Consider mediation

A pleasant holiday weekend passed into the books yesterday. Little progress was made in the way of either of my major projects before the trip (French and ripping to my ipod) but life was decent enough still. Got the chance to see the W's on Sunday night which was an unexpected treat. I was surprised to learn that Bonnie has fallen in with a crowd of exiles from various countries including...France.

Weird.

I suspect I will not get the opportunity to use this to my advantage before we leave but, like the sun, I appreciate knowing it's there. Of course as has been stated previously, unless they wanted to talk about getting a new ladder because theirs is broken I don't know what we could talk about.

Actually, I'm doing OK with French on a basic level. The problem is getting the mental processing down to an acceptable time for a conversation. In my American experience, most exchanges are short and to the point because we're very busy people living very busy lives. I suspect my would be French friends are no different.

Here's a sample exchange. Enjoy.

"Would you like a hamburger? Yes, I would. Hamburgers are awesome."

I don't have to think: Okay, a hamburger. That's a bun with something that at one point was probably a cow in between. Yes, I do like them. Quite a bit.

My current level of French would stretch this 5 second exchange into roughly 5 minutes and into a matter that would require assistance from the United Nations. Par example, assume each sentence is another 10 seconds or so.

"Voudriez-vous un hamurger?"

Hmm. Let's see. Voudriez that's sounds like voudrais which means 'would like'. Hamurger, a guess that's hamburger. Hopefully. So I guess I'm being asked, Would...I...like...a...hamburger.

Why yes. Yes, I believe I would like a hamburger.

"Oui." Phew. Hand it over, Jacques and don't forget the freedom fries.

"Pourquoi voulez-vous en hamurger?

Huh? I wasn't expecting the Spanish inquisition which I guess nobody ever really does. I think that's one of their chief tactics.

Pourquoi. That means why. I guess I'm being asked why do I want a hamburger. An odd question but since I'm a stranger in a strange land I should probably play by their rules. Americans get a bad enough rap as it is.

Um...how do I answer. Let's see because is...parce que. I'll just repeat hamurger and put a le on it so it will sound French. I've no idea what awesome is so I'll just use the English. They'll understand.

Therefore...

"Parce que les hamurgers sont awesome (stupéfiants)!"

Unfortunately, Jacques left five minutes ago muttering about Americans, their big cars and little brains.

And scene.

Figuring using a day off to catch up on sleep or incidentals was pointless, I spent the earliest part of Labor Day running a 10K up Cobb Parkway. And I do mean up; these were probably the longest, steepest hills I've run. It went well. Though it wasn't anywhere close to a personal best, I was quite pleased with my 58 minute time and finished strong while most of the sensible world slept.

Overall it was a good event and well organized. I think the whole shebang was called the US 10K though I'm not certain. Nor am I sure what the race benefited. Perhaps us. Kids, world peace and/or the environment probably too. Definitely something to make us all feel good about being good people. Whatever, I enjoyed reflecting on this good feeling as I rode the diesel powered shuttle back to the starting line whilst enjoying some refreshing bottled water. Yay, us.