France Tales

July 4th in Toulouse, France

Owen — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 08:45:12 +0000

Yesterday for Independence Day, July 4th, we went to a celebration with the mayor of Toulouse. This party with drinks and lite food was arranged by Americans in Toulouse and Association France États Unis Midi Pyrenees. We were invited by Democrats Abroad and we thought they were part of the arranging, but it was clear they were not. It was located in a grand hall in the Place du Capitole. The room was great but the event was definitely not my cup of tea. I heard too many “God Bless America’s” for my taste, saw too many flags a waving, and felt like I had little in common with these people other than we were Americans. In general I look for people as friends who are smart, interesting, funny, well traveled, a little irreverent, independent thinkers, kind, and being an American can only add to a friendship, not be the basis for it. Here is a picture in support of Obama on the Place du Capitole, I felt bad after, but I had to decline holding the American flag, I am a little embarrassed to have been standing in front of it. I mean on Place du Capitole here we were, a bunch of Americans, waving flags, I hope no one I know saw me.

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EDF Science Exhibit featuring Serge Chauzy

Owen — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:38:07 +0000

Last Thursday Thursday we went to a science exhibit, photography show, lecture in an old Electricté de France substation, EDF. It was an old factory that has been turned into an exhibition space. It is on the banks of the Garonne River where the Canal Brienne comes into the Garonne. The building and exhibition space were fantastic. There was a photo show of science lab like photos from I’d say the 50’s. They were interesting but not incredible. There were some schematic drawings from the Concorde and architectural drawings of the “boule”, the science observatoire near my job. Those were neat. The observatory is going to be open on July 9th for public viewing. Apparently it is not easy to get in to see it and it is very James Bond. We are going to go.

The lecture was fascinating. It covered lightening, thunder, and weather patterns. I know, it doesn’t sound fascinating but the speaker was funny and engaging so it was lively. Too bad there weren’t many people there. His name was Serge Chauzy, physicien de l’atmosphère et professeur émérite de l’Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, and the lecture was entitled,”Coup de foudre pour le métier de chercheur”, my literal French knowledge tells me it means more than lightning for the career of researcher. I looked it up and asked Jean-Jacques and it is an expression meaning to fall in love with research.

Visit the site of Sciences et Patrimoine, there is an English and a French version. Here you can see all kinds of interesting videos, games, photos, and upcoming events. The site is really well made and the navigation is clear, something I don’t usually find in French sites.

See a video here of Mssr Chauzy.

Games for kids.

This is the kind of science I wished I had been exposed to when I was younger. When I think back to my science classes in school they were boring and did not stimulate curiousity. Oh well, live now, as an adult, as a child.

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Livemocha-learn a language while social networking

Owen — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:25:13 +0000

I came across this tool while reading the blog Social Web Tools. Livemocha is a social networking site but also you can complete 4 levels of language training in many languages. It looks very promising. I don’t think it looks great above the intermediate level but for getting the basics it looks quite good for a free tool.

View the Social Web Tools review here.

View Livemocha’s site here.

View my Livemocha profile here

Join, be my friend, send me lots of messages, umm you can send me messages but just don’t send lots of silly messages.

If you are going to spend the money, why not buy the grand-daddy of all language learning programs Rosetta Stone. Check out the links below.VVVVVV

Nicholas Sarkozy is rude again!

Owen — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:19:09 +0000

Nicholas Sarkozy gets himself in trouble each week. Nicholas Sarkozy seems oblivious to the presence of microphones or video cameras, or at least how stupid they can make him look. It doesn’t take much to make Sarkozy look stupid so il faut fait attention. Just a few days ago it got him into trouble over the fiasco in Carcassonne, this time with a TV technician. In this video taken just the other day he curses out the tech and rails against the lack of manners. While displaying his own fine manners.

“It’s a question of manners,” Mr Sarkozy is heard muttering. “When you’re invited, you’re entitled to have people say ‘hello’ to you”.

At the end of the brief outburst, he appears to suggest the employee should not be working for state TV.

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Interview over and done with!

Owen — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:40:58 +0000

My interview went well this morning. It was all in French and Rimbaud did not come up. All that late night cramming for nothing. It was a at company called cDiscount. They have a large discount electronics website and a chain of stores. I would be working as an integrateur d’html. The position involves taking the graphic designs from the designer and making the html and css web version then I’d pass the project along to the person who makes it dynamic with flash, java, asp, .net, or php. I could totally do this job the only question is if they are interested in me and how much they are willing to pay. My main question was if my level of French would be a problem and all 3 interviewers said no, not at all, as long as you understand directions you don’t need to communicate that much. They also mentioned having some German clients and a real need for someone who speaks English well. *crosses fingers*. I hear next week.

cDiscount

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Job Interview tomorrow

Owen — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:56:39 +0000

On Tuesday morning I have a job interview in Bordeaux for a web design job in a company called cDiscount. It will mark my first interview all in French and not for an English teaching job. Of course I am ready but I am getting nervous. I find myself doing silly things like reviewing the subjunctive and plus’que parfait tenses and scanning my French English dictionary for gooder words. Of course last minute things like this rarely help. I should focus on being very conversationally fluent and funny and of course competent but I can’t help doing nervous twitch types of things. Do you think I should memorize a little Rimbaud just for fun? Or maybe I should memorize all the irregular past participe backward to dazzle them with my depth of knowledge? I have another 14 hours before my interview, who needs sleep?

