awakeI played left field virtually the whole game. I caught nothing, but I stopped a few things. Damage control is very important. It didn’t look good in the beginning – our first baseman was out with a migraine, and Lajeunesse batted first and scored the maximum of five. We were down something like 14-9 at one point. But we gave it our best and reached for a 16-15 victory, shutting them out their last time at bat.
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It looks like I was wrong about Young Canada Works in some ways. Yes, there won’t be a contract, but it looks like they’re going to insist that we speak French at all times – though we can watch TV or listen to music in any language we like. Well, I suppose if the university and the government are conspiring to allow me to stay here, they get to make the rules.
I’m getting more than a little weary of this program and even of French itself. There are a whole bunch of little things different about this time here than 2007, only a few of which I like. I actually found it easier being a Beginner 1 than I do now being an Intermediate 1 (my running joke is that it’s really Beginner 3 – there are only two Beginner levels).
I’m also tired of the shtick of the facilitators – their job forces them to be genki rain or shine and though they’re usually sincere, sometimes they ask “How’s it going?” in the same fashion that the counsellors for the mentally handicapped do for their charges. And they have to spend 90 minutes every morning smiling and clapping and cheering even though they might have given out untold dozens of official warnings the very evening before. Bleagh.
And I’m tired of my own stupidity, though this is something that existed prior to the program! Case in point – I walked back to my residence (Poitevine) yesterday evening and the crew from Beauséjour 1 was in front of it, presumably filming part of their bit for the Video Souvenir.
My first thought was that they were going to be insulting Poitevine. My first thought turned out to be 100% correct – in fact, they were in the process of standing in front of and insulting all of the residences in sequence – but one of the girls from the group said, “Come over here and dance with me.” So I did so, but it turned out the “dance” was some kind of rude gesture involving one’s shoe.
I guess I’m not seriously lacking in mental facility – I just wasn’t experienced enough to realize that the girl was playing me for a sucker. In the unlikely event that this exact same situation happens again, I’ll know what to do. It would have been kind of funny if I’d stood there and simply cheered for Poitevine. Instead I’m forever in the Video Souvenir insulting my own residence. A fine memorial to my idiocy, I daresay. I’d better knock ‘em dead on stage Wednesday night. If they’re going to see “idiot”, they might as well see “savant”, too.
At least I have a defence ready – I can pretend that I was just expressing my dislike for the building and not the people in it. The building has been a popular discussion topic, so it almost seems plausible. But it’s still almost as stupid as just falling for the trick because you have to have not realized that everybody would think that you were insulting the people like the rest of the huddle was doing. So I’m probably just going to tell people straight up and apologetically that I was played for a sucker. There’s even a word for that that works in both languages: Dupe.
Some good news, then:
- The video for my class presentation was finished on time and was very well received. It was ten hours in front of my computer but for the most part I didn’t mind doing it. The stress of worrying about how I was going to put the video together was much worse than the experience of actually putting the video together.
- You can hear me on the radio! Listen to the item under Arts & Culture about our play.
This post will be unscreened after the program.