French Lesson, again

We didn't have a French lesson last week, so this time I had to deal with the fact that we had a 2 week break. We didn't do any new material, we just went over what we already had. Surprisingly, the lesson was really long! We played a memory game (where French and English words are matches), went over the review sheet, and I read him a French comic book (where I read it in French, then English).

Today my boss told me he felt really sick once he got home, and admitted that he had felt kinda sick all week. He is "VIP" this week at school though, which gives him extra privileges, so he is toughing it out. It explains why he was so calm and patient through our lesson!

I asked him to list all of the animal squishies he owns (he has a collection) so that I can learn all their names and teach him some animals. I figure we can use those to practice subjects, "avoir" (to have), and the determiners (feminine/masculine). We would do all these random animals in addition to the common household pets/farm animals. We might not learn them all in one lesson, but having his toys meaning there could be some fun games involving naming what animals are in different groups or places. Anyway, I just thought I would share this list:

paferfish (puffer-fish)
lopstr (lobster)
perit (parrot)
lain (lion)
pand (?)
scworl (squirrel)
tortol (turtle)
pacwin (penguin)
clonfish (clown-fish)
bear (I helped him)
panda
otopus (octopus)
wale (whale)
sehors (seahorse)
pig
frog (I helped him)
dofien (dolphin)
hepo (hippo)
kowala (koala - I tried to help him but he didn't believe me... I didn't really push it!)
cow
elalfit (elephant)
knarw (?)
monke (monkey)




















That's a lot that I have to learn!! When I'm in Edmonds for Spring break I'm going to use the printer and resources there to finally make handouts and exercises and games and all that.

I'm sick...

Friday night I developed a sore throat and it has morphed into a full blown sore-throat/aching body/shivering/headache/cough/congestion/out-of-it cold that has lasted me the whole weekend. I've been taking day/nyquil, which has been helping, but I still have trouble sleeping and instances like right now, where I've had it in my system for an hour, I still have a headache, general nasal/head pressure, achyness, acidicness to my throat, stuffy/running nose (but less annoying).

There are benefits to this sickness: I have decided to take tomorrow off and rest and sleep more (and not infect others, which is how I got this sickness - people blowing their nose, talking in close quarters in class, all while very sick...). Well that's the main benefit, but I like it! It helps that one of my three classes is canceled. I think its very unlikely and very unhealthy to try and go to my 8 am class, anyway. Especially since I don't feel any better (maybe worse) from yesterday, and this morning around 8 am (which was the middle of the night based on my sleeping schedule) I was completely out of it... I was on nyquil (which is probably the reason for all of this), but I do remember stumbling to the bathroom, being very unsteady, though never actually falling. I remember feeling like I was in a really thick cloud, I could barely see, and though I remember walking part of the way, there was also a suddenly-you're-there, phenomena, where I was moving on auto-pilot. Probably not the best state to go to class in....

Sadly, I've been having some issues taking the pills (seeing as they're big), and it has taken multiple tries to get myself to not stop myself from swallowing them.

Anyhoo, thats basically the update of my weekend. Though its not horrible, it is the worst cold I've had in a while.

Now I have a question, if my temperature reads 98.7, but it normally reads late 96s-97.5ish, does that count as a "mild fever", like 1 degree up? Or does my "normal" not really matter? I only ask that because I have the achyness, skin sensitivity, coldness of a mild temp, but my (extremely near death) thermometer always reads feverless when it doesn't die!

PS. I just got a call from Pops and he said I'm summoned for jury duty in the middle of April, so I have to call them tomorrow and cancel/reschedule!

Happy March!

March came quickly, didn't it?

Ok, so my presentation went really well! I got an A, which is obviously very exciting. I was nervous, but you kind of get into a bubble when you present so it was over quick enough.

