Freedom Girl

TBA - Suicide kings

Well, wow, I have not written here since may! Wow, it seems long but it is not that long actually!
Well anyway,
since then, I have gone back to France, changed job and got happier ! How crazy!

I spent my whole month of August, organizing my back to school-work-project.

Four years ago, I came to Portland for the first time in my life, helping Adam moving here. I looked around for some theatre/performance/anything related to live performance
And I found TBA ! I went to a couple of shows and one dance workshop which was amazing.
Then, I moved here a year later!
I was looking forward to follow TBA. Weirdly enough, I have no memories of going to any of their shows for the first two years and I remember looking at the program last year and being like, eh, nothing seemed interesting to me. I don't know if that was a result of being broke at that time so I was not able to afford anything extra at this point.
WE just came back from Europe and we had hardly enough for rent, food and trimet.
This year, I do not have a job that will bring me a lot of money, but we will be fine, but what makes a difference is I have some time ! And as I was looking for their catalalogue I found "volunteer for TBA"
So I went for their information/sign up meeting and I got to sign up for hours.
With enough hours you get a pass/ 8 shows and other stuffs!

I volunteered so far for :
- Box office
- Chat
- Volunteers lead
- Larry Krone (The lab-craft)

I will volunteer for 4 more shows and help later on!

This is great!
I met new people
I learn new things
I get to be back into the world of professional art-live performance

The first show I have seen is by the suicide kings.
And this is one of the most powerful show I have seen for a long time!
Really really good

Three guys, one musician (cello) and a very few props!
Just them and their words - poetry - story - emotions!

It feels good to go to the theatre.
I missed it so much, I did not even know. I got to feel what I always feel everytime the audience lights turn off and the stage one turns on... I feel moved, I have buterfflies, I get thirsty for stories, my eyes are wide open to look at, listen to, a human being here in front of me telling his stories, I (almost) have tears...

Sarko vs Sego or the French presidentials part 1

So I spent my whole Saturday (7:30 am to 9:30 pm) volunteering for my country! I was named assessor and basically checked people IDs and tell them what to do to vote for the first tour of the French Presidentials. When I was not doing that I was working on some small projects for my work because this whole thing was taking place at the school I work for so I was able to get some stuff done too which was pretty good.
Because I am telling you, we were not too busy!

This is the first time in history that french "expat" don't have to go to San Francisco to vote which they were not doing because who wants to fly twice in a month to go standing in line just to vote!
So they send a "consul deputy" in Portland, in Seattle and in others places in US to open a "bureau de vote" for local French immigrants! Thank you very much.

People were happy to come to vote, it was like being home. Going to a school to vote is very very traditional. Sunday is normally the day to vote in France but for the first time also, they decided to make us vote before which is pretty smart because last time people abroad knew what were the results when voting (difference of time) and so you don't vote the same that way!

Some numbers of people with French nationality in Oregon?
550 people (with French nationality) from Oregon and Idaho are registered to vote on the list of the Embassy in San Francisco (3 from Idaho)

1000 people (about) in Oregon are registered with the Embassy, according to the Honorary Consul present in Portland (Most of them can choose to vote "par procuration" in France. You basically choose someone (that you know and trust... obviously) to vote in your name in the city you are registered. This person must be registered on the same list)

2000 people would be present in Oregon without being registered to the Embassy, according to the same person. There is no way to verify this information obviously.

That would bring the numbers of people at 3000!?

550 people (with French nationality) from Oregon and Idaho are registered to vote on the list of the Embassy in San Francisco (3 from Idaho)

149 people came to vote yesterday. From whom, no Idaho voters, but some people came from as far as LaGrande and Bend!

57 votes for Sarkozy (Right)
42 votes for Royal (Socialist)
About 20 for Bayrou (right)
6 votes for Voynet (green party)
1 for Besancenot and 1 for Laguiller (communism party)
1 for Jose Bove
1 for someone that I don't remember
0 for Nihous, Shivardi, Buffet and (thank God) for LePen

2 votes were "nuls" People put two names in there!

The second tour is on May, 6th 2007. I won't be there and I will be flying from France to USA. And I will get the good or bad news when landing or maybe during my flight.

In June we will vote for the "legislative" and I will be asking someone to vote for me in France as it won't be happening here.

some people did say yesterday that it was like being in a small village and this is actually true. Having all those French people coming from all around did bring a nice feeling of community and when I think about it, if 550 people (149) do seem like a small village of "irreductibles gaulois" in Oregon.

It was really interesting to participate in this, even if it was quite difficult at the end (the four last 5 hours until we counted the votes and everything were pretty long) but we got to eat some "pains au chocolat" and "baguette sandwiches et pattisseries" delivered from one of my favourite bakery-pattisserie in Portland (St Honore). The "boulanger" (baker) delivering himself twice while coming voting is pretty cool and one of the assessor, known Wine Business man around got us some good beverage...

Feels good to be part of this community!

