Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Return home

Good things usually have to come to an end. Today is the day of my flight back home. After a month of productive fieldwork, fruitful social interactions, good eating and sightseeing, and shopping, I am looking forward to going back to my loved one and my dogs. I know it's going to be a long day of traveling, but I know that the upcoming hugs and kisses are well worth it.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Monday at the Louvre


The first time I came to Paris, I was 17 years old, touring France with a group of high school senior girls. Back then, the trip was intended as a cultural historical and spiritual trip, which took us to places like Tours, Lourdes, Lisieux, Thésée, and other religious or historical sites related to the foundation of Montreal in 1642. By the time we got back to Paris, I was rather fed up with highly cultural activities. So when we were given the choice between an afternoon at the Louvre or shopping at Les Galeries Lafayette, I chose the latter. Needless to say that I had lots of fun shopping with the girls, but today, more than 14 years later, I figure that it would be a sin to be in Paris a second time without seeing the Louvre. So I woke up early yesterday morning to be at the entrance at the opening (9am). I went in by one of the alternate entrances to avoid waiting in line -- the main entrance at the Pyramid is always way too crowded -- and spend the morning at the museum. This was a very pleasant way to spend time alone in Paris yesterday. Seeing so many masterpieces gathered in one single place was quite impressive and inspiring. Then, when I left the museum around 1pm, I walked down the rue de Rivoli to Le Marais (gay area) and the Place de la Bastille. In case anyone is wondering, I did do some shopping, after visiting the Louvre this time...

Monday, July 10, 2006

Rough morning...

Rough morning this morning. France was defeated in the World Cup; the mood is down. Italy won the World Cup; the night was noisy, sleepless. I'm heading out to the Louvre and more sightseeing early this morning...

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Fun times in Paris


I got to Paris yesterday afternoon, and hooked up with Claire, her cousins and two of her friends from Bloomington -- Alexa and Ira -- to go to a movie near the Opera Garnier. We saw a comedy, "Nos jours heureux" and it felt really good to laugh out loud and unwind from the last few weeks of fieldwork and academic conferences. After the evening, we decided to meet again today to walk through Montmartre. I met Alexa and Ira in the 5e arrondissement this morning and they showed me around the neighborhood a bit. We had mint tea and pastries on a terrace right by the Mosquée de Paris, walked around and took the Métro to join the others by Montmartre.


The city is filled up with excitement in preparation for tonight's final game of the soccer tournament in Germany. People are wearing the #10 t-shirt for Zidane, cars are drving by honking and cheering "allez les Bleus!", there are signs everywhere. It's crazy! I decided to stay in tonight to avoid fire crackers and drunk crowds; I'll watch the whole thing on TV and will undoubtedly stay up first because of the game, then because of the noise outside. Today was a great day: Allez les Bleus!



Saturday, July 08, 2006

Conferences in Belgium

I attended two conferences in Belgium this week. I got to Mons on Tuesday afternoon for the first one, "la Journée de la Nasalité", which was quite technical, but very interesting. It focused mostly on acoustic issues related to nasality. When I first got my hotel (Hotel Etna), I realized that I should have asked around before booking my room right by the train station... It felt like a dump where people go to get some, if you know what I mean. My view: a shut-down sex show viewing place. No wonder they had me pay for the room upon arrival. I will spare you the details (noise, shower, phone, service problems) but I will say that it was less than an ideal place to spend the night before a conference, especially on the night that the Italian soccer teams won their semi-final game against Germany. After Mons, I went to Louvain-la-Neuve for a second conference on prosodic aspects to sociolinguistic variation in French. It was great! I learned quite a bit about the sociophonetics, and about various research projects related to prosody and the perception of phonological fearures that are tied to social or geographic differenes. Although I got to Louvain-la-Neuve quite late on Wednesday night (long story!), I was able to walk around this brand-new university town in the following days. Everything there was designed to cater to the university, which was founded in 1425 in Louvain (Leuven) and got kicked out from Flemish territory in the late 60s, hence the creation of Louvain-la-Neuve. The town didn't feel like Europe at all. In fact, it felt like an unban laboratory where we live under the supervision of some crazy scientist, à la 1984. You should check it out sometime.

http://www.olln.be/ (website of the city of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve) http://www.ucl.ac.be/en/intro.html (website of the Université catholique de Louvain)



A sign by my room door in Louvain-la-Neuve. It reads "Walen go hom", which was displayed at a demonstration for the departure of Walloons (Walloon students and their university) from Leuven, in the mid-60s.

Train ride to Belgium


The train ride to Mons (Belgium) -- my first train ride ever, except for the commuter train in Chicago -- was great. When I got to the train station in Amiens, with all my stuff, I asked a man for information, making sure to look helpless enough that he would offer to help me with my heavy suitcase, which he did. Turns out he was the train operator, and after noticing my Canadian accent and finding out this was my first ride ever, offered me to ride in the driver's cabin to Lille. It was AWESOME!

Monday, July 03, 2006

Goodbye Picardy


My time in Picardy is almost over. I met plenty of great people who welcomed me with open arms, and I hope that I can come back next year for more firldwork. I am leaving for Belgium tomorrow for 5 days of conferences -- I'm not presenting, just attending!-- and then a few days of tourism in Paris before heading back home to Milwaukee. The weather is finally warm, pretty hot in fact. I hope I can write more when I get to the city. :)