To use the same metaphor we discussed in my Religious Quest class, each individual possesses a little straw and uses it to look up at the sky.  He sees the sky from his own narrow perspective, not acknowledging the vantage points of others because he is too focused on his own straw and what he can see through it.  Imagine how much more he would see if he were to lay down his straw in an effort to better comprehend the world around him.  No longer would his view be narrow, but instead would be fuller, more complete.  He would have a better understanding of the world and the perspectives of his family, friends and enemies.

This idea of opening oneself up to other beliefs is a recurring theme this year in all of my classes.  Today in my Ethics, Religion & International Politics class, we discussed cosmopolitanism and the necessity of constantly being in conversation with others in order to better understand them and where they are coming from.

My professor directed our attention to the following quote by Robert Burton:

All Faith is false, all Faith is true:

Truth is the shattered mirror strown

In myriad bits; while each believes

His little bit the whole to own.

How true this quote is!  Much like the straw metaphor, we all grip our own little shards so tightly that we often fail to remember that it is part of a larger mirror, fail to see the bigger picture.

I think most of the problems in our world today stem from a lack of conversation, and therefore a lack understanding.  So, my dear friends (what am I, 90?) converse and learn!

Is there such a thing as universal morality?  I have always believed that it is morally wrong to kill, to steal, to lie and to cheat.  I have also always believed that everyone shares these same imperatives.  This book, however, makes me wonder whether or not these beliefs are true.

If not, we face quite a dilemma.  How can I convince an individual that something is wrong, when he believes to the core of his being that it is right?  How can I convince someone that killing is morally wrong, if, for example, human sacrifice is acceptable in his culture?

Just something to ponder…

Somewhere along the line, life started happening, and now I have 21 years tucked neatly under my belt.

Frightening, really, that my light up sneakers have turned into high heels, my Babysitter’s Club books have evolved into political theory, my playdates have shifted to bar nights, and my sticker collection has morphed into a passport stamp collection.

I long for the days when theses weren’t hanging over your head, when “papers” were only 5-paragraph book reports, when thoughts of the future didn’t mean much more than the next couple of days, let alone the rest of your life.

I long to be 7 years old, sitting on the soft sand in Long Beach Island, NJ with my friends and family, just waiting for the sun to set and dinner to be over so that I could go to my favorite ice cream shop.

Somebody, please, take me back there?

Unfortunately, this whole debacle has impeded my ability to blog…and I’ve fallen several days (weeks?) behind.  I fully intend to write about EVERYTHING, starting where I left off with my trip to London a few weeks back, but I probably won’t be able to do much for the next couple of days.  I have a few friends in town, Lindsey and Kelly (visiting from Morocco) and Caitlin (visiting from Bath), so I’ll be spending some quality time with them.  We have a lovely wine & cheese party planned for this evening, tomorrow evening will be spent on the step of Sacré Coeur sipping wine and watching the sun set, and Saturday morning we will be going to my favorite little dinner called Breakfast in America (which I have blogged about at least once or twice before this).  It’s shaping up to be a fabulous weekend!

Before I have to run to class, though, let it be known that life in Paris is:

• exciting.  There is ALWAYS some new park to sit in, some new building to photograph, some new bookstore to peruse.
• breathtakingly beautiful.  I will never tire of seeing the Jardin du Luxembourg in the late afternoon light, the Arc de Triomphe glowing at sunset, or the Eiffel Tower sparkling at night.
• full of delicious treats.  Of which the unfortunate side effect is the shrinking of my jeans (euphemism for the expanding of my person).  This woman explains exactly how I feel in her slideshow, Pastry Paris (seriously, check it out…yum).
• EXPENSIVE.  Of which the unfortunate side effect is…well, my broke-ass-ness.
• moving too quickly.  How is it already April 8?

JE VOUS AIME BEAUCOUP :)

…which is why I was exceedingly happy to go to the Marché aux Puces!  Marché aux Puces is one of the leading flea markets in Paris.  Kelsey, Chrissy and I were a bit concerned at first, for all we saw were creepy vendors selling bootleg designer bags & glasses, weird hats, and bizarre shoes.  We walked through the first set, somewhat amused, and eventually found ourselves among a huge section of beautiful antiques stores.  We ooh-ed and ahh-ed at this and that, marveled at some of the crazy prices, and discussed what we would be buying if we had an endless budget.

We eventually happened upon un magasin d’affiches (a poster store), which had old fashion magazines, maps from around the world, and other pretty Parisian images.  I was drawn to the map section, and ended up finding a beautiful, pastel-shaded map that depicted France in 1789.  I was incredibly excited about it, and knew that I simply had to buy it, get it mounted & framed, and hang it on my wall next year, so that I always have a little piece of Paris with me.

After an hour and a half of walking around, we stopped in a café called Le Voltaire for some café crème (espresso with milk) and warmth.  Realizing we were hungry, we finished up our coffees pretty quickly and went to a nearby crêpe stand, where I bought a sugar & cinnamon one.

We were pretty tired by this point, so we left the flea market and went back to our respective apartments.  I only got a few hours of sleep because I went out last night.  We actually didn’t end up going to the stock market bar (long story), but we went to the Moose again to celebrate a girl from BC’s 21st birthday.  I’m still obsessed with that bar; the cute Australian bartender was giving us free drinks every once in a while, which was a good treat.

Anyways, Kelsey and I decided to make some dinner this evening.  We went to two grocery stores, Carrefour and Monoprix, to pick up what we needed for a nice little feast.  We made a whole roast chicken, green beans with pine nuts, and Kelsey made the most delicious noodle kugel!  The chicken was quite an experience; it was my first time sticking my hand in a bird (woohoo!), and it turned out to be not nearly as gross as I thought and also ten times more delicious than a regular chicken leg or breast.  We used a Martha Stewart recipe, which called for lemon, garlic, some type of herb (we used herbes de provence), butter, salt & pepper.  Everything was just absolutely delicious.

