blog swap - tu parleras français

today’s post is courtesy of katherina, world-traveler extraordinaire, from 100 miles highway.  as members of 20 something bloggers, we’re both participating in our first-ever blog swap.  very exciting!  so, we were tasked with writing posts about what we want to do in 2011 that we’ve been putting off for too long.  (i’m sure many of you can relate…)  so without further ado, enjoy katherina’s guest post.  c’est magnifique!  ...and when you’re  done, check out my guest post {here}.

picture credit {here}

2011 is less than two weeks away and I’m starting to feel the usual pressure of the common “new year, new life” therapy. Every year, I start with a big list of resolutions which I firmly believe in, but then, life gets in the way of my plans, and some of my resolutions fade away while others are conveniently transferred into the next year. This, again, leaves me with a fairly long list of resolutions that have been transferred from one year to another because they’re still changes I want or need to make, sometime (soon, I promise!).

Anyway, probably the most important of those promises I’ve been making myself in the last couple of years (yeah, I know, years!!) is to learn French. And by that, I don’t mean managing to tell the butcher if I want poulet (chicken) or bœuf (beef), but to be able to follow a conversation among a group of native French-speakers. The reason for this is simple: I’m living in la Suisse Romande (the French-speaking part of Switzerland), since a year and 4 months and am still struggling to pronounce correctly the name of my street. Ridiculous. I know. However, speaking Spanish, English and German you pretty much manage to survive anywhere needed in this country – which, up to now, has led me to postpone the French classes again and again.

What makes 2011 different? Well, first there are all those shiny French cuisine cooking books that I've been piling up in my kitchen and would love to try (but are written in French). Then, living just a 10 minutes drive from Lavaux, a wine-growing region recognized as a World heritage site by Unesco (and being the wine-lover that I am), it feels incomplete not to know how to explain the taste and smell of the wine you are actually drinking (and not knowing how to tell the waiter that it tastes like cork!). Having to ask my work colleague or friend to call my landlord or to come along with me when I go to the doctor makes me feel so dependent! It’s really getting time to know my body parts without any additional help.
I’ve finally got the point: as difficult as it might be to admit, to feel part of the country and its culture, I need to excel French - This one is going to be tough, but at least now the motivation is there!

I hope you all have a nice holiday and a happy new year, and thanks so much Cailen for allowing me to invade your blog :)

if you enjoyed her post (which i'm sure you did), be sure to check out her lovely blog {here}, where you can also enjoy the guest post i wrote for our blog swap : )