It's November 6. I have been in France for exactly 41 days and managed to work all of about 10. Tuesday ended the first scholarly vacation and I confronted the grueling workweek of 3 days with less temerity than my first days here. By contrast, am dragging my feet all the way across a new frontier; the graduate school personal essay. No task could be worse for someone who is already introspective to the point of self-torture. my mind is constantly in rummaging mode, which is an even more premature, cruder stage than brainstorming. So instead of obsessing over frivolous points of craft in writing this essay, I have decided to embrace the process and let my brain meander through its fields of recollection and HOPE, like all of my academic work, it will not only get done but be completed brilliantly. Maybe I am writing this to assuage myself of the guilt of not working at ALL on this essay but at least my stalling produced some good eats.
In a fit of procrastination, I successfully attempted my first mousse au chocolat. My culinary expedition only validated my brain's stubborn adherence to craft over process. As soon as I began melting the chocolate my computer finally realized it was in france and decided it didn't feel like working anymore, so it stopped working. HMMMMM.. I wouldn't have minded improvisation if I weren't making this for a lunch I was going to tomorrow. After a brief lecture (composed mainly of swearing) on the merits of capitalism and a few hard bangs on the keyboard, it resuscitated itself and SUCCESS!
But that is not all the imagination had to reveal today. i whipped up a simple dinner of mache, beets, goats cheese and smoked salmon dressed with a homemade shallot mustard vinagrette and baguette. Oh yes, along with a recent discovery of mine: THE DEMI-PECHE. This is simply a light beer with peach syrup. In concept it doesn't sound too tasty but in practice the palette takes this idea nicely.
My inspiration to finally launch myself into eating the French way "off hours" that is to say without the steady gaze of the French person who observes every detail of your behavior during meals straight down to how you place your utensils, was inspired by the results of my successful lesson with my younger students yesterday. I gave them several restaurants in New York to research on-line and they had to choose two items from each menu and re-invent it a la francaise. Even though they didn't quite grasp the concept and ended up just making their own menus, the results were quite impressive. We had hamburgers laced with foie grad, frog legs enrobed in citron vert, ile flottantes.... These were ordinary foods for these kids. The ordinary status of mousse de canard is like the status of kraft mac and cheese in the U.S. My suspicion that the way of living in France IS much more refined than the U.S. moves to claim now. Extrapolating even further, I will move to say that the basis of their general education is more refined. they may not have as stringent work standards as we do but they have more standards for more important things than how to make a buck, like how to eat well.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Thursday, September 30, 2010
IS THERE MORE THAN THIS PROVINCIAL LIFE???
Little town
It's a quiet village
Ev'ry day
Like the one before
Little town
Full of little people
Waking up to say:
[Townsfolk:] Bonjour!
Bonjour!
Bonjour! Bonjour! Bonjour!
[Belle:] There goes the baker with his tray, like always
The same old bread and rolls to sell
Ev'ry morning just the same
Since the morning that we came
To this poor provincial town..............
Alas, Day 3 in Decazeville and I have already explored the town in and out three times! This provincial life is quite charming. The school I will be working at is a boarding school, thus I am able to live right on campus. My flat is quite large: 2 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms (more or less- I don't have a bathroom that encompasses all the usual elements- toilet, shower, and sink. Each room has 2 of the 3 elements so I can't really describe the rooms as say 3 1/2 baths etc...), my big doe eyes are finally liberated by LARGE windows. The living room opens up to a fantastic view of the mountains and yes you got it......chickens!!!!!!!!!! The base of the economy is an aluminum factory a few miles away, thus it's easy to see why there is ONE restaurant, one supermarket, and a few boulangeries, all of which close for two hours midday (as I sorely found out when trying to find lunch in town yesterday.. Nutella and banana it is then!) Despite the less than vigorous commercial life here, there IS something more to this poor provincial town in fact.
Last night, I attended a small philosophical gathering (CAFE PHILO) at the local bar organized by the philosophy teacher here. I attended his class this morning. They are discussing Stanley Kubrick's the Shining. The fact that the class is all in French and that I am trying to stay true to this blog's mission statement to gain different perspectives on knowledge, the class, despite being high-school level, was still quite thought provoking. A separate post will follow on my thoughts. There is also a little dance school where I am hoping to take classes etc, etc.
As far as the nature of the people, they are the typical french. Aggressive in their opinons yet open to discursive challenges, They like their discourse square and neat. No threads must be left hanging in a discussion. True to the brain's neurology, they become frustrated when a pattern in the discussion is not readily revealed. More Logic and less intuition is their grounding to reality. I better load up on metaphysical ammunition if I aim my students to think beyond formulas. Logic doesn't always correspond to reality.
I start my duties tomorrow. On va voir...
It's a quiet village
Ev'ry day
Like the one before
Little town
Full of little people
Waking up to say:
[Townsfolk:] Bonjour!
Bonjour!
Bonjour! Bonjour! Bonjour!
[Belle:] There goes the baker with his tray, like always
The same old bread and rolls to sell
Ev'ry morning just the same
Since the morning that we came
To this poor provincial town..............
