interview meme - answering the last questions...

[la_rainette]

2. What would be your ideal normal date? What about a perfect date with no restrictions on location or funds?

Oh, anything involving a show and a good restaurant. :D
Same thing, but the best seats to a great show, and a very, very good restaurant ;)

3. What do you like and dislike about yourself physically and mentally?

Well. I like my eyes, I find them large and expressive. I dislike my hair, because 1) greys? what do you mean, greys? I am TOO YOUNG TO HAVE GREYS *grumbles* 2) it grows all the time and I just don't have that much time to spend at the hair stylist's. So there. ;)

Mentally, I like that I do not mind Being In Embarrassing Situations at all, which is a Very Good Thing in life as they seem to flock to me. I have that from my mom, whom I found recently washing her hands in the public washrooms, with the back of her dress safely tucked inside her underwear. She hadn't realized it, and no one had dared point it out to her. So I did, and we both just, well, cracked up, because it was so funny. We're just indifferent to what people we do not know think of us.

I don't like that I am not organized, and that I am a born procrastinator. I do everything at the last minute, thus not well, and then I'm not happy with myself. Oh, and I do mind what people I like think of me, a little too much sometimes.

4. What would you like me to send you as a return gift for the Potter novel(s)?

:D I send things because I am happy to share them with whomever I am sending them to. So I actually do not expect anything back, really. Now, should you feel that there is something YOU would like to send me, because you like it, and you would like me to discover it, too, please go ahead ;)

5. What are some of the things you loved and hated about England during your time there?

:D I loved England. I almost stayed there, but I had to leave because I hadn't paid any income tax for two years (I didn't have to), but if I had stayed on I'd have had to pay taxes for the two previous years, and I had, ahem, spent all that money already. :D

I loved going to the pub with friends; I loved the CBSO and Simon Rattle - I was fortunate enough to be there when they had to rehearse at the University where I was working because the Symphony Hall wasn't completed yet; I loved being 23, and having that great bunch of friends that were my age and had as much free time as I had, and going out a lot, and traveling all over the place; I loved Indian food, oh man! I lived in Birmingham, and the chicken tikka masala balti was my favourite food in the world.

The one thing I didn't love was the weather. I have nothing against the cold, as log as I have sun. However, lots of cloud and lots of rain don't agree with me. Toronto suits me much better.



1. Do you think you'll ever leave Canada?

I have no idea. Once you start living in a foreign country, you're kind of open to other possibilities, too. So, maybe? I truly do not know. I don't think I'd ever live in the US, though. But if I ever get asked to go to New-Zealand, or Australia, well, why not?

It would have to wait, though, because one the things we love most about Canada is the possibility to make our children bilingual (it was one of the reasons that motivated us to go), so we'll certainly wait until they are a little older and very comfortable with French.

2. Do you think you'll have another child?

No. I always wanted three, but I have this Eye Thing that is hormone-related and makes it, well, not impossible that a third pregnancy would make me blind. And I'd like to see my kids grow up.

I have mentioned adoption to Husband, but he's not in favour of it, because he fears that he would not be able to love an adopted child as much as he loves our biological ones. I totally respect that: when you adopt, you must truly be ready to love your adopted child fully. If you aren't there's no point, really, you would only end up hurting that child even more than he/she already is.

I'm very happy with my two, though. :D

3. Is there a language you don't know you wish you did?

Yes: Italian. I might still learn it, given half a chance. I mean, it is not impossible to learn it since it's not too far from French.

Greek, too, but I have no hope that I will learn Greek in the near future. It's just too complicated.

4. What is your favourite time of day?

Late in the evening: when the day is over and I can relax for a moment and think only of myself... My very selfish moment.

5. What did you want to do when you were small?

I wanted to be a vet. :D I fully expect Tadpole to say the exact same in a few years, given her love for animals. I still love animals, but I never became a vet.



1. What are your favorite memories of your daughters?

All the first times, I guess. Their births, as the first time I met them and discovered who they were; their first steps; the first time they hugged me back.

