html

A professor in the French department just emailed me and offered me a job--making some Word documents html compatible.

So I'm trying to figure this out.




That should be four spaces and
a new line.

Yes! It worked.

and this should make italics

So far so good.

Do'es this make an apostrophe? What abo't that?

Can I put it in the center?
How about italics in the center?

And this way?

The Famous French House

So, the other week, someone knocked at our door. There were two guys when I opened it, one with a camera, the other one asking if they could film us speaking in French. They were doing a spot for BYU, they explained (it was about the Spanish House, I think) and just wanted to get some footage of the different languages of the Foreign Language Student Residence. We sat on the couch and talked, and they filmed us.

And then the other day, I got home after classes, and my roommate Clémence told me there'd be someone coming by to film around dinner time that evening. Kind of the same thing--later that evening, a guy with a camera, a girl, and some other guy who didn't seem to be entirely connected came in to our apartment--following another of my roommates, Sydney. They walked in and I kind of rolled my eyes and muttered "great" in French.

Then they turned off the camera...it turned out that, unlike the first group, this group actually spoke French. In fact, they had come from France (except the third guy, who seemed to be a guide/host from Church headquarters). They began introducing their network--M6, a national network in France. It was about this point that I realized this was a little bigger than the BYU TV guys.

It turns out they're working on a huge...special? on Mormons. They followed missionaries around in France and talked with members there, they came to Utah and went to Temple Square, Welfare Square...and BYU! Asking Sydney about it later, they followed her around for most of the day. She got pulled out of class that morning--someone at BYU helped them narrow down students. Sydney said they were looking for someone who lived in the French House and was taking a French class.

They came to dinner--watched us eat--and asked everyone questions. Questions about why BYU, about the Honor Code, about what we do on the weekends, about dating. I hope we represented well. The next day in the shower, I started to wonder--will we be the only representation of young American Mormons? I wonder...

Last of all, I finally have pictures working again...here are some from the FLSR. Just for the sake of finally adding pictures again.

This is my Russian friend Alla making me kimchi.

Sidewalk chalk messages for roommates.

And me. In someone's apartment. Mine?

French Camp and Photos

I feel bad that my last post--that's been on here for so long--is ranting about things. A pretty mild rant about things that have little impact on the world, but still...

Today I started helping out at a French Camp that BYU is putting on this year for high school students. A graduate student and I are doing a cooking class for an hour each day, alternating groups every other day (today we had the "advanced" group, and they were pretty darn good). The grad student is paid. I am not. I emailed a professor and asked to be involved with the project.

As this was coming up today--as we were approaching 3:15--I started thinking, why am I doing this? I am busy with classes, and it's kind of a funny dynamic, actually, with the grad student, especially since she asked me if I had talked to the secretary about how I was getting paid...

But it was fun today. We made quiche Lorraine, which, it turns out, you can get into the oven in 15 minutes flat if you have pre-measured ingredients. I had convinced the grad student we needed to do a questionnaire about food allergies, which she said we could do after the quiche was in the oven...turns out one girl was vegetarian, and the quiche was the only recipe we're doing with meat in it. Oh well. Another girl is allergic to cantaloup and honeydew, and we were also planning a melon salad...I had had to talk the grad student into letting me do the questionnaire, and when we got the results I was thinking inside "ha, see it does matter."

Tonight we had Family Home Evening, and our group took photos wearing the tye-dye shirts we made for FHE two weeks ago. I would post them, except I'm having photo problems. I lost the cord to connect my camera to my computer, and my fancy memory-card-that-turns-into-a-USB has a virus, it turns out. I didn't know memory cards could get viruses, and I certainly don't know how it caught it. Anyway, I think blog posts without photos are kind of lame. But it looks like they'll be kind of lame for a little while still.

Classes, money, and realizations

First, a class update. I am no longer in the technology class, so no more EduBlogging. I am, however, in a multicultural education class, whose assignments keep telling me to post something as my status update on Facebook or on Twitter or to text my friends. Creative...but my classes don't usually invade my Facebook life.

Well, but I have added professors as friends. Weird.

Anyway. The week has included several monumental moments for me.

First: the US Mint makes fake money.

Have you seen the newer one dollar coins? I don't know if it was just a PR failure, but I had no idea about this program when it started--the Presidential $1 Coin Program. Though I sure did hear a lot about the state quarter thing when it was starting, and when the dollar coin was introduced, and even about the revamping of dollar bills, I never heard anything about this. The first time I got a hold of one of the presidential $1 coins (I think as change for pizza at high school, if I remember correctly) I thought some dumb kid had given the lunch lady fake money that she had bought into, and now was giving me fake money back as change.

