Que Bella!

In Chicago at our Purple Palace Reunion, I spent a lot of time with our little honorary Purple Palace Lady, Bella. Bella is Monica’s little two-year old girl. She is about the sweetest, most considerate, most loving, most adorable little girl I’ve ever met. She constantly impressed me and charmed me…and I was constantly impressed with Monica, as well. Bella didn’t just happen to turn out the way she is, I firmly believe that it has everything to do with Monica and her husband Eric. Bella and I got along really well, and for the first time I really felt in my heart, “Hey. I can do this. I can be a mom.” Of course it was just a long weekend…definitely not the same as the real 24/7 deal, but still, I felt really good about it. That’s not to say I didn’t have a couple of little reality checks reminding that maybe I’m not quite ready to be a mom just yet…example: one night out at a restaurant I was feeling really good about helping Bella cut her macaroni-and-cheese into little bites and warning her that it was hot…and then I emphatically blew on one bite to demonstrate the hotness and help her cool it off…and I blew so hard that cheese flew into my eye. Ooops. Then there were a couple of dicey moments where I almost spiraled into an existential crisis. You see, Bella is at the age where she likes to ask ‘Why?’ all of the time. I applaud her curiosity and I tried to speak to her in an adult way (none of that baby-talk crap)…however sometimes I took things a bit too far. Example:

Tina: Bella I think we should walk down the stairs instead of me carrying you.

Bella: Why?

Tina: Well, you’re kinda big and I don’t want to drop you.

Bella: Why?

Tina: Well, I’m not strong enough to carry you.

Bella: Why?

Tina: Well, I don’t work out enough and don’t have a lot of upper-body strength. Besides, I’m worried I could drop you. I’m very safety conscious.

Bella: Why?

Tina: I think it has to do with birth order; I’m an oldest child. Or maybe I’m just kind of neurotic?!?!

…….….Or for another example:

Tina: Bella, don’t push on my stomach, please.

Bella: Why?

Tina: Because it doesn’t feel very good when you do that.

Bella: Why?

Tina: Well, I have digestive problems.

Bella: Why?

Tina: Well, I think it might be stress related.

Bella: Why?


….And so on and so forth.

It was a really fun weekend and even though I’d already spent some time with Bella when she was younger, it was really great to get to see her again and see how much she’d grown. It was also great to feel like maybe I really could be a good mom someday…and also to see that it’s a ton of work and that day is definitely a few years away.

I Heart San Francisco

About a week after the wedding Bruno and I took a trip to San Francisco, and had a wonderful time. We stayed with my friend Lilia, who I met in Paris a few years ago. She was gracious enough to invite us into her home for the long weekend, me who she hadn’t seen in a few years and Bruno who she’d never met. She made us feel so welcomed and it really contributed to the good impression we had of San Francisco. It’s a pretty amazing city…my feeling is that it has all of the advantages of a big city without really being a big city. We got around easily on foot and with public transportation, we ate really well and thought the city was really beautiful. One night I saw a bum digging in a dumpster for things he could salvage and some trash spilled onto the sidewalk and I saw him carefully pick up the trash and put it back in the dumpster. Gotta love San Francisco!

So, I'm no expert on the San Fran area- but I always love to pass on a few 'travel tips'. Here are some things we really enjoyed:

Friday night at the DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park- we went and checked out the exhibit and there was also live jazz and a bar. Afterward we had some really good food in the neighborhood at Park Chow (1240 Ninth Ave.). Later that night we headed for the beach…bring stuff to make a bonfire if you want, or else just go and join one that is already blazing. People are friendly! But be sure to bundle up…it’s cold down there at night!

The Ferry Building- it’s down by the water and inside are little restaurants, a few shops/bookstores, fruits and veggie stands, wineries, places selling olive oils and spreads and the oh so delicious Cowgirl Creamery. They call it ‘artisan cheese,’ I call it ‘yummy.’ I have to admit, living in Paris has turned me into a cheese snob…but Cowgirl Creamery did not disappoint!

Taqueria Cancun – (at Mission and 19th) I’m sure there are a million good taquerias in the city…but this one has won awards like “Best Veggie Burrito in San Francisco” and I can see why. They served me the best damn veggie burrito I have ever tasted. We pigged out on delicious burritos, tacos, taquitos, chips, green and red salsa…and it cost $8.50 total for two people.

We met up with some friends from old Iowa City and had dinner at Magnolia Pub & Brewery at Haight & Masonic. I loved my beer, the food and the atmosphere…murals, little white lights and big wooden booths. I had a baked coriander and lemon chicken that was oh so good! Bruno had mussels with a spicy white wine sauce, and our friends really liked their choices: gnocchi and duck.

Esperpento – Spanish/Basque restaurant at 3295 22nd Street (between Bartlett St and Valencia Street in The Mission) Our last night in town we went for tapas and paella at a great Spanish restaurant…the food was wonderful and the restaurant had great atmosphere as well. There was live Spanish music, which was very good (even if sometimes a bit loud) and if you love garlic then you cannot afford to miss this restaurant.

We ate really well and had a great time just wandering around the city, up and down the hills and getting the different views, checking out the bookstores, wandering through the different neighborhoods, we were really surprised by the beauty of the Place of Fine Arts (which we stumbled on pretty much by accident), but one of our favorite things we did was going sailing with our friend Lilia. She belongs to the Cal Sailing Club (www.cal-sailing.org) and she brought us on one of the Sunday open-house days. The club is at the Berkeley Marina and the membership is $60 for three months…which includes, sailing and windsurfing lessons, wetsuits, use of boats and equipment, bay cruises, races and BBQs. Whoa!!! Sign me up!!! We had such a good time and everyone was really friendly. If you live in the area- check it out! And if you are just visiting, go on the website to look for the dates for ‘Free Sailboat Rides’ and open-houses…it’s free to go out in the boats and you can pay $5 to eat at the BBQ. When we were there the BBQ had beautiful and seasoned tri-tip steaks, grilled chicken, tons of fruits & veggies, a delicious salad, fresh guacamole, chili, brownies and plenty to drink. Good times!

