Thanks to Christmas, I'm not only listening to NPR during my drive, I'm learning Italian too! I got this wonderful time-passing set of CDs from my parents for xmas called "Drive Time: Italian" and I have already learned so much...
la machina e grande
(the car is big)
la caza e piccola
(the house is small)
il mio motorino e veloche
(my motorbike is fast)
These are all VERY useful things!
I love it when I get in repeat mode and repeat something I'm not supposed to. For example:
CD lady: Ascoltati e ripeteti (listen and repeat). Snack- il spuntino
Me: eel spoontino
CD lady: small pizza- una pizzeta
Me: una pete's eta
CD lady: sandwiches- i panini
Me: ee panini...wait that's sandwiches plural! Wow, I never knew---
CD lady: cheese- il formaggio
Me: oh right, eel for-ma-joe
CD lady: lesson seven
Me: lesson seven...doh!
I also love it when CD lady throws me for a looper.
We'll be doing our listen and repeat thing, and everything will be going alright. But then she'll say something like "devo fare una prenotazione al ristorante per favore" and I'm supposed to repeat this. I try, I really do, but it comes out like "devo farr...me na prezoni...a...ante...per favore." I know my per favore's when I hear them, thought, you gotta give me points for that.
I can't wait to learn how to say "You are the worst boss ever! I quit!" in Italiano!
Showing posts with label drive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drive. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Drive Illustrated: Children's Edition
On my way to work this morning, I thought, Gee, wouldn't it be nice if I had pictures to remember my awesome drive by? My mind focused on the last two words (drive by), and I envisioned a turkey gangster drive by. Smiling, and thinking of Thanksgiving, I got out my camera to "shoot" a few.
I have finally pinned it down: My drive has a visual effect similar to that of the beginning of The Shining, accompanied by the narrative of the beginning of a childrens' tale. Keep the visual effect in mind as you read the following:
Teacher: Hi boys and girls! Today we're here to talk about drives to work.
Boys & Girls: Oh boy!
Pam had to drive a loooooooong way to get to her job.
B&G: How long, Mrs. T?
T: She had to drive almost 50 miles each way!
B&G: Woooooooooooow
T: She started out in the city each morning, surrounded by people and buildings and fun things to do. But as she drove further and further away, there were less people, buildings, and fun things to do. There were other things that Pam saw on her way, though. Like the birch tree forest:
T: Then she had to pass under the bridge of icicle death, of which she couldn't get a picture because it was that dangerous.
B&G: Wooooooooooow.
T: Then, Pam drove into the Correctional Facility complex.
Tommy: Why did she have to drive into the--
T: Never you mind, Tommy.
T: Once she made the turn, Pam found herself driving through an endless forest where the scenery didn't change for miles and miles.
T: When the sea of trees finally parted, there were open fields far and wide. Pam usually saw turkeys there, but for whatever reason, they don't like her very much and decided to hide out when she was driving by today.
B&G: Awww maaaaan!
T: After passing several men in orange jump suits, a band of police vehicles, and the correctional facility itself, Pam passed a farm. On it, she saw fake cows.
B&G: Wooooow!
T: Well, they weren't really fake. They just stood really, really still.
B&G: (looks of utter disappointment)
T: Pam passed the farm, and then a cemetery and the suburban ghetto. Once she could see the pond, she knew she was finally at work.
T: It was a spooky, old mill building that she worked in. Rumor has it they once crafted the biggest rope in all the land!
B&G: Wooooooooooow!
T: Pam entered the building and smelled one of the businesses there immediately. It was a dessert-making bakery type place. At first, the smell of cinnamon and butter made her mouth water, but then, when she could smell the machinery used to make the desserts and the soap used to clean the machinery, she had to hold her breath.
Pam named the hallway where this dessert-making bakery type place was located "The Hallway of Smells."
B&G: Ewwwwwwww!
T: After braving The Hallway of Smells, she takes a left, a right, and another right, and she is finally at her job.
B&G: Yaaaaaaaay!
I have finally pinned it down: My drive has a visual effect similar to that of the beginning of The Shining, accompanied by the narrative of the beginning of a childrens' tale. Keep the visual effect in mind as you read the following:
Teacher: Hi boys and girls! Today we're here to talk about drives to work.
Boys & Girls: Oh boy!
T: There once was a fool called "Pam":
Tommy: Why was Pam a fool, Mrs. T?
T: No one knows, Tommy. Now shut up and listen.
Tommy: Why was Pam a fool, Mrs. T?
Pam had to drive a loooooooong way to get to her job.
B&G: How long, Mrs. T?
T: She had to drive almost 50 miles each way!
B&G: Woooooooooooow
T: She started out in the city each morning, surrounded by people and buildings and fun things to do. But as she drove further and further away, there were less people, buildings, and fun things to do. There were other things that Pam saw on her way, though. Like the birch tree forest:
T: Then she had to pass under the bridge of icicle death, of which she couldn't get a picture because it was that dangerous.
B&G: Wooooooooooow.
T: Then, Pam drove into the Correctional Facility complex.
Tommy: Why did she have to drive into the--
T: Never you mind, Tommy.
T: Once she made the turn, Pam found herself driving through an endless forest where the scenery didn't change for miles and miles.
T: When the sea of trees finally parted, there were open fields far and wide. Pam usually saw turkeys there, but for whatever reason, they don't like her very much and decided to hide out when she was driving by today.
