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Friday, March 28, 2014

Friday Round-Up

This week has been crazy for me and it won't slow down next week, either! At least all the stuff I'm busy with is forcing me to practice my conversational and presentation-making French skills:) Spring went back to bed this past week and let Winter come out again to play, but it looks like it may be for the last time. Come on, Spring! I believe in you!



This week on Andrea's blog, I responded to her post on safety with my own anecdotes on staying aware while in a new city in a foreign country.







Truth which is merely told is quick to be forgotten; truth which is discovered lasts a lifetime.

-William Barclay

Man, is this true. I think I've finally learned my lesson on being on time to events rather than constantly five minutes late, but it's still a work in progress. And now I'm really learning how important it is to not procrastinate! Even discovering these banal facts of life is an eye-opener and it will stick with me, haha!




The Hangman's Daughter (The Hangman's Daughter #1)Spy Killer (Stories from the Golden Age)

The Hangman's Daughter- I just finished this one this morning. While it wasn't a super compelling mystery, I really enjoyed the historical side of it and the characters were lovely. Don't expect a seat-gripping thriller, but it's worth the read. (And no, the plot is not actually about the hangman's daughter, haha)

Spy Killer- This is an old pulp fiction novella from 1936 next up on my audiobook list that I'll start this afternoon. I'm interested to see what that genre was like!



Tuesday, March 25, 2014

My Geneva

Last Thursday, I had a blog post on twentyinparis.net about fun things to do in Geneva, and now I'd like to share with you a few of my personal favorites.


My favorite museum is the Tavel House (Maison Tavel), which talks about Geneva's history. This is the oldest house in the entire city, and one of the oldest remaining buildings from the original city center. On the many floors are artifacts from different periods and types of life in Geneva, an interactive geographical history video, and an outstanding relief map of Geneva in 1850 that took the creator over 40 years to make. My favorite floor is the apartment level, which recreates what the house really looked like back in its glory days, which I love the personal feel of. Here's a pdf of the visitor guide.



My favorite café to go to, Kafé Déko, is niched in between the train station and a movie theatre. It kind of has a strange vibe, but I like it because they have a wide variety of teas and it's always quiet enough to read my book if I go on my own on a Sunday evening. However, they apparently also hold live music and interesting parties judging by their facebook photos, haha!



My favorite restaurant is a Chinese place called Le Mandarin. It's a little pricey on a student's budget, but so worth it! My favorite things are their nems and peking duck! I don't think I'll ever get tired of this place. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.



My favorite bar (and restaurant) is Demi Lune, a lesser-known place in the old town mostly frequented by locals, and therefore one of the best haunts! It was this bar that got me hooked on my now favorite cocktail- amaretto sour. They have a comfy vibe and serve delicious cocktails, appetizers, and burgers.



Bastions Park is a great place to spend some time. It's best appreciated in the summer, when the restaurant hosts salsa dancing, there are lots of funny old men playing life-sized chess, music concerts are being held, and everyone's lounging in the sun. In winter, the salsa area turns into a skating rink and the park remains a primary meeting place. Also to be appreciated is the long, tall wall dedicated to the history of Geneva and Christianity, with four prominent history figures and other historical scenes carved into it. During the Escalade festival celebrating Geneva's history in December, they shoot an old cannon out from above this wall.



My other favorite park is Parc de La Perle du Lac, which is a long, sprawling park along the west side of the lake. It's home to a namesake restaurant, docks, a small science museum, a few old buildings, and lots of space to lay out. This is the all-important place where free movies are shown on a huge inflatable screen in the summer, and its unobstructed views have a great look across the lake to the "wealthy" side of town on the east bank.


Friday, March 21, 2014

Friday Round-Up

Happy Spring! Surprisingly enough, we jump-started our Spring here early, and I'm loving it! However, that also includes Spring showers, which start tomorrow and will continue... oh well:) Spring feels like a great time to start new projects. I've been really busy, but I'm trying to stay current with my 101 in 1001 goals. Anyone else starting new projects? Good luck, if you are!

