I'm a McDonalds girl. Always have been. Never been a big fan of Burger King or Wendys, neither of which exists in France anyway (Burger King on Champs Elysee died a while ago). However, this week we ventured out to try Quick, a French fast food joint - it was Hana's idea because she heard from other kids in school that they offer a more mature happy meal with more mature freebies for bigger kids (Hana btw stopped getting Happy Meals at McDonalds long ago - she can down a full adult-sized burger now).
Where was I - oh but this posting is not about the merits of fast food or comparison between fast food chains, though that could have been interesting enough. Rather, I experienced something that has routinely annoyed me since my arrival in France so I need to rant.
So I get up to the cashier and start ordering. I am not familiar with their menu and they only have them up on the overhead board, so I am straining my eyes and making decisions and dealing with Manolee clinging to my leg all at the same time. As I order, the cashier is looking ahead and starts furrowing her eyebrows and making very strained frowns and leans forward. All those combined facial expressions and head movements suggests to me that she is trying to convey that she is attempting really very hard to understand what I am saying. Now this just really gets me pissed off.
Because I've seen that face before. Fairly often. French people make that same serious frowned face when I speak sometimes. Sometimes it's an apologetic "oh I'm trying and trying but I just cannot make out what you are saying" frown. Sometimes it's a downright hostile "what the f*ck is this woman going on about" frown.
I guess what pissed me off especially at Quick was that I was saying American words like CHEESEBURGER, but I was trying to say it like a French person, because if I say CHEESEBURGER like a bona-fide American, they would not understand that either! So isn't it strangely ironic that I, an American, am trying to say a quintessential American word like CHEESEBURGER with a French accent and failing at it so miserably that the cashier is frowning and straining to understand me? Do you see why I was getting all pissed off?
Thank you.
PS The more mature freebie in the Quick Happy Meal was 5 free downloads of MP3s, which did indeed please my more mature Hanaya. Oh and my kids were proven to be McDonalds girls too - they didn't like the food much at Quick.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Rare Rare Rare
What you are about to see is so rare that I found myself gasping at the very sight of it:
Full five days of sunshine in the forecast!!
Me thinks Spring is just around the corner... Here's to hoping for a sunny one!
Full five days of sunshine in the forecast!!
Me thinks Spring is just around the corner... Here's to hoping for a sunny one!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Fate Brings me to Pom Poms
Funny thing, this thing about fate.
If someone told me even 4 years ago that they would find me at 11pm making cheerleading pom poms, I would have laughed that person out the door. If someone told me back then that I would be a full-time mom, with lists-making as an important hobby, and that I would spend many hours cooking, baking and (gasp!) ironing - I would have tried my damnest to commit that person to a mental institution.
Yet the turn of events have somehow brought me here...making pom poms... for a Carnival dress-up parade at school tomorrow. I'm not even sure how serious these parades are, but Hana has no costume that she likes anymore (princesses are so baby-ish, Daphne from Scooby Doo is too embarrassing, ditto for Batgirl) - so after many nights of deliberation we settled on a cheerleader outfit. Of course we have no such thing around, so we scrambled and found a tennis outfit that may do. But pom poms are a must to complete the outfit, so here they are, made with much maternal love, out of tissue paper:
Manolee, who has decided to dress up as a ballerina (no surprises there) also had to have pom poms, of course, so I made two extra ones.
Yes, funny, the thing about fate. Who would have thought?
If someone told me even 4 years ago that they would find me at 11pm making cheerleading pom poms, I would have laughed that person out the door. If someone told me back then that I would be a full-time mom, with lists-making as an important hobby, and that I would spend many hours cooking, baking and (gasp!) ironing - I would have tried my damnest to commit that person to a mental institution.
Yet the turn of events have somehow brought me here...making pom poms... for a Carnival dress-up parade at school tomorrow. I'm not even sure how serious these parades are, but Hana has no costume that she likes anymore (princesses are so baby-ish, Daphne from Scooby Doo is too embarrassing, ditto for Batgirl) - so after many nights of deliberation we settled on a cheerleader outfit. Of course we have no such thing around, so we scrambled and found a tennis outfit that may do. But pom poms are a must to complete the outfit, so here they are, made with much maternal love, out of tissue paper:
Manolee, who has decided to dress up as a ballerina (no surprises there) also had to have pom poms, of course, so I made two extra ones.
Yes, funny, the thing about fate. Who would have thought?
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
French Numbers
File this under the French Generally Trying to Confound Foreigners.
Any student learning French is bound to discover that counting is no easy feat in French. One to ten are relatively simple, if somewhat hard to pronounce ("deux" always gets me personally). Eleven to twenty can be hard, but pretty much mirrors English, so I am ok there.
