Friday, the 12th

Fell off the wagon there for a few days, but now I'm back, and I'll do a quick recap of what's happened lately. (It's sort of like the remix (to the remix) - see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-lwiwVyeY0)

The last post finished up recounting our tour of Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, which I can't say enough about: interesting, powerful, and beautiful in it's own sad, still way.  Each of the graves seems to contain so much personality, not only through it's construction, but also through the gifts still left there.  Some showing resign, some majesty, and some still struggling to get out.

As we get further into the trip, assignments are starting to come in and there is A LOT of grading that needs to happen.  Grading parties and supper club have become the norm.  Luckily, we're not losing track of where we are.

One of the biggest pros of this entire trip has been all of the cultural events that we have planned into the syllabus.  We're getting to see so many of the things that make Paris an amazing place to visit (or live).  The pictures will never do it justice, but being able to stand in a room, turn a full 360 degrees and take in the beauty of some of the greatest artists to known is a true blessing.  We always see pictures of lilies in books or on posters is nice, but to standing close to these paintings is irreplaceable.

The sights outside of the museums aren't too shabby, either.

Even being this far away from home, there are things that remind you of home.  We had a visit to the museum of medical specimens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_Dupuytren).  You can't take pictures, but what you can see are the actual brains the Broca studied to gain insight into the language aphasias that resulted in having a language area of the brain named in his honor.  You can actually see the same lesions on the brains that he studied - total nerd-gasm.

Afterwards, it's just a short walk to the Rodin museum, primary set in a garden outside of a home that he made his studio.  Here's where the Atlantan (and beer drinker) in me really kicked in.  For the first 4 years of grad school, I don't know if I ever missed more than a handful of Wednesday nights at the Thinking Man Tavern with Jimbo, Eric, Meag, and Judas.  Here's to you all:

Well, that doesn't quite bring us up to date, but it's enough for now.  Besides, I have a special guest that needs some entertaining.  Back soon!