Spinach In My Teeth

I am always grateful when someone has the courage to tell me that something is amiss.

Strangers face an unknown response when they decide to speak to someone. It's even more difficult to tell a stranger about a problem.

I was walking back to my car today along a narrow path from the gym. I passed another woman who was walking slower. I was still revved up from the workout. As I passed her, the woman said, "have a nice day". I turned back, smiled, thanked her and wished her a nice weekend.

This must have given her the courage to continue. "Can I fix your sweater, your tag is up in the back," she said. "Oh, thank you" I said after she tucked it in. The last thing I want is to be walking around confidently, feeling well-dressed, even cute, when everyone can see my tag sticking up at my neckline.

I am reminded of a dinner a few weeks ago with my husband and friends. When I got home and was washing my face and brushing my teeth I found a decent-sized piece of lettuce (roquette to be exact) on the gum line of one of my front teeth. I asked my husband if he had seen it during dinner and he admitted he had and didn't know how or what to say in a situation with others. So, I wore the greenery all night, smiling and happy, unaware of the ugly thing hanging from my teeth.

But, I'm chicken too. Several times I've been in situations where a man's fly was down. Usually it's in France, which makes it even harder. What is the word for zipper? Is sign language (point at the person's crotch) weird? Yes, of course it is. So, unless it's someone I know really well, I say nothing. The poor soul walks around all day with his fly open.

The moment of realization, whether it's spinach or the open zipper is always awful. How long have I been like this? Who's seen me? Why didn't anyone say anything?

I think the woman's approach today was perfect. She made social contact and waited to see the result. Positive result, next step is tell the person about the problem, negative result, let the person burn in embarassment.

Tagine

I know that I can make a tagine without the special cookware, any pot with a cover will do. But, part of the fun, mystery and excitement is having the right dish.

I've been looking everywhere for just the right tagine. Many that I've seen are beautiful but they can't be used for cooking, only for serving the dish. This kind of defeats the purpose. Then, the ones for cooking are either ugly or very expensive or not authentic enough. I found a Le Creuset one with a cast-iron bottom pan. I'm sure it would be great, but it's not what I had in mind.

Then, I ran across this yesterday at William Sonoma. I asked the guy that worked there if I could cook in it and he answered yes, but I didn't get a strong feeling that he really knew. Thanks to the internet, I looked it up when I got home with it and, yes, you can cook and microwave in it.

There is a down-side. I must soak it in water for 24 hours and then give it an olive oil bath and put it in the oven at a low temperature for 1-2 hours. A lot of work.

I've looked up tagine recipes and they seen to require a spice that I've never seen before -- ras el hanout. It's probably a combination of other spices, easily obtainable. After the tagine is fully seasoned, I'll have to find the spice.

Then, I also must find a willing audience to taste-test my new creations.

Help with my vinaigarette

For tonight's vinaigrette I need this ingredient.


I'm not going to the store again today.

Carmageddon

I think it's a great name. A little exaggeration, but who knows?

LA's main north-south route, the 405, will be closed this weekend in both directions so that the Mulholland Bridge, which crosses the freeway, can be rebuilt. They can't work on it with traffic whizzing by under it -- too dangerous.

But, the result could be chaos. Those LA residents living north of the closure who want to cool down at the beach, must take surface streets. Ditto for the other direction.

There are actually two traffic worries. I heard last night that authorities fear a 50 mile long traffic jam on the freeway, backing up to the last exit before the road closes. Yikes.

The other problem could be that the quiet, residential side streets meandering though some of LA's most pricey communities (Bel Air, Brentwood, Beverly Hills) will be clogged with people trying to get to their destinations via these alternate routes.

People, for some reason, are stocking up (hoarding) food, as if a natural disaster is on the way.

Even though it's the height of Summer, many people plan to stay home.

We stay home anyway, so it's not a big worry for us. We can watch it all on TV. They will have helicopters overhead, monitoring and reporting on it all.

For awhile, LA planners were worried that this project would catch people by surprise. A massive communications campaign, using every kind of media has been underway for weeks. I think it's worked.

Carmageddon was reported on both the national news channels last night and also on the french news. We're famous, again.

Movies

The original concept for this post was to detail the difference between movie offerings in the US vs. France during the Summer. My idea was that the movies offered in the US are for children and adolescents while in France, the films shown are predominantly for adults.

My research has proven me wrong though.

I compared three different cinemas in the UGC chain with the ARClight theaters in California. They have about the same total number of rooms and movies available.

Several of the movies are the same, including Transformers and Midnight in Paris. They don't have the same rating system in France but Transformers is rated PG-13 in the US, so it's not for small children. Evidently Harry Potter has either passed through the system in the US or hasn't been released yet, I'm not sure since I'm not a follower.

Of interest, the french cinema has a special Opera series. They show Opera that has been filmed, therefore reaching a larger audience and possibly an audience that can't afford to attend a live performance. I think there are places in the US where Opera is shown, unfortunately, Southern California isn't one of them.

Movie theaters are normally air conditioned. Much of the US is having a heat wave right now. I would rather spend the money on a movie on a hot afternoon than on the electricity it takes to cool a house. For most people in Paris, air conditioning is not allowed, so I'm sure the movie theaters are packed when it is hot.

The only movie that I'd like to see is Le Moine which is playing in Paris. I bet it will come to the US, perhaps dubbed into English.

Hopefully more films will come out that interest me this summer, but it's not the child-centric offering that I imagined.