If you’ve never visited San Francisco, we highly recommend it! And maybe if you wait a year, you’ll be able to visit us there………

My Trip Home

Well, here I am sitting in Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, waiting for my flight ‘home’ to Paris. I really do feel like Paris is ‘home’ for me…but I also feel like I have been ‘home’ visiting my family and friends during these past six weeks. I’ve been living in Europe for most of the last four years, and have learned to redefine what ‘home’ means. It’s a lot more than a house or a place to hang your hat, and it’s a lot more than the stuff we buy and put inside to fill it up or decorate it. To me ‘home’ seems to have a lot to do with love and acceptance. Home is a place where you can go to be yourself, to take a break from the world outside, where you can regroup, rest up, eat well and sleep well. These past six weeks I have most definitely been ‘home.’ It’s been great to see everyone and I’ve done so much since I arrived here in this airport on June 27th. One of the most important things that has happened since I’ve been home was the marriage of my sister Angie.

Angie Sherwood is now Angie Hudy (pronounced Hooody- like the blowfish) and I am certain that she and Greg are going to be very, very happy together. The wedding was outside of Milwaukee, where they live and where Greg grew up. My sister was absolutely beautiful and everything went so perfectly…everyone had a wonderful time, ESPECIALLY the happy couple!! Bruno came with me to the wedding and he had a really good time, too. I think he really liked experiencing an ‘American wedding’. It was so good to spend a few days with lots of family from all over the country.

Budapest: Travel Guide à la Teeny Part III

Get a map and walk around on all the little streets in Pest- when looking at the map head for the really tangled up ones, they’re the best.




The metro is nice and comes often but doesn’t connect up that well. It’s better if you are just talking one line a long distance than if you are trying to change lines a whole bunch. The ticket machines are in English. There are also trams that run all over the city- but we weren't quite sure how to figure them out. If you do- props to you! Please feel free to post a comment to this blog!



Margaret Island is big, green and lovely in the Danube river between Buda and Pest. A great place for a picnic or just a nap in the sun. Definitely worth a visit!

If you are in the market for a guidebook, we really liked Visible Cities: Budapest by Annabel Barber and Emma Poper-Evans.

Also: if you are arriving from the airport and you are in a group of two or more people, take Zona Taxi!! They accept euros and Hungarian forints (March 2007: one euro is 250 forints) and there is a fixed price, which for two people is the same as taking the shuttle bus! It is a total bargain! We also called the day before we left and made a reservation and they came and picked us up at 5am at our apartment and took us to the airport. Note: You pay a bit less if you pay in forints.

I hope this helps you and I hope you have a great trip!!

Things I Like About Life Here: PART 2

In February I posted an entry about things I like about life in Paris. I think it is high time that I post the sequel to that entry.

Tax and Tip Included:
In restaurants the tip and tax is already included into the price printed on the menu. Duh! Why on earth don’t we do that in the United States? If I walk past a restaurant and see the menu offering a burger and fires for 8.25 and I have exactly 8.25 in my pocket…I’m in! In the US if you see 8.25 for a burger and fries, you can’t go in and eat that burger unless you have at least $10 in your pocket (15% tip and 7% tax on 8.25 equals approximately $10.08). Here the restaurant pays the servers instead of leaving the severs at the mercy of the tip. If the restaurant is nice here or the service is particularly good or it’s a place you go to often, people still sometimes leave a tip of up to a euro or two. But the gesture is a way of showing your appreciation instead of something that is required.

“Bon Courage!”
Bon courage literally means ‘Good courage’ and it is a common thing to say when parting ways with someone. I really like it! It’s a way of saying, ‘Hey, fight the good fight. Hang in there. Be brave even though we all know life is hard.’

Espresso in the Morning:
I usually have a little espresso in the morning before I leave home. But there is a great morning tradition, which I sometimes take part in and that is to go down the café (which are literally on every street so it’s not hard to find one) and stand at the counter and drink your little espresso elbow to elbow with the other people doing the same. You can scan the paper or chat with the bartender or just collect your thoughts for the day. There might be some bar stools to perch on, but most people stand. The price for a coffee that is had at the counter is considerably cheaper than if you order the same cup of coffee but drink it at a table. I love the camaraderie of it all and I get to hear many well wishings of “Bonne journée! Bon courage!!”

The Crazy French Language:
I think French is a beautiful language. It’s hard to imagine that only a couple years ago I really couldn’t speak it at all and now I’m fluent. That’s not to say I don’t make mistakes! But I can live my life easily in French now. I think two of the big reasons that I learned so quickly are 1) I learned it HERE and was immersed in it and 2) I accepted the language as it came to me without always trying to translate things back into English. Still, I have recently learned two knew vocabulary words that I think are soooo funny when translated directly back into English. The first is ‘zipper’, which is called ‘une fermeture éclair’ or ‘a lightening closer’. Even better, to signal to someone that their fly is unzipped you have to say ‘ta fermeture éclair est descendue’ or literally ‘your lightening closer is descended.’ Ha! The other one I recently learned was the word for when you wake up in the morning and you have ‘sleep’ in your eyes. In French you have ‘caca d’oeil’ or literally ‘eye poop!’ Oh, those Frenchies!

BUDAPEST- Travel Guide à la Teeny PART II

In the second instalment of the Budapest Travel Guide à la Teeny I will share with you some bars and restaurants that we really liked.

