xo,
aKiP
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Ready, set, READ.
One of my resolutions in 2011 is to read more books.
What motivated me to read more? Well, a few things.
1) I have time to read here, and I can MAKE time to read here. Especially while traveling on the metro or various other trains I'm exposed to.
2) Books in English are expensive here. I think I'd taken literature written in English for granted until I moved to a foreign country. So, when I returned in December, I did so with three books that were interesting to me. Here I am on January 5, having already finished 2 of them and about to start the third. (I've asked for more to come over from the United States in the luggage of those coming for a visit!)
3) The girls. The girls I live with are 11 and 8 and they are VORACIOUS readers. The oldest can tear through a book in one evening. It's highly impressive and quite good motivation.
4) Reading is good for you, and I have not done enough of it in my life.
One of the two books I read, Sarah's Key, by Tatiana deRosnay, I've mentioned on my blog already. I enjoyed it, and I'd give it a 6 out of 10. The story was a page-turner, and I read it quickly (unusual for me...I am a notoriously slow reader), but I found once I'd turned all the pages that I thought..."eh."
Speaking of EH. The second book I read, while in Val d'Isère over the holidays, was The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein. The book was told from the perspective of the dog, Enzo. Having adored every word of John Grogan's masterpiece, Marley & Me, I had great expectations before reading this book. Especially since the back cover features a quote from Entertainment Weekly, "Fans of Marley & Me, rejoice." Well, I was NOT rejoicing. Not while reading it and not even after the "loose-ends-conveniently-tied-up-happy-ever-after-ending." It was entirely and unnecessarily depressing. And Enzo, the narrating dog, who was near the end of his days and looked forward to being reincarnated to come back as a human, needed his mouth washed out with soap. Who needs to hear a dog curse?! It went from bad to worse to over-the-top depressing, and then just flat out unrealistic. Not recommended.
As I find with most of life...we can even learn from less-than-positive experiences. And, there were a few beautiful things to be taken away from this book.
I enjoyed these quotes, spoken by Enzo, in The Art of Racing in the Rain.
PAGE 160: "To live every day as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live. To feel the joy of life, as Eve felt the joy of life. To separate oneself from the burden, the angst, the anguish that we all encounter every day. To say that I am alive, I am wonderful, I am. I am. That is something to aspire to. When I am a person, that is how I will live my life."
PAGE 188: "I felt strangely anxious that day, in a very human way. People are always worried about what's happening next. They often find it difficult to stand still, occupy the now without worrying about the future. People are generally not satisfied with what they have; they are concerned with what they are going to have."
I think there are lessons in these two excerpts that I can apply directly to my life, and my goals/resolutions for 2011. And I am thankful to Garth Stein and his furry character, Enzo, for these lessons.
xo,
aKiP
What motivated me to read more? Well, a few things.
1) I have time to read here, and I can MAKE time to read here. Especially while traveling on the metro or various other trains I'm exposed to.
2) Books in English are expensive here. I think I'd taken literature written in English for granted until I moved to a foreign country. So, when I returned in December, I did so with three books that were interesting to me. Here I am on January 5, having already finished 2 of them and about to start the third. (I've asked for more to come over from the United States in the luggage of those coming for a visit!)
3) The girls. The girls I live with are 11 and 8 and they are VORACIOUS readers. The oldest can tear through a book in one evening. It's highly impressive and quite good motivation.
4) Reading is good for you, and I have not done enough of it in my life.
One of the two books I read, Sarah's Key, by Tatiana deRosnay, I've mentioned on my blog already. I enjoyed it, and I'd give it a 6 out of 10. The story was a page-turner, and I read it quickly (unusual for me...I am a notoriously slow reader), but I found once I'd turned all the pages that I thought..."eh."
Speaking of EH. The second book I read, while in Val d'Isère over the holidays, was The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein. The book was told from the perspective of the dog, Enzo. Having adored every word of John Grogan's masterpiece, Marley & Me, I had great expectations before reading this book. Especially since the back cover features a quote from Entertainment Weekly, "Fans of Marley & Me, rejoice." Well, I was NOT rejoicing. Not while reading it and not even after the "loose-ends-conveniently-tied-up-happy-ever-after-ending." It was entirely and unnecessarily depressing. And Enzo, the narrating dog, who was near the end of his days and looked forward to being reincarnated to come back as a human, needed his mouth washed out with soap. Who needs to hear a dog curse?! It went from bad to worse to over-the-top depressing, and then just flat out unrealistic. Not recommended.
As I find with most of life...we can even learn from less-than-positive experiences. And, there were a few beautiful things to be taken away from this book.
I enjoyed these quotes, spoken by Enzo, in The Art of Racing in the Rain.
PAGE 160: "To live every day as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live. To feel the joy of life, as Eve felt the joy of life. To separate oneself from the burden, the angst, the anguish that we all encounter every day. To say that I am alive, I am wonderful, I am. I am. That is something to aspire to. When I am a person, that is how I will live my life."
