7 Quick Takes

- 1 -

I feel so moron. Every time I go to judo I end up getting a minor injury. Like nothing bad - the worst is my repeated sprained ankle and big toe. But for crying out loud, today I got laid up with a leg cramp in my calf. And on Tuesday, it was - get this - a friggin stretched tendon ... in my butt. No, I did not attempt to explain its exact location while I was limping around the mat. The worst part is, whoever I happen to be working out with at the time always is some guy who feels awful that he just hurt me, when it wasn't even him, it was just my body being retarded! And then they spend the rest of the evening apologizing to me, and then never work out with me again because I'm so fragile and delicate. Gah.

- 2 -

This is not related to anything, ever (hence its being in the Quick Takes), but this summer my hair has decided that it wants to be curly. Like, I sometimes get Shirley Temple-esque ringlets, especially in the front of my hair. It's so weird - I was the only kid in my family who didn't have curly hair when Iw as little (which was, in fact, because I didn't have any hair when I was little, but let's not get hung up on the details here), and as a general rule my hair was always very fine and stick-straight. In the last few years it started to get wavy and thicker, and now voilà the curls this summer. I love them, and I wish they wouldn't go limp after a few hours. Has anyone else experienced major hair changes as they've gotten older?

- 3 -

I should just rename this blog "I Love Switzerland." Because seriously, who wouldn't love a country where every grocery store has a chocolate aisle? And I mean real, good, quality chocolate, not the too-sweet North American crap. A whole aisle, dedicated to the stuff. 

I would also like to add that I bought two bottles of wine and a bar of chocolate yesterday for less than 9 francs, total. The wine was cheaper than a sandwich. I love this country.

- 4 -

One more Switzerland thing and then I'm done, I promise: I think its hilarious to see men in expensive business suits zipping along the sidewalk on little scooters. Not like Vespa scooters, though there are plenty of those (and sometimes on the sidewalk, I kid you not), but I'm talking the little metallic fold-up ones with neon green wheels that were all the rage when we were 10. Those kinds of scooters. Cracks me up every time.

- 5 -

Because I am the world's most ADD person ever, I've decided that I don't already have enough to do, so I just joined my church's choir. They only sing once a month, but the two guys in it are AMAZING omg omg omg. The rest consist of a handful of screechy old ladies (who put their heart into it, I must say) and some younger girls who whisper-sing. So the guys are excited to have a soprano, and they have already given me some short Palestrina-and-co. pieces to sing with them. I am, like, out of my mind excited. I heard them sing on Sunday evening (luckily I happened to go to the one Mass they've done since I've been here) and I was literally crying, they were so good. I've cried over church music before, but never, ah, as a positive reaction. I thought I was going to float away during the Our Father, it was so beautiful. So now I'm in. And I wish we could practice 6 times a week.

- 6 -

I've started doing Language Tandems this week. It's an online thingy run through the university that hooks up people who want to exchange languages on their own time. It's basically just one-on-one with a native speaker, and free, and so it's a lot more intense and can be more frequent than a hour-and-a-half, once-a-week, 50-students-in-the-class oral French course which I had intended to take originally. I had a Spanish meeting with a doctoral student, and even though I was mistaking a lot of French words, it just feels so much more natural to speak Spanish. Physically, it's comfortable, whereas with French I feel like I'm constantly in danger of choking on my own tongue. I'd like to be able to practice my Spanish more just so I don't lose it entirely. It's all in my head; after a half-hour I could already feel it flowing more easily. And I've also had two French meetings so far with a secretary at the school (and her friend, today), which is great, again just to get the language flowing. I make a lot of mistakes but they correct the worst ones, and it's good just to get my tongue moving and wrapping around the words. And it's nice, too, to be able to make mistakes in a comfortable atmosphere like that. So, so far, so good. 

- 7 -

Wow, Quick Takes flies when you ... uhh ... don't post all week. One last piece of awesome: my mom sent me an email the other day - in Latin. To tell me, in fact, about an online radio station where you can listen to the news in Latin. I defy any reader out there to out-geek my mother. Go ahead. Just try.

Thanks for reading, everyone! I promise to be a better blogger next week. Don't forget to head over to Jen's for some more awesome Quick Takes!