He is not dead yet!

So everything's fine here, just a quick message to say I've been having a very odd but wonderful time lately.  At first, I didn't really have interesting to say, and now it's become the husband having a lot of free time before he gets his finals results back.  Now we're helping mother in law look for her new place here in Rennes.  I think he'll start his second year no problem, but he's convinced otherwise.  He might end up doing Pharmacy instead, but nothing's sure on that front.

With the election of Hollande here, it's looking better and better for marriage here.  It's all still a waiting game of course.  If we can make it with a left majority in the National Assembly, we're all set.  It's what most people expect, but I would put nothing past the Front National or the UMP.

I'll try and keep you guys more apprised, but I'm much more active on G+, and to a lesser extent on Facebook.  I need to do some purging of stuff soon too, so hopefully I'll be back to a schedule,...eventually.....

Hope you're all well, and talk soon!

abientôt!

Shouldn't there be balloons or something?

So I thought long and hard about what sort of post I should make, as this is my 100th post, and for the longest time I wasn't really sure what to do, or even if I should make a big deal out of it.  I mean, after all, given the amount of time I have had my blog, it's not all that many posts.  Of course, with a post like that, it should maybe be something more than just what I normally do.  I mean, this is kind of a momentous occasion for me.  I think this is the longest I have ever kept up with writing something, outside of a livejournal, which was mainly whining about boys.  Then it got even more momentous, when I found that I had hit over 10, 000 pageviews.  Now it wasn't just one, but two milestones.  Yay for pressure. 

I've been thinking a good week about this, but I still didn't know exactly.  I didn't want to just make it a random day in the life post.   This is something kind of important now.  I thought maybe I should do a post about language and be academic.  The problem is I really don't have enough stuff to really make a coherent article.  I could bung a whole bunch of little points together, but is that really what I want to do; throw an article together just to fill it up?  So I just let it go, and thought that inspiration will hit me.  

Mother in Law is visiting for the week here and Tuesday Partner had classes.   So I thought I'd have lunch with him, while Mother in Law went to eat with a friend.  I went with her to République by métro where she went up with her friend, and then headed to campus.  It was a really nice day.  I had my iPod and it was just so nice.  I waited a little bit, but he didn't take long.  I had music, so I was nicely distracted until he got there.  We had a nice calm lunch, and then he went to his next class.  I called mother in law and let her know I was on my way back to meet up with them.  We ended up doing a full tour of the stores in the center of town, and took the métro back, stopping off to pick up something small for dinner before we came back.  

It was around 8:20 when we talked about meeting Partner on campus, but we weren't sure when his classes were over or what he needed to do, so we decided that we would start dinner.  As we're getting things around, I realize that we'll never have enough dressing since Partner only likes a little salad with his dressing.  We had a few options:  we could eat the salad without dressing, which was not a problem for me or Mother in Law really, but a real problem for Partner.  We could maybe run down to the Netto and get some more, and that would work...if it were an hour earlier since it closed at 7:30.  So the only real option was to go down to Alma and pick up some more at the Carrefour.  We had walked a lot so I decided to go it alone, since I was pretty sure it would be closing pretty soon anyway.  

I put in the iPod and listened to music until the bus came, and luckily it didn't take long.  I walked down to the entrance, because there was only the one closest to Carrefour that was opened.  I ran in the entrance and straight back to find the salad dressing.  As soon as I had picked up the bottle a worker wearing in line skates basically told me to go immediately to the registers.  The security guard came behind me and brought the guard rope down directly behind me.  

I didn't need anything else so I went in where there were two guys who had no sacks checking out.  Of course, they weren't buying much, but it was pretty funny watching the one guy trying to jam a bottle of whiskey into his coat pocket.  There was a couple ahead of me who had a few things, but the husband ran off for something, jumping the guard wire.  She said that I could go in front of her, I said thanks, and moved ahead.  Naturally, the roll needs to be changed on the receipt printer right before I check out, but it's over quickly  I pay, and I'm out. 

