Annie in Paris: 10 Things That Do Work

Last weekend I went to a birthday soiree for my Irish cousin who is living in Paris this year for her year abroad at Oxford. The party was a UN Millenial Assembly of sorts. Ireland, Britain, France, Australian, and The United States were all in attendance. Cheap wine, Madeleine cookies, chain smoking (pas moi), and the obligatory apathy and pessimism were also present.

After a couple glasses of wine, a British bloke and I stumbled upon the light topic of world politics. Neither of us had any real business touching the subject, but Hey! isn't that what study abroad is for? Seeing the world from a different perspective, listening to foreign points of view, finding the similarities, learning from our differences, and all that good stuff?

Before our 4th glass of wine, but after, in typical self-absorbed American fashion, I had asked him what he thought of Obama, the British diplomat was on a roll. "Media is the new religion." "Here is everywhere and could be anywhere (re:globalization)" and then he rounded it all up with:

"Nothing is working right now."

And with that, the Edith Piaf record stopped abruptly, the voices and laughter faded, the smoke cleared a bit. I sat back in my chair, looked into my glass of wine and thought.. I think you might be right ole chap...

And then we moved on to the more pressing subject of where to go dancing later.

The next day began my Museum Marathon a Paris. I've ticked Centre Pompidou and Musee L'Organgerie off the list thus far (but I'm sure I'll be back).

At L'Orangerie I chilled with Monet for a long time. After, I hung out with Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Soutine, Cezane, and the whole gang for a while. Sans wine and youthful angst these guys had a lot more interesting things to tell me about about current events.

Before I impart to you what they had to say, the very essence de this post, here's a fun fact:

NYU registered all the students in the program as Art History students because there is this baller mandate in France that entitles all Art History students to free admission to all the museums.

A lesser known perk of the mandate entitles the students to pontificate like art history scholars for the duration of their studies. It's a sorta role-play, psychological, I-think-therefore-I-am thing...

Now that we've cleared that up...Here I go...

10 Things That Do Work.

10. Multiplicity