What I'll Miss in France

10. The slower pace of life here.

9. Dark Chocolate Options.

8. Our relationships we've developed with those in our language classes and in our community at large.

7. Bisous. It's nice; those air kisses you do when you meet someone for the first time during the day.

6. Fly Overs by military jets. We live in the flight path of the Navy's training courses.

5. Sunsets over the "Mountain" that can be seen from our living room window

4. Rocky Beaches

3. The Monks (B&P) and Nuns (ML & Y)

2. Cleaning the rivers with the locals

1. Vanilla Coke. Supposedly it is longer made in the USA

Our first couple of lessons

In the midst of packing we try to listen to our Pimsleur's Portugal. It's a great way of learning to speak before "seeing" the language.

Here's what we've learned so far. I have no idea how these phrases are suppose to be written. I'm only writing how it sounds to me. I do not know how to indicate the nasal sounds, it's just there.


/Desh kulp/- Excuse me
/mina Señora/- ma'am
/eSeñora fala inglesh/- Do you(f) speak English?
/por tu gesh/-Portuguese
/oSeñor eh americanoo/- Are you(m) American?
/Faloo uhn pok d por tu gesh/ - I speak a little Portuguese.
/Now so americana/- I'm not American (f)
/Now faloo por tu gesh muy to bane/- I do not speak Portuguese very well.
/Per se bo por tu gesh/ - I understand Portuguese.
/oSeñor per se bah inglesh/- Do you(m) understand Portuguese?
/bon dia/- Good morning
/boa tard/- Good afternoon
/Komoo shta/- How are you?
/Muy to bane/- Very well
/ee eSeñora/- And you (f)?
/Di ondah eSeñora/- Where are you from (to a woman)?
/Soda Amerika/- I am from America.
/Soduh Lish boa/- I am from Lisbon.
/Ay Di oosh/- Good bye.

As you can see, Portuguese is distinctive in that it has a certain "sh" sound. If an "s" is between a vowel and a consonant, it is pronounced /sh/ (as in Lisboa /lish boa/ ) or if an "s" comes at the end of a word like in /por tu gesh/.

You will also note that a very formal way of saying "you" is literally "the Lady," and "the Mister." Thus, we have /eSeñora fala inglesh/ - Do you (f) speak English?

An Official Announcement

Today, I have an official announcement to make.

We've been living here in France for just under 3 years. In that time Lady R and I have gone through a whole lot. We've experienced and gotten over cultural shock, learned two languages, been misunderstood on more than one occasion, learned to drive a stick shift, had a bunch of on-the-job-training, traveled too much for business, eaten pizza in Italy, seen the Alps in three countries, rode on a boat down the Seine, seen windmills in Holland, and enjoyed the warm weather in Spain in the winter. And that's the small list.

We have been approved to return to France and continue our projects. But before we can continue, we must be out of the country for a year. So, we've been invited to go to Portugal for 6 months to teach. I am very excited to take this position even if it is only for just a semester. Then, it is back to the States for another 6 months.

Some of the changes that will take place here at CL will be more articles written about Portugal and less articles about France. I know very little about Portuguese culture and hope to take in as much as possible in our short time there. I also am thinking about including some of the knowledge I've gained here about Celtic language and history and culture.

I thank you all for kindly stopping by and being a loyal reader of my blog! I hope you continue coming, and I wish you all the best.