I wish I wasn't so tired!
I need (and want! yes, it sounds weird, coming from me
) to study nephrology today, I need to get back to German (I have a new deadline, if I want to use an interesting opportunity for this summer, but I'd need to work like crazy on improving the language asap). But my eyes are closing! and I have plans to attend a concert today. Fortunately, I need mostly ears for that
And as my time to leave France comes closer, I have visited a big second hand bookshop and left there 45 euros. My original budget was 20. But after all, I'd have to buy the books for more, back in Prague. And I need a bit of balance to my studies (please don't point out it is an excuse to be lazy, I know
)
http://9gag.com/gag/aRmP9rM/25-hilariou ... -the-worstI laughed a lot.
1 is not true about me, I hear poems recitation, not heated discussions. But this comes from a person with 99% preference for prose.
2 is very precise
8 sums up the wonder we all probably feel at times, while studying German vocab
9: is it true and precise?
11: Kummerspeck seems to be a real word
well, it could be part of the Medicine Student Syndrome. A friend of mine quickly lost 20 kg in half a year after giving up on medicine. She is now studying a related field, working, with still more free time than before, and I had never seen her happier.
12. There is a typo. But I love the word Überraschung! even the sound is surprising!
13
I would actually like to see Germans playing it
15 we have that too! "To je mi buřt!"is exactly the same thing, exact translation and meaning. And, as most words and phrases we had taken from German, its use is dying out with the older generations.
16 Naturwissenschaften is a perfectly logical word. But it takes up more ink, true.
18 looks like an ideal pronunciation challenge for us!23: that is actually a very good question. Do they?
24. the word Schmetterling actually portrays some aspects of "butterfliness" (the essence of being a butterfly
) the other, more tender words don't. The Czech word motýl is still just the gentle and elegant impression, while der Schmtterling immediately makes me imagine the flight!
25 is stupid
It has been a good decision to update my knowledge of French fantasy and sci-fi. For example to not recommend the same stuff all over again.
Apart from the already beloved authors, I am still crazy about the "newly found" Fabien Clavel. He, and another author I've just found, use Prague in their books, which is another bonus point (ok, sometimes just in the classical portrait of a nice place for the badguys' headquarters). But really. I've read only 15 pages of Henri Courtade's "Loup, y es-tu?" and I am in love! Mixing fairytales with conspiration theories and being funny, what a combination!
Other stuff I've just dragged from the shop:
-Les Rois maudits by Druon. I've heard so much about this! first three parts in one tome for 3 euros. yay!
-One more Clavel to put on my "to read" shelf. I am already looking forward to opening the book.
-One Dantec: "Babylon Babies", to challenge my general knowledge again, and draw me into a great story. Really, if anyone says scifi is stupid, put a Dantec in their hands.
-Two Geneforts, I left there a third one (a decision I may regret later). I am really enjoying his Hordes, and I am curious about a space
opera with an
opera singer as the hero! And Lum'en, the other book, got three prizes. I know, there are so many prizes that many of them don't mean much (still a better situation than with the wines. It looks like there are as many prizes as wine producers, as it is a nice marketing trick to use on us, who know little beyond "I like that/ I don't like that"). But le Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire is actually a very trustuworthy one.
-La Horde du Contrevent by Damasio: It got the same prize. But more importantly: Tarvos has recommended it!
-Jean-Philippe Depotte: Le chemin des dieux: It looks interesting, a french-japanese story, and so on, something new. But what made me buy it and not something else (among the candidates, there were two books translated from Chinese, which looked very interesting, a few thrillers, and a Chinese course): "
Scientifique de formation, passionné d'histoire et de littérature, Jean-Philippe Depotte est né en 1967. Il a été
inventeur <<breveté>>, éditeur de
méthodes de langues et directeur de
production de jeux vidéo. You see? And the scientist part is the best. I love authors with scientific background. Don't get me wrong, historiens like Clavel are awesome too! But a scientist writing sci-fi, that is different.
-Estelle Faye: Thya. Finally a book by a woman on my today's list. I have a few more contemporary French fantasy writers, who happen to be women, on my to read list. She won Prix Imaginal 2015, and one other prix (from the huuuuuuuuge prize crowd I have already described above). She writes for younger readers, the other few women on my 2017 list seem to write purely adult stuff. You may have noticed the neverending trouble with this feminist issue in my heart. Yes, I want more women as popular fantasy/scifi writers. But I don't like the fact so many write crap and get it published and the idea that I don't know whether women in general write less/worse or get published less. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised, if men were taking female names and wrote the generic Twilight copies too, as an easy source of money, drawn from the pockets of 14 year olds
. But I don't want to choose books based on positive discrimination either. I don't know whether you see, where the "trouble" is. There are awesome women-fantasy writers. But too few, considering the fact most fantasy readers are women (can't quote it, sorry, but there was an actual research by some marketing or sociology institution).
Now, I need to force myself to progress with medicine and these fun books in a reasonable way. Ratio 3:1 (chapters med:fun) seems reasonable. But even 2:1 will be a success.
P.S. I hate the prejudices against Erasmus students. Today at hospital: I am sitting there, excited about nephrology (and still surprisingly excited about medicine after years of hating it),fighting the dossiers and papers bravely, getting through the cases, trying to not get that confused in all the ions and pHs and stuff, preparing for seeing the patients in persin, enjoying jokes about calling labs, thinking how happy I am... and here comes a compassionate remark: "Ah, the externat (years 4-6), that is not a good time to come on an Erasmus here. You cannot party too much." And he meant it!
I know it is sadly true about many people. A former classmate of mine was honestly surprised she had to study in her free time and submit homework during her Erasmus stay in Portugal! She had chosen sociology exactly to not have to study much. And Portugal doesn't have the reputation of the sctrictest country and education system in Europe, she had expected a semester of relax on the beach. How dare they demand work from students?!
100 points for the portuguese sociologists, they've earned my respect!