Speaking a Little bit of French in France

I am taking French in school so I thought, why not practice my French in France.
One instance where i spoke french was in Disneyland. I don't know what word i said but what ever it was, the worker believed that I spoke French fluently. I had to then ask him "Parlez-vous anglais?" (do you speak english). He was then happy to re-explain the directions in English for me.
Most of the time i helpd my family it was for numbers. Number of pastries, number of passengers for the ride, and price of gasoline.
I wish I could have used more. Next time.

Garbage is Funny

When we arrived in Italy the first thing we were shown in our apartment was the trash bags.  Italy has a system of recycling that I have never seen before.  It is quite tricky at first.  Yet after awhile I wonder why we don't do this in the U.S.

Okay so they have this nifty chart that lists how you are supposed to throw things away and then you have to coordinate the type of trash with the color and type of bag.

Okay are you confused?  Yes so were we.

It has gotten quite funny though as you stand in front of the 6 different containers and wonder where do you throw away a band aid.  We have had several times where we have voted where things should go.

Also you get fined if they find you are putting the trash in the wrong place and you can only have one bag a week.  Well we have 6 of us and so we are trying to figure out how to manage this.  We thought we would try to put some in our neighbors various trash cans (It is just one man living next door), but when we went to check our can was already half full before we put anything in it.

You see our neighbors (other random people) had already thought of this.  We laughed and then wondered how we would manage such a task as garbage.  I think the idea to separate out the trash and recycle is a great idea, but maybe a policy that is in place for bigger families (maybe they already have this and I just don't know about it yet.) I know Italians have this down and it is like second nature for them, perhaps we will have it become second nature to us as well.

Less is More!

I don’t always agree with clichés like 'you get what you pay for'….I sometimes get way more than I pay for and sometimes I get a whole lot more than I pay for. 

To understand less is more.  One needs to only go to a grocery store in Italy.  Not a lot of choices exist.  However, there was just enough for me to wonder what I should buy.  As I was looking for something that looked familiar.  I saw another mom with her kids walking down the aisle.  Not knowing what to buy I figured I would watch what she bought and get the same thing.  I figured if her kids like it and eat it the odds would be higher than just randomly choosing something off the shelf.  As she walked away after I took note of the things she was getting. 

I realized that no matter what language you speak or where you live all moms are just trying to do the best for their kids.  I walked away grateful for this mom that happened to walk down the aisle so I would know what to buy.

The boys have loved everything we have bought at the store.  They think Europe has better food than the US.  My kids who don’t normally eat regular bread with their sandwiches, happily ate the sandwich with regular bread today. Maybe it's because of the amazing selection of meat, cheese, and bread here! 

Sometimes I think we have too many choices in our home country and that a few less choices might be better.

Note for next time:  Bring spices as if I am going to have an oven.  I am missing my brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.  Otherwise everything else I can find here.  And bringing the peanut butter was a great idea.

Going Expat the Easy Way: The Language Short Cut

The way I see it, you can either visit a country or you can experience it. The richest experiences, I think, come from becoming a temporary expat. Doing so inspired some of the best authors and painters of the last 150 years, from Vincent Van Gogh to F. Scott Fitzgerald and, of course, the king expat, Hemingway.

Perhaps the hardest part of going 'temporary expat' is being able to speak like one. In the past, you could get over the language hump by either living in a country long enough, or entering an intensive language learning course (neither of which are very convenient options for the convenient traveler). Recently, though, I found a 3rd option: Duolingo

Now, this isn't an advertorial masquerading as a blog post. I haven't gotten any promotional incentive to write up a post about Duolingo (though it'd be nice if I did..hint, hint, Duolingo if you're listening). No, Duolingo is simply the best self-paced language learning tool I've ever seen, and I used to teach in an accelerated language learning program. You only need to know 3 things to know how good Duolingo is:

1. It's comprehensive
2. It's fun
3. It's free

Duolingo offers a handful of language options (Italian, Spanish, French,Irish,Dutch,Danish) and you can use it either on your smart phone or online. They've tapped into the 'with friends' epidemic as well, as you can connect and compete with friends.

This whole blog post may sound like a paid-advertisement, but although I wish I was being paid to promote Duolingo, it's not. Duolingo is just an amazing language-learning tool.