theres an error in the last post. i thought i saw something i didnt. The word Berlioz said was "voisinage" which is, i gather, means neighboring (voisin = neighbor) so Berlioz actually said "i grew up neighboring this great city" which makes much more sense.

French is hard, it a good time to say this. Im not going to pretend im somehow knowledgeable about the language, i cant at all write it, not even close. Its pathetic... i could write, "my name is blah im from blah and i like to ride my bicycle ... blah" but thats about the highest level of language i can acheive. I can speak it with a mild degree of proficiency and a pretty decent accent, a lot better than most americans, at least. God i hate the american accent in french... its so freakin annoying. Oh, and i can understand it, which is important, and i can converse. The whole explaining-philosophical-concepts thing i havent quite gotten down, but i think i can get most of the day without that.

Uh, what else. Im going to portugal for the holidays, Porto to Lisbon and the south coast, but ill probably be back in nantes by the end of december. Then for the new year im headed off to paris. its been rather slow around here, these parts for the last week. Did the exams business... my mother is coming into town... No more classes for me, which is awesome.

And just another non-sequiter....A good joke i know:

IN Heaven - the chefs are italian, the police- british, the lovers- french, the mechanics - german and its all orginized by the swiss.

IN Hell- the chefs- british, the police- german, the lovers- swiss, the mechanics- french and its all orginized by the italians.