Petites Surprises de Retour

(originally published by EdinburghExchanges blog)

Freshly-rested and a little over-stuffed after Christmas, we're all back in Aix to knuckle down and try to pass an exam or two. I'm sure I'll get round to writing about them soon, when I'm not actually doing them, and when my hesitant daily excursions into the outside world stop providing me with such interesting things to see.
One of I'm sure many unannounced public art installations, Joséph Donten's simply-named 'Arbres Cours Mirabeau' certainly brightens up the street now the twinkly lights of Noël are gone. It's as if the trees have become incredibly tall, incredibly chic French fashionistas declaring that Polkadot is, very much, in. Though with my anglo-eyes I can't help being reminded of Pudsey Bear.

With January comes sales, and if you add to that a love of Franglais and sensationalism in shop-fronts, you get something like this. A phenomenon I'd only ever seen in a post on LanguageLog before, this certainly drew my eye to Japan Rags' January sale. The theory is that this very common word is used so much as an intensifier, generally in place of a word like 'very' or 'terribly', that its transferral into other languages uses this function and not a single trace of its original meaning. A source on the LanguageLog blog insists "This only happens in Japan", but it seems to be spreading...

From the ridiculous to the sublime, I've found my homesickness-beating gastronomical treat in the form of this Covent Garden Onion, Cheddar and Cider soup. Not the most indulgent of offerings in Monoprix, but at 3€ a pop and so packed full of things I'll soon start missing again, the thought of this is pulling me through all this revision.
So about that revision. Sigh.

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Writing CV

Let's talk: jenni.ajderian@gmail.com Mild-mannered professional Linguist by day, crime-fighting writer and editor by night. Currently protecting the mean streets of Dublin from bad content. "She's one of the good ones" - FringePig "Best. Review. Ever." - @ObjectiveTalent "This interview has won #edfringe" - @FredRAlexander "I think this is the nicest review I've ever received." - @DouglasSits "Do you give lessons? Jus askin..." - @RockyFlintstone FedEx Digital Infinite Beta blog - 2017 I worked with FedEx Digital as a Technical Copywriter (more info on my LinkedIn Profile ) and produced sassy content for their Infinite Beta blog. The tone here is informal and personable, the aim being to show some personality and attract future team members to the company. How to explain your job title Automated content checkers Technology predictions for 2018 (I wasn't too far off) 3di Technical Commu...

Calgary, Alberta

Yesterday I ran around the city a bit, trying to see as much as possible for as little as possible... It was hard. The walk from Sean's place in Renfrew was long but scenic. Cold and crisp, Calgary did turn out to be mostly suburb, with a pretty concentrated centre with all your usual tourist hangouts just south of the Bow river where a lot of money can be spent very easily. Like $14 for going up Calgary Tower, $9 for a student ticket to the Glenbow Museum, and all those malls! They're all interconnected, so you could probably walk from shop to shop most of the way across the city without having to see sunlight. This is probably the idea behind the Plus Fifteen, too- a heated walkway above the streets so the Calgarians don't have to freeze in winter. The Glenbow offered your normal mix of traditional art, weird modern stuff, rooms full of the extensive and glorious history of Alberta, all 150 years of it,...

You Say It Best...

(originally published by The Student ) Watch any western, any black-and-white adventure film, any rags-to-riches adaptation, and you'll realise we've seen this all before. The guy gets the girl, the evil tyrant falls and the True King rises, be it Middle Earth or the Mid-West. We've seen these scenes repeated across time and space, and we know how it goes. Without the speech, the scene still goes the same way. New film The Artist proves this, without saying a word. Aside from the picture-perfect cast and a dog which will reach cult celebrity status any day now, the film addresses the transition between '20s movies and '30s talkies, and a sparse use of sound which offers a challenge to the film-makers. In one scene, uncharacteristically static, a pair of old friends meet and greet, swap stories, laugh- the details, irrelevant, are replaced by an emotive score and some close camera-work, all of which makes us feel no less connected to the...

Jenni Ajderian

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