J'aime tellement niveau 4, beaucoup plus que 3. J'aime mes professeurs et les etudiants; il n'y a pas trop d'étudiants cette fois! Il y a 11 dans le cours, un numéro qui est parfait a mon avis. Je sens confortable avec l'environnement, et je suis TRÈS contente sur le sujet de mes examens pour la placement. J'ai scored à niveau 5 (le niveau le plus haut) en expression et écriture et ma nature compétitive est vraiment heureuse à la moment. Je souhaite que ce n'est pas necessaire pour moi de sauter une seméstre; je veux plutôt finir la diplôme immediatement!
Ignorez, s'il vous plaît, mes erreurs d'accentation et de la grammaire.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Saturday Night Thinking
I feel like we've gone off-track with the food somewhere in the last few weeks, neglecting meal-planning and traipsing off to the supermarket together to buy whatever weird whims cross our minds (which tonight happened to be wheat beer, kosher salt for tequila and Skittles). Not a mindful or budget-minded way to live. It's time to jump back on the train, even with the large return we are crossing our fingers for. We've been getting sloppy with my significant raise and the completion of all tuition payments.
We've also decided that we get a lot less bang for our buck from our organic co-op. It's convenient, high-quality stuff, but it doesn't go very far. We might have to return to our weekly shopping trips to the IGA. Sad, but as Caspian puts it, maybe we're just not in the right stage of our lives to be able to afford such decadence. A temporary position, but still constraining at the moment.
I'm pretty elated and bummed at the moment. I guess I mentioned before that my family, including my grown-up sisters, all trekked off and collected in my familial hometown and one of the most beautiful and lovely places I can think of on this planet. They're doing together all of those little things that I've needed desperately to do with them since the death of my gramma in March of 2011, and I feel alone and abandoned. I think about gramma every single day of my life.
It's not really in my nature to get homesick, but now, especially when everybody else is celebrating together, I'm heartsick. Living in another country, speaking a foreign language, not seeing the faces of your closest family members for a year at a time... Isn't always a walk in the park.
We've also decided that we get a lot less bang for our buck from our organic co-op. It's convenient, high-quality stuff, but it doesn't go very far. We might have to return to our weekly shopping trips to the IGA. Sad, but as Caspian puts it, maybe we're just not in the right stage of our lives to be able to afford such decadence. A temporary position, but still constraining at the moment.
I'm pretty elated and bummed at the moment. I guess I mentioned before that my family, including my grown-up sisters, all trekked off and collected in my familial hometown and one of the most beautiful and lovely places I can think of on this planet. They're doing together all of those little things that I've needed desperately to do with them since the death of my gramma in March of 2011, and I feel alone and abandoned. I think about gramma every single day of my life.
It's not really in my nature to get homesick, but now, especially when everybody else is celebrating together, I'm heartsick. Living in another country, speaking a foreign language, not seeing the faces of your closest family members for a year at a time... Isn't always a walk in the park.
Greenery
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| Cucumber flowers everywhere! |
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| Pea pods double in size in 24 hours. |
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| Plenty of chard. |
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| Garden with daylilies. |
Friday, June 22, 2012
Angels and Insane Accountants
Mmm, do you like my beautiful Italian angel? I am quite taken with him. He is from a 19th century book illustration (public domain, of course). I've named him Cajetan.
It has been quite a busy week. I sanded, painted and finished furniture, planted about 100 flowers of many kinds, cooked, cleaned, gardened...
And visited the Insane Accountant to finally finish our taxes. I can't do his personality justice in words, it's absolutely necessary for me to act out his bizarre mannerisms, strange tics and alarming facial expressions for you to get the idea. Suffice to say that I knew it would be an interesting experience when, after he opened his office door for me and I introduced myself (I had called him earlier to let him know that I would be dropping in), he rolled his eyes and huffed a huge, exaggerated sigh before turning around and heading back in!
Immediately, I had the impression that I was in a movie set. The walls were completely obscured by post-its and papers like scales on a fish. They all contained names, dates, amounts and bold commands like "DO IT" or "HE OWES YOU $140 - GET IT." The office and the anteroom were piled high with boxes and boxes of reams of new paper and the whole place reeked of cigarette smoke. I was quite taken aback. However, his desk was immaculate, with green paperclips in this box and white in this one, everything arranged perfectly flush with everything else, not a fingerprint or dust mote in sight.
