My rant on knowing a foreign language...

Anyone who knows me, knows my passion for foreign languages.  A long-time friend of mine will tell you of a time when he questioned the importance of knowing another language.  He will tell you that I ripped him upways and downways until I was satisfied.  When I found this cartoon, I thought "finally somebody gets me!"  In case you don't know, the United States has never declared a national language.

xkcd.com

Useful Waste of Time

Recently, KSM posted notice of a website called www.freerice.com.  This is a remarkable website that provides a vocabulary test.  For each correct answer, the sponsors donate 20 grains of rice.  I sat and answered enough to donate 2000 grains of rice.  The sponsors include Unilever and United Nations World Food Program.  This site is of dual purpose:  free education to improve English vocabulary and free means to feed the world's hungry.

Happy quizzing!

Privilege

One of my favorite movies is Ever After, a Cinderella tale set in François I's time of the Renaissance.  Just recently, I had the pleasure of seeing the movie again.  One scene that I had seen numerous times jumped out at me.  Its a conversation between the Cinderella character and the Prince.  The two are engaged in a truth or dare game involving "rock, paper, scissors" and its the Prince's turn to confess.  He comes out with the fact that he would prefer not to be king when it comes to be his turn.  The Cinderella character is taken aback and tells him that he could do wonderful things being in a position to do anything.  The line that struck me the most was when she calls him out and tells him that "you were born to privilege and with that comes certain obligation."  He is quite inspired by her and decides after reflecting on it that having privilege may not be so bad after all.

What so struck me about this conversation is that many of us are born to privilege, not as this prince was, but in other ways.  We were given something that many people in the world weren't.  This was ever so apparent when I had the fortune of going to Haiti and working there on a short-term basis.  There were some children that came to our children's program that only had a shirt on, no pants, no shoes, no socks, while others were left unclothed.  None of the other children thought anything of it because that was normal life for them.  Meanwhile, back in the USA, we struggle to put together an ensemble with our 100 clothing items and dozens of shoes.  These children would be lucky if they got 1 pair of shoes to go with every stage of growth.  

With privilege comes obligation.  So, what privilege do you have?  What is the obligation attached to it?

Reprise

I've decided to revive this blog after almost a full year of it being dormant. My inspiration is from reading great blogs like those on my Blog list. Instead of chronicling my adventures in France, since I am no longer there, I will discuss other topics like other travel I've done, language related topics, spiritual matters and other items I deem worthy of discussion. Its not so much discussion I'm looking for but just clearing my boggled mind. If you look back at the archive, a year ago today marks the last leg of my stay in France. I was in Louveciennes with Delphine touring around the sights that I took in 10 years before. Thanks to WCS, CL, Kelley, Julia and KSM for inspiring me to pick this up again.

Adjusting...

What's kind of interesting is the adjustments one has to make upon the return. Jet lag is obviously a crazy phenomenon that can take two days or so or weeks--too early to tell at this point.

Typing on my own keyboard, to which I am so accustomed, is one of those things with which I have great difficulty now. French keyboards are different, first of all, and second of all, I've been typing on them for the past 7 weeks. So here's a quick guide if there are letters out of place in my messages to help you decode: ; equals the letter "m".... / equals ! .....q equals a. Those seem to be the most common errors I have been making so far.

Speaking seems to be an issue as well. After having spoken exclusively in French for the past several weeks, my native tongue seems to be twisted. Witnesses say that I have been inserting French words into casual conversation and that I have difficulty finding the English word and can only think of the French equivalent.

Sacré Bleu! Its an odd feeling knowing that you know but you don't! Hard to describe, perhaps its the language barrier again!

