beboots

 Donc je pense que j'ai déjà indiquer que ma nouvelle ordinateure a quelquechose de différent, en comparaison avec l'ancienne: ce qu'on appelle un "number pad" en anglais. (J'ai toujours du misère à trouver la vocabulaire pour les choses éléctronique en français. Beaucoup du temps c'est seulement le mot en anglais avec "le" ou "la" en avant.) Bien, maintenant je trouve que les accents (é, à, ï, etc.) sont beaucoup plus facile à ecrire à cause des "shortcuts". Je voudrais seulement faire une post en français car je n'ai pas beaucoup d'opportunités à la faire. 

Je n'ai pas encore entendu des positions en France ou Québec, mais il y a encore du temps. Je pense qu'ils nous contactent par poste et non pas par courriel ou téléphone aussi. Néanmoins, je suis encore très anxieuse. 

J'ai besoin de penser au sujet des choses plus positives, (Bien, j'ai besoin de penser au sujet de mes devoirs, papiers et dissertations, mais... ;) ) donc à ce but je voudrais vous introduire à une filme excellent, "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis". Je l'ai vu quand j'étudiais en France, et je la trouvai très amusante. :3 C'est tout au sujet des cultures différentes en France... et les difficultés qu'on trouve quand ils se rencontrent. 

Les soustitres anglais ne sont pas la meilleure, mais je sais que les dialectes sont très difficiles à traduire. 



(J'espère aussi que mon français est passable.)

 I've been... kind of working on homework this long weekend. I'm getting readings done at least, and dribs and drabs of other assignments! Most importantly of all, I've been working on a plan for my thesis, so I can figure out the flow of thoughts. I feel like I'm actually kind of sort of getting stuff done!

On a related note, I've slowly started to study for my Art History midterm in two weeks. It's mostly on the mid- to late-nineteenth century in Western art, and I've been trying to come up with Mnemonic devices to help me remember who painted what. Exampe: Millet painted "The Gleaners", and gleaners work in fields, well, gleaning different kinds of grains... like MILLET. >_> Hey, if it works for me... 

The strangest one has to be the one that I came up with for trying to remember Eugène Delacroix's oft-parodied "Liberty leading the people", which I quite like. Here's a reproduction of it from google images:


I've started to think of it in terms of a line from the French version of the Canadian national anthem, which goes:
"Car ton bras sait porter l'épée,
Il sait porter la croix!
Ton histoire est une épopée
Des plus brillants exploits."
Note that I've bolded "la croix", like the painter's name. Roughly translated, this more badass version of the anthem goes:
"Because your arm knows how to bear the sword,
And it knows how to bear the cross!
Your history is an epoch
Of brilliant exploits."

Which sounds an aweful lot like this image up there! 

So, uh, yeah, that's what I've been up to. >_>

Also, Turkey happened. Dad was out of town, still in India, and as he's the one who normally does the cooking, especially on Thanksgiving... I volunteered! I managed to create stuffing, roast the turkey, and make the gravy. My siblings made various vegetable dishes... and we had pumpkin pie for desert! :D It turned out quite well! Huzzah!

Q: How do you turn a piece of paper into a lazy dog in three steps?
A: A piece of paper is an ink-lined plane, an inclined plane is a slope up, a slow pup is a lazy dog. 

*rimshot*

Okay, so I like puns. I'm irrationally amused by them. More than I should be, I think. And in my English-French translation class today, we discussed how to translate things like advertising slogans, because they often have word play and cultural references and such that may not physically exist in the language/culture you're translating to. 

Some of my favourites from the list were:

"If I only have one life, let me live it as a blonde" (For hair colouring) I think that we ended up coming up with a pun in Québecois French with "blonde" (the hair colour) and "blonde", as in "ma blonde", which is slang for my girlfriend. 

"Let the train take the strain" (for some British rail company). I think one of the guys in my group came up with "Pour n'avoir rien à craindre, prenez le train-dre", which translates, roughly, to "So you have nothing to worry about, take the train", except the word for train has a verb ending tacked onto the end of it so it rimes with "craindre" (to worry). It would never actually fly, but the way that he said it, waggling his eyebrows? Funny as hell.