But get up there to 69 and thereafter lies trouble.
70 in French, literally translated, is sixty-ten. Yes, soixante-dix.
71 is sixty-eleven. 72, sixty-twelve. And so on and so on.
But that is not it.
80 then is NOT sixty-twenty. Oh no. That wouldn't make any sense. 80 becomes quartre-vingts, translated four-twenties.
Wait, that is not all! 90, following this bizarre, unnecessarily complicated, lunatic system, is four-twenty-ten (quatre-vingt-dix).
WFT, right?
I've been learning French for over 10 years now and I got myself used to this somewhat. It does still take a while for me to write the numbers when someone is, for example, telling me their phone number - if they say for example, sixty, I start writing a 6, and then they add eleven or twelve or whatever, and I then start to be befuddled and madly cross out the 6 and start installing a 7 - crazy, I tell you!
OK but there is more.
Hanaya is in 3rd grade and earlier this school year was learning to write out numbers in letters. I saw in her notebook that 80 is written "quatre-vingts" in plural, with the "s" at the end, but any number beyond that loses that "s", so 82 becomes "quatre-vingt-deux" and not "quatre-vingts-deux". I told Hana that this is totally wrong, to always make it a plural after 80.
She came home the next day and almost cried saying that she got all her numbers wrong on a quiz because she put all the "s"s after "quatre-vingts". I was stunned at the incompetency of her teacher - how could this be? Lo and behold, when I confronted PeeWee with the indignity of it all, he calmly informed me that, no, in fact after 80 the twenties become singular and there is no "s" at the end of "vingt". Why, I screamed at him. Why? He then went on to inform me that the same goes for 100, apparently. So 200 is "deux-cents" with an "s" at the end of "cent". But make 201 and it becomes singular, "deux-cent-et-un" (I'm not sure if I am doing that correctly, with all the hyphens and the "et" thrown in - but you get the idea). Same goes for 1000.
Wow, I was stunned all over again. It got me wondering if there is such a thing as "No Child Left Behind" in France. How can you possibly make that make sense to a child? And if it does not make sense, do you then just go on to accept it? What kind of non-assertive, rote-driven, conforming children are we raising here? Quite a big issue, wouldn't you say? Apparently the Belgians and the Canadians and the Swiss all did sort of rebel and they have separate words for 70, 80, 90 - good for them. Of course, the French turn up their noses at their inferior grasp of the French language, but I much prefer the straightforward way of counting myself.
There you have it. The convoluted system of French numbers. All I can do is sigh... and hope that I write the numbers correctly whenever I write out a check.
PS After the above episode, Hana is reluctant to do her homework with me. If I appear not to really know the answer, she then instructs me to "google it, maman". She's now discovered, at the tender age of 8, that I can be wrong, very wrong, and that she knows more than me in some (many?) areas. Sigh...
Any student learning French is bound to discover that counting is no easy feat in French. One to ten are relatively simple, if somewhat hard to pronounce ("deux" always gets me personally). Eleven to twenty can be hard, but pretty much mirrors English, so I am ok there.
But get up there to 69 and thereafter lies trouble.
70 in French, literally translated, is sixty-ten. Yes, soixante-dix.
71 is sixty-eleven. 72, sixty-twelve. And so on and so on.
But that is not it.
80 then is NOT sixty-twenty. Oh no. That wouldn't make any sense. 80 becomes quartre-vingts, translated four-twenties.
Wait, that is not all! 90, following this bizarre, unnecessarily complicated, lunatic system, is four-twenty-ten (quatre-vingt-dix).
WFT, right?
I've been learning French for over 10 years now and I got myself used to this somewhat. It does still take a while for me to write the numbers when someone is, for example, telling me their phone number - if they say for example, sixty, I start writing a 6, and then they add eleven or twelve or whatever, and I then start to be befuddled and madly cross out the 6 and start installing a 7 - crazy, I tell you!
OK but there is more.
Hanaya is in 3rd grade and earlier this school year was learning to write out numbers in letters. I saw in her notebook that 80 is written "quatre-vingts" in plural, with the "s" at the end, but any number beyond that loses that "s", so 82 becomes "quatre-vingt-deux" and not "quatre-vingts-deux". I told Hana that this is totally wrong, to always make it a plural after 80.
