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Monday
I had my first French class, all 2 hours of it. Amazingly, we didn’t do much. The “new” students (i.e. those that didn’t do level 3) introduced themselves and we learnt about the books we have to buy. On the shopping list were two novels (one is our own choice), a grammar book and a vocab book.
In the introductions I was stupid and nervous, saying only that I was a ½ this and a ½ that and that I’d studied bio in Montreal. Prof said that, hey, in Montreal you must’ve spoken French, to which I said, “y’only speak French if you want to”.
The novel we have to read is called Comme un roman and is by Daniel Pennac. On the back it states the Reader’s Rights:
1) The right to not read.
2) The right to skip pages.
3) The right to not finish a book.
4) The right to reread.
5) The right to read anything.
6) The right to “bovarysme”* (textually transmitted disease).
7) The right to read anywhere.
8) The right to “grappiller”.**
9) The right to read outloud.
10) The right to shut up.
It reminds me of an article I read a few months ago about the vice of reading. One man described how he’d read anything: magazines, shampoo instructions, scraps of paper in the street…
I then walked around for ages, bought a sandwich and went back to the language school to buy the books for class. Highly annoying that everything closes for lunch here. So I had to while away the hours 2-4 pm.
I then watched Final Destinatin. Alone. With no one in the house.
Note to others: do not watch this movie when you’ll be alone for an extended period of time, or you’ll think the world is out to get you.
And seeing Tony Todd again being all creepy was great. When Laura, Roisin and I watched The Candy Man (way back in 8th grade, Montreal), we wondered how it was possible to be afraid of a man with such a cute-sounding name***. It didn’t help that we watched the movie in Roisin’s house and the nearest bathroom had wall-to-wall mirrors. Same thing happened when the three of us watched “The Edge” and Laura was terrified of the bear. I.e. “Bart the bear”. Aw… (Btw, Bart is your best bet if you’re watching any movie with a bear. Bugger must be getting old, but he gets around a lot. I don’t know whether there’s any competing trained bear out there.)
* I don’t know what this means. Sorry.
** Again, get a dictionary.
*** Coincidently, the third Todd I know. There’s Terry Todd, a classmate in Costa Rica (first and only adopted person I know), Tony Todd and then J, also a Todd and also with a name ending in an “ee” sound. Coincidence? Or curse of the Todd-name?
Tuesday
Went to class, walked and walked and walked until it was 4 pm again so I could sign up for the Goethe library (15 euros). I hung around FNAC, which is like Chapters with a foreign languages section (not a single Neil Gaiman book) and took ages deciding which book to buy for French class. I chatted with a Frenchman who suggested a few but in the end bought the one I’d seen on Monday. It’s called Et si c’etait vrai by Marc Levy. Most of you will know it by it’s English movie-title, “Just like heaven”. At the Goethe I took out a tape andnovel (Drachenreiter bu Cornelia Funke), getting all light-headed because I hadn’t had anything at all for lunch except two croissants I got on special for 0.85 cents (it now being over 6 pm).
Then I watched Merlin and did some homework (!). Was very very tired. Had dinner late because the kitchen works with gas and I couldn’t find a lighter anywhere.
Another thing that bugs me, kitchen-wise, is that people here don’t use cups as a measurement, but rather grams. And since I have neither my measuring cups nor a balance, how am I going to bake those lemon cakes I’ve got planned for MCarmen and my uncles? And where the hell does my supermarket hide their baking powder?
Wednesday
This was a good day, because I got to watch Walk the Line. All else is pretty much irrelevant: went to class (wondered, since we’re level 4 out of 5, why the hell don’t we, the students, get to talk more?), walked, finally found a decent place to eat something, chatted with pleasant bar owners, walked…
Then, joy of joys, Joaquin Phoenix staring at a saw…followed by a good couple of scenes involving boy!Cash and his brother Jack, but since the kids were adorable, we’ll forgive the lack of immediate Phoenix. Especially since next we see him he’s all rumpled up with “I just woke up” hair.
I think I like this movie more than Brokeback Mountain simply because more stuff happened. BbM is nice, if you like having your heart torn out with a spork, but damnit, I need a little happyness now and then. Now, there are are long stretches where you just want to slap Phoenix/Cash around and tell him to get his shit together and not burn his bridges with pills…(and my god what a mixing of metaphors). I understand that BbM is a character study and ergo not much will happen in the movie, but really, 2 hours of constant heartache is a bit much. (Then again, I wasn’t very happy to start with when I watched BdM, so I might be a bit biased. Also? Heath, not so hot. Especially with the lock-jaw. “Jack” was pretty until the mustache and potbelly but not, y’know, hot.)
So yes, very pleased with WtL. After the first few songs I even forgot that Phoenix was singing because he seemed so comfy doing it.
And maybe there’s something wrong with me but there’s something going on with the whole Phoenix-appreciation I’ve got. I mean, there were some scenes where he was in a wife-beater, some scenes where he was all soaked, but my hotness-sensor didn’t go “hubba hubba”. I think it’s more of an overall “this man I find attractive” than a “wohoo sexy” frame of mind.
…then again, I get weak in the knees with this icon o’mine (scroll down).
Oh, and I watched Buffalo Solders Saturday evening and was a bit overly aware of age differences when Phoenix and Anna Paquin were lip-smackin’. Because that girl’s younger than I am, isn’t she? Then again, I ship Jayne/River, which has a larger age difference between the actors (Adam Baldwin and Summer Glau), which tends to squick people. Maybe I was just jealous? Not just of the lip smacking but also because that girl is younger than me! And I’m currently in the middle of a very long limbo, poetically adript on stormy seas, and she’s got another movie* coming out.
*grumble* Unemployment sucks.
* X-Men 3. Squeee!!!!
