(no subject)
In tonight's installment of glamorous life in France, sink laundry. Sink laundry brought to you by Casino Gel Main Express, which at this point, like quite a few other French things, has become an anchor for many strong smell-memories for me. I've washed my underwear in it many times over three trips to France between 2010 and now! It's not quite like arriving in Angers in 2010, when I stepped out of the train station and the smell of people smoking outside brought everything from my semester in France in 2005 rushing back, but it's safe to say that I really recognize its scent! Is there a word for something smelling foreign yet evocatively familiar? Because there should be...
In any case, since my last post, I've finished reading the first mémoire de maîtrise I had to read, and the first fifty pages of the second. I'm also seen and very briefly talked to Prof FM, although I only caught about half of what he said. I wasn't expecting him to show up today, and he took me by surprise even though I suspected it was him talking to the librarian beforehand (and I suspect they were talking about me - I think I caught "Canadienne"). Surprise is not a good place from which to understand French! Particularly not full-speed French at library volumes in Prof FM's delightfully musical but nevertheless slightly different southern French accent! I gathered that he had to go and do something and was going to come back to talk more at some point, which I thought might be later in the morning or in the afternoon. I'm still not sure when he was intending to come back, but I later received an email in which he apologized for his meeting running long, and for not showing up when he said he was going to. He's now suggesting we schedule a meeting, which will be better both for how busy and important he is and for my aural comprehension!
I had great plans for (non-laundry) productivity this evening, but I'm actually pretty tired, and I also got sucked into translating a thing about the archaeology of mottes on duolingo. Archaeological vocabulary FTW! Hopefully no one questions my choice to translate motte castrale as motte, because I tell you there is no standard direct translation - you could go "motte and bailey castle," but really in English historians and archaeologists would probably just say either "motte" or "castral site." Hmm. Possibly fortified motte?
The one thing I did do, however, was pre-purchase my ticket for a guided tour of the Palais du Parlement de Bretagne for this coming Sunday afternoon. I never managed to take the tour while I was here in 2011-2012, and it's very high on my MUST DO list this time around. What if I never get another chance? It's apparently a fascinating building and very well restored (it had a terrible fire in 1994), and the Parlement de Bretagne, along with the États de Bretagne, was one of the major judicial and legislative institutions of early modern/ancien régime Brittany. I'm very excited! Plus, it gives me something exciting to do on Sunday, which is good, because I don't want to waste any more potential sightseeing days, but Rennes is not exactly happening on Sundays...
This entry was originally posted at http://monksandbones.dreamwidth.org/758109.html. Talk to me here or there, whichever you prefer.
In any case, since my last post, I've finished reading the first mémoire de maîtrise I had to read, and the first fifty pages of the second. I'm also seen and very briefly talked to Prof FM, although I only caught about half of what he said. I wasn't expecting him to show up today, and he took me by surprise even though I suspected it was him talking to the librarian beforehand (and I suspect they were talking about me - I think I caught "Canadienne"). Surprise is not a good place from which to understand French! Particularly not full-speed French at library volumes in Prof FM's delightfully musical but nevertheless slightly different southern French accent! I gathered that he had to go and do something and was going to come back to talk more at some point, which I thought might be later in the morning or in the afternoon. I'm still not sure when he was intending to come back, but I later received an email in which he apologized for his meeting running long, and for not showing up when he said he was going to. He's now suggesting we schedule a meeting, which will be better both for how busy and important he is and for my aural comprehension!
I had great plans for (non-laundry) productivity this evening, but I'm actually pretty tired, and I also got sucked into translating a thing about the archaeology of mottes on duolingo. Archaeological vocabulary FTW! Hopefully no one questions my choice to translate motte castrale as motte, because I tell you there is no standard direct translation - you could go "motte and bailey castle," but really in English historians and archaeologists would probably just say either "motte" or "castral site." Hmm. Possibly fortified motte?
The one thing I did do, however, was pre-purchase my ticket for a guided tour of the Palais du Parlement de Bretagne for this coming Sunday afternoon. I never managed to take the tour while I was here in 2011-2012, and it's very high on my MUST DO list this time around. What if I never get another chance? It's apparently a fascinating building and very well restored (it had a terrible fire in 1994), and the Parlement de Bretagne, along with the États de Bretagne, was one of the major judicial and legislative institutions of early modern/ancien régime Brittany. I'm very excited! Plus, it gives me something exciting to do on Sunday, which is good, because I don't want to waste any more potential sightseeing days, but Rennes is not exactly happening on Sundays...
This entry was originally posted at http://monksandbones.dreamwidth.org/758109.html. Talk to me here or there, whichever you prefer.