A brother from another momma

We taught our Peruvian friend some American slang. We told him about using the term "word". He then said it sounded like a word people would say while smoking pot. He then asked us if it was cool in America to say the phrase "a brother from another momma". We explained that it was "brotha" and "motha" so that it rhymed. I'm pretty sure as we were leaving he said "goodbye sista from another mista (another one of our lessons for the day)."

We tried to go to Palais de Tokyo today but it was closed for construction. We walked across the street to our second stop, the clothing museum...also closed for construction. We remembered seeing a random modern art museum next to Tokyo so we decided to go back to that one. We must have looked thoroughly confused at the modern art museum because the docent approached us and told us that the museum was free so we could just walk in. Of course he said it in French so we all looked at each other seeing who would translate first. Before we could respond he said in English, "You do not speak French?" I worked too hard in Madame Rogers AP French to go along with this so I responded in what I thought was perfect French that we did speak, but we were looking for tickets! He responded again in English "so you understand me when I speak French but not when I talk too fast?" We all simultaneously nodded. He then gave me a french lesson on not pronouncing the "l' in billets because it's a double l, and pronouncing the "l" in soleil because there is only one. It's funny that the French have been so eager to teach us how to speak, and you can see the pride they take in their language. They jump at any chance to help us pronounce words or give us a vocabulary lesson, and they're not mean about it. They just really care about the French language and become very proud (they stand up a little straighter and get very serious looks on their faces) when they talk about it.

The art at the museum was very different. There were beautiful Henri Matisse paintings that filled an entire room. One was called "La Danse" which was huge and really cool to see. There were some crazy installations and sculptures, but the coolest part was that someone was filming something outside on the courtyard. We stood by the window for ten minutes waiting to see what was going on. I pretended to take pictures of the Eiffel Tower in the background but was really taking pictures of the camera crew. People are always filming things here. Theresa thinks she might have seen Jude Law the other day. I think he found out that I'm going to school here, and he wants to come take me to the Louvre...but probably not....but maybe.

I haven't talked about food in this post yet, so I'm going to say that I had the best crepe EVER on the Champs Elysses today. It was limon et sucre (lemon juice and sugar). It also kept my hands warm which was the best part.

We almost went to see a movie today. The Princesse et La Grenouille opened today in France. Our pride couldn't handle standing in line behind a large group of French five year olds with their parents to get tickets. We decided to save that for another day. If I can watch Avatar in French AND 3D...I'll be set.

We also looked at French greeting cards today. Theresa and I were wondering why there are so many anniversary cards in Paris. We decided it was because everyone here is in love...then we realized "anniversaire" means "birthday." Theresa also saw belated anniversaire cards and thought "oh get yourself out of the doghouse cards!"...no more to say there

Tomorrow we are going to a Brazilian restaurant for dinner and dancing for Gulfem's birthday. Her Turkish friend, Nur, is a pastry chef at the Ritz (yay Marriott...another comm shout out). Anyway, it's one of Nur's favorite places to go, and since she studied at Le Cordon Bleu I will trust basically anything she says.