Majorly long entry wherein I make up for absense with abundance of photos

Ready for some pictures? Photo dump begins in 3, 2, 1...
GAAN!
Spent a weekend in Amsterdam and saw a great concert by the fabulous band, The Black Keys. I'm not cool enough to be one of those people that have known about them for years [insert hipster speech] you know, before they were big and mainstream, back when they were still releasing LPs and playing in small venues..


Even as a Fall-2010 newbie, they did not disappoint! Cool indeed. My sidekick, Brittany, joined me from Switzerland and we met early Friday morning, me having taken the bus the night before. Bus got in at 5am so let's just say that it was a long day, supplemented by lots of cheap coffee. Which brings me to one of my favorite things about the Netherlands: they are convenience store junkies! Okay, nothing to the likes of America's 7-11's and QT's and Casey's, but still. You are never far from 1€ coffee and donuts. And waffles. And cookies. And little cakes I don't know the name of that are delicious. There are also these hot snack machines in train stations, on corners, anywhere you can fit them..pretty sure I gained at least 10 pounds in my 2.5 days there. Worth it!

This was my third time in Amsterdam, but there were plenty of things I hadn't gotten a chance to see yet. We went around some neighborhoods to get off the beaten path a bit. Got some good pics in a district not far from the center, called Jordaan. At the edge of the district lies the Anne Frank House, but I got the impression that not many tourists ventured past that part because we were definitely the only ones speaking English (quietly) in the streets. I love it when that happens!




So, all in all, a good little weekend. I like the Dutch a whole lot. I don't know if I could live in Amsterdam per se, but maybe a different city farther south in the country. I love the weird language, the brick streets, the thousands of bikes you see everywhere.

They are obviously not afraid of killing their children:


So that was Amsterdam. Had a lovely time, will probably not be back for a while as I desperately need to branch out in terms of traveling. Must..visit..somewhere..NEW. Soon.

Onwards, shall we? Let's back up in time to 1 month ago, when one of my besties from high school came to Paris for a long weekend for a conference. I only saw Katie for one night, but we managed to talk about her cute chubby baby, Emerson,
[let's stop here for a moment to show how f-ing cute he is]

and catch up on other things like small-town gossip, work, life in general. I hadn't seen her for a while, so it was a good little visit. We also took a boat tour down the Seine, and even though I've lived here for going on 3 years, I'd never taken one. Check!



Notre Dame and her flying buttresses from behind..ha

So fast forward to last week, when I was asked to accompany a 12-year-old girl to the Louvre and Eiffel Tower while her mom was in meetings. Of course I said yes, because hey, being paid on top of guided tour and going up in Paris' most famous monument? No brainer.


Our tour guide was a bit cheeky..


Seine looking northwest

Seine looking west

Looking southeast. Big tower is Tour Montparnasse, close to where I used to live

See the Arc de Triomphe?

Okay, I think I'm caught up for the moment. I'll leave you with a picture of Girl #2's arm yesterday. She was bored in class and drew an entire BD (comic book) on her arm. How she avoided a scolding from her teacher is beyond me. Kids...


Tot ziens!

Mon franglais

After studying French for years, living in France for three years total, and after working and studying in French, I feel fairly confident saying that I’m fluent in French. However, besides my classes, which are all in French, I spend a large part of my day in English. All of my jobs involve English, although not exclusively. Some customers at the café love to try and order in English, so I usually humor them until one of us gives up (them, from lack of vocab, me from lack of patience). I talk to my kids in French and in English, but sadly more French because it’s really hard to get them to speak English.

I guiltily read a lot in English, for pleasure and for research. Research is often much better/more available in English, and I’m not about to read an English book translated into French about Commnication Theory—not when it’s hard enough in English, thankyouverymuch. In order to keep my French up (and also to improve it), I’ve told myself I’ll only read for pleasure in French. However, seeing as I have little time to even read outside of the academic realm, don’t know how realistic that one is. Gotta finish David Sedaris’s new book before I commit to that pact! Add to all that the TV series I watch via the Internet, English-speaking friends and colleagues, to-do lists and thinking (mostly) in English, I am never totally cut off from my native tongue.

