Category Archives: le week-end

j’ai fait ma décision

Posted in French, le week-end by

rainforest

Got my new credit card in the mail, registered for the NYU Spanish class as my first purchase, and last night crossed the $1000 spending threshold that will trigger 50,000 miles to go into my Delta account some time in the next two to four weeks. That’ll bring me to just under 70,000 miles, enough to book a trip to Paris, should it still be available. (As of this morning there are plenty of seats left, because who in their right mind goes to France in January?) So now it’s a waiting game, and the cliffhanger remains… Will I or won’t I be eating crème caramel by the Seine in a month? Only time will tell.

As for this weekend… Some interesting reading and watching:

Trailer for the animated movie version of my favorite book, The Little Prince 

(I tend to think that children’s books all about the magic of imagination should not be turned into movies that do much of the imagining for you, but it does look beautiful.)

The White House turns an eye to study abroad

Completely unrelated to this blog, but awesome nevertheless – a 2014 mix tape!

Leadership skills multiply with language skills

This beautifully sums up the foreign language learning experience

And now I’m off to get a dose of greenhouse tropics at the botanic gardens – a kind of faux immersion in foreign climates, which I’ve come to find crucial to my sanity as winter descends. Have a good weekend!

[Photo: Ben Britten. Thanks also to Randy for the NPR tip and Jenny for The Little Prince tip!]

Post-thanksgiving Paris-centric links…

Posted in French, le week-end, travel by

French turkey

…because even on the most American of days I still had Paris on my mind:

A secret apartment in the Eiffel Tower

A fake Paris built to protect the real Paris

I googled “Paris January weather,” sure that the results would discourage me. Instead, I’m totally sold.

Avoir un merveilleux week-end, mes amis!

have a good weekend!

Posted in French, le week-end by

people's climate march

People! It’s the weekend. (Yet I’m still at work. But leaving soon!)

This week was my best ever for French conversation – I am practically thinking in French by now. On Sunday I Skyped with Philippe. On Monday I went to the French conversation Meetup and talked to a guy from Togo for like two hours about all things West African. Yesterday at Clovis’ art opening (which I will write about later) the cinematographer for Thomas’ documentary was filming and he spoke about ten words of English so I talked to him in French for an hour. And then today I Skyped with Philippe again before running the Central Park loop for National Run at Work Day. Which is why I’m now working late…

But I’m minutes away from leaving and I’m so excited about this weekend. On Saturday I will show up at a doll hospital that has already told me they’re not interested in me doing a short film about them. I will show up with my beloved doll Cindy, who is now in six parts held together by a little hooded onesie my mother sewed to keep her arms, legs and head quasi-intact. I will see what they can do for Cindy and in the process hope to charm them into letting me make the film.

On Sunday I will join the People’s Climate March. I was torn about which section to walk in. I really wanted to be with the anti-corporate people, where my allegiance lies. But they are in the only really blamey, negative section of the march; the others are all hopeful and solutions-based and I think I want to spend my day surrounded by positivity. Plus I will be wearing enough branded apparel that I’ll feel a little silly being all anti-capitalist with evidence of hypocrisy all over my body.

What does this have to do with French or Spanish or Hebrew? Well, apparently there are concurrent events all around the world. Plus an environmental apocalypse would wipe all humans and thus all languages off the face of the earth. So there’s that tenuous link, if you need one.

Allons-y! Le week-end commence maintenant!

youssou

Posted in French, inspiration & encouragement, le week-end, music, travel by

Youssou N'Dour at BAM

Over the weekend I saw Youssou N’Dour perform in Brooklyn. I don’t say this lightly: it was transportive. The music is so overwhelmingly life-affirming, and I’m chomping at the bit to go to Senegal. So I spent the entire show alternately blissing out in the moment and imagining myself living in Dakar in the near future, making a weekend routine of going out to dance to West African music.