French elections in Portland

A "bureau de vote" will be open in Portland for inhabitants from Idaho and Oregon. What is convenient for me and my coworkers is that only this is taking place in Portland, but this is taking place at my school on SW Corbett avenue. I will be volunteer there half day on Saturday, April 21rd
French living abroad will be voting one day before than in France.

In France, you vote on Sundays and schools are where everything happens. For the "presidentielles", you vote twice. The first Sunday is called : Premier tour, and you by voting for one candidate, it narrows the choice for the "deuxieme tour" to two candidates.
"Le deuxieme tour" always takes place two weeks later, the first Sunday of May.

When going there you show you ID, and your "carte d'electeur" (voter's card), you take one envelop and one or several paper with the name of the candidates and you go hide yourself in a "cabin" where you can choose to put your favourite guy's name in the envelop and throw the rest away.
Then you get out and go to the table where you are going to put your envelops in the box while someone says : "a vote"

Unfortunately, this year I won't be able to vote at the "deuxieme tour" and that sucks because that is the important one. Ironically, I will be in France at the time, or more precisely on a plane to here.
I was not able to ask someone to vote for me as I registered here and they don't do that or anyway I don't remember but that was a complicated story with administration stuffs and if I start, we will be still here after the "deuxieme tour"

Well, Francais, Francaise, let's do that right! Some pretty wicked candidate are out there to take "freedomland" over. oh, oh, I heard that somewhere.... Let me start over, let's get someone not too bad to keep France from becoming worse and a place that we won't be proud of!

As we say in France : "C'est pas gagne!"

Contest : Where does it come from? / Concours : D'ou ca vient?

Dear bloggers, readers, friends and family...
You are welcome to participate in my contest :
"Where does that expression come from?"

Because living in another country makes me juggling between two languages all the time, at home, at work, with my friends, I am always amazed when I hear an expression in french that I have not heard for a while. All of a suden, it sounds new and I am like:"where the h...is that coming from? this is so weird of an expression"

In English, something different happens. I hear a new word or expression, I ask what it is, track it unconsciously in all conversations. My brain makes a list of situation or ways to use the word or expression and one day out of nowhere, it will get out of my mouth naturally and 90% of the time in its proper use. It is always exciting and often makes people crack up because my accent makes the expression sounds funny sometimes and not natural.
But then, it becomes a part of my vocabulary and everything is normal. I usually overuse it for a while. I guess this is the way my brain accepts it as its own.

So anyway, recently, I used "smarty pants". I have been using this for a while now but I realized again how funny was that expression.

"SMART-Y PANTS"

If you translate that in french, this is the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard: Le pantalon intelligent. Ok, right....! We would say more : " tu te crois intellingent" - so you think you're smart.
So for people non familiar with the expression, it means in an ironic way: So you think you're smart !

So I am asking you : Where do you think it come from?
I am aware of the fact that there is probably any real answer but I am just asking you:
Make it up! Let your imagination create the first time a human being use that expression. Who he-she was, what context?

French side:
"Pour une raison inconnue au bataillon" - Bataillon was how "troops" was called a long time ago. when they were still walking together in line and kneeling in line to fight and shoot their "guns"

"For a reason remained unknown to the troops"

Alors amis et famille, comment et quand pensez-vous que cette expression fut cree et utilisee pour la premiere fois?

Perdu dans traduction or lost in translation

CAUTIONS

All the game chess/gameball/dice contains in this product are objective for game using not candy

Please must keep away from kids biting or eating

This is from a user's guide we got with a chess/backgammon stand table two years ago for christmas. I put this note away and found few months ago. I got it out to show to a friend with whom I am working on offering translation services. I found it fun and wanted to share it with everybody. Don't worry, I will not translate from french to english and I will keep this in mind as a constant reminder that you can easily get lost in translation.

Well, please for the year to come, keep yourself away from kids biting and/or eating!

Attentions
tous les jeux echec/jeux de balle/des contient dans le produit sont objectif pour les jeux utilisant pas des bonbons

S'il vous plait devez garder loin des enfants mordant ou mangeant

Ceci est un extrait d'une notice d'instruction d'une table qui fait table de jeux d'echec/backgammon que nous avions recu pour noel il y a deux ans. Je l'avais gardee de cote et l'ai retrouvee il y a quelques mois. Comme nous travaillons une amie et moi sur un projet d'offre de services de traduction, j'ai trouve amusant de lui montrer et maintenant de partager ce petit tresor avec vous. Pas d'inquietude, je ne traduirais rien du francais vers l'anglais et je ferai en sorte de garder cette petite traduction comme rappel qu'il est facile d'etre "lost in translation"

Oh et pour la nouvelle annee qui vient je voudrais vous mettre en garde contre les enfants qui mordent et /ou mangent.

