This is the last post about the conference in Heidelberg. The other one can be found here.
We went to walk in the mountains near the city before the conference dinner at the castle. Here are some pictures of the hiking.
Travel table of content
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Germany : Mountains in Heidelberg
En français
This is the last post about the conference in Heidelberg. The other one can be found here.
We went to walk in the mountains near the city before the conference dinner at the castle. Here are some pictures of the hiking.
Travel table of content
This is the last post about the conference in Heidelberg. The other one can be found here.
We went to walk in the mountains near the city before the conference dinner at the castle. Here are some pictures of the hiking.
Travel table of content
Monday, April 12, 2010
Update on April's challenges
En français
So as I explained earlier I am participating to two contests for the month of April.
Now we are the 12 of April, already almost in the middle of the month so I think it's time to take a look at what I have actually been doing for those challenges. I probably should have written something about it a bit earlier, anyway, it's here now.
Script Frenzy
For Script Frenzy I am a bit behind at the moment. I was supposed to write 3.33 pages a day. Actually I went out a lot since the first of April and ended up with being 16 pages behind in the writing. However, I'm not the kind to let things get worse and worse and I manage to write 17 pages yesterday. So now I have a total of 33 pages. I'll surely reach 40 pages tonight to be right on tracks again.
As I promised in the announcement of this challenge, here is a little summary of the story so far : Vienna's Ghost
Arman has the particular ability to be able to travel in people's dreams. Some people like it as he can help them dream about what they want and some people don't. But Arman sleep really few at night and never dream himself.
Yurei is the family ghost. She is scaring people unwillingly until Arman finally manage to talk to her. What Arman doesn't know is that Yurei is secretly in love with her and that she is the girl who appeared in his very first dream the day before and that he is desperately trying to fine.
As I always slide some links to my next story in the one I'm writing, I hide a little wink to "Demon and fairy" in this one. I didn't write much on the novel.
International L2 Reading Contest
Here is the International L2 Reading Contest. I have seen some of the read pages number of some people and I was really impressed. I surely over estimated my abilities when I joined this contest. But the good point about it, even if I am sure that I will never make it to the top 5, is that it allows me to test my reading in Japanese and also to read different kind of material. I really intend to push the effort until the end of the month (never left anything half done.) and I'm also intending to continue reading as much as I can after the contest.
花ざかりの君たちへ (Hana Kimi)
I read 20 pages of the manga. I don't really know how to count them though. Normally 10 pages read count for 1 page in the contest. But I read all pages three times (so maybe 6 pages).
The first time I just go with the knowledge of Japanese I have. That kind of give me a flavor. I'm almost done with Heisig's remembering the Kanji.
But if I can write the characters fine when I have the meaning and if I can recognize a kanji that I know, getting the meaning of it coming to my mind is not that easy.
So here is where the second reading of the page comes into place, I look up all the kanjis for which the meaning didn't strike me and sometimes write them down.
The third reading allows me to actually fix things with the hiragana and katakana and to make sure that I understand what I read.
That may seem a slow process and it's actually slow but that's also a lot of fun and that also showed me that I can understand more than I thought I was.
あのときの王子くん
I read two chapters of the little prince with the audio (audio books list). That's about 7 pages. These I read several times too, that depends of the sentences really. I like to have the audio with me because the hiragana tend to really really kill me. It's way more difficult to understand than with the kanjis.
I also read the equivalent of five pages on wikipedia about different topics. Basically, when I'm looking for something I will check the Japanese pages as well. I find it very convenient as I spend a lot of time on the computer. So each time I need a small break I will end up there.
And I read 6 pages of pure kana for the Japanese test for registration and placement into Japanese classes. I was already laughing when the girl put the paper in front of me. I had learned the hiragana the night before and I had told her so. I asked for something written in Japanese but she told me that that was the test I was supposed to take. I failed at it 7/58. Hopefully my supervisor wasn't really happy with the time table and decided that I will take the classes in fall instead. I can't tell how happy I am. I live with people who actually took this class at beginner level last semester and my Japanese is not worse that theirs so I really think that 10.5 hours in this class would really be a waste of time for me. I know kanjis, I'll know kana better in no time and I'm listening to Japanese all the time, I don't think a class would do more than to force me to say something my brain refuse to say at the moment. I already noticed that I'm able to say some complicated things when something apparently simple is totally alien to me. People ask me how I can know something complicated when I don't know something easy. Or also how I can know kanjis if I don't know kana. I don't know that's just the way it is at the moment.
