Intensivt fransk-kursus i E.K.

Nå, I troede nok lige at jeg havde skudt et par pile efter det danske, huh?! Men der blev I da vist taget ved næsen, gjorde I så, ja I gjorde!!
Godt så..

Jeg har netop haft mit 3-ugers intensive fransk-kursus. Og jeg tror, det må have været det bedste kursus/timer, jeg nogensinde har haft.
Allerførst, troede jeg helt klart at det ville blive et problem at møde kl. 08.30 (ja, fordi det er omkring fem år siden, at jeg har været noget som helst sted kl. 08.30! På nær hvis det er fløjeren eller så’noget selvfølgelig. Postbudet kommer heller ikke så tidligt, men det er en hel anden historie..ja), men frisk og frejdig – dog uden heste-hale og rygsæk – har jeg spankuleret hjemmefra kl. 08.00 tre uger i træk!
Nej-nej-nej, ikke noget med; Og hvad så. Det er sgu svært, hvis man ikke er vant til det! Det drejer sig selvfølgelig om vaner og motivation. Og min motivation var helt klart min semi-homo italienske fransk-lærer (med semi-homo accent); ”Hej! Jeg hedder Jerome, jeg er jeres fransk-lærer, jeg snakker meget, og hvis I synes jeg snakker for meget, så siger I bare Stop Jerome! Fordi min partner siger tit jeg snakker for meget..”
’hans partner…’ tænker jeg
”- Ja, lidt om mig selv, jeg er gift…”
’Hvad hedder han så? Tommy? Tommy og Jerome! Gluk-gluk-gluk’
”- med en kvinde!’
’Ok, got me!’

Det har været et meget underholdende kursus, og Jerome er absolut ikke den der al-humor-har-jeg-gemt-i-nederste-køkkenskuffe-i-mange-år typen, men mere den der type, der er interesseret i at høre om traditionel madlavning (og hvis han kunne få nogle opskrifter – til konen altså – så ville han gerne have dem), musik, film-instruktører, uddannelses-systemer osv. Vi havde alle glemt hver gang, at det her var faktisk et fransk-kursus i Kommissionen. Og det var da helt glemt den dag vi sad og hørte Bamses Billedbog…! (og så er det nok ikke så svært at forstå, hvis der lige pludselig kommer forbud ud om krumme agurker!).

Hele holdet var helt fantastisk, og hvis I nogensinde har undret jer over hvordan ordet ’Hallo’ blev til, så kan jeg også fortælle jer alt om det! Men det kommer fra Ungarn.

Jeg kan endda sige, at jeg glæder mig til at møde mange flere fra øst-Europa, de har godt nok en tør humor!

Nå, men billederne taler for sig selv, her er hygge-holdet så:

Og her er Jerome..

Der er flere billeder, men E-blogger er vist lidt træt nu...åbenbart!

Ps - bestod fransk ;o)

What to do when Spain comes to you!

...learn the words; Si, No, No habla, Cervesa, Rhum - coca cola, grazia, no problemo; and you should be covered!

Recently my Spanish flatmate, Laura (introducing), had a bunch of a well-seleceted Spanish nutters over. That was great fun!
And even that we were a quite mixed bunch, the Spanish, the Danish, the N-Irish, the English and even the Belgians we definitely have partying in comment!

Here's from the dinner Saturday evening...





There are many more pic's, but there seems to be a problem with uploading...

Quitting smoking

What did they get out of all these campaigns against smoking? Me being totally hyper when I light a cigarette - I feel like I'm playing with FIRE! Especially when using those Union Matches from the Wild Geese - they're lethal! And you know you've got the audience in the same moment you take out the cigarette-package "Huh?? A smoker...???" - it's nearly like - "I thought they didn't exist anymore???!". Well, anyhow, they saw that flame too which just made it unnecessary to pluck those eyebrows…at least for a while. Dammit...
The other day there was a survey about the non-smoking policy in the offices. I asked my colleagues, who I know smokes too, whether they had answered to it;
"Ah, couldn't by fecking bothered! You?..."
"Ehm... Well, I did. Eh... I told them!" Trying to save myself actually being bothered to answer the questionnaire after the 5th person had told me that he/she didn't.
Well, I received the survey, and in the same second I was ongoing answering all these questions:
The survey gives you the option to choose Yes or No to basically all the questions
1. Do you work in a non-smoking environment? Ehm…Now there's a tough one! - Yes - This is a survey made by a colleague. Do I have to say more?
2. Do you feel a change in your working-environment since the non-smoking policy entered into force? - Yes - We're all running around with each our balloon having great fun!
3. Do you have any suggestions to increase the help for people who would like to stop smoking? (here you could obviously comment): - Give them a break? - I mean, you have to be at least 15 years old to work, and where I work I don't think anyone is below 18, therefore, if they need MORE help, sure they'll be old enough by now to ask for it themselves!
And so on went one question after the other - 60 all together. 60 questions about my feelings for a non-smoking working environment!! Jeeez, like if one always sits and picks ones nose all day!
Do you feel more happy in your working-environment? You know what, I feel fan-fecking-tastic! I go to work every day and feel like I've won the damn lottery!! Like WOOOOH!! I make this little dance when I enter the lobby, I give candy to the security-guys (the cute one gets two), and then I buy coffees to all my colleagues - the boss gets the biggest one, I don't know why, it's just like that…?