Through my constant contact with both languages, I most definitely have developed my own hybrid of the two languages. When I’m talking to Anglophones living in Paris, it’s not a big deal because they understand the anglicized French (and are guilty of it, too). I’m with my friend Carolina a few times a week and we both do it so much that we’ve kind of stopped even correcting ourselves. It’s not that I’ve forgotten the English word, it’s just that the French often comes to mind first, or the story I’m talking about took place in French, so I just use whatever word I remember first. English sometimes lags, but is still there somewhere in the depths of my brain. Naturally, when I’m speaking in French, I have the same moments trying to remember a French word—especially if I just spent a few days in a totally English environment. (i.e. most weekends. My French is always mistake-ridden on Mondays). I love linguistics, and I’ve always found the progression of languages really interesting. I can see now how easy it is to adopt new words into a language. It’s kind of cool to see it happen in real time.

The other thing that has affected my speech is that I work for a British school, and last year, as a language assistant, all of the material was in British English. I also run into quite a few Brits/Irish/Kiwis etc. in Paris that use different vocabulary or expressions. Work with some, too. There are just some words and grammatical things I do that have strayed away from my native American ‘dialect.’ I’m developing an international hodgepodge English methinks..

So without further ado, I know you’re dying to read the notes I’ve jotted down over the last few weeks :

*words that could be in both categories since BrE uses a lot of French words that North Americans have stopped using

British Influence

British word/phrase used instead of/in addition to American word/phrase

I’ve got/Have you got? I have/Do you have?

biscuit snack/cookie

bank holiday national holiday

cheers thanks ; informal e-mail ending

nearly almost

hang on hold on

lift elevator

garden yard*

jumper sweater (I purposely do this one, I’ll admit)

football soccer*

barman bartender*

whilst while

(on) holiday (on) vacation

postbox/postman/postcode mailbox/mailman/zip code*

university (uni) college*

to sit an exam to take an exam

prof abbreviation of professor

transport transportation

colleague co-worker

quite pretty, really

ground floor first floor (ground floor is 0, 1^st floor is 2^nd floor AmE)

note bill (mostly because saying bill just sounds wrong for €)*

sweets candy

mine/yours/his at my house/at your house

➡ I’ll meet you at yours, ok?

take away take out

past participles:

learnt/leapt/burnt/spelt

French Influence

Anglicized word/phrase from French word/phrase

pressed pressé, in a hurry

pass (by) passer, a verb with a million meanings in French, but here, 'to stop by.' I've also caught myself using it for 'to give.'

➡ Can you pass me your e-mail?

controlled contrôlé, means 'controlled' in the English sense, but also used in the sense of getting stopped by an officer (un contrôleur) for jumping the metro.

➡ Damnit, I got controlled again today! (Has happened multiple times..)

for why pourquoi, why. Would never say "For why are you leaving?" but when asking 'why' all by itself it happens.

rent a book (from the library) emprunter un livre (de la bibliothèque)

how many are you? Vous êtes combien? How many of you are there? (restaurant talk)

sack sac. I know this word exists in English, but 'bag' is probably used more, at least in AmE. I say sac for just about everything that can contain something and be carried by handles.

to be called s'appeler. French say je m'appelle for 'My name is.' So I carry that over to English for whatever reason. It's not that I don't notice, it's just that it sounds normal to me now. Also, may I note (Brittany!) that the usage is accepted in BrE!

➡ What's that girl called, the one we met in the café last week?

supermarket supermarché. I say grocery store as well

cinema cinéma, movie theatre*

Other French words I use

resto abbrev. of restaurant

gare train station (usually only in texts since it’s so much shorter)

ordi ordinateur, computer (also usually in text)

Aïe! Ouch! (Sounds like ‘eye.’)

