Sunday, November 30, 2008

I may not have done NaBloPoMo...

...but I did finally get my blog up to double digits in posts for the first time since April! Go me!

Now I just have to keep the momentum going!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Making progress

I've been stuck with 20 pages left to go on my thesis since the end of August. Kind of getting tired of that. I got some good ideas from my adviser a few weeks ago and have been mulling them over, and finally I got to the point where I was ready to take notes this week. I've pulled out all the examples I want to use from my translation and from the official translation of the prequel and I'm almost done reading critical articles about the subject that this chapter is going to talk about. So I might actually get to start writing again on Monday... yay!

Friday, November 28, 2008

An apple a day may keep the doctor away

But it sure does make the dentist come running. Chipped teeth are no fun!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Is this France or Florida?

The news outlets around here can't quit hollering about the Aubry/Royal vote... 50.02%-49.98%...

(A friend of mine has a boyfriend who isn't much of a Royal fan -- last night at Thanksgiving dinner, he commented on the irony of someone named "Royal" leading the Socialist Party. I replied it could be worse -- she could work for a Jewish organization and have a name that means "Christian victory", like me.)

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Okay, so it's a bit early. But we didn't have much of a choice -- one of our friends is leaving the morning after Thanksgiving to return to the States for three months. Plus we all have to work on Thursday.)

This is the first time I've had Thanksgiving since I've been in Switzerland, and it was awesome. Turkey, stuffing, biscuits and cornbread, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, roasted squash, apple cobbler and pumpkin pie... yum. The conversation covered topics from male breastfeeding to fire extinguisher regulations and beyond. (The sad thing is, both male breastfeeding and fire extinguisher regulations were topics that came up because they were directly related to the work we've done recently...) And it snowed outside during dinner, so it was pretty on the way home.

I love days like that. :)

Friday, November 21, 2008

Cheese!

The Migros up the street from me just rearranged the cheese aisle -- and now they carry cheddar! Yay! No more schlepping all the way to the train station anymore...

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Saturday, November 15, 2008

So French

From French police dramas...

Clip 1 (from a movie about a female customs police officer): The customs police are chasing bad guys armed with automatic weapons. The bad guys are spraying bullets everywhere, but not a single one of the police officers draws his weapon. The bad guys prepare to escape in a getaway car, and all the police officers scramble to get into their cars to chase the bad guys. Suddenly, the heroine of the film arrives at the scene, draws her weapon, aims... and gets run over by a fellow police officer's car before she can fire.

Clip 2 (from tonight's episode of a weekly, hour-long police drama): a female police officer gets shot by a female bad guy in a warehouse raid. The female bad guy runs away, and the rest of the police force gives chase. This time, at least, they have their weapons drawn. The female bad guy is shooting over her shoulder, then stops, turns around and starts aiming and shooting at the pursuing cops for real. They hit the ground, even though there's nothing in between them and the bad girl to protect them. They never even try to take a shot at her. But they end up getting saved by the fact that her gun jams and she can't shoot at them anymore. So she goes on the run again, quickly losing the police, finally stopping when she thinks she's in the clear. But one police car manages to catch up with her, and the police officer takes her out by... opening his car door in her face and knocking her out.

French TV is weird, y'all.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Goth feet

When I was in high school, I never really understood why on Earth anybody would be into goth. I found it to be highly unattractive and a little bit depressing.

Fast forward to this week. There's an ugly black stain on one of my nails, and I'm sick of looking at it. And what better way to cover a black stain than with black nail polish? So I went out and bought some, and now I have goth feet.

NCIS's Abby would be so proud.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

At least the banker has a sense of humor...

I have been in and out of the bank quite a bit recently, dealing with administrative issues since the bank changed its policies regarding student association accounts. I went in yet again on Friday in order to pick up some additional paperwork that needed to be signed. The banker in charge of our account is starting to get used to seeing me around so often... when I left, he said, "You know, I'm not going to say 'goodbye' to you anymore. I'll just say, 'See you soon.' So, see you soon."

I hope he's wrong about that!