What is it? What?? I don't get it. Why should I stop smoking?
"Aaah, because you can save yourself a much earlier death!"
Good point, good point. But, I do got several comments to make on this one…I'll try to keep it short (ahem…)

First of all, what do you survey-dude care all of the sudden? And have we actually met before?

Secondly, enlighten me please, but how is it that we calculate this "Each cigarette takes XX amount of time of your life" now? Is it 1 cigarette takes one hour, day, month or - let me see - isn't it a year by now??
If I stop smoking does that mean I will - assuming this is the only way of dying - get to be 120 years old? Look, I don't wanna be 120 years old. I am not suppose to be 120 years old! What will I do when I'm 120 years old? I've 'been there and done that, bought the t-shirt, had a flirt with the guy who made the t-shirt, then we became millionaires, he went bankrupt while I was signing the divorce-papers (coincidences! I swear...). Headed on to Hawaii for a couple of years being a hula-hula-girl, whereafter I was a tour-guide on the local ferry in Denmark. I've stood on the highest mountain and I even swam in the Atlantic ocean - until I was rescued by a helicopter, and the pilot was my hero and we had 14 children and a nice house in Italy (my goodness, I'm busy). So what it is that I still need to do when I'm 120 years old? Hopefully at that time I would be fit for fight, but something tells me that it wont be like that. Then I hope, that I would at least be able to enjoy where I would be, like having a nice house outside the city with a forest at the back of my house and the sea in front it. It doesn't matter if there will be a beach or not, as I most likely wouldn't be able to go for a swim due to my assumed health-condition which I would most likely suffer from when age becomes an issue not only to the mind, but to the body too. I would really want to have at least one horse, but for the horse sake I should probably have two - so it wouldn't get bored, since I couldn't ride it. Then, what would I do during the day? I would enjoy the view. And that would be the same view for the next 30 years - and then I would die. If I did get 120 years old I would at least get into the Book of World Records - unless other people stopped smoking too - funny huh, it seems to be only us smokers who can extend our life's, and that would mean that I would definitely have guests once a year. Except for when mayor passed by and gave me a speech and a brand-new car that I couldn't drive since my driver-license had been outdated for maaaany years.. But I would be grateful, it would look nice next to the little pond with the ducks and frogs.

Thirdly, I'm left-handed, and according to a Forward the other day, that means that I've already lost 9 years of my life compared to right-handed folks.

Fourthly, calculation: So taken from all the potatoes I have eaten and I should get cancer from, and the acid-rain that falls straight on my head when I forget my umbrella, working next to a 5-lane one-way road, being left-handed and sitting most of the time with my legs crossed stopping ALL blood-circulation, drinking low-fat high energetic powered super artificial sodas and consumed a lot of chickens during my life, and I don't know how many bottles of alcohol as well, crisps that only dream of have being a real potato ones, PLUS being a smoker…

But do I bother with your alcohol-consumption? I take the elevator too in the morning, and I can inform you that Colgate is just not that advance yet!

Unless I would be in such critical situation, I'm obviously not gonna stop smoking - I'm not what you call a heavy-smoker anyway - but it is true that it's a bad thing, also! Ahem.

So, my dear grandma told me the other day, that I should enjoy life - but underlined the actual part of enjoying the doing of living the life. And that's all I can do. If smoking is part of it, let it be.

Oh, oh, oh, another reason comes sneaking here: "You stink"…
- Hey! Cheers mate! And so do you! Let's have a beer!!

What? I stink too?!! I???! I will die young and stinky! Jeeez..
Just how many have passed the famous Bruxellian metro on a sunny afternoon? This metro is one fast fart, taking a lot of smaller farts from one end of town to the other end of town with approx. 50 km/h. I know, when what stinks! For the same reason, I got a car. Which stinks too btw - but that's mostly outside the car. Bin-days! Bin-days are particularly smelly here in Brussels. Specially when the dogs been peeing all over them and other creatures been going through them for any potential eating (I assume), and wherefore the garbage-men will leave the crashed-open bag until another I-don't-who-but-if-I-was-him-I-too-would-come-on-a-time-when-noone-sees-me comes and take cares of the problem (but all respect to that person! Pjew!)

But in fact, this stinky part would probably be the reason why I would stop - should I choose to do so, uhm, before my health condition gets bad and blablabla - and talking to a friend the other day, who smokes too, we thought of a presumed effective non-smoking-campaign - obviously we wouldn't target people, who's been smoking for the last 30 years, taaah, we would target the potential smokers:
"Smoking makes you stink!"
"Cigarette-packages takes to much space in your fancy handbag!"
"Avoid attacks! 'No, I don't smoke' - and walk away!"
"Can't get her? - Get to her parents!"
"No more desperate evenings without a lighter!"
"Just graduated? Get your dream-job!" (yeah, cos at least in Denmark I know, some companies won't hire you if you smoke)
"No more fake tan to cover grey skin!"
"Don't get one kid, get seven!"

Too late for me, I am already alienated, and I'm use to it, and basically I don't care. But! I do respect when I can't smoke. At least.