Caligula and A Pretty Tasty Language

Today was an interesting day.
(HERE I COMPLAIN ABOUT CLASS FOR A PARAGRAPH)
It's almost the end of my very first week of phonetics, and I think it may be my favorite class (partly because it takes place every other week). After being in college for a couple years it's been a little weird having the same class(es) every weekday instead of every other day or even once a week. And it makes my grammar class feel longer than ever (it's two hours). On the one hand, I'm picking up little things that I hadn't realized I'd even forgotten, like the forms of certain verbs and stuff. On the other hand, I feel like I'm back in high school, doing tedious exercises, constantly working with a partner, etc. I don't know if moving up a level would make a difference; I have a feeling I'd be just as bored and also extremely lost and confused. Sometimes I feel like I learn more French listening to my roommate, Imene, talk with her friends (which makes me really glad I have a roommate).
TO SKIP THE BITCHING START READING HERE:
But I love my phonetics class! It involves a lot of repeating words, recording, and getting the sounds right, and I've discovered I like my voice a lot more when it's speaking French. Also, you'd think that just repeating words would be easy as pie (and a lot of the time it is), but sometimes it's pretty tricky. If you don't know the words, or aren't sure of the sentence, all you can do is try to remember the sounds and repeat them. I feel kind of like a baby (or a parrot) mimicking words and trying to speak for the first time, or even shoving random things in my mouth...why do babies do that? To see what they taste like? Something sensory like that. The point is, sometimes I have to learn not to think about the words and what they mean —which is a big deal for me, because I really like words— and kind of just focus on how my mouth has to move in order to make the sounds. It's certainly easier when I already know the words, but certain combinations are tricky. English is the only language I'm fluent in, sadly, and I'm not exactly great at picking up languages right away, but I do enjoy trying to speak them. It's like trying new foods. It almost tastes different to speak French. French is a pretty tasty language.

In the evening, after class was over, I went to see Caligula. After lots of confusion and rushing around the metro, my friends and I arrived at the Opera where the ballet was. That building is so beautiful, it's unbelievable. I thought I was starting to get used to all the fancy schmancy architecture around here, but l'Opera just put me in shock. And the ballet was excellent. I don't know the story, so I made one up:
EMMA'S STORY OF CALIGULA
There's this guy, Caligula, and he's a rich spoiled brat. He's always having these awesome, wild parties, and that's how the ballet starts, at a crazy party at Caligula's house. Everyone's having a great time and dancing like mad, and Caligula pulls some crazy stunts, acting like he's going to start a fight with this guy and then being like "It's cool bro" and they dance together.
But Fate- which apparently is four tall sexy muscly guys in white outfits- has something else in store for Caligula. They deliver this girl (who rolls across the stage...how did she know how many times to roll to get to the right spot?! It was amazing!) and she and Caligula fall in love and have the time of their lives...until Caligula wants something the girl isn't willing to give. She runs away, and Caligula goes back to the party, which I decided was maybe in his basement.
Then there's a rumble, and Caligula fights all the dudes at the party and ends up killing one. He disappears somewhere and when he comes back, all the girls and guys are partying like nothing happened. The next day they're all super hungover- you can tell because they're really having a lot of trouble getting out of bed. They get up, fall back down, get up, fall back down, and finally start to function. I'm pretty sure one guy pukes. Then Caligula kicks them all out and fools around with his manslave, who is this dude on a leash.
Fate kind of comes in and out of the story until Cal finally kills the girl he's in love with somehow, and afterward he can't live with the guilt, so he dies. Naturally. It was either that or alcohol poisoning.

(If you want to know the real story, go to google. Or even better, a library.)

I never thought about how much danger and trust is involved in ballet. People are holding each other up, throwing each other, even collapsing on top of each other. If someone misses their cue or falls when they're not supposed to, a real injury could happen. It's pretty impressive to see. I was also thinking, as I watched the performance, that there were a lot of yoga poses in ballet. I saw tree, a warrior series, cobra, plank and dolphin plank, even goddess.

After the ballet I talked to some fellow American buddies, took a picture of some French people, and walked home. Walking from l'Opera back to St Michel is pretty easy- it's basically a straight shot from there to the Louvre, and once you're at the Louvre you just cross a bridge and walk along the Seine until you reach the St Michel mouth, recognizable because of the fountain. Anyway, it's a really great walk, especially at night, because you see everything- the city all lit up, the Louvre, that famous ferris wheel and the Eiffel Tower in the distance, the Seine, and finally Notre Dame. It really blows my mind that a month ago, the best things I'd see on walk were umm...snow? A creek? The person I was walking with? And now when I go for a walk...it's, "Oh, there's the Musee D'Orsay. Hey, that's the light from the Eiffel Tower. Oh hey, the top of Notre Dame." It's a little surreal to be near so many famous things at once.

What to do in Paris? Walk. Walk at night. Oh, and if you buy fruit, eat it ASAP. I just had to throw away two moldy oranges that I was trying in vain to make last the week. French food is apparently more fresh and less injected with preservatives than ours is, so it tends to go bad a little faster.

On that note, I'd better me coucher or whatever. My feet are tired from walking, my brain is tired from failing at French, and I have a trip to Normandy on the horizon. I was hoping to do yoga tomorrow but I'd better do my laundry first...I've been doing it in the basement sink because the washing machines cost 4 euros (but the dryer is free)...and to be frank, I'd rather use the money for baguettes, berries and cocktails.