New Horizons.

Well, hello there! Haven't seen you in a while! 

I've got to say, it's been busy between finals week, moving out of my old apartment and into my new one {for the summer}, and catching up on some reading and sleep. This last week was ridiculous because it was the first week where I had no obligation to do anything, so I didn't really know what to do with myself. So I read, tanned, and slept mostly. But today was an exciting day! Pourquoi? 

Today was the first day of my German language class!

Some of you might be saying, "Dude... why the fuck are you taking another language? Isn't one other than English good enough? Isn't English good enough?"

I won't go into the details of the obvious gaps in the intelligence of those who think in this particular manner, but I will explain why I'm taking another language. 

1) Because I can.

2) Because it's required of my major {Linguistics}.

3) Because I love languages {Hence, the Linguistics major}.

I mean, who doesn't want to learn what is {to that individual} the unknown? Different cultures? Customs? Languages? The latter, I feel, is the gateway to finding the true customs and ideas of other cultures foreign to our own. 

So, why German? Is it because I think it'd be cool to sound angry whenever I spoke {not necessarily true, I'll explain later}? Because I want to learn how it is Germans on average are extremely organized, precise, and professional? Because I want to learn those ridiculously long words Germany is infamous for?

Okay, one of those is false. I am really afraid of those long words. Par exemple:

donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellshaftskapitänsmütze.

Yes. That is a real word.

Why would you do that to someone? It literally took me a solid 10 minutes without a break to finally pronounce it without stuttering or hesitating. Do you want to know what this little beauty means? It's the law for a captain of a steam boat that sails on the Danube River in Germany that his hat must be of regulation size.

Who in the name of Zeus has a word for that? 

Apparently the Germans do.

Here's another fun one! You know that law called the speed limit that you usually ignore? Well in Germany, they decided to make that one difficult as well: geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung. How would that fit on a sign? I can't make this stuff up!

Back to the point that German speakers sound angry all of the time.

For us English speakers, it seems like they're always angry. This is mostly due to the phonetic sounds that appear in their language and are absent in ours. This occurrence is also a reason why people believe it to be an "ugly language". Why? Just because it has different sounds than yours? Americans celebrate the beginning of the oppression and killing of the population of Native Americans by gorging themselves on a pound of turkey, and plates of mashed potatoes, yams, cranberries, and whatever else they can slather butter on. Don't judge. 

Another thing: they're not always yelling. Why do people think they're always yelling? You don't just go up to someone {in any country, for that matter} and yell out "GUTEN TAG" when they're 3 feet from you.

I love America. I really do.

Are the feds gone?

Anyways, besides that I learned basic things like introductions, inquiries and such. The learning process will go that much quicker because I have this class for 3 hours Monday through Friday. Yay?

Yay.

It's about time I learned another language! I think I've secretly been dying for this. I would question if something is wrong with me, but I'll leave that up to someone else for a final decision.

Now that I'm going for another language, I can't help but think about what is next on my list. I know that I want to learn as many as possible, so the logical thing to do would be to weigh out my options as to which is the most useful to me {or will be in the future}. I can't say what that is now, because honestly I've not a clue. For now I want to stick to latin-based languages, but who knows? In a year that could totally change.

As I wrap up this post, I will just leave you with a photo that will possibly haunt your dreams.

Angela is watching you. Always.

À bientôt!

xoxo

Il faut que j'apprenne de la patience.

Merlin's Beard! 

Poseidon's Trident! 

Hammer of Thor!

Holy Interplanetary Yardstick Batman!!!

Please don't ask of me the context to which Robin was referring to, I don't want to know and you shouldn't, either {I spend too much time on the internet...}. But I have reasons to exclaim with joy! I just bought my plane ticket for August 27 to arrive on the 28, and I couldn't be more excited! I'm so happy, I'm jumping in my chair, blasting "Let's Dance to Joy Division" as I type. I feel like it's finally coming together, even though it's still pretty far off in the distance. But I'm one step closer than I was yesterday! Yay for traveling! 

So the flight has two stops: one in New York for about two and a half hours, and then in Brussels, Belgium for about an hour and a half. I was trying to find a flight with a layover in London for a few hours, but I don't have much room to be picky because prices for plane tickets are outlandish. Another thing: I'm going to be exhausted by the time I get off that plane on a count of it being about an 18-hour flight. It could most definitely be worse, but after that I've got to get my heavy bags {I'm packing for the year, people} to the tramway so I can actually get to the hotel where I'll be staying that night. So since my flight leaves at about 7:00 am, and it's an 18-hour flight, I'm required to be awake until 1:00 am PST. But when I arrive, it will be about 11:00 am in Lyon, France. This means I've got to stay awake for the rest of that day as well. So yay for me. That means I get to stay awake for a total of about 30-32 hours. Yay... for traveling?

I'll never be able to sleep properly again.

But I'm beyond excited that I've now got the ticket, because it seems more of a reality to me now rather than just an idea of, "Hey, you know what? I think I'll got to France next year. Could be fun." Now all that's left for me to do {in the States} is to go to my visa appointment on July 3 {farther away than I'd like it to be, but I can't really do anything about that} and patiently wait to hear back from CampusFrance. Patiently. 

I've just started to count down the days; who in the right mind thinks I'm going to be patient with time? And, if you were wondering, it's 94 Days. That's too far away. Maybe I shouldn't have thought of counting down. Or maybe I should count down to something closer in the near future. Like the visa appointment. That's 32 days away. I can barely deal with that, even if that were my flight date. But until then, I'll be jumping in my chair, waiting for my flight to finally depart. Hell, I'll probably be in the terminal jumping in my seat. 

Speaking of airports, this is the perfect time to tell you all about my brilliant plan {that I stole from Dane Cook [who probably stole from an actual comedian] about 5 years ago} regarding a massively hilarious prank, along with another one inspired by the hilarious Ellen DeGeneres. I've always wanted to do these, and now that I have a reason to be in an airport, I can fulfill my dreams!

The first one is to go up to unsuspecting people in the terminal {or just around the airport} and just start dancing behind them. Like crazy dance. Since I'll be traveling alone, I'm going to have to find someone willing to hold a camera as I do this, so I have proof. If this plan is a success, the evidence will most definitely go up on this blog. And now, the ultimate prank {almost}.

When you're in the terminal, walk up to someone and sit there for a couple of seconds. When they look up at you, simply say, "Don't get on the flight" in an all-knowing, quiet voice. 

However, with my luck, the person I end up choosing to say these words to will be an overly paranoid middle-aged man who thinks all Middle-Eastern people are terrorists and report me. But hey, I'm willing to take that chance! I mean, does it look like I'd smuggle in a bomb? Wow. I really shouldn't be talking about this. I'm almost positive that all sense of humor was banned from airports along with a person's right to privacy.

Happy Friday to you all!

À bientôt!

xoxo