Trapped Pigeons and Mangled French

Tuesday, April 22. Earth Day!

Two days ago, a pigeon somehow got into the building. Actually, given the number of pigeons that cruise the courtyard (hey, they're not stupid - they can smell the bread baking too!), it's a wonder it doesn't happen more often. But there it was: we had a pigeon in the building and it had settled on my floor. We opened the hallway windows, hoping it would fly out as it clearly did not want to be there. However, I saw it try to fly out once and it couldn't, so I assume it was injured in some way. I could still hear it in the hallway last night, its wings brushing against my door.

This morning the maintenance men for the building showed up to clean. One of them knocked on my door as he had picked up the doormat (preparatory to cleaning the hallway floor covered with pigeon poop) and found the mail I had put under there for Dany. He pointed to the dirty floor and the windows and indicated his displeasure that the windows had been left open, assuming that was how a pigeon had gotten in. (There was no sign of the pigeon and I have no idea what happened to it.) So instead of saying something more or less coherent, such as, "The pigeon was not inside because the windows were open; we opened the windows because a pigeon was inside," which I certainly could have said if I had gathered my wits about me for a moment, here's a rough approximation of what I said in French, with all the dignity one can muster when mangling a language (and wearing pajamas): "The pigeon is not because of the windows; the windows are because of the pigeon." At least I got my point across (I think).

Grammar class: We continue working on pronons gymnastiques, pronons relatifs, prepositions, discours indirect. After class, Thierry gives me an extract from Proust with three different translations into English, each by a different highly-esteemed translator. It's fascinating to read how they differ (and to think how I might do it as well).

Later, I meet Fernanda (AF classmate from Brazil who's going to NYU to get an LLM - see earlier entry) for tea at the Cafe Beaubourg but the waiters are ignoring us so we get up and go to the Grizzli Cafe. Much nicer there anyway. Fernanda is the oldest of three girls. Her older sister is also a lawyer, has an LLM from U.Penn and works for Shearman & Sterling (in Sao Paulo). Her younger sister, after a period of indecisiveness, is now in medical school !! Clearly these are three very bright young women (although when I say something to this effect, she says no, it's just that they all work very hard.) She is a lovely young woman and I'm looking forward to seeing her again in New York in June.

Walk over to the Anne Frank garden in the Impasse Berthaud. A lovely quiet spot.