Freedom Girl

Monde de paradoxe/World of paradox
by joon

Today in rouen, two big events.

One is that every year, there are "fêtes jeanne d'arc". Like it's the city where she was burnt and everything in this city are called Jeanne of Arc (streets, high school, church, places...) There is a place where they say it's exactly there she was burnt. I am sure, if you dig a little bit, you can find some ashes...please, come on!
Ok, whatever, in may, the place of the cathedral is full of people selling old fashion home made jam, cider, vinegar, wine...and also awful stuffs not bears like the ones you can see on the roads of california but close!
There are some people disguised with middle ages costumes (except their shoes nike) and dance and shows. Even tonight a big "banquet" dinner is organised. Middle ages food. I am sure there are forks because french people can't eat without fork today.
Actually, I don't like too much this kind of feast but in a way, it's fun.

I participate at the second event: a march against nuclear industry!
France is one of the biggest user of this energy and we all know there are different kind of producing electricity and we could also reduce the use of it.
But this is an other story.

I found funny how today in this city, you were able to see some old middle age ladies and people dressed like in industry (mask to breathe, plastic pants and other stuffs like this). Two complete different world were sharing the city today.
What do you prefer... burn people or live with nuclear...

Posted on May 22, 2004 | Comments (1)

Ascension
by joon

Ascension is the day Jesus went up to join his Father! And in France, we don't work on this day.
There is a tradition which says that if you eat veal on this day, you will be strong. This year, I followed the tradition.By the way, thanks mum, it was delicious.

In two weeks, we will have our last day off for "pentecôte" ( also linked with Jesus but don't remember why).
Last year, the government decided to take this day off. It was a very difficult decision because you can't hurt french people' feelings. You never know, they could go in the streets just for their day off! So everyone in the government was wondering which day could be perfect. Actually, one of their main questions was which day could be economically interesting. First because, it costs a lot of money to pay people if they work on this day and second because if they take off this day, people can open stores and so people can buy things and France would feel better! Thanks guys! You think to our happinness!
They choose this day because, in may, we have 4 days off. and so you can find possibilities to say "the day off is on thursday so I don't work on Friday", etc...I remember at school, sometimes I thought it was already the summer vacations.
1st may is the labor day, kind of.
8 of may WW2 victory
Third thursday of may: ascension
Last monday of may : Pentecôte
They also choose this day because, few years ago they tried to take of the 8 but come on, it's a victory day! Actually, to me, a religious day makes sense. Keep a christian day in a country where religion has been fought during the revolution! In a country, where so many religion are represented by so different people. Come on why this day should be off more than other one.
But if we take off all the religious day, what to do with Christmas?
I heard that they think to introduce a muslim day. Why not!
Good luck guys at the government. I hope you eat veal every year because this kind of subject is difficult.
What to do with traditions?
Anyway, I ate veal this year!

Posted on May 20, 2004 | Comments (0)

Trou normand Normandy hole
by joon

On sunday 9th, Chris and Magali organized a family party in my parent's home.
We were 19! The day before, I helped them preparing the food and on the Sunday I was a part as them of the cooking staff.

This is a fast description of this kind of party in France.