Inscription sur les listes/ Getting registered to vote

Je ne peux pas croire apres tout ce qui s'est passe ces deux dernieres annees dans les banlieues et ailleurs que les "jeunes" hesitent a s'inscrire sur les listes. Si tu ne veux pas voter c'est une chose mais au moins si tu es inscrit tu as le choix en mai. Est ce que les gens sont trop paresseux. Je suis moi meme habituee a faire certaines choses a la derniere minute mais nos dernieres elections etaient quand meme assez terrifiante.
Vivant a l'etranger, c'est meme en core plus complique. Non, je rectifie, tu penses que c'est plus complique mais ca ne l'est pas tant que ca.
En plus, cette fois ci pour les residents d' oregon et d'idaho, une ecole sera ouverte a Portland pour aller voter. Les elections, ici, aux etats unis auront lieu la veille des elections en France, soit le 21 avril et 5 mai.

I can't believe after everything that had happened in France in the last two years (strikes and riots) and even since our last election ( pretty scary) that "youth" has a hard time gettting registered to vote. In France, you have to register on the list before December 31st. If you do not want to vote in may but you are registered, well at least you have a choice. But not registering is a way of saying : "we give up".
Registering when living abroad is complicated. Well, wait, no, it seems more complicated at first but the only thing you have to do is taking 10 minutes at the most to go on the consulat website and it is done. I am one of the person to do things at the last minute but I want to be able to complain and whine if I am not happy with the results and without feeling bad because I didn't try. Especially after what happenned at the last elections.
For French Portlanders, be ready to vote, because the government will have a place in Portland for us, oregonian and Idaho residents to vote. It will be on April 21st and May 5th, one day before France.

Children words/ Paroles d'enfants

I have been dead lately and I can't be thankful enough for the vacation to be here finally!
So tired, that stress is coming from everywhere and you don't even what to do with it!
Well though, I have had some pretty interesting and funny moments at school recently:

Back in october during our fall break workshop:
Listening to a conversation at lunch time, four kids (one is 10, the others between 6 and 8). I don't know who was saying something like santa does not exist but that was certainly not the 10 year old one:
- Well, come on, easter bunny, it doesn't exist, seriously! but Santa Claus, no way...
- Yeah, what do you think that your parents go for shopping at midnight and come back to put the presents.
- But Easter bunny....
- No, Easter bunny, it is not serious...Santa! YES!
From here I stopped listening because I did not want to get involved in the conversation.
CULTURAL NOTES:
In france, there is not Easter bunny but wait for it: there are bells which brings the chocolate in the yard. The church bells which rings Easter. The bunny is just one of those chocolate we are going to eat starting by the ears... Ah french, always thinking about eating cute animals!

Two weeks ago:
Three kids decide to play at..............: "Barfing kitty"
One is the barfing kitty and of course, she gets all sorts of different shots to stop the barfing... I had to stop the game at a point, because I really thought that the rest of us were going to actually barf in the class. But the funniest is that the five years old says: "oh, no I can't find her heart beat anymore, oh no...", and the four year old: " ok, don't worry, I am going to get one" She goes into the kitchen and look for heart beat in the dishes and plastic veggies, " I think I found one, I found a heart beat" At this moment, I don't know what she grabbed but could have been anything between a plastic cauliflower and a plastic tomato. Well:
"chaud devant", Attention: one greffe of a heart bit at table # 1, one !

Yesterday:
I brought my childhood cartoon that my aunt offered me before I leave France : "Bouba".
This a story of two bears whom mother dies killed by hunters. but an indian boy, his dad and his girl friend (cowgirl) help the two bears to survive to the californian wilderness.
This is a great show for kids but unfortunately I need a "dezonage" because those dvd are european zones. So our school is supposed to have one of the dvd being a multizone. Because I wanted it to be a fun time ( I never watch tv with my students in afterschool) I made sure to chose the episodes where the mom is not dead yet and life is pretty awesome in the mountains! Well, our dvd player didn't want tot play it, I tried something else, same, finally, I grabbed the valley of dinosaurs (that I like a lot) and play the beginning ....well guess what : the mom dies in the first ten minutes of the movie. I should have known that no cartoons or big story goes without the death oor the absence of the mom, more rarely the dad.
Well that is what storytelling is about. And the little ones totally devastated and who don't want to believe it, with the only 10 year old who wanted to stay with me who insists: "I am telling you, she is dead". Well, next time, when "bouba" is going to work, I am totally watching the three most sad episodes and like that, we are done with it!

