A Different Kind of Week-end...

I need to go to bed now, so this one's gonna be brief:

This Thursday night, I went to watch Clockwork Orange with a few of my friends at an artsy theater Rafaella had discovered. I had seen the movie once before, but due to my young age, didn't quite appreciate all of it's nuances. (Thanks big bro for the Clockwork Orange/American History X double feature when I was 12). This time around, I really enjoyed the movie and picked up on a lot more of the subtext. Also, the imagery was a lot less disturbing and distracting at age 20.

Friday night, I went with a group to a soiree put on by danone).(communities (as in Danon, the yogurt people) that I thought was going to be primarily a speech by Muhammed Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for inventing microfinancing. Instead, the talk was more of an annual report about what danone).(communities--Danon's foundation that has projects in developing countries and works towards marketing cheap/nutritious products there--is doing and the problems it will face. The presentation also included a series of round table discussions that addressed issues like the tension between the profit-driven nature of corporations and the desire for increased corporate social responsibility. Yunus was a part of one of these round table discussions and it was actually really cool to hear him responding to other people's comments instead of just making a speech in front of an adoring audience. This seemed a lot more real. Also, most of the other presenters spoke entirely in French, so it was good practice too! All in all, the soiree wasn't what I had expected, but ended up being really interesting and inspiring anyway.

Through a convulded chain of people, I got the opportunity to volunteer on Saturday and took ten of my UC party posse people with me. We woke up bright and early and headed over to l'Envol--a camp an hour outside of Paris for chronically ill children. We were told that we were going to be painting walls, but what we didn't know was that that actually meant painting designs onto walls--something we all very much took to. I made some fabulous coccinelles (ladybugs) and had a fun time chatting with some American ex-pats and the French people who worked there. I brought a huge feast for all of us for lunch, to which a few others contributed an absurd number of baguettes, and we chowed down. The staff at l'Envol were so fun and gracious and I hope we can go back there because we all had a GREAT time. Plus, a little extra good karma never hurt anyone in Paris.

Last night, I went to a party at my friend Annie's HUGE apartment and had a fun time practicing my French with some of the local natives. Although we didn't talk about Freedom Fries, I do remember a particular conversation about the cultural differences with regards to language instruction between the US and elsewhere, so I guess I'm pretty predictable and the Chi O seniors who called that I would be talking politics with the Frenchies via my Chi O Abroader award last semester were totally right. Earlier this evening (Sunday), I went back to the jazz club I had visited a few weeks ago, and followed that with a great chat with Tami and Song-My.

Now I've realized that it's approaching 3AM and that I have miserably failed at being brief, so I'll sign off and save a few of my latest intellectual musings for next time.