Succés!

I finally wrote something original in French that contained no grammatical errors. Not one. And that's a BFD. Sadly, I consistently conjugate verbs incorrectly, leave off accents, forget to add an s to the end of adjectives modifying plural nouns, use the wrong article (that damned tricky de). Some of these are written errors that wouldn't necessarily be detected in conversation. But it is important to write properly.

For most of our exams, we have to prepare a short essay at home (the topic is assigned before the exam) and reproduce it on the exam without notes. We only have to write 100-150 words--that's not a difficult task. Remembering what I drafted up isn't the problem. It's the errors that creep in during the initial drafting. I'm learning to check for my most common mistakes.

For our first exam, we had to write about the one thing we would do if we went to Paris, using the future tense. Here is my essay:

Si je vais à Paris, je louerai un appartement. Il sera dans le 14ème arrondisement.

J’ai vu les musées et les monuments de Paris. Ils sont tous magnifiques … et tres bondés.

Quand j’sera à Paris, je voudrai vivre comme une Parisienne.

Au marché dans la rue Daguerre, je ferai les courses tous les jours. J’irai au marché pour des légumes, à la boucherie pour du porc, à la boulangerie pour du pain, à la fromagerie, à la patisserie pour des macarons, et bien sȗr au marchand de vins! Je n’oublierai pas un sac réutilisable.

J’inviterai mes amis à dîner chez moi.

Je découvrirai un café agréable. Le matin, j’y prendrai le petit déjeuner et observerai les passants comme une vraie Parisienne.

Here is a translation (it sounds sort of silly when translated but believe me, this is probably the most complex thing I've written in French yet):

If I go to Paris, I will rent an apartment. It will be in the 14th arrondisement. 
I've seen the museums and monuments of Paris. They are all wonderful ... and very crowded.
When I am in Paris, I will live like a Parisienne.
I will do my grocery shopping at the farmer's market on the rue Daguerre every day. I will visit the farmer's market for vegetables, the butcher for pork, the bakery for bread, the cheese store, the pastry store for macaroons, and of course the wine shop. I won't forget my shopping bag. 
I will invite my friends to my place for dinner.
I will find a pleasant cafe. In the mornings, I'll have breakfast there and watch the passers-by, like a true Parisienne.

Our next writing assignment? Write a poem (at least 80 words) using a particular grammatical form that we learned this week. A poem! Quite a distraction from cat skeleton and musculature or lipid metabolic cycles.

Too much technology?

The failure of my reliable but old Fuji digital camera earlier this year led to my purchase of a super spiffy, itty bitty Canon, which I love and carry in my purse all the time. That led to the purchase of a super duper spiffy Sony Handycam digital video camera, which if it fit in my purse I'd probably lug around too (maybe I need a bigger purse). Then the reliable old PC just choked on those videos so I got a beautiful new iMac (I'm a Mac user from waaaay back--I wrote my dissertation on a Mac SE, which I still have and which still runs). And I just won an iPod shuffle in a raffle at the conference I was at. It's my first mp3 player.

I'm surrounded by more technology than I would have ever thought reasonable. What's next, cable? (Joking. I've never had cable TV and don't have plans for it anytime soon.) I mean, I'm not a Luddite, but sheesh, suddenly my worktable is bristling with chargers and cables and docking pads and I've run up a large tab at the iTunes store.

And all of this technology, plus some prompting from my friend Gosia, led to this blog thing I'm working on.

I have spent several hours today moving pictures from CDs to the new iMac, thinking that looking at them would give me an idea for today's post. Well, that plan was too successful. I'm overwhelmed by memories and stories about my dogs and cats that I'd like to share. Too many stories. Where do I start? How do I fit everything into this space?


So for tonight, I'll just post a few pictures and think a bit longer about how to tell those stories. All that technology has to be good for something.