Alas, Day 3 in Decazeville and I have already explored the town in and out three times! This provincial life is quite charming. The school I will be working at is a boarding school, thus I am able to live right on campus. My flat is quite large: 2 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms (more or less- I don't have a bathroom that encompasses all the usual elements- toilet, shower, and sink. Each room has 2 of the 3 elements so I can't really describe the rooms as say 3 1/2 baths etc...), my big doe eyes are finally liberated by LARGE windows. The living room opens up to a fantastic view of the mountains and yes you got it......chickens!!!!!!!!!! The base of the economy is an aluminum factory a few miles away, thus it's easy to see why there is ONE restaurant, one supermarket, and a few boulangeries, all of which close for two hours midday (as I sorely found out when trying to find lunch in town yesterday.. Nutella and banana it is then!) Despite the less than vigorous commercial life here, there IS something more to this poor provincial town in fact.
Last night, I attended a small philosophical gathering (CAFE PHILO) at the local bar organized by the philosophy teacher here. I attended his class this morning. They are discussing Stanley Kubrick's the Shining. The fact that the class is all in French and that I am trying to stay true to this blog's mission statement to gain different perspectives on knowledge, the class, despite being high-school level, was still quite thought provoking. A separate post will follow on my thoughts. There is also a little dance school where I am hoping to take classes etc, etc.
As far as the nature of the people, they are the typical french. Aggressive in their opinons yet open to discursive challenges, They like their discourse square and neat. No threads must be left hanging in a discussion. True to the brain's neurology, they become frustrated when a pattern in the discussion is not readily revealed. More Logic and less intuition is their grounding to reality. I better load up on metaphysical ammunition if I aim my students to think beyond formulas. Logic doesn't always correspond to reality.
I start my duties tomorrow. On va voir...
Friday, July 9, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Gee- aRe- you there gods its mE, ashley?
" May the judge disappear and the philosopher continue the peaceful exploration of the sea! If his destiny be strange, it is also sublime. Have I not understood it myself?"- Jean Fremon
A telling quote that I hope will agitate the dead winds of inertia to move my soul towards inspiration and action in this self-proclaimed project. I have made little progress in stepping outside my normal '"Agonis" methods of scholarship, whereby knowledge acquisition is propelled by ego and achieved by means of contest for spectacle. My noble intention in pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge was quickly vanquished by a depreciating self-esteem. So far, the only sea I am peacefully exploring is the choppy waters of the GRE prep book! My minimal success to score perfectly has shifted my efforts for self- enlightenment into a wantonly extravagant state of self-pity. The judge is still casting aspersions my way and the philosopher is continually disrupted by listlessness at sea. Oh, how I wait for the sublime and the torture of self-introspection to end!
A telling quote that I hope will agitate the dead winds of inertia to move my soul towards inspiration and action in this self-proclaimed project. I have made little progress in stepping outside my normal '"Agonis" methods of scholarship, whereby knowledge acquisition is propelled by ego and achieved by means of contest for spectacle. My noble intention in pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge was quickly vanquished by a depreciating self-esteem. So far, the only sea I am peacefully exploring is the choppy waters of the GRE prep book! My minimal success to score perfectly has shifted my efforts for self- enlightenment into a wantonly extravagant state of self-pity. The judge is still casting aspersions my way and the philosopher is continually disrupted by listlessness at sea. Oh, how I wait for the sublime and the torture of self-introspection to end!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The Commonplace Book
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the average reader did not have the financial nor geographical ease as we do today to acquire every book that they desired to read. Out of this conundrum arose the Commonplace book which were blank books where the owner would collect passages of prose or poetry. In essence, they were ways of compiling and perpetuating knowledge. Each were unique to its owners' particular interests.
To make a blog with such a purpose serves as a palpable anachronism in an age so infatuated with the technology of virtual recordation. Such then will be the purpose of this blog- an inventory of knowledge; knowledge that has been, more often then not, stymied by actors in my immediate world who preached a utilitarian philosophy towards education. Education was merely a tool for economic advancement. Personal and social edification or mere curiousity were not considered an acceptable impetus for learning. Within this context, I have approached academic studies, by mainly choosing practical subjects that I felt would more readily advance a career. The result: a Sarah Lawrence Graduate spending two years in corporate bankruptcy law. Enough said. I have since quit my job to pursue what I hope to be the beginning of a new path driven by my interests and sheer love of learning.
While I am not saddled by the constraints of a job or the pressures of institutionalized academia, I will take this summer to wander the different islands of knowledge and thought that are often not explored by the 'literary continentals' of academia; and to the traditional works that I do want to read, I will try not to view them as conquests in hopes of gaining victory over the material and concepts. But my chosen literature will serve as conquests in the secondary meaning of the word: an object of enchantment. I will allow myself to be seduced and enthralled by literature again as I did when I was a child.
To make a blog with such a purpose serves as a palpable anachronism in an age so infatuated with the technology of virtual recordation. Such then will be the purpose of this blog- an inventory of knowledge; knowledge that has been, more often then not, stymied by actors in my immediate world who preached a utilitarian philosophy towards education. Education was merely a tool for economic advancement. Personal and social edification or mere curiousity were not considered an acceptable impetus for learning. Within this context, I have approached academic studies, by mainly choosing practical subjects that I felt would more readily advance a career. The result: a Sarah Lawrence Graduate spending two years in corporate bankruptcy law. Enough said. I have since quit my job to pursue what I hope to be the beginning of a new path driven by my interests and sheer love of learning.
While I am not saddled by the constraints of a job or the pressures of institutionalized academia, I will take this summer to wander the different islands of knowledge and thought that are often not explored by the 'literary continentals' of academia; and to the traditional works that I do want to read, I will try not to view them as conquests in hopes of gaining victory over the material and concepts. But my chosen literature will serve as conquests in the secondary meaning of the word: an object of enchantment. I will allow myself to be seduced and enthralled by literature again as I did when I was a child.
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