language be easy (and new living space)
My experience with learning a difficult language like French (as opposed to Esperanto) is that one cycles back and forth between feeling success and failure. Yesterday, I had a great French day. I went to the championship game for the field hockey league my coworker, J(femme), plays in. They won, and are now the champions of their league, which means that they won't move down into the new lower league being created next year. It was a complete win for me in terms of speaking French, which I made the effort to do all day. I met several people and had one really long conversation. I cheered in French ("Allez Mons!"). There was an afterparty, where I almost sort of participated in a group conversation. My French brain was tired, but it was really good for me to have such a positive French day.
Oh, and to add to that, when I went dancing (for exercise with my MP3 player) in Place Nervienne (a parking lot near my new apartment) yesterday, security came to see what I was doing. They asked (all in French) who I was, what I was doing, where did I come from, and what was I doing in Mons. Then they asked if I like hardcore. Trying not to be too surprised, I said that it was too fast and hard for me to dance to far a long time, but yeah, I do like it. He then turned up the stereo in the station wagon he was driving and threw out some hardcore beats. I jumped around to it for a bit, and they left, with the windows rolled down, laughing. Yay!
I also want to state here, a point that my other coworker, J(homme), made about the language issues. He pointed out that the language divide probably helped to create the friendship that he, his wife, J(femme), and I have. It was one of the things which connected us, and helped us to form the cool friendship that we have, and it's still somewhat integral to how our friendship works. He's a smart one, that J(homme). I think part of my last post was bemoaning the lack of a certain type of connection I have with certain people. I can't expect to recreate that here in Belgium, so I need to be open to the connections that I do create here.
floorplan - open with lots of light
living room
kitchen
distorted balcony view
Oh, and to add to that, when I went dancing (for exercise with my MP3 player) in Place Nervienne (a parking lot near my new apartment) yesterday, security came to see what I was doing. They asked (all in French) who I was, what I was doing, where did I come from, and what was I doing in Mons. Then they asked if I like hardcore. Trying not to be too surprised, I said that it was too fast and hard for me to dance to far a long time, but yeah, I do like it. He then turned up the stereo in the station wagon he was driving and threw out some hardcore beats. I jumped around to it for a bit, and they left, with the windows rolled down, laughing. Yay!
I also want to state here, a point that my other coworker, J(homme), made about the language issues. He pointed out that the language divide probably helped to create the friendship that he, his wife, J(femme), and I have. It was one of the things which connected us, and helped us to form the cool friendship that we have, and it's still somewhat integral to how our friendship works. He's a smart one, that J(homme). I think part of my last post was bemoaning the lack of a certain type of connection I have with certain people. I can't expect to recreate that here in Belgium, so I need to be open to the connections that I do create here.
floorplan - open with lots of light
living room
kitchen
distorted balcony view