carrefours

carrefour (n): 1. (route) intersection 2. name of a chain of supermarkets 3. (fig) a crossing of paths

Just exchanged pleasanteries about the break with one of my colleagues...apparently they're re-thinking the longtime turkey tradition in France. Nowadays people like to experiment with meats they don't normally eat during the year. This particular woman had an ostrich roast for christmas dinner. Apparently it's a little like beef. Bison is another popular option.

in other thoughts:

Being in France has alerted me to how poorly I know French, but also to how well I know English. It really amazes me, after painstakingly learning vocabulary grammar and pronunciation, that none of these pose any problem in my own language, and I didn’t really have to work for any of it, at least not consciously. Thinking, talking, listening to, reading and writing (ok, maybe not so much judging from the effort going into my application essays...) require so little effort in English, whereas in French, which I've been studying for more than ten years now, is still a constant balancing act, though I'm steadier now than when I got here.

I can hold a conversation with somone, but unexpected problems come up. For example, it's hard to go to spiritual direction in a language where the distinction between "like" and "love" isn't as obvious as one word or another and talk about relations with members of the opposite sex. Misunderstandings are bound to pop up. And often you don't even realize your interlocuteur might have gotten completely the wrong impression untill you look back on a conversation.