Lack of Posts

The lack of posts on this blog is a consequence of my French class. I took the class during the Spring semester (mid-February to mid-June). I've taken many classes before, working diligently to improve my french, but never a full semester with the same teacher, same students for the whole time.

I decided to take the class because there are too many distractions. Studying by myself is difficult. I need structure and the fear factor.

Well, I got it and I'm going back for more.

I signed up for a university-level, semester-long class. I took an entrance exam, had to provide loads of paperwork to assure the school that I was up to the task, paid a lot of money (school isn't cheap).

I realized the first day of class that I would be the oldest student by 30+ years. This turned out to be the only down-side of this experience. While I love being around young people, university students, 18-22, are a bit too young to have a real-world conversation.

But, I went for the language, not to make friends.

Class started promptly at 9. On the first day of class, we had to discuss the "rules" for the class and agree to them as a group. No cell phones, no food during class, you must text the teacher if you are going to be late or absent.

A syllabus was passed out. We covered it all. The class was a mixture of grammar lessons (least popular), oral (comprehension and speaking), written (reading comprehension and production). Every grammar point was covered across the field.

We had tests! Even though I was there to learn, not for credit or a grade, I was not exempt. Of course I was stressed out. The tests were graded on the normal french system of X (your score) over 20, so X/20. I have no idea how this works. Every test had at least 40-50 possible points.

In the US, we're used to success and we normally work on a scale of 100%. A grade of 95 is good, 70 is awful, maybe failing. France is completely different. I learned along the way that the scores are also judged as: assez bien (OK), bien (good), tres bien (very good). There is no such thing as excellent. A score of 16/20 would be tres bien, no one ever got higher than 17/20. A score of 13/20 or 14/20 is considered bien (good). This is the category that I ended up in most of the time. One time I got 14.5 and smiled all day. If I tried to figure this out on the US system of 100, I could multiply by 5. So, 14/20 equals 70/100, certainly not "bien" in my book, but this is the way it worked.

Did I learn? I learned a lot. I studied hours per day after school. Tests don't ask for regular verb conjugations, they ask for the most esoteric, changeable, never-used verb tense. I learned/re-learned (knew this when in school but forgot it) to study for the test during the week prior to the test.

I made flash cards and carried them around with me, even when jogging. You never know when a question will need an answer. Instead of people-watching or listening to music, I studied my flash cards on public transportation. Somehow I never missed my stop.

School ended several weeks ago. I know I'll continue with my studies in the fall. But, I haven't lifted a book, a flash card, haven't conjugated an irregular verb unless I needed it, and haven't thought much about the passe simple.

I understand what Summer's all about.

Watching 60 Minutes

I know that it is possible to download US TV shows over the internet and watch them anywhere in the world. Our technology set up won't allow this and we're scared to upgrade (touch) anything.

Our French TV is nine years old. Our computers are 5-6 years old. Burglars, beware, there is nothing here for you, no flat panels, no iPADS, no wifi printers.

We're scared to upgrade because any little change could blow up the fragile system. As it is, we get internet, TV, and phone via phone lines (VOIP and regular) from France Telecom. With this set up, we can't even use some of the phone jacks, they must be "terminated" with a special plug. We don't have a phone (or a TV) in the master bedroom. It's not possible.

We don't get wifi in the back of the apartment because the stone walls (murs porteurs) stop it.

French television programming leaves a lot to be desired. We watch the news in English and then in French. Once in awhile, we get a good movie or I watch Cuisine TV (usually dubbed from English). We watch tennis when there's a major tournament.

We read a lot. In the summer, it is light until 11 PM, so we stay out later.

In the US, we have the normal technology. Nothing fancy but it all works. Phones where we need them, several TV's (even though we only use one). We can record our favorite programs for months at a time, as long as the hard disk in our DVR has space. So, we record some of our favorite things. 60 Minutes is one of them. We've been watching the last 5 months of programs. We watch them in reverse chronological order -- the newest ones first. We just got to the program that they interrupted to tell the world that "public enemy #1" was dead. I found out on the internet the next morning, but I can't imagine how much fun it would have been to see it live on TV.

Perhaps we'll re-visit our technology needs.

Looking For Navy

Black is my go-to color. Is black a color? I don't remember the rule.

I've been reading up on fashion trends lately and I see everywhere that navy blue is "in". It's also very close to black, easy to match things, easy to accessorize.

So, out I went today, hoping for some summer navy. One store even had a window display saying, "Blue Summer". No luck. I didn't find any navy, and very little blue. I found a lot of lavender, one of the most horrible colors against my skin.

I came home empty-handed but not discouraged. I'll be out in the next few weeks, searching for the perfect navy outfits.

Is This Globalization?

My friend Susan and I were visiting the Jardin des Plantes recently. It was a lovely day, but a bit hot and sticky.

She pulled some hand cream out of her purse and used it, then offered it to me. I refused, my hands weren't dry. But, it's anti-bacterial, she said. Yeah! Anti-bacterial hand lotion that smells good. Where did you find this?

The US, of course. The anti-bac hand lotion had traveled from Boston to the Jardin des Plantes, there's nothing like it in France.

I just went to buy some today. It wasn't on the shelf in the store. So I asked. Evidently, this is such special stuff, it doesn't last on the shelf you have to ask for it.

So, my French tip for hand lotion has made a round trip, US-France-US again. I'm going to stock up.