French Bread & Cheese
One of my French classes, FREN 240: From Carnival to “Carnivalesque,” which I talked about a bit in a previous post, concluded the semester with a dinner get together. The students carpooled over to our professor’s house in East Nashville where he had prepared an array of French and Italian breads for us. Two students brought cookies and and apple tart and another one brought some cheese. What this means? — Best class ever.
The purpose of our final class was to briefly present what our final paper topics were and to just be together eating and laughing, as is so important in the Carnival. Paper topics ranged from being about the utopia existing in the “anti-monastery” Abbaye de Theleme to analyses of a chapters in Francois Rabelais’s Gargantua to my topic about the festive banquet.
Professor Barsky baked some buttery croissants that were as close to “to-die-for” as I think is possible and we all sat in a circle in his living room and talked about the semester. It was a great, fun way to end the course and it was really cool of Professor Barsky to invite us all over.
The class really made me reanalyze my life because the “Carnival” is about being who are you regardless of class, social boundaries, and life expectations. While I am happy to be a student, the class really made me think about how I could make life more than studying and working. I realize that not all Vanderbilt students are like this… I personally like to be involved in more activities than possible, but there is certainly something important about having time to relax and have those this-is-what-college-is-supposed-to-be-about conversations when you avoid homework to discuss global, national, and local issues in a fun and sarcastic, but also intelligent manner. There is also certainly something important about letting loose every once in a while to celebrate life by eating, drinking, and laughing.
The festive feast exemplifies this by nourishing us both physically and mentally.