PAGE 188: "I felt strangely anxious that day, in a very human way. People are always worried about what's happening next. They often find it difficult to stand still, occupy the now without worrying about the future. People are generally not satisfied with what they have; they are concerned with what they are going to have."
I think there are lessons in these two excerpts that I can apply directly to my life, and my goals/resolutions for 2011. And I am thankful to Garth Stein and his furry character, Enzo, for these lessons.
- Recognize the blessings in being alive.
- Feel that I'm wonderful.
- Know that I am.
- Stillness.
- Occupy the now.
xo,
aKiP
It's not easy eating greens!
As my time here goes on, I am missing green veggies.
I can't speak universally for French people on this, but only within my family unit. We need to eat more GREEN vegetables at mealtimes. I'm missing them and all their vitamins and goodnesses.
We eat a lot of potatoes, shredded carrots, pasta, tomatoes, cucumber, and salad. Ok, so lettuce is green, but I'm not including that in my gripe about lack of veggies. When we do eat veggies, I feel like there are not enough of them in comparison to the other foods on the plate.
We had asparagus the other day, and the girls only ate the tips! The rest was going to go to waste!!! It's my favorite veggie, asparagus, so I ate some, and made the girls finish the rest. I cut the bottoms off before cooking them, so they weren't at all stalky.
Yes, portions are smaller here. In general, they eat a lot LESS. But, I don't want that to apply to my vegetable intake while here. If anything, I want that to become MORE!!
I miss broccoli, and green beans, and limas, and cooked spinach, and all those yummy veggies that used to take up at least 1/3 of my plate.
Sigh. (I have it so rough, don't I? HA!)
xo,
aKiP
I can't speak universally for French people on this, but only within my family unit. We need to eat more GREEN vegetables at mealtimes. I'm missing them and all their vitamins and goodnesses.
We eat a lot of potatoes, shredded carrots, pasta, tomatoes, cucumber, and salad. Ok, so lettuce is green, but I'm not including that in my gripe about lack of veggies. When we do eat veggies, I feel like there are not enough of them in comparison to the other foods on the plate.
We had asparagus the other day, and the girls only ate the tips! The rest was going to go to waste!!! It's my favorite veggie, asparagus, so I ate some, and made the girls finish the rest. I cut the bottoms off before cooking them, so they weren't at all stalky.
Yes, portions are smaller here. In general, they eat a lot LESS. But, I don't want that to apply to my vegetable intake while here. If anything, I want that to become MORE!!
I miss broccoli, and green beans, and limas, and cooked spinach, and all those yummy veggies that used to take up at least 1/3 of my plate.
Sigh. (I have it so rough, don't I? HA!)
xo,
aKiP
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Schooled.
I started French class at 10:30 this morning.
I wasn't particularly thrilled about it last night, because it marks the significant change of my lifestyle here in Paris. It's another level of responsibility added to my life here...and it means I can't sleep in on Tuesdays and Fridays anymore. (THAT is probably the biggest disappointment). But, after going today, I'm looking forward to going back. It was really, really good. :) [Had I only known, I would have been like Nemo last night! NEMO]
The teacher was late--quite typical in French culture really. So, not too surprising. Her name is Joëlle, and she was quite gentle and almost fragile looking (aka FRENCH!), and just really lovely. She was so positive and encouraging, and welcoming. She created a great classroom environment almost immediately.
So, the course was quite basic. It's a debutante class--beginner of all beginners. She explained that because we are beginners, she will speak in English and French for the first few days/weeks of class...until we adjust. There was one girl who only spoke Russian. Felt so bad for her. The look on her face. Poor thing. I sat between Katie and David. Katie and I walked out together. She's also an au pair here, in the suburbs just on the other side of the 16th. She's 23 and Australian. Very nice.
As for content, we learned the French alphabet, numbers to 20, names of people and names of countries today. Joëlle quickly ascertained that my level was above this course. She made a few remarks to me about it (in front of everyone, although I'm not sure the others understood.) And while she has a point, and I DO know nearly all that we learned today, there are still things that I can learn from the debutante class. I made a conscious decision not to get cocky and allow myself to think that this was "TOO easy for me," even though it was not particularly a challenge. I picked up a few new words and expressions from her (80%) French lesson today. I can always spend time refining what I do know. Spelling, grammar, parts of speech, expressions, pronunciation, accents, and identifying masculine versus feminine are all things that I need work on, and I can certainly do that in her class.
I am not shy. Well, very rarely. And, if there's one thing I am pretty good at, it's being a student. I am not so hot at doing a lot of things, but in a classroom, I tend to feel quite at ease and don't feel the need to hold back when I have questions/concerns about content. I don't know if I am always a good student, but I definitely know that I am very good at BEING a student.
Maybe that's my calling in life. Professional student.
Anyway, I digress. Uh, so yeah, I'm not shy. And so I asked questions today. Not unrelated ones that derail the whole lesson (like a few students in my CELTA English teaching certification course had a propencity to do), but ones that pertained to the lesson. Pertinent questions. I got a little verbal "tap" on the hand for asking my first question in English. She told me to say it in French, especially since she knew I knew how. So from then on, I asked questions in French (I'm sure it was broken French, but I got my point across!), and I had several good conversations with Joëlle, the lovely, as a result.
