Franglais and other fun
Still no luck in getting the paper with my grammar grades for the MICEFA. I went to St-Denis today, around 10:45, remembering that the FLE office closes early on Fridays. I discovered that “open 9:30-12:00” actually means “open 9:30-12:00, unless it’s after the end of classes for the semester, in which case we don’t bother coming in on Friday at all.” So whoohoo. I get to try again next week!
And now a fun half-translated sign in Montmartre:
It’s air conditioné! But is it also climatized?
Posted by the elevator:
Apparently their English-language spell-check is brocken.
And from Montmarte again, some artsy stuff:
This one from somewhere in the 18th:
I’m not sure if this sign has been modified officially, or whether it’s the work of some rogue vigilante duct-tapers:
And another pretty shot of Montmarte looking all summery:
In other news, I discovered earlier this week that apparently Leonard Bernstein wrote an operetta based on Voltaire’s Candide, which was the first book I read in Survey of French Lit II at Hunter. The operetta is all sorts of fun, with amusing songs about the syphilis and the Spanish Inquisition (sometimes, depending on the version, these songs are charmingly combined).
Also, I read an interesting little article in the Times about innovative cost-cutting measures at American universities. My reaction was something like this:
New York Times: “Colleges are cutting back on little things: eliminating free laundry for students–”
Me: “Wait, did you say free?”
New York Times: “–limiting students to $60 worth of free printing per semester–”
Me: “That’s 600 pages at Hunter prices!”
New York Times: “–and discontinuing free ESPN and HBO service in dorm rooms.”
Me: “Free cable in your room? You people are kidding, right?”
All of this makes me worry that Hunter might try cutting back on services at Brookdale. They’d probably have to start by eliminating luxuries like electricity, running water, and walls. Really, if you take away the walls, the place becomes much easier to manage. All the floors just kind of collapse into one, and then you only need a couple RAs, though floor meetings would be a bit hectic. This could be solved by eliminating floors as well, and turning the dorm into a large hole that goes straight through the Earth. Students could jump in, and fall all the way through to Australia, and you could count it as Study Abroad. Except, of course, they wouldn’t actually come out in Australia, but somewhere to the southwest of it:
(Incidentally, the Earth Sandwich tool thingy used to make the above graphic is quite an amusing way to pass the time, and to dash small children’s hopes of digging to China. Well, I suppose they could dig to China, but they’d need to brush up on their geometry first).
And I think I’ll stop before I go even more thoroughly off-topic.