We didn't get to this one, but I love it: "It sits as lightly on a heavy meal as it does on your conscience." (for Jell-O)

We did get into this class-wide argument on how to translate Taco Bell's slogan "Think outside the bun." Clearly, it's a play on the expression "Think outside the box", telling consumers to think beyond hamburgers and think about tacos. We trashed the original slogan altogether, in my group, translating it as "C'est comme une fiesta dans ta bouche" (It's like a fiesta in your mouth!). A couple groups tried to translate it directly, but used the word "pain" (bread) which had us all descend into arguments, because "bread" doesn't immediately bring to mind hamburgers, right? Especially not in France. And then our prof said the most hilarious line (maybe you had to have been there and heard it said). He was saying that no, the girl's proposed translation would never work, because her word choice didn't convey "la réalité du 'bun.'" He said exactly what it sounds like - it didn't convey "the reality of 'buns'", like, hamburger buns have abstract connotations circling around them that invoke certain feelings and thoughts, and yeah, it's true, but he said it so seriously everyone started laughing. XD

Anyway, I don't have a picture that's thematically appropriate for this post, so here, have a picture of some Olympic athletes running with scissors:

"Trying one's best is a good thing, but trying one's patience is a bad thing. A blunt instrument is dull, but a blunt remark is pointed." (seriously, what the hell, English? D: )

A cheerful little story for you guys, also courtesty of Bill Bryson's book "The mother tongue: English and how it got that way": 

On another note, my Habsburg history prof has been trying to encourage us to listen to classical music for the entire semester, telling us amusing stories about various composers - and of course the majority of what he calls "good" composers are from Central Europe. ;) In any case, because my brother was in the next room, chatting, I was like "GAH I need something to listen to... oh hey yeah classical instrumental music is supposed to be good for you to study to, right?" So I've been raiding youtube for awesome songs... and yeah, I've saved a bunch to my delicious. (Check it: http://delicious.com/Beboots/music ) They've really been helping, I think.

So what kind of stories was the good Professor Szabo telling us, about these composers? 
For instance, Heiden wrote the Austrian Imperial Anthem after seeing/hearing a crowd in England sing "God Save the King". He felt so moved that he wanted something like that for his own people. He, as an old man, was in Vienna when it was occupied by Napoleon and his troops. Now, the French really respected Heiden, and so he actually got an honour guard of French soldiers. They were so impressed with him, they requested that Heiden play something for them. Heiden, being a shaky old man by this time, sits down at his harpsicord... and plays the Austrian Imperial Anthem. ;)

Oh snap.  

"All naive, busty tavern wenches in my realm will be replaced with surly, world-weary waitresses who will provide no unexpected reinforcement and/or romantic subplot for the hero or his sidekick."
- Peter's Evil Overlord List, #31

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOTHER!

Yes, today IS Valentines day, but it's a more important day to me than that - it's also my wonderful mum's birthday. :) So Happy Birthday to her! :D

"It's a very nice day to have a birthday, unlike Remembrance Day."
-My Mum


Macro Rose 2 by ~Beboots on deviantART

Incidentally, I'm flying out late this evening (at 10:30 at night, if you can believe it), to arrive in Québec City tomorrow morning at about 8am. We transfer three times, which means I'll get like no sleep tonight. D: So... I'll take a nap later on. Yes.

Who is "We"? The other half of "we" is my friend Maialen, who is Parisian and awesome. :) She says that I'm to be translating for her, because she finds the Québecois accent inpenetrable. D: (Did you know that the French (from across the water) consider "Québecois" to be a separate and distinct language from Standard French? Of course, they think that American English ("Américane") is a different language from British English, when we generally consider them mutually intelligible... to an extent... and thus, dialects. ;) )

I'm a little worried that my accent has changed too much to be understood easily by the Québecois. I spent a month in France this summer, so my accent isn't really Québecois, like it was in my last visit in grade nine...

Anyway, we're to visit Québec City (during the Winter Festival! :D ), then take a bus to Montreal. I've been to each city once before, on a four day trip in grade nine, but I only spent one day in Montreal... if any of you who are reading this have ever been, please reccomend places for us to go! I mean, I'm sure we'll find stuff to occupy ourselves (we're staying in the old parts of each town, which always means beautiful buildings and shopping, plus museums and other more cultural things ;) ), but I love to hear about other points of interest that people have run across before. :)

I'll be flying out a bare twelve hours from now, so I probably won't be in contact for a week or so after this, but I promise a long post detailing the high points of the trip. :) I wish you all a wonderful Reading Week! :D

Exert from the preface to Laclos's "Les Liasons Dangereuses", known in English as "Dangerous Liasons". Rough translation: "Persons with delicate taste will be disgusted by the simple and false style of some of these (letters)." (and this is how I introduce my Nanowrimo post. XD )

Anyway, "Les Liasons Dangereuses" is incredibly interestingly written, actually: essentially, it's a series of letters that the author, Laclos, has claimed to have found, and just rearranged into their proper order, as he explains in his introduction. However, in the following preface, the editor of the book claims that they can't possibly be true, because people don't really act in such horrible fashions to each other. So essentially, the reader is left to figure out for oneself if people are actually too mean to exist in real life, or if it is indeed possible for people to act this way and thus the letters are truth... There was apparently (according to my french teacher in Lille) lots of debate when it first came out as to whether or not they were real letters or not, but... XD Anyway, we know now that Laclos wrote everything: not just the letters, but the introduction AND the preface (the one supposedly written by his editor), all as a part of the style of the book. XD Brilliant!