The band kept announcing him as the “minister of the people” but I would more aptly call N’Dour the minister of tourism because within minutes of his arrival onstage I was ready to pack up and go.* Lo and behold, I just looked up his discography and he is indeed Senegal’s minister of tourism and culture as of 2012! That is both hilarious and entirely appropriate.

Sometimes I think I’m going to wimp out on my language sabbatical but then a night like Saturday’s reminds me of how much fun I will have and eradicates the fear. In fact, I spent a good part of the show wallowing in fantasy-land “logistics” planning: I’d move to Senegal next November and spend the winter months learning French eight hours a day, then visit every country in West Africa after becoming proficient, next head south to Zimbabwe and South Africa just because, then cut back up to Rwanda, then turn east into Tanzania and Kenya, and finally somehow end up in the south of France in time for summer. Oh, and there’d also magically be time and money for Mozambique and Madagascar. And then I’d move to South America for Spanish immersion.

It’s good to dream… And eventually, when the time is ripe, I will become a bit more realistic about my dreams and turn them into reality. (With God as my witness.)

* pending Ebola neutralization

I leave you with a clip from the show, taken by someone with a much better seat than mine!

the best of words, the worst of words: lumière and obscurité

Posted in best words & worst words, French, le week-end by

Thomas' favorite word: lumiere

This past weekend I had the pleasure of going to my former downstairs neighbor’s cocktail party in my old building, three blocks away from my new one. In addition to being fascinating and fabulous herself, Francesca has a set of fascinating and fabulous friends, two of whom are French. And thus, another edition of “best words, worst words” comes your way…

Thomas is a novelist whose work I am excited to dive into. He assured me that I would be able to read it in the original French. He is also about to shoot a documentary about Bushwick artists, including Clovis, who will be featured in the next installment of best words, worst words.

I was surprised at the ease with which Thomas chose his superlative words. No deliberation at all; they came right to him.

His favorite: lumière (light). Why? Because light signifies “knowledge, God, beauty. It’s the opposite of obscurity.”

And his least favorite?Thomas' least favorite word: obscurite

Logically, obscurité (darkness, obscurity). Thomas believes that people cannot stand to live in obscurity – that they crave to be in the light, to be seen and known. Yet he also believes that people can’t live entirely in the light – that they need a small amount of obscurity to exist.

I don’t usually think of light and darkness as aspects of the human condition, but leave it to a writer to bring the poetry. Or leave it to the French language, I suppose. Until I noticed that obscurité translates to both darkness and obscurity, I hadn’t really linked the two. Darkness had always seemed physical and obscurity existential, but I suppose there is a lot of crossover – darkness can be existential and obscurity can be physical. I love these moments of lexical epiphany!

happy weekend

Posted in le week-end, music by

Agnes Obel Aventine

Last night I went to see Agnes Obel play Bowery Ballroom. She’s a Danish singer-songwriter whose lyrics are in English but to whom I was introduced by Philippe, my parler pal de Paris. So she feels appropriate to talk about on this blog even though technically she is irrelevant.

Anyway… It’s almost the weekend! And I need it, because two weekends ago was taken up entirely by moving and attending an editing workshop, and last weekend I spent one day in Vermont – and two days traveling to and from Vermont. Now I really want to just sit around doing nothing all day. And maybe catch up on anki and duolingo, which can feel nicely meditative and almost like doing nothing.

But – my plans to be lazy were foiled by my 2 1/2 year old niece in New Jersey, who wouldn’t give up the phone to my brother until he said he wanted to talk to me about when I was going to visit. That prompted her to ask me in her squeaky little voice, “Can you come visit me?” Which melted my heart and all my resolve to sit on my butt for two days in a row. I practically promised to come live with her if she would have me.

So, here’s to not being lazy after all, in the name of adorableness and adoration.

And here’s some Agnes Obel to start your weekend:

(Photo: Agnes Obel)

enjoy the weekend!

