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177 S Lakeshore Rd
$2,390,000, 4.26 Acres
Listing Office: Windermere RE/Lk Chelan Dwntwn
About This Property
Commercial opportunity w/in the "Golden Mile" on the South Shore of Lake Chelan! This is the last Rural Commercial zoned property of its size, 4+ acres, in the Lake Chelan Valley. Excellent exposure from both Hwy 97A & S Lakeshore Rd, incredible lake views, & all utilities available- water, sewer, power, & irrigation. A plethora of allowed uses, but site is ideal for a 100-150 room hotel & restaurant. W/in 1 mile of 8 of Chelan's finest wineries, Bear Mt Golf Course, & close to downtown Chelan.
Essential Information
Community Information
School Information
Additional Information
177 S Lakeshore Rd, Chelan (MLS® #1451517) Property History
All listings featuring the icon are provided courtesy of the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS), Copyright 2019. All rights reserved. The database information herein is provided from and copyrighted by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS). NWMLS data may not be reproduced or redistributed and is only for people viewing this site. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. The information contained in these listings has not been verified by Sterling Johnston Real Estate and should be verified by the buyer. All properties are subject to prior sale or withdrawal. All rights are reserved by copyright. Property locations as displayed on any map are best approximations only and exact locations should be independently verified.
Listing information last updated on December 6th, 2019 at 10:42am PST.


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Residential Services
Smart Home Services
Commercial Services
Upgrade & Repair Services
Monday, December 9, 2019
How We Can Help You with DIY Electrical Installation & Safety
Why Michigan Residents Opt for DIY Electrical Work Installation As a busy individual who is trying to save time and money, completing your own electrical work yourself may seem to make sense. Your local home improvement store has all the necessary tools and materials you need to get the job done yourself. Plus, there is no waiting and no extra cost associated with the work you do yourself.
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Friday, November 15, 2019
Money Saving Tips for the Holidays
The holiday season is coming upon us, which means it's time to consider ways to cut down on energy consumption and save some money for all those presents! Lakepointe Electric is here to help you so that you and your family can not only enjoy the festivities of the holiday season but also cut on costs while you're at it. From LED Christmas lights to Smart Home Installation, we have the solutions you need!
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Thursday, October 24, 2019
What is the Correct Size Generator for My Home?
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a typical home in the United States loses its power only a couple of times per year for about three hours on average. Though, it isn't uncommon to lose power for days, if not weeks, especially during harsh, inclement weather or other electrical complications.
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Monday, September 9, 2019
The Difference Between Safety Switches and Circuit Breakers
Although safety switches and circuit breakers both promote safety and prevent damage to you and your property, they are two different devices. Unfortunately, there are a lot of misunderstandings about these two electrical safety devices and can be confusing.
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Friday, July 26, 2019
When Lightning Strikes, Be Prepared to Experience a Power Outage
With days of soaring temperatures, Summer storms are always a great possibility. When the sky gets dark and those heavy clouds roll in, a wild thunderstorm is probably on the way. With this, sometimes comes the inevitable power outage. Most think this is easier to deal with than a winter outage. After all, you don't have to worry about freezing or keeping warm.
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Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Reasons to Use a Generator
While most people often think that a generators main use is to supply power during a power outage, they are used for so much more. There are many industries that use generators and rely on them heavily. This article will discuss a few different things that electric generators are used for.
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Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Why You Should Hire a Licensed Electrician
There are some things you just shouldn't attempt a DIY project with, and electricity is one of them. You can read every book on becoming an electrician or have a friend who says that they know what they are doing, but there are so many disasters that can take place if the project is not done correctly. For instance, it could potentially start a fire and cause severe damage to your home or even burn your house down. This is not a risk you would want to take.
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Tuesday, April 30, 2019
What Kind of Generator Should You Buy?
Many people experience power outages at least once a year. When this happens, it causes a major inconvenience. Not only because your electricity is gone, but it could even mean that tons of food in your refrigerator will go to waste as well. It is recommended that after 4 hours of a power outage, you begin to monitor the temperature of the inside of your fridge. Most perishable foods will need to be thrown out after two more hours. One way to prevent nuisances like this is to purchase a generator. There are three main types of generators: Home Standby, Large Inverter, and Portable generators.
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Friday, February 1, 2019
Why Should You Own a Home Generator?
Power outages can cause quite a few problems for you and your family. They can cause the foods in your refrigerator to spoil, some hazards when it comes to walking through your home in the dark, and even keeping the heat or air conditioning on in extreme weather conditions. They can be considered inconvenient, at best. Home generators can create tolerable living arrangements when the power goes out.
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Friday, January 11, 2019
The Benefits and Dangers of DIY Generator Installation
Having a home standby generator is important during the winter months – when ice and snow storms frequently strike and cause power outages. And Lakepointe Electric offers a full selection of Briggs and Stratton home standby generators – as well as professional installation. However, as a home owner or renter looking to save money, should you consider DIY generator installation?
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Friday, December 14, 2018
The POWER of Winter Storms and the Damage they Create
Welcome to another Michigan winter. This season is a time to participate in winter activities such as skiing, sledding, and snowboarding. But, unfortunately, the winter months often bring storms that threaten the safety of family, businesses, and individuals. However, there are measures you can take to minimize winter storm risks – such as purchasing a Briggs and Stratton home standby generator from Lakepointe Electric to guard your home and daily routine against power outages.
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Friday, December 14, 2018
What Can One Do if there is a Power Outage?
With a Briggs and Stratton Home Standby generator from Lakepointe Electric, power outages have minimal impact on everyday life. These generators kick in almost instantaneously when power fails and shut off automatically when service is restored. However, if you do not have a Briggs and Stratton Home Standby Generator, there are a few things that you can do to protect yourself and your family.
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Friday, November 16, 2018
Benefits of Briggs and Stratton Generators from Lakepointe Electric
Lakepointe Electric carries Briggs and Stratton Generators exclusively for several reasons. While brands like Generac dominate the home standby generator aisles at big-box stores, we prefer Briggs and Stratton.
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Thursday, November 15, 2018
Get Beautiful Recessed Lighting from Lakeview Electric for Your Home Just in Time for the Holidays
If you are thinking of making a few changes to your home's interior, consider recessed lighting as an option. For certain rooms, recessed lighting is perfect.
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Monday, October 22, 2018
Halloween Lighting Tips
The lighting professionals at Lakepointe Electric want all Michigan residents to have a fun and safe Halloween.
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Monday, September 24, 2018
Southeast Michigan Residents Should Purchase their Home Standby Generators NOW
Winter is coming, and with colder weather, snow, and ice storms, power outages are inevitable. So, make sure that your family is prepared with residential generators from Lakepointe Electric.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Keep Your Customers Safe with Emergency Lighting from Lakepointe Electric
At Lakepointe Electric, we can quickly and efficiently install an emergency lighting system. We can also recommend and install generator backup power for when the electricity goes out.
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Tuesday, July 17, 2018
How Home Standby Generators from Lakepointe Electric Protect Homes and Families
At Lakepointe Electric, we sell and install top-of-the-line home standby generators from Briggs and Stratton Generators. And we can quickly and efficiently set your home up with reliable generator back up power.
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Thursday, July 12, 2018
How Investing in Smart Home Installation Can Save You Money
Lakepointe Electric is the go-to source for smart home upgrades and installation in Southeast Michigan. We can quickly and efficiently install new products or retrofit your existing devices and appliances to create the perfect Smart Home for you and your family.
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Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Generac Generators vs. Briggs and Stratton Generators
At Lakepointe Electric, we've done our research, and we trust Briggs and Stratton standby generators more than any other brand. This is why we sell and install Briggs and Stratton generators – we firmly believe that our customers deserve the best.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Courtesy of Grace and Lace's website:
The Sunny Smocked Top gives your style that bright ray of sunshine it's been missing this season! With its soft fabric draping down from the smocked bustline and sleeves, this loose fitting top keeps you cool as temps rise. The result is ultra-flattering, letting you look as fabulous as you feel while giving you the comfort you need this summer! The best part? You can style this two different ways! Wear on the shoulders or off - the smocked elastic along the top keeps the neckline secure to give you the coverage you want either way. Pair with Midi Shorts or Zip Up Cropped Jeggings for an easy, go-to look!
Fit: Smocked top can be worn either on or off the shoulder. Body is very loose fitting. Stay in your normal size. Size down if between sizes.
Melissa (from G&L) is 5'5, size 6 and wears a Small
Krista (Belle + Bliss) wears a Large (her regular size)
Front length: 23 1/2"
Bust: 18 3/4"
Bottom opening: 29"
Front length: 24"
Bust: 19 3/4"
Bottom opening: 30"
Front length: 25"
Bust: 21 1/4"
Bottom opening: 31 1/2"
Front length: 26 1/2"
Bust: 23 1/4"
Bottom opening: 33 1/2"
Care: Machine wash cold, do not bleach, lay flat to dry
Material: 95% Rayon, 5% Spandex
Unless otherwise noted, all measurements are standard design measurements of the garment laying flat. Double the number for circumference. This does not include any stretch the garment might have. Please allow up to a 1/2" tolerance for each measurement.


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For anyone who doesn't know you, how would you describe your sound?
I would say that my sound is a blend of electronic, ambient, indie-pop.
You've worked on a lot of collaborations tell me a bit about that.
I've done a few over the past couple of years with some ridiculously talented individuals, all of which have new releases coming soon – you should keep an eye out for those. I'm so grateful for the response to the music that's been put out so far, it's just been crazy. When you see DJs like Hardwell remixing your track, it's just surreal.
Who would be your dream collaborations and why?