Food is pretty good and very cheap. Paprika is the ‘Hungarian’ spice so you will see a lot of that and Goulash soup is a good and well known Hungarian dish. Some restaurants that we liked were all in one neighbourhood in the 7th district of Pest.

“M” is at 48 Kertesz utca. Everything inside is covered with brown packaging paper and the menu changes every week. The food is good and not expensive and you can try Unicum which is a strong Hungarian drink- it sort of tastes like fermented flowers. Definitely worth a shot! (pun intended)

Dupla is just next door also at 48 Kertesz utca. We had each had a beer, a main course and a side dish and the total for the two of us was 12 euros. WHOA! Both of these restaurants are small, chill, and funky. I recommend them both!

There are a whole bunch of restaurants and bars along the Liszt ter (Liszt square). The square is only for pedestrians and they all have terraces with heat lamps and they offer you polar fleece blankets to snuggle up with at your table. Very cool! The square and the other two restaurants are all located near metro Oktogon on metro line 1.

A GREAT BAR: Szimpla Kert. This is a really cool and I am pretty sure clandestine bar. I don’t want to talk it up too much but it is one of the coolest bar’s I’ve ever been to.

You have to go in through a little passage that has plastic flaps hanging over it and from the outside it just looks like an apartment building. There is a yellow sign outside though and you can just go on in. It is located on Kazinczy utca between Wesselenyi utca and Dohany utca.

Szimpla Kert is also in the 7th district and not so far from the restaurants above and near metro Astoria on line 2. Szimpla Kert is really chill, very big, kind of falling apart, you sort of feel like you are in some kind of elaborate squat, there are arm chairs and sofas which definitely seem to have been rescued from the street, the music is good but not so loud that you can’t easily chat, drinks are cheap and good. What more could you ask for???

BUDAPEST- Travel Guide à la Teeny

So, I love to travel and almost as much as I love to travel, I love to help other people travel. At the end of March, Bruno and I went for a long weekend in Budapest and I'd like to dedicate a couple blog posts to the trip.

Here is installment one:

Budapest is a great place to visit and still relatively unknown by the masses of American tourists. It has taken a huge jump up in popularity over the last five years and I think the Hungarian people might feel a little bit like they are being invaded, so don’t be alarmed if not every waiter in every bar is thrilled that you are there. But not to worry, the people are generally really nice, and if not nice, they just leave you alone (they aren’t mean or anything). And the city is AMAZING!

Budapest is actually two cities: Buda and Pest. They are divided by the Danube river. On the Buda side is the Buda castle which is worth a visit and there is a great view of Pest from there. The rest of the time we pretty much hung out exclusively in Pest which is more lively and funky.

THE BATHS. Budapest is known for its wealth of natural hot spring baths. You can save money by bringing your own towel and not renting one there. If you are with a boyfriend/close friend/sibling etc. you can also save money by sharing a little dressing room. You lock your stuff inside afterward.

Indoor bath – the Gellert Bath in the Gellert hotel is well known. It is on the Buda (hill side) of the city just on your left as you cross the Szabadsag hid. bridge. There is a hot pool and cool swimming pool and then if you venture back and off to the right you can go though to a sauna and another steam bath area. It's not that well marked so there aren’t as many tourists in this part, because they don’t know it is there. When I say back to the right, if you are at the hot pool, facing the swimming pool it is accessible through a door in the back right corner.

Open-air Baths- our favorite was Szechenzyi bath which is really big and beautiful.

There is one hot pool, one really hot pool and a cool swimming pool all in a big courtyard. You can go in any season and it’s neat in cold weather because you can see all the steam coming off the water. And it's actually pretty funny to jump out of 104 degree water and go running (and in my case squealing) to the other pool. One of the pools is famous for the old Hungarian men who stay in the pool for hours playing chess.

Both of the hot pools have jets and sprayers. Some of the jets go in cycles, so for ten minutes there is one feature going and then another feature. The jets come on and off in different parts of the pools so it's not like there is only one good spot to be in the pool. The hot pool without the chess players has a really fun circular part in it with a really strong current that whooshes you around- it is really fun!

This bath is located in Heros Square park and there is a metro station right at it on the line one called Szechenzyi Furdo (furdo means bath in Hungarian).

We also went to the much smaller and very un-touristy Lukacs bath. Nobody really speaks English here! This one also has a circular pool with a current and a sauna. This one is neat but I wouldn’t go here first because it’s better if you understand the system a little bit. Here there are communal dressing rooms (men and women separate though) and you have to have a swim cap or else rent one there! This is located in Buda at 25-29 Frankel Leo utca (street) north of Batthyany ter metro on line 2.

All of these baths are mixed, men and women and you have to wear a swimsuit. They all have a deal where if you stay less than 2 hours that you can get some of your money back. The three here are listed in order most expensive to least expensive with Gellert around 12euros per person and Lukacs around 5 euros.

April Fish!

So today is April 1st...April Fool's Day! But I am in France and the French like to have their own specific way of doing things and it isn't April Fool's Day here...but 'Poisson d'Avril'. Yup, that's right: April Fish day. Little French children like to run around with little paper fish and try to stick them on the backs of other children and then they yell, "Poisson d'avril!" April Fish.

Next weekend is Easter and again I will have to adjust to the French tradition. Living in Paris, I've traded in car payments for a 15 euro/month unlimited transport pass, TGI Fridays for little cafés, 32oz mochachinos for tiny black espressos...and I've traded in the Easter Bunny for Flying Easter Bells. That's right. Next weekend, there will be no Bunny for me. Instead, flying winged bells from Rome will come and hide eggs for children to hunt.