Allez! Come on!

café coffee. French uses the same word for coffee shop and coffee. I am sometimes too lazy (or don't realize) to make the difference.

Other crap that has come out of my mouth to my own horror:

I’m going to search a post in the neighborhood.

Your hairs are so long!

Put your pyjama on or I won't read you a history!

And many, many others that I do on a daily basis..

**Excuse the formatting! Blogger seems to hate MS Word's formatting and after messing with it for hours I give up!!

Juste un petit mot

"Just a little word" as the French like to say..

My schedule is actually really nice this semester. I got out of taking English (yay!) and therefore have every Thursday and Friday off! Not bad. I might be getting into a Spanish or German class, which of course I'd take with open arms. I'd love to take both, but I gotta limit my crazy. Did I mention I'm applying to l'École Supérieure d'Interprètes et de traducteurs (ESIT)? 'Cos I am. It's an interpretation/translation school officially affiliated with my university, but on the campus of another Parisian university. Confusing, and I don't know why they play musical chairs with different departments but it happens a lot. Another entry sometime in the future, I will try to explain the Université de Paris system as best I know! Anyway, I'm applying to ESIT, which really just means taking an entrance exam in May. The process, as far as I can see, is less complicated than last year's for my current program, but the test is intense and requires a good amount of studying. I went to the university today to get the former tests that they sell for 15€. Guess it's good that I have a little extra time this semester, but I should most definitely be working on that 40-50 page mémoire due in May..what can I say, I'm easily distracted when it comes to practicing languages vs. communication theory!

I was in a really super mood today. Had a journalism class I enjoyed in the AM, walked home slowly in the spring-like weather, enjoyed a really delicious sandwich..it's the little things! Then I went to the uni to get the tests, and came back to the Latin Quarter, to one of my favorite places in all of Paris.


My favorite language bookstore. I told myself walking in I wouldn't buy anything..maybe next time this will work.




The lovely Seine. Taken in late afternoon so it looks a little glum, but it was a beautiful day compared to the recent rainy weather we've had.

I really do love living here. Here's to a great mid-week!

Allegra!

[I wrote this on the train a few days back..sorry for the delay!]

I’ve had quite a week! Started out with going to a concert from one of my favvvvvvorite singers, William Fitzsimmons. I found out the week before last that he was playing in Paris—and a free concert at that! I’ve been a huge fan for years and have watched him tour Germany and the Netherlands, always skipping my little part of the continent. I’m so glad he stopped by this time! I highly recommend him if you like folksy/melancholic music. Not for everyone, but I love his music (and bad ass beard!). I even got a pic with him, although my friend is 5’ tall, so it’s a horrible angle..

Just returned from my trip to the Swiss Alps to visit my friend, Brittany. Pretty much the entire country is some part of the infamous mountain range, but I happened to be in the eastern part, near the Austrian border. I spent three days in a small mountain village, where her husband has a house that has been in his family for the better part of a century. Very kitschy (in a cute way) and very Swiss. Pictures lined the walls with old photos, cereal bowls were inscribed with kids’ names from past summers and breaks spent there, and everything you could ever need—from paprika to coffee percolators to fondue sets was there, in a designated place. I imagine it’s taken years to acquire all the little bits and pieces, but I could tell that it is very much a house that is lived in throughout the year, by family and friends. Especially during ski season!

There were tons of skiers, snowboarders, hang gliders, etc. of all ages walking the streets. It was nice to leave the uptight, well-dressed manner of Paris for the more comfortable polar fleece and snow boots style of the mountains.

I didn’t ski—too much money, plus the fact that I’ve never put a pair of skis on in my life—but having time to relax, outside of Paris, with no obligations, was plenty of vacation for me. I walked around the town to take pictures a few times, read a whole book in English without feeling guilty, studied a little German, enjoyed good coffee in the morning and delicious wine in the evening. Nothing super interesting, but I have to say that being in the mountains with cool, fresh air and a shining sun was great for me. I feel recharged.

