This morning the electrician came to fix the little mistake that may have been caused by the iPod speakers. This “little” mistake amounted to $2,000 dollars- In keeping with the French tradition I admitted no fault.
We walked to the American University in Paris, located in the 7th arrondissement, Kelly met with admissions while I sat on a bench and read. Afterwards we walked to the nearby American Library. There is a subscription price of about 100 euros for the year to belong to this library, but books are very expensive here and they seem to have a pretty good lecture series/ collection. Unfortunately, the library was closed- we will need to investigate further tomorrow.
While walking across a busy intersection, with many others I might add, A Postal Truck became impatient and started to come into the cross walk. The driver lurched his truck close enough to me that I had to jump out of the way while smacking the front of the truck with my hand. He said something in French and I told him to “Fuck off.” I am not doing my part to aid French/ U.S. relations. I need a good retort in French for the next time this happens. I believe you can refer to someone as a “punta de merde” (whore of shit) to express the same sentiment, but that might be a little extreme and I may get beat up. Any suggestions?
The day is beautiful, cool and blue skies. This is a nice street view I took today as we strolled about enjoying the lovely weather. We happen to run into two Parisians who were enjoying the beautiful day from their windows.
5 comments:
When in doubt, turn to The Simpsons.
A bizarre twist....The Post Truck was rusted and had TONKA written on the sides....Creepy!
I'm a big fan of "va te faire futre!"
Might not be the exact spelling, but boy does it get the point across!
SC
Salaud works well for men. You could use Salope for the women but you might get lugged.
Espece de con is pretty crude too.
Then there are the universal hand gestures.
If you are being harrassed, Fous-moi la paix, works. Good for your wife to have in her arsenal.
Glad you made it to Paris! I'll have to get back on-line and spend more time following your exploits.
you know, i think swearing in 'mercan takes them aback way more than swearing in French with an accent. we've got such a fabulous compendium of nasty zingers to slay them with, too.
it just seems that the instinctual force, gut-fed "FUCK OFF!" would part seas more than an unsure "Va te faire foutre, connard!" (I speak from experience.)
that said, it's always good to impress the natives with one's mastery of their cuss lexicon.
let us know how you do!
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