Friday, December 12, 2008

"Ma vie est tout a fait fascinante"


I found the funniest french cartoon blog at school today (cultural education = introducing us to french humour, duh).
Here's the url: http://www.penelope-jolicoeur.com/

For those of you that don't speak French, I'm sorry, and its a shame, because I actually burst out laughing in class while reading these, they've been described as a french version of Bridget Jones - which is a kind of humour that has always very much appealed to me. I also like it because a lot of the things she ridicules (the fact that all the girls in Paris dress the same - and they do, or that french people look ridiculous in winter) are true and so very french!!! Here's one of my favorite cartoons (that I've seen so far).
I think I might buy her book "Ma vie est tout a fait fascinante" (a book of cartoons like the one above) because I think it might be fun for the Fam to look at when I come back for Christmas - little introduction to my adopted culture around the kitchen counter (and that's one less book I have to somehow ship home at the end of the year!!!).

I want to make sure that I follow up on stuff like this because yeah, I don't really need another comic book, but last year I NEVER would have gone out of my way to read french comics, and now I think they're the shit and have her blog bookmarked on my computer (and am sooo checking it instead of doing work as per usual). Its these little details that people so often forget about during big trips like this, the way your perspective and appreciation for different things changes. I want to try and reward these little interests so that when I'm back in Canada I don't revert back to boring anglophone (sorry! no offense meant to anglophones, but being able to speak French but never reading or listening to anything in french is kind of like being able to skip but trudging everywhere instead).

Damn it I had a whole bunch of things I wanted to talk about but this week I've kind of been a bit of a stress case since I was studying and agonizing over the 7 exams I had to write. As per usual I'm pretty sure I aced the majority despite the crippling worry, except for my "real" french university course because I finished before everyone else which means one of two things: a) I am a genius and above the mere mortals that are the French
b) I handed in a pathetic version of what was supposed to be an essay, and as such will probably scrape the grade if at all.

Whateverrrrr. Found out the average mark most french students expect (and are happy to receive) is a 10 or a 12 out of 20. I have reassessed my expectations and have decided to be happy with anything 14 and up (classified as "intello", usually the kind of kids that shut themselves in their rooms hours and hours on end to study.... yay low expectations and being a foreign studentttt!!!). Don't get me wrong, blah blah blah I like getting good grades and I take my education seriously, but man is it nice not to have to bust your ass (too much, I studied a lot this week, though it was no where near back home with the 7hr library stints) for good marks.

I'm typing a lot today and saying very little. I think I'm exhuming a bit of the crazy that's been broiling in me after shutting myself in my room for a few days...

3 comments:

Lo.Mc said...

I wish I could read those, I know the some basic's in french I suppose...
The drawings remind me of the cartoon's my friend Bri does.

Anonymous said...

Trudging/skipping...great analogy!!
Kind of a mind set as well.

We got an xmas card from Tiger...he says we should focus on being happy since the word always needs more positive people...

ww.

May said...

Ugh.. Tiger. Inspirational as ever. Were they on a mountain?