So now it’s back to work, at least mostly. My university break only shared last weekend with the Paris school’s break, so although my classes start tomorrow, I’ll be sans kids for two weeks. I of course would have preferred to have a week overlap so I could go somewhere for longer, but at least this way I can start out the semester with more time and concentration. I hope.

I’m toying with the idea of applying to a different program for next year. I like Communications, but I kind of feel indifferent about it. It’s interesting, and there are parts of it that I really enjoy, like the Cultural Studies movement in the 1950s and 60s, especially the linguistic theories applied to society like structuralism and post-structuralism. But I don’t necessarily feel passionate about a lot of the other things that I've studied. Some classes are better than others, but really, I thought it would be closer to Journalism, and in many respects, it’s closer to Sociology and Philosophy. I want a Master’s degree, I do, but studying here has always been for me more of a cultural experience and a way to stay in France. I don’t know exactly what I plan on doing in the future as far as a “real job” goes. I have some rough ideas drawn out in my head. I know I’m almost 26 and I should have this figured out by now, but I say to that : meh. An article last year in the New York Times was spot on. I’m under 30, college-educated, and not in a hurry to settle down anywhere, so I’m kind of making it up as I go along.

If you twisted my arm and told me that I had to choose a career, I could narrow my interests down to : languages and photography. Language not only in the foreign sense, but also as written word in general. I am meticulous with grammar and vocabulary, and if I'd stayed in the US after college, I probably would’ve applied to be a copywriter or a technical writer. I resisted the idea for a long time, but the more I think about it, the more I think I could be a pretty good translator.

My resistance has always been that I like going into a physical workplace. I like having co-workers and a desk that’s not at my house. I like the interaction with other people, I like the separation of home and work. But let’s face it, I’m at my computer a good portion of the day anyway, and I’d consider myself quite Internet-savvy, which is the medium for a lot of translations these days. I browse bookstore and library language sections on (at least) a weekly basis, read grammar books for fun, and already have a few translation manuals on my shelf, bought out of curiosity. My university has a program for translation and interpretation and I am going to look into it. This would mean that I'd be behind a year in studies, but I feel almost guilty saying that it's not a big deal to me. I chose to do Communications this year mostly because I thought it would be more profitable for future job opportunities, but I don’t know if I want to spend two years in a program that I don’t even enjoy. Translation, at least I think, would be more interesting for someone whose desk is littered with memo-block notes of random phrases and words I like or need to look up in French. Someone whose bookshelves are buckling with the weight of books in no less than five languages, someone who has wordreference.com is in a browser on a nearly-constant basis. I think I owe the translation thing a shot. I have a high level in French, and good levels in Spanish and German (need to brush up, though..school gets in the way, sadly). I might have found the one thing I'm actually somewhat gifted at..sorry, sports of any kind, we were never meant to be!

And as far as the photography goes, it can always be a hobby. Maybe a photojournalism gig will show up one day..it's my ultimate dream job.

So if you're saying to yourself, my oh my, Rachel has yet to get a real job, what is she going to do!, don't worry. I'm okay with that. I'm also applying to an assistantship program in Spain as a backup. I'm sorry, dear friends and family, but I just don't feel like coming back to the US just quite yet.

Not for now. Not when I'm a day's trainride away from this :

More photos if you so desire

Hi there! Still alive, just busy. The last month has been non-stop go go go, but I finally have some time to breathe and do other important things like catch up on emails, photos, reading, and sleep! I have a to-do list every day that seems to just get longer and never have anything crossed off. Post office, health care paperwork, stacks of dishes..it just keeps piling and piling, literally and figuratively.