And Happy Birthday to my brother, whose birth brings about the start of Spring each year! :)

Spring in Saint Tropez by Charles Camoin



Alright, people, I need some visitors! I wrote about some fun stuff to do in Geneva this week on Andrea's blog. Check it out!






It takes courage to show up and become who you really are.
-E.E. Cummings

I've been watching different videos of "Let it Go" and I just love its raw emotion and truthfulness. I think we could all use a bit of that fire in us.



The Hangman's Daughter (The Hangman's Daughter #1)

The Hangman's Daughter- I just started this one this morning, and so far it's interesting to hear about the stressful job of an executioner in this Medieval period. It's gotten some mixed reviews, so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

And btw, I'm loving Amazon's whispersync feature between their Kindle books and Audible's audiobooks. It's lovely to be able to switch between listening and reading.



Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Bookmash No.4: Les questions de la vie



Les questions de la vie

The God you're looking for: God's big picture
Dreams from my father: La gloire de mon père
Comment domestiquer son maitre quand on est un chat: ...!
The complete merde!: Une idee positive par jour to a fault



Thanks to the authors: Nicky Gumbel, Bill Hybels, Vaughan Roberts, Barack Obama, Marcel Pagnol, Monique Neubourg, Geneviève Edis, Janine Casavecchie, and Nick Laird.

I got this idea from Stan Carey (He's simply superb at these. His last one is here), who was inspired by Nina Katchadourian's Sorted Books project.


Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Today I Believe

Today I believe...

...that it's really frustrating to run out of time to work that wordoku in the daily paper. Need to learn to let go of the little things.

...that kids are aggravating, but it's also amazing how quickly their own moods turn from sullen to joyous. Must take notes.

...that you can never have too much chocolate. Or too many strawberries.

...that Spring is glorious, especially when it's early.

...that it's important to be honest with yourself.

...that I should learn the importance of meditation. Aka how to clear my mind.

...that I need to put more effort into being early instead of just on time.

...that it's ok to take time for yourself.

...that the smell of fresh laundry never gets old.

...that I never get tired of superhero jokes. Or cats.

Post idea from L.M. Meyers at Little Things & Curiosities, @everydaybeliefs 


Friday, March 14, 2014

Friday Round-Up

Happy Friday! I have a lot of work to do this weekend! I hope y'all get to relax, but good luck on your projects if you're keeping busy!


In this week's guest post, I wrote a response to another guest's article on why it's important to study/travel abroad while you're young. I think this initiative is so important for young people everywhere!





I still get very high and very low in life. Daily. But I’ve finally accepted the fact that sensitive is just how I was made, that I don’t have to hide it and I don’t have to fix it. I’m not broken. 

-Glennon Doyle Melton

This is kinda going back to my quote about courage last week and how courage can mean being silent. I still often consider my quiet attitude as a weakness, but it's also just me. While "reading" Gone Girl this week, a character made a comment about how the main character is probably the "baby" of the family because he waits for instruction before taking action on anything; I think that's a lot like me, since I'm the baby. Part of me accepts that and part of me acts against it. But then again, I would guess most of us have that daily inner struggle of who exactly we want to be in life, and with what kind of personality.



Gone Girl

Gone Girl- I just started listening to this one, and my sister told me she hated it, so I'm curious to see why. I prefer to not have bad feelings against books for some reason, but it happens. I think the only time I've been passionately angry with a book was when Dolores Umbridge in HP was being nasty:) I almost defaced the book! And I've only read one book that I rated a generous two stars because it was so boring. We'll see how this one goes!


Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Teaching French in NY schools: A Response


There has been some interesting dialogue recently concerning the teaching of French in New York City elementary and middle schools. This NY Times article talks about how French has rapidly risen in the ranks of the newly formed dual-language curriculum schools across New York City, following the dominating Spanish and Chinese, and accompanied by still more world languages. John McWhorter in his response article is surprised by the positive tone of the NY Times article, and strongly supports the claim that French should be cut completely from US foreign language curriculum. His response generated a lot of interesting debate on reddit, with proponents both for and against McWhorter’s arguments, coming to greatly expand on the relatively short list of reasons he gave for the dismissal of French. My favorite commentator is Ifkl, who I thought gave the broadest explanations for why McWhorter’s claims are narrow-minded, though not lacking valid reasons.




I think the main argument is whether or not French is practical for the average American. The simple answer is probably no, considering how easy it is for the majority of Americans to pass their entire lives, personal and professional, totally in English, particularly because of its recent status as the most common lingua franca in the world. However, if a majority of Americans do not need French, they also don’t need any other language for that matter, so then the question becomes why we’re teaching foreign languages to children in school at all. In addition, most languages in American schools aren’t taught to an extent that can applied in an actual practice of the language outside of the classroom, so they simply aren’t used despite any potential they may have to be employed.

In a general point of view, it can be very beneficial to spend time learning a language, regardless of how much it’s used after confronting it for a few years in school. Learning a foreign language usually broadens a person’s mind to a more global perspective, as they realize more acutely and personally that there are other cultures and ideas in the world. It also gives the learner a better view towards their maternal language and how it works; and for the case of English and French, this is particularly relevant given the enormous linguistic ties because of the languages’ intertwined histories. The initial learning of a foreign language, no matter which one, can later help in the acquisition of other languages even if the first was not mastered, because the idea of “how to learn a language” has already been instilled and tested by the student; if you understand the work it takes and different approaches to learning French in school, you may not use the French, but you may use the techniques to later learn Russian or Chinese, etc.

In a more narrowed perspective, I don’t believe that French can be considered null and void for American children. For one thing, geography does play a role, and while there are statistically more Spanish than French speakers in New York City, the city is still close to the French-speaking regions in Canada, and New York City itself houses a healthy French community. Speaking more globally, French is a primary language in four European countries, and it is a lingua franca in many countries across Europe, Africa, and even in Central and South America. So while not every student will have the opportunity to travel to said countries in their lifetime, the chances that they will come in contact with the language is still great enough for them to have even a meager understanding of French. And as many commentators asserted, French is still highly prevalent in literature and therefore history, and cannot be ignored. Speaking again to the relevance of French for English, I have recently come to understand more of how English is structured and why certain phrases exist, because they came from French or were influenced by French at some point in history; while this may not be helpful in a generalist survival approach in the US, it certainly is interesting to me personally, which is as valid a reason as any to learn a language.



Also, even if a student only spends time learning one language in school, it doesn’t mean that they’re not capable of switching to another language when they’re out of school. McWhorter believes that languages like Chinese should be taught from an early age because they’re harder to master and need more years of schooling, but many Indo-European-derived language native speakers have no difficulty learning Chinese or other languages with different alphabets and structures when they are adults, as the commentator Ifkl asserts, and as I’ve seen in following the internet famous Irish polyglot Benny. Every language requires dedication, and the world needs multilingual people and not just bilinguals to thrive, so it generally doesn’t matter which language is initially taught in school, but rather the students’ ambitions as adults.

Back to the practicality, it is true that Spanish is more relevant than French in the United States and Chinese is quickly becoming the language of commerce. But it seems as if McWhorter forgets that those two languages are already the top two most taught languages in these bilingual school programs. So, what’s the problem if a lot of kids want to learn French instead? My main praise is simply that these bilingual programs exist at all! I would have been ecstatic to have had the opportunity to start learning a foreign language in elementary school and at a high volume, rather than vaguely dabbling in it in middle school and gaining a basic understanding in high school. Why are we ignoring how lucky these students are to have this chance in the first place? The main problem hindering retention of these languages past our school years is the fact that we never spend enough time on them while they’re available and that they’re not always widely available to begin with.



