October 11 2018 -
Today I’m siting in a lovely modern cafe named Cózette in Paris. I’m reading, writing and having tea while my dear, sweet, hilarious friend Mathilde has a business meeting. Thankfully, the very attractive *man who took my order spoke soft English with a British slight French accent. He’d lived in Canada and NY but I have no idea of his origin country. I have zero French skills. Only a few poorly pronounced words and I am not even capable of even asking for basic needs. Although, I can say merci beaucoup. I just really tried to avoid talking.
*Not to worry, I won’t be running off with anyone on this trip. I’ve learned a few lessons and I’ve got a certain handsome, intriguing, older man (47 minutes older in fact) awaiting my return (Insert blushing face here).
I met Mathilde in Guatemala April of 2017 and we saw each other again this February in India. She has arranged for us to spend a couple days in a beautiful flat in the neighborhood of Montemarte which means mountain of martyrs. Yesterday we took a walking tour of the neighborhood. It was originally outside of the city walls. Where the artists, nonconformists and slightly sketchy lived at the time. Perfect! It’s home to the moulin rouge, the green grocery store and cafe from the movie Amalie. There is a tourist portion of the neighborhood that we’ll avoid. :)
Last night we had a fairly traditional meal in a charming and one of the oldest consecutively running old world feel restaurante. I tried the traditional absinthe and escargot. When in Rome... I mean Paris...
My time in Austria with Tonya was relaxing and enjoyable. I had terrible jet lag followed by an American news breakdown and she was fighting a cold. So we hung around and were fairly lazy. Which was perfect. I had not been to see her in Austria for 9 years. I was super impressed with her german language skills! Suuupa! I mean really, if you can make a phone call in a foreign language and people can understand you and you can understand them, that’s really impressive!
She’s now a foster mother for a brother and sister 12 and 4 respectively. It’s such an interesting transformation from my past drinking, bad decision making, going-out partner (we were both newly single and slightly depressed when when we met) to a loving, patient, kind, attentive mother and wife. The kids understand English but answer in German. Tonya speaks to them in both. I helped Samuel, the 12 year old, on his up-coming English quiz, but he only answered the required words. Almost a perfect score. His teacher however, used some questionable terms and words for a modern English lesson. I finally got each kid to say a few English words to me in the end. And yes I survived a week living with children. And so did they. :)
One night we went out to traditional Austrian bowling and dinner with Tonya’s new friends (my replacements, it took 3 to replace me hahaha), and her family. The difference in this bowling was: the balls had 2 holes instead of 3, they were smaller in size too, no gutters, instead wooden bumpers, 9 pins instead of 10, the pins were attached with rope at the top to reset, and a strike (the best score possible) was called a swine(yes like a pig), and a way of score keeping I can not pretend to grasp. At one point Samuel and I were neck in neck to win. I had wanted to let him win, but he got too worked up over wanting to win, that his final two turns went badly. So even though I wasn’t trying at that point I did, in fact, still win. Beginners luck for sure! He was a really good sport about it.
We said good bye in Vienna. The sun was shining and we were in the central square (Stephansplatz) with the cathedral behind us, we waved and blew kisses goodbye as she descended down the glass elevator to the metro to catch her train home. So romantic. ;) And sad. It’s hard having friends so far away. But it’s also a nice reason to travel the world. I’m so grateful for my friendships both near and far.
October 16th
I’ve made it to London!
Blowing kisses your way too,
Serena
Today I’m siting in a lovely modern cafe named Cózette in Paris. I’m reading, writing and having tea while my dear, sweet, hilarious friend Mathilde has a business meeting. Thankfully, the very attractive *man who took my order spoke soft English with a British slight French accent. He’d lived in Canada and NY but I have no idea of his origin country. I have zero French skills. Only a few poorly pronounced words and I am not even capable of even asking for basic needs. Although, I can say merci beaucoup. I just really tried to avoid talking.
*Not to worry, I won’t be running off with anyone on this trip. I’ve learned a few lessons and I’ve got a certain handsome, intriguing, older man (47 minutes older in fact) awaiting my return (Insert blushing face here).
I met Mathilde in Guatemala April of 2017 and we saw each other again this February in India. She has arranged for us to spend a couple days in a beautiful flat in the neighborhood of Montemarte which means mountain of martyrs. Yesterday we took a walking tour of the neighborhood. It was originally outside of the city walls. Where the artists, nonconformists and slightly sketchy lived at the time. Perfect! It’s home to the moulin rouge, the green grocery store and cafe from the movie Amalie. There is a tourist portion of the neighborhood that we’ll avoid. :)
Last night we had a fairly traditional meal in a charming and one of the oldest consecutively running old world feel restaurante. I tried the traditional absinthe and escargot. When in Rome... I mean Paris...
My time in Austria with Tonya was relaxing and enjoyable. I had terrible jet lag followed by an American news breakdown and she was fighting a cold. So we hung around and were fairly lazy. Which was perfect. I had not been to see her in Austria for 9 years. I was super impressed with her german language skills! Suuupa! I mean really, if you can make a phone call in a foreign language and people can understand you and you can understand them, that’s really impressive!
She’s now a foster mother for a brother and sister 12 and 4 respectively. It’s such an interesting transformation from my past drinking, bad decision making, going-out partner (we were both newly single and slightly depressed when when we met) to a loving, patient, kind, attentive mother and wife. The kids understand English but answer in German. Tonya speaks to them in both. I helped Samuel, the 12 year old, on his up-coming English quiz, but he only answered the required words. Almost a perfect score. His teacher however, used some questionable terms and words for a modern English lesson. I finally got each kid to say a few English words to me in the end. And yes I survived a week living with children. And so did they. :)
One night we went out to traditional Austrian bowling and dinner with Tonya’s new friends (my replacements, it took 3 to replace me hahaha), and her family. The difference in this bowling was: the balls had 2 holes instead of 3, they were smaller in size too, no gutters, instead wooden bumpers, 9 pins instead of 10, the pins were attached with rope at the top to reset, and a strike (the best score possible) was called a swine(yes like a pig), and a way of score keeping I can not pretend to grasp. At one point Samuel and I were neck in neck to win. I had wanted to let him win, but he got too worked up over wanting to win, that his final two turns went badly. So even though I wasn’t trying at that point I did, in fact, still win. Beginners luck for sure! He was a really good sport about it.
We said good bye in Vienna. The sun was shining and we were in the central square (Stephansplatz) with the cathedral behind us, we waved and blew kisses goodbye as she descended down the glass elevator to the metro to catch her train home. So romantic. ;) And sad. It’s hard having friends so far away. But it’s also a nice reason to travel the world. I’m so grateful for my friendships both near and far.
October 16th
I’ve made it to London!
Blowing kisses your way too,
Serena
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