March 2003 archive
(117 entries)
March 31, 2003
About your town
This meme comes from here. I have chosen to talk about Vichy because I don't know anything about hotels in Ann Arbor.
I'm coming to visit your town. Recommend the following, with reasons why I should go to these places:
The best resturant, the one I have to eat at, at least once, while I'm in your town.
The restaurant gastronomique of the lycée Valéry Larbaud, of course! It is very fancy and elegant and not too expensive for the excellent quality of service and the quality and quantity of the food served there. Only 11€ for lunch, 22€ for dinner - make your reservations today at 04.70.96.54.00. Mwah ha. Advertising.
The best place to relax and take in some people watching. (please don't say the mall!)
The parc de l'Allier. It is prettier than the parc des sources and has fewer scary pooping birds.
The best place to take kids to have some fun.
I don't know. I don't have any kids. I don't know what's considered "fun" these days. Do kids like rivers? Parks? Casinos? Cybercafés? You should put your darned kids in school. See answer number one.
The best nightclub or date place for my hubby and I to have some time alone.
Erm, the Comptoir is our usual bar. Not too loud, nice for talking. If you want to dance, you can go to the Fous du Roy, but it might be a little young. I don't have a husband either, so I don't know what to do with one.
The absolute best hotel to stay in while I'm there!
If you're cost-conscious, I recommend the Hôtel du Cygne. It's nice and basic. One of the fancier ones in town is the Aletti Palace.
srah | 5:53 AM | TrackBack | Tags: assistantship, vichy |
I have been visited
No, not by the Raelians. Name That Blog quoted my blog on Saturday and someone was attracted to my site by
"You have to keep them on the head.One year ago today, I was blogging about earwax. And now I am all alone in France with no ears but my own. Plenty ".
You have to wonder about people. (And while you're wondering about them, you can wonder about the girl who wrote that in the first place.)
March 30, 2003
Ol' Mac Donald had a giraffe, e-i-e-i-ho'
I was speaking English to Andrés at the party when he told me my accent in English made him think of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm". The idea was, I understand, that I am rather nasal with my E-I-E-I-Os in particular. I am never speaking English again.
Later, when I was drunkish and singing loudly along with "The Real Slim Shady", I noticed how nasal Eminem is, too. It's not something I had previously noticed in the Michigan accent - not to that extent, anyway.
So anyway, now I'm really looking forward to "Eminem Sings Children's Songs" so I can send it to Andrés.
srah | 3:20 PM | TrackBack | Tags: accents, assistantship, eminem, michigan |
ET, llame à la maison
I'm still reading Contact. In the book, an alien civilization has been receiving our television signals and sends a message to the Earth. It occurs to me that if an alien civilization only had one language on their whole planet, they might think we were much more complicated than we are. If they had no concept of foreign languages, would it even occur to them to try to understand the languages in our broadcasts, or would they just think it was gibberish? And if they did try to translate, would it occur to them that our planet manages to survive with a host of different languages, or would they think we just had one language that was extremely rich in synonyms?
'It's a beautiful day/ Don't let it get away'
Okay. I am officially bored out of my mind. Everyone is still asleep and I am not. I have taken up the hobby of drinking water, which I describe as a hobby because it's all I can do to entertain myself. My eyes are too tired to read, and I can't go for a walk because I don't have keys to the building or to the front gate. So I just sip water and walk back and forth from my chair to the window.
I joked to Pierre earlier that I was almost at the point where I would set off walking to Vichy. Perhaps that's an exaggeration, but if I knew the direction to the train station, I would set out there.
srah | 4:21 AM | TrackBack | Tags: assistantship |
Great Expectations in education
Reading Great Expectations for the first time, I am inspired to question the value of my education. I took advanced English classes in one of the best public schools systems in Michigan, but I don't remember ever reading Charles Dickens in school. I don't even recall any excerpts from A Christmas Carol in my textbooks. What is going on here?
