The work-week ended on a fairly satisfying note yesterday. I've finished and submitted the assignment that's due early next month already, I've been to the gym, paid phone and grocery bills and started to do some spring cleaning. I could have done worse, all in all. As for my plans for the break week, I'm not going anywhere and will probably spend the week holed up in my place in front of the laptop, catching up and TV and fic writing, hopefully with a couple of trips to the gym thrown in.

On an unrelated note, I'm very pleased to noticed that my effort to improve my French language skills are starting to pay off. Last night I got out the very first French-only DVD I've ever bought (Les Rivières Pourpres) and watched it for the first time in years - and I understood pretty much everything! I think it's time to get some French novels, preferably from the library, since I can't really afford to buy any books right now. They should have at least some of the classics. Otherwise, I've re-discovered the foreign language sections on ff.net. I knew they existed since I've posted some fic there ages ago, but I'd never thought of them as a source for reading material for vocabulary building. If it weren't for the net!speak that would work out very well ;-)

How is gen pronounced? Is it like the beginning of general (where I supposed to word comes from)?

And also, meme - like me-me or like the word meme?

That's just sad. Languages are fun, people! Not to mention kind of important.

And speaking of languages, I've found a new French conversation group, which sounds pretty good (I've been emailing with some people so far) and will go there Tuesday night to have a look. I doubt it will help me much with preparing for the TCF, but it certainly won't hurt. I haven't registered for the test yet, but I've worked my way through most of the official guidebook and made some notes on what I need to revise - mainly grammar and idioms.

Thinking about taking the TCF or at least looking into it. When I helped Bro with his applications, I noticed that they all wanted to have language skills back-up by standardized tests like the TOEFL test.

Hence, I'm looking into the TCF. There seem to be test centers in Germany but the links given on the official page lead to all sorts of general cultural centers and langauge schools. I might ask my French teacher tomorrow and see if she knows anything about it or has recs for preparation books. It says that the test doesn't take any extra preparation as it simplly asses your present knowledge of French. It sounds like a useful thing I could do before OU picks up again in 2008.