Thursday, September 30, 2004

Ice Cream on the Champs Elysees

Just got back from a movie on the Champs Elysees. We went to see Collateral with Tom Cruise. The movie opened yesterday in France so there was a long line outside of the movie theater. It was a pretty good movie. Then, as usual, my husband and I went to the Hagen Daas. I always get a milk shake and then we sit for a minute and mull how wonderful it is to live in Paris.
Today I had one of those small break-through's in my expat life here. My son's teacher from last year, a French woman a little older then me, invited me to jog with her. Well, when she invited me I actually thought I'd be biking, but it was one of those classic moments of misunderstanding when talking to a person that speaks another language as her primary language. Anyway, I considered it a breakthrough because it takes a long time to make French friends, I found. I've had children go to this school for four years and I feel it's a real accomplishment to be asked out. I was almost as nervous as a real date! It was a really nice hour.
Another thing that happened today involved my son. His school friend, who is French, has a very strict mother. Today when she picked up her son after school, I walked away for a minute to chase my daughter in the playground. When I walked back she was complaining about the way our sons and another friend were behaving. Apparently, she had taken all three boys sequentially, in a quick, painful neckgrab -- but I hadn't seen it. My son ran off and when we left the school he told me what she had done and started crying. I couldn't help but have one of these moments 'that would never happen in the US!'


-- said Auntie M in Paris
11:29 PM

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