Now right as I walk out, I realize that I have two options.  I can wait for the bus until lord knows when, or I can just start walking.  There's no rain and it's not a cold night.  It's a clear night so all the stars are out, and I'm just walking and listening to the music.  I wasn't really paying attention what song was on until then.  I knew the song but couldn't remember what it was from.  I look down at my iPod, and the title:  Farm Boy. 

I smile a bit and think about how this night is quite a bit like my life, and how different this is from what I expected I'd be doing in 10 years.  It was just all so wonderfully random, and spur of the moment.  I'm walking home on a street in France at 9 pm with a bottle of salad dressing to get home to my mother in law and partner where we will have dinner while speaking French, watch TV which will all be in French, and then go to bed.  I'll repeat this whole process tomorrow.  It was in that moment that I realized not only how lucky I was, but also and maybe more importantly, how happy I was. 

I remember writing in the special edition that they put out for the senior class where I saw myself in 10 years.  Seriously, verbatim, it was "living in an apartment in Europe, maybe with a couple of kids, but who knows."  In reality, I figured I'd be in some desk job, which I'd leave at the end of the day to return alone to my sad little apartment...only to start the whole thing over tomorrow. 

I smiled to myself and this farm boy from Ohio returned to his partner and mother in law in his apartment to have a nice French dinner and watch our French TV programs until we go to bed.  I don't think I had slept that well in a while.  

Le weekend de mon anniversaire!

Last weekend we celebrated my birthday.  I know, shock of shocks, I'm behind!  Last Friday I turned 29, or as I have been saying here, " la precipice du trente."  I've never been too big on birthdays for no other reason than I've never had a very good time when I was younger.  It was always the same meal with the same cake and the same gift.  It's not that I didn't appreciate what my parents and family did for me, but that, I just never really saw what the big deal was though.

So I went to college and I started having more fun.  In other words, I started finding out how much more festive alcohol makes a birthday.   (Save my 21st, as I was on antibiotics at the time for strep throat at the time.  So that sucked.)  It was nice doing something with friends, and having a great time.  We had some great parties, and a lot of fun, but I always felt still a little ambivalent about how my birthday was celebrated.

Even after I started dating Partner, I never really was a huge fan of birthdays anyway.  It was a bit of a hassle with our schedules, but I always got a gift and usually dinner out of the situation.  Partner and I did take to the idea of celebrating on the weekend after birthdays at that point.  That way we could celebrate together, and have a nice time.  So birthdays came, and birthdays went.

It's a different situation in France with birthdays.  It's not as if it's some sort of sweeping change or anything.  We still wait for the weekend here, because it's just easier for Partner and I, and we still go out to a restaurant and celebrate.  However; I think the main difference lies with family here.  My mother would always call and I might talk to my father if he weren't at work.  They'd put money into my account back in the US, and that would be the end of it.  Brothers and sisters may wish some sort of birthday, but nothing was expected.  Those who did, did, and those who didn't, didn't.

Here in France, I got a call from everyone.  All three of my nieces, my mother in law, my sister and brother in law, and even Partner's 90 year old grandmother and aunt wished me a happy birthday.  It was unexpected and a really nice feeling.  I don't know how much of it was simply what was expected of family, but it was a great feeling.

Now as luck would have it, the youngest of my nieces was in Bretagne visiting family for her week of break from school.  That meant that my sister in law would be coming up to take her back.  Since we live right in Rennes, you can't get to Ploërmel without going through Rennes.  So we decided we'd spend Saturday all together.  Originally, it was just supposed to be My niece, mother in law, and sister in law and I going out together, because partner had to study.  Happily, we were able to talk Partner into coming with!

Well, we had a wonderful day out.  We went to a few different stores in town.  My mother in law got me a really nice pair of sunglasses and a shirt, that I'm actually wearing right now, and my sister got me a shirt as well.

After that we went to a crêperie for dinner.  I had a really good galette, and they had a crêpe that was called "la confiture de la sorcière" or in English, "Witches' Jam."  It was like eating pumpkin pie, and oh yes, I could have eaten about three of them.  I was quite satisfied.