She came home the next day and almost cried saying that she got all her numbers wrong on a quiz because she put all the "s"s after "quatre-vingts". I was stunned at the incompetency of her teacher - how could this be? Lo and behold, when I confronted PeeWee with the indignity of it all, he calmly informed me that, no, in fact after 80 the twenties become singular and there is no "s" at the end of "vingt". Why, I screamed at him. Why? He then went on to inform me that the same goes for 100, apparently. So 200 is "deux-cents" with an "s" at the end of "cent". But make 201 and it becomes singular, "deux-cent-et-un" (I'm not sure if I am doing that correctly, with all the hyphens and the "et" thrown in - but you get the idea). Same goes for 1000.
Wow, I was stunned all over again. It got me wondering if there is such a thing as "No Child Left Behind" in France. How can you possibly make that make sense to a child? And if it does not make sense, do you then just go on to accept it? What kind of non-assertive, rote-driven, conforming children are we raising here? Quite a big issue, wouldn't you say? Apparently the Belgians and the Canadians and the Swiss all did sort of rebel and they have separate words for 70, 80, 90 - good for them. Of course, the French turn up their noses at their inferior grasp of the French language, but I much prefer the straightforward way of counting myself.
There you have it. The convoluted system of French numbers. All I can do is sigh... and hope that I write the numbers correctly whenever I write out a check.
PS After the above episode, Hana is reluctant to do her homework with me. If I appear not to really know the answer, she then instructs me to "google it, maman". She's now discovered, at the tender age of 8, that I can be wrong, very wrong, and that she knows more than me in some (many?) areas. Sigh...
Friday, March 13, 2009
Me in the Eyes of My Kids
Tagged for this on Facebook - usually I don't do these but this one sounded fun. Though I conducted the interviews separately, it is telling how similar the answers are from Hana (H) and Mano (M):
1. What is something mom always says to you? H: "did you wash your hands?" M: "Good night"
2. What makes mom happy? H: "when I am nice with my sister" M: "Be nice with my big sister"
3. What makes mom sad? H: "When Manolee cries without stopping" M: "When I make a face at my big sister"
4 What does your mom do to make you laugh? H: "Tickles me" M: "Says Boo"
5. What did your mom like to do when she was a child? H: "Do silly things, like not wearing her glasses in class" M: "ride her scooter"
6. How old is your mom? H: "37" M: "18"
7. How tall is your mom? H: "199cm" M: "like this"
8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV? H: "cooking shows" M: "News"
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? H: "cleans up" M: "clean up"
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? H: "Baking" M: "Cooking very well"
11. What is your mom really good at? H: "Baking" M:"doing the cake"
12. What is your mom not very good at? H: "Opening hot things" M:"Opening things with sauce in them"
13. What did your mom do for her job? H: "Work at American Express" M: "Work at a hotel"
14. What is your mom's favorite food? H: "Ddukbokki" M:" pasta"
15. What makes you proud of your mom? H: "That she does not yell that much" M: "you buy something for me"
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? H: "Velma" M: "Tinkerbell"
17. What do you and your mom do together? H: "Shopping" M: "go take a walk"
18. How are you and your mom the same? H: "We both have the same thoughts" M: "we have the same t-shirt, but yours is bigger"
19. How are you and your mom different? H: "you like to clean up and I don't" M: "you have earrings"
20. How do you know your mom loves you? "H: "because she hugs me" M: "because I always do drawing for her"
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? H: "He's nice" M: "I don't know why"
22: What does your mom like the least about your dad? H: "He plays video games so much and when he comes late and he eats in front of the computer and he always plays dofus and one day in the shower he left me all by myself and then went to play dofus on the computer" M: "when he lifts me up by my feet"
23. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? H: "Belasie (asian supermarket)" M: "to the restaurant"
1. What is something mom always says to you? H: "did you wash your hands?" M: "Good night"
2. What makes mom happy? H: "when I am nice with my sister" M: "Be nice with my big sister"
3. What makes mom sad? H: "When Manolee cries without stopping" M: "When I make a face at my big sister"
4 What does your mom do to make you laugh? H: "Tickles me" M: "Says Boo"
5. What did your mom like to do when she was a child? H: "Do silly things, like not wearing her glasses in class" M: "ride her scooter"
6. How old is your mom? H: "37" M: "18"
7. How tall is your mom? H: "199cm" M: "like this"
8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV? H: "cooking shows" M: "News"
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? H: "cleans up" M: "clean up"
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? H: "Baking" M: "Cooking very well"
11. What is your mom really good at? H: "Baking" M:"doing the cake"
12. What is your mom not very good at? H: "Opening hot things" M:"Opening things with sauce in them"
13. What did your mom do for her job? H: "Work at American Express" M: "Work at a hotel"
14. What is your mom's favorite food? H: "Ddukbokki" M:" pasta"
15. What makes you proud of your mom? H: "That she does not yell that much" M: "you buy something for me"
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? H: "Velma" M: "Tinkerbell"
17. What do you and your mom do together? H: "Shopping" M: "go take a walk"
18. How are you and your mom the same? H: "We both have the same thoughts" M: "we have the same t-shirt, but yours is bigger"
19. How are you and your mom different? H: "you like to clean up and I don't" M: "you have earrings"
20. How do you know your mom loves you? "H: "because she hugs me" M: "because I always do drawing for her"
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? H: "He's nice" M: "I don't know why"
22: What does your mom like the least about your dad? H: "He plays video games so much and when he comes late and he eats in front of the computer and he always plays dofus and one day in the shower he left me all by myself and then went to play dofus on the computer" M: "when he lifts me up by my feet"
23. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? H: "Belasie (asian supermarket)" M: "to the restaurant"
Sunday, March 8, 2009
One World? When?
