If a panini the length of my torso can fit in my coat...

OK so on Friday I went off to the Musee d'Aquitaine to start work on my fourth essay for FR 450.  Unfortunately, one entire section of the museum was blocked off, but that was okay because there was a group of children following behind me and I was able to escape them by going upstairs instead of into the next section.  They really ruin the ambiance.  I would tell you more about the museum, but I guarantee that's going to be going into my essay and I'll post that as soon as it's done.  (I probably should start actually writing it... oh well).

That's really all I did on Friday.  I started scanning some of my notes from my classes so I can get rid of all the papers I have floating around here that are definitely not necessary.

Today's Saturday and earlier this week I agreed to go to Sophie's to do some Christmas baking.  But then I entirely forgot about it and didn't know where she lived and would have been six hours late, so I obviously didn't go to that today.

This morning I went out on St. Catherine and I bought a new pair of earrings.  Not important, but I quite like them.

Speaking of St. Catherine, I'd like to address the new security in Bordeaux since the terrorist attacks in Paris.  It's out of controle (accent circonflex o) [also it's a pun].

Anyways, you always had to go through a "controle" when you went to the library or the museum, meaning that you opened your bag so the security officer could see inside.  But now, you also have to unzip your coat and open your bag and sometimes they shine flashlights inside.  And it's not only the municipal library and the museum--it's all the malls, any really big store, and sometimes the street leading to a bunch of big stores (like the Promenade St. Catherine).

They don't always ask me to unzip my coat, even when they ask the people I'm walking with to do so because apparently my coat is "so small."  But I will inform you that if I can smuggle a panini the length of my torso for four blocks back to my apartment, I can smuggle a gun--so stop skimping on the tiny people.

In addition to the greater number of controles, we also now have uniformed soldiers posted in two places off of St. Catherine.  I don't know why that street is so important, it only crosses St. C. and I don't think any of the buildings between the soldiers look that important.  They wear the same uniform and carry the same guns as I saw in Paris over Toussaint, but there's only four in comparison to the fourteen I saw in Paris, so I can't imagine what their security looks like now.  Walking home from the movies the other night, the soldiers were wearing these huge green matching mufflers that went from their shoulders to up past their noses.  I'm sure they're glad to be warm, but I imagine standing there for hours with that on would get soggy and claustrophobic.

The bottom floor of the building I'm currently staying at is an Indian restaurant.  So tonight I went out and got chicken Tikka Masala and naan and I ate all of it and now my tummy hurts.  It was worth it though, because the microwave doesn't work and I wouldn't have been able to eat it again tomorrow.

Speaking of the microwave, remember when I tried to use it and I had to take out the plate of spaghetti and coffee (???) in order to attempt to cook my oatmeal?  Well I got curious today and I checked inside of it.  The same coffee and spaghetti are still there and they are very very very moldy.  A cool fuzzy mold that's green on the bottom and huge fluffy white on top.  I thought about cleaning it up and then I thought "nah."  Have fun with that later yogurt&pudding-stealing-roomies!!

MWAHAHAHA

Unflowy

On Wednesday morning I went to the train station to pick up my ticket to London.  It wouldn't have been hard but I forgot which credit card I had used so I had a bunch of stress thinking I was too stupid to understand the machine when in actuality, I was doing it right.  I had to go to information and then to the SNCF office, so I'm glad I didn't wait until the 12th to take care of it.

From there, I went home and I worked some more on that essay and sent it off to Madison to revise.  I didn't read it over before that stage, and I think she really appreciated the entire lack of transitions and unflowy sentences.

After I finished the paper I bought a pizza from the guy at Tricolor who looks like Hemraj and I ate it in its entirety.

I was working on a Shrek marathon when I got a message from Julie that I was going to have to get out of bed and go ice skating.  I refused but eventually I was peer-pressured from both France and the US to go to the revised plan of seeing Spectre at the cinema.  It was definitely an improvement over 21 Nuits.

Unfortunately, in running for the last tram, everyone (including myself) ran the wrong direction and I ended up walking 2.5 miles home instead of the like 4 tram stops it would have taken.  #awkward.

Then I took a shower (you're welcome Domenic) and went to sleep.

Today I didn't do anything except turn in a library book at Montaigne, buy food, eat an entire bag of chips, do the references for that paper, and sit here writing these.

Though I just realized I still have to go to French class tonight, and I definitely don't want to.  Our prof probably won't show up and I'll have to put real pants on.

