Qui a peur du loup garou?
Aaaaaaand, 3 weeks later, she's back. Happy Winter Quarter, everyone. But you know, it's already week 4. Whoops.
Sooooo, 2005. Already much better than 2004. Stress level? Waaaaay down. Down down down. Happy! And this quarter? 2 classes = less than 3 classes = less stress. And learning Old French = geeky Gina-esque (me, not big Gina, who's teaching me) = so cool! Today I sat with my Old French dictionary and grammar books and the Lai I'm reading- "Bisclavret" and worked at the parsing and translating. Which takes a while, since I'm just starting and have to look things up in many books. It's too gramatically geeky and wonderful for words, and this coming from someone who doesn't like grammar! I'm dissolving into happiness. Other parts of the day were spent baking (there's coffee in my gingerbread! How caffeinated and lovely!), laundry, laundry, and realizing that throwing the Flaubert book out the window won't accomplish anything except necessitating me going outside to get it. Stupid Romanticism. But professor for said-dreaded-19th century class? Incredible. It makes that horrible glop bearable for me. And that's saying a lot. But still, Balzac? Shut uuuuuuuuup! Oh, and I sent my class an email entirely in French, and no one wrote back saying that they didn't know what I was saying. Because they rock, this class. No more stare-downs. And that's a good thing.
I wonder if I could just play "La Belle et le Bad Boy" every day in class next week. Hmmm. Would the class notice? Would it be fun? Would my supervisor get mad at me? Tricky, tricky.
Mike's coming to visit next month. I'm going to take him to class with me, which should be fun. Hopefully he won't make fun of me and take pictures. Maybe I can even get him to make my lesson plan. Last year he helped and came up with such memorable translation exercises as "If I find my banana, I'll call you." It was quite a popular exercise with that class. Put him to work, that's what I should do.
So I know that I say "Ohh, you should see this movie" a lot here, and I'm sure that maaaaaybe one person listens to me. So here we go again. Pieces of April. See it. I'll find out if you don't and come and watch it with you (if you buy the plane ticket and popcorn). I thought I would hate Katie Holmes, but she's remarkably good. And all this for a movie that I wanted to see so that I could hear the Stephin Meritt songs (and was reminded afterwards that I could've just put in his cds). But really people (person? April? Are you there? Cause this movie totally has your name in it! And your name written on it! And all those other cliche things), see this movie. Or just buy me a plane ticket to come see you. Or the popcorn, because I do like popcorn.
I finished knitting one of my leg warmers. Yes, one. The other one is maybe an inch long, which makes it an almost-toe-warmer. I would love to just wear one of them out, but that would look silly. And while I do question some of my outfit ideas in the later parts of days, even I am smart enough to not just wear one of them.
Kudos to Claire for the good music. Oh god, I just said "kudos." I would like to strike that from the record and replace it with "word." Get that, everybody? But yes, good music. Combined with my flood of new cd acquisitions as of late, I'm getting up to some speed. Well, at least hearing new music. Even though I have listened to "La Belle et le Bad Boy" approximately a million times in the past week. And by a million I mean between 10 and 15. Yup.
I could lie and say that I'm going to read more Old French or Flaubert right now. But I'm not going to. I'm going to tell the truth and say that I'm going to do the dishes, get into bed, and read some Calvino. Take that Flaubert!
The moral of this story is, remember to turn your phones off at night if you don't want to get woken up in the morning with calls.
Sooooo, 2005. Already much better than 2004. Stress level? Waaaaay down. Down down down. Happy! And this quarter? 2 classes = less than 3 classes = less stress. And learning Old French = geeky Gina-esque (me, not big Gina, who's teaching me) = so cool! Today I sat with my Old French dictionary and grammar books and the Lai I'm reading- "Bisclavret" and worked at the parsing and translating. Which takes a while, since I'm just starting and have to look things up in many books. It's too gramatically geeky and wonderful for words, and this coming from someone who doesn't like grammar! I'm dissolving into happiness. Other parts of the day were spent baking (there's coffee in my gingerbread! How caffeinated and lovely!), laundry, laundry, and realizing that throwing the Flaubert book out the window won't accomplish anything except necessitating me going outside to get it. Stupid Romanticism. But professor for said-dreaded-19th century class? Incredible. It makes that horrible glop bearable for me. And that's saying a lot. But still, Balzac? Shut uuuuuuuuup! Oh, and I sent my class an email entirely in French, and no one wrote back saying that they didn't know what I was saying. Because they rock, this class. No more stare-downs. And that's a good thing.
