As you may have figured out from the constant allusions to them on this blog, my parents have two white male standard poodles. They’re four years old and they’re brothers. Boris weighs around 75 pounds, and Otto weighs around 55 pounds, which is normal for a poodle. Which is to say, Boris is huge. When we take them walking together, people sometimes ask if Otto is the son and Boris is the mom.

I met Boris and Otto in 2006 the summer before I left for France. They were not typically cute puppies, but they were still awesome:

And they’ve only gotten awesomer. Their personalities are completely different. Otto likes to chase light:

while Boris has very little idea what he’s doing.

Boris’s philosophical project used to be staring into the mirror for up to an hour, trying to figure out who the scentless white thing was on the other side. He’d bark at it about every five minutes.

They both have dogster diaries (of course maintained by my mom):

Otto

Boris

And now they have Twitter accounts! (these they manage themselves)

Bobobonofio

Ottospottobotto

Recently Otto and Boris have been learning to not walk out the front door until they’re told to, and to sit and stay (things that in theory they knew years ago but didn’t really obey). Otto shows off his sit and stay skills here in front of the houses in Monte Vista, San Antonio:

Otto the real estate broker

Not sure you’ll actually be able to see those photos unless you’re friends with my mom. So check here too.

I miss them lots. I wish they could get on a plane and come visit.

Thème: translation from French into a foreign language
Version: translation from a foreign language into French

Note: Grade
Moy: Average
Nbre: Number turned in

I do the exact opposite of French people.

(It’s no big deal, I knew that the version I sent in was de la merde, and I’ve already sent in one that should be better. The CNED is super slow. They don’t seem to have calibrated their schedule all that well to the new concours schedule.)

Also, sorry it’s so tiny.

It’s been sort of a long time since I posted, so here’s a brief, random update.

I got my first corrigé back from the CNED, and I got a 12 on my first thème (so, translation from French to English). I was quite happy with that though I found the comments not all that useful—in fact I think she was wrong about one or two things. Hope the next one is a little more informative. No word yet on the horrible, horrible version (English to French) that I sent in.

I just started doing a commentaire de civilisation this week and it’s sort of incredible how much I’ve learned about British history in a month. I feel a little like I should have done this years ago given how many British friends I have.

I also renewed my carte de séjour this morning, in a manner of speaking. It’s really that my 12-month visa was about to expire and my contract has been renewed for next year, so I get a carte de séjour now. But of course I just got the récépissé this morning. I hate dealing with French administration, even when it’s routine, because it just reminds me that my existence here is precarious. But everything went fine.

I might as well say also that I started dating my old roommate Julien about two months ago. Yes, my second Julien. All French boys are after all named that. So I spend a lot of time back at the old house, and sometimes wonder why I have my own place, but I still love my apartment, except for my upstairs neighbor, who has shown up again.

Poitiers is still full of tourists, and about three hundred of them show up at the church on the place outside my apartment every night waiting for this:

They’re the polychromies on the Eglise Notre Dame, or, lights projected onto the front of the church to imitate how they think it looked back when it was painted.

Nothing much is planned for the coming weeks. I think I may take another weekend at the Ile d’Oléron but otherwise I’m here till Toussaint, when I’m thinking about going to Luxembourg.

I need something to reprendre la morale. This CAPES thing does NOT seem to be advancing, at least regarding grammar + translation (am learning TONS about British history and anglophone cultures, have lots of new trivia to bring up at dinner parties). Okay that’s not exactly true. Translation seems to be getting a little better. But with every little thing that gets a little better, another thing seems to come up that I am utterly unprepared for. I’m just having trouble envisaging how, between now and November, I’m going to be able to do all that I need to be able to do! And given that this is all I do all day, it’s a little demoralizing.

Also, there’s very little to take my mind off of it right now. I really have only a couple of friends in town right now and I can’t jeopardize them every night like I can my old roommates (who are currently rock-climbing in Austria). Come evening there’s not a whole lot else to do than just more reading.

Blurg.

But at least I have a super cute new Twitter button.