Dat Paper Doe

Oh and before I go on to Wednesday here's my cognition paper:

Sara MOHR

Cognition

01/12/2015

La Subjectivité de Benveniste et L’Intersubjectivité de Duranti

            La subjectivité et l’intersubjectivité sont des concepts bien connues dans un discours de représentation maintenant, mais elles sont vraiment plus récentes dans la linguistique que dans la philosophie d’où elles ont origines.  On voit, dans les textes « De la subjectivité dans le langage » par Émile Benveniste et « Husserl, intersubjectivity and anthopology » par Alessandro Duranti, que leurs travails ont influencé une discussion de la subjectivité et l’intersubjectivité qui est relevant à l’anthropologie linguistique et l’étude de représentation.

            Émile Benveniste est né en 1902 au Syrie du Nord.  Il a commencé une étude rabbinique, mais après les enseigneurs ont trouvé sa capacité pour la linguistique, il commençait ses études à la Sorbonne (“Benveniste, Émile (1902-76).” 2013).  Benveniste a traversé entre la linguistique Indo-Européen et la linguistique pure en suivant une conception Saussurien (“Benveniste, Émile.” 1995).  Comme des autres linguistes et philosophes à la même époque, il a contesté le dualisme de Saussure par ajoutant le concept des dimensions et le contexte en construisant le sens des phrases (“Benveniste, Émile.” 1995).

            Le travail plus connu de Benveniste est son livre Problèmes de Linguistique Générale.  Dans ce livre, son article « De la subjectivité dans le langage, » explique bien son idée de subjectivité.  Benveniste discute que le langage est la nature d’homme, et le langage crée la communication, pas vice versa.  Tous les langages du monde ont des formes linguistique pour la subjectivité, et le langage ne fonctionnerait jamais, ou être imaginé, sans la subjectivité.  La subjectivité est fondamental au langage parce qu’elle donne la polarité des personnes, il dit, et cette polarité apparaît seulement dans le langage pour causer la communication.  La subjectivité, explique Benveniste, produit les effets du changement de perception, aussi.  Elle donne une indication d’attitude et pas une description d’opération ; tout en transmettant le contexte pour caractériser l’état du locateur de la phrase.  Benveniste continue avec des exemples de l’effet de sens produit par changeant le locateur et forme personnel du verbe.  Cette condition n’est pas donnée par le sens du verbe, mais dans la subjectivité du discours (Benveniste 1966).

            Problèmes de Linguistique Générale était publié en 1966 quand Alessandro Duranti avait seulement 16 ans.  Né en 1950, il a fait ses études licences à l’Université de Rome, et a complété son diplôme doctorat à l’Université de Californie du Sud (Duranti 2003).  Maintenant, il est professeur d’anthropologie à l’Université de Californie Los Angeles et son biographie professionnel dit qu’il est intéressé aux sujets de l’agence, l’intentionnalité, et l’intersubjectivité (“Professor Alessandro Duranti.”).

            Son plus grand article de l’intersubjectivité, « Husserl, intersubjectivity and anthropology, » était publié en 2010, mais il discute les travails âgés et les perceptions du topic.  Comme Benveniste, Husserl était le premier de vraiment discuter un concept comme intersubjectivité dans la linguistique.  Dans cet article, Duranti parle aux inexactitudes actuelles du mot intersubjectivité et le concept en totalité.  L’intersubjectivité est détaché d’Husserl et maintenant est connu comme « compréhension réciproque. »  Cette définition ne peut pas être plus loin de la définition proposé par Husserl et continué par Duranti.  L’intersubjectivité, il explique, est une condition universelle des humains, la base d’expérience de sens de notre monde.  Surtout, l’intersubjectivité est la possibilité d’interaction et compréhension entre les humains ; parfois, quand les « Autres » sont là, comme en travaillant ensemble, mais aussi quand les Autres ne sont pas du tout présent.  Le monde des Autres, exposé par langage et les sémiotiques, est actif et relevant n’importe quoi, Duranti explique.  Ça c’est le vrai sens de l’intersubjectivité, l’étendue qui couvert tout l’expérience humain en évoquant la connaissance des Autres avant la communication.  L’usage de langage, continue Duranti, montre la possibilité de l’Autre en exhibant l’intersubjectivité avant que le message est vraiment décodé avec l’information grammaticale et indexicale (Duranti 2010).

