Sunday, April 03, 2005

Family Ties

I don't have a large family and we don't really keep in touch with the few relatives we have outside of our immediate family. My sister is changing that. A few years ago she started working on our genealogy and recently she has been in touch with our cousins to get more information about our ancestors. One cousin she was talking to recently told her our second cousin was coming to Paris. So my sister contacted this cousin Janet and told her we'd like to get together.

I met Janet and her 8-year old daughter this Saturday. We got together and brought our daughters to the Jardin D'Acclimatation (my son was at a friend's house). The third cousins really enjoyed playing with each other. Here are the two of them using the remote control boats at the Jardin.



After the Jardin, both of my kids had a birthday party to attend. As usual, my daughter required me to stay with her at the party. I really don't know what to make of this. She actually gets unhappy if I leave the room. At one point she cried when I left to get a drink in the kitchen. The host, a good friend, was a bit offended.... "doesn't she feel comfortable in my home?" What do I say? Although she has a lot of strong traits (stubbornness and determination are on top of the list) she just doesn't like to be without me (with the exception of school). At least she is making progress... going to a friend's house for lunch a few times a month.

After the birthday parties, my husband and I headed out for a dinner. Some acquaintances invited us over with 4 other couples. For three of the couples, one spouse was American. One couple was French. We were the only American couple. The host greeted me with three-kisses. I've never had the three-kiss greet, so it took me by surprise. According to the map that Glacons found and photoshopped, I guess many people kiss four times in Paris... I haven't found that, but maybe I don't know the right Parisiens! Looking at the map, he is from the southwest -- smack in the middle of three kiss country.



We ended up sitting next to a interesting couple at the dinner... an opera singer and a commodities trader. When we lived in Washington, DC, all of our friends were people who worked in the same field as we did. It's such a pleasure to meet people from different walks of life... professions I've never even thought about.... from countries I never really thought about.

The guy sitting next to me was born in Tripoli, Libya, and moved to Rome when he was 1. His mother is French. His father is Jewish, Italian, and emigrated from Israel. His father moved to an Italian colony in Libya, but he never obtained Libyan citizenship. My dinner companion has lived in France for 20 years. He is trilingual.... I thought he was American when I first spoke to him. I asked him what he told people when asked what nationality he was... basically, he has no simple answer. I lived in the same home for the first 16 years of my life. His life story was fascinating to me.

Happy Birthday to my sister in the US!

-- said Auntie M in Paris
9:10 PM

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