Anyway, I'm currently writing my own novel. At the time of my writing of this post, I've hit just over 10,000 words, but I'm nowhere near my daily wordcount goal (1,667 words).

To the newcomers to my journal... "A novel? What the heck are you doing that for? D: What brought this on?" Well, check this out: http://www.nanowrimo.org/ That should explain everything... but for those too lazy to follow the link, essentially I've pledge to write a 50,000 word novel in one month, or I fail at life. :3 I succeeded last year at about 60k, so I know that it can be done! It's super fun, and really helped my writing style. This year, my novel is about vampires, and is tentatively titled "How the Undead Figure Out Life".

Also, my laptop, Sargon, is working out very nicely so far. Yay for Windows XP! :D

Here is a widget, so you may keep track of my wordcount status. :3 I shall hopefully post exerts later on in the month, when I get some really good ones... I've only just worked my way past "exposition exposition exposition" and "the main characters have met each other" phases.



(please tell me, guys, if that shows up, because it's not showing up for me... D: )

Day 34

Okay, so my luck seems to be flip-flopping all over the place. First of all, I got a really good deal on the train tickets to take Yan and I to Paris from Lille, online, for like half the price of what it is to buy them right there, on the day. And they were first class, not second class. 

...Then, Yan lost hers. And we only found out like fifteen minutes before our train left. D: She bought another one (she couldn't do much else), but I had to leave her to catch the train by myself, because it was a close thing. So there I sat, in the first class, wondering for the entire hour whether or not Yan had made it onto the train and what I would do if she hadn't. 

Luckily, she made it. :3 We had an almost tearful reunion on the platform. Then, we got a little bit lost looking for the place we had booked to stay the night.

First sign that the hostel may not be as conveniently close as you thought it was: when the first taxi driver you approach to take you there refused because it was "trop loin" (too far). D: Well, he actually relented and took us when Yan and I began looking lost and tearful. Also? It's not a good sign when the experienced Parisian taxi driver has to dust off his GPS to find us our hostel. D: 

Still, we made it. A bit late: I had planned to arrive at 10:30 or so, dump our stuff, then head over to the Japan Expo for 11:00 or so. Instead, we didn't arrive at the hostel until past noon, and then getting our train tickets and taking the train down to the Parc Des Expositions took like over an hour as well. D: It was really bad. Apparently, what looks to me (with my inexperienced eye) on the map like a distance of about 10 to 15 minutes (driving) translates into over an hour (and four transfers) of train. We have to do a loop to get there from our hostel, because there isn't a direct train heading in that direction. D: 

Anyway, other than the really stupid location, things are actually rather nice here. This hostel isn't technically a hostel: it's actually an apartment that you can rent out for however long you want. It's quite nice inside the rooms. They even have a mini-kitchen (including a stove, fridge, kettle, toaster, mircowave...), a TV (and DVD player), free wireless internet (hence, this post), etc.,etc. Except that it doesn't have a bed. Well, it has a fold-out couch, which is acceptable for three days. Plus, when I get the deposit back, this place is like 1/5th of what a hotel would cost per night. And there's a really nice chinese restaurant next door. I just ate there. It was delicious. OMNOMNOM.

Now why don't I talk about the Japan Expo? :D I went the first day with Yan (I was alone today because she flew back to Canada this morning), which was uber awesome funtime. Since we were so late (we arrived at nearly 2 o'clock), there were no lines whatsoever to buy our tickets (I got a three day pass). Then, I just had to pop into the vestiary to change into my outfit, and whabam! Instant awesomeness! :D 

The place is massive, by the way. The whole thing is one dealers room, with food stalls and speaker areas all around. This room is probably about fifteen times the size of the dealer's room at the Animethon at Grant MacEwan. No joke. And everything there is so awesome! :D They have a lot more original artists (they have like five artists alleys) than we do in Canada (I took advantage of this and bought some locally-made French doujinshi.)