I wonder if I could just play "La Belle et le Bad Boy" every day in class next week. Hmmm. Would the class notice? Would it be fun? Would my supervisor get mad at me? Tricky, tricky.
Mike's coming to visit next month. I'm going to take him to class with me, which should be fun. Hopefully he won't make fun of me and take pictures. Maybe I can even get him to make my lesson plan. Last year he helped and came up with such memorable translation exercises as "If I find my banana, I'll call you." It was quite a popular exercise with that class. Put him to work, that's what I should do.
So I know that I say "Ohh, you should see this movie" a lot here, and I'm sure that maaaaaybe one person listens to me. So here we go again. Pieces of April. See it. I'll find out if you don't and come and watch it with you (if you buy the plane ticket and popcorn). I thought I would hate Katie Holmes, but she's remarkably good. And all this for a movie that I wanted to see so that I could hear the Stephin Meritt songs (and was reminded afterwards that I could've just put in his cds). But really people (person? April? Are you there? Cause this movie totally has your name in it! And your name written on it! And all those other cliche things), see this movie. Or just buy me a plane ticket to come see you. Or the popcorn, because I do like popcorn.
I finished knitting one of my leg warmers. Yes, one. The other one is maybe an inch long, which makes it an almost-toe-warmer. I would love to just wear one of them out, but that would look silly. And while I do question some of my outfit ideas in the later parts of days, even I am smart enough to not just wear one of them.
Kudos to Claire for the good music. Oh god, I just said "kudos." I would like to strike that from the record and replace it with "word." Get that, everybody? But yes, good music. Combined with my flood of new cd acquisitions as of late, I'm getting up to some speed. Well, at least hearing new music. Even though I have listened to "La Belle et le Bad Boy" approximately a million times in the past week. And by a million I mean between 10 and 15. Yup.
I could lie and say that I'm going to read more Old French or Flaubert right now. But I'm not going to. I'm going to tell the truth and say that I'm going to do the dishes, get into bed, and read some Calvino. Take that Flaubert!
The moral of this story is, remember to turn your phones off at night if you don't want to get woken up in the morning with calls.
4 Comments:
About time G! Anyways, I would like to add to the record that I have seen "Pieces of April" and thought it quite good as well. And I have yet to see "Life Aquatic"...hey, I might just do that today...nothing better to do...I did see "Closer" this weekend, and if you haven't seen it, please do. Natalie and Clive totally deserved their Golden Globes. I must also add that it is the first time I can say Damien Rice's music in it is warrented...I've heard it played in other TV shows and movies, but it really fit here. And if you haven't given his music a shot, I'll hunt you down. That has been my favorite CD since the end of 2003. There's not a week that goes by where I don't at least listen to some of it..."Amie" is gorgeous...OK, rambling will cease.
-Emily
When you wrote "Old French lai about a werewolf" in my comments, I totally guessed it was "Bisclavret." We read Marie de France in a lit class I took last summer and I completely loved her, but of course Old French and English translation are not the same thing. Especially for those of us who speak no French of any sort.
I really have to watch "Pieces of April." I taped it off pay-per-view, literally, at least six months ago, and everyone keeps telling me how much I'll love it, and I've just never gotten around to it. But now, because Gina told me to, I guess I no longer have any excuse.
much love
-April
Whew, good to know you didn't die - I was beginning to wonder where you went. Only your brother could come up with crazy phrases such as those...hehe. Oh, and good call on waiting to wear the leg warmers after they're both finished. How about we just all convene in Eugene instead of buying you tickets to various parts of the country? Though that might have to wait till it's not so cold because I think I would freeze now. Stay warm!
Ciao,
Heather
i would agree with heather about the cold. i am struggling with the bits of snow here in bowling green (currently 32 at 5pm... this is the high today i think...) and all this while france is colder and that's where i'm headed next. sigh. current retirement opportunities: 1. hawaii 2. aruba. anyway, good to see you're still around. so am i, as you might have guessed from reading this.
-your dear friend who makes (and has driven!) brand new corvettes :-)
Enregistrer un commentaire
<< Home