Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Low Tech

Yes, I am alive and well and living temporarily in Michigan. I’m at the in-laws and they don’t take well to new technology. I mean they still have a rotary phone. They were reminiscing how they didn’t own a color TV until 1980. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I wrote that correctly, 1980. Usually, if they have new technology it is because their two sons want it when they visit… so now they do own a VCR and last year, they bought a DVD. They own two DVDs .. one of which is Thomas the Train. Does that explain why missives from MI will be few and far between? I think so.
There is snow here. It’s very cold so the snow we got a few days ago has stayed. It looks beautiful, but it is frigid cold. The kids are determined to play outside despite the cold. Yesterday my daughter was bugging the family to let her ride her bike. I told her no because there is a ton of ice on the ground. However, with so many family members around, she was bound to get her way. When I returned from a shopping trip yesterday I see my daughter riding her bike on the icy driveway. She was actually pushing her bike along the ice since she couldn’t ride it. Did I ever mention how stubborn my daughter is??
Today I got out of the house by grocery shopping. I wanted to pick up some things to bring back to Paris. I have no idea where it will fit – we have absolutely no room. Our families seemed to have deemed four years of small gifts enough…this year the kids got the largest gifts, like a doll house and an air hockey game. Anyway, while out of the house I went to get a Starbucks coffee. I walk into the shop and check out the menu and order a grande latte. Seeing a French word and not thinking, I ask for a “graah-nd laatt-a.” The woman looks at me blankly and asks me to repeat it. I say the same thing. She says “oh – a graahn-day laat-ay.” When I was telling this story, my husband said well “grande latte” is an Italian term. Is that true? I was trying to remember what they call it in France. Who can set me straight on this? I couldn’t help but feeling that whenever I speak I am corrected – even when in the US!


-- said Auntie M in Paris
3:34 PM

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