la revolution

my title would be more impressive if i knew how to make accent marks.

today marks the beginning of a new chapter in my life. my advisor likes to joke that the best jobs he got (with wood's hole, the u.n., etc) he got because he knew french. i've recently noticed that job postings will prefer people with a foreign language and that, oftentimes, one of the most preferred languages is french. so i've decided to take adavantage of my european connections and re-learn francais. i bought some grammar books, a brand-spanking new dictionary and copies of l'etranger et le poney rouge. i figure starting with books i've read in english should help out.

i'm hoping it will pay off early. tomorrow, i take the greyhound to portland, where i will meet a woman to take me the rest of the way to a race in california. if anyone gets the idea they want to make talky-talky on the bus, i'll just speak french at them and look confused.

of course, i'm banking on the average greyhound passenger not speaking french.

but i think that's a pretty safe bet.