I just started watching some tv to help me with my French. Here is something odd. Anything that is a brand name appears backwards. So when you see someone in a supermarket, everything is backwards. You see a family eating breakfast with a cereal box and it is backwards. My friend Alex told me that this is very common in france.
Yesterday, I went to the super market at a super time, it was very empty. I heard one worked say to the other, C'est tranquil, Oui...so I repeated that to the cashier when I went up to pay. The tranquility was broken when my Visa card would not work. I had gotten through this fear a couple of months ago, but here it was....she tried a few times, but it kept saying the dreaded abandonee . A manager came over and I tried a few different cards....all of them, abandonee. I told them I would go get cash and the ATM was not dispensing money. Hell. When I get nervous, I mix up my pronouns and the conjugation of the accompanying verb and don't realize till after. I try to correct it in delay, but it makes me mad at myself. So, I had to run to the cash machine a couple miles away.
I came back with cash, ready to pay and voila, the cashier was gone as were my groceries . I knew this mean that I had to go to the customer service desk and explain. There was a big line at the desk. The desk raises the workers up higher than you, so this giant woman is looking down at me waiting to hear what I wanted. I had prepared myself to just try to flow... I started ok, but there were new works that I didn't know in this situation and the verb partir could not be found. I finially made the woman understand me and she asked me which cashier. When I went to look, as the supermarket is pretty big, another manager recognized me and got me straightened out. I told her I was very sorry.
I have to say that everyone I felt with was very nice and as helpful as could be. I did not get any attitude or impatience. I also think their register was broken as my cards are fine. I called the company.
I see that my french is struggling. I sometimes feel like the gardener that I had in California. He spoke very little English and we communicated somehow, but, I don't want to sound like that.
I need to start writing down these conversations afterwards and find the missing words and conjugations.
I'm also still having trouble hearing what people say to me. I still have not had my breakthrough.
.I had to drive a ways to get to it as the roads are around woods and parks. I found a turn off and we walked up the river towards Valbonne, It was back to another time period. It poured yesterday so the river was not as clear as it would normally be. The dogs didn't mind. We found a nice red ball and Kate kept it the entire time, although she did tease us with it.We ran into a few day trippers...some one asked me, in French, do you speak English? It was an older man from Denmark. We will go back and explore more. On the way back I stopped at the market to run in and get a few things...All of a sudden I heard a car alarm and I realized...Emile had somehow set it off.So I ran out and disarmed it and gave Emo a stern talking too. He had already been pushing it. They saw a horse and went ballistic. There are many travelling circuses going on right now. The circus lets their animals out into a field next to where the circus is held. We saw some lovely camels, one scratching his long neck on an old stone wall in Opio. It might almost be worth photographing if I didn't have an aversion to circuses. My problem is clowns. When I was a child, I was scared by a clown and have never been able to stand circuses...plus, there is the animal cruelty thing. These are very small and the animals looked happy to be participating. I wonder about this. Having spent time at the PBR and even seeing bulls in France in the crazy competition with the teams. It seems to me as though they are less bored with having an occupation. I know with my dogs, they would much rather be doing something, or have something happening than just hanging out, sleeping, waiting.So, who knows. I draw my line with elephants. I think they should be excluded.
.I had to drive a ways to get to it as the roads are around woods and parks. I found a turn off and we walked up the river towards Valbonne, It was back to another time period. It poured yesterday so the river was not as clear as it would normally be. The dogs didn't mind. We found a nice red ball and Kate kept it the entire time, although she did tease us with it.We ran into a few day trippers...some one asked me, in French, do you speak English? It was an older man from Denmark. We will go back and explore more. On the way back I stopped at the market to run in and get a few things...All of a sudden I heard a car alarm and I realized...Emile had somehow set it off.So I ran out and disarmed it and gave Emo a stern talking too. He had already been pushing it. They saw a horse and went ballistic. There are many travelling circuses going on right now. The circus lets their animals out into a field next to where the circus is held. We saw some lovely camels, one scratching his long neck on an old stone wall in Opio. It might almost be worth photographing if I didn't have an aversion to circuses. My problem is clowns. When I was a child, I was scared by a clown and have never been able to stand circuses...plus, there is the animal cruelty thing. These are very small and the animals looked happy to be participating. I wonder about this. Having spent time at the PBR and even seeing bulls in France in the crazy competition with the teams. It seems to me as though they are less bored with having an occupation. I know with my dogs, they would much rather be doing something, or have something happening than just hanging out, sleeping, waiting.So, who knows. I draw my line with elephants. I think they should be excluded.
