Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 35

Taking the level-two Tetun course

During the summer I took the level-one Tetun course (Tetun: the lingua franca in Timor-Leste) offered through Timorlink. It's an Australia-based program, but the teachers all have deep connections with Timor-Leste.

Next week I'm starting the level-two course, and--because life is stranger than fiction--my teacher is going to be none other than the inestimable Kirsty Sword Gusmão .

Life keeps thrilling me--I feel so lucky to be alive!

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Pra não dizer que não falei das flores

"Pra não dizer que não falei das flores" is the name of a Brazilian song. It means "So it can't be said that I didn't speak of flowers." It's also known as "Caminhando" (Walking). I came across it originally as part of a medley of songs sung by Chico César, a Brazilian reggae singer. (The whole medley is just wonderful and I listen to it all the time.)

When he segued over to "Pra não dizer que não falei das flores," my heart was grabbed by the lyrics:

Caminhando e cantando e seguindo a canção
So...

the girl and the anaconda

A project I haven't touched in a while was to read through some folktales from Amazonia. The other day I got back to it. I'm lucky to have the book in two languages: Spanish (the language it was written in) and English:



The English translation is obviously easier for me to read, but it misses certain details, and the English book fails to give certain information--for instance, the names of the people from whom the tales were collected:



Also, the English sometimes elides over details ("cómo conseg...

Sinda, his face black, his eyes red

Prompted by being on the Darmok panel at this year's Readercon, I rewatched the Darmok episode of TNG, paying close attention to all the phrases the Tamarians use, and then just this weekend we rewatched it yet again, this time to show it to the healing angel's significant other, who had never seen it.

I wanted to see how much of the conversation between the Tamarians that flabbergasted the Enterprise crew at the beginning of the episode would seem comprehensible once you've seen the whole episod...

Yo bebí del agua turbia

I've been listening to a lot of music from Colombia's Pacific coast; I love it. This song, "Yo bebí del agua turbia" (I drank the cloudy water), is not only beautiful itself, it has a beautiful video to go with it. Ever see a video of a place and feel homesick for it, even though you've never been there?

The white lacy dresses the women are wearing: I remember my sister and I had UNICEF cardboard figures from different countries, with facts about the countries written on the back. I had a girl,...

Alt-Chinese adventure tale from Sherwood Smith

The first in Sherwood Smith's new xuanhuan series, The Phoenix Feather, is out today. This is a **wonderful** series, one of the best things I've read all year: excellent characters, adventure, heroism, mystery, beauty, human insights, all in a super well-realized alternative China.



It's available both in paperback and as an ebook--read more about it and find links for placing an order at her post . Highly, highly recommended!

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Cinderella's Guide to Glass Shoes

The ninja girl sometimes makes tiny books, and recently she made one on glass footwear. She was inspired by experimenting with making waraji--Japanese straw sandals--which got her thinking about the viability of glass as a material for making shoes. ( Here is a photo of some waraji.) She knew that shoes are sometimes made of inflexible materials--think wooden clogs--so she researched types of those and created CINDERELLA'S GUIDE TO GLASS SHOES



The shoes are rated three stars for possible--you migh...

"I have rope"

I've been visiting my father, usually on Sundays, during the summer, but this weekend, knowing that Henri was coming, I went on Saturday. When the hurricane came up, he reminisced about the famous (in these parts, anyway) Hurricane of 1938, which he could remember.

My dad was a little boy of seven at the time, living in Lexington, MA. He said that at that time, no one in the region had any experience with hurricanes. His uncle Sal (whom I believe I've mentioned on these pages before: he was part ...

airplane airplane sorry I'm late; I'm on my way so don't close that gate

I satisfied a long-standing wish earlier this week and watched the planes taking off from the Northampton airport. I was with the healing angel and her significant other--we had a picnic.

It's a beautiful area, with cabbage, potato, and cornfields all around, plus plenty of wildflowers, and a view of the Holyoke range:



And there were *lots* of planes flying that day:







( 22-second phone video of a plane taking off )

I could have watched them all day, but work called. I'd like to go back, though, maybe...

dreams of poetry

The cat wakes me up (most delicately) in the wee hours, and when he does, if he's interrupting a dream and I write it right down, I get it in clarity and crazy detail.

Other people's dreams are boring--but not this one! It's a youtube video preview for a Black female poet's spoken-word performance.

You hear her voice-over, saying,

You act like you never asked
someone to share a secret
but only tried to steal it

The image is of her behind a chainlink fence, and with her, all around her, are papers an...