12.00 am / 1.00pm - Everyone arrives. ?Hello, hello... how are you. You look great. We are not lucky, the weather is terrible, etc...?
1.30 pm - Ap鲩tif. Some snacks and a delicious cocktail are proposed.
1.45 pm - Second proposition of alcohol. Less snacks to eat. Everyone is getting very excited.
2.20 pm - Third proposition . ?Come on, let?s finished it. It?s not everyday, we are together.? All the cheeks are red...
2.45 pm ?Entr饔 Shrimps and avocado and white wine. Oh also, sauce was made with some kirsh.
3.15 pm Trou normand. I forgot about this tradition. Litterally, I could translate it ?normand hole? and I can find two explanations that I am not too sure about it. Or it means, we drink a lot and so we are like holes or normandy is in a hole. If we mix both, I am sure we are closer with the truth.
This speciality comes generally (during big ceremonies) between the first two ? entr饳? and the two different meals of meat, followed by cheese, lettuce and dessert.
Thanks god, Magali made a very good menu not too rich and not that long.
Le trou normand is very simple: apple sherbet and calvados (apple liquor, eau de vie de cidre). Finally, this is a wonderful interruption during the lunch. It makes all the food you had swallowed vanished or almost and then you have more room in your stomach. Yeeha!
Like our generation are bad, we are not respectful with tradition... Christophe made a trou normand rather from russia : apple and lemon sherbets whipped in vodka! It was also very good and the goal is the same: make all the food melted!
For kids, even if in normandy, at 8 or 10 you drink ?boisson? (cider and water or just cider) in this kind of party, They have only sherbet.
4.00 pm ?Plat principal? Meat and veggies. This time, we had delicious ?filet mignon? with ananas ?flambé” with some alcohol but I don?t remember which one.
Actually at this moment, you don?t remember why you are still eating because you are hungry but not too much anymore. So you drink more wine. And now... red wine!
5.00 pm Cheese (s). Definitely, you are not hungry anymore and you would like to stand up but it?s difficult so you drink more wine, an other kind because it?s for cheese and you have to taste it ... yeeha!
5.30 pm Almost dessert ...but first you have to eat the lettuce that you realized is in your plate!
5.45 pm DESSERT. YOU ARE NOT HUNGRY, you are deaf (19 people speaking at the same time), you are drunk but personnally I was ok because during all this, I just spend time checking food, stuffs and so it?s a good point because you can stand up, staying busy and aware!
Ok, with Magali, we finished our drinks in the kitchen very quickly but it?s not easy to serve 19 people! And with the dessert... ?champagne?
6.30 pm Coffee and liquor to make your stomach working well.

Now, it?s seven, the staff do the dishes, some preparation for the dinner with some help while
the guests just had a short walk around the table!
And it?s 9.00 pm, time for dinner. Am I hungry! Wrong question. Never ask yourself this question. Noone is hungry...and lets? go. The dinner is less long and with less stuffs to eat. Same amount of alcohol, I think. And everyone leaves at 00.00am.
You still spent 3 hours at table.
What a Sunday!!!!
On the third of july, I go to a marriage! I don?t dare imagine how it will be.
But this kind of day is great.
By the way, thanks to chris and Mag for the day !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dimanche 9 mai, Chris et Mag avaient organisé µn petit dimanche en famille pour l?anniversaire de Tom. On é´¡it 19 ! La veille, je les ai aidé   pré°¡ré ´out ç¡ et donc le lendemain, je faisais partie de l?é±µipe !

Voici une description rapide de ce genre de repas de famille en France !

12.00 am / 1.00pm Tout le monde arrive...bonjour, bonjour, comment 硠va? Ah, t?es l?1.30 pm Ap鲩tif. Grignotage et un d鬩cieux cocktail.
1.45 pm Allez on remet ç¡ une deuxiè­¥ fois. Bon, bah, y a plus grand-chose à §rignoter, tant pis.
2.20 pm Allez faut finir, c?est pas tous les jours? Joues rouges !
2.45 pm ?Entr饔 Crevettes et avocats avec une sauce avec du kirsh je crois! Tr賠bon !
3.15 pm Trou normand
J?avais oublié £ette petite tradition. En fait, je ne sais pas trop d?o?vient si c?est du fait qu?on boit comme des trous ou du fait que la normandie se trouve dans un trou, peut ê´²e un peu des deux.
Cette sp飩alit頶ient g鮩ralement apr賠les deux premi貥s entr饳 et avant les deux-trois plats de viande, suivis du fromage?
Merci �agali d?avoir con絠un menu l駥r et d鬩cieux !
On sait tous ce qu?est le trou normand, un peu de sorbet à ¬a pomme et du calvados. Mais bon, comme les jeunes, nous ne sommes plus vraiment respectueux des traditions, chris a fait a la russe, sorbet pomme et citron fouette avec de la vodka et le tour est joue De toutes facons, le but est le meme, faire de la place pour la suite !
4.00 pm ?Plat principal? Filet mignon ?ananas flambé   quelque chose, enfin bref encore de l?alcool et puis du vin pour accompagner tout ca. Du rouge, svp ! Pour ê´²e honnê´¥ à £e moment là ¤u repas, tu ne sais plus tres bien si tu as encore faim alors bon tu bois !
5.00 pm Fromages, ࠣe moment, c?est d馩nitif, tu n?as plus faim mais bon il faut accompagner le vin qui accompagne le fromage alors bon. Tout 砬 ce n?est qu?un cercle vicieux !
5.30 pm Bient?e dessert mais avant il faut manger la salade qui a apparu dans ton assiette dieu sait comment!
5.45 pm Dessert et champagne!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tu es sourd ࠣause des 19 personnes qui parlent en mꭥ temps et qui, en plus, sont un peu excit鳬 il faut le dire quand mꭥ. Moi 砠allait parce que j?ai eu la possibilit頤e me lever plusieurs fois gr⣥ ࠭a position d?assistante ࠬa cuisine, et bon 硠aide. Bon d?accord, avec Magali on finissait notre verre vite fait dans la cuisine mais c?est pas tous les jours faciles d?organiser ce genre de repas et on avait besoin de force !
6.30 pm Café ¥t digestif histoire de faire ç  bien.