            Duranti termine l’article en disant que si on voit l’intersubjectivité comme gradient, on pourra encourager l’étude interdisciplinaire de la socialité humaine (Duranti 2010).  Mais on peut voir que les travails de la subjectivité et l’intersubjectivité ont déjà eu des effets sur le monde linguistique.  Les phénomènes associés avec ses idées influencent une grande portée des formes linguistiques (Cumming et al. 2011).  Les facteurs d’attitudes ne reflètent pas la contenu de la phrase et l’information, mais comment l’était des affaires sont vu.  Ça change la forme du nom ou le placement des arguments dans les phrases, un effet purement linguistique (Cumming et al. 2011).  On peut élargir la subjectivité aussi à la narratologie pour étudier comment les autres actes communicatives créent des positions subjectives.  Cette étude contient des locuteurs, auteurs, textes, et audiences, s’ils sont réels ou imaginés ; un concept dont on ne peut pas penser sans ces travails déjà faits (White 2000).

            Dans le monde linguistique, plusieurs concepts philosophes changent aux concepts linguistiques, mais il ne reste pas beaucoup qui ont duré comme la subjectivité et l’intersubjectivité.  Les travails de Benveniste et Duranti ont changé la perception du monde sur les choses que tout le monde expérience, mais sauf les linguistes, personne ne reconnaît.  

Références

“Benveniste, Émile (1902-76).”  Oxford Reference: A Dictionary of Critical Theory.  2013. 

Web.  25 Nov 2015.

“Benveniste, Émile.” The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. 1995.  Web.  25 Nov

2015.

Benveniste, É.  “Subjectivity in Language.”  In Problems in General Linguistics.  1966.  Trans.

Mary Elizabeth Meek.  University of Miami Press, 1971.  Web.  24 Nov 2015.

Cumming, S., Ono, T., and Laury, R.  “Discourse, Grammar, and Interaction.”  Discourse

Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction.  Ed.  Teun A. Van Dijk.  California: SAGE

Publications Inc., 2011.  8-36. Web. 26 Nov 2015.

Duranti, A. “Husserl, Intersubjectivity, and Anthropology.”  Anthropological Theory. 10.1

(2010): 1-20.  Web. 25 Nov 2015.

Duranti, A.  “Language as Culture in U.S. Anthropology.”  Current Anthropology.  44.3 (2003): 

323-347. Web.  25 Nov 2015.

“Professor Alessandro Duranti.”  University of California at Los Angeles.  n.d. Web. 25 Nov

2015.

White, G.M.  “Histories and Subjectivities.”  Ethos.  28.4 (2000): 493-510.  Web. 25 Nov 2015.

When you are six hours early for class

Tuesday was quite a disaster.

I woke up to go to Cognition class at 8:30.  I bought a chocolatine and while I waited in class eating it, I realized that class was actually meeting in the afternoon.  When I opened my notebook, it informed me that class was at 14h30 and that was why I was the only one in the room.

The good news is that I was then able to go to the store and buy lunch before 10am.  I then got back in my bed to write that essay.

I went to class at 2:30 and I turned in my final University paper.  The prof was so excited to see me smiling while I turned it in, which begs the question why she didn't mention that she was concerned about me at any point in the semester.  But eh, doesn't really matter.  Paper's done!!!

I tried to make some oatmeal here but the microwave doesn't work so I had cold oatmeal which could have been better honestly.

[I would like to mention on a side note that someone in this apartment is eating my food out of the fridge and so today (thursday) I went and bought all non-fridge food except some cream cheese which I figure doesn't really need to be refridgerated]

That didn't have anything to do with Thursday but I was just thinking about eating something else right now.

Thursday night I had to go to French class which is obviously one of the worst things.  She gave us another set of expressions to learn for the text next week.  Ugh.

After class Julie and I went to a neuro lecture at the bar on the corner by St. Nicholas.  I don't know why they were holding a neuro lecture there, and I only really understood anything I'd already learned about in class so it wasn't the most informative for me.

I stayed over at Julie's on Tuesday night because it was so cold in my room.  Too cold.

Too many important things

Alright, so now to inform you of how my life has been since the 27th.  Much stress is how it's been.

I moved out of the residence on the 30th which was so incredibly stressful.  I moved some things over to the new apartment on Sunday, but I waited until Monday morning to finish trucking things over.  I'm clearly not as strong as I think I am.  But, it was really nice out and I didn't even have to wear a coat.

For the state of exit from my building, I had to clean everything that existed in my apartment.  Then three people came in, two men and a woman.  While the men were puttering about loudly talking about how well I'd cleaned things, the woman was trying to tell me important things.  Like how I have to keep my bank account open for two more months after I leave so that I can receive my security deposit back.  What a pain.  And then we'll have to pay a wire transfer fee to send my money back home.  What ugh.  It was stressful.

