Monday, April 23, 2007

Interview Me!

This is something I saw on Pam's blog, American Spoken Here
I asked her to interview me!
Her questions are below along with my answers.

Thanks again, Pam. You obviously put a lot of thought into these questions and I enjoyed doing this!

The Rules:
-Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me.''
-I respond by asking you five personal questions (I will leave these questions for you in my comments) so I can get to know you better. If I already know you well, expect the questions may be a little more intimate!
-You will update your journal/bloggy thing/whatever, with the answers to the questions (please don't leave your answers in my comments unless you don't have a blog).
-You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
-When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

1. Who makes you laugh?
My niece. We can get pretty silly together and she is so witty and goofy, I am always laughing.

2. How did you discover your passion for France?
Honestly, I can't go back and pinpoint the time in my life that I started to really fall in love with France. My father has French ancestry (so it is in my blood!) and I've just always naturally been drawn to France. I wish I could be more specific but truly, it has always been there. I really came into that passion in my early 20s in college when I took a Travel Literature course (and read M.F.K. Fisher's Gastronomical Me), along with other Paris/France based literature, including Hemingway. That, with additional French language lessons and a growing passion for arts and architecture, just deepened my passion for France.

3. What would you like to remember from your childhood?
Lately, as I drive through the countryside to pick my niece up from school, I experience this wonderful nostalgia for childhood car rides with my parents. Sometimes they would just drive us through the country after mass on Sundays and we'd drive by farms, houses, horse pastures, and just beautiful country. I'd like to recall specifically what thoughts ran through my naive mind. Surely, those experiences fed my creativity and appreciation of life.

4. When is your next trip to France?
Oh...I wish I knew! I'll go ahead and make a bold statement on this one and say that I will be back in France within a year's time! :) Now I have to make that happen, don't I?

5. If you could change the ending of any book, which book would you pick and how would you change it?
I honestly think this is a more difficult question than the previous one. I cannot say that I would change any one book's ending. I know, I know...that is definitely not a satisfactory answer but I must stand my ground. I love literature and although the ending of a book may not always be what is desired, there is almost a greater beauty in that fact. The author's perspective is made so strongly evident in how a book ends, and I couldn't even attempt to mess with that.

8 comments:

Pam said...

So maybe I'll see you next year?
Thanks, B!
: )

buzzgirl said...

I agree with you. The last question was the most difficult. Who can say how they'd modify someone else's vision?!

B said...

Pam...Yes, now you have resolved that for me! When I do return to France, I have to visit more of France, including its beautiful countryside. How far in advance must I make reservations at your lovely B&B? :) Thanks again for the thoughtful questions. They really brightened my day.

Buzzgirl...Definitely. I couldn't force myself to answer that question. That has always been one of my unswerving characteristics...I see and appreciate that we all have different visions and often, there is no "right" or "wrong" vision. Your comment reminded me of this great quote I have saved:

"For it is the mind which creates the world about us, and even though we stand side by side in the same meadown, my eyes will never see what is beheld by yours, my heart will never stir to the emotions with which yours is touched." -George Gissing, "The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft"

Although I find this true, it is through literature that I stand in that meadow with the author and I catch climpses of his/her vision and I am able to see beyond myself and my own vision evolves as a result. We may not see or be stirred by the same thing, but the opportunity to expand ourselves is always there when we are willing to suspend (not abandon) our own vision and look at the world through different eyes. It is always a humbling and beautiful process for me.

*sorry, that was quite a tangent, wasn't it?! :)

Kim/Thomas said...

okay...can we please...well you me and buzzgirl (and a french translator of course:) go to see pam..i would give my right arm to stay there...lets focus on that!
I need something good to focus on right now!

Betty Carlson said...

Hey, interview me!

I guess that's how this works (the explanation was a little complicated...)

I just ran into your blog while chaining through comments and it looks like we have some things in common...yet our blogs have never crossed.

B said...

kim...i too would love to visit pam so badly but let's skip the translator. we can survive...right? i'm sure thomas can prep you! :) yes, let's grab buzzgirl and make this happen. you know, i still want to come out and see you too!

B said...

betty...thanks for stopping by and commenting. i took a quick peek at your blogs and they are great. the photos on your la france profonde blog are so lovely...and just reinforce that i must travel through france! :)

i am looking forward to stopping by your blogs regularly and learning more about your life in southwest france!

okay, here are your questions. :)

1. why did you move to france?

2. what are your three favorite things about france/aveyron?

3. what are the three biggest challenges of living in france/aveyron for you?

4. what is one of your favorite comfort food dishes?

5. what is a dream/aspiration of yours?

Betty Carlson said...

Thanks b! I have copied the questions and will post the answers in a few days on La France Profonde.

BTW I put your blog on my sidebar on "And So Forth" -- my France Fanatics category is there for the moment, but I might up and move it to La France Profonde. That may be more logical.