B&G: Awww maaaaan!
T: After passing several men in orange jump suits, a band of police vehicles, and the correctional facility itself, Pam passed a farm. On it, she saw fake cows.
B&G: Wooooow!
T: Well, they weren't really fake. They just stood really, really still.
B&G: (looks of utter disappointment)
T: Pam passed the farm, and then a cemetery and the suburban ghetto. Once she could see the pond, she knew she was finally at work.
T: It was a spooky, old mill building that she worked in. Rumor has it they once crafted the biggest rope in all the land!
B&G: Wooooooooooow!
T: Pam entered the building and smelled one of the businesses there immediately. It was a dessert-making bakery type place. At first, the smell of cinnamon and butter made her mouth water, but then, when she could smell the machinery used to make the desserts and the soap used to clean the machinery, she had to hold her breath.
Pam named the hallway where this dessert-making bakery type place was located "The Hallway of Smells."B&G: Ewwwwwwww!
T: After braving The Hallway of Smells, she takes a left, a right, and another right, and she is finally at her job.
B&G: Yaaaaaaaay!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The drive
And now, let's really zero in on what is making me tick these days: my awesome job.
It's the beginning of the holiday season, and the beginning of what looks to be an endless recession. This is when I find a job? Now this, Alanis, is ironic.
It's a good thing I found a job because my unemployment checks ran out the same week I started work. Then there would be nothing to fund my daily habit of eating candy bars in a lavishly-prepared bath until I emerged, hours later, pruney and still depressed. But I digress.
I'm ecstatic that I have a job! I used to cringe when people would ask me "what do you do?" Now that I have a job, though, I can say, "I am a Senior Marketing Research Manager for a small marketing research firm in Wherethehellisthat, Massachusetts, that caters to the semiconductor industry." Yeah!
I started work last week. The drive, all 50 miles of it (one way), is amazing. I am literally amazed with it every day. During the first half hour on my way to work, I take note as evidence of the city, of civilization itself, becomes increasingly thinner. At first, this was charming. I grew up in suburban Connecticut, and it reminded me of home.
But I moved out for a reason.
The natural charm of the wilderness grows in the last twenty miles, as all signs of human life disappear. Once I reach route 2, I drive under a bridge of icicle death that I am certain was built by the early settlers, then pass a forrest of birch trees, and finally see several open fields glistening with newly fallen snow and poc-marked with scores of animal tracks. I have stopped several times in this location to let wild turkeys cross the street. I swear, they're the same ones every morning; I always see a gimpy one with a pissed-off kind of limp hobbling towards the rear.
The first time I drove to work last week, I used my GPS, whom I affectionately refer to as Mandy. After we stopped for those charming, limping turkeys, she told me to take a right. I looked at the signs where I was to turn, however, and noticed that they said "CORRECTIONAL FACILITY: INSTITUTION USE ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT." Huh. Mandy, are you sure? She had led me astray before, telling me to turn left onto a “road” that ended up being a parking lot with no outlet. That was not a valid way to get to IHOP, and this couldn’t be the way to work.
But it was correct: Through this correctional facility was the only way for me to get to work. More fun on this later...
After passing a farm with some black cows (are those real? they're just so still!), a quaint cemetery older than time, and the suburban ghetto, I arrive at my office building.
And then the fun starts!
It's the beginning of the holiday season, and the beginning of what looks to be an endless recession. This is when I find a job? Now this, Alanis, is ironic.
It's a good thing I found a job because my unemployment checks ran out the same week I started work. Then there would be nothing to fund my daily habit of eating candy bars in a lavishly-prepared bath until I emerged, hours later, pruney and still depressed. But I digress.
I'm ecstatic that I have a job! I used to cringe when people would ask me "what do you do?" Now that I have a job, though, I can say, "I am a Senior Marketing Research Manager for a small marketing research firm in Wherethehellisthat, Massachusetts, that caters to the semiconductor industry." Yeah!
I started work last week. The drive, all 50 miles of it (one way), is amazing. I am literally amazed with it every day. During the first half hour on my way to work, I take note as evidence of the city, of civilization itself, becomes increasingly thinner. At first, this was charming. I grew up in suburban Connecticut, and it reminded me of home.
But I moved out for a reason.
The natural charm of the wilderness grows in the last twenty miles, as all signs of human life disappear. Once I reach route 2, I drive under a bridge of icicle death that I am certain was built by the early settlers, then pass a forrest of birch trees, and finally see several open fields glistening with newly fallen snow and poc-marked with scores of animal tracks. I have stopped several times in this location to let wild turkeys cross the street. I swear, they're the same ones every morning; I always see a gimpy one with a pissed-off kind of limp hobbling towards the rear.
The first time I drove to work last week, I used my GPS, whom I affectionately refer to as Mandy. After we stopped for those charming, limping turkeys, she told me to take a right. I looked at the signs where I was to turn, however, and noticed that they said "CORRECTIONAL FACILITY: INSTITUTION USE ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT." Huh. Mandy, are you sure? She had led me astray before, telling me to turn left onto a “road” that ended up being a parking lot with no outlet. That was not a valid way to get to IHOP, and this couldn’t be the way to work.
But it was correct: Through this correctional facility was the only way for me to get to work. More fun on this later...
After passing a farm with some black cows (are those real? they're just so still!), a quaint cemetery older than time, and the suburban ghetto, I arrive at my office building.
And then the fun starts!
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