【推荐2】Welcome to the Following Art Activities

Family Zone

Sunday, October 1, 1 p. m.—4 p. m.

Families are invited to visit the MFAH Family Zone. You’ll find attractive activities with coloring sheets, color ed pencils, books, and more. Knowledgeable professionals (专业人员) are on hand to help answer questions about the works of art on show.

Happy Hour Thursday

Thursday. September 28. 5 p. m.—8 p. m.

Happy Hour Thursday is the place to be! Meet your friends at the MFAH for the best night of the week. Explore the campus, visit the galleries(画廊), and get a drink at the public house (cash only).

General admission is free on Thursday, and the Museum is open late.

Art Bites I American Painting and Sculpture

Thursday. October 5.6 p. m.—6:30 p. m.

A little art can go a long way! Visit the galleries and enjoy the art. The focus of this Art Bite tour is on American painting and sculpture. Art Bite tours are 30 minutes long and are part of the Happy Hour Thursday festivities at the Museum.   This guided tour is included with general admission, which is free on Thursdays.

Glassell Studio School

Courses in art are offered the fall, spring, and summer

The Glassell Studio School offers courses in art history and studio arts for adults ages 18 and older of all skill and experience levels. Studio courses and workshops are available(可得到的) in various forms of media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, digital and film photography, 3D design, and more. Courses are offered in the fall, spring, and summer semesters. Sign up for the next semester below.

【推荐1】An Englishman, a Frenchman and a Russian were discussing happiness. "Happiness," said the Englishman, "Happiness is when you return home tired after work, yet find your slippers(拖鞋) warming by the fire."

"You English have no romance," said the Frenchman. "Happiness is when you go on a business trip, find a pretty girl who entertains you －then afterwards you part without regrets."

"You are both wrong," said the Russian. "True happiness is when you are at home in bed and at 4 a.m., you hear a hammering at the door and outside stand the secret police, who say to you, 'Ivanovitch, you are under arrest', and you say, 'Sorry, Ivanovitch lives next door.'"

【推荐3】While I was working at a French school, I was often preparing my work in the staff room. Sometimes I would hear the school secretary talking. At first I thought she was talking to me, as there was no one else in the room except me, so I tried to respond to her. However, I soon realized that in fact, she was talking to herself. I noticed a lot of people do this in France. In the UK, people might think you’re a bit strange if you talk to yourself at work, but there it seemed quite normal. It really did confuse me at times, because I was not sure whether people were talking to me or just talking to themselves.

Another area of confusion involved the French language. In French, there are two ways to say “you”: “tu” is the informal form while “vous” is the formal form. This is an aspect of French which, even now, I do not really understand. When I learnt French, I was taught to call everyone vous unless they were my family or friends. So I was surprised that virtually everyone in France used the informal tu all the time. School children used tu when they stayed with their teachers and all the staff called the head teacher tu. But I continued to use vous because I didn’t want people to think I was impolite.

As you might know, school children in the UK traditionally wear school uniforms but in France pupils do not wear a uniform. It was a culture shock for me to see children wear Spiderman T-shirts and baggy (宽松的) blue jeans in the classroom.

I found the differences puzzling at times, but I couldn’t deny what a great opportunity it was to live and work in another country. The UK and France are only separated by a small channel of the sea, but there are many differences between the two countries.