Tagged!

Since Amber was nice enough to tag me in a recent post in which she answered ten questions asked by another blogger, I decided that the least I could do was answer.  So here are my answers to her ten questions.

1.  If you weren't in France, where would you be?
I'm not sure.  I suppose that realistically I would most likely be in the US, though I like to hope I wouldn't be in Ohio.  However, I like to think I would be somewhere else in Europe since I would also like to live in Ireland, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic.

2.  You're on a deserted island with one book.  What is it?
Hmmm...this is a hard one.  I'm torn between Pride and Prejudice and Les Miserables.  I love both of those books.  I've read Pride and Prejudice a dozens times already and I never get tired of it.  But Les Miserables satisfies my desire for both a good fiction novel and for history.  Victor Hugo not only wrote an amazing story but also included amazing (my nerd side coming out) historical details and descriptions that really excite the history lover in me.

3.  Oh crap, my car broke down and I'm on the side of the road hitch hiking.  Would you pick me up?
I don't know.  The American in me says you should never pick up a hitch hiker, you might be killed.  But I think I would feel guilty leaving someone on the side of the road.  I would at least stop to help!

4.  You've got the power to wipe one food off the face of the earth forever.  Which do you choose?
Ketchup.  Sans hésitation.  I hate ketchup.  Hate hate hate it.  Just the smell makes me sick.  I can't even stand to be around people who are eating a lot of it; the odor nearly makes me throw up.  Not to mention it looks kinda like blood.  I will never understand how people can eat that stuff.

5.  What were you most afraid of as a child?
This is going to sound absolutely ridiculous and just completely horrible, but when I was a child I was absolutely terrified of a Bible.  To be more specific, it was a really nice, illustrated childrens Bible that my grandmother gave me when I was a baby.  It has a white leather cover and my name engraved on it in gold.  And it terrified me when I was little.  I remember I went to look at it one time and it fell open to this horrible picture of a man who had just been shot in the head with a rock fired from a slingshot and there was all this blood and this horrible looking wound and he was sinking (or maybe drowning?) in the sea (sorry for my lack of biblical knowledge...I have no idea what story this illustration referred to).  That picture haunted me for years.  Unfortunately my grandmother passed away when I was very young, so I didn't have the heart to throw the Bible she had given me away, but I couldn't stand to look at it either, so I hid it in the bottom drawer of my dresser under all my socks and I wouldn't go near it.  I remember I was so afraid of that Bible that I was even afraid to open the drawer it was hidden in for fear that something bad would happen to me.  I had nightmares about that picture for years.  Perhaps this explains some of my dislike of religion?  But I still have the Bible...and I finally (only a few years ago) moved it out of my dresser drawer and put it on my bookcase...

6.  Where do you think you'll be in five years?
I don't know.  I just hope it isn't Paris.  If I'm still living in Paris in five years I think I will have gone insane.  Other than that, I imagine I will either be in France or in the US.  It really depends on my career options...if nothing opens up for me here in the next few years, I think I will have to go back to the US.  Otherwise, I just hope to not be in Paris!

7.  You can spend one day in your partner's body, able to read all his thoughts, etc.  Would you do it?
No.  Definitely not.  I don't want to know what he really thinks of me and I certainly don't want to know how I look through his eyes.  Plus I can't imagine spending that much time on the internet reading about video games.  Not to mention he is old and I certainly don't want to know what it feels like to be 34 until I have to!

8.  You've got a round trip ticket to anywhere in the world.  Where are you headed?
Wow, this one is hard too!  It depends on so many things!  And I don't know how I would ever decide!  But I guess it depends on one thing...if I have recently been to the States to see my family and friends.  If I haven't then I am going to Cincinnati.  If I have, then I think I would want to go to Brazil to explore the Amazon rainforest.  It's been a dream of mine to see that rainforest since I was a little child, obsessed by the rainforest and dreaming of becoming a botanist.

9.  What do you think about hyphenated or double last names for children?
Well, this one is hard too.  Since I can't imagine ever having children, I've never really thought about it.  But I suppose that it's ok if the mother didn't change her name and wants to show that the children are hers too.  Or if she wants to be able to continue her family name because there is no one else to do it.  Or for any other reason really...I don't see why it should really matter.  What matters most is that the child is healthy and happy, n'est-ce pas?

10.  A plane crashes.  It's full of people you think the world would be a better place without.  Who's on it?
Hmmm...I have a feeling I could make a really long list if I think too much about it, so I'm going to limit myself to only a few people.  And number one on my list would have to be a certain ex-president of the US who greatly resembles a monkey.  I can think of a few actors and actresses we definitely don't need, and I also wouldn't mind seeing the majority of Parisians go down...

And here are my questions for those of you I tag:

1.  If your house were on fire, what one thing would you save?
2.  If you could meet one person, living or dead, who would it be and why?
3.  Imagine you can travel through time.  What time period would you go to and why?
4.  Football or soccer?
5.  What reality TV show would you most like to participate in?
6.  What is your favorite college (university) memory?
7.  What is your favorite thing about France?
8.  How do you like your coffee?
9.  Wine or beer?
10.  What song always puts you in a good mood, no matter what has happened?

Tagged:
Jasmin
Marybeth
and of course anyone else who wants to do it