This week has been going so fast - it's already Thursday. Which wouldn't normally mean anything truly consequential...except for now, that means I have less than three weeks left. We've started the goodbyes, and the number-exchanging, and going-away party/outing planning; I'm in that mindset that I get at the end of things, where each time I do something, I think: "Is this going to be the last time I get to do this in my life?" Not with normal things of course, but, for instance, shopping in Passage Pommeraye (the old, old mall downtown) or picking up a quick pastry at a certain boulangerie or witnessing an old man fishing on the river or a woman buying a bouquet. Not that these things are huge in any way - it's just I don't get downtown as much as in the beginning of this semester with all my work and everything now, so you just never know! It's a bittersweet feeling. But I can also feel the excitement starting to boil about coming home, and London and Meryl's visit!!!! It's just a contemplative time, but also fairly hectic as everyone's tying up loose ends - picking up Christmas presents, gathering up samples (at least) of things we've grown to love while we were here (LU Biscuits and cassis syrop for me!), taking photos of things we've never actually thought to take photos of before, and trying to pack as many last vocab words and grammar rules into our brains as possible. The study abroad cliche of discovering our love for a place just when you're about to leave it definitely has a lot of truth to it. i.e. tonight, Emily messaged me and told me to go look at the moon. For me, that involves putting coat and shoes on and walking down the street to the end of the row of buildings so I can see over them - but once I saw it, it was entirely worth the cold. It was full, and petite, and glowing and all silvery. It was glorious - and it totally epitomized how wonderful this city is, and how much I'm going to miss it. It was great.
In other news: there were campus elections up at the faculte the other day...and BIEN SUR there were protesters. I mean - we're in France, how could there not be? But they were also handing out flyers. Again - this is to be expected, as we've come to learn, especially at the faculte. But this one was particularly interesting. Here's some snippets (translated, for your viewing pleasure):
"Elections are a vain exercise and everyone knows it: but it is from this vanity that democracy takes its force, and it is for this reason that it is the worst of the political systems...you know that voting does not actually accomplish anything grand, but if you don't vote, the result would be even worse...Democracy is nothing more than permanent blackmail to promote terror: as imperfect as it is, it is still preferable to tyranny...democracy is never achieved, never complete, always leaves something to conquer...the defects of democracy cannot support itself, and they are a perpetual failure to achieve anything...."
And it goes on and on...At the bottom of the page, the excerpt is cited from "Mort a la democratie" (Death to Democracy) by Leon de Mattis, and was distributed by the GSAE: Groupuscule Subversif des Anarchistes Enrages (Little Subversive group of enraged anarchists).
First, I thought it was hilarious. Oh, those enraged anarchists - goin' at it again! But it really highlighted, for me, the true rocky, volcanic state of the French society. There is ALWAYS something to combat within the French government - from the privatization of the postal system, to the price of public parking, to working salaries and the '40-hour work week,' to the voting age, to health care...and that's just their problems with the French government - that's not even mentioning all their various problems with the EU and the European government. It is just truly shocking to see people reacting this way. I mean - the US government is leaps and bounds away from being perfect, and that statement would be agreed upon by all sides. But we don't go about changing things by burning tires in the streets, and shutting down entire public transportation systems at a time. It's so shocking.
It also made me realize: Europe is a fairly new concept. When we grow up in the states, at least for me, Europe was full of really, really, really, really old stuff. And it was (again - for me) SO MUCH cooler than America because of that - history has always kind of had an added bonus. And this is obviously true - take the fact that I walk down a road with ruts in it from Roman chariots every day here as proof of that. However, in the sense of present-day Europe - it's a pretty new thing! France itself has had five constitutions, the most recent of which was written in 1958 - ours beats that by about 200 years. But a constitution lends itself in many, many ways to the sociological functioning of a country, and it affects the daily life of all of its citizens (this sounds a LOT like the introduction of my constitutional law paper I just wrote, haha). But it truly is a huge factor in a nation, and having such a young constitution, I can totally see how they would still be hammering things out! They're not fighting a war over it, but strikes and manifestations (and anarchist sentiments) is the French way of getting all those things straight.
Then, when you add that to the whole concept of the European Union, things get even more messy. But even more new. When I was in Brussels, I was lucky enough to see all the official buildings that house the various bodies of the EU...those buildings weren't anything like Victorian castles or Gothic churches. They were new. They were sleek and shiny and metallic and ecologically sound and all of that. But these brand new buildings are what house the core of Europe today - this really really old continent has been transplanted into a brand new idea. And then, to think that the newest development in the EU (the Treaty of Lisbon) was just ratified a few days ago by the final country and went into effect just last week...It's all happening NOW. Not in the 14th Century, which is how Europe functions in my head - not even 200 years ago, when the US probably went through a similar process.
It was really interesting. And I know I'm geeking out about this, but it's definitely been something that's impacted my time here a lot!
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