Since getting back from Avignon I’ve been keeping up a pretty good schedule of CAPES preparation. I made myself a fancy word document detailing what I should get done every day (click on it if you actually want to see it closer up):

So mostly I’m trying to do practice translations, read the CAFEP grammar packet, and catch up on British history and literature. This has been my reading list lately:

Le monde britannique (1815-1931), which is from the CNED and is actually for the history CAPES. Am a little confused as to why they sent it out with the English CAPES with no explanation, but I can guess why they would think it was useful. I’ve actually finished reading this one and while it was unnecessarily in-depth (since it is, after all, written for history teachers), it made it clear how little I knew about British history post-Elizabeth I, and I do feel like I learned a lot. I didn’t enjoy all of it (especially the economy-heavy parts, which, to be honest, I skimmed) but I did like all the sections about Ireland.

A Handbook of Literary Terms by Françoise Grellet, which I haven’t actually started. It looks like it’ll bring me back pretty heavily to high school English.

Civilisation des États-Unis by Marie-Christine Pauwels which looks to be not actually that useful for someone who grew up in the States and needs something more in-depth. But I’ll browse it anyway.

Literature in English by good old F. Grellet. Have started this and it’s bringing me back to my days in the Mac English department.

Le Royaume-Uni Aujourd’hui by Pierre Lurbe. Lord did I know nothing at all about how the English government works. Some of it I still find confusing—do NOT understand the whole “first past the post” concept.

Syntaxe Comparée du français et de l’anglais by Jacqueline Guillemin-Flescher. Am not sure I have the morale for this. Have definitely not yet cracked it open.

All the grimpeurs have left on their big two-week trip to Austria. Most other people are also gone on vacation leaving me with like, one friend in Poitiers. In general the city is certainly emptier right now, although surprisingly full of tourists. I hear lots of other languages around and see lots of French families as well who have clearly come in from somewhere to walk around the town with their kids. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only one on the street who actually lives here.

Since I’m mostly alone for the moment, I’m trying to do at least a little pilates every day, and eat better, and go to the market. Going to the market always means I spend more money on food (prices are a little higher, plus everything is so temmmmpting) but I feel that it’s worth it right now. I need good food to keep me company!

I’m hoping to take a big trip to the U.S. next April. I’m purposefully not going home this summer or over Christmas for reasons I think I’ve mentioned (cost, heat, allergies) so instead I’m hoping to go in April when Texas will be green and blue and orange and only probably around 80 degrees.

But there are so many people I’d like to see and so many cities I’d like to see that aren’t in Texas that I’m starting to plan a first big stretch down the East coast. I’m envisaging something like this:

April 16: Paris to Boston to see my brother/his girlfriend/their cat/the city for the weekend. Also means I might get a DIRECT FLIGHT.
April 18/19: Bus to New York? Or straight to Philadelphia? I’ve never really done New York. The people I know there aren’t incredibly close friends so this stopover would be as much for the city as for the people. I think this might be sort of a last-minute decision.
Mid-week: In Philadelphia to see Laurel!
Second weekend: DC to see Kris
April 24/25th: Fly from DC to San Antonio
May 2nd: Fly back to Paris

I could always stretch out the first leg of the trip a little longer since I hope to stay in San Antonio till the Monday after the vacation technically ends (but I shouldn’t have class till Thursday).

I’m getting excited about planning a real trip to my home country, not just a stopover for visa or holiday reasons. I’m really, really tempted to invite some French friends of mine to come along. My brother could try to speak French to them and Laurel could actually speak French to them. But that invitation is just so loaded, not to mention expensive (I think I’ll probably buy my ticket on American’s US website for about 800 euros).

Otherwise, I’m also thinking about planning a little trip somewhere in Europe. I’m thinking about Italy (where I’ve never been), Greece (same but sort of less shocking), or going back to Ireland. Any suggestions? Anyone want to come?