I have one very specific memory I love: when Froglet was 2 1/2, and Tadpole was about 7 months, I was filling in paperwork at the living-room table when I heards very unfamiliar sounds coming from the girls, so I looked up... And I saw Froglet, making faces, then dropping on the floor as if she'd just tripped over something, and Tadpole made that unfamiliar sound again, and then I realized that this was the sound of Tadpole laughing uncontrollably (it was the first time I'd heard her laugh with such abandon without being tickled ;) ), and her sister was trying to make her laugh even more by playing the clown.

I watched them as they went on for about 15 minutes. They were unbelievably cute. They've done it again since, of course, but this was the first time, and... wow!

2. Who is your favorite author and why?

So it's for one book in particular: Rohinton Mistry, and the book is A Fine Balance. I've read other books by him, and his sense of humanity always moved me deeply, but this one is my favourite. Such a beautiful book, so sad and luminous at the same time.

3. What is your dream vacation?

Either a cruise in a tiny boat to go up to the polar circle and see the sun at midnight; or a week (oh hell, make it a fortnight ;) ) in a small island in French Polynesia - not Tahiti, but Huahine or Moorea would be fun.

4. What is the soundtrack to your life?

:D Well, it won't mean much to you, but Gearge Brassens's irreverent songs.

5. What would you change in the world if you had unlimited power?

OK, this is a "Miss USA Pageant" answer, but I'd like world peace, really. Certainly not by coercing anyone, but it seems to me that if people had a better understanding of others, if they were able to truly listen to others and understand their pain and judge them a little less, maybe they'd calm down a little. So, yes, that. If it makes any sense.


And I am all done.

And Husband is coming back from Berlin tonight.

Life is good.

Comments

[l33tminion]

Hmph.. the US isn't that bad... oh, wait...
*picks up paper, reads headlines*
Oh... right... it is... *sigh*

In conclusion, after this election I will either be relieved or afraid... very, very afraid.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

:D Well, I've never really considered living in the US. I'm not saying the US are bad, but they don't appeal to me, as a European. (We were offered jobs in Providence a few years ago, we turned them down.)

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed, too.

[terrylj.livejournal.com]

OT, but this is interesting...I'm assuming leetminion (or whatever, sorry) lives in the US, and she refers to it in the singular (like me); but you refer to "them", plural. Hmmm...

/wordnerd

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, that is very interesting! I fully intend to write a post, soon, on the joys of the French language, my beloved Grévisse, the dictée de Pivot and other amusing things, but I keep being distracted by other business (such as: back to school and stuff)...

But basically, countries have genders in French, just like eveything else snce we do not have an it: France is feminine, Portugal is masculine, for instance, and the United States are automatically masculine plural. No way around it.

Maybe it's a barbarism on my part, you tell me because I frankly do not know. To me, it is obvious that The United States are a plural, but there is no "look at Those guys over there, yeah, Them" factor, mainly a French grammar point possibly gone awry...

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

woops. And I didn't mean to make an entire comment in italics, either. Sorry.

[terrylj.livejournal.com]

Hmph. If we have to have gender, why can't we be female? Because you'd never get a bunch of guys to get together and form up a United bunch of anything besides a sports team (and GEAUX LSU!!!11! while we're at it). That's how we got the War of Northern Aggression.

I don't think we in the US see ourselves as plural, for the most part. I mean, if you're from the South there's a definite regional identity, and sure we have our football teams and our food specialties and our weird politicians that we are proud of as individual states, but when it comes to national identities, I would say that we view ourselves as singular. As Paul Harvey says, it's "us, U-S". The United States is a country, like Canada or France. One nation, under God. Interesting that others might see it differently, because of language.

It's funny, because in a related question, I've been wondering what the heck is our national identifier. We call ourselves "Americans", but what do the people in South America, and Canada and Mexico, feel about that? "USians" or "Statesians" just sounds dumb.

We know exactly who we are. We just don't have a name. :)