So as I explained earlier I am participating to two contests for the month of April.
Now we are the 12 of April, already almost in the middle of the month so I think it's time to take a look at what I have actually been doing for those challenges. I probably should have written something about it a bit earlier, anyway, it's here now.
Script Frenzy
As I promised in the announcement of this challenge, here is a little summary of the story so far : Vienna's Ghost
Arman has the particular ability to be able to travel in people's dreams. Some people like it as he can help them dream about what they want and some people don't. But Arman sleep really few at night and never dream himself.
Yurei is the family ghost. She is scaring people unwillingly until Arman finally manage to talk to her. What Arman doesn't know is that Yurei is secretly in love with her and that she is the girl who appeared in his very first dream the day before and that he is desperately trying to fine.
As I always slide some links to my next story in the one I'm writing, I hide a little wink to "Demon and fairy" in this one. I didn't write much on the novel.
International L2 Reading Contest
Here is the International L2 Reading Contest. I have seen some of the read pages number of some people and I was really impressed. I surely over estimated my abilities when I joined this contest. But the good point about it, even if I am sure that I will never make it to the top 5, is that it allows me to test my reading in Japanese and also to read different kind of material. I really intend to push the effort until the end of the month (never left anything half done.) and I'm also intending to continue reading as much as I can after the contest.
花ざかりの君たちへ (Hana Kimi)
The first time I just go with the knowledge of Japanese I have. That kind of give me a flavor. I'm almost done with Heisig's remembering the Kanji.
But if I can write the characters fine when I have the meaning and if I can recognize a kanji that I know, getting the meaning of it coming to my mind is not that easy.
So here is where the second reading of the page comes into place, I look up all the kanjis for which the meaning didn't strike me and sometimes write them down.
The third reading allows me to actually fix things with the hiragana and katakana and to make sure that I understand what I read.
That may seem a slow process and it's actually slow but that's also a lot of fun and that also showed me that I can understand more than I thought I was.
あのときの王子くん
I read two chapters of the little prince with the audio (audio books list). That's about 7 pages. These I read several times too, that depends of the sentences really. I like to have the audio with me because the hiragana tend to really really kill me. It's way more difficult to understand than with the kanjis.
I also read the equivalent of five pages on wikipedia about different topics. Basically, when I'm looking for something I will check the Japanese pages as well. I find it very convenient as I spend a lot of time on the computer. So each time I need a small break I will end up there.
And I read 6 pages of pure kana for the Japanese test for registration and placement into Japanese classes. I was already laughing when the girl put the paper in front of me. I had learned the hiragana the night before and I had told her so. I asked for something written in Japanese but she told me that that was the test I was supposed to take. I failed at it 7/58. Hopefully my supervisor wasn't really happy with the time table and decided that I will take the classes in fall instead. I can't tell how happy I am. I live with people who actually took this class at beginner level last semester and my Japanese is not worse that theirs so I really think that 10.5 hours in this class would really be a waste of time for me. I know kanjis, I'll know kana better in no time and I'm listening to Japanese all the time, I don't think a class would do more than to force me to say something my brain refuse to say at the moment. I already noticed that I'm able to say some complicated things when something apparently simple is totally alien to me. People ask me how I can know something complicated when I don't know something easy. Or also how I can know kanjis if I don't know kana. I don't know that's just the way it is at the moment.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
America : Sunny day in Chicago
En français
So here is my last day in Chicago. I went back to the John Hancock Building for two reasons. The first was to take pictures of the city from above during the day. The second was to verify something. And yes, after verification, the best view in the all building is in the lady toilet, sorry about that guys.
That was a pretty hot day and I walked a lot again, must love walking.