I can safely say, my first semester gone behind me, that French school is [explicative] hard. I did not prepare for this level of hard. It's not one single thing that's difficult, but all of the little things just add up to a big pile of confusion. I would normally be able to cope with this, but the whole 3-job thing is really a bummer when you're trying to get a graduate degree in a foreign country. What comes to mind as being the hardest thing about grad school here? Well besides the different language, which I'll admit, sometimes comes into play, it's more about the way that things are taught. The professor is God and sits in front of the lecture hall whilst you furiously scribble the notes as quickly as your hands can move. And because you're so concentrated on actually getting the words that are coming out of God's mouth, the material that you're supposed to be learning is going straight over your head. Questions are not forbidden, but they're really reserved for special instances, which you will not decide. You must have a sixth sense as to when the professor will be willing to give you some of his/her insight. It is something that only the French possess.

So there's that, plus other details I've already mentioned like no syllabi, textbooks, or help of any kind for foreigners. Basically, although I enjoy the experience of studying in a European university, I sometimes wonder why they're making their lives so hard. I know Americans are spoiled, but c'mon, how hard is it to post some documents online, or to have a few advisers that help the foreign students who obviously are lost (my program is made up of 1/3 foreigners)? Papers aren't written in the same way, guidelines for assignments are super vague, scheduling is done mostly by hand, there are loads of administrative things I just am not familiar with..rant rant rant. It's not impossible, it just might take me longer to finish that I want.

I haven't gotten back the results from my exams yet, but I can guarantee that they're pretty awful. I did awesome on my English exam (ha), but for the others, not so much. I was under prepared to start out with, and I never could catch up. I'm still working on catching up. Work is really the biggest culprit, but I'll completely admit that I haven't had to really study hard for a long time. Not that I got super grades in college, but I did about average, and put forth more effort in classes I enjoyed. This semester has really been more of a re-learning of how to study than anything else. Not to mention I had the most boring classes ever. I'm hoping next semester will be more interesting in terms of the classes I have. (Schedule, of course, not up yet. I'm expecting it two days before classes commence.)

I'm on break now (again), after a week of exams, which were rude enough to be held the first week of January. Thanks, France, for adding even more stress to my Christmas break! My second semester starts on Feb. 14, and I'm hoping that my new MacBook Pro (!!!) will help me avoid the first problem I have, ie not being able to write fast enough. I am a mad fast typer and I am ready to show the French up. Thanks, Mavis Beacon software c. 1997!

I've got lots of reading to do, so although school is "over," it's really just in a lull. I've got to get ahead on my classes for next semester so I'm not (so) lost, I've got to get reading for my mémoire, friends to visit, work to be had at the café, English lessons to be planned..in short, I am never not busy.

So for the rest of my break, I did enjoy some shut-eye, I did enjoy some wine, I did enjoy some friend visits. Brittany, my American-turned-Swiss friend is a mere 4-hour trainride away, so for her trip back to the US, she flew out of Paris. Her husband came, and our friend, Greg, was home in France visiting his friends and family for the first time in 2.5 years. We have opposite lives--he's French, living in hip Cali, and seems to be doing pretty well for himself financially. I'm American, living in elegant Paris, and am hella poor. Haha. But in any case, it was really good to see them all again right before the holidays. Like a little piece of America in my tiny 9m² apartment above the city.

Brittany brought me back all kinds of goodies from the US, notably the very computer that I'm writing on. It's sleek and so fast! It's been a long time coming; I'm pretty sure I've been bitching about this for over a year now. It's good to have to go through all my files and try to be organized. I've been throwing photos in scarcely-organized folders for years now, and I'm determined to get them all organized before school starts again. We'll see..

On Christmas, I hung out alone in the morning and watched A Christmas Story, and then went on a long walk through the city to remind myself that although I was alone on Christmas, look where I was. It was a stunningly beautiful yet cold day, and I only fell once, flat on my face, next to a pile of dog poo. Nice try, universe. Can't get me mad on my favorite holiday of the year!