Still, if accepting April Fish and Flying Easter Bells means I get to enjoy another spring in Paris, then count me in. It was beautiful today and I spent the afternoon in a warm sunny spot on the banks of the Seine river on the Ile Saint-Louis, reading my book and dozing in the sun. The trees are already turning green. On our Nintendo growing up we had the Wheel of Fortune game and one of the grand prizes was ‘April in Paris.’ It is easy to see why.

Confessions of a Victim of Restaurant Tourette's Syndrome

I have Restaurant Tourette's Syndrome.
I'll be at the table hesitating between two items, going back and forth, back and forth. Then the waiter will arrive and I will just BLURT some completely other item off the menu. I can think of a time when I was at brunch with my family and I was trying to decide between the Cinnamon & Granola Oatmeal and the Apple French Toast. I remember my mind was racing: 'Cinnamonandgranola?! Applefrenchtoast?! Cinnamonandgranola?! Applefrenchtoast?!' Then the waiter came to the table, the moment of truth was upon me and when he turned with this little notepad and said, "What can I get for ya?" I blurted: "Buckwheat pancakes!!!" Wait, what? I try to keep my sickness under control but sometimes the odds are against me. For example, this weekend at another so-called "Brunch" I had made all of the many choices required of me...Hot drink = Marco Polo Tea, Juice = Pineapple, Eggs= Scrambled, etc. Brunch is my arch-nemesis, there are just oh so many choices to make. The waitress came, I was ready. I started my well-rehearsed speech, "I'll have the Marco Polo tea, Pineapp..." She jumped in. "Sorry, you can only have Earl Gray with the brunch." AHHHHH! Say it ain't so! Say it ain't so!! This is a Restaurant Tourette's Syndromers worst nightmare. I tried not to panic. I breathed deeply. I willed myself not to break into a cold sweat. I forced a smile, "Oh, th-th-that's okay," I stammered. "I'll just have a c-c-COFFEE! A double espresso!" Whew. I made it through the rest of my order. She took the orders of the other three people at my table. I tried to smile, but all the while my mind was racing... “Coffee? double espresso?!? I don't want that! That doesn't sound remotely appetizing to me!! Help!” The waitress started folding over the little flip-cover on her notepad. I knew it was now or never. "HOT CHOCOLATE!" I yell. "Is it too late? Is it too late to change? I am sorry, but I don't want a double espresso. I want hot chocolate!!" She smiled kindly and told me it was okay, it wasn't too late to change. I breathed a sigh of relief. My food came and I enjoyed my meal. Another harrowing brunch experience had come to a successful end. I smiled at my fellow brunchmates as if to say, "All in a days work, my friends, all in a days work."

Things I Like About Life Here: PART 1

Sometimes people ask me why I am living in Paris...I guess the best answer is: Because I like it!

Here are a few things I like...

Lights with Timers
I like that in the hallways of apartment buildings and in public bathrooms the lights are on timers. You hit the button when you go in and the light comes on and stays on for a few minutes. Then you don't have to remember to turn it off when you leave the bathroom or when you go into your apartment, it just turns off. Just THINK of all the apartment building hallways and public bathrooms in the US that just leave the lights on all day, all night, every day, every night. Yikes.

Candy you can Count
If you want to buy some candy here you can go into a bakery (which you can find about every block...there are actually SIX just on my street) and you say how many pieces of candy you want. As in YOU SAY THE NUMBER. None of this," take a giant scoop of candy and put it in a baggy and write the PLU number on the slip and the cashier will WEIGH it for you and sell you the candy by the POUND" stuff like we have in the US. No. Here you go in the bakery and you look at the different candies they have and you say, 'I'll have 3 peach rings, 2 sour worms and 5 gummy bears, please." And each candy costs 5 cents...maybe 10 cents for something big.

Bakeries
Speaking of the bakeries, which you can find every block or so, if not more often than that...that's another thing I like! I love going into a bakery and getting a fresh baguette. It seems like everybody breaks off the very tip and eats it on the way home. It seems like a reasonable tradition...and who am I to argue? I break the tip off my fresh, warm baguette and pop it in my mouth as I walk home, like the rest of them.

Room-Temperature Water
Maybe I was always destined to live in Europe, because unlike most Americans (and very much like most Europeans) I don't like to drink my water cold...I like it room temperature. And it's not even a thing of sensitive teeth or what have you (I can bite into a popsicle without a wince!), it is just that I like my water lukewarm. Here in France the so-called office 'water coolers' have two spouts: one for 'cold' and the other for 'lukewarm.' Ahhh, those Frenchies. They really are after my heart!

The Concept of a Carrot

So, I haven’t been able to blog much lately…but I have had my hands full! Here is a small tableau from my working life to help you see what I am up against :)


My Boss: What do you think of the concept of a carrot?

(Me: thinking, searching, grasping at straws....Where is he going with this? Think, Tina! Think! Oh! I’ve got something. A really good stretch on my part, if I do say so myself….)

Me: You mean like the horse and the carrot? Like a reward?

My Boss: No.

(Shoot! Strike one…maybe I should try the more obvious route?)

Me: Um…you mean like the veggie?

(Moment of silence.)

My Boss: Did you know they weren’t originally orange?

(I don’t know what the hell he is talking about, but I’m willing to go with it…)

Me: Really?! That’s interesting. What color were they?

(Silence. My boss looks at the folder he’s been holding for the last 10 minutes. He seems very surprised to see it in his hands. He stands there for a minute marveling at the folder. He shakes his head. Smiles and gives a little laugh and walks away. End of conversation.)

One of The Biggest Tourist Destinations in the WORLD...

Last weekend we celebrated Bruno's 26th birthday...he is exactly 2 months younger than me and now we have both crossed over the line of 25 and are officially closer to 30 than 20. whoa.