Also, they have lots of hardcore cosplayers. And a lot of gothic lolitas hanging around. And a lot of lolital clothing stalls. I haven't given into temptation and looked at them in detail yet, because I honestly don't have enough space in my suitcase to fit anything that I buy there. But I still have one day, so I may yet succum to temptation... D:

Also, famous people. Apparently, Miyavi (a j-rocker) is hanging about the lolita stalls, but I haven't been able to get close. I did catch the last half of Takeshi Obata's lecture/ Question & Answer session today, though, but no autographs for me. ;_; (remember, he's the artist who drew Hikaru no Go, from which the character I dress up as comes from) I only caught the second half because it was right at 11 am and the entry crowds are crazy, even for people who already have passes. Seriously. I should have caught on yesterday when I saw all of the fencing arranged in loops in the front... 

But I did catch the lecture that the author of Hellsing gave! (That was for you, Ashley). I also got some good photos of the mangaka, and a video of him sketching a picture of Alucard. Badass.

I've also met many awesome people! Most of them were French, although I did run into a group of German cosplayers who were awesome, and a group of people from Britain (we've exchanged facebooks). :3 I hope to see them again tomorrow. I haven't run into Ashley's Alexandre yet, but it's a big festival, and again, there is tomorrow. 

Also, people like my costume! :D I acquired a fan that actually fits with the character design (before, I was using a bright purple one, not the white one like Sai has in canon). I have a nice pose, which involves the fan, and I have gotten many compliments and people asking me for photographs. On the first day, Yan and I kept count (31 photo requests between when we arrived at 2:15 or so until we left at 6:15). Today, I lost count at 15 or so, but there was at least thrice that ammount. A couple of times, a single person asks to take a photo, then when I pose, everyone in the area takes out their camera as well. D: I'm not swarmed as much as the epic Sakura (with feathers) or that angel guy (with the epic wings) or that blue elf-chick (with the overall epic-ness) (the photographs of these people shall be uploaded next week, probably, for your viewing pleasure), but I still feel awesome. :3 It's interesting to walk around, then hear someone poke their friend and go "hein, t'as vu Sai? Vite, regardes, Sai!" ("hey, did you see Sai? Quick, look, Sai!") One guy thought I was from Onmyouji, which is a believable mistake, since Sai and Abe no Seimei are from the same era and social class, and wear similar outfits. Most people recognize me, though (or, at least, the people who ask for photographs). It helps that there's a lot of Hikago merchandise around because of Takeshi Obata's attendence of the festival. :3 

I've stopped by the go tables (where people are being taught how to play go) a few times, and smiled at people there. (For the uninitiated, my character, Sai, is a ghost that "lives" for go, and is the most awesome go player EVAR). Tomorrow, I'll ask to be taught how to play. :3 I wonder if I shall get many photographs taken of me playing go... 

So I suppose that this post is enough for now! I shall add more details (and pictures) later on. See you guys soon!

Day 28

Study Time! I'm sure that some of you may have forgotten (as have many in my class) that hey, we're actually taking classes here in Lille! That means that we also have exams, what do you know! D: So, essentially, today was spent studying for me, with a three hour shopping break short breaks in between going over passé simple and philosophes. 

Shopping is great here, by the way. There's a France-wide clothing sale going on at the moment (called Les Soldes) and every clothing store worth it's salt has stuff at least 30%, if not more. I've seen stuff on for 80% off. It's sweet. Of course, they do interdisperse stuff that's not on sale right among the stuff that are really good deals, so... yeah. Anyway, it's awesome. :3

Yesterday, I tried moules frites for the first time. It's a dish specific to the north of Europe, and it's essentially steamed mussels and French fries. But it's so  delicious. OMNOMNOM. 

I shall definitely miss the mussels... and the great cheese... and the actual fresh French bread... and the chocolate... D: Why isn't this stuff found the world over for cheap? D: No wonder the French don't export many tourists... they have all that they really want right here in their own country...

On a more annoying note, I now have to walk three blocks down and around my dorm to get in, because the gate that's closest to the university is "en panne" (i.e., broken). D: Not fair! Now I have to actually walk places! Not that I didn't before... I swear I've lost several pounds here, just from being so active every day. I do take the métro, but everything is so close here, it's really just easier to walk most of the time. And more scenic. 

Oh, and I was mistaken for a French person yesterday! I was on my way to meet a few people for lunch, and this middle aged French couple approached me and asked me for directions to Centre Ville. I was perfectly capable of giving them directions back in French, and they even asked me what the place was called, and I could tell them both of it's names (La Grande Place  is what everyone calls it, but it's offical name is La Place Du Générale Charles De Gaulle). I felt very French. :) I blend, I blend! :D

Anyway, I'm leaving the country in like seven days plus fourteen hours. ;_; I'll miss France, but right now I miss all of my Canadian friends (wow, I almost wrote ''Canadian French'', and I suppose I miss that too... I'm told I have a faint Québecois accent in French), my tea, and being able to order stuff in my native language without feeling annoyed... Oh, and I miss being able to call people on their cellphones to meet up instead of standing in front of random monuments and hoping that they show up at the time that we arranged... 

