This year

Two weeks ago a post showed up on our company intranet touting Beginner's French class offered during lunch on Wednesdays.

I leapt at the chance. I interact with folks from France more often than not and I think it would be enjoyable to converse with them in their native tongue (however terrible my accent may, at first, be). My work buddy and I signed up and ventured to our introduction class...along with 40 others! This class has become quite popular, it seems!

The instructor is an employee here as well and chooses to do this as a hobby of sorts because he loves languages so much. The man is a linguist with an incredible ear and a gift for accents. Whenever someone mentioned their native language (which spanned the globe, mind you) he would respond in their tongue and convincingly!

It didn't take but a few minutes for the mouth of "that girl" to open wide and command the room to her attention. Granted, I used to be this girl. I used to obnoxiously own the room and feel that my question was important, mine was the one to be focused on, I was needing to show off.

Then I grew up and realized how foolish my behavior was.

Let's just say, it was very good I was in the back of a full room and she was not within earshot. I hated to be so negative towards a woman I'd never met before but honestly...shut yer yapper! We were all there to learn what the coming year (yes, an entire year of class once a week) would bring us. You are not alone in this room with the instructor, so hush!

It always seems the qualities in others that bother you more than anything else are the ones you see within yourself and absolutely loathe beyond measure.

But I digress from my originial intention of taking this class. I decided earlier this month that this year was my Europe year, my year of travel. What better way to encourage this than immersing myself in learning a new language and dreaming of trips to be taken? I want to dance a jig in Ireland and draw down a pint in Scotland. I want to climb the Eiffel Tower and venture down the Thames River. Big Ben's chimes are calling me from across the pond and my feet are craving to pound the pavement of every plaza I can find.

Now to find a travel buddy...


*None of these photos are mine. :-)