It's crazy how fast time passes. I got to thinking about his birthday last year when we went to the Mont Saint Michel. He was all astonished/appalled that I didn't know about the Mont Saint Michel...he kept telling me it's 'like one of the biggest tourist destinations in the WORLD.' Dear readers, have you ever heard of the Mont Saint Michel? Back me up here, people! I keep trying to tell him, "Hey, I am an American. I am lucky I ever made it out of the country at all and that I know how to locate France on a map."

The Mont St. Michel was actually a really cool place. It's basically like a big 'mount' with this small, almost medieval village and a big monastery on it. It is out in the middle of nowhere in Normandy and when the tide comes in, water surrounds it and when the tide goes out it has quicksand all around it. We spent the night in a little hotel in the village and it was really neat because it was January and the off-season and it was pretty much empty. There are obviously no cars or anything, just these tiny little winding streets. It was very quiet, and a night it was very foggy and dark and we could see so, so many stars.



When we got back from the trip I was talking about it with my friend Jeannine.

Jeannine: Hey cool! I didn't know there was quicksand around the Mont Saint Michel!

Tina: Yeah, totally. (I give her a look that says, 'Ahh, poor little Jeannine. Must I explain everything to you. I mean, it IS one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world!')

Jeannine: I did't even really know quicksand really existed.

Tina: Really? (Poor, poor Jeannine.)

Jeannine: Yeah, I thought it was just kinda made-up, didn't you?

Tina: No. (I give jeannine the self-satisfied smile that says: I am so smart!) I knew it existed. It's in The NeverEnding Story.

Jeannine: You based your knowledge of quicksand off THE NEVERENDING STORY?

Tina: Um....yeah.

(Jeannine gives me the 'I still like you anyway' look.)

(I give Jeannine the 'I'm very grateful' look.)

Well, a year has gone by and Jeannine and I are still friends. She’s living in Japan now. I'm still in Paris, Bruno and I are still together and a year older. And hopefully a little wiser…

The Great Decoder

To teach English as a foreign language it helps to be a really good decoder. The student says something to you that comes out all scrambled, it enters your brain, you descramble it, repeat it correctly to the student with a smile and the student then repeats the correct phrase, smiles and continues talking. You get about a 2 second window in which to take in, decode and spit out the correct sentence...if you take longer and the student can see you puzzling about what they said, they get uncomfortable, lose confidence and shut up. Let me tell you, when you have 75 minutes to kill, the last thing you want is the student getting uncomfortable and claming up. So, as you can see the decoding game is very important. If you do it well, the student can learn something AND he or she will happily chat away to you and the time flies by.

Here are some excerpts from this weeks classes:

Student A: Hello Kristina! Did the Christmas father come to search you in your parent's house in USA?
Kristina: Yes! SANTA CLAUS did come FIND me at my parent's house in THE STATES!

Student B: I met my old friend hazardously in the street.
Kristina: You ran into an old friend in the street? That's nice!

Student C: For Noel my childrens received movie plays!
Kristina: Your children got video games for Christmas? I bet they liked that!

Another student told me that at the lunch break after the seminar he lead in English, he asked one of the participants, "Did you pleasure yourself this morning?" He couldn't figure out why she got flustered and acted so strangely. I told him that I thought something had gotten a little lost in translation and that next time it would be better to ask, "Did you ENJOY yourself at the seminar this morning?"

Of course, I get a kick out of the little things I hear people say in English...but there are two sides to this coin! It makes me wonder what on Earth I'm saying in French half of the time!

Miss Sherwood - English Teacher Extraordinaire

So here is the first of what I have to assume will be many posts about my job as a Business English teacher. This first post will just be a quick intro to what I do. I teach English to French business people...most of them already speak English pretty well, so it's a lot of fine tuning. Of course I do have some beginner level students, as well. Advanced level students can be difficult to teach...sometimes they speak so well, I can feel like I'm at a bit of a loss to teach them something. I start thowing out really random idiomatic expressions so it looks like I'm smart and have sooooo much wisdom to impart... "You don't know the expression, "A stitch in time saves nine"?! Well you just HAVE TO learn it! We LOVE to use that expression! Why I was just using that expression this morning with my other native English speaker friends! It was coined by BENJAMIN FRANKLIN! This one is a MUST KNOW!" Then with beginner level students it can be difficult because it's really slow going and it when you see them only once per week it's hard to make very much progress. I even have one intermediate level student who has the really bad habit of pronouncing the silent 'k' in words like knee and know. He said to me the other day, "Oh-oh! Kristina, I am impressing you with my k-nowledge, no?" We've been over it several times...but like I said, one class a week can be slow going.

Most of my students are upper intermediate level and like I said we work on a lot of fine tuning. Such as helping them say, "Call me back after 1pm." instead of "Call again to me in the hour of one." (Call a-gin to meee in ze howwwerrrr ov one.)

I'm in my fourth year as an English teacher and I spend A LOT of time listening to people make English mistakes...and the scary thing is, some of those mistakes are starting to sound RIGHT to me! Just the other day a student said, "I have to make a presentation." and I jumped right in and said, "DO a presentation." The student gave me a look and I said, "MAKE a presentation. Yes. Okay. As you were saying???" Oops.

Or like the time I mentioned in a blog from last year when I asked a student, 'Is this word a noun or a drink? Errr...I mean a noun or a VERB?" Oops.

Maybe it's just the kind of work that can make you a little crazy after a little while. My boss is definitely proof that! But more on him next time...

You Gotta Have Friends...

