C, F, L, R

Lest Gus think I’m being judgmental and mean, I wanted to write about a few things that didn’t suck.

First: my French class right now with Ryan, Peter, and G., the trainer. G. gives us some extremely awesome exercises. Today we had to use the future, so she had us write horoscopes. She also gave us this exercise, which is called "L’abri atomique". I think it is so awesome that I will reproduce it here.

La guerre détruit la civilisation. Dans un abri atomique, il y a des survivants (11) qui pourront continuer la race humaine. Ils ne pourront ressortir de l’abri que dans un mois, quand les décombres, radioactives seront á un niveau viable. Mais il n’y a de l’oxygène que pour 31 jours et seulement pour 6 personnes. Cinq d’entre elles devront donc se sacrifier pour permettre aux autres de reconstruire la civilisation.

Quelles sont celles des personnes suivantes que vous garderiez ou élimineriez ? Donnez les raisons de votre choix.

1. Un prêtre âgé de 45 ans.
2. Un médecin : 71 ans.
3. Une femme enceinte de 8 mois ; elle a le SIDA : 34 ans
4. Son mari, artiste, veut la suivre : 38 ans.
5. Un ancien policier, chassé de la police pour terrorisme : 29 ans.
6. Un charpentier, vendeur de drogue : 26 ans.
7. Une étudiante en biologie, anarchiste, était en prison pour terrorisme : 22 ans.
8. Un permier sourd-muet : 25 ans.
9. Un spécialiste d’énergie nucléaire (stérile) : 28 ans.
10. Un ingénieur homosexuel : 35 ans.
11. Une ancienne prostituée : 40 ans.

Second: after yesterday, I was super burned out and I went home and decided to study the passé simple, which is basically the most useless thing you can do and still feel productive. The "value" of the passé simple, according to my host family, is that it is used when you’re talking about something that has happened in the past that "doesn’t have an effect on the present". Of course, by definition, if you’re talking about it, it has an effect in the present. Confused? So am I. But at least I can conjugate the fuckers.

Third: yesterday I got frustrated during one of my classes and swore at them in English. At first I was a little worried, but now I’ve had time to reflect and I realize that it’s actually pretty funny. They had Space Pinball 3d open for the third time or something like that, and I said, "What are you fucking kids doing? Close that shit." It was a Francophone class, so in all likelihood they weren’t able to figure out what I meant exactly, but they understood "close". After that I emitted French that probably meant something like "If I find you with games again, I will teach the Discipline Master. This is not a card game. I am very angry."

Fourth: today I watched an English class. The English teachers are encouraged to talk only in English and only respond to English. I watched Rose and she was totally awesome. She caught a kid with headphones and sent him to the Discipline Master, and when the other kids laughed, she said "I don’t think it is funny. He will not be able to learn English. I think it is sad." One other time, she decided to move a student, and she said, "I think you should move up front. I think you will learn better in front."

Maybe these are things that don’t seem funny unless you’ve tried to teach a class. Me and Peter thought they were great.

Today I only had one class, which was a lab class, and I think it went pretty damned well. I actually got a couple of important points across:

• Try it and see what happens!
• You just read your notes aloud and the answer is in there! Listen to yourself!

Lastly: last night I had a dream that I put on a ton of weight all over. Kind of unnerving. Resolved to resume my exercises.

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