Looking for Louis Adriaenssens, and other digressions So, for a number of reasons, I've been digging into my past for the past several weeks -- reading through old journals and essays, reconnecting with high school friends, thinking a lot more about my adolescence than I ever really wanted to. It's an odd thing to confront, the person you used to be -- especially since a large part of my adult life has been based on trying to improve upon that person, be kinder and less closed off and just, you know, a good person to know.
Today's reason for looking through computer files I can't even open properly anymore (my new hard drive doesn't have AppleWorks on it) is completely bizarre but delightful -- I'm being nominated for a community service award by an old Warner Bros. colleague. I am not quite sure what to make of this or if I really deserve such an honor, but if it means I get a shiny trophy of some sort, then I am IN LIKE FLYNN.
Anyways, as I dug through old files, hoping to find some document that would help me estimate how much time I spentbeing a goody-goody dork in a Girl Scout uniformhelping others, I found an essay on Victor Hugo that I co-wrote with my senior year French class partner in under-achieving.
While I was in general a fairly average student in high school -- smarter than most, but way too distracted by TV to make a real go of it -- French proved to be the silver bullet of my studies. By which I mean that the more I learned, the worse I got. But my French teacher and I developed a rapport over the three years she spent listening to me butcher her native tongue, and in my senior year, we came to a certain unspoken arrangement. She would bring in New Wave classics or Gerard Depardieu vehicles for the class to watch, even though I was pretty much the only student who cared. And in exchange, I would not take the French AP test at the end of the year, thus bringing down the class average with my undoubtedly failing score.
The rest of the class consisted mostly of junior year honors students who'd been studying French since 7th grade. My one ally was Louis Adriaenssens, another senior and a nice guy with a British accent. Because Louis was a cute, nice guy who would talk to me in a British accent, I was of course highly suspicious of him, not to mention scared to death. But when we were assigned to work on the Hugo essay together, it actually went pretty well -- he treated me like a person, was sweet and friendly and funny, and we became friends as a result. I present to you the conclusion to that essay, in all its adorableness (I think we managed to use three different verbs):
Surtout dans Les Miserables, Victor Hugo a décrit les temps gêné dans l'histoire de la France. Aussi, il est un symbol de la vie française - fiére, forte, et formidable. Il aimait les femmes belles, et la vie extravagante, mais il avait aussi la nature d'un poète, gentil et romantique. Quand il est mort, son corps a étalé sous l'Arc de Triomphe et il a enterré dans le Panthéon, comme l'hero qu'il était.
The reason I am writing this blog post, and mentioning Louis Adriaenssens, by name, is that I just did a search for him on the internets and I CANNOT FIND HIM. Not a lick, not anywhere. In my world -- hell, in 2008 -- people who don't exist even a little bit on the Internet are either living exciting adventure-packed lives that don't include computers, or, well, nowhere good. So I'm hoping that someone out there might know something about whatever happened to him. Louis Adriaenssens, Los Altos High Class of 1999. Maybe you knew him, once.
And at the very least, should something have happened to him, at least there will be one little post on the big wide web, about this guy who was nice to a girl who was cynical and closed off and scared, who didn't see that coming. It's nothing world-shaking. But it's an item of note.Labels: in which our heroine
posted by Liz # 2:55 PM
Comments:
I worked with Louis at UC Davis for a year or two and went skiing with the dude. - one fierce snow boarder and not afraid of breaking an arm or two. I've actually lost contact with him but was able to find his sister on facebook. We'll see if that get's me any closer.
# posted byAlexander : March 9, 2008 4:50:00 PM PDT
Wow, Alexander, thanks so tremendously! You are quite the cunning detective. :)
# posted by
Hello there,
I don't know if you have managed to get in touch with Louis Adriaenssens... I have known Louis very well for the past 4 years. I liked your description of your cooperation in French! Louis is fine, he did a PhD at Glasgow University/Scotland and currently works in Prague. He used to hate it when I told him he had an English accent as he is very very proud to be American now! He is certainly one of the kindest and sweetest people I have ever met! If you haven't managed to get in touch and still want to do so, let me know, maybe I can put you guys in touch.
Kind regards,
Lilli
# posted by
Hi, Lilli! That's fantastic! It's no huge deal, but yes, if you do get a chance please feel free to slip him my email (liz at lizlet dot com). At the very least, awesome to hear he's doing so well! Many thanks!
# posted by
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