
Friday, June 10, 2011
la famille van peteghem

Wednesday, June 8, 2011
taboulé and canned peas

and dark chocolate too.
I promise that once I have some time I will tell you all about
the most incredible weekend of my life that I just had.
I can write my 15 page internship paper on the poems that are
printed on the walls there. students get free admission on fridays. score.
we did English lessons with. we are eating pb&j's
(now to go hunt down some peanut butter in this land of nutella)
and ice cream sundae's. american's sure love their sugar.
school starts the monday after and I will rub my eyes awake from this spring dream

we love traditions when it means millefeuilles or a salée framboise
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
27:32
race course upon finding out that we are american.

and, well,
Saturday, May 28, 2011
border in the backyard


I love it.
You belong somewhere close to me.
Far away from your trouble and worries
You belong somewhere you feel free."



Thursday, May 26, 2011
cobblestones and ch'tis sauce



Sunday, May 22, 2011
weekend at the pool



Thursday, May 19, 2011
homme
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
we were planning on going to the grocery store when...
have your cake and eat it too, gospel-style
Sunday, May 15, 2011
dimanche
emily and I went to the métro this morning nice and early to catch a ride up to the church. just so you know, emily and I do pretty much everything together. we run together, we work together, we walk to the métro together (as you now know), we attend weekly church activities together, we share cookies together, we go to old french bookstores together, we watch victorian era movies via youtube and cry together, we scramble away from leechy men on the street together, we buy milk together, etc. someone at church today (who didn't know who we were) asked if we were sister missionaries, and even when I told him that we weren't but that we were interns here he kept referring to Emily as my "comp" (short for missionary companion - fyi).


Saturday, May 14, 2011
honk
library discrimination

windows wide open

thomas more

"But to tell the truth, I'm still of two minds as to whether I should publish the book or not. For men's tastes are so various, the tempers of some are so severe, their minds so ungrateful, their tempers so cross, that there seems no point in publishing something, even if it's intended for their advantage, that they will receive only with contempt and ingratitude. Better simply to follow one's own natural inclinations, lead a merry, peaceful life, and ignore the vexing problems of publication. Most men know nothing of learning; many despise it. The clod rejects as too difficult whatever isn't cloddish. The pedant dismisses as mere trifling anything that isn't stuffed with obsolete words. Some readers approve only of ancient authors: most men like their own writing best of all. Here's a man so solemn he won't allow a shadow of levity, and there's one so insipid of taste that he can't endure the salt of a little wit. Some dullards dread satire as a man bitten by a hydrophobic dog dreads water; some are so changeable that they like one thing when they're seated and another when they're standing. Those people lounge around the taverns, and as they swill their ale pass judgment on the intelligence of writers. With complete assurance they condemn every author by his writings, just as they think best, plucking each one, as it were, by the beard. But they themselves remain safely under cover and, as the proverb has it, out of harm's way. No use trying to lay hold of them; they're shaved so close, there's not so much as the hair of an honest man to catch them by. Finally, some men are so ungrateful that even though they're delighted with a work, they don't like the author any better because of it. They are like rude, ungrateful guests who, after they have stuffed themselves with a splendid dinner, go off, carrying their full bellies homeward without a word of thanks to the host who invited them. A fine task, providing at your own expense a banquet for men of such finicky palates, such various tastes, and such rude, ungracious tempers."
wednesday at work

Wednesday, May 11, 2011
candy provisions
favorite flavor always seems to be the one that is the least included in the bag?
it must be one of those annoying clauses in Murphy's law.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011
les filles


“Tu n’est pas mal, toi”
Emily and I ran rather hard this morning. I couldn’t believe how fast she was going, and, of course, I had to keep up with her pace. At the end, I turned to her completely out of breath about to "tomber dans les pommes" and said, “Emily, wow, you really pushed me hard this morning.” She responded in surprise, “I was trying to keep up with you!”
At work the time speeds along so quickly, especially when there is work to be done. Today there certainly was work to be done, and the day went by in a flash as we entered in exam scores, prepared student interviews, and verified final grades for the economics and the business students. A nice plus in the workplace here is that everyone gets along pretty decently and there is no gossip, which seems so prevalent in offices elsewhere. And, did you know that we get an hour and 15 mintue lunch break?
Today during that blessed lunch hour, I came back to my room to take a powernap and read a little bit from The Rugby House Book Club (don’t ask me where or how this name was chosen and sustained for our club) summer choice: East of Eden. We chose a book that would take all summer to read, and this will do the job nicely. As I was reading, the cleaning woman, Severine, came to clean my room. She comes by once every few weeks and does the cleaning of not only our building but of each of our rooms. As I watched her clean, I told her that, at least where I was from, the students are the ones who are responsible for the cleaning of their own rooms and that I wanted to help her since I was used to doing my own cleaning. She said that being able to clean our rooms gave her a job and a task to do. I think it is good and all to provide jobs to those that want to work and need the money but I think in some ways it eliminates personal responsibilities and character building skills.
The last hour of work today, Emily and I had our first English conversation hour with a student named Hubert. We met in a classroom called “La Salle d’Espace des Langues” where you are not allowed to speak French. Emily and I have been very diligent in not speaking any English with each other, but it was a nice change when we were in the Espace des Langues speaking with Hubert in the mother tongue. Most of the students we will be meeting with in the next few weeks are preparing to apply to the “Harvards” of France for graduate studies and they have to pass an English oral exam as part of their application. Therefore, we set up times to converse with them, have them practice what it will be like in their exam, and give them an evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses. Hubert was a good sport with us as we figured out the best way to do things.

As Emily and I walked back to the Métro tonight with Lucia (a friend from Peru) after FHE tonight, we passed through a less glamorous area and were nearly run over by a group of interesting men in a fast little car. The leechy driver, as he slowed down and then zoomed by me (unfortunately, I jumped out of the way one way as my two walking buddies scooted off by the passenger side of the car ), yelled to me out the window, “Ohhhh, t’es pas mal, toi!” How charming; the best compliment of the day, by far. It reminded me of when Kristina and Mom happened to get off the Subway in Harlem, New York and some delightful young man said, “Yuuuuummy!”