But beforehand...
Tinks and I have decided to go on a road trip over the interseason for a short while. Really looking forward to going away together and seeing a bit more of the country we live in. We're thinking about going through the Dordogne and then down to the Basque Country and then back in a round trip to Chamonix possibly via the Mediterranean coast. Funky stuff!
I intend on using my French to it's full use by being able to talk to people who live by the sea about how regularly they wax their skis, which mountain they climbed yesterday and how come humous is so bloody expensive in the local supermarket. Vital stuff. We're going to be haut de la gorge de la merde sans palette (up shit creek with no paddle) if anything goes wrong with the car because I know virtually no French vocabularly that is pertinent to motor vehicles.
Spain might have differing language problems. I only know very basic Spanish really. I can say "I have fleas" (tengo pulgas), "some ice please" (hielo por favor), and "don't shoot me, shoot the hairy one" (no me tire, tiran el melenudo). This last one is damn useless as I am, in fact, the hairy one. Not good. Might have to take my laptop and hook it up permanently to Altavista's online translation tool Babelfish.
To be honest, I'm actually really pleased how my French is coming along and am learning more every day. It feels good to be able to crack the odd joke with someone in a foreign language and feel pretty comfortable day-to-day. I've never been fluent in another language and it's something I'm really looking forward to at some stage in the future.
