h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Chris, If you like mwing lawns so much feel free to come to Utah nd mow mine in July. That is my month for yard care at my house.

They speak english alright, Chris, but they refuse to admit it, especially if you're trying to buy a fare on the Metro.

Arlecchino, most of us are comfortable about admitting our geographical location, but e-loocations, that's different. You can trust that, in a forum with conversations as long and gnarly as this, only your friends will hear what you said.

I guess I ought to start a new conversation see. We're on or past the 600 mark, I think.

Sorry Marv, but I'll have to decline - can't afford to travel. Of course, if you're paying, I wouldn't mind leaving the country for a bit.

Lil, I'm lucky enough not to have to deal with their Metro prices for a while yet. My trip to Paris in a few weeks (with select people from school) is quite organised already, and the teacher is geting us our Metro passes ready for when we go. Besides, if they really want to be stubborn about it, I'll have to resort to annoying them with typically innacurate phrase book grammar.

Just be an Englishman. That is guaranteed to annoy any Frenchman. They call you rosbifs, yes?

Rosbifs? Fiddlesticks, that word sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it...

We don't have to worry too much about annoying the French here in Colorado. The French-Canadians on the other hand...

Seriously, though, you might want to keep up with your languages, Prof. I took Spanish through most of my school life and prompty forgot it upon graduation. Now I'm regreting it because I could be making twice as much money as someone who is billingual. Just something to keep in mind...

G7

You speak true words, G7, but I aim to leave French bottled up and stored in a cupboard in the knowledge that I've still got my German skills at hand.
I'll be taking either AS (one year) or A2 (two years, a full A-Level) in German, just to keep a decent certificate in the language.
I find French cramps my style somewhat.

*just had her last AP french class today*

five years... *sob*

*feeling very depressed about graduating high school*

Oh sea, there is nothing better than graduating high school! The next few years are so much better, and go much further towards shaping the rest of your life. If I could live my college years over again and again, just for the thrill of it, I would.

/* sighs */

Of course I wouldn't want them to repeat like a broken record. I'd have to have some free will in there and variation, or what's the point?

Chris, maybe that password-protected page is one of your old pre-Rupert pages about to be re-activated, or a post-Rupert page that was moderated and simply has a link to your site. I would think that someone goes over the links on those pages at some point.

The French are a weird and wonderful race, fabulously inventive, stubborn as mules yet anarchic, and feircely loyal if you befriend them. They have rules for doing that. An American living in Paris *sudden swelling of symphony orchestra* NOT NOW GEORGE! that I know says that you should always engage them correctly in conversation. If you just go up to them and say, "Hey garcon, where's the Eiffel Tower?" you'll get precisely nowhere, even if it's just round the corner. But if you say"Pardon me for disturbing you..." (Excusez-moi de vous deranger...), they'll immediately begin to listen, because now you're a polite person and not a pushy tourist. And, she says, if you then add "But I have a problem" (Mais j'ai une probleme), they will move heaven and earth to help, because they love to solve problems. And if you make friends with a French person, they will expect you to keep in touch afterwards, and be very disappointed if you don't.

Well that's what she says. Based on my limited experience of the country and its people, I'd say it's probably true.

Hope this helps, Chris!

G7, I'm glad my hoary old saying brought some comfort.

d'E- i know, i'm excited about it, i'm just kind of terrified of going out on my own and being in charge of my life and being thrown into a new place all at once... *shudder*

Three weeks to the day after I graduated high school I moved many hundreds of miles away. I moved from a large city to a small town with nothing more than $100 and the hope to have a good time in a resort town. This eventually failed and I went home. But it gave me a great appreciation on how to live as an adult. I wish you luck SEA

Sure, I remember the anxiety. But the thing is, it *passes*. And once it does, it's not so much a sense of relief you feel as a sense of "why did I bother worrying about that, or the other thing, or that other other thing" and you begin to realize how petty most concerns, especially high-school concerns (and that goes double or triple for Catholic high-school concerns) are. At least I did, and resolved not to worry so much anymore.



As for the French, I agree with that assessment. I've found they can be quite good at returning rudeness, and there is nothing so rude as an American abroad. But go just a little way to be polite, and they are very pleasant people.

hehehe. americans are just plain rude. (this coming from one of them)

I promise that my hideous experience of France in 1973 was not a consequence of rudeness on my part. Now you all know me. Would I be gratuitously rude to a stranger when I was a guest in his country? The conversation has moved to the next thread, y'all. http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F38024?thread=121354&post=1050612#p1050612