Bonjour, je m'appelle....

Warning: If you're a boy, you probably won't care about this post too much but still feel free to read it! I won't tell, I promise!

I always love hearing French names. I always ask Marco the names of friends or what their girlfriends names are - just because I like hearing the names. From my 200 or so student, I have gotten a fairly decent idea of what the popular names of their generation were. Of course, for each generation there are names that are 'in' or 'out.' For example, I love the name Christine. It is elegant, refined, but still has a hint of youthfulness to me. I told Marco that one day upon which he immediately voiced his distaste of the name - evidently it is extremely old-fashioned...kinda like Barbara! Here are names for girls, then boys, in 2009, 1994, and 1987.

Top 10 most popular girls' names in 2009:

1. Emma

2. Clara

3. Lea

4. Manon

5. Chloe

6. Jade

7. Camille

8. Ines

9. Sarah

10. Lola

Top 10 most popular girls' names in 1994: (average DOB of my students)

1. Laura

2. Manon

3. Marie

4. Camille

5. Marine

6. Anais

7. Melanie

8. Pauline

9. Marion

10. Julie

Top 10 most popular girls' names in 1987: (my DOB!)

1. Julie

2. Aurelie

3. Elodie

4. Emilie

5. Marie

6. Audrey

7. Stephanie

8. Celine

9. Pauline

10. Sophie

Notice how for 1987 ALL of the girls names end in either 'ie' or 'ine' - this is still the case with most of my students. Just guess a names with 'ie' or 'ine' at the end and you're probably close to being right! My name was ranked about 500 in 1987 - I tried to find the equivalent in France but their ranking only goes to 100. According to that my name would have been Magalie. UGH! Sounds like a maggot.

Top 10 most popular boys' names in 2009:

1. Enzo

2. Lucas

3. Mathis

4. Nathan

5. Raphael

6. Tom

7. Thomas

8. Matheo

9. Hugo

10. Louis

Top 10 most popular boys' names in 1994:

1. Kevin

2. Nicolas

3. Alexandre

4. Thomas

5. Maxime

6. Julien

7. Quentin

8. Romain

9. Antoine

10. Florian

Top 10 most popular boys' names in 1987:

1. Julien

2. Nicolas

3. Romain

4. Jeremy

5. Alexandre

6. Anthony

7. Guillaume

8. Thomas

9. Kevin

10. Sebastien

A lot of boys in my classes have names that end in 'ien' or 'in' which is pronounced the same: Julien, Corentin, Quentin, Valentin, Sebastien.....

With boys names, and occasionally girls names, it is common to hyphenate names. I have numerous Jean-Baptiste's and Pierre-Yves' in my classes. Other people I know that have names like these are Marco (Marc-Antoine) and his friend PM (Pierre-Mathieu).

It is also very easy to change a boys' name to a girls' name and vice-versa. Emmanuel can be changed to Emmanuelle, Pascal to Pascale, Francois to Francoise, Romain to Romaine etc. By adding an 'e' at the end of the name, it changes the sound and the gender. The only bi-gender name I know in French is Camille, which is still popular for both.

If you want to check out the popular names for your birth year, here is the site I used: http://www.tous-les-prenoms.com/top/index.php?type=annee&letopdesprenomsparannee_annee=1987&x=53&y=4

You can pick the year on the right-hand side under 'Le Top des Prenoms Par Annee.'

-Barbara

Drowning in Red Tape.

I despise French paperwork. I have been here for 6 months and my paperwork is STILL not completed. I'm sure I've spent 50 euros just on stamps and for sending the same things to the same people, again, and again, and again.....

Yea, maybe you get more money from the French government (or rather French citizens since it comes from their taxes) but the headache is almost not worth it. One point Team US for making our lives as hassle free as possible. Minus fifty points for Team France - one for each letter I've mailed into your black hole of ministries.

Update a few hours later: I just got another paper in the mail from CAF. And guess what? Asking for the same thing they already have asked me for 3 times...

Koszonom utca ter.

Marco and I went on a whirl-wind trip to Hungary this past week. We left on Tuesday night for Paris, slept for a few measly hours, dragged ourselves out of bed at 5h30 and headed to Orly to go to Budapest. The flight was calm, just as is liked. We arrived in Budapest around 10h30, went through customs (oh wait, that's right, there was none...), and were settled into our nice brand-new apartment by 12h30. We rested a little bit and then were off to explore what this amazing city had to offer. I'm going to try to avoid a book, but I have tons to say! I'll do my best.

