University of Tennessee Knoxville - Volunteer Yearbook (Knoxville, TN)

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paradise. Besides the famed Sorbonne, twelve other colleges and universities are scattered throughout the City. The entire urban area, particularly around the Latin Quarter near the Sorbonne, can be considered an academic community. UT seems tiny in comparison. Just as in the days When Hemingway and Fitzgerald frequented the bars of the Latin Quarter for their literary discussions, students today still flock to the sidewalk cafes to discuss, often quite heatedly, almost every subject imaginable. Paris is frequently termed an international City since so many different peoples work or visit there. But knowing that others are in the same situation does not ease the feeling of aloneness, the awareness of being different. American tourists often bring home horror stories of the snubs and rudeness they received throughout Europe. And in some cases the stories may be true. Europeans don't like Americans who flash their money and their cameras as if the American Way is the only way. Parisians are especially well known for having an intense distaste for many Americans. But for a student Who tries to blend in and adopt the culture and the language, general acceptance is not hard to come by. Paris, and most of Europe, are a reflection of what life might be like if the world-wide energy crunch finally strangles the United States. The French don't leave lights burning or televisions playing to empty rooms. It's as simple as that. Each local telephone call must be paid for, even in private homes. Heating in homes and apartments is usually cut off after 9 pm. High prices have forced the people to conserve, but rising costs have also made the French consumer more appreciative of the luxuries Americans take for granted. Sky-high inflation and miserable poverty life just behind the architectural beauty and intellectual veneer of this exquisitely planned city; hunger is a reality. Beggars comb the subways every day, while the blind and handicapped huddle with their cups. Pickpockets work swiftly and expertly on thesubway lines near the railroad stations, as travellers usually carry money. Major crime, however, is not as widespread in Paris as it is in American Cities of a comparable size. The American student has little to fear when walking in most residential neighborhoods at night. But the student has many other worries. Besides laboring over courses taught in a foreign language, the American student may have to worry about day-toeday survival. Eating can become a problem, since prices in most restaurants make them off-limits to students. The famous bread baked daily has pulled many through. Student cafeterias are cheap but serve food sometimes a little too exotic for many Americans' tastes. These dishes that frighten some picky Americans include horsemeat, tongue, and fish still wearing head and tail. But life is simpler there. Though being one of the world's largest cities, Paris lacks the hustIe-bustle of her American counterparts. Rather, the city has an indefinable charm which reflects the quiet, gentle Character of the natives. The richness in the way life is lived there can be felt simply by smelling the smells, observing the sights, and listening to the sounds of everyday Paris in motion. g g g: 25

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Photos and copy by Peggy Riley, a UT senior! who attended the Sorbonne and the lnstitu re of Political Studies in Paris during Fall Quarter, 7976. 24 UT sponsors a variety of overseas study and tour programs in England Nicaragua, Denmark, the Soviet Union, and France. Between four and 70 programs are scheduted every year through the Division of tntemational Education. Students also get as much as 25 hours of credit for independent study projects. In addition to UT study abroad opportunities, students also enter programs sponsored by other universities, particutarty Stanford, Syracuse, Emory, the University of Michigan and Michigan State. An American in Paris Strolling through a steeI-blue, icy dawn. Watching the reflections of the dimming streetlights ripple and fade into the coal-colored Seine. Racing through a musty underground tunnel and piling into a stuffed subway car for the daily 45-minute ride. Absorbing the sights and sounds of a market street as vendors shout the merits of their wares and housewives critically inspect an unskinned rabbit or a boar carcass, or hunks 0f pungent cheese. This is the experience of everyday Paris. The City of Lights and Love has a reputation, especially among Americans, for being the hub of all that is glamorous and romantic. Paris pulsates with beauty, culture and excitement. But what does it mean to be an American student living in everyday Paris, the Paris that is not shown on the picture postcards? First off, Paris is the artist's mecca and the serious student's i $ Mia? i: 1 Kg; L w t i .x . ,. gym 5; can : gem WE, Eggs FR 1mm; u . w L gf guns .n a