I read Oliver Twist on my own a few summers ago and found it very clever and funny. I've tried A Tale of Two Cities twice but I've never been able to get into it, which turned me off from Dickens a bit. Great Expectations, happily, returns to the humorous characters and turns of phrase that pleased me in Oliver Twist.
I realize that there are an enormous number of great works and great authors in Anglophone literature and that no education can include them all. It saddens me, however, to think of all of the high school students slogging through Richard Wright who have never been exposed to Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jane Austen, or Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
srah | 3:50 AM | TrackBack | Tags: books, charles dickens, education, high school, jane austen |
Impressions of the party
We went to a party tonight at Nelson's apartment in Clermont-Ferrand. I danced rather timidly and clumsily to Latin dance music, then with reckless abandon to song after song from the 50s.
I did a tequila shot, out of curiosity, then did another because someone put a lemon wedge and a cup in my hands and poured salt on me. My overall impression of tequila shots is that the salt and lemon are very nice and the whole thing would be better without the tequila.
Once it got to 6am, it no longer seemed worth it to try to go to sleep, so I am trying to keep conscious until I can go home.
srah | 1:54 AM | TrackBack | Tags: alcohol, assistantship, party |
March 29, 2003
Literary confusion
I am simultaneously reading Contact, The Best of Roald Dahl, and Great Expectations. So far, my favorite parts are when Pip is contacted by space aliens and when Miss Havisham is shipped off to the meat-packing factory.
srah | 11:45 AM | TrackBack | Tags: books, charles dickens |
Dream
I was in the rue de Paris with Renata and Jennifer, just chatting, when a big mob came and turned down the rue Dacher. We gathered that they were up to no good - they were collecting urine in big jugs and I think they were planning on burning down the Hôtel du Cygne because they didn't like a woman who was staying there. They were milling about in the street, and we kept expecting the police to come, or at least for a passing police car to spot the mob. But they didn't, so I called the police, then we left the area and went to a restaurant.
A woman tapped on the glass while I was in the restaurant, trying to get my attention, so I came outside to see what she wanted. She said, "Do you want a virus?" then grabbed my hand so I couldn't run away and started coughing on me. When I got back to the restaurant, Agnès asked me to "adopt" one of my BTS students, who she said was having troubles at home but had always looked up to me as a sister.
The next day, I went to school and the TV2s started asking me questions like "What's your favorite hotel in Vichy?" and "Made any phone calls lately?", trying to get me to confess that it was I who had called the police.
March 28, 2003
The Friday Five
1. What was your most memorable moment from the last week?
Sometimes I feel like Stefan thinks I'm insane and never understands anything I say, but I felt like I actually won his respect this week when I told him that I had never been to Germany because I didn't speak German. I know, I explained further, that everyone says Germans speak very good English, but I would feel guilty going to Germany and speaking English. If I were Chinese and spoke English in Germany, I wouldn't feel so bad, but being American, I would feel too arrogant and American doing so. Stefan, who fears English encroaching on the world, seemed to respect me more for this.
2. What one person touched your life this week?
Today as I was walking past the bus stop where all of my students wait for the bus, I made eye contact, smiled, and said "Hello" or "Bonjour" to several of my students, with no response. I was a bit embarassed and saddened and was looking at the ground and trudging along when I heard a "Bon week-end" from one of my BEP students, who I hadn't even seen. I'm sure other people touched my life, but that in particular touched my day.
3. How have you helped someone this week?
I did eight text-recordings for Agnès, but that's sort of my job, and I peeled potatoes for Renata, but I was going to be eating the potatoes so I had to do my part. I don't know if I've done anything purely altruistic...
4. What one thing do you need to get done by this time next week?
I should probably compile a list of common English mistakes for my S2OLs. I bet they would like that.