Later that afternoon, I went to my friend's, who also had a friend visiting, so the three of us made a delicious quiche, watched some classic Christmas movies, and then made cookies. All while drinking wine out of plastic cups, in our pajamas. Not so bad after all.



I like writing, so although I refuse to call it an actual resolution, I am really going to try to make myself update this thing a little bit more often. I often think of entries throughout the week but never get around to writing them down. No promises, though. I'm studying now to avoid being completely lost, but if next semester is anything like this last one, see you in June..

Cue the holiday tunes

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wish I were back in the US at this time of the year. Good times with family, delicious food, awesome deals on Black Friday..I miss it all. When I came to France last fall, I knew that it was going to be a long haul for at least a few years. I knew that missing holidays like this—ones that aren’t celebrated here—would be part of the sacrifice of living in France. There are upsides to the expat thing—I have at least a week of vacation in October, February and April, and the months of November and May have bank holidays that take a little edge off the week, or add to the weekend to make a great mini-vacay. Plus, the French like to throw in a random Roman Catholic holiday every now and then. These days are always welcome in my book. But still, Thanksgiving! It’s the start of the holidays! Lights go up, Christmas music plays, family and friends laugh over plates of food and glasses of wine, kids run around, football plays on the TV..

Missing it last year didn’t affect me as much since I had just arrived. But I feel it more this year. My time home for a few months this summer was great, but there weren’t any major holidays like this one. (I missed July 4^th by three days.) I miss seeing my family that I sometimes only see this time of year, taking pictures and catching up with everyone, and getting up at 4am to go nab some deals in Suburbia, America. I am not at all as hardcore as some of the (usually) women I’ve seen. One year, some crazy lady grabbed a flash drive out of my little sister’s hand and ran off. Another year, poor Han got lost in a crowd as people abandoned carts and ran through the aisles, grabbing stuff on the way, making their kids/husbands “guard” a boombox or TV while they scouted out other deals. I remember seeing her face in a sea of people, but the crowd just kept pushing me away from her. It was kind of funny, actually. She looked like she was about to cry—I think she must’ve been 10 or 11, but we finally found each other and laughed about it. It’s craziness, and kind of embarrassing how far some people will go to get what they want. It’s also amusing, even if it’s contributing to the horrible American consumerism society. Guilty as charged. Don’t tell me you don’t enjoy getting a new DVD for $4 or a winter coat for $30. Of course, the lines are the worst part, but it’s my own little Thanksgiving tradition. Christmas shopping, self shopping, sister bonding, coffee, Goodwill treasure hunts, more coffee, turkey leftovers for lunch and then a few last shops in the early afternoon. All followed by a nap on the couch while football continues on TV. I've got to find a way to come back next year for at least Christmas. It’d be too depressing to miss both holidays three years in a row. I did want to come home for Christmas this year, but the tickets are so expensive. One of the biggest reasons I’m foregoing holidays in the US is that I desperately need a new computer. So this year I’m essentially spending my plane ticket on a new Mac. I’m sorry, family, I would really enjoy coming home for a few weeks, but plane tickets don’t take notes during lectures! I really hope to be on American soil for the holidays next year. Don’t even know where I’ll be at that point, so it’s hard to make plans!

Life in Paris is going. I’m glad this gloomy month is almost over. I strongly dislike the month of November because of the awful weather (soooo much rain and cloudiness), the realization that Winter is indeed upon us (I never want to admit it), the return from All Saints Day break (depressing), the solid block of classes with no end sight..in short, I’m really excited to welcome the last month of the year.

