Tuesday, February 5, 2013

A Room with a View: 22% Complete

Yes, I know, I am woefully overdue for an update.  Many apologies, but it's been a rather hectic couple of weeks.  I had to attend a memorial service on Saturday for my dear aunt, I applied to nursing school on Friday, I had a big math test on Wednesday, and *drum roll, please* I got ENGAGED to my boyfriend of three years on the 25th!    But I'm back, and I'll try to do better from here on out. 
 
I'm enjoying A Room with a View so far.  It's rather funny to me to think of a British person going to Italy for the summer and then spending virtually the entire time in the company of other Brits who are also on vacation.  I mean, god forbid you actually have to talk to an Italian person!
 
The vocabulary word I have for you is "incommode" meaning "to inconvenience someone" (definition from The New Oxford American Dictionary).
 
I have two humorous quotes for you.  In the first, Lucy's guardian is rather concerned about her safety in going outside alone but the proprietor of the hotel they are staying at reassures her,
 
"Being English, Miss Honeychurch will be perfectly safe.  Italians understand.  A dear friend of mine, Contessa Baroncelli, has two daughters, and when she cannot send a maid to school with them, she lets them go in sailor-hats instead.  Everyone takes them for English, you see, especially if their hair is strained tightly behind."
 
And the second will ring true with anyone who has children or who has ever had to deal with a child who is having a meltdown:
 
"The child's legs had become as melting wax.  Each time that old Mr. Emerson and Lucy set it erect it collapsed with a roar.  Fortunately an Italian lady, who ought to have been saying her prayers, came to the rescue.  By some mysterious virtue, which mothers alone possess, she stiffened the little boy's back-bone and imparted strength to his knees."

2 comments:

  1. Glad to see you back; I was beginning to wonder. Congratulations on your engagement!!! That's wonderful. I hope you will both be very happy. On a side note: when I was in the Navy, I always made it a point to go someplace where the other sailors wouldn't be. For example, when we pulled into Portsmouth, England, instead of going to London, I went to Winchester.

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    1. Thanks so much Joe! Yeah, if I ever get to take a vacation (lol) I would never spend the whole trip with other people from the US. How boring would that be? I'm all for getting out and seeing how the place really is; away from the tourist traps and the loud Americans lol. I heard a quote once that said, "People travel to see things that are different, and then complain that they're not the same."

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