Les Petits Moments

I'm quickly learning that some of the absolute best moments abroad, just like at home, are the smallest ones. It's not always scaling a mountain, a night on the town, or even entering St. Peter's that will give you the best chills or the fondest memories. It's the tiny exchanges, the quotidian routines, the moments you might miss if you're not looking carefully. Perhaps moments like these:

- The thrill of getting some unidentified spiced meat through French and Italian airport security. Meanwhile, my clearly identified Garnier shampoo gets tossed.

- Learning the secrets to stick-shift driving for the first time...in France? Josette even wants to give me lessons...oh la la.

- Running in the Parc de la Torse with the best running companion: MC Lars. Please write a song in French, Lars! You're great with Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville...why not try Mistral or Voltaire?

- My first time eating an entire avocado raw!

- Learning that the French don't wear Snuggies when the ladies at La Croix Rouge examine one, saying: "Whoa! Someone cut up a blanket and put sleeves on it!"

- Taking over an hour to buy one baguette for Josette because I couldn't find a boulangerie and forgot my portable. To give you some perspective, let's just say that trying to find a boulangerie in France is like trying to find a toothbrush in a dentist's office. Fitting, isn't it, that "bread" in French is "pain."

- Leading a game of "cercle de compliments" when I sensed some tension between my French and American friends. Even in France, I'm still a camp counselor.

- Inventing blind-folded games with my eight-yr-old friend and smiling when she cries "Non!" to the suggestion that it's time to leave. She's very timid when it comes to practicing her English, so I encourage her gently. When it was my turn to close my eyes and count to ten, I counted in English: "One, two..." and when I got to "ten" I stopped. Silence. Julie suddenly chimes in: "Eleven."

- Shaving my legs two days ago for the first time since...Christmas? For the record, though, French women shave just as much as American women...I'm clearly not the best example.

-Linguistic revelations. ex- "Percent"= per cent= (literally) per one hundred. !!! I came here to learn French, but I'm sure learning an awful lot about English as well!

- After making this jest almost daily after my dinners with Josette, learning that it means absolutely nothing in France ! I thought I was complimenting her meals, but who knows how Josette interpreted it!

- Eating a four-course Provencal meal with fellow workers at the Croix Rouge and, to my surprise, letting a woman crack a hard-boiled egg on my head.

- Entering a church with the intention of praying and leaving with two poems in French.

- Getting asked out by a 16-yr-old on a bike. So it's true what they say, ladies. Never hold eye contact too long with a stranger...you never know what may happen!