But Gina, you said it in French...

So, it's been a long time, again. But I have a good reason, really. Summer session started on Monday, and so my days have been composed of getting up early, running to campus, making copies (and bizarre overheads that I can only hope my class thinks are funny), teaching for 3 and a half hours, detouring around the ever-present and growing construction to get home, then taking a nap (yes a nap, like a 2-year-old), making the next day's lesson plan, correcting papers and watching the Olympics. So interesting, I know. My class is great- there are only 14 of them, half as many as I'm used to and they're quite funny. Most of them have gotten the concept that every sentence has to have a verb. They can appropriately quote "Monty Python," when I ask them "vous y etes?" they chorus back with "nous y sommes" (a left-over trait from their last teacher- they've been together most of the summer), they laugh at Pony-on-the-Finger (in a good way), they liked playing "Quel est ton probleme?" and its new sister activity "Bonne idee/mauvaise idee" and they're not at all a bad group to spend large parts of my day with. But they leave little time for blogging (especially when combined with the Olympics).

Teaching over the summer has turned out to be, so far, a really good experience. It's nice to have at once both total freedom and the guidelines of what I did during spring term. This is probably very similar to what it would be like to be an instructor, which is an option I'll have when I finish here, if I don't find a job in the arts right away. I like teaching- it makes me feel like I'm doing something worthwhile.

Has anyone else noticed that local news, both print and broadcast, seems to be deteriorating? I find it hard to find a local newscast or even newspaper that I like and that provides decent information. Television has turned to more feel-good social issue stories, which are fine in small amounts but not fine as the main part of the newscast. Newspapers are turning to lower-quality writers and skimping on international news to report on smaller stories, which, while important, should share the stage with a more broad perspective of the news. I'm fine with getting most of my news from national sources (I can still stomach the national news on tv, and love the New York Times), but it seems sad that local news has reached this point. It's like two totally different versions of the news.

I'm listening to the soundtrack to Rushmore. It's such a good movie- and one that's never lost its appeal for me. I own the special edition of the Royal Tenenbaums, but the 2-disc set for Rushmore is so exorbidantly expensive that I haven't bought it yet. I refuse to get the cheaper version because the special features on Criterion Collection sets are actually good. Wes Anderson reminds me of my brother's friend Arthur.

I want to be interesting, but I can't think of much more to say right now. I'll post again if my brain remembers anything worth talking about.