So I'm up in the Twin Cities at my dad's house and I had the chance to meet up with my old friend Kevin on Wednesday night. As usual, I spent a good part of the evening trying to keep up with all of his questions…it can be kind of like a firing squad! Throughout the course of the evening Kevin posed questions like, “Where do you see yourself in 3 years?” and “Have you ever seen a real act of violence?” and “Can you really express yourself in French?” “Who are your real friends?” and “What is the coolest US city?” Sheesh!

The question about ‘real friends’ kinda stuck with me and I’ve been thinking about it today. What does that mean? Who is a ‘real’ friend? I’ve also been mulling over something else he said about how maybe we have a little window of openness and it happens when we are in our early 20s and then as time passes we become more and more closed, it becomes harder to connect with people, we become less willing (able?) to adapt to others. Most of the people I consider my ‘real’ and ‘best’ friends are in fact people I met in my early 20s, while I was in college. Why is that? Kevin asked if maybe those people feel like my ‘real’ friends because I have a history with them…and I suppose there is something to that, but I really believe that it’s something more. I don’t have any really, really close friends from high school…why not? If history was all it took, then I have that with them. Why aren’t we close? Maybe there is something to this idea of ‘openness’…maybe in our early 20s we are all very malleable, and since none of us have very clear ideas of who we are or where we are headed, maybe we are ready to embrace each other and figure it out together.

I don’t like the idea that I might be ‘closing’ with age. I don’t like the idea that maybe there was a little window of opportunity to make my ‘real’ friends and that it came and went in my early 20s. But maybe there’s some truth to that? Maybe with each passing year we get a little bit more set in our ways, and a little bit more comfortable in our routines and maybe it just gets harder and harder to give someone new a chance.

Living abroad puts another interesting spin on the whole post-college social life. In the beginning, I couldn’t speak the language and I made friends with other English speakers. I made friends with people who maybe weren’t ‘my type’… people who I probably never would have made friends with in college. Sometimes it didn’t really work out and we both knew that we were just hanging out together because the pickings were pretty slim. Other times I’ve been really surprised…someone who seems kind of shy and mousey can turn out to be so witty and fun, someone who seems really abrasive and stuck up, can turn out to be smart, funny and generous, and so on. The circumstances of living abroad have challenged me to think and rethink my opinions of people, to give people first and second and third chances, and to maintain a kind of ‘openness.’ I’ve made some really good friends and met some really interesting people, almost in spite of myself.

If being friends has something to do with having a ‘history’ together, then I think it must have a lot more to do with WHAT you share in that time rather than how much time you share. My friends who were with me in college were with me during my metamorphosis between childhood and adulthood. They were with me when I realized I wanted to be an actor. They were with me when I first went to live outside of the US. They were with me when I fell in love and when I had my heart broken. I think that no matter where I live and no matter where I go, no one could replace those friends because of what we shared. We shared “college” and 18 to 22 and Iowa City. Those first years of freedom are so intoxicating…it’s a pretty thrilling emotional/social rollercoaster ride. Going through that with someone brings you closer together.

I’ve shared something else with the friends I’ve made in Paris. With my American friends I’ve shared the experience of being on the outside and slowly trying to break in and understand a different language, culture, world. We’ve shared being poor. We’ve shared the questions, disbelief, pride, confusion and sometimes even guilt trips from friends and family back in the US. We’ve shared the beauty of Paris, the enchantment of the city, the depressing grey winters, the little battles and victories revolving around visas and paperwork and navigating French administration.

Making French friends isn’t easy. Of course, people were always nice to me…but to make real friends across a language barrier is pretty hard. People can include you and invite you along…but it takes a lot to get over being the ‘cute little foreigner who says cute little things in her cute little accent.’ But those lingual and cultural barriers are definitely not insurmountable…and there are even situations where it isn’t a question of breaking down barriers because there is a connection that is bigger and more important than language and culture. Bruno has become one of my best friends and he loves me, accepts me and understands me, language and culture aside.

It’s time for me to head to bed, now, and I still have all of these thoughts swirling around inside my head. I’m not sure if when we are younger we are more open and therefore better at making friends and if it gets harder with age. I think friendships are as valuable as the moments you have shared together. Friendships are what you make of them. As I drift off to sleep, one thing is clear: I feel very lucky to have quite a few people I can call ‘real’ friends.

A Tale of Two (Crazy) Cities

So, I had the great pleasure of getting to see my good friend Terra twice in one year! She came to visit with our friend Courtney for a couple of weeks last February/March and she came back through Paris in December on her way back to the US after spending several months in the UK. We were having a little talk about which city had more ‘crazies’ either New York or Paris. New York seemed to be in first place…Terra told me a gem of a story, which happened to her last spring and really seemed to argue in favor or New York. After a very emotionally trying couple of days, Terra found herself feeing very fragile and riding the New York subway. A Puerto Rican man got into the train car and instead of singing or playing an instrument for some spare change he just played a beat up little boom box…which blasted typical (or maybe just stereotypical) Puerto Rican music. Even in the midst of her pain, Terra saw the humor in this and in return for the little boost in her spirits, she dove into her purse and pulled out a big fistful of change. She dropped about $4 worth into his little cup as he passed. He stopped and looked into his cup and when he spotted a penny in the mix he plucked it out and chucked it at Terra’s head screaming, “What the f*** am I gonna do with a penny, b****?!?!?”

Wait, what?! Now that IS crazy!

After hearing that story, I decided that New York pretty much took the cake as far as the crazies were concerned.

