chomps

To be in a foreign country to think in a foreign language. It takes me to think about Noam Chomsky. I do not know how many languages he knows or whether he thinks in a language or in little clouds as I do but there is a connection between thinking and language and in French I am an idiot.

It is not uncommon to be an idiot in French, there are several millions who are idiot-natives. But I am an idiot-foreigner which bugs me as it is something new to me. Not really. i used to be an idiot in English as well when I was young and spending a year in the States. To my pleasure I found an article where the editors stated that there is a 30 per cent fall in the I.Q. as one operates in a foreign language that has been acquired after the age of 7.

So I could be a good policeman. I have flat feet en plus.

There was a story in the papers where one guy sued the police department for discrimination. His I.Q. was too high so he was "mentally challenged" for the job he wanted. the non-official explanation went that those too smart start either taking bribes or conspiring against their superiors. I have my ideas as to which one they consider more serious.

Everything is difficult in French, That has to do with the language, its grammar but also the fact that the French have had too much leisurely time to spend. they have become bored and started to invent linguistic traps to make each other look ridiculous. Of course, the written word is reserved to the few. to my surprise I have found out how few is a few. to look at TV-shows were people show off being able to spell correctly words that nobody -with the exception of the good monsieur le President- uses or understands. having look at the performances of Mr. Chirac I've become more and more convinced that he is on remote control. When he is giving the impression of reflection he is in fact fed the text he is supposed to utter. He operates in simplex mode.

Today, however, I good a good length of red tape cut into pieces. i managed to gather together enough documents to convince the moving company to invade my property in Paris, pack my belongings in boxes and ship them overseas to this tiny island. I got the water company to supply me with eau potable. The telephone line was connected and I got a generous offer of a wide-band Internet connection as well. EDF is giving me 220 volts which I sensed having connected the ground wire to the wrong connector. Luckily, I was not barefooted!

My life is starting to take a comfortable form. Instead of a hotel, I have an apartment quite close to a fishing harbour and a beach where I can sit on volcanic sand and look at the sun go down in millions of shades of gold and rose and blue. I got my car, it is insured and registered and it has a top I can fold down. A stereo, also.

All I am lacking is...
Well, what was it that spoiled the life in Paradise?
A snake.

I am lacking a snake and that sort of worries me as anything that seems too good to be true.

If God would have told Eve not to eat the snake, what would have happened?
But no. He was out to spoil it all, it was too good to last.
I just wonder if Eves of the world, when they do eat snake, do it just to get even?