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Roman Amphitheater in Toulouse

Owen — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:29:18 +0000

Today we visited the ruins of an ancient Roman amphitheater. The Roman amphitheater was located in Ancely near Blagnac. We rode our bicycles with our friends Katya and Oliver from the center of Toulouse to the Roman Amphitheater. It was a nice ride but it was hot and there were a few hills. There wasn’t a guide for the Amphitheater so we were left to reading the brochure. I am going to do some more reasearch before writing too much more so for now I leave you with the pictures and a definition. Oh yeah, one of the pictures is a vomitorium, aside from over eating and over drinking and possibly getting sick after watching the death matches, why else would this have been needed? Research commences.

amphitheater |?amf?????t?r|
noun
(esp. in Greek and Roman architecture) a round building, typically unroofed, with a central space for the presentation of dramatic or sporting events. Tiers of seats for spectators surround the central space.
• a sloping, semicircular seating gallery : I was permitted to attend a lecture in the amphitheater of the hospital.
• a large circular hollow in rocks or hills : that vast amphitheater chiseled out of the mountain.

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Bob Spencer: Le Rêve Français

Owen — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 21:40:00 +0000

Oops, I forgot to publish this post, sorry Bob. It was part of my series on my own blog readers. Now that he is in France for the summer, I know he is writing in his blog. Check it out. We were out of town when he was in Toulouse so we didn’t get the chance to meet, next time.

Here is a regular reader and commenter Bob Spencer. In his own words . . .

A francophile who occasionally gets to live le Rêve Français. Although like most dreams, sometimes the reality isn’t quite the stuff of which dreams are made.

2 favorite posts: Well he never specified his favorite posts so you will have to read to decide yourself.

RSS feed address: Well with this new Firefox 3 I cannot seem to find RSS feed addresses so easily, help. Other than that, Firefox 3 is really cool!

Visit his blog today!

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Balkan Beat Box live in Toulouse

Owen — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:18:50 +0000

I just realized that I had written about planning to go to the Balkan Beat Box show in Toulouse but I never wrote how it was. I even had pictures in last Sunday’s photo dump from the show but no review. Well we have not gone to see much live music and we love to do this. So this past week with Saturday night and then Tuesday night feels like the Fête de la Musique all over again.

Balkan Beat Box were amazing. I knew what to expect because I had seen videos. They have a trumpet and sax player. A guitarist, bassist, drummer, and the singer presses some buttons on a funny box that makes even funnier noises, including the chicken noises. They were very energetic and had many calls for peace in the middle east, squarely placing the blame on each side evenly, more or less.

The night was warm and a bit humid so Prairie des Filtres was a bit umm smelly, hot day at the zoo, hot day at the meth lab, etc. Still no smell too strong or crowd too drunk could dampen my enthusiasm for seeing my new favorite band. They played a mix of songs from both Balkan Beat Box and Nu Meds. I was hoping they were going to have the female singers live but I guess that was all sampled.

The crowd sang along to all the songs. At the onset of each song, when the distinctive part began, the crowd went wild. They obviously knew each song. As much as I loved them they played a little long. I got a frantic call during the show and had to leave a bit early, after about an hour and a half. The only song I didn’t get to see that I was really wanting to see was Ramallah Tel Aviv. I’m sure it was great but I had to leave. If you like gypsy music, electronic music but with live instrumentation, world music but with an edge, experimental music, with political lyrics, Balkan Beat Box is for you.

I leave you with Ramallah Tel Aviv

Student Final Project Blogs

Owen — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:37:45 +0000

As many of you know I teach English at an Engineering Graduate School in France called the ENAC, École Nationale de l’Aviation Civile. It is a Grande École which means it is very competitive to get into and the students are very motivated and work hard. I taught a General English class that was an elective so I had more flexibility with my curriculum. They generally have to do a final research project in English. They did it in my class as well but I had them make it in the form of a blog which they presented to the class.

I gave no direction for the topic because the goal was to research and write in English and keep the blogging interface in English. Some chose serious topics and some less serious. Here is a list of their blogs. Visit them to see what they did, comment on them, tell me what you think. They didn’t have a long time to work on them and we didn’t always have access to a computer lab but I think they turned out nicely. Also, since it was an elective I could only expect a certain amount out of them, but I think they are interesting.

France Tales

July 4th in Toulouse, France

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EDF Science Exhibit featuring Serge Chauzy

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Livemocha-learn a language while social networking

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Nicholas Sarkozy is rude again!

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