Bon j'ai bien ete creve recemment et je suis bien contente d'etre arrivee vivante aux vacances.Tellement epuisee que le stress me sortait par les oreilles, enfin j'ai eu quelques moments tres interessants recemment et voici le recit de trois moments a l'ecole:

Retour aux vacances d'automne.
Quatre garcons mangent leurs dejeuners et discutent des legendes. 10 ans, 8 ans et 6 ans.
Je ne sais pas qui remettait en cause tout mais ce n'etait pas celui de dix ans:
- Bon, le lapin de paques n'existe pas. Faut arreter le delire la (je traduis, ils parlent pas comme ca) bon le lapin de paques non, mais le pere noel, oui.
- Bah oui, tu crois quoi que les parents ils vont faire les courses a minuit dans les magasins pour ensuite tout mettre sous le sapin. C'est de la folie!
- Non franchement, le pere noel, y a pas de doutes, c'est pas possible autrement mais le lapin de paques, franchement!
La j'ai arrete d'ecouter la conversation de peur d'etre questionnee.
NOTE CULTURELLE: chez nous, ce sont les cloches qui sonnent paques qui apportent les chocolats dans les jardins. Pas les lapins. Les lapins en france, on les mange en commencant par les oreilles. Ca c'est bien francais de manger tous les animaux, surtout les plus migons!

Deux semaines auparavant:
Trois petites filles decident de jouer ...attention, tenez vous bien : "barfing kitty", litteralement: "le petit chaton qui vomit". Alors la, c'est la fete aux piqures. Bah oui faut bien arreter les vomissements. A un moment, il a fallu que j'arrete le jeu parce que j'ai cru que les autres enfants et moi, on allait tous vomir d'ecoeurement. Mais avant ca, on a eu le droit a la reanimation, la petite de 5 ans :
- oh non , il n' y a plus de battement de coeur. Zut, je ne le trouve pas. Il faut faire quelque chose.
La la petite de 4 ans prend la demande au pied de la lettre et se dirige dans la cuisine et cherche desesperement au milieu de la dinette et des legumes en plastiques:
- "oh ok, pas de probleme, ne t'inquietes pas je vais en chercher un. Ah ca y est je l'ai trouve"
Je ne sais pas ce qu'elle brandissait exactement mais c'aurait pu etre du chou ou une tomate...
Attention devant : une greffe de battement de coeur , une !

Hier:
J'ai finalement ramene "Bouba" a l'ecole pour le visionner avec mes eleves apres l'ecole. On ne regarde jamais la tele et j'etais vraiment contente de ramener ce dessin anime. je ne peux pas le regarder a la maison, il faut que je procede au dezonage de mon ordi-dvd lecteur. Bref, j'avais regarde au dos et je m'etais dit que pour le dernier jour de l'ecole avant les vacances, on allait eviter les scenes tristes de la maman ours qui meurt. Bon, je mets le dvd dans le lecteur qui est suppose lire les differentes zones: rien. Je mets un autre dvd de la bonne zone, Maya : rien.
Je decide alors d'aller chercher une cassette et j'attrape au vol " Petit pied et la vallee des dinosaures". Eh, bien mon idee de ne pas mettre un dessin anime avec une maman qui meurt etait ratee puisque j'avais oublie que tous les disneys ou autres contes pour enfants racontent forcement l'histoire d'un petit qui perd sa maman ou qui l'a perdu il y a longtemps!
Bref, petit pied perd sa mere dans les premieres dix minutes du film. Et les petits deseperes qui ne veulent pas y croire et la la grande de 10 ans qui n'a plus de probleme avec ca : "Mais si elle meurt, puisque je vous le dis". Eh bien la prochaine fois, quand bouba marchera, je leur passe directement les trois episodes les plus tristes: qu'on en parle plus!

Cerf...pent volant! Paroles d'enfant

Apres le gouter, j'ai propose aux enfants d'illustrer les chansons pour la fete des grandsparents. Comme il y a une chanson de cerfs volants, je leur ai propose d'en faire. Je suis arrivee avec un dessin tout bete d'un losange avec des lignes qui le traversait. Bon a premiere vue ca pourrait paraitre evident que c'etait un cerf - volant mais a des petits de 3-5 ans, beaucoup moins.
Surtout qu'en anglais on dit "kite". Je me suis donc penchee en ecrivant ceci sur l'origine du mot cerf volant qui est le nom du coleoptere "lucane cerf volant" qui tire son nom de ses antennes de cerf!
Mais selon le dictionnaire de l'academie francaise, il faudrait "peut etre" aller chercher l'origine de ce mot dans le latin. Le mot en effet viendrait peut etre de "serpe volant" qui signifie en latin: serpent volant!
Bref, j'ai voulu voir s'ils reconnaitraient le dessin comme etant un cerf volant.
Eh bien c'est Thea qui du haut de ses trois ans a repondu a ma question tres enthousiaste:
- Qu'est ce que c'est ?
- Un SERPENT - VOLANT!

Genial , c'est ca ....un CERF - VOLANT! Elle parle anglais et francais a la maison (son pere parle francais couramment) mais pas latin?

