sundries, in which I am really cool

[rm]

Guess who just earned out her advance?

Yes, that I had that conversation means other conversations are now in play.

My traveling life 2009/2010 (SO FAR):

- Oct 17 - 18: New Haven (w/ Patty)
- Nov 17 - 21: Switzerland (desk job)
- Jan 3 - 14: Caribbean (w/ Patty)
- Feb 25 - Mar 1: Los Angeles (Gallifrey One)
- Mar ??? - Washington DC (LoC reading, hopefully w/ Patty)
- Mar 19 - 21: Rye Brook (Lunacon w/ Patty)
- Apr 12ish - 16ish: London, Cardiff and maybe Ireland (Patty has a conference, I'm tagging along)
- Jul 8 - 9: Bristol, hopefully (academic conference, not sure if Patty will be on a dig then)
- Jul 15 - 18: Florida, maybe (Infinitius, looking more likely by the second)
- September 2 - 6: Atlanta (Dragon*Con w/ Patty)

This doesn't take into account the possibility of a brief jaunt to Ohio in December or the fact that we'd really like to take a weekend in Cold Spring sometimes between November and March or that we might go to a Holiday Ball in December. HOLY CRAP HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE? I AM NOT THAT COOL TO BE ON THE ROAD THIS MUCH.

Speaking of Switzerland, what can I expect the language situation to be like? I have _no_ German and my French will probably come back online after a couple of days. I'm curious not just what level of English people have and how useful my French will be, but what level of language effort on my part decorum demands -- should I learn a few phrases of German?

My birthday is coming up soon, but I am feeling aggressively ambivalent about it.

Man, most of my front-burner writing projects just reached the really cranky stage where I have awesome structure and awesome content, and I'm going to have to sacrifice pieces of each to each other and that makes me sad. Sometimes, in fact, I wish I was worse at structure so that I could leave in more random awesome.

Comments

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

OMG yay advance earn-out!

From what I recall of Zurich, you'll be fine with English and some phrasebook knowledge of either French or German or even Italian. The Swiss are proud of their multi-linguality and sometimes frustratingly so.

Trying to learn a few phrases of German may actually make things worse; Zurich may still largely use Swiss-German, which is practically its own dialect and nigh incomprehensible to German speakers. (Switzerduech? I can't remember how to spell it.) Zurich is more on the German side than the French but can often still manage in French as well, and very often English.

Politeness: As long as you are polite, they don't much care what language it's in. Anyone in a service or tourist-facing industry will speak a little bit of English or French, if not a great deal more than that, and will be cheerful and helpful even if they don't.