I’M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!
Yup, we bought one.
The Nicolas Sarkozy Voodoo Doll. He tried to have it banned in France, but he didn’t succeed. Not yet, anyway. Maybe it will be worth money someday. Or maybe we’ll just let the cat eat it.
Full Story »First Semester Language
We all laugh at these songs that make fun of beginning language classes and the somewhat useless words and phrases we learn. How many times in French have I ever said “Où est la bibliothèque ?” Um, probably never. But these videos also show the poor attempt at language teaching and/or the poor attempt at [...]
Full Story »Sylvie et Emeric Autour du Monde
Back in July, two of David’s friends took off on a tour du monde (trip around the world). This seems to be pretty common as I’ve heard of many French people/couples who do it. I have no idea how they afford it though! Sylvie & Emeric started their trip in New York, with visits to [...]
Full Story »French Jack-o’-Lantern
Auchan was selling pumpkins this week, so I had to get one. I was surprised they even had them considering how small their Halloween costume section is. And their Halloween candy aisle is just non-existent. There was a huge section for chrysanthemums though, for la Toussaint* – which I stupidly didn’t get when I first [...]
Full Story »L’Essor Savoyard: Local News from Annecy
Mamie had a copy of l’Essor Savoyard from this week lying around, so I read through it to check out the happenings in and around Annecy. (Unfortunately, this local newspaper doesn’t have a website, but the other one does: Le Dauphiné.) Troops from the 27e BCA, which is located directly across from the lycée I [...]
Full Story »Change Your Clocks in Europe
Europeans: Daylight Saving Time has ended and you need to set your clocks back an hour (except in Iceland where DST is not used.) DST will begin again on the last Sunday in March. North Americans: Your DST will end next Sunday; except for those in Saskatchewan, a small part of British Columbia, Hawaii, Arizona [...]
Full Story »Everyone speaks Franglais.
Have I mentioned lately how annoying English words are in French? Just over the past few days, I’ve heard people speaking French say speed, soft, borderline, bad trip, VIP, people, and flashy when they could have just used French words in their sentences. And of course they pronounce these words with French accents, which is [...]
Full Story »Colin Powell’s Words of Wisdom
From the only Republican I like, Colin Powell, on Meet the Press, October 19, 2008: …I watched Mr. Obama and I watched him during this seven-week period. And he displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems like this and picking a vice president that, I [...]
Full Story »Apéro and Universités
Friday night at an apéro chez des amis, we somehow got on the subject of universities. David mentioned that his mom’s cousin teaches French in Boston, and at the end of each semester, she had to let her students fill out evaluation forms. Everyone but me was surprised and thought it was a bad idea. [...]
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