Therefore, I think McWhorter’s claims are too focused on insubstantial arguments such as practicality, and that he ignores the bigger picture. For one thing, French is not totally useless on any scale. But more than that, it’s not really important which language is quickly rising to being #3 in this type of schooling, rather the fact that thousands more students are annually being added to such programs in the first place. In addition, the French government is personally getting involved in these programs, which shows a potentially huge boost in international relations. If more countries would get involved in a such a way, the US foreign language curriculum opportunities for students would explode, and the educational system would therefore provide its students with a better opportunity to participate in a global dialogue. Even being familiar with a foreign language is priceless, especially considering that the US may not always be the top world power and therefore be a beneficiary of English as lingua franca. The question of French is one thing, but the question of learning foreign languages in general is much more far-reaching.



Friday, March 7, 2014

Friday Round-Up

Happy Friday! I have a bit more free time this week and next, so I'm trying to be as productive as possible. Anyone have any tips or tricks for me? My best method so far has been my 101 in 1001 list, as it's keeping me focus on big goals. But I still have trouble with the little stuff;)


Here's this week's post on Andrea's blog, recounting my second host family and transitions. 
And I'm never short on the au pair drama;)



I may soon be leaving this family, and I'll miss "my" two girls.
But everything will turn out for the better, and I'll look back on
my photos of them and smile.



Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice 
at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow.

Mary Anne Radmacher

Sometimes my own personality comes back to bite me, but I've also come to appreciate my tendancy to be silent and I try to make sure I don't change that about myself too much. Sometimes there's silence because nothing needs to be said, and sometimes silence is actually full of a thousand words stampeding across the mind, begging to be heard. But there's a beauty in it either way.



And Then the Roof Caved In: How Wall Street's Greed and Stupidity Brought Capitalism to Its KneesDuty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War

And Then The Roof Caved In: I just started this one as an audiobook. I've read some reviews that say it's not as good as other books on the financial crisis, but with its short length, I think it will be a good intro for me. I've only recently gotten into reading the news, so I feel like I need to go back and catch up on how we got to where we are today.

Duty: I haven't read a page of this in probably 2 weeks. However, I have more free time this week and next with the girls being on vacation, so I hope to finish this one off once and for all. I'm learning persistence here:)

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Book Review: Twenty in Paris

Review of: Twenty in Paris: A Young American Perspective of Studying Abroad in Paris

Star Rating: 3.5/5



This book shares with us the untold story of the typical American leaving to study abroad in Europe for the first time as part of a college experience. It covers the journey in minute detail and shares honest opinions captured both during the time abroad and from current reflection.

The main reason I don’t give this book a higher star rating is because its audience is very limited, so it’s not quite possible to claim it as a “must-read” when there’s only a small (in the grand scheme of things) number of people it is a “must-read” for. For the thousands of young Americans studying abroad in Europe, this book truly is a survival tool, as it provides priceless information concerning the technical and emotional aspects of living abroad for the first time. However, its limited examination from a New Yorker traveling to France through an American program doesn’t give a broad enough understanding to be applicable to as many study abroad students as possible. I suspect that Andrea Bouchaud’s second book to soon be published, her personal diary from her time abroad, will be much more comprehensive, in that an emotional journey such as hers can be understood by a wide audience, and not just those who are studying or have studied abroad.

My only other negative comment is that the book was a bit dry. The focus on detail was so strong concerning the technical aspects of moving abroad that the only motivation to get through it was the recounting of the emotional aspects to come. I am also an American who went to France through a student visa, but my experience in getting that visa was almost radically different from my home base of Texas than from her experience in New York. I dare say mine was much more pleasant! I almost wish the book were actually two books, because her technical information is certainly indispensable to some, but not as useful to others.

However, this was generally a satisfying read, as it was both informative and psychologically compelling. Speaking as a young person abroad myself, I know we don’t always do a good job in speaking about our experiences, or at least sharing them with others, so Andrea Bouchaud’s work is invaluable in this way. It was partly the opportunity to share my own story on her blog that inspired me to start talking again about my experiences.