I have lots of little snippets today.
First, I was assigned to process the mail. After a couple of...interesting letters and messages (including 50 from an organization protesting a bill that doesn't exist), I realized that it would probably violate some law for me to make copies of the choicest ones to show to my friends back home.
Second, Senator Lugar gave a brief speech for a CATO Institute luncheon today, so we interns went and watched. Afterwards, the director of the free trade center for CATO spoke as well. He demonstrated their new free-trade matrix on their website, and talked a great deal about the purpose of their group, and discussed upcoming policies in the Senate. The Director was entertaining when he demonstrated how the matrix could sort by individual senator. "Let's pick one completely at random..." he says. "Say, a certain Clinton from New York!"And then a few minutes later, "Now, for fairness, let's go to the other side of the country, to another random one from...Arizona!" (Then he insisted on saying he was not partisan at all.)
Third, I think Gail may be irritated at me. I've started to become better friends with one of the interns in our office, Mike. He grew up on the Ivory Coast of Africa -- his parents are missionaries for the American Baptist Church. He speaks fluent French, and is just generally awesome. So, he was attempting to teach another intern a few random phrases in French, and she had difficulty with pronunciation. Wanting to hear him speak more, I randomly commented that my sister spoke French, and it would be cool for Mike to chat with her sometime. He agreed, and then in an act of spontaneity, I picked up the phone and called her, then handing the cell to him. She protested for being quite rusty, but Mike insisted she was quite good.
Fourth, I'm going to Bloomington!!!!!!!!!! The weather is clear on Saturday, so the Stankiewiczs are picking me up at a little commuter airport. Yay!! Then, realizing that I could stay longer than one short day for only a $95 one-way ticket, I decided to take the entire weekend there -- it's a federal holiday Monday, after all. I'll come home Tuesday night. This way I'll be able to see all my friends! I'm incredibly excited.
That's all. I hope everyone had as wonderful of a Valentine's Day as I did!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I'm not irritated--just slightly embarrassed.
My French really -is- rusty. My accent is still good, but that's more because I have a musical ear than anything else. Do you know how humiliating it is to realize you've just said "How many your name?" That sort of thing happens to me in German, but I had five freakin' years of French!
I am also one of those rare people who speak a language -better- than she understands it. Last year I went to translate for the missionaries. They were teaching an immigrant family from Madagascar. They spoke French, but had little English.
I discovered, to my chagrin, that after I had heard their question four times, asked for clarification, thought about it, and experienced a contextual gestalt, I could answer the question beautifully. Sadly, we spent far more time figuring out what the questions were than answering them!
This is what comes of studying French but never (alas!) experiencing linguistic immersion. I think I shall always regret not doing the IU summer abroad program in high school. :(
Mike's French was marvelous and he seemed charming. Now I need to go look up what the proper response is when a man says "enchante" to a woman...
Carolyn,
Thanks for all of the "snipets". I am enjoying the read. I hope things are going well.
I hope you had a great trip to Indiana.
Love,
MarieK.
Post a Comment