Cheers to all,

Rachael

Back from France

Its always a bittersweet feeling leaving a wonderful destination to return home. I was most anxious to see my family and get back to a life I am used to and an old hat sort of routine. On the other hand, I so enjoyed myself in Angers and Paris that the spontaneous life I lived there was just as appealing. I miss the food and friends already but am glad to be home at the same time. The last flight always seems to be the longest because you're in transit in an undesirable location. For me, I was in Newark dealing with cancelled flights and weather issues with the original intention of returning at 7pm. With all the unforeseen activity, weather wise, I returned at 2:30am which is nothing like 7pm! So for those of you anxious to contact me, take heed because sleep is not something that my body has taken kindly too because it knows I'd rather be in the Angers/Paris time zone! Thanks to all of you who posted comments on this blog or sent messages--at least I know my efforts were not in vain!

Merci a Delphine!

Thanks to Delphine and a friendship that has lasted since 1993, I had a wonderful time seeing her again. She was the perfect hostess and was so accomodating and made sure that I enjoyed myself. We visited the Musee de Cluny, France Miniature, the Catacombs and various other sites as well.

Catacombs of Paris

Wednesday, Delphine and I met up with her friend, Sophie and headed to Paris. Les Catacombes de Paris was our destination for the day to view the final destination of many. There are many fascinating stories surrounding the when and the why's of this burial venue. Deeper than the métro itself, is where they can be found and are far reaching beneath the lively city. I was lucky to be with 2 nurses who stopped frequently to identify various pieces of bone because anyone who knows me well, knows that this expedition is borderline science (at which I never excelled). The temperature is held naturally at 14°C (approx 55°F). The cool and damp tunnels added to the eeriness of the experience.

The Problem with France...

1. Beautiful buildings that can only be seen here.
2. Excellent bread that can be made elsewhere but never duplicated.
3. Abundance of castles is so far reaching its not probably that any one person will see all of them.
4. Amazing history that exceeds timelines.
5. At any moment, a new and charming scene presents itself and one cannot always be prepared.
6. Hospitable people that will bend over backwards to please you even when one does not deserve the luxury.
7. The cuisine is so savory no wonder the French stay at the table for 2 hours or more!
8. This small country is jam-packed with culture and its impossible to see everything.
9. Ambiance that is abounding you can't help but feel chic while here.
10. The biggest problem......I don't visit often enough!

In short, this country overpowers me every time. I must be a glutton for punishment, for I am a francophile so far gone I will never recover!

St Germain-en-Laye

We stopped here for the afternoon and visited the chateau of St. Germain-en-Laye where Louis XIV was born. Breath-taking as most castles are with a great view of La Défense, business section of Paris. Before going on to the grounds of this chateau, we stopped at a café for a drink with a view of the castle.

Potager du Roi

Since I have visited Versailles on several occasions (most of them with Delphine), we decided to see something else even though we drive by the Palace on a regular basis--its a rough life, but somebody's gotta do it! Tuesday, we visited the King's Vegetable Garden, or the Potager du Roi. It was huge, for starters, and lovely as well. It was a beautiful day, weather wise, so we took advantage of doing something outside without the doing the same old Versailles thing. There were many statues and fountains and odd types of fruit trees, etc. Definitely worth seeing, if you're in the area!

Louveciennes

This is the town that Delphine grew up in and I haven't seen it in 10 years. Many things are of note here: La Machine à Marly, an aqueduct; the subject of many famous artists as well. Its a suburb of Paris and I give it 5 pains au chocolats for charm and warmth. Pictured: The Marly Machine; a painting by Pissaro and how it appears today.

Delphine

I arrived at Delphine's today. Our friendship is so phenomenal due to its longevity. We have not seen each other in ten years but have remained in contact. The story begins in 1993 when she was an exchange student that lived me and my family. We are the same age and finished high school and college at the same time, etc. 5 year later, it was me who was the exchange student in France but in a different region. After my studies, Delphine and her family hosted me for 3 weeks and showed me Paris for the first time. That was the last time we saw each other in person. We've seen each other since then via pics or webcam. We took a small tour of the town of Versailles today and stopped at a café with a view of the Palais of Versailles.

