. . . is like smoking 183 cigarettes.
Does that means 6 weeks in Paris is like smoking 21 cigarettes ?
Speaking of breathing the air in Paris, my reasonably-priced French inhalers are running low.
France
Pas de leg room
My knees.
On Norwegian Air.
Meanwhile here’s the head of American Airlines modeling coach seats on one of his planes:
When airline CEOs try the cheap seats by Scott McCartney 7/24/2018
Le mugging
A couple of days ago, Ed’s brother was mugged waiting for the train to Versailles.
He was standing on the platform when a group of young men surrounded him, ripped his wallet out of his pocket, then pushed him onto the train and took off running.
Ébullition
Allez les bleus !
Just back from watching France beat Belgium — fantastically exciting — it’s astonishing how hair-raising a 1-0 game turns out to be. I had no idea.
Crowds are massed on the Champs-Elysées and cars are streaming down Avenue Maine, where we are, honking their horns and flying the Tricolore — yet, strangely, no one is turning parked vehicles over, stripping down to their underwear, or setting anything on fire.
If this were England, things would be different.
Or Philadelphia.
If this were Philadelphia, things would be completely different.
C. and Ed are watching the post-game coverage ….
C.: “They’re climbing light poles! I’m so proud of them!”
Ed and C. are Phillies Eagles 1 fans. C. missed the post-game riots, but he did go to the post-game parade, which was riot-like.
He came home with a big gash on his leg, which he says was worth it.
(Wifi and privacy restrictions are funky here, so we’ll see if the videos load. Preview isn’t working at the moment.)
1. sheesh↩
Happy 4th !
I can’t believe I’m missing the 4th of July (worse yet, I’m missing the 4th in Tarrytown, which has a fantastic celebration) — and I’m going to be missing Bastille Day here in France, too, because we fly home that day.
I have no idea what Bastille Day is like here, and now I’m not going to find out.
Arrrghhh
Oh, well, c’est la vie !
(Progress report: I’m on the cusp of knowing why it’s C’est la vie, not Il est la vie.)
Happy 4th !
Bonjour (and “Learning to Learn”)
My good friend Debbie Stier was just here for a week — !
Debbie brought Donald C. Smith et al’s Learning to Learn with her and spent part of each day working her way through the text. It sounds fantastic. Using his techniques, she was easily remembering all of the salient points.
When I get back, tackling L-to-L is next on my list.
Update re: le dictée
I just re-read the post about listening in French & discovered that the section on the reason French children write dictees makes no sense.
Should be fixed now.
Adventures in listening comprehension
UPDATE 6/17/108 re: le dictée
It’s really hard to understand spoken French.
I don’t understand spoken Spanish at all well, either, but still. With Spanish, it seems like I could understand a person speaking Spanish if I put my mind to it. Which I intend to do the minute I get back to the U.S. All these years studying Spanish, off and on, and still not fluent — arrgghh.
French is a different kettle of fish.
If this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium and six or seven other places
Mystery
The shoes I wore last summer seem to be about a half-size too big now.
That’s a first.
Le packing, part 2
Le packing
I’ve been packing to spend 8 weeks away from home for a couple of hours now.
Test prep and tutoring in Paris
We’ll be in Paris this summer !
I haven’t lived in Paris since Ed and I met, so I’m excited. We both are.
While I’m there, I’d love to work with some students on test prep and/or writing, so if you have French friends with kids, I’d be grateful if you could forward this link:
Catherine & Katharine 