9 octobre 2009 (Day 39)
Today ended up being quite an odd day. I thought my first class of the day started at 9am and not 8:30. At 8:30 I was buying a train ticket to Switzerland, so I was late for class. I don’t think I missed much though. We had another se battre with the professor again today. Theatre went a lot better today, the fou knows his lines more. Sadly the cute Franco-Italian didn’t make an appearance so we made jokes about him instead. After theatre I headed off with several friends from class and we all had lunch together. One of the main subjects was cheerleaders and other high school stereotypes in the US.
It was another great day in history, which was sadly interrupted by yet another fire alarm! That was important education I missed! Today I learned the history of hair and hats. We were talking about Louis XIV and the palace of Versailles. This led to a discussion on bathing and why they didn’t which lead to the need to have perfume. Since they would put perfume in their wigs to smell good this led to the importance of hair. Apparently hair is the most seductive quality that you have and has been associated with sexual attraction for a very long time. This is why they would cut the hair of adulteress women and why the phrase “une femme en cheveux” means that she is an easy woman with whom “you might have an agreeable moment.” We also talked about covering hair with bonnets, etc. which led to learning about hats and why they used to be so popular and now they have practically disappeared. Hats used to be worn to cover that most sexually attractive part of you so that you were proper. After World War II the wearing of hats practically disappeared, but before then a beret was worn by peasants, a top hat by aristocrats, a “normal” hat by the bourgeois, and a baseball type hat by workers. So, in effect, you could tell someone’s social status by the hat they wore. I found this terribly fascinating. We also talked about the philosophy of the Lumieres (Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesque, Diderot) and how they brought the world out of obscurity. If you apply this with the works of Erasmus it means that the more you know the happier you are which was quite true with me today. I also learned that this is why the European student exchange program is called Erasmus. I am honestly flabbergasted due to my awe at how much Monsieur Touvron knows. He is also really funny. He just says really random logical (and inherent) things that make me laugh. Here are some quotes from today:
Normally a meal consists of…and if you are rich, there is dessert.
This ended well for Louis XIV, evidently because he became king.
Colds existed but not the word.
…Because Louis XIV was very little once and wasn’t always a king.
I was really excited for this evening because some girls from school invited me to go to the FC Nantes soccer match with them. They also told me about the sale going on at Marche-U for 5 croissants and 5 pain au chocolats for only 1,70E which is a deal. On my way to the store I took a picture of the roses that is on this post. I like them so much. They are just on a single fragile stem and remind me of the rose in Le Petit Prince.
Sadly we didn’t end up going to the game. I guess I still had hair on my mind because I cut mine. I was just getting tired of it always looking funny due to how it dried and my half coloring job so I started cutting it. And I kept cutting it. And then I cut it some more. Then the missionaries called and I kept cutting it. It is a lot shorter now, but I think it looks okay.
If you are wondering why the missionaries called, it is because I called them. I wanted to know when Saturday sports were. When I first called I had to leave a message, which was really awkward. I just felt funny leaving the missionaries a message because normally I like to leave ridiculous and entertaining messages. Anyway, they actually called earlier to answer my questions but then called again to see if I wanted to meet them at the tram stop so I could find the park. Bless their hearts. I used my amazing skills yet again to do absolutely no homework today. I do have train tickets, a haircut, and croissants though!
