So East it's Ouest

The smell of fresh cut grass and daffodils is in the air. The days are a tad longer and I have had a few glimpses of this thing called the sun?  I got to visit with Heather over in Belgium and go to the assembly in English (yes!). We've had a lot of visitors (Lucia's family) come this month and last.  Lucia couldn't eat sugar after her surgery so she started eating peanut butter (of course some I brought over), I have now made peanut butter 2 times a week for the past month.  I'm telling they can't get enough of it.  I finally convinced my southerners to come up to visit Lille and yes I'm pretty sure they enjoyed their visit.  They rented a little place in Lille so I got a little vacation with them for a long weekend.  I mean who wouldn't love eating delicious food (cough Michelin cough) , sunny days and a bit of quality vieux Lille markets and shopping?  This is my last month on the job which got me in a reflective mood thinking about how it's gone ov...

It's been a couple of days now with my French family, and wow you realize how little you understand when someone tries to tell you exactly how a woman on the bus in the morning dislocated her shoulder because the bus driver was crazy, or trying to figure out your cell phone plan, or watching a French comedy show, or just when someone asks a question and you have no idea what they said.  I will say it is amazing however, how you can learn vocabulary so quickly when they point to something or explain something and ask you what is a géométre, seau, nem, vitre, bougie, cornichon...etc or how do you say...débarraser la table, remuer, arroser, débrouille-toi...in English?   What's wierd is that sometimes on the spot I completely forget, I obviously know that I know the word but it is all scrambled up in my head; yesterday I completely forgot how to say surveyor, roundabout, and roommate when they asked me for the translation.  Sometimes the way the thoughts are constructed are ...