Today, part I

I am going to write to you all since I had a very eventful day and I'm exhausted so little work will be done.

This weekend: worst weekend in Paris ever, culminating in the worst class in Paris (or possibly anywhere) ever.

One of the presentations I had to do for class today was an analysis of the Mur des Fédérés, a monument found in Pere Lachaise cemetery which is dedicated to the Paris Commune (1871, when Paris basically seceded from the rest of France for about a month).  A partner and I had to discuss the history of the monument, its significance, and then the sculpture itself.  Since this weekend was pretty much a bust for schoolwork I decided we should go out there in person Sunday and work out our presentation.  We went, walked around searching for about an hour, only found a small plaque commemorating the dates, gave up and went home.  He emailed us and said the sculpture is in another part of the (very large) cemetery and unmarked.  Well.  That left us to do the rest of the work online, which of course I couldn't do.

My internet came back Monday around noon.  I spent pretty much the rest of the day trying to prepare as best I could for the two class presentations I had today.  I was pretty pleased with how well I did considering the time I had.

Now, the professor had the brilliant idea of taking a field trip to Pere Lachaise to see the wall in person.  I, and everyone else, thought we would walk to the sculpture, talk about it a little, then go back across the city to class for our usual lecture and discussion of the articles we read.  He also mentioned he'd give a brief history of the cemetery but, of course, being that it would be brief I didn't think about it much.

It's been really cold in Paris lately - it hasn't gotten above 70 in a couple of weeks and it was about 50 today.  And pouring rain, all day.

I arrive bright and early to Pere Lachaise with my umbrella, displeased that I only had flip flops to wear in the rain (I refrained from bringing many shoes and the only closed-toe shoes I brought are nice heels) and already cold - wearing a sweater and a light jacket, the only one I have here.  We proceed into the cemetery and Prof F leads us in a direction that does not lead to the plaque or the sculpture.  In fact he takes us to the tombs of a couple of generals killed at the beginning of the Commune.  Okay, at least that's relevant to today's topic. 

Then he takes us on a two hour tour of the cemetery: we see the tombs of two presidents of the republic, several politicians, two students who had untimely deaths - one via Nazis and one via police violence - the deportation and Shoah monuments, monuments to every freaking revolution France has ever had, the tomb of Heloise and Abelard, tombs of Resistance fighters, Jim Morrison's grave, the grave of an assassinated journalist...all in the pouring rain, cold weather, puddles and mud everywhere, and not enough umbrellas to go around.

Finally we stop at the wall and Prof F announces it's time for my partner and I to do our presentation.  Right then.  Without notes.  While soaking wet.  We did so bravely, having to yell over the rain and, I'm sure, forgetting many details along the way.  I can't really even explain how miserable and angry the class was - we were not forewarned about just how long this rainy visit would be nor did Prof F tell us we had to do our presentations on the fly. 

At least upon leaving he let us finish up class in a nice warm cafe, where we all got hot beverages and finished up our presentation.  I was planning on putting the finishing touches on my second presentation, though, between classes, but because of this little outing I was forced to go home and change before going to the second class - I resorted to blow-drying my jacket so I would be somewhat comfortable on the ride to campus.  I got to the second class and stumbled my way through the presentation, not having finishing translating all my thoughts into French or being able to find all the examples I should have had.  And I was still damp and cold.