After they left I still had the keys to the apartment because I had to clean my shower drain and my mirror again.  I probably didn't clean them as well as the people wanted, but it did give me a chance to eat an entire pack of butter cookies as a farewell party for myself.

The rest of Monday I spent spreading things out in my new apartment to prepare to get rid of everything I own, and then Julie and Max and I went to the movies to see 21 Nuits Avec Pattie.

Do not go see it.  It's a freaky movie and should be avoided at all costs.  Too freaky.

This apartment is really cold, but it turns out that I was using the wrong heater.

That was Monday.

Marche des Capucins

First off, I just finished and turned in my third FR 450 essay.  It is below:  (please enjoy the quality work--it's so cold in this room I may have made more spelling mistakes when my fingers stopped working).

Sara Mohr

FR 450

12/03/2015

Marché des Capucins

            Yesterday I officially moved out of my residence on Cours de l’Yser.  While debating whether wearing my gloves to bed was really going to help with the attic-induced cold, I thought about what I was going to miss from my old neighborhood.  I didn’t realize that moving half a mile northeast could so drastically change the route I take.  I will no longer have a solid reason to buy that kebab panini at 2am simply because I’ll walk right past the all-night bakery.  There is an upside, my new apartment puts me out on Cours de la Somme on the far side of the Vivo Shop, so I will never again have to walk past the man who always winks at me.

Unfortunately though, I am now farther away from the Marché des Capucins.  The market is open every day with extended hours on Sundays, and I have been nearly every Sunday since I moved into the residence.  It’s a huge building with dozens of fruit and vegetable venders, cheese and meat counters, and tiny seafood restaurants with three or four tables each.  My only problem with the market is its strong oyster smell.  After trying them with other Erasmus in September, I can no longer stand the smell of saltwater without imagining the gritty, slimy, sandy taste.

            While I’ve only been going to the market for a few months, it has clearly existed longer than my stay in Bordeaux; but I had no idea it was over 250 years.  The official Marché des Capucins website states that the first weekly market was held on October 2^nd of 1749.  The name derives from the Capucins, a religious group that arrived in the neighborhood to convert the population.  Their robes had a pointed hood, the translation in French:  a “capuce” (Marché des Capucins (2)).  Originally, the Les Capucins was not a market at all, but a neighborhood and a group of people, currently called Les Capucinards. The market arose from within this group and each family passed their trade down by generation (Caro 1994).   

M. Caro discussed the importance of these generations in his Master’s thesis at the University of Bordeaux in 1994.  The reconstruction of the market to its current state was to begin in 1995, and M. Caro seems hesitant in his work to posit the future of this new reconstructed market.  His only direct statement about the future is:  “Les Capucins!  The phenomenon has persisted for two centuries, let’s hope that it continues through the 21^st.”[1]  (Caro 1994).

The permanent building with which M. Caro would have been familiar had been constructed in 1878 though the project began 15 years before the purchase of the materials (Marché des Capucins (2)).  The necessity of a market as large as Capucins was due to big changes in Bordeaux’s population.  Between 1851 and 1954 the population of Bordeaux nearly quadrupled as the city drew men to work in its center.  Before the markets arrived in full-force, the producers sold to venders who then raised their prices to sell right back to the producers and workers (Bonneau 2013).  It wasn’t until 1857 that the large expansion and familial passing down of physical shops by Les Capucins began (Marché des Capucins (2)).  These “market suburbs” in Bordeaux revitalized the coast and brought more people working and vacationing to France’s South-West coast (Bonneau 2013).

            Some tourist sites even suggest a visit to the Marché des Capucins, recommending a view from above to fully experience the market culture.  One website called the Marché des Capucins “the belly of Bordeaux,” though whether that refers to its placement near the city’s center or its position as the largest market in Bordeaux is uncertain.  In my experience, it is the best place to buy fresh food, and is definitely less expensive than the supermarkets (Marché des Capucins (1)).  By the time I get to the market around 11 or 12, the venders have already been selling for six hours but are usually very nice.

Going to the market is the best part about Sundays; something new or interesting seems to happen every time.  My first trip was a bit like going into the animal barns at the State Fair.  It’s obvious that everyone else knows what’s going on, but you’re just walking around wondering what you just stepped in.  It took me a while to be assertive enough about my place in line, and on one occasion I was mistaken for the child of the guy next to me.  The vender passed over me for my payment until the man left and he realized I was still waiting.

