I've been realizing that my memory of the rules of grammar is woefully inadequate.
Teaching English (American) conversation is one thing; but when my kid-students bring their schoolbooks so that we can work on their newest lessons, I suddenly start to panic! How do I explain the difference between definite and indefinite articles?? Why should I care? Why should they??
So, I've been doing some online research and purchasing a few extra ESL/EFL books to use to help me out. Believe it or not, I still have my old grammar and composition book from Seventh or Eighth grade, and that has been helpful. Of course, there's always good, old Strunk and White as well as several other useful books that I have lying (NOT laying) around.
But, I do feel that I need to understand these things clearly myself so that I don't teach the little critters the wrong thing. Therefore, I suppose that this is all quite useful for me as well. I have always known what seems right when I write, but I never really thought about why it seemed that way.
I never would have thought that, at my age, I would be back to hitting the books to study something like this. Still, learning (and, sadly, re-learning) is never a bad thing.
Well, at least six of us are. And we all had lunch together in Laroque d'Omes at the wonderful, new Thai/Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant, Le Jardin du Siam.
JM and I had the pleasure of sharing time with our friends Cassandra and Paul Einstein from Camon, and Ellie and John Clemens from Esperaza (and Ste. Colombe). It was the first time that the Einsteins and Clemenses had met and I thought that Ellie and Cassandra in particular should get to know each other, what with both of them being such talented artists.
It was one of those odd moments, because Le Jardin du Siam is in a bit of an oddity in these parts: a mini-mall. I think it's the first one I've seen since we've moved here. And, most unusually for a restaurant in France, the whole front of the dining area is a large, glass window looking out onto the parking lot. That, coupled with the fact that today was a stunning spring day, with temperatures hovering around 70 F, made me feel, just for a few minutes, that we'd been mysteriously transported back to Southern California.
It was also the first time in over a year that I was sitting with that many other Americans. As I've mentioned before, usually when we get together with other English-speakers, I'm the only one with an American accent, so this was quite unusual.
I'm afraid we might have been "that" table in the restaurant. You know the one; it's always got a group of people laughing and being loud and you give them annoyed glances (mostly because you know you're not having as much fun as they are). Luckily, the lovely lady who owns the restaurant didn't seem to mind.
Laroque seems an odd place to find a restaurant like Le Jardin, but perhaps it's a sign of more of us "furriners" arriving in the region. At any rate, it's a terrific find. Although we still love the Hanoi in Carcassonne, and Le Perle d'Orient in Limoux, all of us felt that this was simply the best Asian meal any of us has had since moving here.
Now, if only I can get them to start making Thai iced coffee and tea...
I had to mention the sunshine! It seems like forever since we've had any, although I know that objectively, that's not true.
Still, we had hideous weather over the weekend. During the night of Friday to Saturday, there was one of the scariest storms I heard in a long time. I say "heard," because once we close the volets we can't actually see anything without opening them. With the sounds of wind, rain and probably hail coming down the chimney, opening the volets somehow seemed like a bad idea!
Although there wasn't any thunder, the Diva was pretty terrorized. Thank goodness for her Anxiety Wrap, without which, I don't think any of us would have gotten any sleep. As soon as I put it on, she started to relax and within half-an-hour, she was snoring away.
Still, we're very lucky here in the Possum Kingdom. We never lost our power and there was no flooding, although all three rivers looked full and furious. This was a big blow to many around here, as Saturday was the start of Trout fishing season! I don't know how many actually went out, but a fisherman was swept away near Lourdes, so discretion was certainly called for.
Now, for the telephone part of this entry. Following our new accountant's advice, we decided to ask France Telecom to change the name on our phone account to Lofficier Consultants so that we would be able to deduct part our calls from our taxes. It sounded like a cunning plan.
What we didn't realize, was that by doing that, we went from the residential services to the commercial services. This wouldn't have been a problem, exept for the fact that we had a faboo calling plan! 100% Unlimited calls to France, Europe and North America for about 80€ a month. Clearly for us with family and friends still in the States, this was a tremendous deal.
The fatal flaw in the plan was that as soon as we changed the account, we LOST the Unlimited calling! On Friday, we got our bill and I noticed we'd been charged for a bunch of calls that should have been free. Then, today, we got a letter saying that following our request, they'd cancelled our unlimited service! We never wanted that!!
So, after spending long and complicated time on the phone with Telecom, we are in the process of begging them to return things to the way they were! I hope this works. I know that I can use Skype, but I don't like the sound quality as much as the landline and it is hard to always think about how long you've been on a call with your mother.