I also went to see the bean and did some interesting pictures of it. I like the light effect on the curved mirror. Maybe that's a physicist thing but I was trying to see how my own image was moving on the surface as I walk around and under. I spend quite a lot of time there, that was fun.
Travel table of content
So here is my last day in Chicago. I went back to the John Hancock Building for two reasons. The first was to take pictures of the city from above during the day. The second was to verify something. And yes, after verification, the best view in the all building is in the lady toilet, sorry about that guys.
That was a pretty hot day and I walked a lot again, must love walking.
I also went to see the bean and did some interesting pictures of it. I like the light effect on the curved mirror. Maybe that's a physicist thing but I was trying to see how my own image was moving on the surface as I walk around and under. I spend quite a lot of time there, that was fun.
Travel table of content
Saturday, April 10, 2010
America : Baha'i House of Worship
En français
The next day, I went to visit the Baha'i House of Worship for the North American Continent with my host. That was really beautiful. I like how all the Baha'i temples have a different architecture. I'm not religious myself but it was interesting to learn about a new faith.
Travel table of content
The next day, I went to visit the Baha'i House of Worship for the North American Continent with my host. That was really beautiful. I like how all the Baha'i temples have a different architecture. I'm not religious myself but it was interesting to learn about a new faith.
Travel table of content
Friday, April 9, 2010
Cooking : Fava bean spaghetti
En français
The other day, I went shopping to and other shop than my usual one. It's just across the street from the usual one so not much more difficult to get there. That was incredible. That was more like a market than like a shop but still you had all the products that you can find in supermarket, plus a lot of fresh vegetable, fish, meat. Anyway, I found fava bean, something I hadn't eat for years. Probably since childhood actually. So I decided to get some and to prepare myself something with them. I also go the little funny mushroom that I tested at the restaurants sometimes.
What do you need :
Spaghetti
Fava bean
Mushrooms
A tomato
5 crab sticks
Take the skin away from the fava beans. Cut the mushroom
Put the Fava bean and mushroom in some boiling water until the beans are cooked.
Cook the spaghetti.
Cut the tomato and crab sticks in dice.
Fry the vegetable and crab stick in a pan.
Put them on the top of the spaghetti.
いただきます !
What do you need :Spaghetti
Fava bean
Mushrooms
A tomato
5 crab sticks
Preparation :
Take the skin away from the fava beans. Cut the mushroom
Put the Fava bean and mushroom in some boiling water until the beans are cooked.
Cook the spaghetti.
Cut the tomato and crab sticks in dice.
Fry the vegetable and crab stick in a pan.
Put them on the top of the spaghetti.
いただきます !
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Japan : Sakura trees are Japan soul
En français
Yesterday evening I went to the 野川 (Nogawa) river to see the Sakura trees enlighten. That was really magical. The blooming trees were pinkish and white on the dark night sky. I wouldn't have been surprised to see little fairies. My friend told me that the Sakura trees are Japan soul and he asked me what the France soul is, if that's the Eiffel Tower. I didn't really know what to answer. I never thought about it before. Maybe Japan is going to teach me new feelings. Looking at the trees probably did, that's difficult to explain.
Travel table of content
Yesterday evening I went to the 野川 (Nogawa) river to see the Sakura trees enlighten. That was really magical. The blooming trees were pinkish and white on the dark night sky. I wouldn't have been surprised to see little fairies. My friend told me that the Sakura trees are Japan soul and he asked me what the France soul is, if that's the Eiffel Tower. I didn't really know what to answer. I never thought about it before. Maybe Japan is going to teach me new feelings. Looking at the trees probably did, that's difficult to explain.
Travel table of content
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
America : Glass museum at Navy Pier
En français
In the evening I went to a concert of Jazz where the boyfriend of my host was playing, at Navy Pier.
Then we went to the stained glass window museum. Here are some pictures of the exposition. And us playing with the mirrors.
Travel table of content
In the evening I went to a concert of Jazz where the boyfriend of my host was playing, at Navy Pier.
Then we went to the stained glass window museum. Here are some pictures of the exposition. And us playing with the mirrors.
Travel table of content
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