5. What one thing will you do over the next seven days to make your world a better place?
Um... try to help my students learn English and therefore make France a better place for tourists? Geez. What will I do?
srah | 3:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Tags: friday five, memes |
Just stop trying to talk politics, you ignorant slut
If the US can decide that the UN is no longer effective and can ignore it, why can't Iraq ignore the Geneva Convention? We don't want to let them sink to our go-it-alone cowboy level? Is that it? I don't want anyone to suffer or die, but it seems to me we are setting a bad precedent and playing do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do.
srah | 2:05 PM | TrackBack | Tags: politics, united states, war |
Bamos en Bichy
I suck at Spanish. Random irregular conjugations pop up in my head from time to time, but I can't conjugate a regular -ir verb to save my life. What's more, I am constantly confused by Bs and Vs, which usually sound the same in Spanish. So when Sonia turned to me today and asked me to conjugate the regular verb bibir, I was instantly confused. I didn't need to know the meaning of the verb in order to conjugate it, but it threw me off that she had thrown this odd, unfamiliar word at me. "To drink"? No, that's beber.
"Bibir?" I asked, managing to look simultaneously blank and aghast.
"Si, 'bibir'. 'Habiter' en francés."
"Ah, vivir!" I exclaimed, pronouncing the Vs as Vs as I slowly and painfully conjugated the verb. I can't help it. I am an excessively visual person and once I have visualized the verb, I have to pronounce it the way I see it.
Disaster disaster disaster, my Spanish. My classmates are so impressed with my ability to differentiate Js from Rs when I speak that they don't realize I can barely communicate.
srah | 1:58 PM | TrackBack | Tags: assistantship, classwork, in spanish, spanish |
Hic!
I am in my Spanish class. Considering I am here completely by choice, I should be paying attention. But I went to the staff room during the break and it was Sandrine's 30th birthday, and someone handed me a plastic cup, so I drank the contents, which turned out to be champagne. I am a wee bit happy.
srah | 9:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Tags: alcohol, assistantship |
By jingo!
ladiosa dellago has made a suggestion for the word I was looking for: jingoism. Definition:
Extreme nationalism characterized especially by a belligerent foreign policy; chauvinistic patriotism.
I don't know if it was exactly what I was looking for, but it's about the closest we've come so far.
Ca y est!
Ticket is changed. I'm coming home eight days earlier than planned, which will save me from missing my parents' 25th anniversary, my mom's birthday, and Mothers' Day, but should allow me enough time to tie up loose ends here and say goodbye to my wee friends.
srah | 5:24 AM | TrackBack | Tags: assistantship, travel |
There is shampooing on my smoking! Send it to the pressing!
What is with the French language's tendency to turn English -ing verbs into nouns, then apply them to things that make no sense to English speakers? I can think of four examples off the top of my head: un pressing, un brushing, un smoking, and - to a lesser extent of miscomprehension - du shampooing. I don't mind borrowing per se, but my students recognize the English origins in the words and can't believe that we don't say it in the same way - or that it means absolutely nothing to an English speaker.
Girly town
Vichy will be empty and feminine. Our boys are leaving next week. Renata claims they're her boys, but it's so selfish of her to keep them all to herself.
Stefan's and Andrés' contracts are a month shorter than ours, so ils s'en vont at the end of March, taking their pregnant selves (aahhhhh! pregnantmanpregnantmanpregnantman!) with them. Too bad we will miss the accouchement of Andrés' triplets: Viggo, Sporras, and Céline Dion.
srah | 4:27 AM | TrackBack | Tags: assistantship |
Not a serious question
What is a person from Mâcon called? Stefan suggests "mâconnard".
What to do
What is the best thing to do?
If you could spend all of your time doing one thing, what would it be?
I got into this discussion with Stefan at the resto gastro. He claimed that eating was the best thing to do, whereas I argued that sleeping was better. To my way of thinking, eating is too much work to be really fun. You have to sit up, cut the food, and chew it. If you pick sleeping, you get to stay horizontal, be warm and comfy, dream, and there's no work to do.
There are many other options to choose... what's your favorite?
