A to Z — Je dois réfléchir…

 

 

It’s that time again! Time to “reflect” on the A to Z experience! So here are my thoughts now that the challenge is finished.

Am I happy that I did this?  Bien sûr que oui !  Absolutely. This is my second year at blogging and my second year at A to Z. A year ago, it was the first real “challenge” I did with my blog and through it I found so much to appreciate about the blogging experience, format, and community.  Doing it a second time seemed like a “must.” I love this challenge, and I am so grateful that Arlee Bird and all of the teams and helpers at A to Z give so generously of their time to make it possible!

What would I change, if anything, for next year?  Well, I wouldn’t change anything about the challenge itself, but I do need to change my approach to it. I am by nature a Procrastinator.  When I was in school, I always ended up waiting until the last day to write papers, etc. Unfortunately, I set that up as a habit for life! While I feel that I do work well under pressure, I find that the older I get, the more it takes out of me. Staying up until midnight to make sure my posts get done on time is probably not the preferred method. I stay up until midnight anyway, because I am a night owl,  but usually I am doing something rather more relaxing (that is, without an actual deadline!)

So all that to say, I have great admiration for those folks who have all their posts done in advance. I made a baby step forward this year because I did create “templates” for every post right at the beginning of the month. I thought, “OK, all I have to do is fill them in!” Which would have been fine except for the bit where I decided to do them all in French. D’oh! To write in a language that is not one’s own is decidedly more difficult than simply “filling in the blanks.” Add to that the fact that I had to sift through hundreds and hundreds of vacation photos as well as websites to link to…well, I pretty much underestimated the time that would take!

What did I like best about doing the challenge?  Well, as a result of doing this, I have an outstanding base for making some really cool photo albums of our trip. I hope that I have been able to provide some helpful tips or interesting facts for fellow travelers. I also hope it has been interesting for my French readers to see their country through the eyes of une Américaine.  I am so grateful and pleased that I had a good number of A to Z visitors! Un grand merci à vous tous ! And merci mille fois to all of my followers who have been reading along with me  for a long time, some of you since the beginning! I am humbled and amazed that the things I write about here, my bavardage, keeps your interest! ❤ you guys!

My blog gained some followers too, and I hope that it continues to be interesting to them. I know I found some new blogs that I will faithfully follow, and I know that the A to Z list is rich with more of those!

De plus, je crois qu’avec cet exercice,  j’ai amélioré mon français “écrit.”  J’ai un “correcteur en coulisses” qui m’a beaucoup aidé avec mes fautes de français. (Je te remercie pour tout ! 🙂 )

What do I regret about the challenge? Only that because I didn’t write in advance I did not have as much time as I would have liked to go visiting amongst the list. I made a special point to visit anyone who visited me, and I managed to get a fair start on the “big” list, just not as much as I wanted to.

Who are my favorite A to Z-ers so far? Well, here are a few links to blogs that I read regularly during April. It’s not exhaustive, and I expect I will add more and more to this list as I continue to visit A to Z-ers! I have already discovered so many new and wonderful blogs, I simply can’t list them all, so this is just a few that stand out in my mind, just off the top of my head, in no particular order:

Evelyne Holingue – explained 26 French idioms!

Martha Reynolds Writes – about  musical instruments, the mundane and the unusual!

Keith Kreates – Really cool limericks!

Celine Jeanjean – 26 amazing stories from her amazing childhood!

Sue’s Trifles – A to Z of the names of God. Serious work. Not a trifle at all!

Stephanie Faris – All about the 80’s!! That’s my era. I had to love this one!

Elizabeth Hein – Wrote about the Galapagos Islands, a tantalizing peek into her next book, which I am eagerly awaiting after having read “How to Climb the Eiffel Tower.”

Linda G Hill – did a great “random thesaurus” A to Z which I thought was brilliant!

 

In conclusion, I think A to Z is great, I will do it again next year, (hopefully being a bit more organized!) and to all of the A to Z team, I say “Chapeau !”