Without getting into politics, I feel that my presence here in France is, in some small way, a gesture of diplomacy for Franco American relations. Whereas I am an often time and grateful visitor here, I am still the American living in the barn.

I try never to speak English and find with more and more practice, improvements to my language skills. But not without an aching head! And a strong will to conjure up those old classes in high school.

From time to time as I strain to comprehend, and moreover answer my French friends over the course of an evening, I  return home weary. Not from the wine but from the concentration and observation of it all.

It is a good weary though- a sense of accomplishment, both for my comprehension and because by trying I am establishing
new friends in a foreign country.

It does my heart good, after an evening of conversation to be told that a) I have a decent accent, even a good one and b) I am not at all what they have imagined an American to be, based on what they view on tv.

Not only can we change ourselves through our inward journeys, but we can have an outward affect on others, just when we least
expect it. And by embracing things that are just outside our own realm, we stretch and grow, while having fun (and eating well).

(Originally written after having dinner with my neighbors over the Toussaint Holiday- October 31, 2005)