I’m starting to get excited for tonight, too; Simone, Kelsey, Melanie and I have tickets to the Sciences Po rugby gala, and the boys rugby team from Columbia University will be visiting, too.  WOO, have to get ready!

I did, however, have a mandatory, government-scheduled medical examination at 8:30 this morning, which is part of the process of obtaining a carte de séjour, which is basically a permit to stay (on top of the visa we already have).  A couple other BC girls were there, too, so we sat there and complained about how awful it was.  They recorded our height, weight and blood pressure, and also took x-rays of our spins and chest.  Apparently I have a very large heart and a slightly crooked spine.  Interesting.  Anyways, glad that’s over with…going to the doctor is bad enough when they speak your language, but ten times worse when they don’t.  I feel like there’s much more poking and prodding involved when there’s a language barrier….

On a much more exciting note, Nadia arrived this evening!  She and her friends Alissa and Kelly are going to be staying here until Sunday, and I’m so excited!  They’re currently studying abroad at three different universities in London, but we all go to BC.  We caught up a bit, and then I directed her to the Latin Quarter to grab some dinner.  I wish I could have afforded to go out with them, but I’m on a tighter budget than I thought because this city’s so damn expensive.  I decided to make that lemon-pepper shrimp and linguine dish again, which came out just as good as the last time.  I really love making it, but I have to make sure that I find relatively cheap shrimp when I do make it.

I have another friend from home, Jeff, coming on Friday with three of his friends.  The four of them are also studying abroad in London this semester, so my apartment will be filled with temporary Londoners.  Can’t wait!  I’ll keep you posted on the haps.

Today, we got up early and actually ended up going to Breakfast In America with Chrissy and Kelsey (note: I feel this is going to become a regular occurrence).  Since my stomach is still on the mend, I decided to order some pancakes with berries, and I had my first official meal in days!  Afterward, Erin and I headed towards Place de la Concorde.  We checked out a Longchamp store, where she bought a lovely bag for herself and one for her mom.  Then I showed her the Champs-Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe, and we eventually made our way over to the Eiffel Tower.

Today was the first day I climbed to the top since my trip in high school.  It was BEAUTIFUL, but a tad chilly (as in, I think I only have 8.75 toes now, courtesy of frostbite).

I’ll fill in some more details tomorrow…just wanted to write a bit to keep track of the day! G’night!

Although I didn’t do anything too exciting, I did spend a few hours uploading and editing my pictures from Belgium, which are up on my Facebook!  I can’t believe it took as long as it did, but it’s tough going through 530 photos and picking the best ones.  I also spent a while going through my messages and wall posts and answering people that I should have answered days (if not weeks) ago…so I’m just going to apologize for the absurd amount of times I have probably popped up on your newsfeeds this evening.

I also finally managed to upload the pictures from the National Archives trip I took a couple weeks ago.  Although I inserted them in the original post (dated February 5th, if you want to read it), I’ll put them here too (since I’m going to assume the majority of you are too lazy to spare a few extra clicks).  Although I’m not sure which documents are which, here are two of them.

Even if I’m mistaken, both are awesome, and I’m still so psyched that I got to see them!  And that’s that.  I also added some pics to the Belgium posts below, but if we’re friends on Facebook, you’ve probably seen them; I just wanted to add some eye candy.

Alright, well I’m going to go watch a movie (or something that at least seems a bit more productive…?).  Bon weekend!

Keyboards: All the letters are in different places.  You have to press shift to type numbers.  And the period.  COME ON, it is used so commonly it should NOT be a shift-key button.  And the @ sign is pretty much impossible…it took me 10 minutes to figure it out.

Printing at Sciences Po: THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD.  Takes at least 25 minutes to snag a computer (because I mean, 20 computers are sufficient to serve 9,000 students who need to print things), and then once you actually figure out how to print, you have to wait in line at the printer while 3 people ahead of you each print 400-page articles.  It only takes a few years.

Lack of Marsala Wine: All I wanted was a little bit of Marsala dressing.  I just wanna cook me some chicken Marsala.  THEY DO NOT HAVE IT IN PARIS.  I mean I know it’s Italian wine (from Sicily, I believe!), but seriously…?

Inefficiency: Administrators say their office hours are, for example, from 9-12 and 2-4.  They leave at 12…and sometimes just don’t return.  No big.

We triumphed, and arrived home shortly before Chrissy herself arrived.  She presented us with a delicious bottle of wine, one that I believe her French “grandfather” recommended to her.  We put it in the fridge to chill, and began to prepare our dinner.  Everything turned out amazingly, and we had quite a feast.  It truly enjoyable spending time with them because we have so much in common; we are all foodies, sommeliers-in-training, and love reading and writing blogs.  As Chrissy said in her blog (which, by the way, you simply must read…it’s hilarious, even if you don’t know her!), I felt like I “found my people.”

Today was a most uneventful day, and I feel rather guilty for my lack of activity.  I slept until 12, woke up and saw that it was pouring rain, decided to shower, and then sat around in our living room all day watching a combination of CNBC in English (ha) and game shows in French.  It’s not that I didn’t have big plans, because I did.  I wanted to go to Galeries Lafayettes to return a hair straightener that I bought, and then I was planning on checking out the Musée d’Orsay with Kelsey and getting crêpes (because I have only consumed TWO in the entire time that I’ve been here).  Oops.  Note: the picture to the right was not taken by me; I found it on Google images.

Tonight should be fun, though, as there are some BC people visiting from Strasbourg and San Sebastian, and we’re all meeting up at the bars and then most likely going to a club afterward.  Should be fun!