Macbeth

On Thursday night I went with a friend to see Macbeth. This wasn't an ordinary version of Macbeth. It was at the National Museum of the American Indian, and the play was performed in the Thlinket (pronounced Klinket) language, with English subtitles projected above the stage. There was still a bit of English--during Macbeth's & Lady Macbeth's soliloquys. My friend and I saw another of our coworkers, an architect, there as well. Of all the random places to run into someone you know! It was a very good, very enjoyable production after an always enjoyable, always expensive meal in the museum cafeteria. I had a pulled buffalo sandwich and 2-glass bottle of wine for only $28. It's random opportunities like this one that make me enjoy living here! Plus it gave me something to talk about in French class the next day. Our instructor always starts by having us tell him and the others what's new. Sometimes our discussions turn political, such as on Wednesday when we discovered that our class contains a member of PETA and an avid hunter! A frustratingly slow argument in broken French ensued!

Falafel Night

Some of us did our semi-monthly Falafel Friday on Friday night. If you haven't been to Amsterdam House, ask me to take you there when you come visit! This time, instead of ending our evening with Falafel or just going to a nearby bar, we went to see The Last King of Scotland. It was really good. The moral of the story was "don't sleep with dictators' wives". I think that's something we can all learn from. The biggest eye-opener for me on Friday was not how barbaric Idi Amin was, but what a great movie theater Landmark E Street Cinema is! Not only do they serve beer and wine, but they specialize in foreign films, documentaries, and independent films. I can't wait to see Volver, Avenue Montaigne, and Pan's Labyrinth. Also, The Namesake is now a film!

Tiring Week

Getting back into the habit of studying (and also working 9-hour days) has proven to be tiring. My French class is really great, though. We meet for an hour & 10 minutes every morning for the next 15 weeks. There are 6 of us and an instructor, so there's plenty of individual attention. Unfortunately, it also means I can't slack off for even one day, because our instructor forces us to converse! I was a little worried about being put in the "Elementary Plus" class (There's Beginner, Elementary, Elementary Plus, Intermediate, and probably also an Advanced class). However, I'm learning a lot, and I think I'm keeping pace with my classmates. They have had more recent French experience, so their vocabularies are a little more extensive than mine, but my pronunciation is pretty good. In fact, a woman I met at a party last night was fluent, and she said my accent was good! So that makes two people who've complemented my pronunciation now. If only my vocabulary catches up!

Speaking of the party, it was a birthday party for a coworker. Lots of wine, lots of food, and hula-hooping. Yes, the hostess bought a couple hula hoops. Some of the guests were pretty good at it. My friend Lisa and I were not. Trying to figure out how to do it became somewhat of an obsession around 11:00PM. But I never got the hang of it. To my surprise, Zach was actually able to do it. Oh well. I stuck a piece of "Happy Birthday" confetti to my forehead, and either the dye leeched out or it irritated my skin, but whatever it was, I had an imprint of the words on my forehead for the rest of the night. Mercifully, it's gone today.