Are you... French?
At work today a guy came into our office, wanting to know if we had any jobs tutoring French, and we ended up chatting in French (me being the bilingual agent, lol). What I thought was funny is that despite being raised in Paris, he asked me if I was French, or possibly Québécois. I guess I should put more stock in my level of spoken French, but still.
In unrelated news, here's an interesting article about a Canadian-ownded french fries plant in England that had to be evacuated last week when its batch of potatoes from the Continent contained what was thought to be a grendade from the First World War! It's amazing that stuff is still in the fields, over 90 years later, but I saw some of it for myself when I was in northern France.
May 23, 2006
May 20, 2006
Et dans 150 ans...
I recently bought a CD by a French chansonier named Raphaël, who reminds me in some ways of a more up-beat version of Carla Bruni.
One of my favourite songs on the album is called "Et dans 150 ans", which is actually quite melancholic when you read the lyrics. For example the first line "And in 150 years, we won't remember each other". Here are three of the stanzas (without translation, because the poésie gets lost in translation).
Et dans 150 ans, on s'en souviendra pas
De ta première ride, de nos mauvais choix,
De la vie qui nous baise, de tous ces marchands d'armes,
Des types qui votent les lois là bas au gouvernement,
De ce monde qui pousse, de ce monde qui crie,
Du temps qui avance, de la mélancolie,
La chaleur des baisers et cette pluie qui coule,
Et de l'amour blessé et de tout ce qu'on nous roule,
Alors souris.
...
Et dans 150 ans, on n'y pensera même plus
A ce qu'on a aimé, à ce qu'on a perdu,
Allez vidons nos bières pour les voleurs des rues !
Finir tous dans la terre, mon dieu ! Quelle déconvenue.
Et regarde ces squelettes qui nous regardent de travers,
Et ne fais pas la tête, ne leur fais pas la guerre,
Il leur restera rien de nous, pas plus que d'eux,
J'en mettrais bien ma main à couper ou au feu,
Alors souris.
Et dans 150 ans, mon amour, toi et moi,
On sera doucement, dansant, 2 oiseaux sur la croix,
Dans ce bal des classés, encore je vois large,
P't'être qu'on sera repassés dans un très proche, un naufrage,
Mais y a rien d'autre à dire, je veux rien te faire croire,
Mon amour, mon amour, j'aurai le mal de toi,
Mais y a rien d'autre à dire, je veux rien te faire croire,
Mon amour, mon amour, j'aurai le mal de toi,
Mais que veux-tu ?...
You can watch the music video on Yahoo! music by clicking on the "Et dans 150 ans" link.
I recently bought a CD by a French chansonier named Raphaël, who reminds me in some ways of a more up-beat version of Carla Bruni.
One of my favourite songs on the album is called "Et dans 150 ans", which is actually quite melancholic when you read the lyrics. For example the first line "And in 150 years, we won't remember each other". Here are three of the stanzas (without translation, because the poésie gets lost in translation).
Et dans 150 ans, on s'en souviendra pas
De ta première ride, de nos mauvais choix,
De la vie qui nous baise, de tous ces marchands d'armes,
Des types qui votent les lois là bas au gouvernement,
De ce monde qui pousse, de ce monde qui crie,
Du temps qui avance, de la mélancolie,
La chaleur des baisers et cette pluie qui coule,
Et de l'amour blessé et de tout ce qu'on nous roule,
Alors souris.
...
Et dans 150 ans, on n'y pensera même plus
A ce qu'on a aimé, à ce qu'on a perdu,
Allez vidons nos bières pour les voleurs des rues !
Finir tous dans la terre, mon dieu ! Quelle déconvenue.
Et regarde ces squelettes qui nous regardent de travers,
Et ne fais pas la tête, ne leur fais pas la guerre,
Il leur restera rien de nous, pas plus que d'eux,
J'en mettrais bien ma main à couper ou au feu,
Alors souris.
Et dans 150 ans, mon amour, toi et moi,
On sera doucement, dansant, 2 oiseaux sur la croix,
Dans ce bal des classés, encore je vois large,
P't'être qu'on sera repassés dans un très proche, un naufrage,
Mais y a rien d'autre à dire, je veux rien te faire croire,
Mon amour, mon amour, j'aurai le mal de toi,
Mais y a rien d'autre à dire, je veux rien te faire croire,
Mon amour, mon amour, j'aurai le mal de toi,
Mais que veux-tu ?...
You can watch the music video on Yahoo! music by clicking on the "Et dans 150 ans" link.
May 16, 2006
Conundrum...
Not that this is the first one I've been in, but it's the most recent. I had forgotten about a job I had applied for, and it turns out now that they might be interested in hiring me for the fall (they emailed to ask that I reconsider my choice delining an interview, etc.). I hadn't planned on hearing from them, so I've sent out CVs in another country for a totally unrelated job. Neither are of course certain, both have their advantages and disadvantages, and neither come out a clear winner.
Not that this is the first one I've been in, but it's the most recent. I had forgotten about a job I had applied for, and it turns out now that they might be interested in hiring me for the fall (they emailed to ask that I reconsider my choice delining an interview, etc.). I hadn't planned on hearing from them, so I've sent out CVs in another country for a totally unrelated job. Neither are of course certain, both have their advantages and disadvantages, and neither come out a clear winner.
May 15, 2006
Crazy Mall Types...
Working in a mall has its advantages and disadvantages (like any job). We had an interesting lady come into our office today -she looked normal enough, and seemed quite nice. She gave a flyer to one of the girls in the office, and then left.
We took a look at the flyer and it was normal enough (something about becoming a vegetarian), until we noticed the clip art drawing of a chicken with a bubble caption saying "We are praying for you". The chickens are praying for us? Then there was a dolphin saying, "We love you". Too weird. I don't think that's going to make me become a vegetarian.
Working in a mall has its advantages and disadvantages (like any job). We had an interesting lady come into our office today -she looked normal enough, and seemed quite nice. She gave a flyer to one of the girls in the office, and then left.
We took a look at the flyer and it was normal enough (something about becoming a vegetarian), until we noticed the clip art drawing of a chicken with a bubble caption saying "We are praying for you". The chickens are praying for us? Then there was a dolphin saying, "We love you". Too weird. I don't think that's going to make me become a vegetarian.
May 13, 2006
Two Weeks...
As hard as it is for me to believe, I've been working now for two weeks. Work is mostly slow, but yesterday I did two presentations at a local high school with one of the girls in the office. We presented info related to finding summer jobs to two groups of gr. 10 kids, which went surprisingly well for being a Friday afternoon. What I thought was quite funny is how excited they were when we had green highlighters, and pencils as prizes. One girl won a pencil, and her friend was so enamoured with it that at the end of the presentation he came up and asked if we had one extra that he could have. It's a pencil!
As hard as it is for me to believe, I've been working now for two weeks. Work is mostly slow, but yesterday I did two presentations at a local high school with one of the girls in the office. We presented info related to finding summer jobs to two groups of gr. 10 kids, which went surprisingly well for being a Friday afternoon. What I thought was quite funny is how excited they were when we had green highlighters, and pencils as prizes. One girl won a pencil, and her friend was so enamoured with it that at the end of the presentation he came up and asked if we had one extra that he could have. It's a pencil!
May 03, 2006
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