Whew!

Just found this on Think Progress:

O’Reilly lifts boycott of France

“In March 2003, Bill O’Reilly called on all Americans to boycott the use of French products because of France’s disagreement with the United States decision to invade Iraq… Through the years O’Reilly has claimed his boycott of France has cost the country “billions of dollars” (O’Reilly himself quoted that figure in the non-existent “Paris Business Review“).” But now that France has elected conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, the French can rest easy. O’Reilly said yesterday, “The Factor is lifting the boycott of France. However, ‘Boycott France’ bumper stickers do remain available on BillOReilly.com for nostalgia purposes, and you never know… we may have to re-impose it."

I'm so glad I'm going to an O'Reilly-approved country...

Prove it to me

I have nothing else to worry about now. Well, not really, anyway. All of my finals are over; the test sheets have been bubbled in with my mechanical pencil, and the grades are now posted. I got the new job I was crossing my fingers for. I finished up my first week, in real grown-up work clothes (yes, I unpacked them again). I have most of the big pre-trip-planning done: that is to say, I’ve figured out when to get my hair highlighted and a pedicure gotten. Oh, and the plane ticket. Got that done, too.

Everyone asks me if I'm excited about my trip to France, and I can't really say that I am. I’m more just experiencing a prolonged bout of bouncy, queasy, purposeful nervous energy that is focused on the pinpoint hope of wanting everything to go well. I haven't always been the best traveler, so perhaps this trip is my way of proving to myself that I can do it. I have to prove myself to me all the time. I have to prove that I'm not afraid, that I can handle it, that I’m good enough to be in my own company. I have to ace all the tests, hold 2 jobs (I’m working on the second one right now), volunteer at the hospital, read the best bedtime stories, and have a perfectly clean bathroom floor just to show myself I’m good enough. A month-long study abroad program in France should be one more tick in my favor ... perhaps I will be good enough for myself eventually.

I'm aware, in a prickly-back-of-the-neck kind of way, that a 26-day trip with strangers in a foreign land is going to be life-changing, or at least perspective-changing. I'm like anyone else - a creature of habit. I am "afraid of unknowns," as my little brother would say. I am afraid of what a major perspective change might mean for my future, and for my self, and for my life, how I'm living it here and now. What if - while I'm thousands of miles away across the Atlantic Ocean, completely cut off (well, almost - we'll still have daily Internet access) from my loved ones and my culture and my home - I realize that I've been doing everything all wrong? What if, from the vantage point of far, far away, I see things that I wasn't ready to see, much less deal with? Does Amazon sell super-UV-and-harsh-reality-glare sunglasses – to help with the sharp brightness of space, time alone, and an insane amount of introspection?

4742 miles

This is my itinerary, for any family and friends who are particularly curious, which I'm sure you're not. I've never been in Detroit before. I can't think of two cities that are less related in my mind - Detroit and Paris. Detroit = Eminem and smoking auto factories. Paris = M&M (mimes & Montmartre, natch) and smoking Frenchmen. I suppose this could be good fodder for stalkers ... very wealthy, international stalkers.

Traveler(s)
JENNIFER LLOYD

Thursday, May 24, 2007 Leave
Depart: 5:01pm
evening Tulsa, OK
Tulsa International (TUL)
Arrive: 8:24pm
evening Detroit, MI
Detroit Wayne County (DTW)
Seats: 12A
Economy | Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) | 2hr 23min | 800 miles
Change planes.
Northwest Airlines #50
Depart: 9:15pm
evening Detroit, MI
Detroit Wayne County (DTW)
Arrive: 11:20am
morning Paris, France
Paris Ch. De Gaulle (CDG)
Seats: 22A
Economy | Airbus Industrie A330-300 (333) | Dinner | 8hr 5min | 3942 miles
This is an overnight flight.
Total duration: 11hr 19min | Total miles: 4742 miles


Tuesday, June 19, 2007 Return
Northwest Airlines #49
Depart: 2:00pm
afternoon Paris, France
Paris Ch. De Gaulle (CDG)
Arrive: 5:00pm
evening Detroit, MI
Detroit Wayne County (DTW)
Seats: 15A
Economy | Airbus Industrie A330-300 (333) | Dinner | 9hr 0min | 3942 miles
Change planes.
Northwest Airlines #3755
Depart: 7:00pm
evening Detroit, MI
Detroit Wayne County (DTW)
Arrive: 8:31pm
evening Tulsa, OK
Tulsa International (TUL)
Seats: 5A
Economy | Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) | 2hr 31min | 800 miles

Total duration: 13hr 31min | Total miles: 4742 miles

How do you say "I'm sorry" in French?

I'm terrible at speaking French, not that great at English, and can't hear worth a damn. The first thing I asked my friend, who's helping me learn conversational French, was, How do I say I'm sorry? I figured that would be very helpful in the likely event that I act retarded, stupid, spill something, fall over, or generally insult someone of the French persuasion with the dumb look on my face.

It's "Je suis desole," by the way. And I'm practicing it, over and over, like a mantra. I'm sorry, so sorry, so sorry. Sorry about that accidental punch in the face. Sorry about the way I made you stop what you were doing to help me find my way. Sorry for making you repeat yourself eighteen times before I caught the gist of what was being said. Sorry for not making a greater effort to learn a language other than English. Ever.

I've still got a little over a month before I leave on my OSU study abroad trip to France. I will post more specifics about the trip soon.