Tuesday, September 27, 2005
|Sometimes accents can be fun.|What's fun? Having the 17yo son of my hostess point to my shirt at the dinner table, PROUD to recognize an English (American?) word, and say to me, "J'aime bien ton t-shirt. 'Columbiatch.'" And then, funnier still, to have his mother ask, "Qu'est-ce 'Biatch?'" And then to hear him explain it to her, saying "biatch" a few more times.What's even more fun? Having the cute Irish guy that has just shouted my name a few more times than I'm comfortable with shoot his load and then turn to me and say, "So, you're an Ass Master?"
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 14:57.
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Sunday, September 25, 2005
|Why I Officially Hate Paris.|God, this damn stupid inefficient city (and I'm none to fond of France right now, either).From the moment I arrived in this city and began using their accident of a metro, I thought, "Why are there passes made of paper? That's such an environmental waste and so absurd." I would have bought a month pass, but their month passes correspond with the month, not with date of purchase... so I would have basically lost money.Normally when I get that little metro ticket I throw it away, only when I discovered that I needed to keep it to transfer from the metro to the RER I realized I should start keeping it incase any other little things like that come up. Tonight, I entered the station, put my ticket in the machine, it gave the ticket back to me (think D.C. metro) and let me go on my way. When transferring lines, I was suddenly haulted by a gaggle of green jacketed men and women demanding to see my ticket. Evidently you are supposed to keep them and by not having my ticket they are left with no other conclusion than that I jumped the bars or something and didn't actually pay to be on the train tonight.But, hazaa, this time I'd thought to put my ticket into my little change pocket. I fished it out and triumphantly showed it to the crooked-toothed guard. But, alas alack, the grossly incompetent French machine had failed to mark it. There was no indication that the ticket had ever been used! I thought, maybe that's an un-used one and I actually put the used one in my wallet. I pulled out my wallet, all of the spare tickets were unused. I tried to explain to the man that it wouldn't make sense that if I were the type to skip over the bars that I would buy tickets in advance. I actually always carry 3, two for the round trip and a spare just in case (which I had actually needed because earlier this morning when the machine told me that my new ticket was already used!).Oh, and there's a fine. 25 euros. $30 because I can't find the cheap little piece of paper which it's entirely possible that I actually threw away. But, no, because I didn't have 25 euros on me, nor do I have any sort of license indicating my Paris address, the fine will have to be sent to the American Embassy and then either on to my home in New York (luckily I happened to have at least my NYS ID, which I do not normally carry around) or I will be stopped when I get on the plane to leave this cesspool of foolishness and circles in January, which means the fee will have been augmented from the 25 in the station, to the 57 it would have been to send it to my home in Paris, to the 100 euros ($120!!!!!) if they send it to the American Embassy. If I get stopped at the airport, I'm just going to have to make Charles DeGaulle my new home because I REFUSE to pay this fine.The man's sidekick, and equally crooked-toothed woman explained to me that there are signs everywhere, in multiple languages. I have never seen a sign and because I tend to look for that sort of thing, if there is a sign it must not be terribly visible.Paris is officially on my Shit List.
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 17:49.
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Thursday, September 22, 2005
|I'm just talkin' 'bout gerund.|Today my first assignment was due for Translation. I, personally, thought it was very good. Good enough, in fact, that when Prof. C asked who wanted to read their translation of the first sentence of the passage by Baudelaire that was our assignment, my hand shot up. He, however, called on Victoria."Without a doubt, studying the ancient masters in order to learn how to paint is excellent, but..." She reached the end of her sentence and Prof. C said, in his quiet, slow, elongated almost monotone books-on-tape Sideshow Bob drawl,"That is very good, Victoria. You chose all the words one would expect. But, hmm... 'studying.' That's interesting, isn't it, Victoria? It's a very modern word, which I suppose would make sense since Baudelaire is very concerned with modernity. That is, in fact, the purpose of this piece. But, 'studying' marks it as a very modern translation, doesn't it? Often one translates things with an intended colloquiality, but 'studying' drops us out of the colloquial into an entirely new lexical category, doesn't it? This ing, this gerund, or the present participle as it is sometimes called, is a fairly modern choice. One would have rarely seen it in the 19th century, and certainly not at the beginning of a sentence. You hand me a gerund and suddenly I have no idea where I am or what I am doing. No, I don't care for 'studying.' It's... it's really a desecration of grammar, isn't it, Victoria? But, no, your translation was spot on and precisely what I would expect. No, you get an A+."Prof. C didn't dig it.And the very first word of my translation? "Studying."