The weekend went quickly, but it was definitely a good weekend. It was soooo hard to believe Friday night that I had ACTUALLY finished my presentation, and it was finally the weekend! I mean, my facebook status was about wanting a "skip ahead one day in time" machine... And suddenly I did! Magical! I watched lots of movies, including Young Victoria which I definitely recommend.

One thing that is really nice about tutoring on Wednesdays is it breaks up the week perfectly. After the tutoring, the weekend is near approaching, and once the weekend is over, pouf! magically I'm already counting down to tutoring.

Ok, well I think that's really the only updates. Oh, but on a random note: I was writing a captcha, and the two words it asked me to type were "Dickier" "Reaction". Mehehee.

Oh, and I register tomorrow! Eek, I should probably figure out what I'm going to take!! (8 am class....???)

No Regrets!

Haha I was right, no one even came here and checked this!

I was able to wake up and be on campus at 8 am this morning! I worked on it straight until 1, and I went to work until 5. Technically that means I skipped class, but it was still a very productive day.

Now I have to get into bed because it is almost midnight, I still have to shower, and MOST IMPORTANTLY I still have to memorize my speech for tomorrow.

Luckily we are allowed to use notes and therefore I don't actually have to memorize it. In fact other students have practically read off theirs. Its just nice to know it well enough that if you get lost you know where you are. Which sounds weird but I think you know what I mean.

I'm going to wake up early tomorrow morning too and get to campus early enough to run through it some, print a final copy of the speech to use in class and just get everything together. Then my partner and I are skipping our class at 12 (we have that class together too), so we'll have an hour to go over it together and make sure it flows.

Ish. I'm a mix of nervous and not nervous. Which is weird, because normally I'm pure nerves. I am nervous, cause, well its a presentation. I'm not nervous because I feel kinda confident in the material, and I really really really just want to be done.

Anyway, wish me luck! Next time you see me I'll be done! I'm jealous of you, where you just get to read this and not do it!

Regret?

Ok, what do you think...will I regret this decision?

Its 10pm at night. I need to work on my French presentation. Though I got home about 2 hrs ago, I haven't started it yet. (Bad of me, I know-- writing blogs, checking up on internets and news - it takes a lot time!)

My partner never really said when she would need the stuff by, but I know her work schedule and I know she would prefer it before midday tomorrow but would be able to take care of it afterwork too. Therefore there isn't an immediate rush to get my information into her mailbox.

As you can tell, this sounds like the beginning of a long winded excuse.

The real reason that I am talking about this: I went to open up powerpoint, all my word documents (with links, outlines, the start of my speech, etc) -- myfiles is not working. Myfiles has actually be out of a while because they're changing the system, but because I rarely use it I didn't even think about it.

That means what am I left with: she did email me the powerpoint (rough draft), and I have some ideas from yesterday, though not the beginning of the speech, more recent sources and a more detailed outline.

I also know that I work better in the library. Here, I get distracted by internet. I think of random things to google and that leads me into a tangent that amazingly takes an hour. I mean, just look here: three posts in one night. Ridiculous.

So, though I could work here, it isn't as good of an environment and I don't have all my comfort resources laid out nice. The reason I asked to be taken home instead of to the library was because home sounded more fun for 8pm. I would probably make that decision again, to be honest, but it may not have been the right one: I get a lot more done at the library.

So this is what I am thinking. It is only 10:10. If I shower real quick (to get the smell of cat poop off me, I'll tell you about that later, its not that exciting), I could be in bed by 10:30. If I get a full nights sleep, I could still be on campus at 8. I start work at 10, which means I would have 2 early morning hours to work. I may need coffee, but they could, in theory, be very productive. The plus side is all I have is work, not class. That means if I'm on a role I can always cancel work.

Though it smells like procrastination to me, hence my long defense, I think there is some logic in it. If it works out. If in the morning I decide, eh, well I have tonight...then I will be screwed. In order to make sure this actually happens I have to a) get to bed ASAP and b) think of this as a MUST DO, that this is last minute, it is a fucking presentation = scary. Things are less scary when you finish them ahead of time. Therefore if I can come home from work tomorrow evening with a finished powerpoint and speech, all I would have to do is practice = not scary. I just have to drill that into my head and allow NO change of opinion tomorrow morning.