            The market is bustling and exciting when it’s open, and is an interesting study in architecture during the daytime.  However, unlike Rue St. Catherine, there’s no reason to be in the neighborhood after dark, and there are few streetlights or stores open.  Bordeaux has many historical monuments that are beautiful to behold in the daytime, but a little creepy at night.  The most straightforward route from the Quai to my residence passed the Grand Cloche, the immigration arch, and the Marché du Capucins.  At two in the morning I’m not looking for dark, abandoned, and silent; and I will say I prefer the more direct and better lit route to my new apartment from the Quai.

            Even though it’s creepy at night, I will miss the Marché des Capucins.  Access to groceries is definitely different in Waverly, Iowa, and it will be quite the transition back to Mensa food.  I imagine that Waverly has a farmer’s market, but as with the one in Cedar Rapids; I will likely not have the motivation to get in my car to drive to a market.  Because of my hesitation to take the time to drive, I may have missed out on history in my own town.  Reading through M. Caro’s thesis has given me an appreciation for the years of work that have gone into the Marché des Capucins.  He includes a very poignant statement on the importance of the market to the entire city of Bordeaux:  “Seen from the inside, seen from the outside; les Capucins and their merchants are a world that has marked an age, the memory of Bordeaux cannot ignore this phenomenon, it’s a social fact” (Caro 1994).[2]  When I return, I plan to seek out the Waverly market, and compare it to my experience at the largest market in Bordeaux.

References

Bonneau, Emmaneulle.  “La banlieue maraîchère de Bordeaux: Souvenirs d’un géographe.” 

CaMBo. Nov 2013: 20-21.  Web. 

Caro, Olivier.  Rue Elie Gintrac: Un regard sur la culture du marché des Capucins.  Diss. 

Université de Bordeaux 2, 1994.  Print. 

Marché des Capucins: The Belly of Bordeaux. (1). Europeanbestdestinations.com. n.p. Web. 01

Dec 2015.<http://www.europeanbestdestinations.com/travelguide/bordeaux/march%C3%

A9-des-capucins/>

Marché des Capucins:  Le Ventre de Bordeaux. (2). Marché des Capucins.  n.p. Web. 01 Dec

2015.  <http://marchedescapucins.com/>

---

[1] Original Text “Les Capucins!  Le phénomène persiste depuis deux siècles, souhaitons qu’il se poursuivre au-delà du XXIe siècle.”

[2] Original text: “Vue de l’intérieur, vue de l’extérieur; les Capucins et leurs marchands sont un monde qui a marqué une époque, la mémoire de Bordeaux ne peut ignorer le phénomène, c’est un fait social.”

That's enough work

I do apologize for doing so poorly at getting any blog posts written.  I've been working on (and totally avoiding) this cognition paper because it is the devil.  Who knew something three pages long could feel so evil.

I'm packing up now to leave this apartment and move in with Ana for the next 12 days before I leave Bordeaux.  That's all that's really going on.  I unfortunately have to think about think about the future (as in farther than what I'm going to maybe eat for dinner) in order to get everything out of my room and the rest of it all cleaned up.  I didn't really make any amount of messes in the room though so I don't think they would really even notice if I didn't clean it, honestly.  Maybe dusting the tops of the registers.

Last night I went to Julie's for her official housewarming party, though she's been there at least a month, and I think even more than that, because I don't remember anything about the original housewarming party except that I was there and I drew a hand turkey for her to put up on her wall (ironic that the next time I'd be in her apartment would be on Thanksgiving).

I had a good time at Julie's party.  Then Sofie and I left around midnight to go back to Victoire.  On the way I saw a tram (which I thought wasn't running anymore) and so I got on it.  Turns out the tram wasn't moving and I was just sitting there for like 5 minutes.  Yanis was on the same tram, so he came over to talk to me even though I hadn't seen him since the very beginning of the semester.  In the end we got off the still-not-moving tram and walked up to Victoire together.

Then I bought a panini from the really quiet man that sometimes works the night shift at the bakery.  He asked if I wanted sauce on it and I didn't know so I just agreed and he asked what kind and I didn't know so I just agreed again.  In the end the sauce he put on was super delicious so that's definitely my plan for next time.

I have also learned how to hack the German language.  I have some stress with the articles since there's three genders and then some other things about turning them declarative or something, and it's just a disaster.  So I've decided if I'm ever in a situation where I need to actually get a message across to a German in German I'm going to drop all articles and just use "some/something" instead.  Can we have a fork? now becomes Can we have some fork?  which still sounds foolish, but I don't even care, #lifehack #ingenious

I'm done now.  I think I did enough work today.