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A man wearing a nose ring sauntered by a make-shift stand advertising speed for sale. A young boy, situated by an open air pavilion, sold rocks for five cents apiece. A a purple wig bought a popsicle at a concession stand. Strains of Hells Angels' motorcycles and red-bearded man wearing cries for Liquid Qualude moonshine fil- tered through the sounds of 150,000 camp- ers at the 53rd annual Fiddlers Convention at Union Grove, N.C. Individual campsites dotted the 120 acre farm of JP. Van Hoy, host of the Easter weekend bluegrass festival, and Knoxville license plates were scattered over the enor- mous parking areas. A row of moveable toilets, known as Port-O-Lets, complete with overflowing excretion and discarded douche packages, bordered each of the camping areas. As the scorching Friday afternoon dis- appeared into evening, campfires lit up the wooded grounds like lightning bugs in a jar. The smoke from dinners cooking mingled with marijuana smoke appeared to form a ceiling below the trees. Amateur musicians played at their campsites for friends and visitors, passing the time until the true-blue- grass competition. Seven o'clock seemed the signal hour for the hoards of fiddle fans to swarm around the stage. The bleachers held only the first 12,000 to arrive. Three thou- sand more filled the aisles and countless thousands listened in more comfortable conditions around the farm. Many of those in the pavilion brought a night's supply of beer, liquor or marijuana because a return to camp for fresh supplies would entail an odyssey of vicious elbows and dancing feet One young man scanned the crowded scene and decided to relieve his bladder in the aisle rather than battle the bodies. He then sat down, dropped some cocaine on his thumbnail and snorted it. A bearded man in the row behind him requested a swap of a cold beer for a hit of coke. I am insulted was the only response he received. Competition in the banjo and fiddle categories was steep. Most performers Were bluegrass festival contestants of many years. Some were even veterans of the first Union 26 Grove convention held in the school house in 1924. Although oldsters dominated the competition, some entire families entered, with four generations represented. The loud- speaker periodically requested the crowd to hold the noise down until the end of each piece, but stomping feet and clapping hands remained almost as loud as the music. Clog- gers performed the traditional mountain dancing at intervals through the three nights of entertainment. Camp fires lit the landscape long after the music in the pavilion ended. People dis- cussed the abundance of available drugs or the price-hike from $15 to $20 for admis- sion over 1976. Others roasted marsh- mallows. Some campers got separated from their friends and wandered through the woods the better part of the night. One young man with a black braided beard, announced to a group of strangers that he was too high to remember where his camp was. He introduced himself as Doe and sat on a log with his stubbly face and glazed eyes brightened by the fire. Making a stab at conversation with his personal experiences in South America, he explained that one day in the jungle a huge iguana crawled out of a tree and said to him, I want your lunch. As he spoke, a limp body rolled down the hill into the center of the camp. Iguana Man continued, naturally I gave it to him. The body twitched, babbled as if speaking in tongues, and rolled further down the hill. lguana Man moved from fire to fire like a moth until he was out of sight. Saturday morning began in stifling heat. The masses were dirty, sweaty, and sticky, as some campers had arrived as early as Mon- day. People crowded around single spigots of water. Some tried to wash hair under the dribble. Others brushed teeth, some rinsed contact lenses for another day of smoke abuse. One member of the throng had a different idea. Buddy Tucker drove 15 miles to Statesville, checked in a motel, took a shower, and drove back to the farm. One teenage-Iooking girl poked her head out of her tent at 7:30 am. and asked of anyone who might be listening, What'll it be first thing this morning? Liquor? Pot? Chemicals? A girl in a nearby tent count- ered, How about breakfast? Breakfast turned out to be pot. After the meal an other member of the group hitchiked to Statesville, the nearest wet town, on a liquor run. He returned with a case of Mad Dog wine. Saturday was much like Friday, complete with Union Grove T-shirt vendors, authen- tic Indian torquoise jewelry stands and booths adorned with hand-crafted musical instruments. For the most part Saturday was a lazy day, spent lounging under trees and sipping cold beer. By 3 am. Sunday, the dust from the pavilion's dirt floor had settled for the last TBIIE