Roggy's Bonjour From Australia

06/23/2002

Hello everyone, Bonjour a tous,

Some of you haven't received news from me for a long time. Since I am now sort of travelling again and sending group e-mails for a living,I thought it would be the occasion to catch up with you all. I'm sure you all understand that I didn't have anything else more interesting to say before essentially because my life revolved around routine details (university, sports and else) that I thought wouldn't send you to new heights of neural stimulation ecstasy. I know I sound like I'm justifying my legendary lazy ways (which I am), but what are you all going to do about it...? Just notice that there are small parts in French that, although they pretty much contain the same basic information, they complete what I have written in English by adding some side details. It's what Canadian bilinguism is all about.

Comme je serai pas capable d'ecrire a tous personnellement et que certaines personnes evoluent dans un contexte linguistique different, j'ai opte pour la solution de composer en francais et en anglais afin que tout le monde soit satisfait. Seulement, j'ai opte de la faire ala maniere "bilingue canadienne", comme nos politiciens, ou seule la recombinaison efficace des parties en anglais et en francais permettent de comprendre correctement le message sans que la lecture separee des textes dans les deux langues ne contiennent quelconque signification. Desole pour ceux qui ne peuvent lire en anglais... Mais vous ne perdrez rien de l'information essentielle, garanti. Avant de continuer plus loin, je voudrais souligner que, contexte anglophone exige, les parties de ce texte ecrites dans la langue de Moliere ne contiendront pas les accents d'usage... Je voudrais offrir mes excuses a tous les puristeset linguistes de ce monde.

As you all should know if you have followed my life in the recent episodes, I'm now "touring" Australia. My flight went according to planned: long and extremely painful. It's just inhumane (I think) tobe trapped for as much as 15 hours on a plane, let alone travel for a whole day. Not that the food is totally not edible or that there are no entertainment ("movies" or otherwise) that can suit your apetite or that the atmosphere and, surprisingly, the seats make you uncomfortable, it's just the idea of being suspended in air for so long...

On peut dire quand meme que le voyage s'est tres bien deroule. Par contre, le decalage fait des ravages temporairement permanents au cerveau: pendant une journee, bien que je savais que certains de mes besoins primaires necessitaient que je les satisfasse, cela ne signifiait nullement que les actions entreprisent pour y arriver aboutissent a un resultat. Alors, pour cette periode desagreable, malgre ma fatigue, je ne pouvais dormir et, malgre ma faim, la seule vue de nourriture me faisait vomir... J'ai eventuellement survecu a cet etat pseudo-comateux, mais des sequelles demeurent : peu importe l'heure de mon coucher, mon horloge biologique sonne 7 heures du matin avec une remarquable precision. Tres pratique lorsqu'on se couche quatre heures du matin...

Apart from that, reunion with Caroline was fun. Not much has changedin 8 months considering the fact that we managed to keep in very good touch all that time. And, so far, Australia, and Sydnet in particular, has been a nice country to visit even though I haven't seen much of it yet. Caroline lives near Bondi beach, which is the most frequented beach in Sydney, very beautiful as well by the way, but not much as of now, since we are in the heart of winter. Asisde from a small trip to Nelson Bay,a two-hour drive north of Sydeny, through the gorgeous Hunter Valley and its hilly vineyards, my life has been secluded to Bondi, Paddington, shelter of Caroline's parents and a couple of bars with Caroline's friends in Sydney.

La temperature ici est correcte et ressemble a celle qu'on avait avant mon depart. Il n'y a eu, a date, qu'une seule journee complete de pluie. Ce qui ne signifie pas que les jours se deroulent sans courtes averses. Comme elles ne se produisent generalement que la nuit, a date, je n'en ressens cependant pas les effets. D'ailleurs, les Australiens de noter qu'un tel temps ensoleille se rencontre rarement durant l'hiver. Chanceux je suis. Je souhaite ardemment que cela se continue ainsi puisque je commencerai a serieusement explorer Sydney et les environs mainentant que je me suis reuni avec Caroline, rencontre parents et amis et habitue a regarder a droite en premier avant de traverser la rue (les gens conduisent a gauche de la chaussee).

For what I have seen so far of Sydney, I think that it is very nice.The buildings here are very colorful in various shades of very warm tints with stark contrasts. People are friendly but life is more expensive than I thought. It has a bit to do with Caroline's sort of expensive lifestyle and me being a bit careless about money. Gotta watch that.

Pour le reste, on verra ce qui arrivera. Tant qu'il y aura de l'argent, il y aura du tourisme. Sinon, on s'arrangera pour s'amuser comme on peut. Je vous laisse. J'ai l'impression de terminer l'ecriture de mes memoires... Prenez bien soin de vous.

Now I'm going... I don't want to bother you anymore. Keep in touch. Take care.

Roggy

(If not in favor, a proud example of Canadian bilinguism)

(Supporteur, sinon demonstrateur du bilinguisme au Canada) _ _ ______________________________________________________ _ _

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