After the snack, I proposed to the children to make some posters for the grandparents celebration. Because there is a song about kites, we were gonna make kites. I arrived with a very simple diamond shape like separated in four to represent a kite. Well on the paper, I swear that could not be that easy to recognize a kite especially when you are 3-5 years old. But I did not want to assume they did not know what is was sos I asked them:
"what is it?" and in french , you have to know that kite is "cerf-volant" which is the name of an insect "lucane Cerf-volant" or Stag beetle. If we were translating litterally, it would give us "flying deer". I also read in wikipedia and according to the dictionnary of the "academie francaise" that the etymology of "Cerf volant" could come from "serpe-volante" which means in latin "serpent volant" or "flying snake"....
anyway,...I asked my question: "qu'est ce que c'est" and I was waiting for the english word "kite" but I got from Thea, 3 years old, whom dad speaks fluently french, a great loud very enthusiastic:
"UN SERPENT-VOLANT!"
Well... a flying snake... I did not know she was also fluent in Latin!

27 years of my life on a boat! Deballer le passe!

So you can ship 27 years of your life on a boat, 287 kg, 600 lb, 17 pieces... not even 2m cube.
People have been asking, what? 2 m cube? (which is I have no idea how many square feet but nothing. 6/7?) They say: what did you bring for having that much ... well, 27 years ... that is nothing but that is a nice amount of years, experience, and memories. You can't imagine what I threw. Actually not that much but still. I didn't have major furniture. Nothing but books, books, dishes and memories.

So that's it my past landed in my present life. My past finally caught me up, from Paris to Rouen, by my grandparent's and uncle's basement, on a boat to New York, to LA, to Portland Oregon, to my appartment here.
I packed 90 % of the things I shipped three years ago. I was moving out of Paris, to a year of staying there and there , Californie, Portland, Wales, Paris, Bruxelles, Rouen....and finally settled down here in USA. My family always said that I was living in trains, well that year I think I agreed with them, I definitely lived in transportation (boat, train plane, car, bus) . 3 years that my past life was packed and now I unpack my past. Nothing damaged really.
This is weird. Sometimes I was remembering stuffs and thinking: " I have this and this, I want to have them here."
And now I am unpacking slowly. I am actually wondering how things are supposed to fit in here. Not only room speaking but just in my life here. I spent most of last Sunday un packing books, and pictures and notes, and stuffs, frame, stuffs...trucs! and it is such a funny feeling! I feel like I am recovering myself or parts of myself, but it's lost also. A little bit like your childhood but you are also unpacking things which belong to a different culture, and it is here now, in a different world. I don't know...

My life changed so much in some ways, I looked at the pictures of my show, at my art and theater books and I recognized them but ...what are those things doing here?
I have those great pictures of me acting, and I feel like it is so far but I have my heart is bleeding a little. I realized how much my life was so different, how different my days and goals... And now I am not that different but I don't know how to feel about all those things anymore. Most people here, well, actually nobody, know me with those things, all of them have a story that I want to tell. "This book is a present from this friend with whom.... and this candle was brought from there... and this picture is when I played that play". And this... but it is hard to share this kind of things. And then I miss all my friends, those wonderful crazy people on the other side of the world.
And then...
There is nothing to do really just jumping in there and sort it out. Once again, life is about sorting things out!

Few things I am so happy to have here (I am actually happy to have everything here):
- Cocotte minute / pressure cooker! This is the best thing to have in a kitchen! this is awesome! I missed it!
- All my big books
- My frames
- My dishes (When I was 14 , my mom asked me to choose some dishes ( ordinary dishes, not the fancy one you are supposed to get for the wedding) in a catalogue, and others kitchen clothes.... It was important that we were set with some dishes and house stuffs for when we were going to leave the house, that is called "le trousseau de jeune fille". Normally, you left with this and a husband, but my generation, we get the house stuffs, and the husband after. It felt weird though because I was excited about the thought of leaving the parent house but all of a sudden, it sounded real and a little bit scary! I am so happy she did that for us. That was great, and for this reason, I would have never left the dishes there because it means more to me than just the plate I bought at Goodwill. Even though I love Goodwill and most of our furniture come from there. Some of the dishes got broken on the road to here but well... what you gonna do!)

This week end I will dig up in my old life again and find a place for each of them in my new life!

Alors comme ca tu peux envoye 27 ans de ta vie sur un bateau, 287 kg, 17 colis....meme pas 2 m cube.
Les gens m'ont demande : mais quoi? tu fais envoyer 2 m cube? mais qu'est ce que tu as? Eh bien, a vrai dire pas grand chose, deux metres cube, c'est rien les gars. J'ai meme pas de gros meubles, juste un petit et encore si on appelle ca un meuble. non rien, mais 27 ans, ca parait rien mais c'est joli paquet d'annees , d'experience, de souvenirs. On ne peut meme pas imagineer ce que j'ai jete, beaucoup et rien a la fois. mais j'ai des livres, des livres, de la vaisselle et de la "memoire"

