Last week I was in Paris staying with a high school friend who has been studying abroad here since the fall, before meeting the rest of my Puget Sound classmates. The apartment is in the 11eme and so far I’ve spent the last three days just walking around. My favorite part about Paris is how uniform the buildings are. They’re pretty much all the same height and style, which makes it feel as if there was some purpose behind the city. Purpose is comforting.
I bought a phone the other day without doing much research on the best deal, which is unlike me. The phone and plan were pretty cheap so at first I didn’t mind, but I soon started to have regrets. Bombarded with ads about the best phone deals while sitting on the metro I began to think that I might have not got the best deal. It wasn’t a bad one by any means, but not the best. and I was concerned. Do people have these sentiments when they pick their marital partners? Its probably unavoidable.
I don’t have a camera of my own. I will be using other people’s cameras or taking their pictures. The pictures in this post were taken by Greta Heller.
I want to track how my french improves over the semester by seeing how many of my conversations lasting over 4 exchanges end with people asking me if I speak english. Since all good blogs need internal acronyms “do you speak english” will now be DYSE. Please post best DYSE experiences in comment section, I’d love to hear em. There are two ways one can be DYSE’d; formally and informally. Here is an example of a formal DYSE:
I went to a corner store chain called Dia to buy some beer. At the check out, the girl working asked me if I had my “Carte Dia” which is the members discount card. I heard “Carte D….something something” which I figured meant ID Card. I showed her my ID, she proceeded to laugh at me, and then she DYSE’d me….
An informal DYSE is when the DYSE is not actually said, i.e you ask for directions in French and they immediately respond in English.
I’d say right now my DYSE rate is about 80%.
Until next time…