Independent Study

This week is midterms week.  At least, for everyone else at NYU.  Last week, one of my professors told us that he was going to move ours to next week so we wouldn’t have too much to worry about.  I was thrilled and very much supported this decision.  That is, until, my other professors did it too.

I got out of school today relatively early, and it has been absolutely beautiful outside lately.  No rain.  Just sunshine and Monet-esque settings.  The weather made me much more inclined to go outside and explore, so that’s exactly what I did.

I wanted to find a market.  I love to shop, no matter what it is I’m buying.  Seriously, I get excited buying shampoo.  Maybe it’s the thrill of spending money I don’t have (and really won’t have soon).  Our apartment came fully equipped with a bookshelf full of random tourist books former students have left behind, so I went searching through one called “Markets of Paris“–this book is great, I highly recommend it.

Since it was already late afternoon on a Wednesday, I didn’t really have many options.  A lot of the markets are open on weekends or early in the day, which just gives me an opportunity to go back and find more!  I decided just to be safe and go to the bouquinistes along the Seine.

I was looking for paintings or posters to decorate my room for next year.  While the bouquinistes started with only books, tourism has given much more of a market for paintings, keychains, coasters…you name it, as long as an Eiffel Tower can be printed on it.

I found some really pretty prints, so I’m excited to put them in my apartment next year.  I don’t care if they are tourist purchases.  They’re still pretty.

Afterwards, I went to Gilbert Jeune, my absolute favorite store.  I could probably spend the rest of my life in there, telling myself I’ll find time to read Hugo’s entire cannon or all the great French masterworks of the nineteenth century.  I love the idea of reading all these books, but unfortunately, I have the attention span of a gnat(which is why I have to annotate everything heavily–I have to keep myself occupied).

I bought two books I needed for class, but then I remembered a play my theatre professor told me about this morning.  He asked me what other classes I was taking and I told him I was in two literature classes, reading a lot of nineteenth century works right now.  He started talking about a play by Musset, “Les Caprices de Marianne,” telling me why it was his favorite and describing the plot to me and telling me his favorite part…all of which convinced me to buy it.  The fact that it was “occasion” and only a euro didn’t hurt much either.

Next week my best friend Katie comes, so I KNOW there will be more shopping to be done then.  Until then, maybe I should start to study for my midterms…