I love reading, learning, and... yes, of course, BOOKS! It is very hard for D and I not to buy all the nice books that we find interesting at the bookstore (if it wasn't for the price) and even harder when we go at the second-hand bookstore (because the price is much nicer). Then why do we try to resist? Well, for the simple fact that books are heavy, and that when we move from place to place, boxes full of books weights a lot (and I'm not the one carrying, since I'm Lady Iphigenia the one and only, eh!). Luckily Don Quixote is a gentleman with big muscles (and a charming smile).

Somehow, with that great foundness for books, something strange happens with me (strange things often happen with me, to me, towards me...): when I own a book, I don't have a great urge to read it. I have maybe 10 to 20 books that I plan to read one day, but in the mean time stay neatly placed on the shelves. However, for the books that I choose at the library, I often read them much faster than the due date and can't put the book down until I'm done with it!

For the books I own, I sometimes start reading one book, then start another (without finishing the first one), then another (without finishing the second one) and so on. At the moment I am reading 2 books at the same time: The Chronicles of Narnia, The French are never wrong (or something like that which was a book that I offered to my Darling last christmas), there is another unfinished book about the voice, and (now comes the subject of this post) I am also teaching myself portuguese!

Last Christmas I bought myself this method complete with CDs (along with the other book that I offered to super Darling). It was on sale at the local Chapters bookstore and since the best gifts are the ones that one makes to him/herself, I had no reason to resist to that one. Plus, I am a complete addicted to learning new languages, AND it's my Darling's native language! (Go, go motivation!)
With all this good will, and the above mentioned reasons, I only opened this book last week, put the CD in our Mini-HiFi, and started repeating with the recording "Bom Dia! Todo bem? Sim. Eu me chamo Iphigenia. Tem um apartamento reservado em meu nome?" (literally: Hello! All good? Yes. My name is Iphigenia. Do you have a room reserved on my name?)

So far, so good. I think it will be easier to learn with a CD/method, than only relying on D for correcting my pronunciation (we are otherwise always talking in French together). When I try to speak in Portuguese to his parents/brother through MSN, it is hard at the moment because I mix it up so easily with Spanish or Italian! Hopefully, I'll get better with time and one day we'll have the opportunity to be surrounded by the language for a little while, either visiting Brazil or Portugal: the best way to learn!

* Le Brésilien sans peine is the title of the book that D offered for my first birthday together (he had bought is when we weren't even together yet!). It could translate the Brazilian Made Easy, or literally the Brazilian without pain which I find is a funny title, but then, I also have a queer sence of humour... HAHA to me!

"That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. "Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"

Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."

When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching." (Matthew 22)

Il se passe quelque chose de cloche entre moi et les bouilloires que j'achète. Je suis une grande buveuse d'infusions en tous genres (sauf le café dont j'adore l'odeur, mais qui ne s'entend pas bien avec mon estomac). Donc comme je bois du thé noir, vert, tisanes et maté, j'ai absolument besoin d'une bouilloire officielle à la maison. Par contre comme je sais qu'on déménagera (sûrement) bientôt dans un pays avec un système électrique différent, j'en veux pas une électrique mais plutôt une "vraie" que l'on puisse chauffer sur la cuisinière à gaz et/ou électrique.

Il y a trois ans, avant de me marier, j'en avais acheté une jolie vieille des années 50 dans un magasin genre brocante (faut pas dire à ma mère qui ne se permet jamais d'acheter des trucs d'occasion, sauf peut-être des meubles). Cette bouilloire était formidable jusqu'au jour où je l'ai oubliée sur le feu... Le fond était tellement carbonisé que par la suite des petits copeaux métalurgiques louches se mélangeaient à l'eau bouillie, il fallait que je filtre tout ça, mais j'avais peur de m'enpoisonner à chaque fois... Et oui, oui, pourtant elle était munie d'un sifflet, mais non, non, il est resté bloqué-ouvert ce jour-là.

Quand on a déménagé de Montréal, on l'a laissée derrière nous.

When I need to "regain forces" (nice excuse), feel tired or depressed (it does happen for no reasons sometimes), I often crave for sweet things. Then I know that time has come for us to pay a visit to the local Latin American shop where I will by my Argentinian specialities.

- Dulce de leche is the real name, you might call it caramel spead, milk jam or confiture de lait, but for me it will stay dulce de leche. It's just delicious. How can I discribe the sweetness of sugar, and the creamishness of the milk? Mmmh.

*Cet article est bilingue, le français est ci-dessous*

I propose myself to transfer some posts from my previous blog... I'm hesitating because I wanted to have a different space here, a different style, different articles, etc., but it's seems that I always come back to "me" and the struggles we have/had with my Darling (although I never and will never speak about our intimate life).

*sigh* So... While I'm thinking about that, I'm doing a few changes in the design of that blog.

Je me demande si je ne devrais pas transférer quelques articles depuis mon blog précédent... J'hésite parce que je voulais avoir un espace virtuel différent ici, un style différent, d'autres articles, etc., mais on dirait que j'en reviens toujours à moi et les difficultés qu'on a (eue) avec mon Chéri (même si je ne parle et ne parlerai jamais de notre vie intime).

*soupir* Alors... Pendant que je pense à tout ça, je fais quelques petits changements de design dans ce blog.

Wednesday morning D had to go to the seminary for what he thought to be an appointment with Dr. W-the-English. Surprise, surprise... it wasn't just 'an appointment' rather... the Orientation day for the new students!

When I came back home at noon (I work only mornings on Wednesdays), I was surprised that D hadn't come back yet since his 'appointment' was supposed to be at 9am. At 3pm I got a bit nervous: "did something happen?", "is something wrong?". I called our Russians friends: was he there? No. Then I called the seminary (it's a small school, everybody knows everybody), where a professor who recognized my voice said: "Oh yes, D is registering right now!" Waaa?! I was so surprised and in shock that I started laughing and babbling on the phone "Ah good, well, that's nice... eh, thank you! Ok, bye!"

D was registering? He was going to study! REALLY?! Thank you Lord... finally!

I couldn't help crying (I cry very easily).

Two hours later he was still not back though... I was still thinking that he was only there for an appointment in the morning. How come he wasn't calling me to say he was late? So at 5pm I called again (oh yeah, now everybody will know me as the "desperate wife" aha), after talking to a lady who told me that "everybody" was there (except me!), D called me back and explained all that was going on. He was as traumatised as I was, having spent the day following the "Welcome committee" and listening to different speeches (couldn't remember a word though - must have been really long and/or boring). He came pick me up a couple of minutes later to go to the potluck BBQ together. The food was yummy. There we met with other friends: Canadians Anglophones, from Venezuela, China, German origins, Sudan and Ethiopia... and of course our Russian friends who were already waiting for us!

So, after two years of waiting, Don Magnifico (another name for my Darling) is finally going to start his studies at the seminary. However there are still some questions unanswered: we don’t know if the church of France will be willing to finance his studies. And what if they don’t? Are we going to transfer to England anyway? Or will D loose his credits in the wind?

Lord, help us! (And thank you for what has already been done).