endings.

for an american. this is the automatic suffix, the implied addition. so when i sit in the breakroom with Virginie at the Art Film Festival office, my interactions are inevitably interrupted with "bah, tu parles très bien le français!" sometimes they actually come out and say it--"pour une américaine"--but usually it dances on their lips, visible to me and any other without being announced. I read an article in the NY Times yesterday about the use of the word "articulate" with regards to African Americans. while the word would be a compliment to most people, in certain contexts (and mostly in the political realm), it becomes a declaration of shock or surprise--"you talk really well . . . for a black man." and this is how it is, then: general surprise that an American can or would decide to speak French. however, as i learned on sesame street this morning (a propos!), we shouldn't be ashamed of talking funny. You let your mexican accent shine strong, little rosita!

but i've just interrupted my breakroom moment with Virginie, a girl recently moved from France, who invited me to volunteer for the festival. we chat over stunning fruit tarts (complete with pomegranate!) from a local bakery and folger's coffee that she brews for me in the microwave. the french do love their folgers. i'm at least assured that this moment is not a suffix but a prefix, opening us into future exercises in friendship.

today, too, might mark another ending. at 23 degrees, and despite the windchill that drags the temperature down to half of this, it may just be the end of the oppressive (but surprisingly enjoyable) frigid winter weather. a part of me is always sad to see it go, as it steals with it the snow and the early dark. but dad gummit, this is delightfully balmy!