I genuinely don't think my answer to this question has changed since I was 11. My dream collaboration would definitely be with Chris Martin. I've always been the biggest fan of his work, there's just something about the way he writes, both musically and lyrically, that feels so unique. I'll hear a song that he's co-written and know that he's had an input on it straight away, he just has a sound, that's the kind of artist and writer I hope to be.
How important is it to receive so much support from other artists who want to work with you?
The support from other artists has been the most fundamental part of my music career so far. The music industry can often be perceived as very competitive and although that can be true at times, to receive such a warm response from other creators is almost like the light in the dark, we all want each other to succeed.
What's been the most important project that you've worked on so far?
I's been so overwhelming, I've been lucky enough to work with some incredible people, not only on my previous collaborations but on some of the music that I've been working on for my own project. But now I've been working on my own stuff this is the most important project I've worked on to date. I'm just developing my own sound right now and it's inspiring to have my own music project.
I know you've been in the studio for the past year working on your own sound, how has it been?
The studio is probably my favourite place in the whole world, so it's been the most amazing experience. There are so many options with recording, some producers have home studios, some prefer to go to an external studio, each location is different in its own right – decorated differently or a different space – so they each inspire a different feel to what's created.
What can fans expect from your own releases compared with your collaborations?
When you collaborate with another artist in the way I have, it's usually a blend of both their sound and yours, you're essentially putting your touch on someone else's work or vision. My own releases will be completely me, me in a sound.
What are you excited about for the future?
Actually sharing my own sound with the world.


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Things My Mother Taught Me: by Katherine DiSavino
It is often said that the best stories have three main themes, family, family, and family! Olivia and Gabe have just packed up all of their belongings and drove halfway across the country. They are young, in love, and ready to start a new life together in Chicago. But everything that can go wrong does go wrong: from a chair getting stuck in the doorway of their shabby apartment to their moving van being stolen! So when their parents surprise them, Olivia and Gabe greet them with a mixture of wariness and relief. This modern comedy hearkens back to the work of Neil Simon as it takes a generational look at relationships, and how parents sometimes pass their best lessons on to their children without even meaning to. Funny and touching, this comedy will make audiences laugh out loud and remember that mother (or sometimes father) really does know best.
Location: Dakota Stage Ltd.
Date: January 25th - 27th and February 1st - 3rd, and 4th
Time: Jan 25th - 27th & Feb 1st - 3rd: 7:30 pm
Feb 4th: 2:00 pm
It is our mission to promote, preserve and perpetuate the arts in North Dakota.
1600 East Century Avenue, Suite 6
Bismarck, ND 58503-0649
(701) 328-7590
(701) 328-7595 (Fax)
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Hours of business are:
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed on National Holidays
Copyright 2014 North Dakota Council on the Arts


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The attempt by government bureaucrats to get their regulatory hooks into your vitamin supplements is bad enough--now they want to come after the Internet.
Bipartisan opposition does, however, seem to be mounting against the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA)--which could lead to censorship on the web--that is pending in Congress.
Here's what the Electronic Frontier Foundation had to say about this onerous bill:
The "Stop Online Piracy Act"/"E-PARASITE Act" (SOPA) and "The PROTECT IP Act" (PIPA) are the latest in a series of bills which would create a procedure for creating (and censoring) a blacklist of websites. These bills are updated versions of the "Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act" (COICA), which was previously blocked in the Senate. Although the bills are ostensibly aimed at reaching foreign websites dedicated to providing illegal content, their provisions would allow for removal of enormous amounts of non-infringing content including political and other speech from the Web.
...Had these bills been passed five or ten years ago, even YouTube might not exist today — in other words, the collateral damage from this legislation would be enormous.Important Internet pioneers have also registered their strong opposition according to PCWorld:
What happens when you combine an overzealous drive to fight Internet piracy, with elected representatives who don't know the difference between DNS, IM, and MP3? You get SOPA--draconian legislation that far exceeds its intended scope, and threatens the Constitutional rights of law abiding citizens. And it may just pass.
An open letter to Congress written by luminaries of the Internet, such as Vint Cerf--co-designer of TCP/IP, and Robert W. Taylor--founder of ARPAnet among others, implores Congress to back off and squash both SOPA, and its sibling PIPA legislation. The letter states, "If enacted, either of these bills will create an environment of tremendous fear and uncertainty for technological innovation, and seriously harm the credibility of the United States in its role as a steward of key Internet infrastructure."
The letter goes on to ominously caution Congress. "If the US begins to use its central position in the network for censorship that advances its political and economic agenda, the consequences will be far-reaching and destructive."
...If the bill passes, it could have devastating, cascading consequences that ripple across the Internet and affect the freedom and civil liberties of every citizen of the United States. It seems our current elected representatives may just be dumb and/or crazy enough to pass it, though—so speak up and let your representative and senators know what you think of SOPA.Members of Congress such as Darrell Issa and Jason Chafetz (see videos below) are leading the the effort to keep the Internet open and free. Have you contacted your congressional representative to stop SOPA?


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Showing all 3 results
Haag-Streit Octopus 600 Pro Perimeter
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Haag-Streit White Perimeter Occluder
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By Tammy Lacey, Superintendent
Great Falls Public Schools
Great Falls, Montana
Please note: This is written as a speech and therefore may not adhere to grammar, punctuation and other usual writing conventions.
Thank you, Mary, for the nice introduction. It is my honor and my pleasure to be standing before you today as your superintendent of schools. I have to pinch myself every now and then to make sure that it is true! Here is what I know for sure…I wouldn't be here before you today if it wasn't for some amazing colleagues who worked by my side at Valley View and West Elementary Schools in the 1980's. If you worked at those two schools in the 1980's stand up. I wouldn't be here today without my friends and colleagues from Loy Elementary School. Please stand up! And I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the support staff in Human Resources and the entire DOB. Would all DOB, warehouse and annex staff members stand up? Thank you, one and all.
There is another group of folks that I need to thank for their commitment to public education. I thank them for their tireless enthusiasm and passion for the hard work that must get done. I appreciate their intelligence and expertise and I thank them for their willingness to stand beside me as we take this District to new heights. Please help me in welcoming the District's cabinet members:
- Ruth Uecker—Asst. Supt. for K-6
- Tom Moore—Asst. Supt. for 7-12
- Brian Patrick—Director of Business Operations
- Dale Lambert—Director of Student Services
- Jeff Patterson—Director of Instructional Technology
- Mindy Kiser—Director of Human Resources
- Chris Olszewski—Director of Curriculum and Instruction
They are an amazing team working for Our Kids, Our Community and Our Future!
Speaking of the future…I want to recognize our brand new employees. If you are a new employee, teacher or support staff, starting your first school year with the District, please stand up. On behalf of GFPS, I welcome you to this incredible organization and wish you a long and fulfilling career with us. You will help define the future of GFPS.
You heard me mention 6 words that have been resonating around the District since March or so…
Our Kids, Our Community, Our Future: 6 simple words that come with so much responsibility.
Our 10,200 kids, our 60,000 community members, our futures…depend a lot on me and on all of you…Our kids, our community, our futures, depend on US.
The good news is…we have a plan to take on those responsibilities…a plan based on this district's vision for a preferred future. A plan steeped in the beliefs that govern our actions. A plan that will help this district chase the sun to brighter tomorrows. You can follow along on your sheets as you join me in watching a short movie about our vision, our beliefs, our goals and the necessary key results.
District leaders have identified action items to help us reach these goals like attendance initiatives, superintendent advisory panels and security updates. I know you have ideas too. Think big. Share those ideas. If each of us does what we do a little bit better, I have no doubt that we will meet those goals.
I promise that I will do everything in my power to make these goals and dreams come true. When someone makes a promise like I just made, those who are counting on that promise have to trust that person. They have to know where that person is coming from and they have to know that they can depend on that person.
If you are going to trust me, I think you need to know some things about me. I think you need to know what I believe, what I expect of myself because of those beliefs and what I expect of you. I'm going to spend the rest of my time talking about those things…my beliefs and my expectations.
Belief #1:
Here's the first belief of mine I want to talk about: If you don't love yourself, no one else will.
Here's what I mean by that… I believe that to love yourself is to be understanding with yourself, to be patient with yourself, to be forgiving and kind towards yourself, and to take care of yourself. When you do that, you also treat others the same way. That's all a part of respect…respecting yourself, respecting others.
This belief is why I have been a staunch supporter of our employee wellness program and the employee assistance program both run out of our CARE Office. I believe that you must take care of yourself so you can take care of others. Because we are in the business of caring for others…caring for the students in our workplaces, caring for the quality of education they receive, I expect you to care for yourself. I expect you to do the things that are necessary for you…whatever those things might be…for you to be mentally and physically healthy.
We have an agency in the house today that supports the health needs of our entire community and that's the Cascade County Health Department. Would the Board members from that agency who are here today stand up and be recognized? Thank you for helping us take care of ourselves.
But there is another part of this belief and it has to do with loyalty. If we take a bigger look at the word "yourself" away from just the individual and we look at the bigger identity of ourselves in the terms of our community this belief stands out for me there too. What if I substitute the word Great Falls?…If you don't love Great Falls, no one else will…
I believe that the success of our school district is dependent upon the success of Great Falls and vice versa. I know we all want Great Falls to be a vibrant, economically diverse, and thriving community. I want it so we can have increasing enrollment…I want more kids in our schools benefiting from the incredible educational opportunities we offer. Some of you want it so you have great places to eat out and good shopping. But if you don't love GF, no one else will. Sometimes we can be a little negative about GF…there's nothing to do here, our shopping stinks, there's a casino on every corner, we can't even land a chain restaurant…you've all heard it and maybe you have even said it. I get a little miffed when I hear someone dissing our town. We can do better and we are. Luckily we have a group of people here today that work on a daily basis for this very thing. We have a group of professionals from the Great Falls Development Authority that love Great Falls and are telling lots of other people about it. Please stand up GFDA staff and Board Members and give a wave and GFPS lets give them a hand for the work they do on behalf of our community.