The design--especially the Statue of Liberty back--it looks fake and cheap. I bought a snack out of a vending machine this week and got gold $1 coins as change, and initially had the same reaction. Wait, this isn't real money!

And other coins, too--after completing the state quarter thing (last year, right?), the Mint is now starting an "America The Beautiful" quarter series--again, going through all the states and territories (kudos to them for including American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands--places I didn't even know about until 10th grade, but that's a whole other issue), depicting nature scenes. There's currently in circulation a penny with a shield on the reverse and also four different pennies with scenes from four stages of Lincon's life: birth and early childhood in Kentucky, formative years in Indiana, professional life in Illinois, and presidency in Washington, DC. "Westward Journey" nickle series with five different nickles with a buffalo, the Pacific coast, Louisiana Purchase/Peace Medal, a keelboat, and the traditional Monticello. Oh, and there are currently three designs for the reverse of the Sacagawea gold dollar.

I have to admit, I was a fan of the original 50 state series--I have all of them in a book at home (except about five) that I've been collecting for the last ten years. But I think part of my attraction to the program was how it was so new. It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I didn't realize it was just the start of the future of American money. When did our currency come out of novelty shops, anyway? There are so many variations that you can't even tell what's real.

Second: Not everyone likes Minerva Tiechert's paintings

I love Minerva Tiechert's paintings. I'm signed up for a class about appreciating art and museums this term. We meet at the BYU Museum of Art. For our first assignment, we had to go write a response to a work in the museum. I chose The Rug Dealers by Minerva Tiechert, a huge--maybe five feet by ten feet--painting showing two Native Americans holding up woven rugs to sell. There are some cowboys--two Latino, one Anglo--standing on sides of the scene looking. Behind the sellers, a woman is standing and weaving a rug, a child at her side. It's Minerva Tiechert's style--more impressionistic, softer colors, movement--and looks so American, with the Native American designs in the rugs, lots of different cultures and people, an American scene in the American West.

I wrote the paper about it, and the next day at class, we all walked around the museum together, lead by our teacher. She asked us to present the work of art we had written about. We were close to mine, so I said I'd go. I stood up and described the things I just described, and then the teacher started asking the class questions, leading a discussion. She brought up Arnold Friberg, who painted the picture of George Washington kneeling and praying by his horse--and the series of pictures that appear in front of copies of the Book of Mormon. LDS audiences usually like more realistic depictions, she said, and when Friberg's and Tiechert's Book of Mormon paintings were both submitted, Frieberg's were chosen.

This lead into some discussion--several people saying, yes, I like the more realistic Friberg pictures. I don't like the chalky colors and painting style Tiechert uses. Her pictures are vague.... I guess this all just surprised me. I really like Tiechert's paintings. I guess it had honestly never even occurred to me that people might not like them.

Which leads me to realization number three.

Third: Some people think The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is cheesy

Another thing I love: the 1060's movie The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It's French, entirely sung, and sad. I watched it for the first time with my dad, and liked it so much that I bought the soundtrack and, when I was in France, went to Cherbourg and tried to buy an umbrella.

I've moved back into the French House at BYU, where I speak French with my roommates and five days a week all the French House people have dinner together. The other night we were talking about French movies. We had talked about Les Diaboliques and Amélie and I said, do you know The Umbrellas of Cherbourg? Clémence, who's from France, laughed. Christina rolled her eyes. "It's so cheesy," said Clémence.

I still love it. And listen to the music.

Poetry About Cannibalism

French lit assignment: Write a poem (two verses of four lines of twelve syllables, ABAB rime scheme, etc). Topic: food.

L’anthropophagie

Le mâle d’araignée survive pas la veuve

Et un têtard (parfois) mangerait son voisin

La version animale ce n’est pas la preuve—

Le cannibalisme, c’est aussi pour l’humain.

En Nouvelle-Guinée, ils ont la pratique

L’expédition Donner, ils l’ont fait dans le froid

Quoiqu’on préfère un cœur, le cerveau, j’explique :

C’est anthropophagie—et dangereux parfois.

Airports and Musicals

I spent the weekend in San Diego. My sister and her husband and baby just moved out there. We spent Saturday morning on the beach, and I took some California sun home with me.

Traveling was awful. Coming back from France was the same thing. As I went through Paris Charles de Gaulle, and London Heathrow, and New York JFK, I kept thinking “this airport is awful.” But then it wasn’t just one airport, it was the next one, too. At de Gaulle, I spent longer waiting in the line for my passport to be checked than the length of the flight: the distance between the airport doors and the passport people was farther than the distance between Paris and London.

