Bonne fête de St. Valentin !

Actual valentine made by Feronica and myself for the 50 year old we have a crush on at work. It says "Here's your dang chocolate." We only ate half of it.

Strapped for ideas, I wrote about Valentine's day in Senegal for my french class blog.

Je crois que ça c’est vraiment une grande différence culturelle entre nos deux pays. Le date me rappelle l’année passée, quand j’étais au Sénégal pour mon semestre étranger. J’ai eu une amie (très brièvement) francaise qui s’appelle Anne. On a passé le soir de St. Valentin ensemble, a dîner avec mes copines. Bien sur, c’était une scène très pathétique et très typique pour les filles américaines – on a déploré tout le soir d’être toute seule. C’était rapidement clair que notre conversation était très fatigant pour Anne ; elle pouvait pas compris pourquoi. « C’est un jour, comme les autres » elle a dit. « Pourquoi si c’est important pour vous ? En francais, on n’a pas un mot pour ‘lonely’. Il y a en fait, ‘solitaire,’ qui veut dire quelqu’un qui aime être toute seule. »

Hmm, intéressant. Mais, c’est vrai ?


Oh ok, for the English-speaking:

Long story short - last year in Senegal I had a French friend named Anne. Very briefly, I had a French friend named Anne. She came out with us for dinner on Valentine's day at the French Cultural Society, me and my girlfriends. And yeah, as expected, we whined and complained about being alone and bitter. Anne was so visibly bored with our conversation we had to ask her what was up, and she patiently explained that she couldn't understand why this was a different day than any other. And that even in French, there was no word for "lonely."

"There is a thing like 'solitaire,' but even that means someone who enjoys being alone."

That night really must have irritated the hell out of her because she never hung out with us again. Hah!

I guess this would never fly in France:


Happy Valentine's Day! I'm off to search for red dresses i could possibly wear to work, slinging pancakes at drunks. And maybe watch this movie, but don't tell anyone.