October 2008
Safely settled back into school. A few good teachers, a few bad ones and a couple of new ones (who look suspicious). But so far sticking to my new regime of being nice to all of them, doing homework etc.
The Latin teacher started the year by giving us proverbs to translate. Like nihil est tam munitum quod percunia non oppugnari possit - nothing is so safe that money cannot challenge it. So, the complete opposite of (as our parents are fond of quoting) “money can’t buy you happiness”. My parents often fight about money so I guess not having it does cause unhappiness. And money bought my ipod and I would be very unhappy without that.
The next one was unde habeas curat nemo sed oportet habere - no one cares where you get things from but you have to have them. So, it’s OK to steal an ipod then? Actually, for some people it is: gangs in our school do care where you get stuff from - it’s only cool if it’s stolen.
But my favourite was ubi bene, ibi patria: where you feel at ease, that is your homeland. Interesting one for people like us (British kids growing up in France) - do we feel more at ease here or in England now? If we are more at ease in France does this make it our homeland now?
But back to money. My favourite version of the money/happiness proverb is Basil Brush’s: “money can’t by you friendship, but it can hire you some cheap substitutes”. Boom Boom!
P.S. managed to grab a seat next to that cute boy in class; turns out he’s a complete idiot and now stuck with him all year. Typical!
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