There are a lot of things I don't understand about people. One of them is their habit of hanging out with, being nice to, playing friends with a person and then turning around when they're not there and talking about them behind their back. I've been taking the time to observe and listen to the people I've been spending time with, and I watch how they act like best friends with someone, then as soon as that someone is gone, they talk about how annoying/obnoxious/whiny that person is.
This makes no sense to me, and it seems counter-productive. If you are friends with people who do this sort of thing, what makes you think they won't do the exact thing to you when you're not around? And if you can't trust people not to go behind your back and talk about you, then how can you possibly be friends? What kind of friendship is that if you're constanting wondering what they're saying when you're not there?
I'm no saint. I talk about people behind their backs; the difference is I don't pretend to like them. I have no patience for playing friends with people who drive me nuts, and while I'm always polite and not-mean, I have no problem with people I don't like knowing I don't like them. It's mean to lie to a person's face by pretending to like them and, quite frankly, disrespectful. And while I certainly am well aware of my friends' faults, I would never go behind their back and gossip about them because part of friendship is having a modicum of respect for that person.
Yesterday, we took a bus ride out to Fontainebleau and Vaux-le-Vicomte. Unlike almost everyone else, I actually preferred Fontainebleau. It's much more extravagent, and has more significance to history. Vaux-le-Vicomte is famous for being the dream-home of Fouquet (Louis XIV's finance minster for a short time who earned the jealousy of the king and was arrested for it) and for being in the movie The Man in the Iron Mask. Other than that, it reminds me of a larger-scaled plantation home. Older, obviously, but still maintaining a "homey" feel as opposed to Fontainebleau, which is an enormous palace and in no way could be mistaken for a simple home. Vaux-le-Vicomte has paintings of sculptures and gilded frames while Fontainebleau actually has statues and gilded frames—on every available surface.
In fact, the best thing about both chateaux were the ceilings. Why doesn't anyone decorate their ceilings anymore? My favorite part was looking up.
But Fontainebleau. Home of French kings for 700 plus years. Favorite lodgings of François 1er. Every king spent time there in some fashion, and they still have the exact bed that both Louis XVI and Napoleon slept in. A mishmash of hundreds of years of French and Italian artistic and architectural styles. I could so live there (or Versailles. One or the other, I'm not picky). But looking at the extravagance of every. single. room. makes it really obvious why the French took their heads off.
It was only a day-trip though, so we got back to Paris around 5:30. Today was one girl's birthday, so last night we went out to celebrate and ended up at a fondue restaurant near St. Michel, where I encountered the first bit of rude-French people I've ever had to deal with. Our waiter was nothing less than an outright jackass. We even made the attempt to speak to him in French, and he just wouldn't stop making fun of us, screwing up our orders, and ignoring us for hours at a time. Dinner ended up taking way too long, and we ditched the idea of going to a discoteque afterwards. Instead we got bottles of wine from Monoprix and went to one girl's apartment, where we shared a bottle of champagne at midnight in honor of the birthday. I made it back home before the metro shut down for the night, and voila. My weekend. Today was, as usual, at day of rest and relaxation, with some studying thrown in for good measure. I have a test on Tuesday, and my tomorrow is going to be busy. Cours practique in the morning from noon til 2, then my painting class (at the Louvre!) from 3 to 6, then a ballet at the old opera house (Palais Garnier—where the phantom lives!) at 7:30. My life is cool, yes?
But I would kill for a Moe's burrito right about now. I miss Mexican food.
Two weeks and I'll be in Rome for Armstice Day weekend! Booked the hostel and everything.
I still have half a bottle of Sauternes sitting on my dresser that I didn't finish last night.
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