So, friday I got back home past 4 am, saturday I managed to sleep 6 hours, but sunday again was a 4 hours night sleep, monday I didn't turned off the light before 2 am and yesterday night was much the same. Not that I regret any of it, but long gone are the days I could do such a life... well, since I started to work and can't sleep the whole morning afterwards, at least.
Anyway, Liesbeth's official birthday celebration was quite nice (and definitely less alcoholic than on friday), pizza with a dozen people in the old part of Trastevere and then a drink near Piazza Trilussa. Contrary to what I expected, I actually got to see again all of the ones I was hoping to see of the WFP crowd, even if I didn't actually get to talk much with any of them, just a bit more with Helena as I took her home. On the other hand, I happened to meet again Marjorie, a french-speaking canadian (truly, bilingual, as it seems to be the case with most of the younger generation Quebecois) working at FAO with whom I had a very interesting talk about the Independence of Quebec, so much that while we were moving from the pizzeria to the bar, we sort of lost the others and ourselves in the narrow streets near Regina Coeli (Yes, even I can get lost in Rome, sometimes, especially in that area).
That was particulary interesting because I've met several other Quebecois in the past, one in particular having been a pretty good friend of mind for a while (Marie Luce, if you will ever accidentally bump in my blog, that's you) and I've often heard, as reasons provided for the Independence call, quite some spiritual and noble calls, together with the obvious cultural, religious, ethnic and historical differences. Marjorie, on the other hand, explained to me that behind or besides those, several economical reasons were to be found, which have, over the years, faded as the economical balances in Canada changed. It was, as I said, instructive, not to mention I got to know that now Alberta is sort of talking about independance. Personally, I'm for independent Quebec, but have to admit it's more a skin feeling than an informed opinion. In any case, they'd get quite a cool flag if they'd do, (on the left, even if I got explained it is widely used even now).
Yesterday night I also noticed myself falling once again in the well known pattern I have of automatically discussing in favor of the point opposite than the one presented by my interlocutor, regardless of my own real personal belief, just for discussion' sake. I think this kind of behavior comes equally from my law studies and a given attitude, so to say, at the family's table, not to mention the fact I often tend to form and test my own ideas during a discussion rather than before and the only way to do it is testing the opinion I'm presented by probing it from every side, yet I realize how annoying that can be and how much of a wrong impression of me it can give sometimes, especially when I find myself arguing for a point and the opposite in a matter of hours, if not minutes.
Anyway, Liesbeth's official birthday celebration was quite nice (and definitely less alcoholic than on friday), pizza with a dozen people in the old part of Trastevere and then a drink near Piazza Trilussa. Contrary to what I expected, I actually got to see again all of the ones I was hoping to see of the WFP crowd, even if I didn't actually get to talk much with any of them, just a bit more with Helena as I took her home. On the other hand, I happened to meet again Marjorie, a french-speaking canadian (truly, bilingual, as it seems to be the case with most of the younger generation Quebecois) working at FAO with whom I had a very interesting talk about the Independence of Quebec, so much that while we were moving from the pizzeria to the bar, we sort of lost the others and ourselves in the narrow streets near Regina Coeli (Yes, even I can get lost in Rome, sometimes, especially in that area).
That was particulary interesting because I've met several other Quebecois in the past, one in particular having been a pretty good friend of mind for a while (Marie Luce, if you will ever accidentally bump in my blog, that's you) and I've often heard, as reasons provided for the Independence call, quite some spiritual and noble calls, together with the obvious cultural, religious, ethnic and historical differences. Marjorie, on the other hand, explained to me that behind or besides those, several economical reasons were to be found, which have, over the years, faded as the economical balances in Canada changed. It was, as I said, instructive, not to mention I got to know that now Alberta is sort of talking about independance. Personally, I'm for independent Quebec, but have to admit it's more a skin feeling than an informed opinion. In any case, they'd get quite a cool flag if they'd do, (on the left, even if I got explained it is widely used even now).Yesterday night I also noticed myself falling once again in the well known pattern I have of automatically discussing in favor of the point opposite than the one presented by my interlocutor, regardless of my own real personal belief, just for discussion' sake. I think this kind of behavior comes equally from my law studies and a given attitude, so to say, at the family's table, not to mention the fact I often tend to form and test my own ideas during a discussion rather than before and the only way to do it is testing the opinion I'm presented by probing it from every side, yet I realize how annoying that can be and how much of a wrong impression of me it can give sometimes, especially when I find myself arguing for a point and the opposite in a matter of hours, if not minutes.
1 comment:
*grin* I find that I do the same thing too, especially when talking about American politics.
One of my professors once told me that the problem with most graduate and law schools is that while they teach students how to tear apart arguments effectively, they forget to teach students how to actually construct good ones.
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