A brief history of Hungary to better understand what we saw: The country was first inhabited by the Celts, then the Romans, next the Bulgarians, the Moguls, and then it finally became Hungary in the 90s. The Ottomans (Turks) gained control in 1541 for nearly 140 years. 1867 = the reconciliation which birthed Austria-Hungary. WWI brought an end to the Golden Age and the fall of Austria-Hungary. Hungary became independent officially in 1920. Budapest was heavily damaged during WWII.. In 1949, it was declared a communist People’s Republic. It fell in 1989 and signs of communism were destroyed (statues etc.).

The old school tram in front of the parliament building. The tram line is the 2nd oldest in the world. In general, the public transportation in Budapest is pretty impressive.

Marco at Fisherman's Bastion. There are statues and monuments EVERYWHERE in Budapest.

The Funicular Incline which goes up to Buda Castle. You can also see a famous bridge and St. Stephen's Basilica in the background.
The inside of Cafe New York - Hungary is known for their cafes. They are sooo delicious.
The outside of another famous cafe - Cafe Gerbeaud. We allowed ourselves indulge in coffee and cake again :). The most shocking part of the experience is to get a bill for 1,500 florents (about 18 dollars). It took awhile to get used to the extremely high numbers!

Me at the top of Fisherman's Bastion on the Buda side with a view of Pest in the background (Budapest is broken into two parts - Buda and Pest).
The memorial for the 400,000 Hungarian Jews killed during WWII. Each leaf of the tree bears a name. It is in the courtyard of the world's second largest synagogue (the first largest is in NYC).
FUR. There is fur EVERYWHERE. I don't think PETA would be to happy about that (sorry Tanner!)
An example of a nice building in Budapest. Most of them are from the 1800s.
Next door to a nice building, it was common to see one like this. You can see on the top that at one point it was a beautifully painted building. Strong reminder of communism.

Unfortunately, the title of this blog means absolutely nothing (thanks street square). After 4 wonderful days in Budapest, Hungary, Marco and I learned a total of 3 words. Everyone speaks English and a lot speak German as well. They just automatically speak to you in English - I don't know how I would have survived otherwise. Here is an example of a sentence in Hungarian about the Beatles (also known as maygar): A művészetek bármely ágát is nézzük, kevesen voltak, akik népszerűségükhöz, kritikai elismertségükhöz és széles körű kulturális hatásukhoz mérhetőek. In general, Hungarians are some of the nicest people I've met. I was amazed at how helpful they were.

Other random things:

-famous for their paprika

-the food isn't my favorite ever as it is very heavy

-the thermal baths are AMAZING and I would go back just for that

-there are lots of Burger Kings so props to them for at least having BK as often as McDonald's

-there is a huge classical music and art scene

-cost of living is much cheaper than in France

Overall, I'd rate this city as a must-see. You'd be missing out if you went to Europe and didn't spend at least a few days in Budapest. I think Marco would agree :). If you end up going, I wrote a guide of the city and would be happy to send it to whomever!

France is.....

... a total of four continents! France contains 100 departments, 4 of which are overseas. Departments are roughly the equivalent of states in the US (so it would be like Alaska and Hawaii). The 4 overseas departments are Reunion (Indian Ocean), Guadalupe (Caribbean), Martinique (Caribbean), and French Guiana (South America). Mayotte (off the coast of Africa) will become an overseas department in 2011.

Another interesting tidbit, France considers the world to be divided into 5 continents and not 7 like we do in the US. Here are maps showing the differences (Antartica isn't a continent and North and South America are grouped as one):


Everyone voted that France covered 1 continent. Maybe better luck next time!

Global Warming? The Environment?

The East Coast was just pounded with feet of snow. I woke up this morning to a centimeter of snow in Nantes (and no school - score!). This seems to be the opposite of what most 'global warming' advocates claim is happening to the world (or what most people think they say).

But, guess what? I am not going to go talk about the ins and outs of global warming and how I am totally unconvinced as to it's validity, but rather I am going to talk slightly about politics and the environment. Somewhere along the way, conservatives have decided that to be an ecologist and to be right-winged were not synonymous. They put liberalism, global warming, and the environment into one big trash bag, and threw it into the 'WRONG' pile. But let's think about this a little more. You don't have to be a global warming advocate to admit to the fact that we're in the process of destroying the earth. Who cares if global warming is real or not? What IS real is the fact that we are heavy consumers and don't pay attention to what we're doing to Mother Nature. We take 20 minute showers. We buy way too much food at the grocery store and end up throwing out 1/5 of it because it goes stale or rots. We throw things out instead of recycling them just because the 3 minute walk to the recycling bin is too hard. It's clear as day that what we're doing is someday going to add to our demise but we do nothing.

