Striving for Bilinguability

Pendant mon séjour en France, je vais écrire Nibble & Spew en français ainsi qu’en anglais.  Français en premier, et traduction en anglais après.  Je vais aussi faire beaucoup de fautes.  Veuillez me corriger en ajoutant vos remarques au bas de la page.

Voici des dessins de mon cahier!  Jusqu’à maintenant, les cours ne sont pas trop difficiles donc je passe le temps en prenant mes notes en bandes-dessinées.  Je crois que ça m’aide a m’en souvenir mieux.

While I am in France, I’m going to post on Nibble and Spew in French as well as English.  French first, and the English translation after.  I am also going to make plenty of mistakes.  Feel free to correct me by adding a comment at the bottom of the page.

Here are some comics from my notebook!  So far, classes haven’t been too difficult, so I amuse myself by taking notes in comic form.  I think it helps me remember them better.

"Hello, my name is Merp."
"NO!  We have to do the cheek kiss!"

"Pleased to meet you."

 Je ne savais pas si je devrais faire la bise avec un homme que je ne connaissait pas.  En bref, oui.

I didn’t know if I should do the cheek-kiss with a man I didn’t know.  Apparently, yes.

My lunch with friends

Oh my god, there are palm trees!

 Un signe que l’hiver ne durera pas toujours.  J’étais stupide et je n’attendais pas qu’il fasse froid au sud de la France.  Vraiment, un jour il neigeait.  J’étais triste.

A sign that winter won’t last forever.  I was stupid and didn’t expect that it would be cold in the south of France.  One day it actually snowed.  I was sad.

And a machine that sells coffee!

C’est très bon marché à 50 centimes.  La tasse est petite, mais elle me suffit bien.

It’s very cheap at 50 euro-cents per cup.  The cup is small, but definitely enough for me.

"Let's be friends!"
"No."

Top row:  "Pardon?"  "Hey, taxi!"  "I'm tired."
Bottom row:  "I'm sick of it/I've had enough!"  "Hello?"  "Pleased to meet you."  "So-so."

Nous avons appris des phrases communs et les gestes qui les accompagnent.  Selon mon partenaire de langue, personne ne dit plus “hep, taxi!” mais c’est bon quand même d’apprendre des choses.

We learned some common phrases and the gestures that accompany them.  According to my language partner, no one says “hep, taxi!”anymore, but it’s good to learn stuff anyway.

The City that Didn't Mug Us

For New Year's Eve, Sibling and I traveled to New York City to visit our respective friends.  Even though we are both old enough to order the New and Improved Dink Bros. 3-Way Toaster/Cell Phone Holder/Dog Walkers from late-night television (six easy payments of $19.99!), our mother could not get over her fear that something terrible would happen to us in the city.  She was even afraid that, I don't know, Sibling would spontaneously leap out of the bus to NYC while we were still on the highway.

Our father had a stronger belief in our ability to take care of ourselves.

Although Sibling put the bag with his lunch in the cargo section under the bus 

(rendering it inaccessible), 

and although we both missed the ball dropping

(because he was dealing with a nosebleed and I was on the subway),

and although he forgot to charge his phone on the day we were supposed to come home

(making it difficult for me to yell at him to get to the bus stop on time), 

nothing terrible happened.  It was a small miracle.

The Least Fun Kind of All-Nighter

As previously mentioned, I had to get an EEG several weeks ago to check that my brainbox was functioning properly.  (Surprisingly, it is.)  EEG stands for electroencephalogram, which comes from the Latin words electra, "electrodes", cephalum, "stuck to your head", and gramus, "with a paste that makes your hair stiff and gross".  It eavesdrops on your brainwaves to make sure that there aren't any irregularities.  And you have to stay up all night beforehand if you are over the age of seven, because you need to be sleep-deprived while the test is done.  Being sleep-deprived makes the irregularities more prominent.

While reading the info sheet on how to prepare for the EEG, I couldn't help but think, "I'm so glad that I'm not the mother of an eight-year-old child who needs an EEG."  So there's always a silver lining.  At least I'm old enough to stay up all night on my own.  I drew a lot of cartoons to keep myself awake--roughly one every hour.

Mercifully, I had my appointment soon thereafter.  And as soon as I got back to my dorm, I leaped into the seductive embrace of Morpheus.