Les baisers, les dragueurs, s’embrasser … mon dieu!

So I’m back from France.
Where I took classes in French.
For those who didn’t know how it worked…aka probably most of you…this is how it worked. Class started at 8:45 and goes to 12:45, which means four hours [yay four solid hours of French class?] XD the first two hours are grammar [WITH PIERRE, WHAT A COOL GUY] and the second two hours for communication/speaking/oral with Isabelle.
On Thursday, the second last day of class, Isabelle arrived and told us that “aujourd’hui, nous parlerons de L’AMOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRR.” Then she proceeded to give us a bunch of vocabulary words. Erm. OF ALL SORTS. REGARDING AMOUR. FRENCH AMOUR. Let’s just leave it at that.
Then she split the class of ten up so we had two groups of five discussing amour [in case you haven't caught on by now, amour means love]. My group had:
- The coolest person you’ll ever meet = me
- Brazilian guy with nasal accent = Nelson
- German guy that coughSOMEONEcough likes, except that he’s too short… = Thomas
- Spanish slash Catalan guy that chews pens = Xavier
- Italian girl who is very sensible = Francesca
In case you haven’t noticed, my group was comprised mainly of guys. I do not talk during class because the level of my French is wayyyyy below that of the other students. So, as you can see, there were basically three guys vs one girl. And obviously guys and girls have different ideas on amour. The conversation boiled down in the end to a “guy talk” while Francesca tried to interject now and then. It was slightly appalling.
We were discussing whether it is possible for a friendship to exist between a guy and a girl without anything else on top of it v__v so clearly different ideas come up, and, like I said, it was shocking. I don’t even understand how some of it managed to slip out of those three guys’ mouths, because, honestly, I think they forgot Francesca and I were present.
Thomas said no. Because when there’s a “friendship”, the guy is always going to push and see how far the girl will take it before killing him. Basically my interpretation. He was like “on doit toujours essayer, hein?” Nelson agreed, and then said something along the lines of him having sex with a friend and they’re still friends and they were never anything more and I was just sitting there going WTF and WHY ARE YOU SAYING THIS.
Francesca now interjects with her girl comment, saying it’s inevitable except when there’s a distance between the two, either physically [which kind of renders things difficult] or mentally. Her example was that she had a really close guy friend with whom she talked a lot, but nothing else happened because he talked too much. Too talkative and therefore slightly annoying. And that was there “distance” that prevented anything else from happening. Nelson said “well, yes, but the guy was probably thinking of something…” and then Francesca was like “REALLY? Nooooo…” to which Xavier responded “well yes, he was talking to her, wasn’t he?”
The implications of that question, obviously, is that you can’t carry on a conversation with a guy without that crossing his mind, which I find unhappyful.
Thomas then says “well maybe because Francesca’s Italian. Italian guys are a lot more flirtatious slash do a lot more picking up of girls than German guys! Like in Germany, you can play tennis with a girl and then be done. In Italy, after playing tennis, either they go back to the guy’s house or back to the girl’s house…” to which Nelson asks “ARE YOU SURE YOU DON’T THINK OF IT AT LEAST? I mean…short skirts…” at which point I started dying and crying inside and was like WHY AM I SITTING HERE and THIS IS SO AWKWARD and THESE ARE UNIVERSITY GUYS THEY SHOULD KNOW BETTER THAN TO BE SAYING THESE THINGS.
Yeah.
I love France.

Ridiculousity.

Sooooooooooo I enjoy reading the newspaper.
And no, this entry is not about Russell Smith.
It is about two things I read in the paper today.