March 27, 2003
Value of a year spent
If this year has taught me one thing, it is to appreciate people who teach and who teach well. It requires a level of commitment, understanding and - most importantly - patience that I will never have, and so to all of these people, I say "chapeau".
srah | 10:31 AM | TrackBack | Tags: assistantship |
I've been waiting all week for this
The lyrics to Madonna's awful American Life song are finally online. Let me warn you in advance that it includes the section
I do Yoga and pilates/ And the room is full of hotties/ So I’m checking out the bodies/ And you know I’m satisfied
which, although it looks stupid, is nowhere near as bad visually as it sounds rapped by Madonna.
[link to VH1 via Anna, who has some thoughts of her own on this song, as well as a very informative lesson on telling the difference between a rose and a spoon]
AAAAAAAAAAAH!
Pregnant man pregnant man pregnant man!
[via Stitching for Sanity]
srah | 5:57 AM | TrackBack | Tags: discovered |
It is at times like this that I wish my camera was digital
Or is it were digital?
I started my 10:00 class with a whopping four students and was explaining the rules of the game we were going to play, when I was interrupted by an invasion. Hundreds of students from neighboring high schools descended on Valéry Larbaud to encourage them to join in their "strike for peace".
My students watched out the window and we talked about how, de toutes les façons, ça sert à rien to go on a strike for peace in France, which is not even at war. George Bush is not going to suddenly change positions after being passed a notice that high school students in Vichy are on strike. George Bush, I am sure, does not even know that Vichy is a city. I certainly hope he has heard of Vichy France, but I would not bet anything on it.
Anyway, while the foreign bodies were pouring into the lycée, the Intruder alarm started going off. This was the same alarm that was going off last time we lost the Internet, so I have to admit that that was one of my first concerns. My very first, however, was What the heck do I do? There was an alarm going off, so I assumed that meant I had to let the students leave. Did I have to control them and take them outside?
It turned out the Intruder alarm just makes everything explode into chaos, so some teachers let students go and others kept them prisoner. I tried to keep near to mine, but they split up and by the time the alarm stopped and the mob left, I was down to two. The others, I assume, joined the foule because this was a legal, pre-announced grève and they had the right to join it (and therefore get out of class), even if they realized that it was pointless.
TWO!
If it had been one, it would have been illegal for me to continue class (you can't have one student and one teacher alone in a classroom), but instead I had to try to play superfun games with only two participants.
I hope my afternoon classes go on strike...
srah | 5:28 AM | TrackBack | Tags: assistantship, france, politics, strike, united states, war |
March 26, 2003
Hardly appropriate
I feel more urgently the need for a haircut now than I did before I got my hair cut. Argh.
A post about shoes
Never say that my blog-posts are not important and deep. Heh.
These are my favorite shoes. I don't know how long I've had them, but I know they were not new when I wore them trick-or-treating in ninth grade. So they must be at least ten years old by now. They are showing their age - the black suede is worn and turning grey - but I keep wearing them because I know I will never find anything like them again.
They are comfortable, as any shoe would have to be to stand up to hours of door-to-door travelling on that October night nine years ago. They are sandals and have a heel, but are neither dressy enough to make me feel uncomfortable, nor high enough to make me trip or walk funny (or funnier than usual, anyway). And last, they are T-straps, which always make me feel a bit old-fashioned and fun and which are rather hard to find.
It's going to be hard for me if I ever have to get rid of these shoes, and I suspect that day will never come.
Créneaux chronologiques
As long as I remember, my life has been divided into easy, manageable sections: nursery school, kindergarten, first grade... and on and on to freshman year, sophomore year, junior year/year in Grenoble, senior year, year in Vichy. I still have two years to go, but then what will I do? How will I be able to adjust to an existence with no set beginning or end?
Appreciate the thought, but think of the credit I could get at Target!
I have blogged before about my church's Christmas pageant when I was growing up, and how chunks of dialogue remain locked away in my brain. One of them just popped out a minute ago.
At the end of the Encounter with the Three Wise Guys, they lay their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh before Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger. The narrator then says, "Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart."
