Listening to a Serge Gainsbourg CD I borrowed from my host family. Enjoying his voice.

With the election, we've been speaking more and more about politics - they're socialists and I feel pretty open when it comes to talking with them (not that I have many inhibition in general - French is such a beautiful language, I don't feel like I could say anything wrong when speaking it).

I went to see "W", the new Oliver Stone film with a friend of mine, Emmannuelle - while she was able to watch from a rather detached, critical perspective, I found my judgement clouded by overwhelming emotion. It was painful to revisit the worst parts of the last eight years, especially in the context of Bush's life story. We tried discussing the film at a cafe after, but I found myself far too caught up in anger and sadness to form sentences. I bumbled through the French language, not able to find the words in English to describe what I was feeling. My friend was very patient - she thought it was interesting that the film was able to affect me so, and we both agreed that this was the mark of a well-done piece of art. After all, evoking emotion is art's objective, is it not?

I'm struggling through my reading - feel like I have so much of it to do, and I read so slowly. But to tell the truth, I don't always read what's assigned - right now, I'm growing tired of Zola and slipping between Racine's Brittanicus (required for my 17th century class) and Ovide's L'art d'amour. Hoping to finish l'art d'amour today so that I'm no longer tempted. May go out with the family to see a movie tonight - Vincent Cassel has a new film out, "L'Instinct de Mort", which looks interesting. Loved him in "La Haine", and figure I can't go wrong.

With the cold weather, the family is bringing all the outdoor plants indoors, which means I got a new roommate! Feels nice to have another living thing in the room - I was just thinking about my basil plant back home earlier today, and I'm glad to have a little plant of my own again!

Be back soon!
Ben