Blogs - Ann Halpin's Blog

Postings from resident directors and students currently abroad, important announcements and useful infomation for planning your study abroad experience.

Valerie - Aix-en-Provence - Spring 2007

After being quiet for a couple of months, Valerie is back with several submissions.  This is the first one....

 

Let's start with my host fam. After my American family dropped me off to continue on their way to Paris and then to the US, my French fam (Patricia, Hugo, and David) were going to this little carnival/fair thing in Aix and I was invited along. There were a ton of games...the sort where you try to shoot things, for example. I'm not sure how these are done in the US, but they were shooting these metal pellets, which I'm gonna assume were BBs, from these rifles to try and pop balloons. I learned Patricia is an expert because she learned when she was young from her family or something. Hugo was about to shoot the eye out of the lady behind the counter, as his stabilization skills for this enormous rifle weren't quite where they should've been. I'm not sure how these workers don't have more pellets lodged in them (or maybe they do and are just excellent at hiding them... or maybe it was just the fact that they were completely clothed that I couldn't tell. Okay, moving on). And David was talented too. After this gun shooting thing, they won imitation Tamagotchis (though another option was a gun... A GUN?! For a young child? I'm assuming they weren't anything that could do a lot of damage, but they sure looked scary and I'm not sure giving a gun to a child is smart, especially for Hugo or David 'cause I'm sure when they get in their rages, one would try to shoot the other's face up). Anyway, point being: I want a Tamagotchi too. Take me back to 6th grade please. I would take better care of it than Hugo or David, both of whose have died several times already. I think they're over them now. Whatevs. The other fun part was Patricia freaking out that David was going to die when he wanted to go on some ride... not that I would ever go on it in a million years. It was high and fast and not what I look for in order to have fun. But Patricia was really not going to allow him, until his friend's dad convinced her that the two boys (David and the friend) wouldn't die. Like, seriously. 'Cause she was convinced something awful would happen, and the ride would slaughter them. Haha. So she went and bought churros (she couldn't bear to watch) while I took pictures. I love her. And churros.

 

Another thing... I've mentioned that The Simpsons is the most popular show in the world, right? And has anyone heard about a Simpson’s movie? Some Australians I met this past weekend in Barcelona were telling us there was a movie coming out, though I am not so sure about that. ANYWAY, I am curious how The Simpsons translates to foreign people who couldn't possibly understand all the American pop culture jokes. I guess it's still funny enough, because the boys love it. Patricia is fed up with it and will not allow anyone to watch it when she's around... haha. It is pretty annoying though, especially in French. But at one point she did sit down with me and the boys to watch it. It was an episode that showed one of the Simpsons watching TV and the Crocodile Hunter was on. I explained to her that this was a real show, but that guy, Steve Erwin, died and then made up some way to explain his death due to lack of vocab. I guess not knowing the details behind the little things in the overall show aren't a big deal (like how Raffi, my favorite kids' singer ever!, was also mentioned in the show), but I think it adds to it. Plus, French with an overdone Australian accent is great stuff.

posted on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 1:47 PM