Donc ca y est mon passe a atterri dans mon present. Ca fout un coup. Mon passe m'a finalement rattrapee, de Paris a Rouen, en passant par les sous-sols de mon oncle et de mes grand parents, sur un bateau vers New York, Los Angeles, Portland oregon, mon appartement.
90 % de mes biens avaient ete empaquetes il y a 3 ans. Je demenageais de Paris pour une annee d'errance a droite et a gauche, de la californie a Rouen, au Pays de Galles, a Bruxelles en passant par Paris tant de fois. Ma famille a toujours dit que je vivais dans un train, eh bien cette annee-la, je les ai pas dementi, j'ai reellement vecu dans tous les moyens de transports possibles que ce soit bateau, bus, voiture, train avion... Bref cela faisait 3 ans que ma vie etait empaquetee dans des cartons, et maintenant je deballe le passe. Pas trop de dommages.
C'est bizarre. Parfois, je me souvenais de trucs du genre:" ah oui, ca, j'aimerais vraiment avoir ca avec moi maintenant". Et la, je deballe ...lentement... Je me demande comment ces choses sont censees tenir ici. Je ne parle pas seulement au niveau espace mais surtout au niveau adaptation, dans ma nouvelle vie.
Ja'ai passe le plus gros de mon dimanche a deballer des livres, et des livres, des photos, des notes, des cahiers, des trucs, des cadres, des trucs et des trucs! Stuffs! C'est vraiment une sensation bizarre. C'est un peu comme si je retrouvais des parties de moi, amis c'est perdu aussi. Un peu comme l'enfance sauf que tu deballes aussi tout appartenant a une autre culture, venant d'ailleurs, ici dans un monde nouveau... Je sais pas...

Ma vie a pas mal change depuis que je suis arrivee ici. Certains aspects de ma vie sont completement differents et je regarde toutes ces photos de spectacles auxquels j'ai participe, mes livres d'art et de theatre que je reconnais mais mais qu'est ce que toutes ces choses font ici?
Ja'i toutes ces photos de mes spectacles, de moi jouant, et ca semble si loin mais je ressens un petit pincement au coeur. Je realise combien ma vie etait differente, combien differents mes jours et mes buts... et maintenant je ne me suis pas si differente masi je ne sais plus tres bien quoi ressentir a propos de tout ca. La plupart des gens, en fait, personne ici ne me connait entoure de toutes ces choses. Ca ne veut rien dire pour personne, et pourtant chaque objet a une histoire que je veux raconter " Ce livre m'a ete offert par cet ami lors de... et cette bougie a ete rapportee par ....de ...... et cette photo, c'est moi quand je jouais telle piece..." Et ca.... mais c'est difficile de partager ce genre de choses. ET maintenant mes amis me manquent, mes amis qui sont loin de l'autre cote du monde. Et maintenant...
Mais il n'y a rien a faire a part plonger dedans et tout trier et c'est tout. Encore une fois, la vie est une histoire de tri.

Quelques trucs que j'etais vraiment contente de retrouver, en fait tout mais voici une petite liste typique:

- La cocotte minute. Ca m'a manque, ils en ont pas ici, je comprends pas, c'et le meilleur truc que tu puisses avoir dans une cuisine. Bref!
- Tous mes gros livres
- Mes cadres
- Ma vaisselle ( Quand j'avais 14 ans, ma mere est venue en me disant ok, maintenant tu vas choisir de la vaisselle. Je vais commencer un truc epargne du magasin pour te construire ton "trousseau". Une jeune fille ne quitte pas la maison sans la vaisselle ordinaire et autres chiffons. Eh bien, je me souviens m'etre sentie apeuree et excitee a la fois. Je suis vraiment contente qu'elle ait fait ca pour nous et cette pour cette raison que je tenais tant a ramener tout ici. Ca signifie beaucoup pour moi, plus que l'assiette achetee a Goodwill ( genre emmaus) meme si j'adore Goodwill, presque tous nos meubles viennent de la. Bref, quelques assiettes se sont trouvees cassees en chemin mais bon tu peux pas envoyer tout a 10000 km sans casser.)

Ce week end, je vais me replonger dans le tri du reste de mes biens, et trouver une place pour chaque chose dans ma nouvelle vie!

Paroles d'enfants....

Gino, 3 ans et demi

Gino joue avec d'autres enfants dans la cour. Plutot, 4 ou 5 enfants courent en criant et Gino les poursuit en feignant d'etre un monstre. Pris au jeu, les enfants commencent a avoir peur et surtout a en avoir marre aussi. Ils viennent me voir en disant que Gino les embete. On ne sait jamais tres bien ou commence le jeu et ou ils s'arretent... Alors je leur dis d'arreter de courir devant lui en criant sinon il va continuer croyant qu'ils veulent jouer encore a ca. Je vais voir Gino et je lui explique que les autres veulent changer de jeu alors ce serait bien qu'il arrete de les poursuivre mais qu'il peut bien sur jouer a un autre jeu avec eux. Lui me repond qu'il veut continuer a les poursuivre. Je lui explique de nouveau et je lui demande s'il a compris. Je lui demande: Alors, qu'est ce que tu vas faire maintenant?
Bah, me repond Gino, je vais me poursuivre moi-meme. Sur ce il part en courant et criant se poursuivant lui-meme.