We have so much to be proud of here in Great Falls. Jerry Jendusa, CEO of a company here in Great Falls that employs 100 employees, chose to locate here because of the people. I know that the people of Great Falls have a strong work ethic; and I know that GF has an educational system, PK to post high school, that puts skilled workers into the employment pipeline. I would like to acknowledge our partners from higher education that are here today…the University of Great Falls and Great Falls College.
We indeed have so much to be proud of.
GFPS staff, I know that you demonstrate your love for Great Falls through the work that you do in your jobs but I also know that you do a myriad of volunteer work in our community as well. I thank you for that and I challenge you to find even more ways to love Great Falls and to tell others about what's good here and to work with others to improve what's not so good.
Now let's take this belief and substitute the word GFPS… If you don't love GFPS, no one else will…
If the very people that come to work every day can't be proud of their workplace, can't be forgiving towards it, can't be patient with it, can't believe in continuous improvement, who else will? It is imperative that each of us helps the District be the best it can be and that means that we must direct our criticisms internally to those who can address them and send good news externally. We sometimes are our own worst enemy.
An example of sending negative messages externally might be when an employee tells his neighbor that there is so much waste in the District. The neighbor now thinks that there is SO MUCH waste in the district…waste everywhere…in fact, the neighbor might even get a little mad about that because he sure doesn't want his tax dollars paying for waste.
Another example of spreading negativity externally…a few weeks ago letters went out inviting you to this convocation. Some Facebook posts about that letter were brought to my attention saying how these people hated getting the welcome back letter, saying they were dreading coming back to school, saying how they wished summer would never end…while I understand that summer is fun…these kind of comments in public to hundreds of people contradict what I know is true…you love teaching, you love working in education…these comments confuse people.
There's a saying in the ranch world…"you ride for the brand". It is a simple concept: when you hire on with an outfit, you make sure that the rancher is successful so you can keep riding the range. I expect us all to ride for the brand.
With that being said, I don't expect blind loyalty. We can always get better. Maybe there is waste, for example. I expect you to be a part of the solution…tell someone who can help you fix it…I'm pretty sure your neighbor can't. Now I've been told that you can't tell anything to management or you will be retaliated against. I will not tolerate retaliation. Do the right thing, speak up, don't be unnecessarily fearful…ride for the brand.
Belief #2: I can't do it alone. You can't do it alone. But we can do it together.
This is true no matter what "it" is. There are so many clichés around this concept: It takes a village to raise a child…there is no "I" in team…many hands make light work…but the profoundness of this statement is not cliché. Vince Lombardi said it best, "Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work."
Important words there…individual commitment. As individuals in this room, we have so many talents, so many gifts…but commitment says are you willing to use those gifts and moreover…are you willing to use those gifts and talents to work with others to make the vision come true? To reach our goals?
Why can't we each do it alone? As you know, the needs of our students today are so complex that it is humanly impossible for individuals to have all the answers to those needs. It can't be done. I believe, however, that collectively, we can figure it out. That collectively, we can discover, invent and deploy whatever it takes.
We are so lucky that in our community we have many folks that want to support our work. We have our Security Resource Officers that work in our schools to make our goal come true…healthy, safe and secure schools. The Tribune highlighted their importance in an article just this last Saturday. Stand up Detectives Garner, Reeves, Stimac and Taylor and Chief Bowen and give a wave. GFPS let's give them and the Great Falls Police Department a hand of gratitude for partnering with us.
We have agencies like the United Way that believe that education is a pillar of our community so they set these community-wide goals:
- Students will enter kindergarten prepared to succeed
- Third graders will read at proficiency
- Chronic absenteeism is reduced
- Graduation rates increase and drop-out rates decrease
and they are doing good work around each of these to make them happen. United Way can't do it alone. But we can do it together. Thank you United Way. Please stand up and GFPS thank them with your applause.
We have our local legislators who are willing to listen and act. This past session, they supported additional funding for public schools along with legislation dealing with truancy, child abuse, career & technical education funding, and many more. They also rejected the use of public funds for private education. Let's thank our local legislators for their support of children and of public education.
We can do it together…we have the Great Falls Public Schools Foundation that is fundraising to enhance high quality teaching and learning for the children of GFPS. They want to give every child, in every school, the opportunity to excel. They believe they can make our school and our community stronger than ever…thank you GFPS Foundation Board members along with Dave Crum. Please stand up and be recognized for being in this together with us.
We also have representatives here from Starbase…an elementary program to deliver science, technology, engineering and math education to our students…a collaborative effort with the Department of Defense. Please give a waive.
Working together…This belief demands that as your superintendent I seek out every person, every agency, every club, every entity that wants to be part of this incredible endeavor we call education. It demands that I ask for help when we need it; it demands that I collaborate with all of you…it demands that I listen with an open mind and open heart to my critics because they are trying to teach me something. It demands that we work together.
And all of you? It demands that you ask for help when you need it. That you honor the time when you join together in professional communities to seek out solutions. That you commit to this group effort we call Great Falls Public Schools because I know what Vince Lombardi knew…individual commitment to a group effort…is the only thing that can get us to where we need to go.
Belief #3: Dance with the one that "brung" you
Some of you may remember former GFPS superintendent, Jerry Weast. I took some graduate courses from him and he drilled two sayings into us:
- Know when to hold em, when to fold em, when to walk away and when to run, and
- This one…Dance with the one that "brung" you.
It's actually an old Texas expression that, while not grammatically correct, contains a lot of wisdom. It simply means you need to look after whoever helped you get to where you are. Please forgive me, English teachers, as I will be grammatically incorrect in referencing this belief.
There are hundreds of examples of companies or entities that didn't believe this. They forgot that their businesses had to evolve with their user bases; they counted on their name, not the product, to continue to deliver successful results. A name will not guarantee marketplace domination forever. Many of these businesses became irrelevant and lost value.
We have to be careful to not fall into that same trap…believing, that just because we are an institution that has been around since 1888; that just because our existence is guaranteed by the Montana Constitution; that just because people are supposed to support education…that we can discount those who "brung" us. You might be asking…who is she talking about? Who helped us get here? Who "brung" us? Well it's the public.
We are a public institution. GFPS is a public entity. Therefore, as the saying goes, we need to be "dancing" with community members, business owners, taxpayers, voters, parents, senior citizens…the public. The best way we can do that is by being accountable to them by providing a high quality product: students who graduate college, career and citizenship ready.
The second way is to be good stewards of the funding they provide us: being efficient and being good caretakers of their assets. We must always remember that the buildings we work in, the supplies we use, the equipment that makes our job easier…are all public assets and must be treated as such.
We had some community folks help us this last year with local public funding and those were the members of the Budget Committee. Would those community members here today that served on the budget committee please stand up and be recognized for your support?
Indeed we are a public institution. We must also always remember that the public's right to know almost always outweighs the individual's right to privacy. In today's world, the public demands and is entitled to information. Please remember that your personal conduct could come under very public scrutiny. As public employees we are held to a high standard.
We have some other public employees in the house today…our colleagues from the City of Great Falls. Would you please stand and be recognized? Living together in a community requires attention to the collective good. A community requires public workers to provide services and amenities to the populous. Our city government does just that. I would like to thank the City employees and our elected city officials. Please stand up. I look forward to creating opportunities where the District works with city government for the mutual gain of GF citizens.
There are other ways we can dance with those that "brung" us. We can remember to thank tax payers. I would venture to guess that almost everyone in this room pays property taxes in one way or another through outright ownership or through the rent you pay. I thank you for your tax dollars. I promise to do everything in my power to ensure that each and every dollar is spent on providing educational opportunity for student success.
Would business owners and members of the Chamber of Commerce please stand and give a wave? Thank you for your tax dollars as they support a comprehensive educational system that I hope makes you proud.
We can also dance with those who "brung" us by remembering that every store, boutique, restaurant and place of business in Great Falls pays local property taxes that make up 27% of the District's funding. Stores in Spokane, Billings, Missoula, don't pay local property taxes. I try to remember this as I shop local. I ask you to consider the same when you spend your hard earned money. Every dollar we spend right here in GF turns over 7 times in the local economy. Thinking local is a part of the dance.
Going back to belief #2…working together with those who "brung" us will ensure that our institution is relevant, supported and high quality for years to come.
Belief #4: Work Hard. Play Hard.
Let's start with the "work hard" part of this belief. I believe in a full day's work, doing it well and having the satisfaction of knowing that I gave it my best. I'm not afraid of getting up early and staying up late if that is what it takes to get the job done. I don't count the number of hours I work in a day or week. Some might say that I am a bit of a workaholic. I disagree. I call it passion. I love my work. I love doing my work. I love working for you. I believe that I am well compensated and I also believe that I must earn that compensation. I believe that I owe hard work to those who "brung" me and even more importantly to those who are counting on me: GFPS students and all of you.
I also believe that in order to be my best at work, I need to take care of myself…get enough sleep, eat the right things, exercise when I can, spend enough time with those I love and those who love me. I owe it to those who count on me to do these things. It's not always easy…it's a never ending search for balance. And sometimes I get a little out of balance…out of whack. I can be worried about one of my daughters, or there is a family situation that is perplexing, or can be just plain tired. For me, I choose to leave those things at the door when I walk into the DOB or into one of the schools. That's the cool thing about the human brain…we can choose how we deal with things. I make my own weather…I can decide if that weather is going to be cloudy or sunny. I always prefer sunny…that makes my time at work count.
