An American in Paris

Here I go again, traveling back to the U.S. and NYC in particular. As usual, I have mixed feelings about this. I had a real bout of homesickness a few weeks ago. I have also found from past experience that going "home" when you feel that is probably the worst thing you can do. Fortunately, I am pretty much over that and can comfortably do the trip without clutching at the taxi door on the return to the airport.  This trip has two main objectives. The first is to pick up the fabric I already own for the quilt. When I did my initial move, I brought the one-inch squares I had already cut for the quilt (which was an extensive amount). But of course I have quickly run through those. I am currently creating one block a day. That may not sound like much, but there are 80 squares in a block and it takes me a concentrated 1 1/2 hours to do that. I say concentrated because it is so easy to check mail, answer a text message, have a cup of tea and have 3 hours rush by. I could repurchase...

Unlike many languages, French has a "learned body on matters pertaining to the French language," (from Wikipedia) called the Académie française or the French Academy. In the 60s and 70s, they were very strong and definitely was not letting those foreign words creep into their language. No sir. Well, something has happened. Maybe they are all dead (and no one checked), but French is becoming rampant with English words. I always get a laugh when I hear a new one.  One of the reasons French can be difficult is because one of the basic objectives of the language is to sound good. Unlike English and German, sounding good is all part of the show. There are things called liaisons that link the end of one word with the beginning of the next, to make it sound better. For instance, the word for "man" is homme (sounds like "home" without the h). Make it plural and it becomes les hommes  (pronounced "lay z 'ome"). The Z sound is there because it s...

As you know, I had a bit of difficulty getting a bank to accept my money here in Paris. Never before have I gone into an establishment and had them ask me why I wanted to do business with them. Nevertheless, I eventually did get my account here. Since it is the same bank as I have in NYC, transferring money back and forth is very easy. So late last week, I got a call from my representative at the bank. This is not going to be obvious to any of you, but I live in fear of phone calls from French people. It is one thing to have a conversation with someone in another language when you are face to face. You can see their faces, sense their changing moods, interpret their hand gestures. All of that helps in communication. On the phone, you have nothing but your vocabulary and ability to hear. Also, there are niceties that are just accepted in the language that, as a foreigner, one just don't know. In English, a phone call may go something like this: "Hello?" "Oh, hi, ...