Gino plays with other kids at chasing each other. Well, this is more Gino chasing a group of girls screaming. After a while, they are so much in the game that they finish by being scared or very annoyed. They come to seee me and I explain them that if they want him to stop, they have to stop running in front of him screaming like crazy because otherwise he still thinks that they want to play. I go to talk to Gino and explain him that they want to play something else and he is welcome to join them but he has to stop chasing and doing the monster.
He said : but I want to... So I explain again and ask him if he understands, to make sure, I ask him what he is gonna do now: " I am going to follow myself!" And there he goes, running and screaming like a monster chasing himself!

Cinema de Banlieue!

On July 9th, the Roberts house in California was invaded by frenchies. Crazy frenchies yelling during the soccer world cup finale.
Well, I don't love soccer but I can spend a finale yelling if I am with people. I like the crowd more than the match in itself and what I like the most is my dad yelling during a match.
He can wake up a deaf! When I was 16, well I always was ending up downstairs watching my dad and brother watching a match instead of doing my homework or just trying to chill out in my bedroom. Because you can't do anything else than being with them. They are loud and crazy and that was fun to see that again!
that was especially fun to hear old french expressions as :

- Oh, la vache ! (oh, the cow) Don't teach it to children.
- Cinema de banlieue (Suburb cinema/theater) When we say of a child that "il fait son cinema", it makes his cinema, it means that he acts something like being sad or hurt to obtain something.
"banlieue" means "suburb" but suburbs in french are closer to harlem than nice and wealthy suburb here. Suburbs are where we put poor, non educated and of course immigrants.
"cinema de banlieue" yelled during a match when a opposant soccer player is on the ground means "mother F...", you act being hurt and it is not even that good. We don't believe you! Bad cinema quality!

God, we laughed so much with this expression, because it doesn't really mean anything, this is old but at the same time, this means so much!

I have others my dad said that day but I have to remember them.

On se desaltere...

Desalterer.... J'adore ce mot, je viens de redecouvrir ce mot en parlant a Adam et il etait difficile d'expliquer ce que ce mot impliquait.
Se desalterer : apaiser sa soif. C'est vraiment specifique. ce n'est s'hydrater, boire... mais apaiser, calmer un besoin du corps. Ce mot implique aussi la fraicheur. Si tu te desaltere, tu te rafraichis. Il y a cette idee d'eau fraiche coulant dans ta bouche et ton corps. C'est la memoire de mon corps, mon histoire personelle quand j'ai du pour la premiere fois associe ce mot a une realite qui me fait voir quelqu'un boire a une fontaine quand je pense a ce mot.
En anglais, la traduction venue du dictionnaire est "to quench someone's thirst" qui a ma connaissance n'est pas vraiment utilise. Mais je dois faire mon enquete.

Desalterer (with an accent on the first "e") is a word I just rediscovered. We were talking Adam and I and it was hard to explain, describe what this word means because this is really specific.
Se desalterer: calm your thirst. In the dictionary, it says "quench someone's thirst" but it means nothing to me. It is commonly used?
When you use "desalterer" in French, it really gives this idea of getting fresh, of cooling down, it puts in my mouth and body this all pleasure of fresh water (not cold). I really like this word, I see someone drinking directly at a fountain when I say this word. Who knows if it is an association of my body and brain the first time I heard and used this word or a description in a book, or a collective image...

Les vacances

Ah ca y est ce sont les vacances!
Je suis en vacances depuis vendredi soir...ahahahaha! ca y est je peux prendre soin de mon ulcere maintenant.
Demain: interview a l'immigration et chiropractor + preparation de pleins de petits details!
Mardi: je passe une heure a l'ecole pour finaliser quelques trucs et puis pour ma lecon de sax! Apres ca bah, pareil, je fais mes valises pour Californie! oh et aussi bon la France joue contre l'espagne donc bon, on va faire un tour aussi la-bas, a costellos travel caffe sur Broadway et la 22eme dans le nord est de Portland. Oh, ils ont les meilleurs croissants la-bas! Tu meurs! et les meilleurs sandwichs grilles et j'ai mange une soupe aux champignons hier a mourir!
Mercredi: depart pour la Californie!
Ca va etre classe!

Jeudi on se prepare pour la tempete. Pendant une semaine, la famille fabulet visite les etats unis.
Samedi, Adam et moi se marions pour, euh, bon la deuxieme fois! Et c'est la fete! On va echanger nos alliances. on est tres heureux et comme des enfants. Ca a ete difficile jusqu'a lors de resister et de ne pas les porter.
Ensuite quelques jours apres : retour a Portland(le 15 juilletn nous iron celebrer le 14 juillet dans le "pearl district", et puis on se prepare pour l'europe. Europe, et le doux pays de monenfance, nous voila.
Programme: je prepare de vieilles affaires qui sont restees trois ans entassees. Livres et babioles, vont partir en bateau! direction Portland!

Puis remariage et fete, puis depart pour l'italie, la croatie, la suisse, et l'espagne en passant par la France!
Yeehah! c'est c'est notre ete!

