I've noticed that of the four catagories of communication through language I engage in (reading, writing, speaking, and understanding what is being said) speaking is the most difficult, and I think the primary reason for this (besides things like performance anxiety) is that its the medium in which I'm most often tempted to mentally translate from ( Read more... )

° arrived, walked to a hotel from the train station (town was intensely tiny, population 2000 and change ( Read more... )

(...) I have one left, waiting for a special occasion ... i had two till this weekend, but used the other after reading my letter to myself from india ( Read more... )

Today was the most awful, tiring day. It was dark and cold, and I was sick, and I ran all around town, first to the CRIJ for cecile's class, then back to school for my meeting with julia (and the worst cheeze sandwich ever) because i didn't bring lunch because i'd been planning to buy it from the crèpe guy who, inexplicably, was closed ( Read more... )

The jangwas three me a birthday party tofay with a white gateau with a little plastic 21 stuck into it and a bottle of carbonated apple juice called 'champommy' to share with the kids ... it was so sweet. And they sung happy birthday (in both french and english) and that weird french birthdays song the midgets sing in cité des ènfants perdus.

(my eyes are still black with the kohl of teenage indescretion ( Read more... )

Today I had a more or less unproductive day tryign to arrange things for my CSP (cultural studies project, for those of you who aren't Julia). First of all, I switched families this weekend (mine went skiing in the alps - I'm staying for the week with a camerounian family called the Jangwa's - young mom and dad, three little kids, and the mom's ( Read more... )

sir william! bonjour (ou soir)! how goes? how is life and how is school sitting (was it at all weird going back to the old grind?) and are you involved in any new adventures/ projects? Things here are more or less fine - toulouse is a great city but everything is ridiculous expensive and the bureau de change wants 10% to cash my travellers ( Read more... )

we went to a jazz show yesterday! In this amazing ancient church. The show itself wasn't so great - the players were a little too timid, I thought - except, that is, for the drummer, who was right on the ball the whole time and blew everyone away with this amazing solo that had little to do with the rest of the performance, but was definately the ( Read more... )

this weekend was so nice, my family is so adorable and i spoke french like the entire time. Sérge is a balding chemical engineer who works at a factory that used to make gunpowder and now makes rocket fuel. He speaks with these hilarious over-the-top french intonations that that can't be properly pronounced without shrugging, arching one's ( Read more... )