Maintenant, il est sept heures. T?es content ! L?鱵ipe cuisine commence la vaisselle aid饠par des coll觵es et pendant ce temps-lଠtes invit鳠font tranquillement une petite promenade autour de la table. (il faisait pas beau)
Et voilଠil est 21 heures, l?heure du dr. Est-ce que j?ai faim ? Mauvaise question. Tu sais pertinemment que personne n?a faim alors vas-y fonce, ne pense ࠲ien. Mange et bois ! Et il est minuit, tu as moins mang頱ue le midi et tu as aussi pass頭oins de temps ࠴able mais 硠fait quand mꭥ trois heures autour du dr. Le temps passe si vite.
Quel dimanche !
Au fait, merci, merci, merci pour cette journ饠la famille des ouf de lyon !

Posted on May 20, 2004 | Comments (2)

Brothers and sisters.../ Frères et soeur...
by joon

I was about five and my brother nine. WE were throwing a napkin in the air and I was laughing (thinking I suppose :"oh my brother is so strong, oh he is great.")
At a moment, we had the idee to throw the napkin above the light " which was "hanged" (not sure of the writings!). As if it was a wall!
He did it one time and I was applaused. We were getting excited and I suppose together we got the idee to throw it on the light. And so he tried and tried and succeeded.... Or maybe we didn't want to but playing to throw it to each other above the light, it stayed stuck at a moment! And mac, it was toc de mac!!! We were not able to take it back! I remember that we were looking at each other not knowing what to do and not even able to know if it was serious or no! I was five and reaching this place seemed very high! I suppose we were giggling a little bit until the napkin began to get darker and darker... We called our parents and after we were not excited anymore but rather quiet. Dead napkin burnt on a light!
Everyone has this kind of story... If I told you the ones of my father, it's one thousand times worth!

Come on, tell yours...

J'avais à peu près cinq ans et mon frère, neuf et nous jouions à lancer des serviettes de table dans les airs. Moi j'étais toute contente en regardant mon frère et je devais penser un truc dans le genre :" oh il est trop fort c'est mon frère." Genre!
A un moment, on a eu l'idée de la lancer par dessus le lustre. C'était cool.
Et à un moment, je ne peux pas dire si on en a fait exprès ou non mais en tout cas, la serviette est restée sur le lustre. On devait à moitié rigoler mais je me souviens aussi que l'on se regardait ne sachant pas trop comment faire. A cinq ans, ca semble haut un lustre. Je crois qu'on a commencé à s'affoler quand la serviette à commencer à devenir noire. Nos parents sont arrivés et forcément on rigolait plus du tout, on était même très très calmes. On a fait le deuil de cette petite serviette et puis voilà!
Allez y a olus grave, si je vous racontais les bêtises d'enfance de mon père!

A vous...

Posted on May 6, 2004 | Comments (1)

A small sister... Great! / Une tit'soeur...Super!
by joon

Christophe, Magali and their son the famous Tom toniiiiiiiiiiic are staying at my parent's home for four days.
Since I have arrived from corsica and got a room close to my sister's bedroom and I have decided to practice more juggling, I practice also "throwing juggle balls in aude's room and on her" Actually, I am very good at that and she doesn't want to admit it easily but she loves it.
So when my brother arrived yesterday, of course it was pleasure to be able to tease her! We made some transformations in her bedroom and now she wants we to do that everynight now. She is so cute! She wants us to be happy!
We love you!
Actually we could do that in our parents home. In a way with Aude we began a little bit!
oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh, what a spirit of joke!

P.S.: Chris wrote a wonderful poem in the comments of "back on the blog! " If you have time to lose and if you know how to read between lines... you can go there!
For french translation of this poem, post comment french people because otherwise I have the impression none french is on the blog (except my sister and my brother) so I don't see the point to translate!

