Self-indulgent musings of a social retard.

I bought a bike Sunday. A mountain bike - or 'VTT' as they say in France (v�lo tout terrain.) I just learned that in my French class on Monday. I've been riding to work every day since. I haven't ridden a bike for the better part of 20 years. My ass hurts so much it's not even funny.

I've studied French for many years. It started in fifth grade. We didn't have a choice at my school. So I had French in fifth and sixth grades. No language was offered at the next school I went to, so I didn't study again until ninth grade. I took it all the way through high school. I had a real aptitude for it. I was good. I was an exchange student when I was 16. I lived with a family in Narbonne, in the south of France (the 'midi'.) I think I was pretty damn near fluent by the time I got home. I didn't have much of a choice. When I got to college, I minored in French, and took classes through my junior year (I also took a year of Italian - which I loved.) Then I quit. I hadn't taken a French class, much less spoken French since until May of this year. And I suck. It's kicking my ass. I'm too embarrassed to tell my teacher how much I'd actually studied in the past. It's pathetic. My brain has atrophied. I've forgotten even the most elementary vocabulary. And grammar? Christ. How many tenses does one language need? At least twelve, apparently. Past. Present. Future. They work just fine for me. But I guess some folks need four different ways to express the past. Argh. Merde!

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