Juh, Rgh, and Euh

What do early Saturday mornings, two tablets of aspirin, and a very large cup of coffee have in common? Me, Trying to learn French. Please note the emphasis on the word Trying in the previous sentence.

I officially learned I was moving to Paris, November 5th, 2007. Since, I have been asked many questions. The most obvious and common question asked is... Do you speak French? My response: a coy, innocent smile along with a witty french response of "Wi" (I have sense learned that yes in French is correctly spelled: Oui)

Thanks to the highly reputable resource network known as... "Craig's list." I found myself a French tutor. The result has been: me, waking up early Saturday mornings, to meet with a witty French man, in a coffee shop, for 3 hours, stammering over words that I am unable to pronounce. Correction, stumbling over words would be a good day~ I am usually stuck on~ the alphabet. To remember the letter E (euh) I have to scratch my head, To pronounce R's (Rgh) I am forced to hack, and G's (Juh) I pretend to silently cough.

I believe Soleli (my tutor) is one of two things. The first would be a saint for having the patience to sit with someone like me for three hours time. I continually ask simple questions, ask why the French have stupid rules, and stare at him blankly when he gives me directions only to then spit out "OH, you want me to say it!" I imagine he continually thinks... "stupid girl," underneath his kind giggle and "but of course." He also quite often tells me to, "quit being a stubborn woman" where I correct him in that I am sassy, not stubborn. Sassy is one English word he is not familiar with.

My second theory and more probably, is that Soleli is the epitome of evil and is making up silly rules of when the sounds of letters change . (If an "S" is between to vowels then it makes a "Z" sound. every where else it makes a "ssss" sound. But the "S" is not pronounced at the end of any word ect...) I am convinced these rules are all to make an eager French learner , frustrated. And believe me... I am the most eager French learner of them all. Secretly, French must be a simple and easy language. He must take great pleasure in watching foolish beginning French students like myself, struggle to formulate simple words in a language that was given to him naturally at birth. Some people have all the luck, I'll tell ya. shiesh.

However! I will overcome! I will keep scratching my head, coughing, and hacking or whatever it takes for me to survive the most basic understanding and pronunciation. I have however learned, that French is a language that lacks any logical connection and that French only sounds beautiful when someone French is speaking. I do this language of beauty, no justice whatsoever. Dang!

Au Revoir! (avhoergh- yawn, hack, Va, eugh, yawn, hack)

200 trips to Kinkos

I am pleased to announce that after 200 trips to kinkos in the last month, I am now ready to start asking people to help support me in working with Campus Crusade for Christ! Seriously... everyday for the last month was spent in some form or another either: planning, printing, or picking up items from Kinkos. It's pretty bad when every employee knows you by name, after only a few days. I even debated buying Christmas gifts for some of the employees.
I cease to be amazed by all the options there are for printing. I thought you simply pushed the start button and out popped a replicated copy of the page you put in. Oh no... there is a large plethora of options on those copy machines- which i think explains why copy machies are consistenly jammed up. The contraption (formally known as a copy machine) is unable to process all the dynamic opportunities awaiting the paper copy consumer, thus a jam is created. And then leaves someone like me, scratching their head, pointing, and telling the Kinkos associate the thingamabob is no longer working. The Awe-inspring part of each trip is the fact that you can select from about 8 different paper sizes, 92 types of paper, AND color copies can be yours for the low low price of 49 cents a copy. *special so hurry in soon* However, this too can create a problem: You can become paralized from so many great options that you simply cannot decide what to print your now subpar template upon.
So let this blog commemorate the end of a fantastic one month relationship with the kinko's company, employees, and copy contraptions. But let's not think of this as the end of an era. When one door closes another one opens. I am simply now opening the door to the world wide opportunity of fundraising. Here! Here!