christmas is coming

Tonight was the first rehearsal for the Christmas show. Miss Shirley and E.C. are back, yay!! G-dog's not there this year, boooo. It's so exciting getting started. We heard all about the show from the artistic director and various designers. Then we learned some music.

This year the theme is French Canadian, which means not only singing in a foreign language, but singing in a foreign language with a really funky Canadian accent. Also, some of the songs are in French French.

Many of us speak some French, and most of us are inveterate know-it-alls. At our first meeting back in June, several little debates broke out about pronunciation. I told Miss Shirley at the time that this was a preview of the fall, and indeed - many people tonight offered helpful comments, critiques, and suggestions about pronunciation. This didn't happen the year we sang in Norwegian.

allo? allo?

Today I tried to call someone at an international organization near Geneva, and I thought it was little weird that I got a voice in French telling me something like "this voicemail box is full, please hold to talk to an operator." (At an international organization, I expect the voicemail messages to be in English.) And a lady answered in French (again, weird). And I was like, can I please speak to [British name]? And she said, sorry, who are you trying to reach? And I said, is this the IUCN? And she said, [sentence in French].

Yeah. I got my first international wrong number today. I feel bad now for calling some random Swiss company and being like, hi, speak English to me. And find me a person who you do not know.

I figured out the problem after the call - one of the many special features of my handwriting is that 9s and 8s often look the same.

zut alors!

Did anyone else notice that Saturday Night Live was actually funny this season? An example, from last night's rerun: French Def Jam comedian Jean K. Jean.

je pense à toi

Today I had lunch with Barkley, partly because she has a degree in French and could help me get the pronunciation right on the song I'm singing for auditions for the Christmas show. I was worried because French vowels are pretty weird, and, while I did take French and have a basic idea of what sounds all the letters make, I didn't know if my accent was any good. Turns out? My accent is totally fine. No problems. She even told me how to do French Canadian R's, which are way easier than French R's. Whew. The audition is next Friday - fingers crossed!