To be or not to be

This week had its ups and downs. A normal week! Except that I had more time to brood and catch up with friends - well, I spoke to some of them, many were away or not at home! It was a holiday on Thursday(Ascension) and most people had the "pont " (bridge) in which they take the Friday off so as to have a long week-end.I have started swimming again and at the rehab Centre Clemenceau.It feels very good to be swimming again. The life guard (if one may call him that) on the Wednesday duty is a big chap. I find him a bit officious at the beginning but towards the end, he mellowed and was even nice enough to suggest that I could go earlier than my allotted time so as to get more swimming done. On Wednesday afternoons the school kids come in to use the pool, it seems.

One of the highlights of the week is going for dim sum with Marisol and Catherine to Tong Yuen restaurant. They have never been but it was a rainy day and we took the bus ( which took a long time to arrive ). One of the greatest things about being in Strasbourg is that most of the buses seem accessible- if the tram did not go where I want it to. I made the mistake of trusting the restaurant guy when he said, on the phone, that they were accessible . I thought they had a back entrance which was accessible - true, but it still had a step. It was a bit tricky but I got in. He had to unlock a few doors. However, I must say that the people who run the restaurant are really nice - the head waiter (and one of the brothers who own the restaurant) remembered me and asked after the kids. It is one of the very few restaurants where they have a dim sum chef and they serve it all evening. Normally restaurants stop serving dim sum after 6 pm.

Dim sum - har kow, a steamed shrimp dumpling

This week I was looking ( and am still looking ) at usability articles for June's issue of uiGarden.net to reprint and get translated for the mirror Chinese side. It involves getting copyrights and then getting them translated. I am trying to get a theme and articles that might be practical rather than thereotical. But I am not sure that I will get there because of the time factor.I also saw a course at Marc Bloch - Master CAWEB Création de sites multilingues, localisation et gestion de contenu. This is a Master's progam - which has not been approved yet, the French has a DESS - having a master's program is a new step. It is specially for those who will then be able to manage multi lingual websites. But I would need to have 3 languages - and there has to be 5 other people doing th same language. I feel like we are already doing something like that with UIG. I wonder if they accept Chinese as the third language. After looking it up, I started wondering if I should become a student again. To be or not to be ...is that a self indulgent question? Jim asked me at Vancouver if I was going to be a perpetual stdent - when I was going to join the real world. That stung. My reaction was initially to think that he did not know what my 'real' world was.

I asked Xavier's opinion and his email response was that to say that " the benefits you could expect are, probably ::
- Get a French diploma, that could be useful/simpler for some positions in the administration (eg Museums)
- Meet a new professional network, as Masters & DESS are "tied" to local professionals
.- Get the chance to make an internship that could lead to a real work."

Finally, on another note - I spent Saturday night with Marisol. We cooked dinner and watched a program on telly. It was called something like Duos Impossible where somebody from the past was somehow brought back by 3d imaging or holograms and sang with a present day singer. It was strange to see Jacques Brel and Edith Piaf singing as though they were still around. Marvelous thing new technology! I am perpetually a student in a sense - always a strong curiousity and need to acquire more information...culture. Right now, my interests have become more francophone in its focus. I am even reading a French book, Le Portique by Philippe Delerm.