I just tried watching Season 4 of Grey's Anatomy on my laptop in my bedroom - thought it would be a nice way to wind down before going to bed. Much to my chagrin, an error message popped up on the screen, telling me that the region code for the DVD does not match the region code for the computer. Did I wish to change the region code? But hold on, it helpfully told me, you can only do this one more time.
Can't tell you how disappointed I am. I am tired enough that I don't want to go out to the living room to watch the dang thing. This different coding for DVDs is just plain annoying - and why did they put such restrictions in the first place? Having lived abroad for so long now, this is not the only example of such differences stumping me and annoying the heck out of me.
Example 2: Paper sizes
Why do papers have to be different sizes? In the US the norm is the letter size. In Europe, the norm is the A4 - slightly narrower, slightly longer. WHY?? It's not like the difference between the letter size and the legal size. It's a tiny teeny difference. I've also noticed that the US letter papers tend to be a bit darker and yellower than the A4 papers I buy in France. Can someone explain this to me?
Example 3: Plugs/voltage/outlets
Why oh why do we need different voltage? Can we ever envisage a time when we can travel without adapters? Not only adapters, some appliances also need 'transformers'. I blew up an electronic globe that Hana got as a gift (sorry, C and J!) because I neglected to use this transforming add-on. Why do appliances need to be transformed and adapted in the first place?
Example 4: Sheet sizes
Twins, Tall Twins, Full, Queen and King. Nice and Simple (though I did just see a size called Cal. King on Target Online today that puzzled me - hmmm, I must do a better job keeping up with such things). No such simplicity, at least in France. Why couldn't they just adapt it to, say, Jumeaux, Plein, Reine and Roi?? No can do. They go with "1-person" and "2-people", which in and of itself would be fine, but no, there is more. The sizes of the sheets are different. That I could probably live with too, if it was only that I have to deal with. But nooooo. The comforter cover sizes are different. The ones I have bought here are either too big for my US queen comforter so that the down gets lost in there, or they are simply too small so that the blanket does not quite fit inside. Simply maddening, is what this is.
Example 5: Game cartridges/discs
Similar to the DVD example above, our US-bought Wii only plays US-bought Wii games. Hello??? I suppose they don't want people buying cheap games from the US to play elsewhere, but then this brings me to the age-old question, why must everything (and it is, virtually everything) be so much cheaper in the US? OK that topic is tangential to this post so I shall fume about that some other time.
Example 6: Daylight Savings Day
This may not neatly fit in with the other examples, but an example nonetheless of senseless differences - today the US turned the clock forward to Spring time. We in Europe do not do this for another 3 weeks. Not sure which party is being stubborn, but oh can we just stop this nonsense?
I know there are many more examples but I am tired and losing steam. But before I close out, I must mention the metric system. Now that I am quite the baker, I've been stumped by US recipes calling for cups vs. French recipes calling for grams way too many times, not to mention oven temperatures in Farenheit versus Celsius. Also read somewhere that the US is one of only three countries not using the metric system (the other two are Burma and Liberia!).
So clearly we are no where near this one world utopia. Certain regional differences I can tolerate and attribute to important historical reference points or cultural quirks. But the examples of the differences above are just simply annoying and unnecessary! Agree?
Can't tell you how disappointed I am. I am tired enough that I don't want to go out to the living room to watch the dang thing. This different coding for DVDs is just plain annoying - and why did they put such restrictions in the first place? Having lived abroad for so long now, this is not the only example of such differences stumping me and annoying the heck out of me.
Example 2: Paper sizes
Why do papers have to be different sizes? In the US the norm is the letter size. In Europe, the norm is the A4 - slightly narrower, slightly longer. WHY?? It's not like the difference between the letter size and the legal size. It's a tiny teeny difference. I've also noticed that the US letter papers tend to be a bit darker and yellower than the A4 papers I buy in France. Can someone explain this to me?