I’ve been horribly sick the last few days. Also November's fault. I just really started feeling better today, even though I still have a cough. It started last Friday, and by Saturday I could tell something was not right, but I still went to both my jobs, a total of about 12 hours. Not smart. Of course I had two group projects to do over the weekend, so I couldn’t just lie in bed and feel sorry for myself. I somehow finished the projects (quality questionable) just in time to go to work on Sunday night. It was a terrible, never-ending night and my voice was almost nonexistent. I went to the basement (where storage is) to blow my nose and wash my hands at least 100 times, I think. Ran back upstairs to take orders with my manvoice, and then returned to basement to repeat the process over and over. UGHHHHHH.

I gave up and called in on Monday. I found someone to work for me, thank god, and I went home to drink tea and go to bed early. I was going to go to the doctor if it wasn’t better Tuesday (I’m a tightwad, what can I say), but thankfully, the fever had passed, my thoughts were coherent again, and my coughing wasn’t that horrible, deep seal-cough. I am still a little under the weather, but not like before. I’ve already arranged a deal with my body that this will be my one big cold of the season. I’m hoping it’s stored up antibodies for future menaces. You hear me, body?!

I couldn’t help but wonder if this unexpected bout of sickness was a cause of my over-working. (And the dozens of kids I’m around perhaps?) I love Paris, even on the crap days, but I’ve recently been feeling kind of down about it because I essentially live in my little world of home-school-babysitting-work. I don’t even get to enjoy Paris for what it is! But I can’t not work, so it’s kind of a situation that I guess I’ll just have to live with for now. I need to research some scholarship organizations and see if there’s any chance I could get some kind of help if I continue my studies into the second year. Master’s programs are hard enough without three part-time jobs!

School is going alright. I ordered some books from the UK to help me with communications theories and I am slowly getting through them, plus the zillion other readings/books I have in French. I very much feel that I’m more teaching myself, and getting insight/reinforcement from lectures, rather than the other way around. I like being able to control what I learn and what books I read, but at the same time, it’s almost too open-ended. There’s no stop of information. New theories and their sociologists are introduced all the time, with the comments that we should read them if we want to understand more of what they talked about. I really don’t think you can pass an exam purely with the notes from class. You are expected to research on your own as well. Maybe this is how Master’s programs are in general, even in the US. I don’t know. There are no syllabi, yet there are often lists of recommended books. I never thought I miss the clear, concise textbooks I was so used to in my undergrad studies.

I’ve finally chosen a subject for my mémoire and I will devote most of my Christmas and Exam breaks to reading books about it. That’s what you do—you read, read, read and note, note, note for a few months. Then, around mid-March or so, you start collecting all your info together and you begin to write out your 40-50 page mémoire, following the plan you drew up. I need to finish my plan now that I've finished half of my group projects. I’ve decided to write about “Net Neutrality,” which is an entry in itself, but basically it's about the Internet and its availability to the masses. Seeing as I’m pretty Internet-savvy and a lot of the research will be in English, I think I might have a chance at making something worthwhile. I’m still waiting on a director, but since I was late (surprise, surprise) in choosing a subject, I’m kind of in the last-dibs category of good directors. Too bad, because the one I wanted speaks really good English and the Internet 2.0 is his speciality..this is what I get for being such a procrastinator.

Anyway, kids to pick up, turkey sandwich to celebrate with later, christmas music cued up for my return..

Happy Turkey Day to all!

Back to the salt mines

Well rested after a little more than a week of vacances, I've been trying to be more optimistic about school. The French just seem to do it so well that I sometimes have to remind myself that I'm playing by their rules, on their turf, so they obviously have the home-team advantage. And they also aren't deranged, working full-time in addition to their studies.

Classes have really "started," and the atmosphere has a palpable seriousness about it. The last few weeks had been bombarded with absences (my part and the professors), protests, and a general before-vacation atmosphere. Now that school is back in session and the retirement bill was passed, everyone seems to have hunkered down for the long seven-week stretch that is ahead of us. There are still protests happening, and I was just given some more literature this morning, but I think that at this point, it's kind of a futile effort. But we'll see--the French are not quick to give up, especially the young and unemployed.