Ah, finally I am in vavation ! Since Friday night! what a relief and feeling of happiness! I can take of my ulcer now!
Tomorrow: interview at the immigration and chiropractor and details for the trips.
Tuesday: I will spend an hour at the school to take care of some stuffs and then saxophone lesson. I also need to prepare the house and my bags for california.Oh and of course : there is a match : France -Spain. Rendez vous at costellos!
Wednesday: Departure for California. Ca va etre top!

Thursdays, well we will be preparing ourselves for the storm. For several days, the fabulet family are landing in California. a week after their arrival, friends and family will gather for celebrating our "second" wedding. We will exchange our wedding bands ! We are actually very excited about wearing them. We almost didn't resist to wear them before.
then few days later, we will all going back to our country or visiting more of california. For Adam and I, we will spend few days in Portland to get things together before flying to Europe. I will go to the celebration of Bastille day in the Pearl district downtown. Last year was fun.
On the 17th, we will fly to Paris, to France, "le doux pays de mon enfance" (there was a song, very old song, saying , France, the country, the nice /soft country of my childhood., now that I am away, this sentence makes so much more sense). After staying a week in Normandy where we will celebrate a third time our union, I will also prepare my old stuffs to take a boat from Le havre to Portland, books and stuffs that I haven't seen for three years and that I miss!
Then departure to Italy, croatia, Switzerland, and Spain after going through France.
That was our plan for the summer !

De what?

"De what ?" is my personal way to say "what" and ""de quoi" ! I noticed I was saying that all the time. I am saying the "de" so quick that maybe people never really noticed... not sure about that! I don't do it on purpose, it just get out like that! I like it actually!
I think it is because it sounds the same in french

de what = wat= kwa= quoi = de quoi?

I actually said one time at school : "kwat?"= quoi +what

Following are some others things I overheard or say :

"on a vu des sealion" = We saw sealions
"c'est a peu pres accurate" = This is pretty accurate
"tu peux me donner la glue" = Give me the glue
"voici les markers/marqueurs" = the markers are here

"De what" est ma facon personnelle de demander en anglais a quelqu'un : "de quoi". Je devrais dire simplement "what"
Je dis ca tres souvent. je dis le "de" tellement vite que je pense que personne n'a jamais vraiment realise! enfin je crois!
Je pense que ca se passe parce que les deux ont quelques peu les memes sons.

de what = wat= kwa= quoi = de quoi?
Un jour j'ai meme dit "kwat?"= quoi +what

Quelques situations franglaises ci-dessus entendues ou dites par moi:
"on a vu des sealion" = otaries
"c'est a peu pres accurate" = precis/plus proche de la verite, de la realite
"tu peux me donner la glue" = colle en general
"voici les markers/marqueurs" = gros feutres pour enfants

Children words / Paroles d'enfants

Gino, 3 ans. Il est six heures et Gino me demande de lui donner un de ces jeux qui sont tout la haut sur les etageres. Je lui d'attendre une minute. En essayant de l'attraper, Gino fait tomber un autre jeu. Je lui dis alors de ramasser ce jeu qui vient de tomber et je lui donnerai alors celui qu'il voulait. Comme prevu, il se met a jouer avec le jeu qui venait de tomber. Un autre enfant arrive et lui demande ce qu'il est en train de faire. Gino repond en anglais:
"Bah quand des choses tombent par terre, il faut jouer avec"

Gino, 3 ans, meme jour 5 heures. Je lui demande de ranger les camions avec lesquels il jouait. Ca fait deja une bonne dizaine de fois que je lui demande. Gino me regarde et me dit "Mais je jure que je ne veux pas ranger les camions" Ca c'est ca marque l'apprentissage d'un nouveau. Comment lui expliquer que ce n'est vraiment dans ce contexte qu'il faut utiliser ce mot! Je lui ai repondu, apres 20 fois qu'il m'ait repete cette phrase : "moi, je jure que je veux que tu les ranges! "

Gino, 3 years old. 5 pm. I asked Gino to clean up the trucks he played with. It is about the twentieth times I ask him in the last 10 minutes.Gino looked at me and said : "I swear I don't want to clean up the trucks, I swear." Thank you for being so honnest! As if just "I swear" was going to make me say: "oh sorry, you swear, so you mean you are telling the truth, you don't want to clean up. Ok, I am going to do it then..." I can tell he is learning a new word "to swear" because that is not really the right context to use it. Hard to explain. Though after 20 times that he repeated me this sentence, I finally said : "I swear I want you to clean up ...and now!"

Gino, 3 years old. 6 pm, the same day. Gino asks me to give him this game which is way up on a shelf. Trying to get it himself, another game falls down. I tell him to put it back and I will give him the game he wants. As I thought, he starts playing with the game on the floor. Another kid arrives and asks him what he is doing. Gino answers very quietly: " When things fall down, they have to be played with!" Logic!