Merci, français !

I look at the mini-clock on my desktop. Il est 20 heures 25. Quelle heure est-il à Paris en ce mement ? Il est deux heures 25. Ici, il est samedi encore. Mais, à Paris, il est déjà dimanche. Là-bas, il est tôt le matin. People are sleeping. I'll be there in almost 4 days. J'ai hâte...

J'ai vraiment besoin ces vacances. I haven't been since the New Year. Part of the preparation for my trip has been practicing my French. I've been learning it by myself so far. And of course, I've had so many helps on the side from my friends and my coworkers, especially from my good friend Daena and my good coworker Carole. I couldn't have done it without them. I must say, I myself can't even believe the progress I've made for the past 2 months. When I come back from my trip, I'll be taking French classes. And I'm aiming by the New Year, I'll be speaking this beautiful language fluently. I did it with English, so I can do it with French too. Who know... If I get so good at speaking it, I may even consider moving to France. Well, if not that far, then it will be Montréal. Or I'll run for the prime minister. Haha! Watch out, Harper!

Je pense en français, anglais, et farsi ces jours. Mes rêves aussi sont en français, anglais, et farsi ces jours. Ce n'est pas bizarre pour moi. But people may find it confusing sometime since I accidentally respond in French or Farsi instead. It's been a great experience though. And I am glad that i decided to do it. Especially at this time, I really needed something to distract my mind from the things happening around me. Alors, français, merci bien pour l'aide.

Without you, I would have felt more:

non désirée

triste

fâcher

seul

inquiet

idiot

and many more bad feelings.

Main, tu as été rendu possible par moi que j'ai au moins mauvais pressentiments. Et aussi, tu as fermé des nouveaux portes par moi. Merci !

pass for pause de midi

So, finally, I decided to go to Paris, the city that I've been dreaming to go visit for so long... I always pictured myself going to that city, the city of romance, 'with', you know... 'for', you know... So I kept postponing, re-postponing, and re-re-postponing Paris to further notice. But then I said, fuck it! I don't know when that 'you know' is going to happen. And life is too short. How much longer am I supposed to live with 'you know' and 'you know'? So it's happening. It is really happening. I am going -- I am finally going to Paris, the city of romance.

Part of my preparation for this trip, which I can hardly wait for, is improving my French. And I am learning it by myself. I took French way back in high school. But really at that time I didn't learn much. I mean I didn't pay much attention in the class. To me classes like math, physics, biology, and chemistry were more important than French since I wanted to major in science at university. I am kind of regretting that, but the past is the past. It's never too late. And now I am learning. And also one of my coworkers at work talks to me in French everyday. That's the beauty of living in Ottawa. I have so many people around me who can speak French. And that is awesome. So there's no excuse for me not to learn this beautiful language.

I am getting better... I can read and write now, but I still have a hard time speaking. And here's something funny happened today:

It's 12:30pm at work. I tell my coworker en français, "I am going on a 10min lunch break to the cafeteria". She looks at me, nods, and with a big smile gives me her pass*. I look at her puzzled. "Why is she giving me her pass?", says the voice in my head. So I say it loud to her, "why are you giving me your pass?". Now, she's confused. "Didn't you ask me to give you my pass to go to the cafeteria for 10min?", she asks.

Here's where the confusion came from: en français, lunch break is pause de midi, but because of my lovely pronunciation, she thought I was saying pass instead of pause. And this is the beauty of learning French by yourself! But at least she kind of understood what I was trying to say...

*Where I work, you need a pass to get into the building or go from one floor to another.