Sick? and French

I think I must be fighting something off because I've been taking these long, obviously necessary naps in the middle of the day. Of course, there's also not a lot of sunlight these days, and the days are still getting shorter. I wouldn't at all be surprised if that had something to do with it too. But both A and Js have been sick lately. Hmm, I would almost rather just get sick for a shorter time than partially fight it off for a long time, but we don't get to choose these things, do we.

Today a couple of Italian linguists gave talks; LR and AB. LR's talk especially was very interesting, one of these cartographic things, mapping out the area very high up in the clause. They spoke in French...silly Europeans, they're so fluent in so many languages! And I was feeling so out of it, I had written down a number of questions to ask in French but ended up asking one in English. My boss C joked that I have until Christmas and then no more English after that.

I know he's joking, but honestly, before I accepted the job, I asked if I would have to work in French, and the answer was, "no, not really." Okay, if the answer had been "yes, constantly," I still would have come. But sheesh! It's good for me to speak and listen in French, but when I have to choose between communicating and not communicating -- asking a grammatically complicated question or not asking it, or making small talk with someone or not, or making sure I understand someone or not -- I'd rather err on the side of communicating, even if I can't always do it in French.

That said, I am realizing that the only way I will communicate with certain people is to get better at French. So I have French radio on now sometimes (check the link on the right)... not always the BBC. And Sn (this is the guy I liked from a date a few weeks ago but he lives in London at the moment) sent me the address of a French "podclass." Sn's English is very good, though, fortunately. Oui, oui, I know they say the best way to learn a language is to fall in love with someone who speaks it, but I'm afraid good English is still very much a requirement in my book.

Oh, and skyping was great yesterday. :) I skyped to my parents and also with Noo, though he had some audio issues so it ended up with me talking into my computer and him typing back responses. A weird way to communicate. But it worked just fine.