying Art History and French, and the second time living with a family in Montpellier.

My background in music (piano and voice) seems linked to my passion for language: learning the nuances of sound, intonation, and meaning in French feels very much like learning another instrument to me. My interest in cultural and artistic criticism (the “writing about art” portion), was born, in part, out of my earlier visits to France. I was never a journal-keeper, but I found I couldn’t help but scribble down my observations on the people I saw in the street, the particulars of my home-stay family and their house, and the experience of living in a foreign language.

These two loves—language study and critical writing—have led me back to France. Since my reasons for coming to Paris are tied into my studies at Gallatin, I feel a sense of focus here that I didn’t have in high school. Then, France represented adventure, new ways of socializing, and exposure that I felt was missing at my small private high school. Now, having settled in to a very rich and stimulating life in New York, I don’t need quite the same things out of my time abroad. In these three months, my hope is to get to know Paris more intimately, to learn the fine details of how people live, eat, interact, and speak, and to examine my observations through writing. In the long run, I’d also like to master the language enough to do creative writing (a genre unheard of France, I’m learning!) and poetry in French, or at least to translate other writers’ works.

I am keeping my own blog as a way to keep writing (and keep my family and friends happy back home!), which I will sometimes incorporate into my entries here. I’m excited to see how the readings we do, and all of your observations, relate (or possibly differ) from my experience in Paris. The first two weeks have been a bit of a blur here, and I’m guessing it’s the same elsewhere, so I hope everyone is starting to feel more settled and excited for the semester ahead!