Sunday was a quieter day as sister in law and niece needed to head back to Centre, but of course my niece had left her sweater here, so they'd stop by to pick it up and we'd have tea or something.  Unfortunately, sister in law took the wrong exit, and ended up in Chantepie, so instead she swung by, we hung out for about 10 minutes, and they had to get going.  It was good to get to see them before they left, but it would have been wonderful to spend more time with them.

I have to say that this was a great birthday, and may even be enough to make me rethink my general disinterest in birthdays.

Félicitations Lou Lou!

So for many of you, you've just gotten to meet Jean Dujardin.  I'd never heard of him before I came to France, but it didn't take long for me to fall in love with him.  Before this of course, my knowledge of French actors was   Gérard Depardieu and of course, Mathieu Kassovitz.


However; he's been here a long time.  In fact, I hope that I can spend a little time to maybe show you a little of his past.  He was first on a show called Les Graines de Star, what we called Star Search here in the US, playing a character known as "Brice de Nice."  Dujardin created a caricature of the surfers at the time who could be found on the beaches of the Côte d'Azur.  Brice is a nickname for Fabrice.

Later he started on a short series produced by France 2, Un Gars et une Fille (A Guy and a Girl).  He became very well known for this series which presented the daily life of a couple in Paris, Jean and Alexexandra (played by Alexandra Lamy.)  On the show, they had the nicknames, Chou Chou for Lamy and Lou Lou for Dujardin.  By the end of the series (2003), the two were in a relationship, and later were married in 2009.  

Later, he did a movie as the Bande Dessinée hero, Lucky Luke which also starred his wife.

He later appeared in a comic version of James Bond, OSS 117.  To date he has appeared in two installments:  Le Caire, nid d'espions (Cairo, Nest of Spies) and Rio ne Repond Plus (Lost in Rio).  OSS 117 is actually a fictional character, Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, based on a real life member of the Office of Strategic Services, William L. Langer.  

Of course, the movie that's garnered him so much press is The Artist.  He's put in his time, and it's great to see him getting more notoriety internationally.  Because I find it to be the cutest, here he is accepting at the Golden Globes.

His latest movie Les Infedeles, the Unfaithful, is about man's inability to stay faithful to his wife.  I don't know much more about it, except that the trailer is NSFW.

I hope this was an informative albeit quick introduction to Jean Dujardin.  He's been in a lot more stuff, but it's something for you to look into!

The Realities of French

I had a blogger who I started reading recently and I find him hilarious!  He's just starting out but the posts he has up are pretty good.    Check him out here!  http://frenchcultureshock.blogspot.com/

pauvre espèce du type

A while ago when I went to London, photos seen here, I had a very limited amount of money.  The problem was always the exchange rate, and my terror of overdrawing my account.  I could imagine no greater nightmare.  So the logical solution was that I have plenty of things to do that were free.

Something that Partner and I love to do is fall asleep reading.  It used to be strictly novels back in the States, but when we moved to France we started including manga into the mix.  I started a series here called Ikigami, which is just fascinating, but since I've now careened off a cliff as to staying on topic, I took a few of them with me for the nights when I was in the hostel.

I remember reading in one of the episodes where one character calls the other an "espèce de con."  I had heard the words used separately, but never together like that before.  Given the use of "con", it had to be an insult of some kind.  When you see or hear con, it almost always means dumbass.  It's an interesting one to use, but it's difficult to use absolutely correctly.  A lot of times I want to use "con" when "abruti" (dimwit) will suffice.  the use of "de" was fairly obvious, as it always means of or implies membership in something.  The real puzzle was the use of "espèce."

There are really two uses of "espèce" that I had ever seen.  The most usual is when I was buying something, and it would show how much money you were owed with espèces coming up on the register.  So logically, it would be assumed money, usually coming to cash.  The other use that I had heard more often was to say species or type.  So you're calling someone a "species of dumbass" which while I hope it will someday be used casually, currently makes no sense in English,  Another word that you can use for species is type.

