What About You?

Considering there are nearly 300,000,000 people in the U.S., I AM pretty "unique" after all, LOL!!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 137 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope everybody (at least, everybody in the States :)) has a very good Thanksgiving Day tomorrow! Unfortunately, I won't be having Thanksgiving celebrations over here, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten about it. So y'all have an extra good one for me, ya hear?? :)


HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!


Signing off from France~

I Got Flowers Today!!!

Yes, I did! I got flowers today!! From a BOY!!!







Nevermind that the boy was five years old and they were lego flowers.
...Hey! You weren't supposed to read the fine print!











Had you going for a minute there, didn't I??

A Few Observations on the French Way of Living

These are just some things that I've noticed about life over here in France and wanted to "jot down" so I could glance back at them later... they are observations I have made based on staying with a few, unrelated, very different French families. All of these are to be taken preceded by "IN GENERAL." ;)

* The French have towels to dry dishes and towels to dry your hands. The distinction is very important. (I've never seen this in the States, but maybe that's only because I haven't lived with very many American families besides my own! :))

* The French eat until they are not hungry anymore - not necessarily until they're full. (Either that or they have smaller stomachs than we Americans, lol!)

* The French always have something to finish the meal - we would consider it dessert, but it is lighter and usually not as sweet as our standard desserts. Sometimes it's natural yogurt; sometimes it's bread and cheese; sometimes it's fruit.

* The French have their sweetest food of the day at goûter (their afternoon snack)... oftentimes, they have bread, jam or honey, chocolate, and water with "sirop" in it. (I have never seen any of them eat anything chocolate after dinner... and only rarely after lunch.)

* The French (are you keeping in mind that phrase: "IN GENERAL" ?? :)) start their work day later than Americans and end it significantly later. It seems that it is not unusual for the father of the family to get home at 8:30 pm... and in some cases, that's early.

* The French (at home) work consistently through the lunch hour and then break for most of the afternoon, getting into gear again after goûter (i.e. about 5 or 5:30 pm). I think this is much like the Mexican siesta... and, in my opinion, is quite humane. :D

End of observations for the time being... I'm sure there are others that I've thought of, but they elude me at the moment.

Back Soon!!

Hello from Gap, France!! I've spent the past week in Gap - a small city in the French Alps (très jolie!) and the week before that in a 13th century château 30 minutes outside of Lyon... also very pretty!! So it's been a rather adventuresome two weeks and the next week foretells more adventures, but I don't have much time at the moment. I hope to be back to relate a few of the highlights in the near future.

Until then, tout de bon!