He had me sit with him at his computer and reread figures to him twice and three times. He crosschecked, triple checked and rechecked every. Single. Figure. And. Name. He tested algorithms and made dummy worksheets to ENSURE that everything was spot on. He consulted tax codes with an ease that bespoke of 22 years of sitting in this very same office, doing the very same thing. And all the while, he mumbled to himself, shouted things like "Christ, the incompetence!" when he reviewed our 2010 accountant's work. When I pointed out a spelling error or something, he would shout in my ear, "Christ I know! Thank you dear." He repeated everything to himself and told me to repeat his directions like a mantra. "Sign here and here and on page four. ON PAGE FOUR. Now where do you sign?" He waited expectantly. "On page four," I repeated dutifully. "ON PAGE FOUR," he would shout. If I moved anything a fraction of a millimeter, he would roll his eyes and move it back. We yelled at each other. We argued like we'd known each other for 40 years.
My favorite part was when he called the Canadian revenue service and pretended to be me in order to ask some questions about student loan interest, complete with a fake high voice. When the lady on the other end asked questions that became too complicated for him, he finally shouted, "HERE, talk to HER," and handed me his iPhone.
So much insanity happened during those 2.75 hours that I sat there with him that I can't possibly describe it all. I went from skeptical to horrified that I'd made a terrible mistake, to bemused, to fascinated and then to satisfied. Our taxes were done well and thoroughly, with every possible deduction entered and mistakes from 2010 corrected, albeit slowly and with much arguing. Ha!
My vacation is almost over. Meanwhile, my family's vacation is about to begin, with both parents and both sisters heading to the most beautiful lakeside town in the world to celebrate the summertime. I will be starting High Intermediate on Monday. Blargh.
It has been quite a busy week. I sanded, painted and finished furniture, planted about 100 flowers of many kinds, cooked, cleaned, gardened...
And visited the Insane Accountant to finally finish our taxes. I can't do his personality justice in words, it's absolutely necessary for me to act out his bizarre mannerisms, strange tics and alarming facial expressions for you to get the idea. Suffice to say that I knew it would be an interesting experience when, after he opened his office door for me and I introduced myself (I had called him earlier to let him know that I would be dropping in), he rolled his eyes and huffed a huge, exaggerated sigh before turning around and heading back in!
Immediately, I had the impression that I was in a movie set. The walls were completely obscured by post-its and papers like scales on a fish. They all contained names, dates, amounts and bold commands like "DO IT" or "HE OWES YOU $140 - GET IT." The office and the anteroom were piled high with boxes and boxes of reams of new paper and the whole place reeked of cigarette smoke. I was quite taken aback. However, his desk was immaculate, with green paperclips in this box and white in this one, everything arranged perfectly flush with everything else, not a fingerprint or dust mote in sight.
He had me sit with him at his computer and reread figures to him twice and three times. He crosschecked, triple checked and rechecked every. Single. Figure. And. Name. He tested algorithms and made dummy worksheets to ENSURE that everything was spot on. He consulted tax codes with an ease that bespoke of 22 years of sitting in this very same office, doing the very same thing. And all the while, he mumbled to himself, shouted things like "Christ, the incompetence!" when he reviewed our 2010 accountant's work. When I pointed out a spelling error or something, he would shout in my ear, "Christ I know! Thank you dear." He repeated everything to himself and told me to repeat his directions like a mantra. "Sign here and here and on page four. ON PAGE FOUR. Now where do you sign?" He waited expectantly. "On page four," I repeated dutifully. "ON PAGE FOUR," he would shout. If I moved anything a fraction of a millimeter, he would roll his eyes and move it back. We yelled at each other. We argued like we'd known each other for 40 years.
My favorite part was when he called the Canadian revenue service and pretended to be me in order to ask some questions about student loan interest, complete with a fake high voice. When the lady on the other end asked questions that became too complicated for him, he finally shouted, "HERE, talk to HER," and handed me his iPhone.
So much insanity happened during those 2.75 hours that I sat there with him that I can't possibly describe it all. I went from skeptical to horrified that I'd made a terrible mistake, to bemused, to fascinated and then to satisfied. Our taxes were done well and thoroughly, with every possible deduction entered and mistakes from 2010 corrected, albeit slowly and with much arguing. Ha!