I expect you do whatever it takes for you to ensure that your time at work counts too. I believe that every staff member must cherish every moment of learning time we have with children. I believe that we must protect learning time from distractions and interruptions. This belief is true not only for classroom teachers… most of whom have heard me say over and over again that if you waste 1 minute of time every day of the year, by the end of the year, 180 minutes or 3 hours has been wasted, but also for everyone else who works in our schools, …please cherish every minute we have with students…please protect it so students can be engaged today…so they can be successful for life tomorrow.
I also expect you to check your weather when you come to work each day. We know that students thrive when they are surrounded by adults who care about them…who they can have a positive relationship with. Who wants to have a relationship with some distracted, grouchy employee just going through the motions? Remember, you can choose your own weather…
How about that sunny weather? This takes us to the second part of this belief…play hard. Some of us have been subjected to the FISH Philosophy made famous by those crazy fish mongers in Seattle. They adhere to 4 principles that help foster a great life at work:
- Make Their Day
- Choose Your Attitude
- Be There and
Before I talk about the last one, Play, I want to touch on just one other FISH principle and that is Be There. Someone said, 80% of success is showing up. I looked it up and found out that it was Woody Allen. I think what he is saying is that by being there, by being present in mind and body, success is more likely than not. I believe that in order for this district to be successful, the people we have hired…you…that were selected because of the job skills you possess…must be present. Last year, we had almost 11,000 teacher absences with almost half of those being due to sick leave. When you add in all the other sick leave absences from all other employees, I become concerned that students are missing out. That is why I continue to advocate for your health and well-being. The students need you to BE THERE.
But when you are there, it needs to be a good place to be, which brings me to their last principle: PLAY
I believe that we must make time for fun within our work. We need to be able to laugh at ourselves and with others. Laughter and humor are infectious. The sound of roaring laughter is far more contagious than any cough, sniffle, or sneeze. When laughter is shared, it binds people together and increases happiness and togetherness. Humor and laughter strengthen your immune system, boost your energy, diminish pain, and protect you from the damaging effects of stress. Best of all, this priceless medicine is fun, free, and easy to use.
It also increases the likelihood that you will have a positive attitude towards others. As you may have noticed, we all have strengths and weaknesses. We can let annoying personality traits of others drive us crazy or we can choose to let them go and to concentrate on their strengths. It is always best to dwell on strengths. I encourage you to tease out and focus on what is good and right about your students and colleagues.
But what about when we disagree? I also believe that we can disagree without being disagreeable. Civil discourse is expected without fear of retaliation or the ending of professional relationships. Different viewpoints make us better. Take a moment to listen. Those who have different viewpoints from us are trying to teach us something. It's about respecting yourself and others.
Civil discourse happens every time we sit at the negotiating table with our unions. We talk things out…solve problems, resolve differences. Thank you to our union leaders in this effort. We have some union agents in the house today, please stand up and be recognized.
Playing hard is also about celebrating. We became educators because of our passion for the outcome: students who graduate college, career and citizenship ready. We don't go into education because of accolades or attention. But I believe that we must get better at tooting our own horns.
We have some wonderful people with us today that are members of the media…please stand or waive…they want to share our successes with the world. But they have to know about them. We owe it to our community to share our successes.
Remember…if you don't love yourself, who will? So please share your happenings with me…share your successes…share your challenges. I might not be able to be physically present at each event, but I will make sure we get the word out via our webpage, Newsbits, Facebook, press releases, etc. Our stories are really the community's stories as well.
In working for GFPS, you have rights and with rights come responsibilities. I trust that you will fulfill those responsibilities to the best of your abilities. I will not micromanage your work…you know how to do your work. I will trust you. The parents who send their students to our schools trust you. Our community trusts you. And the future is entrusted to you. I hope I have gained your trust today by sharing my beliefs. I hope you will trust me so we can join together to make our goals come true. I hope I have set the tone for where we are headed and I hope you have an incredible 2013-2014 school year. Take care, be safe and stay well!


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Spicewood Kids Club is an after school children's program, for children K-5th grade. It is sponsored by Spicewood Baptist Church and is held at the church after school every Wednesday until 5:30pm.
Spicewood Kids Club is a Christian based club for all children. We play games, sing songs, learn Bible stories, and hear lessons on faith, love and the life of Jesus. It is a place where your children will be taught weekly, moral principles such as honesty, truthfulness, pleasing God and serving others. It is a place where traditional values like respect, consideration of others, and obedience are taught and expected. Parents are welcome to come and visit anytime.


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Ludy (Elvira) Vaughn, 86, of Colusa passed away peacefully with her family by her side on March 27, 2019. She was born on May 13, 1932 to Elvira and John Alves. She was raised in Willows and then later made her permanent residence in Colusa.
Ludy loved being around her family and friends. She had a love for gardening, doing crafts and making ceramics. More recent, she had enjoyed making jewelry for her family, friends and especially her caretakers. She was loved by many and will be greatly missed. She was a member of the Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church and a former member of the Lady's Relief Society.
Ludy is survived by her daughters Julie Stone (Don) of Williams, Cindy Vaughn of Meridian; son Tim Vaughn (Charlene) of Arbuckle; brother Jim Alves of Willows; grandchildren Kelley Alvarez, Toby Garza, Matthew Vaughn, Curtis Vaughn and Brian Stone.
She was preceded in death by her loving husband (love of her life) of 47 years Oliver "Ollie" Vaughn; parents Elvira and John Alves; brothers John Alves, Larry Alves and Leroy Alves.
A visitation will be held on Thursday, April 4, 2019 from 5 PM – 8 PM with a rosary at 7 PM at McNary-Moore Chapel 107 5th Street, Colusa. Mass will be held at 2 PM on Friday, April 5, 2019 at Our Lady of Lourdes Church 345 Oak Street, Colusa.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Ludy's name to the Heart Association Donation Processing Center PO Box 742030 Los Angeles, CA 90074, American Diabetes Association 2451 Crystal Drive, Suite 900 Arlington, VA 22202 or your favorite charity.
The family would like to express their sincere thank you to the loving staff and residents of The Courtyard in Yuba City where Ludy was residing. They were truly wonderful to her and she loved each one of them dearly.
Arrangements are under the direction of
McNary-Moore Funeral Service – FD-410 • (530) 458-2111


text:
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In anglophone Africa Chinua Achebe, for instance, uses the potential flexibility of English to Africanize his style by manipulating rhythm, register and lexicon. Achebe's project to create a new English through Igbo, his mother tongue, is carried out in French by two Francophone African writers, the Congolese Henri Lopes and the Ivorian Ahmadou Kourouma. These writers' language becomes a hybrid code that forces the original French language to refer to the African languages for signification. The paper strives to show that the writers' use of French in their novels constitutes a creative translation process that leads to the production of texts conveying new African realities through the development of an authentic African discourse. The issue of language is very central in discussions of African literature since literature is inconceivable outside the context of language. Questions pertaining to language always arise in any discussion of the subject. They assume even greater importance with regard to African literature than in relation to other literatures since the medium of literary expression in Africa is not only the writer's mother tongue but also the dominant, foreign European language imposed over the indigenous African languages in the process of colonization. Indeed, as Chantal Zabus (1991) points out, the multiplicity of languages and the concomitant language contact situation in African have always been not only a fertile soil for theISSN 1369-6815 print; 1469-9346 online/03/020143-17 0 2003 Journal of African Cultural Studies DOI: 10.1080/13696850500076344
Many critics have analyzed and demonstrated Achebe's skill in fashioning 'a new English,' while his use of Igbo proverbs and pidgin English has constantly delighted or dismayed reviewers. This is because Achebe's new English is a conscious deviation from standard, metropolitan English. It is a new kind of English based on the structures and semantics of Achebe's native Igbo. And it is this new reformulation of the European language by the African writer that I have chosen to consider under the notion of translation. If, as Julio Ortega has suggested, the question of language and reading can be raised as a metaphor for a more complex inquiry about translation (Ortega 2003: 26), it follows that our reading of postcolonial texts must, of necessity, locate these texts within the broad perspective of translation. If we understand African literature as an instrument of cultural production, then we must see translation as a crucial dimension of this literature, especially the part that finds expression in European languages. For, to quote Ortega again: translating is the possibility of constructing a scene of mediation that frames interpretation as a dialogic exercise [. . .I It is the first cultural act that places languages and subjects in crisis, unleashing a redefinition of speakers, a debate over protocols, and a struggle over interpretation (ibid.: 26). I submit that African literature in European languages fits neatly into Ortega's translation paradigm. It was Rosario Ferri who proposed that in a way all writing is translation, an attempt to interpret the meaning of life. Ferri's proposition somehow recalls Octavio Paz's claim that all texts, being part of a literary system
descended from and related to other systems, are 'translations of translations of translations'. But whereas Paz pointed out the uniqueness of translation:Every translation, up to a certain point, is an invention and as such constitutes a unique text (Paz 1992: 154),
In the colonial era - and I believe the situation has not changed - translation (together with assimilation and exoticism) was among some of the strategies Western scholars and critics used to accommodate or come to terms with alterity. Such representational strategies established the perceived relationship between the West and the 'other' as they illustrated the politics of power that were operative in those relationships. To this end, the 'other' was sufficiently defined and explained within the Western matrix of understanding. Earlier narratives about Africans by such European writers such as Joyce Cary, Joseph Conrad and the Tharaud brothers sought to translate to their audiences an African world and personality as understood from a colonial perspective. As Mule has pointed out, Joyce Cary's Mr Johnson (the title character of Mister Johnson)becomes not just a signifier of social disorder and the unteachability of the native but an epitome of the Hegelian peculiarly African character that is difficult to comprehend (Mule 2002: 7).