But of course, no one really needs to hear more complaining about the airline industry.

While I was in France, I never figured out how to say “airline”--and I ended up talking about them (or trying to) a fair amount. I think what I said most of the time was “airplane companies.” Close, but not quite....

I saw the movie Hairspray tonight. As it got started, I was reminded of another blast-from-the-past high school musical, Grease. Well, actually, first I was reminded of the Sponge Bob Square Pants movie, and then I was reminded of Grease. I think Hairspray should get higher marks. Rather than singing about cars and conformity, they sang about things like racial integration and accepting yourself.

I Am On An Internship

So, my host family's wifi connection hasn't been in action for the past week--the reason for the lack of recent entries. However, live from the desk of the Maison de Junesse et de Culture, here is a brief portrait of my internship here at the MJC of Duclair:

-Hanging out with a Ukranian high school acting group
-Getting shown around Duclair
-Working on a PowerPoint presentation ("diaporama," a word I can't ever remember) of the photos from last summer's arts festival
-Walking along the Seine during lunch breaks
-Taking pictures of Duclair
-Cutting flyers
-Folding flyers
-Stuffing envelopes with flyers
-Redoing the PowerPoint presentation of the photos from last summer's arts festival
-Trying to get the new projector to work with this laptop
-Wishing I knew more about computers
-Listening to a whole lot of French
-Saying "what?" a lot
-Hanging out with the kids in after school program
-Being weirded out by the double cheek kiss with the people I work with
-Gluing together a diorama for the after school program kids' project of what Duclair will be like in 50 years
-Explaining that I really don't know anything about computers

Parents and Children

So, parents are good for all sorts of things. Making sure you have something to eat, getting you to elementary school and ballet class, yes, but also advice. Talking to them Sunday helped me start looking things a little differently. Like, from my dad, when I don’t have anything to do at the internship, it’s okay. And, from my mom, hanging out with kids isn’t too bad, either.

I have spent a lot of time volunteering with kids, tutoring reading and leading songs with Girl Scout troops. I spent last summer working at a day care. So with this internship this summer, I was ready for something different—not especially looking to do things with the kids who come to the MJC for after school care and day camps and homework help. My mom keeps telling me how I have told her talking to kids is a perfect way to learn a language (so it would be okay if I ended up with them). And today and yesterday, when I went along to walk them from the school to the MJC, it was the best part of my day.

It has been sunny the last few days, which is so different from the cold and overcast and rain. This afternoon, when it started to cool down and there was a breeze blowing, we walked back from the elementary school. On the way, Amandine told me not to worry, I would learn French soon. She asked me to teach her English. I told her I could tell her a few words—what did she want to know? She wanted to know how to say “Amandine” in English.

“Amandine,” I said, with my American accent.

By the time we got there, we had “translated” the names of everyone in the group, along with a steady stream of nouns—“lunettes?”

“La porte?”

“Les doigts?”

A whole nother language

I did some typing today at the internship. Typing, and lots of squinting at French handwriting. Handwriting seems to be more important to people here: getting the contract for my internship ready to be faxed to the university, the director yelled for someone with good handwriting to do a cover page. Guillène the secretary wrote it, with lots of flourishes. Handwriting, then, but also writing by hand. I guess I was a little surprised when there wasn't a computer at every desk here, and lots of things seem to get written up by hand before they are typed--like the "bilan" I typed up today.

I'm not quite sure what a "bilan" is. Maybe a summary. Or a survey. Walking around today, I saw an ad for a free "bilan" of you body (trying to sell some weight loss product). Another kind of mysterious word here is "stage." I am on a stage--an internship--but francophones seem to be on stages all the time. The word seems to apply to internships, but also to in-service training, to conferences, to workshops, to traffic school--so when I tell someone I'm here for a stage (thinking I'm saying "internship") it really isn't that specific at all. They all ask, what kind of stage? Trying to figure out what exactly "stage" meant, I actually thought, "it's like a whole different language!" Well.... I guess it isn't just a language, but a culture you have to translate. Soon after I arrived in Switzerland, someone asked me how you said "bon appétit" in English. Someone with me said you didn't really say it in English, but I said, no, you say "bon appétit." But the other person was right--here, as in Switzerland, you don't eat until someone wishes you bon appétit.

Also in Switzerland, I bought some shoes. Some black leather shoes, to go with the gray pants I brought. They are leather, but I declined the water proofing that I was offered at the store. "They won't really get wet," I told myself.

Right.