Oooppppsss. Not so fast. Paris had a little surprise up her sleeve. Terra, Bruno and I were out to lunch on Saturday when a woman in an oversized puffy white coat came into the restaurant to sit at the table next to ours. Our first ‘clue’ that she was maybe a bit kooky came right off the bat: instead of taking off her coat and sitting down, she asked the waitress to lift her coat off over her head for her. Mmmmm. Okay. Well, maybe her arms were stiff? I tried to let it slide. Bruno headed home before us and Terra and I stayed to finish our coffees and that is when things took a turn for the worse….or the ‘weirder’ in any case. Terra got up to head for the bathroom and as soon as I was alone the woman turned to me…

Woman: I have a strong desire to write. I must write. But I don’t have any paper. Do you have any paper?

Tina: Ummm…I don’t think so. Let me look…

(I start to dig in my bag and in doing so I pull out my agenda/address book)

Woman: NO! NO! Don’t destroy your agenda! Don’t! It’s okay!

(I was never planning on destroying my agenda)

Tina: Sorry. I don’t have any. Maybe you could use the back of your placemat?

(She looks at her paper placemat, turns it over to reveal the blank white backside.)
Woman: THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

At this point Terra came back from the bathroom and I reluctantly went off myself…feeling guilty like I was throwing Terra to the wolves. Terra’s interaction with the women went like this:

The woman gets up to stand in front of our table.
Woman: Can I ask you a personal question about myself?

Terra thinks: Ummm…I don’t really know. Can you?
Terra says: Ummm….Sure!

Woman: I used to weigh 185 pounds and I lost 40 pounds. And I want to know…do I look good to you?

(The woman clearly weighs at least 185 pounds NOW.)

Terra thinks: 185lbs?!?! Yeah right!
Terra says: Ummm…Yeah!

The woman lifts her shirt to expose lots of big fat tummy rolls.
The woman starts to flap and shake said rolls, waving them at Terra.

Woman: How do you call this in English?

Terra thinks: Um…Fat rolls.
Terra says: Ummm…your stomach?

Woman: YES! My stomach. I must lose my stomach so I can look how I did when I was 18.

At this point the woman stopped jiggling her fat and returned to her table, only to pull out her purse full of wares and start trying to sell rings and watches to Terra.

Woman: I’ve got Swatch. Even Rolex. I have a special deal with the designers. I know Dolce and Gabbana.

Tina and Terra think: Um…Sure you do, lady.
Tina and Terra say: No thank you.

Luckily by this point we had our bill and we fled to the bar to pay up and get out of there.

So, Terra and I escaped the crazy fat roll lady but we were left with out lingering question…which city has more crazies? I told the story to my friend Kevin, who has lived in Paris and spent some time in New York…his verdict was that New York has MORE crazies but Paris has BETTER crazies. Well…that just might be the case!



Uh-oh...looks like there is one more 'crazy' to add to the list...

The American Dream

This summer I went home to Minnesota as usual, but this time I brought Bruno with me. This was Bruno's first trip to the land of the red, white and blue....er...well, I guess the French flag is red, white and blue.....so, it was his first trip to the land of stars and stripes! I think Bruno must have felt like he was the new attraction at the museum. When we were in restaurants my dad would tell the waitresses, 'This is my daughter and this is her boyfriend Bruno visiting us from France.' The waitress would invariably turn to us with wide eyes and ask, 'Whoa, so you like SPEAK French?!?!' Um. Yeah. He's French. Anyway, I thought this was all pretty funny at first but before I knew it I found myself getting caught up in the fun... We were down by the Lake Minnetonka having dinner and this big old-fashioned ferry came pulling up by the restaurant. We went down to have a look at it...my family was all explaining to Bruno how the ferry was from 1904 and that it was reaaalllly old. ( Ha! Bruno's parent's house is from 1677!) We went down near it and were kind of poking around and a lady gave us a look that said "What are you kids doing down here?" and I blurted, "He's French! This is his first time in America and his first time seeing a big boat!" The lady's face broke into a smile, "Weeellll! My boy works on this boat, why don't you hop on and have a look around!" She poked her head into the boat and started calling her son, "Brad, this boy is from FRANCE! He's gonna come look around the boat! He's from FRAAANCE, okay?!" And the next thing we knew we were wandering around the boat and checking out the old-fashioned steam engine!

Especially during the beginning of the trip, I kept waiting for him to be really shocked or excited or appalled or amazed by something. I kept showing him things and being like…’WHOA! Bruno isn’t this WEIRD!?!’ But he just didn’t really seem that freaked out. “Bruno…THIS is a DORITO!” “Bruno…THIS is a homemade cookie!” “Bruno…THIS is American TV!” "Bruno...this is a TANK near the high school where my mom works!" “Bruno…we call this POP and you can drink as much as you want because there are FREE REFILLS!” He liked Doritos (though was a bit baffled by the orange residue left on his fingers), he adored homemade cookies, he thought American TV was okay but had way too many commercial breaks, we were BOTH freaked out by the tank, and never even came close to needing one of those ‘free refills’ because he never managed to finish his first gigantic beverage serving…but all in all, he seemed to be taking everything totally in stride.

After the first couple of weeks, I stopped trying to freak him out. Sure, he noticed the differences…he was surprised to see drive thru teller windows for the banks and also surprised by the number of flags that were on display at people’s homes, in shops, on cars, etc. but in general he just seemed to be very accepting of things. Then one night we stopped to get a movie at Hollywood Video and got to talking about how it’d be great to eat a little ice cream while we watched the movie. It was about 10:30pm and I whipped us into the Byerly’s grocery store parking lot. Bruno gave me a puzzled look and asked, ‘What are you doing?” At which point I gave him a puzzled look and said, “Getting ice cream. I thought you wanted some too?’ He said, “Yeah, but…” and trailed off in his confusion. I looked at him and said, “It’s 24 hour.” This is when Bruno started to get a crazy look in his eyes. “Twenty-four hour? Twenty-four hour? Twenty-four hours a day?!?!?!? Like we can go in there NOW?!?! We could go in there at three in the morning if we wanted to??!?!?!?’ Now, to help you appreciate Bruno’s enthusiasm, I must tell you that grocery stores in France are only open until about 7:30pm and they are closed on Sundays. Sot that means that when you are heading home from work at 7pm with everyone else you have to first fight them in the public transportation and then fight them in the little tiny grocery store to try to get down the aisles that are really only wide enough for one person and THEN wait in a huge line at the check out because there is usually only one or two check out lanes. It is a disaster and is, understandably, one of Bruno’s least favorite places.