If Mr Johnson is given a voice only to express his happiness to die at the hands of his White master, how different is his voice from the voiceless Africans who inhabit Conrad's Heart of Darkness? Jan6s Riesz (1985) has explained how the novel La Randonne'e de Samba Diouf ('Samba Diouf s Escapades') by the brothers JCr6me and Jean Tharaud presents a piece of colonial propaganda in which Africans are characterized by a type of Babelic language confusion and by tribal conflicts 'd'antiques rancunes sucrCes avec le lait' [age-old feelings of rancour sweetened with milk] (Tharaud & Tharaud 1922: 126). In this colonial novel France appears as the great unifier of a diversity of uncontrollable and opposed tribal powers:Tous ces gens pour lesquels toute difference quelle qu 'elle soit est une raison d'hostilitk, se trouvaient, ce matin-la, rassemblks sur cette route, marchant au m2me pas, coude 6 coude, par la volontk des Toubabs! (ibid.: 206)All these people for whom any difference whatsoever is cause for hostilities, gathered together that morning on this road, marching side by side to the same rhythm, through the power of the Whites!'
Although the term translation is not used, if we agree that literature presents a world to its readers, then it is not difficult to see how the Tharaud brothers seem to have translated, in their own terms, for their White audiences, African attitudes, African speech patterns, African beliefs and, especially from the quotation above, African1
All translations from French into English are mine, unless otherwise indicated.
146 Kwaku A. Gyasi peoples who are all too eager to submit to the designs of imperial power. As Tymoczko has explained,Translation is paradoxically the means by which difference is perceived, preserved, and proscribed. Translation stands as one of the most significant means by which one culture represents another (Tymoczko 1999: 17).
In the wake of postcolonial studies, translation studies have begun to open up to broader contexts in an attempt to thoroughly discuss the involvement of various factors conditioning the creation of a translation. And as Dingwaney argues, translation has also come to involve the vehicle through which so-called 'Third World' cultures are transported or 'borne across' to and recuperated by audiences in the West. In other words, according to Dingwaney,texts written in English or in one of the metropolitan languages but originating in or about non-Western cultures can be considered under the rubric of translation (Dingwaney & Maier 1995: 4).
Although Mary Louise Pratt (2002) contends that 'translation is a deep but incomplete metaphor for the traffic in meaning', that it may not in the long run be 'an adequate basis for a theory of cross-cultural meaning making,' she does admit that 'exploring this metaphor may be a productive way of clarifying what such a theory might look like' (2002: 35). In the African literary scene, Chinua Achebe's project to create a new kind of English through his native language, that is, his design to translate his culture and language into English, has been a preoccupation of some Francophone African writers who also attempt to create a new kind of French. This is especially the case with Congolese writer Henri Lopes and Ahmadou Kourouma of C6te d'Ivoire. This paper attempts to demonstrate how these writers' language becomes a hybrid code that forces the original French language to refer to the African languages for signification. It strives to show that the writers' use of French in their novels constitutes a creative translation process that leads to the production of new texts, texts that convey new African realities through the development of an authentic African discourse. The analysis of the creative use of European languages in African literature shows very clearly the importance of translation. It shows that translation is significant in African literature in two ways. It identifies the practice whereby texts are transferred from one culture to another in the ordinary sense of the word. And, more importantly, it demonstrates the process through which, as a result of the post-colonial legacy, writers in a 'weakened' culture transpose and transform their languages and models into the dominant culture. The first sense of translation has come to play an important role in the criticism and interpretation of African literature since more and more African works (in African or European languages) are being translated into other languages. Translators who struggle to translate African literary texts enable many people of different cultural backgrounds to know, understand and appreciate African culture. However it must be pointed out that the translation of African literary texts involves more than the possession of a certain linguistic competence. The translator, in addition to hisfher linguistic competence, must be able to show proof of certain
extra-linguistic abilities that consist in analysing and interpreting the context in which the African literary text is embedded. The second sense of translation, the sense that I refer to as creative translation by African writers, manifests itself in African writing in forms that have been identified as 'calquing' (see MakoutaMboukou 1980), 'cushioning,' and 'contextualization' (see Zabus 1991), but also in the authors' transposition of African oral and traditional literary techniques of storytelling into the European written genre. It must be emphasized that a major difference between the modern Europhone African novel and its European counterpart is that of narrative form. Many scholars and critics have pointed out the influence of African oral literature on modem African writing. NgGgi wa Thiong'o has suggested that what provides the innovative difference in modem African literature is its relationship to African languages and the great heritage of orature in those languages. According to Ngiigi,these languages are a reservoir of images, proverbs, riddles, and ballads, stories from which this literature in European languages draws freely and often creatively (1999: 6).
In the same vein, although Eileen Julien refutes the idea that there are two distinct worlds, the oral and the written, she affirms: oral elements (in modern African literature) may well be a vestige of oral narrative traditions and will therefore be experienced as aesthetically African (Julien 1992: 40). And, in his Strategic Transformations, Ato Quayson also makes the claim that the myths, rituals, songs, stories, and other oral and religious materials of the Yoruba people provide resources from which a modem written literature was created according to the needs of each period and writer. Although Quayson's claim differs from earlier claims of unbroken continuity between oral and written literature, the point to note here is that African writers tend to have been inspired by oral literature and traditions for stylistic and ideological reasons. Thus, oral tradition is undoubtedly one of the abstract commanders of modem African writing; it is a living tradition that has both literary and moral consequences. It is a tradition that has helped to shape the writer's conceptions of the world and hisher relationship to the external world. And it is this transportation, transformation or, if you will, transmutation of African oral traditional elements imagery, proverbs, wise sayings, myths, folktales, dramatic factors, and lyrical language - into the written Europhone African literature that I wish to call creative translation. Of course, as Julien again suggests, 'a work that does not contain, or that transforms, such elements is not necessarily less African' (1992: 40). Theo Vincent (1989) has also pointed out that the true significance of oral literature in modem African writing does not lie in how much of it is abstracted into any one literary piece but rather in the deeper (spiritual) atmosphere that it provides for a work and the meaning and structure that its aggregate presence gives to a particular work. Thus, to paraphrase Abiola Irele (1993), the major forms of the African oral tradition are employed in modem African writing to project structures of the collective mind that serve as explicative narratives of the world. Henri Lopes and Ahmadou Kourouma are the grand masters in the transposition and re-creation
148 Kwaku A. Gyasi of this verbal art form into the creative translation of Francophone African literature. If, as Lawson-Ananissoh (1996) has pointed out, Lopes' narration is the scene of confrontation: linguistic, dialectal, stylistic and vocal, it is because Lopes' text is, to borrow an image from Bakhtin, the space characterized by a verbal, semantic and therefore ideological 'decentralization'. Beyond the narration, the reader is confronted with languages other than the principal language, with voices other than that of the narrator, and even with texts that are foreign to the diegesis. In Le chercheur d'Afriques [The Seeker of Africas] (1990) Lopes laments:Ah! Comment traduire? Le frangais n'est pas toujours la langue au carquois le plus foumi (Lopes 1990: 200).Ah! How should I translate? French is not always the most well-equipped language.
and in Sur l'autre rive [On the Other Bank] (1992) he confesses:J'enviai le lingala de Fe'licitk, ses images si dificile a rendre en franpis, sa connaissance des proverbes (Lopes 1992: 134).I was envious of Fklicitk's Lingala, her images so difficult to render into French, her knowledge of proverbs.
These complaints or feelings of dissatisfaction are not feigned. Even before style, language constitutes an object of preoccupation for Lopes for whom it is not possible to study the poetics of a new African novel in European languages without posing the problem of language. Lopes had already said in 1988:Au depart, je pose et je dis que je vais parler congolais, que je vais parler congolais en fran~ais(Maunick 1988: 128).Right from the beginning, I specify that I am going to speak Congolese; that I am going to speak Congolese in French.
The need to speak 'Congolese' in French finds expression in Lopes' novel, Le Pleurer-rire [The Laughing-Cry]. Although, as the author makes evident, the political objective of the novel:est de donner au lecteur une culture telle que les personnages de Tonton deviennent impensables duns nos socie'te's,is to provide the reader with a culture such that characters like Tonton will become unthinkable in our societies,
it is not difficult, from the quotations above, to discern the author's real objective: imagine a story that resembles reality, translate the seemingly untranslatable Lingala images and proverbs into French, and to speaklwrite 'Congolese' in French. Lopes himself explains his method of writing in an interview with Denyse de Saivre (1982):J'ai voulu trouver le ton qu'emploie le peuple lorsqu'il parle de sa vie quotidienne aujourd'hui en Afrique, et c'est ce ton-la que j'ai essay&d'imiter . . . Le Pleurer-Rire, qu'est-ce que ~a veut dire? C'est presque du petit ntgre. C'est le franpis cr&olis& avec la saveur que nos peuples savent y mettre. Et c'est la manitre de dire du peuple que j'ai essaye' d'imiter (Saivre 1982: 122).
I wanted to find the tone that people use when they are talking about their daily life in Africa today; it is this tone that I have tried to imitate . . . The Laughing-Cry, what does it mean? It is almost a form of pidgin. It is Creolized French with the flavour that our people know how to put in. And it is the people's way of speaking that I have tried to imitate.
