Settling In

Tuesday and Wednesday were busy as Herve and I finished up some basic settling in shopping at IKEA and the local grocery store. And on the right are the pictures of our studio (and some pretty epic yoga-themed magnetic poetry).

Wednesday night was also really fun as Herve and I went with some of his friends (Antoine, Fabienne, Mathilde, Mermoud, Prune, and Elodie, so almost the same people as Monday night) to see one of the best and most thought-provoking movies I've seen in a long time. It was called "Les Hommes et Des Dieux" and it was about monks living in Maghreb and how they and the local muslims deal (or struggle to deal) with the rise of a radical and militant islamic group in their area. It is based on a true story and it won a bunch of awards at the Cannes film festival this year (for good reason); when we left the movie theater, it felt like 10 minutes before anyone spoke, and after that we stayed at the movie theater just talking about the movie for at least 20 minutes. I would describe it, but just as I think about how to summarize it best, I can already feel myself failing. Here's a summary I found online (it's also fails pretty badly, but at least I didn't waste time writing it):
A monastery high in the mountains of the Maghreb, some time in the 90s...
Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers.
But violence and terror are slowly taking hold of the region. Despite the ever-growing danger that surrounds them, the monks' resolve to stay - whatever the cost - grows stronger day by day...
Anyway, I'm slowly catching up with this blog, and I'll write a little more about the weekend and the start of classes soon!