Whatever that means. Wouldn't it be so much better if it was, "Mary pawned all these things, but kept them in her heart."
srah | 11:19 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Tags: |
'French is hard,' says Barbie
How do you say "Is there supposed to be...?" in French? As in "Are there supposed to be 20 unaccompanied students in this computer lab on a Wednesday afternoon?" I think it's "Est-ce qu'il est censé y avoir...?", but when I say it, it always comes out as something like "Est-ce qu'il y a censé y avoir...?" Perhaps I should just say "Est-ce qu'il est normal qu'il y ait...?" Or is it "qu'il y a"? I give up.
Blaaaaaaargh
Another filling meal at the resto gastro of my school. This time, I was showing off the restaurant and my 1AHOTs to the other assistants. On the menu:
Talmouse forestière
Cuisse de volaille poêlée aux artichauts
Pommes noisettes
Assortiment de fromages
Crème brûlée et pain d'épices au miel
I am going to burst.
srah | 9:18 AM | TrackBack | Tags: assistantship, food, teaching restaurant |
Looking for a word
Is there a word for being against an entire nation? I mean, French jokes or anti-American comments aren't racist, per se, and ethnocentrism is about holding your own ethnic group (if "American" or "French" can be considered as such) higher than all others, not about insulting a particular one. Nationalism to me is more like being a Basque and wanting your own country. I can't find the word that I want, but we really should have one...
March 25, 2003
Dreams
I dreamt I ran into Lindsay Roe again, this time in an airport elevator. I wasn't actually going anywhere and I was acutely embarassed at being caught hanging around the airport for nothing.
Later I was in an English class with Jennifer and Renata. The students didn't understand what the teacher was saying and she was teaching them things that were wrong, so they turned to me and asked me to take over the class.
I also dreamt that Alex and I visited his host-aunt (in the world of host-families, you can have such mammals), who was a jeweler and lived in some combination of a medieval castle and a rambling farmhouse. I upset her tray of rings and thought I had lost one, but she found it and was very nice about it. I went out to the stables and watched some insane geese attack each other, then met Alex's host-cousin, who started hitting on me. He was a kid from Val�ry Larbaud who is not in any of my classes but who I kept seeing yesterday.
An American in Vichy
Things are not going as badly as expected this week. I had some students with earnest questions about the war in Iraq, and I answered them as long as they asked in English, and they seemed satisfied by my answers. The students I was most concerned about didn't have anything to say or ask about the war, but neither did they seem to hold my citizenship against me.
Tomorrow I have the class I cried in front of last week, but I think I'm better prepared than I was then, and I may just have a discussion about the war (in English!) rather than trying to have a h�tellerie lesson when they want to talk about another subject.
srah | 4:25 PM | TrackBack | Tags: assistantship, united states, war |
Tuesday This-or-That?
1. Poetry or prose? A prose by any other name would smell as sweet. Or whatever. Prose is the answer. Prose is the word, is the word that you heard, it's got groove, it's got meaning. Ignore me.
2. Funky modern art or the older, "classic" variety? Depends how funky or how older. I likes me some Magritte, yo.
3. Sculptures or paintings? Generally paintings, I fink.
4. Theatre: exuberant musical or serious drama? Exuberant musical or comedy. They are better for my simple little mind, which doesn't like to leave the theatre depressed or confused.
5. Ballet or modern dance? If I have to watch someone else dancing, I guess it shall be ballet. Both are rather torturous.
6. Movies: major studio or indie? I prefer something somewhere in the middle, like foreign films or lower-priority films from the big studios. Not the huge blockbusters, but not independent films, either, because I often understand why they couldn't get funding. Plus, they're all black and white hippie movies about gay cowboys eating pudding.
7. Authors: Shakespeare or Dr. Seuss? Both have their merits, but I'm going to go with Dr. Seuss because it's always a good read. I prefer to watch Shakespeare than read it.