Ahmadou Kourouma sees writing as an act of translation, an act that his readers are also expected to perform. The following statement, given in an interview with Badday Moncef (1970) throws light on his procedure:J'ai pense' en malinke' et kcrit en franpzis en prenant une liberte' que j'estime naturelle avec la langue classique. Qu'avais-je donc fait? simplement donne' libre cours a mon tempkrament en distordant une langue classique trop rigide pour que ma pense'e s'y meuve. J'ai donc traduit le malink6 en franqais en cassant le fran~ais pour trouver et restituer le rythme africain (Moncef 1970: 7; my emphasis).I thought in Malinke and wrote in French by taking what I considered a natural liberty with the classical language. What had I done? Simply given free rein to my temperament by distorting a classical language that is too rigid so that my thoughts can find expression in it. I have therefore translated Malinke into French by breaking the French in order to find and restore the African rhythm.
Kourouma thus provides ample evidence of the process of writing as translation. His novel, Les Soleils des Ind&pendances (The Suns of Independence) appears to highlight, among other themes, the betrayal of the promises of independence. Throughout the novel, the misfortunes and sufferings of the hero, as indeed those of the whole people, are linked to what is seen by the hero as one underlying evil: Independence. It should be understood, however, that it is not precisely independence as such that is being excoriated here; we are witness rather to a profound sense of disillusionment at the widespread betrayal of its bright promise. As Uwah (1988) has pointed out, the denunciation of independence is not an endorsement of colonialism, nor is it a denial of the people's right to independence. If in 'Les Soleils. . .' the fallen world of postcolonial Africa is revealed in the novel's discourse, with Monn2, outrages et defies [Monnt, Insults and Challenges] words themselves become, as Kenneth Harrow has pointed out,the subject of a novel whose discourse is animated by the themes and images adumbrated in Les Soleils des Inde'pendances (Harrow 1991: 226).
Kourouma poses the question of language at the outset of MonnZ by hypothesizing a scene in which the central figure, Djigui, a Malinke patriarch, learns of the impossibility of translating 'monnd' into French. Thus, the issue of language is presented simultaneously with that of translation both as central to the experience and its narrative representation. Les Soleils des Ind&pendances opens with the death of KonC Ibrahima, an event that is expressed in euphemistic terms in clear Malinke rhythm:I1 y a avait une semaine qu'avait j n i duns la capitale Kone' Ibrahima, de race malinke', ou disons-le en malinke': il n'avait pas soutenu un petit rhume . . . Comme tout Malinke', quand la vie s'e'chappa de ses restes, son ombre se releva, graillona, et partit par le long chemin pour le lointain pays malinke' . . . (Kourouma 1970: 7)
Right from the very first sentence, the reader is presented with the Malinke project that will inform and sustain the author's discourse. Thus the use of the phrase avait fini ('had finished') to express Ibrahima KonC's death is a direct translation from the author's native language. The fact that the author chose this expression instead of French colloquial expressions like il a casse' sa pipe ('he has broken his pipe') or il a passe' l'arme a gauche ('he has pegged out') shows that Kourouma wanted his MalinkC world-view to dominate his novel. The word ombre ('shadow') in the same quotation is a calquing of the Malinke concept of spirit or soul. It is believed among some African peoples that when a person dies, his or her spirit continues to live on and move from place to place. Thus, those who claim to have seen KonC Ibrahima may have seen his 'spirit' or 'soul' and not his person. Because a spirit or a soul in African religious beliefs is not to be confused with the Christian or Islamic notions of the same concepts, the author chose to use ombre which does not have a 'Christian' or 'Islamic' connotation. However, faced with the difficulty of making readers understand what he means by this term, Kourouma eventually has recourse to the Malinke dja, the exact word in his native language whose equivalent term he could not find in the French language. In Henri Lopes' Le Pleurer-rire, whole sentences in the local language are inserted into the narrative and then translated into French. For example, the phrase Boka l i t a s s a d o u n k o u n e is introduced into the text before it is translated as R e ~ o i sle pouvoir des ancttres [Receive the power of the ancestors] (Lopes 1982: 47). In the same way, the reader comes across Mana f o l ema, mana t o u k a r e 1 o w i s s o n a t i n a , before its French translation: Nous lutterons rLsolument contre le racisme [We are fighting resolutely against racism] (ibid.: 191). It is known that proverbs are probably the most common form manifesting the use of translated mother tongue into the European language. In Les Soleils des Inde'pendances we come across proverbs such as:A renijer avec discre'tion le pet de l'effrontk,il vous juge sans nez (Kourouma 1970: 12)If you sniff with discretion at the fart of a shameless person, he will think you have no nose
andL'hy2ne a beau &re e'dente'e,sa bouche ne sera jamais un chemin de passage pour le cabri (ibid.: 16)No matter how edentate a hyena is, his mouth will never be a way for the kid.
The mouse that eats away at the sole of your feet is none other than the one that lives under your bed
andLe le'opard qui veut vous attaquer ne fait pas de bruit (Lopes 1982: 168)The leopard that wants to attack you makes no noise.
Thus, the use of proverbs by the authors points to the fact that if the stylistic features of African oral narrative are to be captured in the African novel written in European languages, then the full range of linguistic resources of African prose traditions must be rendered in the European languages. By making their characters often express their thoughts in proverbs, these writers emphasize their involvement in African culture and wisdom. Moreover, the profusion of proverbs on the part of the writers denotes a deeper knowledge of their heritage and linguistic resources, and these elements are given new shape and form in the imported medium of expression. Another translation technique employed by African writers, a technique that may be considered a form of calquing is the use of semantic shifts. A semantic shift occurs when known lexical items in the target language are assigned features of meaning from the source language such that the derived meaning preserves the African content of the source text, even though the new meaning is not native to the target language. When a writer uses a semantic shift, the European word is assigned a new meaning that can only be understood within the context in which it is used. In Kourouma's Les soleils des Indipendances, there are semantic shifts like the use of honte not so much to connote shame, which is its meaning in French, but rather to mean reserve, bashfulness and modesty in the Malink6 context. We remember that when Fama came out of prison, Bakary informed him about his (Fama's) wife's infidelity while he was in prison. In Bakary's opinion this wasune honte aussi e'paisse que celle qui a conduit le varan de riviere a se cacher duns 1 'eau (Kourouma 1970: 185).a bashfulness as thick as the one that drove the big saurian lizard to hide in the water.
The Malinke reader who knows the precise anecdote that serves as the basis for this metaphor can judge the nature of the 'honte' in question. It can be seen that even without the use of proverbs and other more detailed forms, the desire to describe the African imaginary world in a satisfactory way pushes the writer to resort to cultural presuppositions that are unfamiliar to the monolingual reader. Thus, when Djigui asks (on page 88 of MonnB): 'Est-ce cela la totalite' du train?' ('Is that the whole train?') he is referring to a whole set of cultural and historical context that is not obvious to the non-Malinke reader. According to Ahmadou Kon6 (1992) Djigui's question is an expression that marks a great surprise in Malinke. It is
152 Kwaku A. Gyasi intended to mean: ' C e n'est que cela?' ('Is that all there is to it?'). To understand this expression one has to consider all the miseries and hardships brought about by forced labour during the construction of the railway line. In Djigui's mind the train is supposed to be a gigantic monster. In reality, however, the actual train turns out to be very disappointing. Another example of a semantic shift occurs when Djigui's son Bema boasts of having the support of the whole country behind him in his bid for power. And the narrator comments: Ce qui n 'e'tait pas une parole [That was not a speech] (ibid.: 270). Here also, the expression comes from MalinkC and it means that what has been said is a blasphemy and a silly remark. For the Malinke reader, the expression ce n'est pas une parole is certainly more intensely significant than its neutral French translation. In addition to calquing, by far the most commonly used translation technique by African writers, according to Chantal Zabus (1991), is the twin methods of cushioning and contextualization. By cushioning is meant the translation strategy whereby the African writer tags an explanatory word or phrase in the European language to explain the African word or phrases. Contextualization, as the name implies, involves the provision of areas of immediate context for African words and phrases. Ahmadou Kourouma cushions the MalinkC d j a with ombre [shadow], double [double] (1970: 116 and 120) or with principe vital [vital force] (1990: 200). Monnk or monnew is translated as le temps des ressentiments, [the time of resentment] (ibid.: 155) and is repeatedly contextualized so that the expression les saisons d'amertume [seasons of bitterness] (ibid.: 193) refers back to the word monnk. Through this strategy, Kourouma underscores the lexical and semantic inability of French to render the density and richness of the MalinkC vocabulary. As the Toubab points out in the introductory part of the novel:En ve'ritk, il n'y a pas chez nous, Europe'ens, une parole rendant monnk malinke (ibid.: 9). In truth, we Europeans do not have any word that translates the Malinke word monn2.
Certainly, if the French language is incapable of fully expressing the Malinke world-view then one understands the difficulty in describing a feeling in a language in which this feeling does not even have a name. Thus, the need to filter the African imagination through the European medium of expression compels the writer to use expressions and conventional forms that derive from African languages. Faced with the difficulty of describing the intolerable political climate of MoundiC under Tonton BwakamabC in 'standard' French, and in an effort to capture the African language-based French that is spoken in his society, Henri Lopes also resorts to the strategy of cushioning and contextualization. In Le Pleurer-rire, certain African words are introduced and then cushioned or contextualized. For example:Le griot entonna le fameux PouCna Kanda, un air triste et lent qui dit que le pays des Djabotama s'ktiole car le tr6ne est vacant, puisque l'ennemi a tue' par traitrise tous les hommes capables de le protkger comme un p2re son$ls (Lopes 1982: 46). The griot sang the famous Poukna Kanda, a slow and sad tune which says that theland of the Djabotama is weakened because its throne is vacant, since the enemy has killed by treachery all the men capable of protecting it like a father his son.
