Which America Is He Talking About?

Barak Obama is on a grand tour of the middle east and Europe right now. I've been impressed with his determination to meet with world leaders and hear what they have to say. It is good that he is building bridges even if he doesn't win the election, it will serve our country well.

The television news anchors have been interviewing him all week, sometimes asking tough questions. Obama has been poised, answered the questions politely and hasn't been tripped up. Imagine being in a different country every day, meeting with different people who speak a variety of languages, dealing with a different agenda at each stop. Top this all off with jet lag, it's a recipe for disaster.

I'm not making excuses, since he's done pretty well.

However, I was watching a news conference today with Obama and Sarkozy in Paris. I could tell it was Paris immediately by the background. The walls were gilded and the room was very french-looking, fancy and beautiful.

During the speech, Obama continually referred to the name of our country (The USA) as "America".

But, which America is he talking about? North America, Central America, or South America. It could have even been Latin America.

How egocentric can this sound to a European audience that is well-schooled in geography? Aren't we trying to avoid this kind of thinking as we decide who is going to lead our country for the next four or more years.

I'm sure that everyone in the crowd figured out that he meant the US, but let's be clear: to a crowd of foreigners, we are The United States of America, the US or simply "the states".

The world is ready for change. I believe that change starts when we stop thinking that we're the strongest country, the richest country, the smartest country, the only country. I sent an email to the Obama headquarters this afternoon and received an automatic response saying that the campaign gets too many emails to respond (I would guess that it won't be read either). But, I talked to them before I blogged, just to be fair.

I am still undecided about my vote for president. I'll keep watching and listening, as the entire country, The United States of America, is doing.

What Californians Are Wearing This Summer

By law, this is what all Californians must wear if they want to talk on the phone and drive at the same time.

I've had one for awhile, but it is not great. I can't hear very well with it. It hurts my ear. I lose it at least once a day. I am not very good at turning it on and off.

The legislation was designed to make driving safer. I agree with this idea. I have had several near-collisions with folks driving with one hand and holding the phone in the other hand.

Opponents to this law say that even though a person isn't holding the phone while talking, they are still not paying attention to the road. You also have to dial the phone occasionally, which requires you to look at the phone, not the road. This isn't outlawed yet, perhaps because it would be hard to enforce.

The weirdest thing about these hands-free devices is that people use the hands-free feature when they're walking around, sitting on a bench, or relaxing on the beach. I can no longer tell with a quick glance if a person is simply having a phone conversation or is in the midst of a psychotic episode.

Unless it is dark, I can't tell the difference until I can hear a few words. If it's dark, I can see the silly blue flashing light on the side of the ear piece.

French Customer Service

Your service will be restored in 7 to 10 days, please call back if it isn't working after 10 days

In France, it is easier to get to a customer service rep, but you have to pay for the phone call and it is about 34 cents a minute. If you really have a problem that can't be solved, you can easily rack up Euro 50 to get the problem fixed. I heard that companies were going to stop charging for customer service calls, but we have been charged for them (France Telecom) recently.

In any case, the method of not addressing the problem is different from the US, but the result is the same, time lost by the customer while the problem persists.

One case is our television channels. We ordered and paid for a "bouquet" of programs from France Telecom but we couldn't get them on the TV. After several trips to the France Telecom/Orange store, several different cards for the TV and maybe 8 calls to customer service, they told us that we had to wait 7 to 10 days to get the channels.

Silly us, we waited patiently, checking every day for 10 days. During this time, we were paying for our "bouquet" of 400 channels and we were getting about 5 -- the french "free" channels plus CNN and Euronews.

At the end of the 10 days, Terry went into Terry-motion. He wrote a letter to the key execs at France Telecom explaining our problem. Within a few days, we had a phone call from someone at FT and our stations were restored.

What does it take to get companies to deliver reasonable customer service for their products?

American Customer Service

Or, the customer is always "on hold"

In the last two days, I've had two unsuccessful attempts at dealing with telephone customer service.

The two companies involved are Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, but I'm sure I could call just about any company's customer service number and get routed from place to place for 30 minutes or more.

I tried Bank of America yesterday because I had an online CD that just disappeared off my account listing on line and the people at the branch couldn't help since I had purchased the CD on line. I bought it on line because it had a better rate of return.

I looked on the internet and called the number they listed: 800-432-XXXX. A nice person came on the line after about a 5 minute wait. She told me that I had to call a different number, 800-622-XXXX. Another 5 + minute wait before I got a human on the line, but when I did, the woman told me (yet again) that this is not the correct number, that I should call 800-242-XXXX. I got another rep after another wait on the phone. He told me he would transfer me to another number, 877-838-XXXX, but in transferring, he cut me off, so I had to call again. Now I was starting to run late, so I waited on the line for about 5 minutes and hung up. I re-called the previous number and was told that the absolutely, positively correct phone number is really 888-XXX-XXXX. I got a nice man on the phone, Jeremy, who explained that my CD would show up tomorrow on line, to just check back.

The Merrill Lynch phone run-around is a very similar story. Unfortunately, I had to get my rep involved, which is a waste of his time as well as mine.

In this case, I couldn't get on line access to my accounts, so I called the number:800-637-XXXX. A person, Jessica, told me that the system was down. I responded that I had accessed two other accounts on line, before and after trying this one. She stuck with her response.

Feeling that this answer was a brush off, I called the same number again, got Steven on the phone who asked me a couple of questions, told me he was going to put me on hold for a minute, but much to my surprise, he transferred me to the branch. I left a message and tried the number again, this time getting Joe who also put me on hold for such a long time that I finally hung up.

It's now been more than an hour and the on line system still cannot be accessed.

I have now spent more than an hour of my time calling 800 numbers only to get no satisfaction or information.

A Bad Summer For My French Skills

When we left Paris, I was really on a roll. I no longer had a "deer in the headlights" look on my face every time someone spoke to me in French. I usually could even compose an answer without too many errors. But, without constant practice, this new-found fluency has been slipping away all summer.

I've made attempts to maintain my level. But, even this has been difficult. I signed up for lessons at Savior Faire in Redondo Beach just as they were taking their early summer month-long vacation. So, I had a month without classes.

So, I signed up for their summer program, which runs through July and August. The first week of class, there were a lot of familiar faces from years of taking french classes. The teacher was my first french teacher, Oahiba, who is smart, patient and knows how to keep the class moving forward. So, we were optimistic that it would be a good summer, language-wise.

But, last Tuesday we had a new teacher, Jennefer. The only nice thing I can say about her was that she is french. We'll leave it at that.

I was hopeful that this was a substitute teacher situation and one of the regulars would appear the following week. But, I just called the school and we are stuck with her for the rest of the summer.

Just as I was getting really frustrated, I reminded myself that I now have learned enough vocabulary words that I know many synonyms. So, maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself.

When I first started to learn french, I avoided learning two words that mean the same thing, thinking that I needed as much diversity as possible. But, that was before the day that a simple word almost cost me my dinner.

We were in St Jean Cap Ferrat. Just like in Paris, most grocery stores are closed on Sunday. We had nothing for dinner that night and wanted to eat at home. So, when we were driving home from the tennis club, we spotted a bucherie that was open. There was a long line, but that's normal when everything else in town is closed for the day.

Terry was driving, so he said he'd circle the block (no parking) and I should go in and get a poulet roti. Good plan.

I jumped out of the car and got in line. I was the only person in tennis clothes, which got a few stares. When I finally got to the front of the line, I confidently ordered a poulet roti. The butcher asked, "Vous avez commandé le poulet?" I stared. I didn't know the word "commander" and that was the key word in the sentence. He repeated the question. I started to sweat. Finally, I squeaked out a very little, almost inaudible "Non".

With this answer, he walked away. He eventually came back with a chicken in his hand, he wrapped it up, I paid and left, head held high that I had accomplished the mission, no matter how awkward the exchange.

In the car, I tell Terry the whole ugly story, and he informed me that "commander" means "to order", which makes perfect sense. But, I've always used the word, "reserver" meaning "to reserve" when it comes to ordering food. The words really mean the same thing, but since I had my rule of learning only one word, and the butcher used another word, I was out of luck.

So, it pays to keep studying. I'll have to get creative and find a way to keep up with my verb tenses, pronouns and vocabulary (sometimes even a synonym or two).

The Paris Girls Go To Venice

Sherry and Janet hit the Venice Canals


I met Janet in Paris in 2004. Since then we have socialized frequently, but only in Paris. When Janet called and said she was going to be in Venice, I hopped in my car for a visit.

Of course, she was in Venice, California, a short drive up the coast from Manhattan Beach.

So, this week, we got together for the first time ever in the US. We spent the day exploring Santa Monica, Venice and Manhattan Beach.

Here we are on the Venice canals, not quite as much fun as Italy, but still a great day.

See you in Paris this fall, Janet.