Well I’ve been in Avignon for just over a week now and I go back to Poitiers tomorrow. So here’s a brief photographic update:

The plastering of posters outside of Sarah’s apartment

The stage inside the Palais des Papes

The Off flyers in the Village Off

Inside the Spiegeltent in the Village Off

The upside-down elephant in the courtyard in front of the Palais des Papes

The Pont d’Avignon from the Ile de Barthelasse

Zandra and I arrived in Avignon Sunday afternoon after driving across France through the night. We were not the ones driving; we used covoiturage. I didn’t sleep much and instead watched out the window as the landscape changed from Poitou-Charentes, to the hills outside Clermont-Ferrand, to the vineyards as we finally approached Montélimar in the late morning. It was a slow, slow trip and we left Poitiers a little after 2 am so it was a strange experience, but surprisingly enjoyable.

Right before we left I received my first big, real package from the CNED and I brought some of it with me, trying to patch together a schedule of what I want to get done, which is not so easy since this year’s concours is so different from last year and everyone’s suggestions are outdated. I’m currently working on understanding the commentaire de civilisation which will be, I expect, my least favorite part. Am discovering that I will really need to beef up on British history. Bleeeeegh. Maybe it will turn out to be more interesting than I think.

I’m perusing forums in the hopes of finding jewels of wisdom or suggestions of books to buy or check out from the BU. Besides the CNED forum which you have to pay to use, there’s agreg-ink which is a wiki and a forum.

Avignon is nuts right now. Every spare piece of guardrail has a flyer for a play on it and people are constantly handing you flyers that you don’t want. Last night Sarah, Zandra and I went to see La Casa de la Fuerza by Angélica Liddell, which was a five-hour play. This meant that it ended at 3 am. I had taken a nap or else there’s no way I would’ve made it through. The play was connected with (not really based on) the murders in Ciudad Juarez.

We’re going to see another play sometime later this week, and go to le bal for the 14th of July. Otherwise I’m trying to study during the day and stay out of the heat. Now that I’m caught up on sleep I should make myself a more rigid schedule.

Before coming down to Avignon together, Zandra was in Poitiers to see me. We managed to find her a covoiturage up to Poitiers last Wednesday. Julien immediately took us climbing outside in a really pretty spot and sent me up a 4a voie (like, the easiest that exists). Thursday night we made tacos for the friends who were still in town. Friday we did the soldes and walked around Montierneuf, and Saturday we went to the Parc Blossac to chill.

Evidence:

And that’s pretty much the only picture I took the whole trip.

As for the rest of my time in England, my couchsurfing host was lovely, and I did manage to go to Kew Gardens which I really liked, especially the butterfly room:

It was good depth of field practice.

I think that’s a pretty comprehensive update! Hopefully I’ll take some pictures of the madness here to post next week.

So, Canterbury was wonderful. It was adorable and pretty. The conference was great and everyone was very friendly. I’m back in London now, couchsurfing, and it’s very nice, but last night I really wished I had decided to stay another night in Canterbury. If I come back to this conference next year (I might) I think I’ll spend the entire time there.

Here are some pictures from the days since Wednesday.

Canada Day on Trafalgar Square! Very tempting to eat something yummy, but I managed to tear myself away without.

On Whitehall/Parliament Street (part of a demonstration against the war in Afghanistan)

Now, Canterbury:

The famous cathedral:

I loved it.

Here’s a link to the presentation I gave. You’ll need this document too for the slides where it just say “table” and “comments.”

Not sure how I feel about this trip so far. London was hectic and stressful and I had to sleep in a hostel. The hostel was perfectly fine but I’m generally sort of over them in general.

Am in Canterbury now for the conference and the presentations so far have been really interesting, so that’s looking up. But there’s no internet in the rooms (we’re staying on campus) and they’re a little dorm-y (that is, they are dorms).

It’s funny though to be back in an English-speaking country. Am only more convinced that English accents are by no means easier to understand, and in fact can be a lot more difficult than American/Canadian accents. I can’t imagine some of my students understanding the people I walk past here. (But I do think the accents are charming.)

What else to say? Tomorrow morning I give my presentation. Sunday I should be meeting up with a friend of Zandra’s in London, and I might go to the Kew Gardens, but otherwise I’ll be back in Poitiers on Monday night and I think I’ll be ready.