It’s A Big World

It seems like a small world when you run into someone you know in an unexpected place, often thousands of miles from where you’ve known them.   Delightful. 

Living between two countries, I often spot someone on the street, the grocery store or the gym that, for a split second, I think I know. 

Even though it’s the wrong city, my brain is slow on the uptake.  I’ve already made eye contact-- or worse -- smiled broadly; thinking that they know me too.  It’s usually a look-alike and I quickly and casually look away. 

Why would I see Lucienne at the Spectrum in Manhattan Beach or Nancy in at the Marche Bio in Paris? 

Things and people that seem quite familiar and everyday to us are unknown in other parts the world.  It is exhausting to try to keep up.  World events unfold at a rapid rate.  Achievements that don’t effect me go unnoticed.  By me.

I was excited to hear that Jane Goodall was chosen to be the 2013 Grand Marshall of the Rose Parade in Pasadena.  In our part of the world, this is a great honor.  Her quote in the LA Times this morning pushed me right off my egocentric position of balance.  She said, “When you grow up in England and spend all your time in Tanzania…I hadn’t heard of the Rose Parade”.  Hmmm.  I know who she is…

I guess this goes back to the "big world" theory.  You can’t be everywhere and know everything.  Even if you're Jane Goodall. 

Chloe's Christmas

Everyone gets something for Christmas.   Chloe got a new stuffed zebra.  She was very excited.

Happy New Year.

The French Send New Year's Cards

And this year, I'll be doing the same thing for most of my list.  We've had a minor household disaster that required some of my attention in the last week, so I prioritized other things over the cards.  Now they're sitting on my desk looking very lonely. 

I know that the French send New Year's cards, so even though my cards are very Christmas oriented (they are red, white and green) they are going to have to wait.  I also ran out of stamps and the post office was insane this morning.

Merry Christmas

The God Song

I heard this for the first time last night. I was driving home in the rain, it was dark. I was trying to see the road and avoid an accident.  (I was successful).  I heard this song playing on the radio and at first I almost turned it off, but it caught my attention.  So, I'm sharing.  Enjoy

The God Song

Here's the history of the song.  To hear it, you'll have to look about half way down the page to find the link to play it.

Peace on Earth during this holiday season and for the years to come.

You Know You're In California When...

When you hear Feliz Navidad (you'll hear the pronunciation if you're not from around here) three times in one hour on the radio, you know you're in Southern California or maybe Texas.   Are there other states with such a strong Mexican culture? 

There are all different versions, this one is not the most traditional, but you can get the idea of what it sounds like.  The only Spanish words are the title, perhaps it's a translation.

I, personally, have been listening to the Winter Solstice series during this holiday season.  What have you been listening to?

Earthquake Preparedness

Earthquakes happen every day somewhere in the world.  Some are big and some are small.  Sometimes an earthquake occurs in an unusual place, a place that isn't prone to earthquakes.

I am embarrassed to admit this, but on the last flight from Paris to LA I watched the film, "Ice Age 4, Continental Drift".  It's enough to scare anyone.  The ground opens up, the seas swell, the animals are separated.  Even though it was a really dumb movie, it hit home.

We live in an area that is due for "a big one".  I hate to say "THE" big one since it implies that it will be the last one. 

We haven't reviewed our earthquake preparations in several years.  I've started a list of supplies.   I also need to figure out how to shut off the water and the gas to the house.  This is important but also hard to do because it requires a special tool.

We have flashlights and a radio.  If the electricity is out, we need batteries for all of these. Off to the store I went and loaded up on batteries.  I put new batteries in everything and checked them all.  Our other supplies include face masks, gloves, tape and some drop cloths.  We have a supply of food in our pantry that should last for awhile, although it will not be very tasty.

Now we need water.  They say we will need 1 gallon per person per day for at least 4 days = 8 gallons.  I have to get to the store to get water and then figure out a rotation scheme to drink and replace so that it stays fresh.

What's left?  All the glass.  I've used some museum putty on some vases but I can't use it on every glass, plate and bowl.  The good stuff is in quilted holders but a lot of the other stuff will probably not survive the big one.

So, I'm on my way to preparedness, but not there yet.  

Google Translate II

The need for a cultural spell check device.

I've been happily using Google Translate to write letters and emails in French.  It is so easy and fast.  I write what I want to say in English and immediately a translation appears in French.  Accents and everything. I just copy and paste the French into whatever document I'm working on.  This has saved me many hours of laborious work already. 

Even if I look up a few words, questioning the appropriateness of the translation's choice, it is still very quick and I learn something each time I write something new.  Gone is the procrastination factor, I'm free!

I used Google Translate several times now on an email chain to a French woman.  It is a business deal of sorts, but not very high level.  We had an initial meeting (in person).  We're now clarifying our needs. 

I had been clear up front and so had she.  But, several key points have been forgotten (by her) so we have to return to the original requirements before we can finalize anything.  And, the price keeps changing.

My emails to her have been polite and clear.  I thought. 

But her follow up email to me was terse and almost angry.  What did I do wrong?  Was my message too abrupt?  (I was a journalism major, I try to get to the point without a lot of fluff).   Did I use the wrong word, maybe something that wasn't polite?  No idea.  I think the words were fine but that I didn't follow some unwritten cultural rule.

Will the deal fall through?  No idea.  It wasn't that solid to begin with.  It isn't that important to either one of us. 

We have deferred our discussions until January, as the Noel holiday is approaching and everything is going to start shutting down. 

Google Translate

I am the last one to know about this.  I have a Mac so I don't have a translation program easily accessible.  So, I've been doing it the old-fashioned way; writing a letter, email or whatever in French, looking up things in the dictionary and hoping that the recipient can (at least) understand what I've written.

I wasn't asking for perfect, just passable.

During a WICE meeting, someone mentioned doing a translation from French to English.  I was very impressed.  Then the person confessed that he has a translation program on his computer, so all he has to do is fine-tune the document after the software does the heavy lifting.

I've had a couple of pieces of correspondence that have been nagging me.  They both were in French.  So this morning, I sat down with Google Translate, wrote a paragraph at a time in English, fine-tuned it (they have a special fine-tuning mechanism so that's easy too) then copied each paragraph to a Word document. 

One document needed to be printed and mailed, the other was an email.  So, my correspondence took me 30 minutes instead of 2+ hours. 

I'm sure there were still errors but it only needs to be understandable.