Paris

I arrived in Paris Saturday afternoon and I spent 2 full days here by myself. I took care of the essentials first: find a hotel and buy a carnet of metro tickets. I went to the Eiffel Tower first, then the Invalides, then back to the hotel.

Day 2: I went to the Arc de Triomphe first to watch the prep of the Tour de France arrival. I then moved on to the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Later that evening, I met up with colleagues for dinner in Montmartre. It was so fun to rendez-vous in Paris because I have "people"! One of the colleagues left to go back to the hotel which left Pierre et moi. We walked around Montmartre to take in the monuments lit up at night. We took the same metro line but had different correspondances so we said our goodbyes on the metro. I went back to the hotel and packed up my stuff to meet up with Delphine the next day.

My host family

I have had the best time in Angers and I owe a great deal of that enjoyment to my host family! My last night in Angers, they put on a special dinner to mark the occasion with hesitation of course. They went so out of their way to offer gifts as well (pictured). They took me to the train station the next morning so I could go to Paris and be with Delphine (more on that later). They did not just drop me off at the train station, they stayed with me the entire time reviewing all the fun times we had. They insist that I return with my husband and stay with them because they will always be my family! Time has gone by so fast here.

Exams

My time here in Angers is coming quickly to an end. I had an exam today in the conversation class that consisted of reading a newspaper outloud. The goal being linking letters and intonation. It also contained a composition--I know, conversation class, right?--the subject: describe your time here in Angers; the catch: use as many words and expressions that have been given as part of the content of the course. For starters, I have a list of hundreds of metaphores and another list of idioms, proverbs and yet another list of words in general. After the exam, we all asked each other how many expressions we employed. Most of my colleagues used 15-25 expressions for 2-3 page paper (hand written). I came in with 46 expressions. Do what you will with that piece of information ;) Pictured: proof that some academia took place here!

Castles!

Monday was another excursion for our program and we visited Amboise and Chenonceau. Both are lovely in different ways--despite the rain that invaded our parade. Amboise is only partially visitable because most of it was destroyed--prior to our arrival by about 400 years. Its the resting place of Leonardo daVinci's remains as well.

Chenonceau is still lovely with a different history. Not one of physical brutality like Amboise, but of the people with whom its associated. Breath-taking gardens and beautifully furnished of period items.

La Rochelle

I spent the weekend with 3 colleagues/friends at the seaport town of La Rochelle. Its a beautiful town with lots of sights, sounds and beaches! It has not been typical summer weather since I arrived in Angers but luckily we found sunshine at the beach. We left Saturday morning by train and spent Saturday and Sunday away for a reprieve--not htat its been gruling. We went to the aquarium, cave (wines again) and along the old port where there was plenty of festivities going on to be taken in and enjoyed.

La soirée...encore

Last Friday night, as I mentioned was the annual program party. We had an amazing time together with our families. It was particularly interesting to put names with faces that we had been hearing about throughout the duration of the program. We started the evening with an apéro of champagne mixed with fruit and then moved to the tables. We had paté, duck, potatoes, salad, cheeses and a cake with fruits and glaze. As for my prediction: we left at exactly midnight! Pictured are my colleagues and profs.

La Maison de Vin

Yesterday, I rounded up a group to do a tasting of regional wines--no sense in drinking alone. A group of 6 of us went to the Maison de Vin to taste the local products. We must have tried 10 different wines that vary in viscosity, color and grape. We have wine everyday at lunch at school but since its basically a cafeteria its hard to say if its a good appelation or not. I would guess the latter because though we eat in a dining room its not quite haute cuisine. The wine attendant was very informative and had a good time with us, as we were a lively group even before the sampling. The region is known for rosés principally but that's a wine for women (or so says my father). The main appelation is "Anjou" or "Layon". Again, before I left people asked me if I would be near wine country--newsflash: France is a wine country.