I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Coming up this week:

EXAMS

Shopping!

Japan-Expo! Oh, and I have news regarding the Japan Expo... apparently one of the guests is Obata Takeshi...  in other words, the mangaka that illustrated Death Note and... Hikaru no Go! As in, the guy who drew the character that I'm dressing up as! :D I really hope that I get into his lecture... It shall be sweet. :3

PS: I do have some videos of France up on Facebook! I'm afraid that I can't find the link that allows me to send them to people who aren't on facebook, but... Check them out, if you can! 

Day 15 (and other pleasantries)

Not only am I learning French, in France, but also English! :D Here's a random linguistic note that may interest a few people of my acquaintance... ever wonder why it's "chair" in English but "chaise" in French? Well, they were originally the same word (according to one of my two French professors). You see, way back when, apparently all the "r"s in French were trilled, like in Spanish. But after a while, the nobles in France decided that this sounded vulgar, and experimented with other sounds, like "y" and "z", instead of thoes trilled "r"s. But it was all very silly, and the Revolution put a stop to that concept (as it put a stop to many of those same nobles). From then on, most "r"s were pronounced the way they are now (Danielle dearest, could you provide me with the linguistic charts? ;) I cannot explain!) There are a few layovers from this time of experimentation, however... mostly just the word "chaise", though - the "z" sound replacing the "r"... as in "chair", which would have been brought over to England with the Normans, before they started with all of this linguistic business. Now you know...

Anyway, I hope to be brief, as it's quarter after eleven at night over here, and I'm tired. Last weekend, we managed to splice together a last minute trip to Amsterdam! Myself and six others went, entirely planned on our own. We randomly found a really nice hostel (Hotel Slotania (sp?) - thank you, hostelworld.com! :D ) which was about 20 minutes from all of the interesting stuff in the city centre. It was far enough away that we didn't feel like we were right on top of the Red Light district, which was really reassuring. The trams and the busses were really efficient (and clean!) and everybody... and I mean everybody spoke English. Hurrah for the Dutch education system and it's emphasis on learning like minimum three languages! :D Banzai!

We ate dinner at a really lovely Indian restaurant Saturday night, which I totally reccomend to everyone reading this... except that I totally cannot recall it's name. D: Well, my only option is to take a bunch of you on a trip to Amsterdam to show you which one I mean. :3 

On Sunday, we went to the Rijkmuseum, which is awesome. We only really saw the Dutch history gallery (we were short on time), but what we saw there was gorgeous. :D Beside every work was a little explanatory plaque, which gave little interesting details (beyond just the title and the name of the artist) in Dutch and English - like, some of the paintings portrayed hunters showing off their game to ladies, which was apparently a metaphor in the 1600s in Dutch ("birding" = "courting a mistress"). I really loved the Rembrant paintings, but everything was so detailed and lovely and symbolic and gorgeous and oh! It was wonderful. If you're ever in Amsterdam, this is one museum to mark on the list. Thank you for reccomending it, dad! :D

We also visited the Van Gogh museum, but after seeing the detailed art at the Rijkmuseum, I wasn't as fussed about his art style. Plus, this museum was much more crowded, and it was also where Heeran and I got separated from the others, so I wasn't very endeared with the place. Heeran and I ended up waiting for half an hour in the entranceway of the museum, waiting for the others (who had left without us, due to a misunderstanding). We then waited outside Madame Tussauds, because that was where they had been heading, for an hour and a half, because we were worried that they'd come out the exit just as we went in. (Plus, it was really crowded). I wish that we had gone in, now... but I suppose that much of the displays I would have seen at the one in Victoria. We did meet up with the others at the train station, where we waited for another 45 minutes.

We didn't spend the whole day waiting for the others. We did stop by a nice shoe store, where I bought some awesome boots. :3 We also watched a street performer from New Zealand do his "juggling fire torches on a 10 foot tall unicycle while blindfolded" act, but he was really, really good at it. Plus, his accent was awesome, and he was witty. :)

Oh, and yes, on Saturday we did indeed visit the Red Light district. In broad daylight. I was going to call you, mum, and say "Hey, guess where I am" but I couldn't figure out how to use the Dutch public phones. ;) Oh, and mum, before my minutes ran out when I called you yesterday, what I meant to say was "tell dad I said happy father's day!" ... I suppose that dad's reading this entry too, so.... HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, FATHER DEAREST! :D

...and that's all for now.