My vacation is almost over. Meanwhile, my family's vacation is about to begin, with both parents and both sisters heading to the most beautiful lakeside town in the world to celebrate the summertime. I will be starting High Intermediate on Monday. Blargh.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Chin chin!
Je ne le crois pas... J'ai fini niveau 3! Ça fait longtemps depuis j'ai posté. Je crée des nouveaux mots, excusez-moi. Donc, oui, shit got real. Mais, je pense que je suis fonctionnelle en français maintenant. Sûr, ma grammaire est terrible parfois, et je ne sais pas toute la vocabulaire, mais je bien comprends et peux repondre awesomely quand je suis dans le droit état d'esprit. Je suis sûr que je fais beaucoup de erreurs ici! Je me promets que je ne utilise rien des utiles comme Google Translate... C'est seulement pour pratiquer mon français.
For the first four weeks of this last level, which was complete immersion, I was utterly blocked. But two weeks ago, I woke up and suddenly French clicked into place. I can use relatively complex sentence structures (but not a couple of important tenses, like the subjunctive or conditionals), speak fluidly and with excellent pronunciation. It's absolutely true, and I'm just so fucking proud of myself today, the day of the last two final exams. So fucking proud. It's not much longer now.
It is such a joy to be alive! Nine days, free of work and school, stretch before me, to be filled with afternoons of lying in the garden in my yellow bikini, painting furniture bright colors, cooking excellent meals, reading and watching Sailormoon (I am on like episode 60/200 right now, and I still feel like I got an A somehow). I haven't had a single day off for thirteen weeks, including weekends. I am sure you don't blame me for forgetting to post for almost a month. ;)
I made things even more challenging by starting my very first 30 Day Challenge (see www.ted.com)... To run 5k every morning at 6:15 AM for the next month. I realized on day 4 that this is unreasonable, and amended it with "running interspersed with days of weight lifting." I'm on day 7 today and I find it very easy and simple to wake up 40 minutes earlier to get in some extra exercise. I feel closer to my ancient ancestors, closer to the earth, when I run in the morning. There are a few moments when most of the city is asleep but everything else is wide awake. Why sleep through it?
Finally, all of my tuition is paid, through level 5 (the final level). I will obtain, fingers crossed, my certificate of proficiency at the beginning of December, 2012. And I will have accomplished my "30-years-old goal," which is to become fluent in another language. I could cry right now I am so happy. WAIT. Still two levels to go.
Level 4 begins in 9 days. BRING IT.
For the first four weeks of this last level, which was complete immersion, I was utterly blocked. But two weeks ago, I woke up and suddenly French clicked into place. I can use relatively complex sentence structures (but not a couple of important tenses, like the subjunctive or conditionals), speak fluidly and with excellent pronunciation. It's absolutely true, and I'm just so fucking proud of myself today, the day of the last two final exams. So fucking proud. It's not much longer now.
It is such a joy to be alive! Nine days, free of work and school, stretch before me, to be filled with afternoons of lying in the garden in my yellow bikini, painting furniture bright colors, cooking excellent meals, reading and watching Sailormoon (I am on like episode 60/200 right now, and I still feel like I got an A somehow). I haven't had a single day off for thirteen weeks, including weekends. I am sure you don't blame me for forgetting to post for almost a month. ;)
I made things even more challenging by starting my very first 30 Day Challenge (see www.ted.com)... To run 5k every morning at 6:15 AM for the next month. I realized on day 4 that this is unreasonable, and amended it with "running interspersed with days of weight lifting." I'm on day 7 today and I find it very easy and simple to wake up 40 minutes earlier to get in some extra exercise. I feel closer to my ancient ancestors, closer to the earth, when I run in the morning. There are a few moments when most of the city is asleep but everything else is wide awake. Why sleep through it?
Finally, all of my tuition is paid, through level 5 (the final level). I will obtain, fingers crossed, my certificate of proficiency at the beginning of December, 2012. And I will have accomplished my "30-years-old goal," which is to become fluent in another language. I could cry right now I am so happy. WAIT. Still two levels to go.
Level 4 begins in 9 days. BRING IT.
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