Christophe, Magali et leur célèbre fils Tom toniiiic sont à la maison pour quatre jours.
Depuis que je suis revenue de Corse et que je me suis installée dans la pièce à côté de la chambre de ma soeur, j'ai décidé de pratiquer plus de jonglage et donc je pratique aussi le "lancer de balles de jonglage dans la chambre de ma soeur et sur ma soeur" Je deviens très bonne à ce jeu et en fait, elle ne veut pas l'admettre mais elle adore çà!
Alors quand Christophe est arrivé hier, forcément on s'est sentie en droit de l'embêter alors on a un peu transformer sa chambre. Elle a tellement apprécié que maintenant elle veut qu'on fasse çà tous les soirs! elle est mignonne!
On t'adore.
En fait on pourrait faire çà dans la maison de Poon et moon. En réalité on a déjà commencé la dernière fois notamment en mettant le portefeuille de Poon dans le frigo! Oh quel esprit farceur on a dans la famille!

P.S.: Chris a écrit un magnifique poème dans les commentaires de l'article intitulé "Back on the blog" . Si vous avez du temps à perdre et que vous savez lire entre les lignes eh bien allez-y!
Si vous voulez une traduction française du poème et que je fasse un peu plus d'effort pour traduire en français, il faudrait que j'ai l'impression qu'il y a des français qui viennent. alors laissez des commentaires. Pour l'instant y a pas eu de plaintes je suppose que c'est que tout le monde comprend tout!

Posted on May 6, 2004 | Comments (1)

Bon Anniversaire!
by joon

TOM FABULET
The biggest, Le plus grand,
the greatest, Le meilleur,
is one year old. A un an!

One year ago, everyone were jumping everywhere, even the cat, the dog and th fish! And the fish with the cat, and the cat with the birds!
Now we are worried because his parents are insane. You know his father, it's the guy signing "Chris" on this blog!

Il y a un an, on sautait partout avec le chat, le chien et le poisson. Le poisson avec le chat et le chien avec les oiseaux.
Maintenant on s'inquiète pour sa santé mentale. Ses parents sont dangereux quand même!

Posted on May 5, 2004 | Comments (1)

La Ferme...la ferme!
by joon

Few weeks ago, a new reality show came up.
In the deep deep France, some stars of TV are living in a old farm. They have to feed a pig or/and all kind of animals living in a farm. I suppose they must do a lot of others things. I heard they have no electricity, poor people!
They earn for doing that millions each week they stay.

Every week french inhabitants vote for one who, according to them, seems inappropriate to work and live in these conditions. It's the biggest show at the moment because, of course, they are all absolutly not done for this life and you can also know more about stars. Gossip, Gossip!

The others channel are crazy because their new show, game or reality show don't work at all.

This a sample of the stars becoming rich thanks to our stupidity:
- an ex-miss France. She recently proposed herself to be (député) the representant at the assembly of her region (Picardie, just close to Normandy) and people of Picardie voted for her! MMMhhh! So you can imagine the mess because she's still inside the farm and she had to work now. I have no idee if they accepted her to stay!
- an ex- star of some sport who does business now.
- the old stupid writer's new young girlfriend!
- an ex- candidate of a reality show
- an ex-dance teacher in "popstars" which is a reality show casting for the next big girl-boy-band. She also makes the choregraphy for the bad big music dance show. They trying to do the same than american do 300% much better that is to say Cats, Les misérables, the phantom of the opera on broadway. We are so bad at that!
- and other stupid people living just in the gossip !

The interesting point at this time and it's the reason why I am talking about that, it's the reaction of "la confédération paysanne", whom the big boss in a way was the very known José Bové! You remember him? With his friends working in the fields, making our milk and our cheeses... working hard to feed us, they attacked a new Mc Do to unbuild it. He brought illegally in USA a lot of our beloved cheese (Roquefort!). So the members of the "confédération paysanne" wants to make stopped "La Ferme des Célébrités", it means they attack the main channel in France, or they will unbuild it!
I am with them.
La ferme ... la ferme! ( la ferme in french means the farm but also shut up!)

Depuis quelques semaines, La ferme des célébrité à la télé. Je suis absolument très déçue par Dechavanne. Et je suis à fond pour la Confédération paysanne qui a menacé la chaîne (TF1 ouh la la)!
Grâce à notre bêtise, ces pseudo star deviennent riches. Et le Gouvernement peut continuer à faire ce qu'il veut pendant qu'on s'endort!

Posted on May 3, 2004 | Comments (3)