8. TV: PBS or A&E? No tengo cable, therefore PBS.
9. Music: Beethoven or Beatles? Beethoven sucks.
10. Thought-provoking question of the week: You are a contributing member of your favorite art museum, and visit on a regular basis. They announce a new, temporary special exhibit by an artist surrounded by controversy...this person's work and/or political views offend you. Do you stop supporting the museum, or just stay away during the time the exhibit is there? I just don't go. That's what I say in theory, anyway. I suppose it might depend on the controversy.
srah | 5:48 AM | TrackBack | Tags: memes, tuesday this-or-that |
Fiddle-dee-dee!
The latest big-scale musical comedy extravaganza in France is Autant en Emporte le Vent. I don't know yet what the show itself is like, but judging from the soundtrack, it seems to have been written by a French person with a vague idea of the causes of the Civil War, who saw Gone With the Wind once while very drunk.
There seems to be a good deal of emphasis on slavery and slave revolt and the slaves' desire to be treated as human beings. I myself don't remember slavery being much of an issue in the movie, except that when you haven't got any slaves, you have to dig your own potatoes. I remember the film much more clearly as the story of a little tart who gets gussied up in the curtains and marries everyone she lays eyes on. But maybe I was drunk too.
srah | 2:40 AM | TrackBack | Tags: assistantship, france, gone with the wind, movies |
March 24, 2003
Sometimes it's nice to be insane
If piracy is wrong, I don't want to be right.
Arrrr, matey.
Mais t'es qui, toi?
There are only three and a half weeks left in my contract and I still
haven't learned my students' names. True, there are almost 200 of them and
true, all of the girls have practically the same name, but the year probably
would have gone better and I would have had a better rapport with them if I knew who they were.
Bagels discovered in Vichy
Renata, Jennifer and I ran into Rachel in the street last week, and the four of us went to the Juice Café, an oasis of anglophonie in Vichy. The owner is English and the menu features things like nachos, smoothies, and pancakes with maple syrup. We ordered in English, carried on our conversations in English, and watched France carrying on outside the windows.
srah | 3:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Tags: assistantship |
Kebabble
Why don't we have kebab stands in the US? Maybe we do, but certainly not in Ann Arbor. I think we need some, but just for the sake of having kebab stands, because I'm not overwhelmingly fond of eating kebabs.
I am afraid of imperfection
I am entirely déranged by my tendancy of late to say "J'étais en train de..." instead of just putting a verb into the imparfait. Half the time I want to say that I was doing something, not even that I was in the middle of doing it. I know it's wrong chaque fois que ça sort, but it won't stop. It reminds me of those awful translated-Anglicisms I abhor, like when Molly used to say "J'étais comme...", translating "I was like..." literally. Make it stop!
Some words I like
I just like the sound of these words:
mélanger, sosie, feutre, and fauteuil.
What words do you like?
srah | 2:40 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Tags: french, words |
Are hooded sweatshirts and trainers 'in' yet?
Do you follow fashion? Are you the kind of person whose shoes always match their purse or belt? Are you able to list off the new trends for this season? Because I so am not. I am so not. The problem with writing as you talk is that you write things that are ungrammatically correct grammatically incorrect so there is no right or wrong way because you're already doing it wrong. And things that sound fine out loud look stupid written down. Pardon the rambly tangent.
So anyway, I really could probably get by in life with two pairs of black shoes. I'd say one, but il faut pas wear the same ones every day or they'd start to smell.
In addition, when Sophie and I were out walking, we decided we were secretly transvestites because we preferred all the displays of fringues pour mecs to those for filles.
Fashion has never particularly been something that branched me. Clothes prevent me from being naked and protect me from the elements. When I actually do wear something trendy or dressy, I feel like I'm putting on an act and someone's going to denounce me for the big fat fake that I am.
Operation Enraged Teacher
The American Military Operation Name Generating Device came up with several gems when I used it, including Operation Enraged Teacher, Operation Grab Your Ankles and Prepare for Our Bankers, Operation Spitting Girlfriend, and Operation Terrible Muskrat. Give it a try.