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 17:53.
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005
|Where will I be when I get my score?|In 10 days and 17min I will undergo the thing that will most directly impact my future over the next few years: The Law School Admissions Test, LSAT in the vernacular.And then three weeks later the score will arrive to me by email. 154? 168? 171 (the actual goal)? Who can say? They say Oct. 24th, but they have been known to get it out a day or two earlier than that.What I know is that while it is unlikely that I will forget to check, it's entirely possible that I just won't have time. From October 19th to October 25th I'm going to be in the east of France, in Besançon, followed by a day or two in Switzerland. I return to Paris the night of the 25th, but I know I won't have done any of the homework for the remaining two days of classes that week plus I have to unpack, wash my clothes, and then re-pack because shortly after class ends on the 27th I am heading off to the airport and boarding a flight to Rome, where I will be until Nov. 1st due to the incredibly great Catholic tradition of taking off for All Hallow's Eve and All Saint's Day.And then, on the evening of Nov. 1st, I will check my score.*To be certain: I am sure there are computers with internet connections in Besançon, Switzerland and Rome, but I am also fairly sure that getting to any of them will be more work than I care to do when I'm going to be busy doing so many other things.
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 07:42.
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Monday, September 12, 2005
|The power of the Googlearchy.|I found this through a random and entirely uncommon bout of blog-hopping.Google "Failure."There's a joke in there... somewhere...
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 19:33.
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|Am I a bad person?|Am I a bad person for no longer applying to Tulane. Granted, the school sits at the top of New Orleans and was, at most, under about 6ft. of water, so it'll be fine, it'll live on.But can they offer me any aid when so much of their money is being put into rebuilding New Orleans? Will great professors who selfishly (pot kettle black) manage to get out of their contracts leave for dryer pastures?I feel bad, but not bad enough to apply knowing full and well that I would only go if I had to.And speaking of applications:Boston, Brooklyn, Cardozo, UChicago, Columbia, Fordham, UMichigan, NYU, Northwestern, UPenn, USC, Stanford, UWisc. and Yale were all sent off this weekend.Cornell, Texas and Vanderbilt are lagging behind because their systems required me to physically mail the application in order to get a fee waiver (speaking of which, Texas will only give me an application waiver if they think they will want to accept me, according to their website).Harvard and Berkeley make a big point of saying no apps before Sept. 15th and Oct. 1st, respectively, so those are resting comfortably in the queue.Now, for that test...
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 18:38.
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Sunday, September 11, 2005
|Stay for the year?|I recently found out that there is a Columbia 4th year here at Reid Hall who is staying for the year. I could barely finish my tarte aux pommes avec crème Chantilly when I heard this.Can it be? Granted, there are huge issues with such a plan: 1) Having left stuff with people that I'd promised I'd be back in January to pick up, 2) Not being able to visit my future law school (although chances are I wouldn't be able to do that back in the states anyway, and it really only presents a problem if by some crazy miracle I got into more than one really great, top school and more than one offered me a lot of money to attend), 3) Swallowing money yet again on plane tickets since I don't think I can do anything to change their date now that I'm in France, although in that case I'd just take the opportunity to return to NYC for a week before school starts back up here, 4) Not being in NYC to find a job or a place to live for the summer, although I do not know that I wouldn't mind working for Housing again if push came to shove, and there is always Joan...Classes start in 8.5hrs. If, one month and 8.5hrs from now I feel that my French has significantly improved, enough to take all of my classes next term at the University, which would mean that I would be able to satisfy my concentration requirements, then I'm going to seriously consider it...Because that would be absolutely crazy. Plus, it seems silly to spend all of this time in France and return to the U.S. and not take a single French course. I've looked ahead and none of them seem appealing. If I can't take French courses, I might as well take courses in French, you know?And I think I could afford it, sorta, because I've budgeted myself now to return to NYC in January with the money I saved up this summer, and so if that works out right, then assuming Columbia can work the same Fin Aid magic for me (perhaps even better because as far as they know that money is being used up and I won't have been working the past half-year) then the cost should not present too much of a problem, save for not having scads of money to tool around Europe on my 3-week long Spring Break.GOD, WHAT AN IDEA.Comments would be appreciated.