What was interesting was that another girl came in a half hour after our class began, and she was just sitting in on our class--only for today--because she messed up and had missed her course at 9:00. She was a level above us, and decided to "slum it" with us for the 2 hours and 15 minutes. I'm sure I must have been on the same level as her (if not higher) because there were several occasions when Joëlle asked a question, and she didn't know the answer. And it was really a sign of how good Joëlle is as a teacher that this girl learned new things in class today, from a teacher teaching debutantes.
Although the prof. suggested I look into seeing if there is space in the next level of classes, and I may, it'd be a real shame to move up and not benefit from having Joëlle as my teacher.
Secondly, at the moment, I am at the top of this class, and that's a rather comfortable place. It's not so bad to be at the top. The trouble with moving is, I don't know where I'm going to fit in there. I'm not concerned with my status in that class...it doesn't matter if I'm not even near the top of the next level up. I just don't want to struggle. It'd be really nice to be challenged, but I don't want to be in over my head or uncomfortable.
I did my homework as soon as I got home, ate lunch, and then took a nap.
It was a very, very rewarding experience. On Friday, I start with French history lecture at 8:30, and then go back to French class at 10:30.
xo,
aKiP
Sunday, January 2, 2011
New Year's Resolutions
My New Year's resolution for 2010 was to do a Photo Blog (365,000 Words Blog). I, unfortunately, failed that as of November 4, 2010. I made it most of the way there, and then failed. Big disappointment. I think it happened for 2 reasons, really. First, I think I got settled in to my "normal, day-to-day" here in Paris, and I stopped keeping up with the pictures. Secondly, as I said on 12/16, as John Mayer says in 3x5, "I finally overcame trying to put the world inside a picture frame." I just LIVED it, and tried to "live in the moment"--a true area of weakness for me, and I didn't take as many pictures with my camera as I did with my mind.
So with my resolutions this year, I hope to make up for my shortcoming (read failure) last year. (And hopefully by writing them down here, I will be more motivated to see them through!)
Resolutions 2011
So with my resolutions this year, I hope to make up for my shortcoming (read failure) last year. (And hopefully by writing them down here, I will be more motivated to see them through!)
Resolutions 2011
- Start to learn/improve French
- Keep up with aKiP Blog better (Fine print: at least one post per week)
- Piece together 365,000 words to "finish 2010" if possible
- Be more adventurous...try new things
- Keep in better contact with friends and family
- Be more positive
- Take dance classes/lessons
- Take advantage of my current location and TRAVEL more
- Live in the moment as much as possible
- Sort through my spirituality issues
- Read more books
- Experience more of the arts: More museums, ballets, operas, and music, etc.
That's the list, folks! Here's hoping I can get all that done.
xo,
aKiP
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Bye bye, Val d'Isère
Today marks the wrapping up of the 9 days I've been in Val d'Isère. It's a really beautiful place. I spent Christmas here and New Year's Eve/Day here as well. It feels like I have been here for years. That's not a complaint; just merely an observation. It's such a different lifestyle than Paris. It's so....white here. :)
Last night, I had a really nice NYE celebration with the family and a couple that are close to them. It was cool. Sophie is Belgian and Nekil is Indian, and they live in London. It was really nice to spend time with them--they're a fun couple.
There are lots of English people here. It's been really neat to hear "my" language being spoken all over the place this week.
The strange thing is how unreal it all feels. It hasn't yet hit me that it's 2011...or that Christmas is over....and that I have to wait another whole year to truly celebrate it. It's a strange, surreal feeling that I'm here and this time has passed.
Can't say it's unpleasant, because it's not. At all. I'm perfectly content. The experience is just rather dream-like at the moment. (I'll take that, mind you, over being homesick and/or unhappy.)
I take the 5:30 bus to the 7:00 train and I'll arrive in Paris at midnight tonight. I'll post pictures once I return home. Happy New Year's Day!
xo,
aKiP
Last night, I had a really nice NYE celebration with the family and a couple that are close to them. It was cool. Sophie is Belgian and Nekil is Indian, and they live in London. It was really nice to spend time with them--they're a fun couple.
There are lots of English people here. It's been really neat to hear "my" language being spoken all over the place this week.
The strange thing is how unreal it all feels. It hasn't yet hit me that it's 2011...or that Christmas is over....and that I have to wait another whole year to truly celebrate it. It's a strange, surreal feeling that I'm here and this time has passed.
Can't say it's unpleasant, because it's not. At all. I'm perfectly content. The experience is just rather dream-like at the moment. (I'll take that, mind you, over being homesick and/or unhappy.)
I take the 5:30 bus to the 7:00 train and I'll arrive in Paris at midnight tonight. I'll post pictures once I return home. Happy New Year's Day!
xo,
aKiP
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