[via Davezilla]
srah | 11:39 AM | TrackBack | Tags: generators |
Participation Positives
I've never done this, but the Monday Mission hasn't been posted yet and I felt my blog needed something positive for once. So here I am, looking on the bright side of life on this bright, shiny Monday.
- I work in Vichy, not Paris. I complain a lot and claim my students can be "aggressive", but I haven't been attacked with a knife or had to put up with any of the other things I've heard from my fellow teachers' Paris experiences.
- It is the 24th of the month and I still have money in my account. I am not having the end-of-the-month panic that I had in November through January. Thank you, CAF.
- My family is healthy, as far as I know.
My mom, in particular, is adorable. If I had my own computer, this would be my wallpaper.
- My Pato is delightful and I love him, even (especially?) when he calls at all hours of the night and/or morning.
- I am going to the resto gastro again on Wednesday to stuff myself and to show off one of my favorite classes to my assisting cohorts.
- I have one set of penpal letters off my hands and they are no longer my problem.
- I have re-learned how to make bulleted lists in HTML.
- I have three classes cancelled this week, plus the two that are en stage. It's not that I don't want to work... it's that, well, my life would be easier if I didn't have to.
There are .
- I got to see my soeur française and show her my exciting weekend life.
- In wandering and getting lost, Sophie and I saw parts of Vichy I'd never seen before.
- My demon-student was difficult again today, but in an immature and irreverent way rather than a hateful, disrespectful, intimidating one.
srah | 10:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Tags: memes |
And that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped
"There are ways of telling if [he] is a witch."
"Are there?"
"What are they?"
"Do they HURT?"
Déjà vu
Chicago won Best Picture? I no longer have any desire to live on this cursèd planet. I hate the Oscars.
srah | 6:35 AM | TrackBack | Tags: academy awards, chicago, movies |
Bye bye, Miss American Life
I heard Madonna's new song twice within one hour on the same station this morning. She must be stopped. It is one of the most annoying songs I've ever heard and that was what I thought the first time.
Do. Not. Rap. Please.
March 23, 2003
Raymond Ash: my teaching hero
I will be tough and firm on Monday. I will be well-prepared and have chiffres at my disposal, but I will not put up with any crap or abuse or French. I will be rested and ready, calm and in control. I will be Raymond Ash, minus the wetsuit and spear-gun.
"Naw, Ger, seriously. I don't care how hard you 'hink you are, or how long you've been suspended. I'm warnin' you: do not, under any circumstances, ever ever fuck wi' the new English teacher."
- A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away
srah | 2:29 PM | TrackBack | Tags: assistantship, christopher brookmyre, teaching |
I am a really slow typist
At oneword, you get one random word a day and sixty seconds to write whatever comes to your mind. I am wasting time before going home, and have come up with the following very superficial and oft-repeated thoughts on the word "missing":
People ask me if I miss the United States, and I always answer no. I miss 'home', but I don't miss the United States as a country. I miss people there.
I am rather disappointed that I couldn't come up with anything deeper or longer.
srah | 2:28 PM | TrackBack | Tags: assistantship, united states |
Another Sunday night at the cybercafé
Dennis/Christophe
is sick. Laurent is here instead. I have just noticed that the mousepads
identify the two managers as Franck and Olivier. I hope Laurent isn't Olivier,
because then my name-choosing would be insanely coincidental. I don't like him as much as the other two - he doesn't seem to have the same healthy joking distance.
Visit of the sister
Sophie came to visit me this weekend, and I took her to a dinner at Presles. There was great confusion in explaining to the others who she was and what she was doing there, seeing as she was not actually my sister, not an assistant, and that while she was a high school student, she was not a student at Presles or in Vichy at all. We explored the sites of Vichy, then invented some more when we had exhausted the established ones.
srah | 11:15 AM | TrackBack | Tags: assistantship, host family, vichy |
March 21, 2003
The Friday Five
1. If you had the chance to meet someone you've never met, from the past or p