WeeFee

Some of the words I have had the hardest time with in French are the ones that have North American origins. PowerPoint, for example, "PowerPoint" in French, is a particularly difficult word to pronounce. Similar dificulties are presented by proper nouns such as "Johnny Depp" (which I didn't realize were so globally ubiquitous). WiFi, "WiFi" in French, also offered confustion at the beginning, although I nailed "Granny Smith" on the first try.

Whether you say it wy-fy or wee-fee, however, the important thing is that I'm all hooked up.

This weekend, Weston, another student from my university in France for an internship, and I did some sightseeing together in Rouen:

I got stuck in the old stuff at the Musée des Beaux Arts--which never happens to me in art museums. I can usually get through the period pretty quickly. But I was so struck by the pristine samples they have at the museum--and by how the theme of the art of this era is consistently Christ and those around him. Being in Europe, visiting cathedrals, seeing artwork like this makes me realize that the reach of what and where and who Christ has touched is so much bigger than Utah and the things I know--which makes that reach and Christ's love all the more astounding. And genuine.

Later, we visited the Musée Jeanne d'Arc, where we appreciated the dying art of dioramas.

Lame

Okay, so I personally think that blogs without pictures are pretty lame. Sorry. And this is a short one, too--but that just means it's a consumable size.

One thing that has amazed me about France is how (especially if I keep my mouth shut) people think I'm French. This is extraordinary, because I have my own American image of the French being very fasionable (and being able to spell?), romantic, and so on, and so on. So when someone at MJC Duclair, after explaining the programs she directs, said, wait, you're American? I was blown away. I was again when I was walking around and someone handed me a political flyer and told me why I should vote for their candidate. But then I guess in the US, walking around being American is pretty normal, actually, so why wouldn't it be just-plain-vanilla to be French in France?

And back to the keeping-my-mouth-shut thing. Some days people tell me I barely have an accent, and others, I ask for something at a store and they have no idea what I'm saying. And people don't realize how my language is limited until I start trying to use it--which isn't incentive to use it. I finally realized, though, that I wouldn't get any better at speaking French if I didn't ever speak it while I'm here.

I Hate French Tonight

Good heavens, what's the point of learning another language? It's really tiring to listen to other people speak it and it's really tiring for other people to try to understand me speak it.

Tonight, Dyvia cooked Indian food and invited two of the neighbors to come eat with us. Dyvia is studying French but won't speak it generally, so a lot of the conversation was in English (in addition to French and German). We sat around and talked for a long time after dinner, this almost entirely in English. I love having a native language. It feels good to be able to use all the words I want to use and to be able to say what I want to say. Dyvia talked about the caste system in India (lower castes and "Other Backward Castes" currently receive monitary and other benefits from the government--affirmative action) and the discussion turned to religious beliefs.

We ended up going around the table, and each person told their view of who God is or if there is a God--their view on the force greater than ourselves. Dyvia said within the last couple of years she started believing there was a God when she started praying for little things and they would happen. Madame La Voisine said she believed there was something greather than us, though she didn't believe there was a God. I told how I believe there is a God, and he has a body, and he created us, and we are here to learn and to become better. Monica said she didn't believe there was a God, but believed in the Buddhist idea of eventually being able to thing of the world and other people not in terms of yourself and others, but in terms of everything being part of one universe--so no us and them, no you and me, just one (I liked this--and I've certainly been taught that we are all equal). Emmanuel said there is definately a higher force, but it doesn't matter what you call it--Jehova, or God, or Shiva.

The pictures: Geneva street art, The University of Geneva, and Lake Neuchatel. I went and talked to a councilor at the University of Geneva today about a master's program, and then Monica and I went to a really long meeting (the word in French for "meeting" in this case being "séance," which I found somewhat ironic) in Neuchatel about how the different cantons are implementing the European Language Portfolio. On the train back I tried to interview a teacher who uses the ELP. It was all a lot of French. Getting to use English tonight made me feel better.

You're the kind of girl that fits into my world

I didn't take any pictures today, though I did observe a French as a second language class and an English class. I talked to the French teacher about Silent Way methodology and misspelled "femme" in front of the class. I talked to the English teacher about autonomous learning and learned how to conjugate "have got" (as in, "I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like it's got a basket, a bell that rings and things to make it look good." Their English texts are based on British English).

I spent the afternoon working on actual evidence of this adventure (hence the picture), and I went to the little zoo in the park with Simone.

One Post

I should be sleeping, or at least working on the questionnaire on autonomous learning that I stayed up to finish. Instead, I chose to share a few images of my apartment.