1) UCC reversed its boarding decision.
I already knew about this piece of news beforehand. UCC sent an E-Mail to all members on imagineucc.com, which I am. I’ll say it again: I just can’t believe they were considering closing the boarding program. I mean, really. It’s actually quite unfortunate that UCC has boarding houses separated from the rest of the school…which means the boarders are kind of isolated and therefore easier to cut out completely, but honestly. UCC receives HOW MUCH in tuition from every student? Certainly it can’t be hard to let about fifty international students live at school in a dormitory-style fashion. I mean, they were going to cut out the program so they could lower tuition so that a more diverse student population could be achieved, according to my understanding. Am I the only one who sees the roundabout? The boarders ALREADY contribute to a diverse population. So UCC decides to throw out the international, multilingual, multicultural students and get, what? Students FROM TORONTO who are basically the same as all the other students except their parents perhaps don’t own Harry Rosen? Goddammit, see the reasoning.
2) Canada introduced new legislation concerning music and television copyright infringement.
I don’t even fully understand this legislation because it’s so stupid. They’re going to fine us for getting around locks in protected music files. We’re allowed to put legally purchased music on devices, but we’re not allowed to post it up or circulate it. And we’re allowed to film TV to watch later, but we can’t keep it permanently. All I can say is: WTF?!
First of all, and perhaps the easiest counterpoint to the law, is that this law is basically impossible to enforce. The internet is a public domain. How is the government supposed to determine whether someone posting MVs or downloading music is Canadian? All you need is an IP-blocker program, which you can download for free, and no one can tell where you’re from. Besides, how is the government supposed to determine whether the music you’re circulating is legally or illegally purchased/downloaded?
Secondly, this kind of legislation just screams “I WAS DEVELOPED BY MIDDLE-AGED OR OLDER PEOPLE WHO DO NOT UNDERSTAND OR EXPERIENCE FIRST-HAND WHAT HAPPENS ON THE INTERNET AND JUST KNOW VAGUELY WHAT’S GOING ON FROM STORIES FROM OTHER PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO DO NOT UNDERSTAND, SO I AM SCARED OF IT AND I’M GOING TO BAN IT OR FINE IT.” The world is moving into a digital age. Do not fine people or ban people from doing what’s inevitable. Find ways around it. For example, ok, they don’t want us downloading music illegally without paying. Fine. Instead of banning it altogether [and then not finding a way to reinforce it] maybe pass a thing that says all tracks on CDs have to be protected. I mean, the music that’s on the web for download came from somewhere. Somewhere along the line, wayy back, someone actually did buy the music legally and then started circulating it. According to the new law, distributing this music is illegal. And not enforceable. So if, instead, each track on a CD were protected so it couldn’t be copied or moved somewhere else, then how could people download or distribute music? It is also illegal, according to the new law, to distribute unlocking programs; I suppose this part of the law is actually ok. Just kill all the programs on the web that are unlocking programs. What I’m trying to say is that the government shouldn’t be full-out quashing anything going on in such an anonymous domain like the web by just banning or making it illegal. Work around it. Embrace it. Just like Radiohead and “In Rainbows”.
Thirdly, if you’re going to be banning downloading, offer some kind of substitute. Maybe people download because they can’t afford to buy CDs. Think about it: the majority of people who are consumers to the mainstream music industry is teenagers, students, young people who can’t buy the CDs. These webchildren find an alternative: downloading. It fits the age group. Cut back on CD prices. CDs don’t need to be glitzed-out, packaged in plastic cases with plastic wrapping, or accompanied with a booklet and pictures of the artist. Most of us don’t even look at that stuff; we just listen to the music, because that is what we’re buying. Hardcore fans of an artist can get all of that aesthetic stuff additionally by buying posters or separate merch. We don’t need it stuffed down our throats every time we buy a CD. And making buying music online easier. Right now, to buy anything online, a credit card is required. How many students or teens have credit cards? If internet sites accepted the debit card, more people would be able to buy stuff online. So, government, if you’re going to kill everything we do now, at least offer or open up some alternatives. If not, the same thing is going to continue, and, unluckily for you, you won’t be able to police it either because it’s on the web.
I understand what the government is coming at. They don’t want illegal downloading or distributing of music, because that’s an infringement on copyright. I get it. But they’re not approaching the problem in a practical way. What they really need is a teenager on the political party. It sounds weird, but it isn’t. Younger people understand the emerging technologies and strategies better. As we become more digital, they need someone like that who can connect with the citisens for a better outcome. Right now, downloaders [mostly teens] just feel like they’re being bossed around by a bunch of adults who don’t understand anything. And obviously that means rebellion, or just a continuation of what is discouraged while ignoring what the grownups say.
Honestly, children are so much smarter than adults. I bet it could be medically proven.

MSN SN: 盼望着夏天

加油，考试都快考完了！
我已经把英文，生物，法语，和物理考过了。
还剩下来数学和化学。希望能够把这两个考试快快考完。
*叹气*
今天也考了一下SAT2，法语和数学。真的好辛苦呀~

我一考完以后，我会要去法国一趟。如果你们想让我给你买一些小东西，就跟我说一说！

哦，还有两件事:
1) tonykun 最近给我送了一首歌，是周杰伦唱的。。。叫“千山万水”。我觉得有一部分，太美了：

你我同的世界， 爱从中穿越
梦与希望在飞， 我向前去追

2） 我找到了我旧的中文手机。太好玩了，可以发送中文信息！手机上有一个小笔，可以用它来写中文字。 好酷！哈哈。