Posted in French, le week-end, movies & tv, travel by

J'irais dormir chez vois - en Amerique

I’m about to head out for a night on the town but before I do… a couple of links to start your weekend. Design Sponge went all out on the French front today with two fun posts:

– a roundup of gorgeous French home tours

– 24 hours in Paris with someone who knows what’s what

This weekend I am due to have my third chat with my very own Parisian pal, Philippe. So far he has introduced me to Peppa Cochon, otherwise known as Peppa Pig, as well as to this Web series about the adventures of a Frenchman abroad in America. It’s hard to watch as an English speaker because the original English audio under the French voiceover gets distracting, but the delightfulness of the show makes it worth it. I sort of want to rip this concept off and putter my way around France butting into interesting-looking people’s lives and making myself right at home after inviting myself over.

To be fair, Antoine’s show is actually derivative, whether unknowingly or not, of an amazing project from the early days of the Internet, Let Me Stay For a Day.

In any case… here’s wishing you an adventurous and intriguing-person-filled weekend! Or whatever else you’d like it to be…

(Photo: J’irais dormir chez vous)

este fin de semana, vamos argentina!

Posted in le week-end, Spanish by

Keep Calm Y Vamos Argentina

After Wednesday’s nail-biter between Argentina and the Netherlands that was pretty much the exact opposite of the Brazil-Germany game the day before, I am so excited to cheer on Argentina in the World Cup finals this weekend. (That sounds like I actually know something about soccer and/or have unearthed secret Argentine lineage that would warrant a true emotional stake in this game. I don’t, and I haven’t, sadly.)

In celebration of the footballers I have come to know and love – for their amazing skill, awesome technique and adorable camaraderie as much as for their remarkably good looks! – here are some hispanocentric links for your weekend reading. Though you should really just be watching the Cup.

So, let’s start with one about that: This makes my love for Argentina grow infinitely.

And another: Gooooooooaaaaaallllllll!

And finish it off with something completely unrelated that I’ve never thought about before: language isolation among indigenous language-speaking Mexican immigrants to the United States.

Happy weekend!

have a good weekend!

Posted in le week-end by

Screen Shot 2014-07-04 at 4.00.20 PM

Fireworks are one of my favorite things and I am so excited to see them tonight! Though I am less excited about the thunderstorm that may or may not precede and possibly ruin the festivities.

A blustery day off like this one calls for an indoor adventure so I’m about to head six blocks away to the Brooklyn Museum to see the new summer exhibits. Ai Weiwei and “Art and Civil Rights in the 60’s” both look  great.

Tomorrow I will be heading about six blocks in the opposite direction to a soccer-specific sports bar that is screening the Argentina-Belgium World Cup game. I can’t be bothered this weekend to head out to Soho at 9:30am just to watch with Argentines. Haha, I almost wrote “other Argentines” before realizing I am not at all Argentine so that would be a completely inaccurate statement.

Hope your weekends are spectacular and dry, unless you’re headed to a water park or something. 🙂

le three day week-end!

Posted in le week-end, learning tools by

Détail de "Blah, blah, blah" du studio Louise Campbell (Maison d

I only remembered yesterday that I had taken today off from work, which was a very, very pleasant surprise. I’m about to pack up my laptop and head to a neighborhood cafe in the hopes the cute environs will make my apartment searching just a little more palatable. I also used the morning to sign up for not one but two language chat programs. I learned about both of them – Conversation Exchange and Shared Talk – through people I interviewed for this blog. I knew this little enterprise would pay off!

I didn’t actually do any chatting through the chat programs today. I just signed up for them and called it a (baby steps) day. I couldn’t even get my mic to work with one of the sites but whatever, it’s a good start after many weeks of moping around doing not an ounce of anything language-related.

May the weekend bring lots of joy and plenty of bavarder!

(Photo: Detail of Louise Campbell’s “Blah, blah, blah,” by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra)