Live life and always be true...

Every Wednesday, I become a babysitter for a little French girl. The goal is that she learns to speak English. We spend the day together doing the regular playing, just in two languages. It is fascinating to me that sounds that mean nothing to her speak volumes to me, while she understands the world in a completely different set of sounds. I cannot wrap my mind around it. There are other differences also, such as the necessity of slippers, that I never really considered. In France, in the house, everyone (or most people) wears slippers. I also have realized how informal American culture is, in many aspects. We write our letters and numbers differently, in more modern and easier fashions. We don’t greet each other and say goodbye to each other with kisses. We don’t think of yogurt or fruit as dessert (I don’t know if that is a part of a more informal culture...). As I live in a different culture, I realize how ingrained my American mentality is. I can appreciate differences, and enjoy some of them, but I measure my life in the parameters of the culture that I understand. I think that most people probably do, I just have never been confronted with my Americanness so strongly at any point in my life as I am now. I innately know that today I should be eating turkey in Nebraska. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I think that I’ll go buy some slippers.