An interesting day...

[alexpgp]

So many things to write about, so little time.

I seem to have broken through some kind of wall, in terms of my understanding of French, my ability to express myself in French, as well as my interaction with the members of the French team. Up to now, I have had the feeling that I have been an "invisible" person to the French. Aside from the morning "Bonjour!" and wishes of "Bon appetit!" as I go out the door of the dining hall after meals, I have gotten little response (aside from the first hints a couple of nights ago at the birthday party for Guy P.).

Mind you, this does not mean that I find myself utterly unfettered in terms of French comprehension and expression, or that I'm being treated as some kind of long-lost favorite cousin. I've merely gotten better in both language areas, and perceive a greater acceptance. Just now, for example, I joined in a doubles table tennis match with three Alcatel folks, and we had a pretty good time.

I could be imagining the whole thing, except for the good time at table tennis.

I sometimes wonder what it must be like for others to hear me speak. My pronunciation - in just about any language that I've undertaken - has always been pretty good, the result of a childhood misspent watching way too many cartoons. So I end up with pretty good Russian/French/German pronunciation, but the words coming out of my mouth often do not match the quality of the audio, so to speak. Then again, it's an idle speculation... a little like wondering "What do I really look like to other people?"

Viktor has assigned me and Maya to the propellant loading operations, which start on Saturday. Technically, it's a hazardous operation (the stuff they handle would as soon dissolve you as look at you, if it had eyes), but everyone around here is very careful about all aspects of what they do, so I'm not terribly concerned. The prospect of a day off after each day (one for loading oxidizer, another for loading fuel) is not exactly repellent, either, but I'll only believe the "day off" part when I experience them.

One of the highlights of the campaign thus far was yesterday evening's appearance of a bat in the satellite processing area. The poor creature was summarily dispatched and disposed of by someone wielding a piece of equipment like a club, but this morning's status meeting devoted quite a bit of time to a discussion of both the health hazard involved (fortunately, nobody touched the animal, so there are no worries there) as well as the hazard of the bat having, um, contaminated the satellite, which is sitting in the hall like a huge Erector set project gone horribly wrong (only an illusion, believe me). Other boring issues were discussed as well.

Of particular note was the reaction of those Americans at the meeting who kind of, sort of, have a grasp of Russian. When I described the animal as a летучая мышь, there was an undercurrent of chatter and one person piped up with a clarification to say the creature was not a mouse (мышь is a mouse, летучая мышь is a "flying mouse," which fairly well describes - and is Russian for - a bat). That non-issue got settled quickly, I am happy to report.

More later, as time and temperament allow.

Cheers...

Comments

At home, in the snow...

[daphnis.livejournal.com]

Are you able to keep up with weather reports on the Colorado mountains and SNOW? Some areas like Wolf Creek Pass and Monarch Pass, etcetera, have had up to 10' of snow dumped on them in the past five days! Avalanche danger is extremely high in some areas as well. (Don't know about the bats, though :->)

Flying Mouse

[cg07446.livejournal.com]

I speak neither Russian nor German, but I do know that the German word for bat, "fledermaus," also translates to "flying mouse." I only know because of the Strauss opera "Die Fledermaus." Although, I believe, the two creatures are not related, you are correct that "flying mouse" is a good description of a bat.