I had my first French class, all 2 hours of it. Amazingly, we didn’t do much. The “new” students (i.e. those that didn’t do level 3) introduced themselves and we learnt about the books we have to buy. On the shopping list were two novels (one is our own choice), a grammar book and a vocab book.
In the introductions I was stupid and nervous, saying only that I was a ½ this and a ½ that and that I’d studied bio in Montreal. Prof said that, hey, in Montreal you must’ve spoken French, to which I said, “y’only speak French if you want to”.
The novel we have to read is called Comme un roman and is by Daniel Pennac. On the back it states the Reader’s Rights:
1) The right to not read.
2) The right to skip pages.
3) The right to not finish a book.
4) The right to reread.
5) The right to read anything.
6) The right to “bovarysme”* (textually transmitted disease).
7) The right to read anywhere.
8) The right to “grappiller”.**
9) The right to read outloud.
10) The right to shut up.
It reminds me of an article I read a few months ago about the vice of reading. One man described how he’d read anything: magazines, shampoo instructions, scraps of paper in the street…
I then walked around for ages, bought a sandwich and went back to the language school to buy the books for class. Highly annoying that everything closes for lunch here. So I had to while away the hours 2-4 pm.
I then watched Final Destinatin. Alone. With no one in the house.
Note to others: do not watch this movie when you’ll be alone for an extended period of time, or you’ll think the world is out to get you.
And seeing Tony Todd again being all creepy was great. When Laura, Roisin and I watched The Candy Man (way back in 8th grade, Montreal), we wondered how it was possible to be afraid of a man with such a cute-sounding name***. It didn’t help that we watched the movie in Roisin’s house and the nearest bathroom had wall-to-wall mirrors. Same thing happened when the three of us watched “The Edge” and Laura was terrified of the bear. I.e. “Bart the bear”. Aw… (Btw, Bart is your best bet if you’re watching any movie with a bear. Bugger must be getting old, but he gets around a lot. I don’t know whether there’s any competing trained bear out there.)
* I don’t know what this means. Sorry.
** Again, get a dictionary.
*** Coincidently, the third Todd I know. There’s Terry Todd, a classmate in Costa Rica (first and only adopted person I know), Tony Todd and then J, also a Todd and also with a name ending in an “ee” sound. Coincidence? Or curse of the Todd-name?
Tuesday
Went to class, walked and walked and walked until it was 4 pm again so I could sign up for the Goethe library (15 euros). I hung around FNAC, which is like Chapters with a foreign languages section (not a single Neil Gaiman book) and took ages deciding which book to buy for French class. I chatted with a Frenchman who suggested a few but in the end bought the one I’d seen on Monday. It’s called Et si c’etait vrai by Marc Levy. Most of you will know it by it’s English movie-title, “Just like heaven”. At the Goethe I took out a tape andnovel (Drachenreiter bu Cornelia Funke), getting all light-headed because I hadn’t had anything at all for lunch except two croissants I got on special for 0.85 cents (it now being over 6 pm).
Then I watched Merlin and did some homework (!). Was very very tired. Had dinner late because the kitchen works with gas and I couldn’t find a lighter anywhere.
Another thing that bugs me, kitchen-wise, is that people here don’t use cups as a measurement, but rather grams. And since I have neither my measuring cups nor a balance, how am I going to bake those lemon cakes I’ve got planned for MCarmen and my uncles? And where the hell does my supermarket hide their baking powder?
Wednesday
This was a good day, because I got to watch Walk the Line. All else is pretty much irrelevant: went to class (wondered, since we’re level 4 out of 5, why the hell don’t we, the students, get to talk more?), walked, finally found a decent place to eat something, chatted with pleasant bar owners, walked…
Then, joy of joys, Joaquin Phoenix staring at a saw…followed by a good couple of scenes involving boy!Cash and his brother Jack, but since the kids were adorable, we’ll forgive the lack of immediate Phoenix. Especially since next we see him he’s all rumpled up with “I just woke up” hair.
I think I like this movie more than Brokeback Mountain simply because more stuff happened. BbM is nice, if you like having your heart torn out with a spork, but damnit, I need a little happyness now and then. Now, there are are long stretches where you just want to slap Phoenix/Cash around and tell him to get his shit together and not burn his bridges with pills…(and my god what a mixing of metaphors). I understand that BbM is a character study and ergo not much will happen in the movie, but really, 2 hours of constant heartache is a bit much. (Then again, I wasn’t very happy to start with when I watched BdM, so I might be a bit biased. Also? Heath, not so hot. Especially with the lock-jaw. “Jack” was pretty until the mustache and potbelly but not, y’know, hot.)
So yes, very pleased with WtL. After the first few songs I even forgot that Phoenix was singing because he seemed so comfy doing it.
And maybe there’s something wrong with me but there’s something going on with the whole Phoenix-appreciation I’ve got. I mean, there were some scenes where he was in a wife-beater, some scenes where he was all soaked, but my hotness-sensor didn’t go “hubba hubba”. I think it’s more of an overall “this man I find attractive” than a “wohoo sexy” frame of mind.
…then again, I get weak in the knees with this icon o’mine (scroll down).
Oh, and I watched Buffalo Solders Saturday evening and was a bit overly aware of age differences when Phoenix and Anna Paquin were lip-smackin’. Because that girl’s younger than I am, isn’t she? Then again, I ship Jayne/River, which has a larger age difference between the actors (Adam Baldwin and Summer Glau), which tends to squick people. Maybe I was just jealous? Not just of the lip smacking but also because that girl is younger than me! And I’m currently in the middle of a very long limbo, poetically adript on stormy seas, and she’s got another movie* coming out.
*grumble* Unemployment sucks.
* X-Men 3. Squeee!!!!
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