So...what do you think? Will I do it? Does this sound reasonable and logical to you? Do you think I will get more done tomorrow morning than tonight? Will I regret this?

Let me know what you think! Technically I'll know the answer when I check this next, and seeing as no one checks this that frequently anyway, I'll prolly post the answer before people comment....

*Sigh*

That was long.

Amy

PS. I guess my logic is this: I predict I will get nothing done tonight, due to lack of resources, knowing myself and the general harderness of working at home. Basically I want to get to bed early enough to get work done tomorrow. Problem is, going to bed w/o doing HW = extremely guilty feeling.

Impressed

Oh, I wanted to emphasize in a separate post just how impressed I am by his french acquiring skills. Obviously we've only had two lessons, so its not like there's been much covered at all, but I think I've forgotten just how absorbent a young mind is! Its possible he worked with his older sister (who knows some French), but either way, he remembered phrases that we had only briefly talked about last week and that weren't written down for him. He is very good at copying short words or phrases very accurately, though with longer ones he gets messed up.

Ie. And you may need some knowledge of French to understand the coolness of this, when I said "un", he NASALIZED it! Most people focus less on the sound and get distracted by what they know in English, while he just copied what he heard! Same with "trois" and "quatre", the rs weren't rolled expertly or anything, but he did the next best thing and just moved them to the back of the both and made them breathy and small!

Anyhoo, this'll be really fun! And if you haven't noticed, I'm going to try and document this seeing as its pretty important for me to learn from!

Second French Lesson

The second lesson went very well!

Last time right after we entered the boss asked if we wanted to do French, I agreed, but it was so immediate that I didn't really know him at all or how well he would do a lesson. Therefore we did a really brief lesson on introductory comments and just played some games and bonded.

That worked really well! This time when we got there he showed me his collection of squishies (all the new rage, apparently!), so we were able to visit and talk and kind of catch up. Then we wandered into the other room where we did some french. We were a lot more comfortable with each other, which means I was able to joke and talk about what we were learning more. I was impressed with some of the things he remembered (I didn't leave any papers for him, I accidentally took it when I left - it was in my notebook, afterall!). The review of last time went really well and then we talked about saying how old you are and numbers.

The lesson lasted a little longer but was still brief. We played some video games, and I would have him tell me the level we were going to play in french (ie the number of the level). It worked well and he got some practice looking at his sheet and then memorizing a few really quickly. I could tell this time that he had wanted to work on what we talked about, but couldn't because there was no paper. Therefore I have a feeling he will look at what I left him this time. He also said there is a French book in his library (though he wasn't positive, so technically it could be Spanish or something) and he seemed to think that was really cool. Therefore I'm going to bring some of my french books and comic books just to show him, cause he also seemed to like how I said we could look through them/learn with them/eventually read them!

Anyhoo, the video game playing was really fun and we got even more comfortable with each other. Which is very key, because as most of you know, leading a conversation completely when you're the one giving info can be kinda stressful, and made a lot easier if you are really comfortable with the other person.

I may babysit this weekend, though she said that a friends boyfriend may be unavailable to come, and since the point of their hanging out was to meet him, it may be canceled. Regardless, she said that next Wednesday will be the first time she's going to hang out with friends, and so it'll actually be babysitting/tutoring, instead of tutoring/video game playing. :)

I guess I should of said this at the beginning, but I was really really close to not going at all today. I have a french presentation this Friday that I was going to work on (make the slides and the speech), and I was going to be good and put school first. However, I decided I didn't want to get into the habit of canceling, and seeing as I have no HW for tomorrow I have lots of time in the evening free, so I ended up deciding to go. I am very glad I did!!

And I am very excited to plan what we'll learn next and how we'll make what we already know more exciting!