Marley

Marley

Voila! She is here – this is my first niece, Marley. I like her a lot, as you might imagine

The story of the fox

Sometimes when I am feeling a bit frustrated about a situation or when I start to sort of lose hope in people, I like to re-read Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery - specifically the part of the story where the little prince meets a fox. Essentially they discuss the value of friendships, relationships, why two individuals (in this story, one of them would be a fox) would even want to spend the time to get to know one another and establish a bond. I like to read this in French, so I will give a great quote from this story in both French and English.

“Ma vie est monotone. Je chasse les poules, les hommes me chassent. Toutes les poules se ressemblent, et tous les hommes se ressemblent. Je m’ennuie donc un peu. Mais, si tu m’apprivoises, ma vie sera comme ensoleillée. Je connaîtrai un bruit de pas qui sera différent de tous les autres. Les autres pas me font rentrer sous terre. Le tien m’appellera hors du terrier, comme une musique. Et puis regarde ! Tu vois, là-bas, les champs de blé ? Je ne mange pas de pain. Le blé pour moi est inutile. Les champs de blé ne me rappellent rien. Et ça, c’est triste ! Mais tu as des cheveux couleur d’or. Alors ce sera merveilleux quand tu m’auras apprivoisé ! Le blé, qui est doré, me fera souvenir de toi. Et j’aimerai le bruit du vent dans le blé… “

“My life is very monotonous,” the fox said. “I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life . I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the colour of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat…”

I just think this story is wonderful and hopeful, and I love to re-read it. I hope you enjoy it too.

niece update

My baby niece (Marley…. my brother’s baby) is going to arrive on September 17, if not before. My sister has yet to find out what the sex of her baby is, but I’m sure I will post details here when I know.  So life is pretty full at the moment. Tomorrow is Friday and I will be very thankful for the weekend. Unfortunately I don’t have anything too deep or thoughtful to post here tonight… I just wanted to announce the arrival date of my niece.

Why we should all study another language…

I was doing some research for a project and came upon this article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3794479.stm 

I think that it really speaks for itself.

Bon weekend!

First weeks of school…

So, I’m back at Purdue and the first couple of weeks have definitely had ups and downs. I’m sort of overwhelmed with a lot of homework and trying to get into some sort of routine. (pas vraiment le fun quoi) But I’m liking my courses and professors, and I think that I will really be challenged and learn a lot this semester.

In other jenna life news, first baby niece to arrive in approximately 3 weeks… so that’s pretty exciting. I’m also getting to know and enjoying the company of my roomates a lot (well I already knew a couple of them well, but now I am getting to know those even better).

So that’s about it for the moment I think… I’ll try to keep this updated!