So, I had finally stumbled across the one thing that seemed to shake Bruno to his core: 24 hour grocery stores. He pranced up to the automatic sliding doors, gleefully calling to me, “This is amazing! I would never shop during the day again! I would come get my groceries at 3am! There would be nobody here! Vive l’Amérique!” When I finally caught up to him in the ice cream aisle he had a crazy look in his eyes and he was holding little cartons of Ben & Jerry’s, Haagen Dazs and The Dreamery and frantically reading the labels, “Caramel chunks or caramel swirls? Caramel chunks or caramel swirls?”

In the end we wound up with some Ben & Jerry’s which made Bruno’s night, and I wound up with the satisfaction of seeing him really, truly surprised by something in the ole U.S. of A!

Joyeux Noel and Merry Christmas!

I am home for the holidays, once again! I got back into town, after almost exactly 24 hours of traveling, on Wednesday night at midnight CST. It is great to be back in ole Lake Crystal. It isn’t actually too cold and for once there is no snow on the ground...it sounds like we are headed for a record breaking latest snow. Theresa is home from Iowa, Angie is here from Milwaukee with her fiancé, Greg, and of course Mom and Jim are here, too. Oh, and let's not forget our dog Sam, who managed to gobble up 3 dozen of the peanut butter cookies I made this morning. Yup, we're all here. I'll see my dad and Patti on the 27th...they are just getting back from India! My dad sent an email letting me know that he has finally figured out how Santa does it...he starts in the East and moves West. As my dad and Patti have been slowing flying back to the US they have technically been on 'Christmas Eve' for about 44 hours!!

It's always good to be home and I got a chance to make it over to Katie and Tony's place for a little Christmas party on Friday night. They are two old high school friends...and it was great to see them and everyone there. I have to admit though, I was surprised at how 'domestic' it all was. Of course, when I get together with my friend in Paris we have cocktails and wine and everyone chats about work and there are dips and sweets and little hors d'oeuvres. But I was just a little surprised to see my rowdy high school friends doing the same. I guess everybody is 'growing up' with or without me around. It was funny, I was almost a little nervous to go since I don't see my high school friends very often any more...and I just didn't know what to expect, what I would say, etc. But the second I got in the door I felt right at home and found that it was great to see old friends and laugh about old times and to catch up on what's been going on. We're all scattered off in the world, some around here where we grew up, some up in the Twin Cities, or around other cities around the Midwest or even further...but it is fun when we all get together because it reminds me where I came from and that Lake Crystal and all the people I grew up with are a part of me and in my heart no matter where I go.

Sometimes the holidays get so busy and hectic that they are over before we know it...so as you all go home for the holidays and see friends and family again, I hope that you can take time to relax and enjoy it.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
Lots of love and best wishes,
Tina

Rude Awakening

A terrible thing happend to me this morning. I dreamed that I woke up and looked at my clock and it said 5:57...and I was so happy because that meant I could sleep for another hour and 18 minutes. And in the dream, just as I was snuggling back down into my warm comfy bed and happily rolling into position to doze back off for that luxurious and badly needed extra 1 hour and 18 minutes of sleep...I was bolted awake by my real alarm. Cruel, ain't it? Now, I know I am from Minnesota and am considered a girl from the northland...but Paris is actually about 15 degrees further north than Minneapolis and in the winter it shows. Not by the temperature, but by the day light....the sun rises at 8:40am here!



I saw a beautiful sun rise on my way to work...and I didn't even have to be there until 9am!!

Bienvenue to my blog!!!

Bienvenue and Welcome to my blog!! I have been wanting to do this for such a long time and am happy to be finally getting around to it.



Paris is a beautiful city. I took this photo of the back of Notre Dame cathedral and the Eiffel Tower as I was walking back to the subway after eating out for my birthday. The beauty of Paris just kind of sneaks up on you!

This first post is just going to be a little introduction to my life over here. Paris is divided into numbered neighborhoods, called arrondissements, and I live in number 10. The 10th arrondissement is what is called a "quartier populaire"- or "a people's neighborhood." That means there are lots of families and little shops, and people who are living out their everyday lives. It isn't a tourist neighborhood it's just 'real Paris', which is one of my favorite things about it!

Here is a picture from our apartment.



We really like it even though it's small. Everything in Paris is kind of miniature, actually. There are rules about how high buildings can be in the city...it is only like 6 or 7 stories. So, more and more people want to live in Paris but they can't build up...so they divided and re-divide the space they have and rent and property is very expensive. I don't mind having a small place, it is comfy and cozy. The only thing that I REALLY miss is an American style kitchen....oh, how I dream of counter space and dishwashers and real ovens.

We live on the rue du faubourg Saint Martin which is a nice and lively street...



Literally just down stairs there are several bakeries (i.e. ready access to more croissants, fresh bread and pastries than anyone should ever eat!), a couple 'fromageries' or cheese shops, several grocery stores, a couple of butchers, some little boutiques, a couple of rotisserie chicken places, several fruits and veggies markets...



... a flower shop...



...and tons of little cafés, bars and restaurants.



So, I think I'll leave it at that for today. Just a little introduction to where I live and to my blog.
Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope to have another post up very soon!