So putting it all together, if translated literally in English, it becomes, "(You) type of dumbass!"  I had to stifle my laughter.  After all, nothing's less reassuring than someone you're sharing a room with laughing like a maniac.  Now that I understood the form, I started to notice it a lot more often.  You can add it to almost any noun to make an insult.  They can be as simple as the previously mentioned "espèce de con" all the way up to something more complicated like "espèce de sale petit cretin de merde," (you type of dirty little crappy cretin.)  Of course, it should be noted that this is a literal translation.  In English of course, you just forget about they type part.  Otherwise, you end up sounding like this.



Now the strange thing is you'd think that you would then be able to use "type" in the same way, but you'd be wrong.  Naturally, it even has the same meaning as in English, but instead, when you want to use it as an insult, you can, but it's a different construction; "pauvre type."  This construction automatically implies "espèce" but adds in the insult.

Election Update

So just to give you a little general information about the elections lately, here's a quick overview of the candidates and the parties that exist in France  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_presidential_election,_2012

Now, I'm sure most of you know about our dear friend, Nicolas Sarkozy.  There are so many things that I want to say about him, but I think the best is that he's been spending the past month or so "totally not campaigning."  We'll forget that his government has been taking swipes at his Socialist challenger left and right.  Recently, in fact before his announcement of candidacy this evening, he has already named Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet his campaign head.  She's currently the Minister of Ecology, Durable Development, Transport and Housing.  Here she is on the 10th of February on Bourdin 2012 http://www.bfmtv.com/bourdin-2012-nathalie-kosciusko-morizet-actu23187.html

The most recent discussion has been Sarkozy's article in Le Figaro stating that he will not support Marriage Equality in France because it will lead to opening adoption to gay couples.  We'll forget that there are already gay couples raising children, just like in the US, but we'll digress.  Here's the English translation of the article.  http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/french-president-says-no-to-homosexual-marriage-and-adoption-euthanasia

 Most people see this as him pandering to the extreme right, especially on Marriage Equality here.  Recently there was an article in Libération Mag where it was suggested that Sarkozy may be adding Marriage Equality to his election platform.  Valérie Pécresse, Minister of Higher Education and Research was quick to deny this.  In truth, Sarkozy is doing everything he can to pull as much of the weight away from the far right, Front National, because it will be much more difficult for him to win without more far right support.  Hence he's been pushing on social issues to tie up his loose ends.  He will announce his candidacy tonight.

Most recently Christine Boutin (candidate of the Christian Democratic Union) announced that not only will she suspend her candidacy but furthermore will throw all of her support behind him, making the announcement last night on TF1.  In a nutshell, she believes that gays and lesbians have no right to marry and should never be allowed within 100 yards of children even though she has so many gay friends as she famously said in an interview a while ago.  She's France's answer to Rick Santorum. Here's an interview she did recently after the announcement.   http://www.bfmtv.com/christine-boutin-renonce-a-la-course-a-la-actu23343.html

François Hollande continues his candidacy today saying that Sarkozy's declaration changes nothing.  In essence he says that Sarkozy is a "président de la virevolte."  It's a hard phrase for me to translate, and I'm sure those with more French experience might have a better idea of how.  Literally it's a president of spin, as in literally spinning.  Hollande says that Sarkozy wanted to appear as a dynamic candidate full of change and promise.  During his term, Hollande says he showed himself to be more of the same.  He further states that Sarkozy can create as many new personas as he would like, but his record will be his albatross.

Since I really haven't done much to disguise my slant, I'll also include this article here about recent comments made by a UMP Member in the Nord (North) Region, Christian Vanneste.  Apparently he had an interview with a website where he said quite a few offensive things about gays.  It should also be noted he was the first French Politician to be fined for his comments against homosexuality.  (The charges were later dropped as protected speech, however offensive they may have been.)  http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/02/15/french-mp-gays-must-be-narcissists/

Members of his own party are already calling on him to be kicked out.  As he says in the beginning of the video, the most recent polls show that 63% of French citizens support marriage equality.  One can only hope that the UMP realizes that this divisive language will not help them win elections in the future.

UPDATE: Apparently it's official.  Christian Vanneste will be removed from his post.  http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/02/15/french-ump-expelling-vanneste-over-gay-comments/