Through the use of this technique Lopes explains to the reader the meaning of Poue'na Kanda, or at least gives an idea of what it signifies. Also, in an effort to explain the Lingala word 1i tassa Henri Lopes cushions it with the French word pouvoir [power]. However, since pouvoir is not an adequate translation for the Lingala 1i tassa he resorts to contextualization:A la ve'rite', le mot litassa renfeme plus de sens que le mot franpis pouvoir. C'est a la fois le pouvoir de commandement, l'inte'lligence pour dominer les autres et la puissance aussi bien physique du taureau qu'extra-terrestre. Ainsi est-il possible d'agir griice a ces moyens auxquels les Oncles ne veulent pas croire et qui vous mettent a l'abri de l'ennemi. Qui a reGu la litassa communique suns interme'diaire avec les ancgtres. I1 lira dans toutes les consciences comme dans l'eau de la fontaine. Nulle femme ne lui re'sistera. I1 pourra marcher sur l'onde et voler par-dessus les montagnes. I1 sera rbsistant a la morsure du serpent. Les balles changeront de chemin a l'approche de sa poitrine (ibid.: 47). In truth, the word litassa is more meaningful than the French word for 'power'. It is at the same time the power to command, the intelligence to dominate others, and strength, both extraterrestrial and the physical strength of a bull. Thus it is possible to act thanks to these means that the Uncles do not want to believe in and which hide you from the enemy. Who has received the litassa communicates directly with the ancestors. He can see through people's conscience like water from the fountain. No woman will resist him. He can walk on waves and fly over mountains. He will be immune to serpent bites. Bullets will change course as they approach his chest.
It is obvious from the above quotation that it is only by creating a context for the African word that its full meaning can be comprehended in the narrative. Even though the meaning or significance of most of the African words introduced in Le Pleurer-rire is explained in its context as soon as the word is introduced, as for example:le tounka, une chaine defer avec de nombreux pendentifs (ibid.: 47) tounka, an iron chain with numerous pendants
orla loukita, qui est a l'origine une danse de guerre (ibid.: 48) loukita, which was initially a war dance
elsewhere, the meaning of an African word is not evident until several pages later. For example, we are told right at the beginning of Le Pleurer-rire thatle damuka s'e'tait re'uni dans une venelle de Moundie' (ibid.: 14). the damuka took place in a small alley in Moundie.
However, because damuka is not directly translated, the non-Lingala reader has to wait until page 56 to clearly understand the word damuka:Quel que soit son sort, elle danse et chante, pour se distraire, pour sbduire une femme, pour oublier, pour pleurer un mort au damuka (ibid.: 56). No matter people's lot in life, they dance and sing, in order to relax, to seduce a woman, to forget, to mourn the dead during the damuka.
The title of Kourouma's Les soleils des Indkpendances itself offers an articulate and symbolic rendition of the process of writing as an act of translation. It is a title that shocks by the use of an unusual plural noun: 'soleils' (suns). According to
154 Kwaku A. Gyasi N'Guessan Kotchy (1977) while the word soleil is presented as a unique natural phenomenon, it quickly loses its astrological meaning and becomes a symbolic image with this plural. Its use in the title may be traced to Malinke t e l e which means 'day', or when used with a plural marker 1G,'era' or 'time'. It therefore designates in Kourouma's title: era, period, or year. In addition, without recourse to the old myths of the sun, 'suns' in the sense of beauty and life is in opposition to the obscurantism of colonization. The very fact that the title of the novel is unusual in French attests to the bilingual nature of the text since one has to refer to Malinke to understand the meaning of 'soleil' in this context. It is also significant to note that whenever Kourouma has to name elements connected with the metaphysical or the abstract, he uses Malinke words to make up for terms that cannot be adequately expressed in French. Even more than Les Soleils, the title of Kourouma's second novel, MonnB, outrages et dL$s offers ample evidence of the process of creative writing in Africa as translation and attests to the bilingual nature inherent in modern African fiction. Abiola Irele (1993) points out that the novel's prologueundertakes to explicate the meaning of the novel's title in terms of both the affront to consciousness which the narrative is about to document and of the disparities in race, religion and world view as codified in language.
Even so, it is obvious that this bilingual title remains semi-readable for the monolingual reader, just as the text itself would be, if the reader fails to decode its plurilingual strategies. Furthermore, the complete meaning of outrages et d&$s [insults and challenges] can only be understood in its relationship with the first Malinke word in the title. While the phrase outrages et dt;Jis is a partial explanation of monne it does not translate it wholly since the meaning of monne is more than just outrages et d&$s. The French and Malinke parts of the title are therefore not explanations or substitutions of one term for the other, neither are they interchangeable; rather, they are interdependent because the Malinke word monne informs and elucidates the outrages et d&$s in the French language. Together, what these translation strategies seek is a certain form of aesthetics in African writing that is accomplished through the violation of the French language at the level of the novels' themes and structure. At the thematic level, it is significant to note that all these novels present political leaders and their acts of violence perpetrated against the people. In MonnB for instance, (where the cruelty of traditional African kings is mentioned), the destructive violence exercised against albinos, dwarfs, and the weak who are captured and sacrificed seems to sanction the end of a culture, that is, the end of a certain Africa. At the structural level all these novels play another role in the account of violence. They present a humane attempt to control and overcome violence. That is why in some instances
the treatment of violence is done with a certain detachment and humour. The increased terrifying descriptions in the novels create an effect of a distorting image and provocation in the scenes in which one joyful repression follows another at a breathtaking rhythm. In Le Pleurer-Rire, violence against the people seems to have become a way of life. Although it can be said that an exaggeration in the details of cruelty sometimes harms the credibility of these stories, what must be noted is that the authors seek a certain aesthetic quality in the hyperrealism that characterizes the detailed descriptions of violence. In other words, the detailed descriptions of the violent scenes lead to a literary expressionism that accounts for the originality of these African novels. The most violent scenes in which hyperrealism, expressionism and humour go together, are also naturally those through which we enter the text. Monn2 begins with the account of the bloody sacrifices multiplied in an excessive rage in order to prevent the threats of the colonial conquest which hangs over the future of Djigui, king of Soba, and his people. As a stylistic device, plunging the reader right into this violent universe creates an effect of shock, and produces a violent rupture with the reader's daily language and universe. Scenes of violence also occur in the search for an aesthetic composition. In Le Pleurer-rire, for example, the account of the mutilation of the hungry thieves whose hands are cut in the presence of the diplomatic corps convened for this occasion, to a background of music, contrasts with tender and calm scenes elsewhere in the novel. The violence of the abortive coup d'etat (Lopes 1982: 144), followed by the violence of the repression of the Djakissinis by the Djabotamas (ibid.: 192), serves as a counterpoint to the interminable discussions at the presidential palace. In connection with the other parts of the novel, the violence becomes a motif in a symphonic composition. Aggressive passages conflict with relaxed scenes in fragmented stories and the discontinuity materializes right down to the novel's typography (italics, capital letters, large blank spaces). Public and private scenes, political and intimate sessions, flashbacks and reflections on the present, follow each other to constitute a structural unity. What is most important is that these novels fall within an aesthetic where violence is done not only to the narrative continuity but also to the language of narration. Furthermore, as Chantal Zabus (1991) has demonstrated, the translation of a historically repressed language into the dominant one entails some textual violence. In the African context, since this violence is directed against and via the dominant language, the repressed African language struggles to surface in and inhabit the European language. As she puts it,the African morphemes and etymons thus gnaw at the target language whose hegemony is thereby subverted (Zabus 1991: 152).
The European language is pushed and forced to the position of 'minor' language and in that sense ceases to be an instrument of domination. To the extent that African writers privilege their African languages to occupy the position that informs the European language, to the extent that they force the European language to refer back to the African language for understanding and signification, African
156 Kwaku A. Gyasi writers use translation as a strategy of literary decolonization. However, as Amadou Kont (1992) points out, the success of the effort to translate one's native language and to re-appropriate the foreign language in a meaningful way depends on the ability of the novelist to master hisker mother tongue and the language of writing. It depends also on the writer's ability to construct a system in which context, culture and language are harmonized. According to Bassnett-McGuire (1988) the change in the nature and methodology of literary studies since its development outside Europe has made it possible for notions of translation to lose their overly European focus. Just as literary studies has sought to shake off its Eurocentric inheritance, she writes,so translation thinking is branching out in new ways, because the emphasis on the ideological as well as the linguistic makes it possible for the subject to be discussed in the wider terms of post-colonial discourse (1988: xiv).
Oswald de Andrade, a Brazilian writer, has introduced a new metaphor, one that may be applicable to the African situation: the image of the Brazilian writer as cannibal, devouring the colonial language in a ritual that results in the creation of something completely new. As Bassnet-McGuire explains, De Andrade's metaphor of the post-colonial writer as cannibal isbased on a revised notion of what cannibalism signifies, considered not from the perspective of the European colonizer, but from the perspective of those peoples whose cannibalistic practices derive from an alternative vision of society (ibid.: xv).
