Not Exactly Tomorrow

Sorry about the radio silence! This week was long and tiring. For the last few days I've been working on a giant paper--I have to do a ten-pager, all in french. Please, kill me now. The Loire's lookin' pretty good, right about now. Anywaaaay, besides the hell paper, I also have to do a smaller five-pager and an in-class presentation. AWESOME. Except not. Not at all. So for my big paper, I've decided to write about this crazy french artist I found. Her name's ORLAN. She's freaky. Like, extensive plastic surgery for an art piece freaky. Luckily, she's totally ten pages worth of interesting, and she has a large body of work, and we're allowed to put in a few pictures and they will end up being delightfully weird.

For breaks, I've been working on a comic strip; it's a redo of a quicker one I did in my notes. I can't decide which one I like better. The pen and paper one has a certain charm, while the digital one I ended up making is more...frightening than anything else. Fuck it, I'll put up the hand drawn one when I take a picture of it.

A little background: In France, if the obligatory statue of Marianne in the 'salle de marriage' isn't looking towards a couple while they're getting married, IT DOESN'T COUNT. Seriously. It's not a legal marriage if Marianne isn't starin' at you. You're fuckin' weird, France. Fucking. Weird.


Other than schoolwork, I've gotten into a nice routine of class+sometimes hanging out+walks+work, so that's good. I really like Tours, it's a nice size, not TOO sketchy in most parts, and very pretty. It's got some delicious food, and some cheap/fun shops, and neat architecture, and that is really all I need to be entertained. I still need to go to the bar by the river that people keep talking about, it sounds super fun. That is one thing about living across the river; having to take a bus makes me so much less likely to get out than just being able to walk five minutes would. I have this built-in curfew and so I just end up not doing anything. I need to work on that, and get out at night more!

This week we went to Azay Le Rideau and Villandry. Azay Le Rideau was pretty, but definitely not as cool as Chenonceau. Chenonceau was built OVER a river, and it was just in the greatest location, and you could look down out of a window and the river would be ruching underneath and it was just awesome. I think Villandry has been my favorite actual castle, even though it's really only known for it's gardens. The gardens were totally awesome, don't get me wrong, but I had the most fun exploring the inside of the castle. We found these sketchy unmarked stairs that led all the way to the roof, and at one point I managed to, eh, circumvent some security and get into an attic. It was super fun. Approve. Would buy again.

So yes. This weekend I decided to stay here and get all the work I need to do done, so that I'm not completely overwhelmed next week. I want this shit to be...not shitty. Everything has to be in french, too, so that means it's taking EXTRA long, adn you all know how long it takes me to write something normally, so yeah. Bein' responsible. Go me.

For an extra special treat, here're all my silly class note sketches. There are surprisingly few, as I try to pay attention and keep track of what's going on as best I can. *******************************NOTE: NEVER MIND, BLOGGER HATES ME AND WON'T UPLOAD THEM. I'LL TRY AGAIN TOMORROW. IF THIS ISN'T GONE BY MONDAY, I FORGOT.

-Jane