Yesterday was gorgeous outside and I brought A to the park because her parents had a school function with S. A and S got sand buckets for Easter so we headed straight to the sand box, and there was a mother I recognized from seeing her chase her son Michaelangelo around in front of the Mayors office where I occasionally wait to pick up S from school. Melanie knows her and she introduced me briefly once a couple weeks ago while she was having a gouter with her daughter Isabella after school. She is an interesting woman- she is originally from Florida and it looks as if she has baked herself good and brown- she is the cliche- she wears light blue eyeshadow, she's a natural blond but her hair has additional processing to make it even whiter, she is very thin, wears clothes that wouldn't be called age appropriate, but despite all this, I kind of like her- she's a character. She's lived in Paris for 16 years and married an italian, nonetheless her French is all American- she sounds just like we all did in French class when we were 12 and although she doesn't stumble through any of the pronunciations it's funny to see this 40 something year old woman living in this posh moneyed neighborhood of Neuilly conversing loudly on her phone in English, looking like a leathered California beach bunny. She is just so American, but she told me her husband and her own three places in Le Marais- the soho of Paris and she lived in New York before moving to Paris. I guess the point is- she doesn't give a damn if she hasn't taken on all the French stuff- she learned French, but sounds as foreign as any tourist, she dresses like a teenager with low rent taste, she sits in the park with her pants rolled up and the straps of her low-cut top hanging off her shoulders to avoid tan lines despite the fact her skin is screams skin damage from head to toe and she doesn't hide her Americaness in the least. Good for her.
Afterwork Sylvain told me to meet him at Opera for our date that night. He brought me to un piece de theatre J'aime beaucoup ce que vous faites- translated roughly to I love your work. My french has not improved to the extent that I got any of the jokes- this was a comedic piece- well actually I got two of the easy ones. Watching French TV (American shows helps the most if you can handle hearing french voices replace familiar actors) has helped a lot, just recently I realized I suddenly understand most of what we watch. Even if the comedy washed over my head it was so satisfying to enjoy not being lost in French. Unlike watching TV I couldn't turn to Sylvain and ask for a translation- but I didn't care because there was something more authentic in being able to understand actual people speaking, versus their on screen images. The actress in the piece was a doppelganger for my Aunt Loretta when she was in her late 30's.
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