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 19:27.
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Friday, September 09, 2005
|"The machines are different here, aren't they?"|While watching "The Pink Panther," I decided to get up and go look to see what was available in the nearby vending machine.I returned to my seat, armed with an Orangina and a waffle dipped in chocolate.The lez with cool eyewear leans over to me and asks, "Is that a waffle?" I said, "I think so." And then she said, "The machines are different here, aren't they?"I nodded.And then I got this in an email from Liz.Indeed.
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 13:34.
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Wednesday, September 07, 2005
|Les bons, les mals et les françcais.|Les bonsI found out today that I did well enough on the placement test to place out of my level here and into a higher one, which means a greater selection of courses that I can take, some of which might even qualify for my major (should I decide to up the ante from concentration to major).Les malsI found out that I scored a 7 out of 20 on the university placement test which means that I will not be taking courses at Diderot, which is a shame because that would be cool to put on my resume and it would help me to meet French people. But hopefully I'll find some non-Reid Hall related things to do which will help me to get out there.I had this plan, you know, Septimus.fr. Only, it isn't so much working out. Like, I live right by school, so I go home to eat or shower or take an LSAT practice test, meanwhile all of the kids who don't live by school have just hung out at school all day and maybe gone for lunch and a glass of wine together. It's only today that I realized that's what they've been doing and why I still know no one. Plus, the program is like almost all well-off kids who've spent summer after summer in France and moved into their apartments weeks ago and have oodles of money to spend and already speak French well from having been here so many times OR really cute gaies who seem to want nothing to do with me.Les françaisSeptimus: "I'm going to rue D."Cabbie: "Rue D.?"Septimus (gets out Paris Pratique): "Yes, see, rue D."Cabbie: "You mean rue D."Septimus' head: "Isn't that what I said? Does it sound just that different?"Septimus: "Yes."Cabbie: "But it's right down there."Septimus: "Yes, but my bags are heavy."Cabbie: "But it's right down there and around that corner."Septimus: "Yes, I understand. I have the map. But my bags are heavy."Cabbie: "Fine." Followed by cursing.Septimus' Head: "What the fuck? Freaking take my Parker Brothers Issue Toilet Tissue you think is money and get me to my new home, dammit."
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 11:09.
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Saturday, September 03, 2005
|Tu me manques déjà.|I leave for the airport in 3.5hrs. For another city, another place, another me. Here I'm simply Septimus, but in Paris I shall be Septimus.fr. As I said to Mac yesterday, it's like when you transfer to a new high school: no one at the new high school has to know that you weren't cool and popular at your old high school.This is a thanks to everyone I know, because you have all made my life so crazy wonderful. I don't think I've ever before been able to say this, but my life is great, and it definitely was not something that I could have achieved solo.All of this time I've been thinking, "No, I'm not going to miss New York and I'll see my friends soon enough." And, it's true, I'm probably not going to miss this city too much and I'm not so much one for sentiment, but there is something that I will really miss: talking about sex.I have carefully crafted around me a group of friends with whom I can discuss the very large penis of a model-beautiful boy that I recently had sex with, moreover we can discuss these sorts of things openly at a busy cafe during brunch. That's probably what I'm going to miss most.In any case, I must ready to leave now.C'est la vie, c'est si bonne.
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 14:29.
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