Group projects are underway and even though I admittedly work better alone, being forced to work with others isn't the worst thing in the world. I have three group projects, all fairly time-consuming; a mémoire to start (but first, I need to narrow down a subject); and hours of lectures that I need to transcribe. Oy.

Anyway, the learning has begun, even if the un-learning seems much bigger at this point. I spent part of break reading some undergrad media studies and communications books (well, chapters of said books..reading an entire textbook is very, very dull) and whaddya know, I understood more of my lecture classes this week! I knew the sociologist they were talking about! I knew what theory they were talking about! Now I am officially getting, you know, 42% of the material in class. Wooo.

There are definitely some other skills I've been improving on:

Time-management skills. This is the biggest. I have weird gaps of time, and not a lot of it. So I have to make do with what I have, even if it means from 12:30-3pm or from midnight-2am. Since my schedule is so packed with work, children, work, school, sleep, etc. I have to find a way to manage it all. I've always sucked at this, but I've never had such a tight schedule that really didn't give me the option of lounging on the couch for a few hours before actually doing anything. I sadly don't have the luxury this year. I bought a desk from my beloved IKEA last week and ousted the futon chair that was here into the basement. However, I messed up the cord hole and so now it's been rechristened as a cupholder, which coincidentally (or not, IKEA?) holds my favorite cheapie plastic IKEA tumblers, that often contain wine..'nuff said.

Taking notes. I used to consider myself a good note-taker. Maybe it's because the majority of my notes have been in language classes, or maybe because it's been years since I took a large lecture-style class, but I am a (improving) failure at taking notes in French. It's hard to listen for the main points, then write them down, while he says another main point. And might I add that French words seem so much longer when you're in a hurry! I've developed some abbreviations for myself and also adopted the degree symbol for words that end in -sion, -tion. The French do this, so I can't take credit for it, but I'd never seen it before.

Thus, communication ⇒ comm° etc.

I also try to camp out behind students with laptops, which seems to be my best strategy so far. They love to play solitaire in between main points, which adds to my failure-like feeling. On the other hand, every time there's some technical term or theory mentioned, it's usually of a British or American origin, so they sigh and moan about oh non, encore de l'anglais? (Oh no, not more English!) while I silently revel in the one moment where I beat them. I also enjoy hearing my professors talk about zee wourld weyde wehb and zee eeenturrrneht.

I haven't decided yet what to do after this semester. I don't particularly like my program, but maybe part of it is the classes I'm in. I got last dibs on the electives, so I'm in two really boring, really non-related classes that I don't enjoy at all. One's about social representations (a very vague class involving how people are represented in films and literature) and the other is a psychology-based class about evaluating people in the workplace. It's as boring as it sounds. And also, pretty useless to me.

However, the next semester looks more promising, and hopefully I'll have a better chance of getting into more interesting classes. The thing I keep coming back to, though, is language and linguistics. I am such a language nerd. I'm constantly thinking about languages, no matter where I am. I note constructions people use, I carry around a journal to mark new vocabulary down in, I have wordreference.com in a browser on a nearly permanent basis..I wonder if I should just follow what I really love, even if there are few job opportunities, or follow what I still like, but less, with more job opportunities? I keep thinking that I could still use languages with my communications degree, but could I still do journalism with a linguistics or translation degree?

Decisions, decisions..

Well I am obviously not doing too well in time-management today, as I'm cutting into studying time by updating this blog. I must allow myself a little diversion now and then! It's November, the absolute ugliest, crappiest month of the year, and I'm already counting the days until December, when at least I have the holidays to look forward to. Don't think I'll be making it stateside this Christmas, as much as I wish I could. Missing two in a row is not what I'd planned on, but alas, I'm poor, my home country is 4,000 miles away..you understand. Kind of pissed at my compatriots, anyway. What is wrong with you, America?!

I'm just glad I didn't have to listen to all the political ads!