Applied to the African context, the 'cannibalistic' notion of writing involves a changed idea of the place and value of the colonial language in relation to its place in the production of African discourse. The African writer no longer considers the European language as the only viable means of narrative construction and expression. Faced with the charge (such as the one by NgQgiwa Thiong'o) that by writing in European languages that is spoken, let alone read, by just a few million speakers in Africa, African writers are in effect participating, however inadvertently, in the further canonization of European-language literature, contemporary African writers who write in the European languages are seeking new ways to sustain a discourse that can be called African. Their act of writing in the dominant European tongue is therefore both linguistic and political. This form of writing reveals the stakes, conflicts, tensions and the power struggles between the European and African languages. By choosing to translate their languages and models into the European language the African writers question the historically established authority of the European language and establish their languages as equally viable means of producing discourse. In this perspective, it can be seen that creative translation is mobilized for the sake of the reaffirmation, re-appropriation, and re-examination of African cultural identity, and as a means of differentiating one's self from the Other. That is, just as the colonial discourse marginalized African languages and institutions, so the African translated novels seek to reveal the otherness of the European languages. In other words, as Zabus argues, in the post-colonial moment, the act of appropriating the
European language leads to a reversal of roles that relegates the colonizer's language to the position of minor, so as to dominate it. In this respect, for the Francophone African writers, the act of writing is the experiment of blending African models with European models while subverting or 'violating' them at the same time. The distortions imposed on syntax, the introduction of an unfamiliar vocabulary, borrowings from local languages translated or not, in the form of a collage, expressions of traditional orality, the use of French spoken in the suburbs of African capitals, the insults, songs and proverbs introduced into the story - all these techniques interrupt the narration in French and force the reader to reconstruct the text. In certain instances, understanding is denied the monolingual reader who is then forced to recognize the importance of the other language in the narrative reconstruction of history and reality. In an effort to decolonize the African text in the European language of writing, the authors draw from the vocabulary registers of the different African languages. They conjugate transitive verbs in the absolute, abuse nominal adjectives and invent adverbs. As Senghor (1961) had earlier written in Nocturnes:Que meure le po&me,se dLsint2gi-e la syntaxe, que s'abi'ment les mots qui ne sontpas essentiels.May the poem die, syntax disintegrate, may the words that are not essential be swallowed up.
The result of this initial destruction is the re-creation of a rich and original language that has to be considered in its own right. In other words, if these writers 'violate' the academic or standard French, they do so in order to create works which are enriched by their respective mother tongues and whose poetic value can be easily recognized. As a corollary to the decolonization of the African text, the violence inflicted on the language and the violence represented in the exercise of power by African leaders can also be seen as the only possible response by the writers to the violence that permeates the African post-colonial universe. According to E. Mudimbe-Boyi (1991) while the excesses of power lead to the underdevelopment and humiliation of Africans and their countries, the violence in the language of writing carries positive values. The writings of the new generation of African writers cannot be analysed only in terms of the kind of socio-ethnological, historical, and cultural readings that characterized critical approaches to earlier African fiction. With these writers one now needs to place the emphasis on the creative process itself, that is, on the politics and process of writing. At this moment in Africa's history, Francophone African literature, which arises from the need to reaffirm and reclaim African original orality, and springs from a will to assert itself in relation to the West, actualizes the African imaginary world in a time of crisis. The violence that it sometimes exalts should not be taken as an end in itself but rather as a conscious process for understanding the African imagination. Thus, at odds with the colonial literature in its beginnings, and drawing from the traditional culture and the mother tongue in its 'modem' formulation,
REFERENCESAchebe, C. 1975. The African writer and the English language. In his Morning Yet on Creation Day: Essays, pp. 55- 162. London: Heinemann. -. 1964. Foreword to A Selection of African Prose, I: Traditional Oral Texts, ed. by W.H. Whiteley, pp. vii-x. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Cited in Chinweizu & Madubuike 1983: 263). Adiaffi, J.-M. 1980. La Carte d'identitk. Paris: Hatier-Monde Noir Poche. Andrade, 0. 1979. Manifeste anthropophage: le modernisme brtsilien. Europe (mars 1979): 43-49. Bassnett-McGuire, S. 1991. Translation Studies. London and New York: Routledge. Cary, J. 1952. Mister Johnson. London: M. Joseph. Chevrier, J. 1979. L'Ccrivain africain devant la langue fran~aise.L'Afrique Littkraire et Artistique 50: 49. -. 1985186. Naissance d'une littkrature: une nouvelle race d'Ccrivains. Jeune Afrique 1303- 1304: 150- 155. Chinweizu, O.J. and I. Madubuike. 1983. Toward the Decolonization of African Literature. Washington, D.C.: Howard University. Conrad, J. 1910. Heart of Darkness. New York: New American Library. Dingwaney, A. and Maier, C. (eds.). 1995. Between Languages and Cultures: Translation and Cross-Cultural Texts. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. FerrC, R. 1995. On destiny, language, and translation; or Ophelia adrift in the C. & 0. Canal. In Dingwaney & Maier 1995: 39-49. Harrow, K.W. 1991. Monnb, outrages et dkjs: translating, interpreting, truth and lies travelling along the Mobius strip. Research in African Literatures 22 (2): 225-230. Irele, A. 1993. Narrative, history, and the African imagination. Narrative 1 (2): 156- 172. Julien, E. 1992. African Novels and the Question of Orality. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. KonC, A. 1992. Le romancier africain devant la langue d7Ccriture.Francofonia 22: 75-86. Kotchy-N'Guessian, B. 1977. Signification de l'oeuvre. In Essai sur Les Soleils des Indkpendances, ed. by Joseph M'Lanhoro, pp. 81-94. Abidjan: Nouvelles Editions Africaines. Kourouma, A. 1970. Les Soleils des Indkpendances. Paris: Le Seuil. -. 1990. Monn2, outrages et dkjis. Paris: Le Seuil. Lawson-Ananissoh, L.E. 1999. Le roman 'nouveau' en Afrique francophone (Henri Lopes, Sony Labou Tansi): klkments d'une poktique. Villeneuve d' Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion. Lopes, H. 1982. Le Pleurer-Rire. Paris: Prksence Africaine. - 1990. Sur l'autre rive. Paris: Seuil. . 1992. Le chercheur d'Afriques. Paris: Seuil. Makouta-Mboukou, J.-P. 1980. Introduction a l'ktude du roman nkgro-africain de langue frangaise (Problbmes culturels et littkraires). Abidjan: Nouvelles Editions Africaines. Maunick, Edouard. 1988. Le territoire d'Henri Lopes [interview with Henri Lopes]. Notre Librairie 92/93: 128- 131.


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Crazy how fast time flies – this year was over too fast. I can still remember that moment when I was writing my year retrospect last year, thinking about all those beautiful moments i've had and now it's already the end of 2016. It's funny and a bit stupid, but somehow every year in December I'm thinking back always saying that this was the best year of my life. Silly, right? But anyway, let's start my travelyear 2016 from the beginning.
This year I was starting the New Year right – with 20 Celcius in Taipei, still being a bit hungover from the night before and walking through the streets in Taipei with my boyfriend and a close friend to us. On the next day we were having our flights to Beijing, where we were just freezing with -10 Celcius, but still, it was a nice place to see. Beijing is something completely different to everything I've seen so far.
February, March and April – It's all about the mountains
In February I was having a blast at the Skiing Worldcup in Hinterstoder, not far from where I'm home, meeting all the skiers and having some fun parties.
In March my english/hungarian friend was visiting me and I was spending a nice weekend with her in Upper Austria, showing her my most favorite places, such as the Gosausee.
In April my dad took me for skiing for some days to the Arlberg. I've never been there before and I was so amazed of how beautiful the mountains and the slopes are.
May – Short trips where memories will last forever
May has been one of my favorite months this year. The weather was great and I was having a marvelous time in England with a friend of mine who is living there. I went to London, the beautiful university city Oxford, to the seaside in Brighton and the cliffs of Seven Sisters and to the Harry Potter Studios.
At the end of May I was enjoying the view at the seaside again – this time in the terrific nature of Rhodos, having a great time in the TUI Magic Life Plimmiri. Thank you Tui, thanks Tom and thank you Lilla from blindinglights.
Summer – a summer not really in my favor
In the summer I was probably having the hardest time of the whole year having a virus and spending most of the time either at work or in bed. I was not allowed any sport or sunbathing for 2 months and even going for a walk made me feel so bad, that I decided to really stay in bed. I'm a very positive person and I'm usually trying to make the best out of everything, but this was hard.
After recovering a bit, I was able to meet up with my english/hungarian friend in Vienna and I was going for visiting the Traunfall, which is not too far from where I live.
Having my birthday in the middle of August, me and my family decided to go for a weekend trip to Bavaria. I was able to finally see one of the most beautiful castles Schloss Neuschwanstein and we were going to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Munich.
September – December
In September I was about to go for living one of my biggest dreams – leaving on a jetplane, not knowing when I'll be back again. California here I come – I was going to Los Angeles for working here as an intern in a Marketing Agency. I'm still living here, although it's only a few more days left.
The time in California was one of the best I've ever had in my life and I would never dare to dream of. I found a lot of really lovely friends that I was spending a lot of time with, going on roadtrips on the weekends. During the week the favors were on my side, having nice colleagues and a funny and loving person and her adorable dogs as flatmate(s).
I'm looking back on my weekend as a Surfgirl, a dangerous hike in Yosemite, a pretty insane hike in Zion NP, Girltrips to San Francisco, San Diego, Sequoia Nationalpark and Death Valley, a lot of pretty wall murals, gorgeous sunsets and the Oktoberfest in Los Angeles, a princess day in Disneyland, our crazy partyweekend in Vegas, another funny partyweekend in the Mountains, a rough ride on a sledge and a drive down the curvy Highway 1. If you want to read all the blogposts about those moments and watch some pictures of what I've experienced, you can click here.
One week of the 4 months I was having here, I was haunted by bad luck, but even though I've had some sorrowful minutes and hours, I was trying to keep my good vibes up and not let this all affect my life over here.
I am so happy and grateful I've had taken this chance to live part of my life in California.
My family is going to come over to LA in a few days and then we're going on a Roadtrip on the Westcoast. I've seen most of the places already, but I'm happy to show them to my family and I'm really hoping for the trip to turn out perfect and that the weather is going to show off. Afterwards I'm going to see my boyfriend again and then we're going to all the Hawaiian Islands for a while before I'm about to head to New York and London for a few days before heading back to Austria.


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