Saturday, January 16, 2016

The Abominable Update

Barb the French Bean here. I wish you all a very belated Happy 2016, barring the recent passing of David Bowie, Alan Rickman and René Angelil.

As for my own life, university studies and work have kept me at bay in terms of blogging; I've only just come out of finishing my finals for Fall term.

Still, the end of my 2015 went swimmingly. I spent two weeks staying at a friend's house in Strasbourg, which gave me the opportunity to see its famous Christmas Market, visit the Alsace region, and to step into Basel, Switzerland and a couple of German border towns.

The tree in Place Kléber, Strasbourg

One of the many Christmas decorations for sale

Colmar- La Petite Venise

In Colmar- La Petite Venise

Basel, Switzerland- along the Rhine

The Basel town hall

The cathedral that overlooks the Rhine

Swiss public telephone booths look suspiciously like the TARDIS

I wish I were kidding: I went to Germany literally to buy sausages. Mmmmmm...

As of next Monday, I commence the second semester of the first year of the Masters program. I look forward to working on my thesis and keeping up with my Dutch lessons.

Oh, yes, I probably didn't mention that I am learning Dutch. To give you an idea of how hectic last semester was, the other courses that I took made Dutch the "easy" class. Now I'm going to keep learning the language for fun, even if it means dealing with the onvoltooid verleden tijd and figuring out which nouns are De- or Het-woorden.

(Dutch Pro tip: MAKE EVERYTHING PLURAL.)

Also, if any Nederlands speakers can give me a helping hand in terms of conversational practice, I would be FOREVER grateful for it. It's not exactly evident to learn this language while living in France...

Cheers,
Barb the French Bean

7 comments:

  1. If Fang comes around he's from the Netherlands and should be able to help. There's nothing wrong with going to Germany just for sausages. Good to hear you're doing alright and had a good new year. Until everything went to shit in 2016. Finally, what is this "Fall" you speak of? I've only heard of Autumn.

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  2. some of the photos do make it look like you might have used that Tardis to go back in time.

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  5. Barb the French Bean, your 'The Abominable Update' is such a delightful read! Belated Happy 2016 to you too. Your adventures in Strasbourg and the Christmas Market sound enchanting. Looking forward to more updates from your unique perspective!
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Apparently, leaving comments on this blog is a hit-or-miss game of Russian roulette: you are either lucky and can comment away, or you are required to log in when the settings are CLEARLY set to allow trouble-free commenting (sorry 'bout that, folks). If anything, the Facebook page is always a viable option. :) -Barb