What I find even more contradictory is the fact the Christians, normally conservative, are also normally against the pleadings of the left to be more ecological. Shouldn't practicing Christians be even more concerned about this? Aren't we the ones who are to be the stewards of the earth? Shouldn't we be the ones yelling to the rest of the world about how they are destroying God's beautiful creation? Nope. We do the contrary. We just yell at the left saying they are a bunch of liars.

So, who cares if global warming is a myth or not? All that matters is God's creation in the end. I find it unfortuante that people associate topics like this with politics instead of simply thinking about it for themselves. Well, I'll get off my soap-box for today. If you're lucky, maybe next time I'll talk about gun control :)

P.S. France is known to be a more ecological country but most French people are just as bad as the average American. I am fortunate to be associated with one of the families that does care (not saying they're perfect either!).

Do you want this?


Or this?


Nehemiah 9:6. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You gave life to everything and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

Face Transformers

I blame Marco (his real name is Marc-Antoine for those that are curious...when I speak French I call him Marc-Antoine and when I speak English, Marco) for me getting to bed quite late last night. I got home from a nice birthday dinner around midnight to this HILARIOUS email with my face transformed into many different people. I found it so entertaining that I spent an hour doing it to other people. For your viewing pleasure!

Shaun as a Caucasian.

Feminized Scott.


Masculine Marsha. I was hoping that Scott and Marsha would end up looking like each other. Didn't exactly happen but the results are hilarious nevertheless!

Pierce as an Apeman.


Marco as an East-Asian - quite appropriate since I think he sometimes wishes he were Japanese (he listens to Japanese R&B and loves Mangas....and sushi.)


Katie as a West-Asian. Maybe she should audition for Slumdog Millionaire 2?


Jacob if he really were black. Isn't the best Face Transformer but it was quite hard finding a picture that actually worked. Hmmm, I wonder why?


Chase as a painting by El Greco.



Don't worry, I wasn't going to deprive you of some of me. It is only just! This is me as a Manga.
Me as an old woman. I think I age quite well to be honest! I look kinda depressed though....

Anyway, here is the link: http://morph.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk//fof/index.html This way you can have just as much fun as me!

P.S. The correct answer to the most popular cheese in France is CAMEMBERT!!!! Good job to the 2 of you that got it. It's terrible. Don't eat it. Emmental (aka Swiss), Comte, and Brie are delicious, so if you're going to spend a pretty penny on cheese, go for those three!

La Folle Journee

La Folle Journee means 'The Crazy Day' in French. Really, it should have been 'The Crazy Days!' Throughout this entire past week, Nantes had one of the largest classical concert conventions (<-- try saying that 3 times fast!) in the world. During this week, there are hundreds of concerts throughout this and surrounding cities. Thousands of people flock from cities all over Europe. Some of the concerts are small with only locally known artists, while others are in huge concert halls, seating thousands.

Every year there is a different theme, with this years being Chopin, since it is the 200th anniversary of his birth. Chopin happens to be my favorite classical composer so I was in luck. Other romance pieces from Liszt, Schumann, Schubert etc. were also featured.

The tickets are very reasonably priced (between $8-$30 per person) so Marco and I decided to go to see 'Le Trio Wanderer' this past Thursday night. I was still having stomach pain from the food poisoning I discussed in the previous entry, but I was still able to enjoy it. The trio was wonderful and supposedly is one of the most famous in France. We also majorly lucked out....one of Pascale's friends found 2 tickets on the ground that someone unfortunately dropped. There is no way of tracking them in order to give them back to their owners and her friend was unable to attend. That meant a free concert (and one of the expensive ones!) for me and Marco!

On Saturday afternoon, we saw the Aquitaine Orchestra along with a famous French pianist. The orchestra and the pianist were exceptional. I think the audience clapped for a full 10 minutes. Other cities have now taken Nantes' idea and have started their own 'Folle Journee.' I believe there is now one in Japan, Canada, and Brazil. Here is a website if you want to read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Folle_Journ%C3%A9e

Hope you guys have a great week! I leave you with a video of 'Trio Wanderer.'

Disclaimer: Just so everyone is aware, I do not mean for this blog to be a literary masterpiece. I type as if I were speaking. Please excuse any 'errors' that are not common in scholarly writing.