Example 3: Plugs/voltage/outlets
Why oh why do we need different voltage? Can we ever envisage a time when we can travel without adapters? Not only adapters, some appliances also need 'transformers'. I blew up an electronic globe that Hana got as a gift (sorry, C and J!) because I neglected to use this transforming add-on. Why do appliances need to be transformed and adapted in the first place?
Example 4: Sheet sizes
Twins, Tall Twins, Full, Queen and King. Nice and Simple (though I did just see a size called Cal. King on Target Online today that puzzled me - hmmm, I must do a better job keeping up with such things). No such simplicity, at least in France. Why couldn't they just adapt it to, say, Jumeaux, Plein, Reine and Roi?? No can do. They go with "1-person" and "2-people", which in and of itself would be fine, but no, there is more. The sizes of the sheets are different. That I could probably live with too, if it was only that I have to deal with. But nooooo. The comforter cover sizes are different. The ones I have bought here are either too big for my US queen comforter so that the down gets lost in there, or they are simply too small so that the blanket does not quite fit inside. Simply maddening, is what this is.
Example 5: Game cartridges/discs
Similar to the DVD example above, our US-bought Wii only plays US-bought Wii games. Hello??? I suppose they don't want people buying cheap games from the US to play elsewhere, but then this brings me to the age-old question, why must everything (and it is, virtually everything) be so much cheaper in the US? OK that topic is tangential to this post so I shall fume about that some other time.
Example 6: Daylight Savings Day
This may not neatly fit in with the other examples, but an example nonetheless of senseless differences - today the US turned the clock forward to Spring time. We in Europe do not do this for another 3 weeks. Not sure which party is being stubborn, but oh can we just stop this nonsense?
I know there are many more examples but I am tired and losing steam. But before I close out, I must mention the metric system. Now that I am quite the baker, I've been stumped by US recipes calling for cups vs. French recipes calling for grams way too many times, not to mention oven temperatures in Farenheit versus Celsius. Also read somewhere that the US is one of only three countries not using the metric system (the other two are Burma and Liberia!).
So clearly we are no where near this one world utopia. Certain regional differences I can tolerate and attribute to important historical reference points or cultural quirks. But the examples of the differences above are just simply annoying and unnecessary! Agree?
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Party Party!
That's right, two parties in one day!
First came Manolee's birthday party - though her birthday was in early February, I scheduled it to the end of the month so that I could .... throw PeeWee a surprise party right after! Since his birthday is March 1st, having the two parties together in one day seemed to make sense, especially not to give anything away to PeeWee in planning his surprise.
Manolee had invited 9 kids and it was 100% turnout. I baked up a bunch - more to prepare for the evening's surprise party, but still, if there is one thing I learned from throwing kids' parties so far is that very little is consumed during the party EXCEPT candies - the fraises tagadas are the first to go, followed by the Dragibus and gummy bears.
Then at 6pm the moms started arriving to pick up the kids and I sent PeeWee out to his friend J's house, under the pretense that he needed help in putting up a shelf. PeeWee is always game to help out a friend in need, so he went off without questioning. Then it was a mad rush to get the house ready for the next party - getting the wine/champagne bottles out of the washing machine, laying out platters previously prepared and hidden in the cupboards, making sangria, putting stuff in the oven. I had asked two friends and my MIL to bring some quiches and desserts, and I wish I had taken a picture of the actual buffet platter, because it was enough to feed 100, easy. My MIL, who I thought was making me one quiche, came with 4 enormous ones, each the size of a 27-inch plasma TV screen.
His friends started arriving on time, which was a surprise to me, but I guess people do take surprise parties seriously. It was all I could to to stop laughing because it was all coming together after a month or so of planning it all. Then a phone call from J saying that they were on their way, and after about 10 minutes, the birthday boy arrived. The following picture should say it all:
I had tears in my eyes when he actually came in and realized what had happened. 25 or so of his best friends in one room (100% turnout!) - I think he was actually quite surprised and shocked even. Hanaya told me later that she had tears in her eyes too - she had been great by the way, keeping this secret for over a month (we had not said anything to Manolee, who is too young to keep a secret, so she was in for a bit of a shock too when after her party, she realized that another party was being prepared for someone else!)
Then we packed off the kids with my MIL and the party got under way. It really was a lot of fun, and it went on for much longer than I expected - since most people had babysitters back at home, I thought they would stay only till about midnight or so, but we ended up dancing and partying until 3:30am! What fun! And what a way to start PeeWee's 40th year! Hee!
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