Saturday, May 5, 2012

A friend, una amiga

One of the things we tried to do while we were in Paris was go zip-lining.  You know when there is a cable from one high point to one slightly lower and you get into a harness and, hanging below the wire, you roll swiftly to the other end?  That.
Quan estàvem a Paris vam intentar d'anar a fer tirolina.  Quan hi ha un cable entre dos llocs, un més alt que l'altre i amb un talabard i, penjat a sota el cable, vas ràpidament cap a l'altre banda?  Això.

My sister and I managed to find a place outside of Paris and then we hopped in the car with the kids and we were off.  Sadly, when we got there, it was closed, but the big park it was in, wasn't (nor thankfully the cafe as we had not brought any food with us).
La meva germana i jo vam trobar un lloc a fora de Paris i vam pujar la cotxe amb els nens i vam anar-hi.  Desafortunadament, quan vam arribar, estava tancat, però el parc gran, a on està localitzat, no era (i, per sort, el cafè tampoc perquè no vam portar res per menjar).

There was, however, a good sized playground that we could release the kids into, and they were off.  The most popular piece of equipment was a giant pyramid shaped rope climber.  They have them all over the beaches here - yes, I went to Paris to play on a climber that we have here - whatever.  Youngest climbed right to the top immediately, as you would expect, and at the top there was a girl about the same age as her.  A french girl.  They struck up a conversation, in French.
Agraïdament, hi havia un patí amb unes quantes coses per pujar, els nens ho van desfruitar.  La peça més popular era una mena de piràmide fet de cordes, exactament com els que tenim aquí als platges.  Sí, vaig anar a Paris per jugar amb el que tenim aquí.  Immediatament, la Petita pujava cap a munt, com podries imaginar, i cap allà hi havia una noia francesa del mateix edat com la Petita.  Van començar de xarrar, en francès.

Now Youngest has been studying French for maybe 2 months in school and she is getting private lessons cause she really wants to learn the language.  She was THRILLED to be able to chat with this girl.  They had the occasional intervention from my nephews who go to school there, but in general, they did wonderfully.  They must have chatted for an hour and a half.
La Petita ha estat estudiant francès per potser 2 mesos a colle i amb classes particulars perquè vol aprendre l'idioma.  Estava tan CONTENTA que podia xarrar amb aquesta nena.  De vegades, necessitava ajuda, i els meus nebots les van donar, però en general, anava fantàsticament.  Van xarrar per un hora i mig, més o menys.

I was totally impressed.
Estava impressionant.

She said as we left that she was glad that the zip line was closed, cause otherwise she wouldn't have gotten to meet this girl.  A great outing.
Quan vam marxar em va dir que estava contenta que la tirolina estava tancat perquè si no, no hauria tingut l'oportunitat de trobar-se amb aquesta noia.  Una excursió fantàstic.

3 comments:

thecatalanway said...

that is a wonderful story - so glad she got this boost for her language learning and it shows how much you can communicate even after a short time learning.

I think it's great to go to Paris to do normal things - can't be always visiting the Louvre! Were you going to go on the line thing? How brave!

Kate x

Anonymous said...

That's pretty impressive after just two months :). Next time you could try some "acrobranche" (I think it's called tree walking in English, or something like that). It's fun, and I wouldn't be surprised to see some around Paris :)

Helen said...

Another language to add to her collection - the more you add the easier they are apparently.