Lost Potential

I started this post almost a month ago and then got sidetracked because I reread Phyllis's book then traveled a bit.
 Many, many years ago, back in 1961, Phyllis Michaux and a group of friends founded the A.A.W.E. At the time, US citizenship was hard to come by. By marrying a foreigner and living in the foreign country, and subsequently giving birth abroad, meant that the children might not be American if they, themselves, did not live for a prescribed time in the US. These American Wives of Europeans (The group is much less restrictive in reality -- unmarried women, men with non-European partners are welcome. It is Paris-based.) were unhappy about that. They would lose their citizenship if they took the foreign nationality, and they did not wish to do that, and they were raising their children to love the American side of their families. They worked hard to change the citizenship rules.
Phyllis wrote a book, The Unknown Ambassadors, in which she discussed all the ways we contribute to the United States. At the time, of course, Americans were a rare curiosity. Even in the 70s, when I arrived, we were called upon to explain what the US was doing in Vietnam. Why were we bombing Cambodia? What was this shooting at Kent State? What kind of system is this electoral college? It didn't matter what our own political leanings were, we explained. We still do. What was the fuss over Watergate? What was the fuss over Clinton's sex life? What's the fuss over health care? We are, whether we want to be, or not, a window to our country.
In the 60s, many US companies sent executives abroad to expand their businesses. Those expats brought American goods to foreign countries. So did we permanent Americans abroad. Our little celebrations of Halloween, Thanksgiving, even the way we celebrated childrens' birthday parties seeped into the local culture, as did our breakfast cereals, cookies, and other home delicacies. On return trips, we no longer pack our suitcases full of things we can't find, because we can find almost everything, now. Ordering a turkey for the end of November is no longer a jaw-dropping request. There are chocolate Easter bunnies with the chocolate fish and chickens. Is this a good or bad thing? I'm not going to judge. All I know is that by doing some things the way I grew up influenced my neighbors who liked what they saw and started doing it, too.
In the 70s, a washing machine that could also dry came onto the market, here, in France. It was expensive, but we bought one, because dryers simply were not available. Later, in the early 80s, we got a separate washer and dryer. My neighbor couldn't see the need for a dryer. (Well, she did have a yard, and I was in an apartment and had four young children!) After her first trip abroad, to Canada, she came home and ordered a dryer. Of course, by this time, the US was no longer exporting appliances, so it was just the concept we were importing.
Back to the children. Back in the 1960s and 70s, when Phyllis and some others created AARO the battles were to have our children become American citizens and to be able to vote: "Totally ignorant of the actual workings of the legislative process, we really believed that if Congress could be made to recognize that these young people would grow up able to work and live with ease on both sides of the Atlantic, changes in the law would inevitably follow. Our government would recognize their potential value and, ceasing to reject them, welcome them as valuable elements of the postwar generation." (Phyllis Michaux, The Unknown Ambassadors: A Saga of Citizenship, Aletheia Publications, 1996)
We learned how Congress works. Today, a child born to an American parent abroad is an American. In order to get the child a US passport, one has to report the birth of a US citizen abroad at the embassy or consulate, but even if one neglects to register the birth, never gets the passport, never travels to the US, the child is still an American. Most of us, though, were quite happy to go to the Embassy and get that first passport. We were happy and even anxious to speak English and feeling very guilty if we didn't. We took the kids to AAWE parties for American-style festivities. Many of the children went on to college in the US. They took their other language and other culture to the States, thus enriching life, there. Some fell in love and or got a job in the US; they stayed on. One could almost see a cycle of coming and going.
What is happening, now? The United States has a most unique tax system: citizenship-based taxation. That means that even if you don't live there, you must file your US tax return every year and include your worldwide income and report all foreign (non-US) accounts to the Treasury. Many non-US residents misunderstood or didn't even know about it. Some in the US conjectured that the US was missing out on a lot of income tax from overseas income, so they came up with FATCA, the foreign account tax compliance act, even though most who do file from abroad owe no tax. This requires financial institutions to ferret out all their US customers and report on them. The banks are doing it and either shutting the accounts held by the US customers or requesting them to fill out forms and such. This has alerted many who were unaware of their obligations that they do have such obligations. The penalties for non-filing are very severe, whether tax is due, or not. For many, the solution is to not be an American, to renounce. Renunciation comes at a price (a $2300 renunciation fee plus the cost of doing several years back tax returns and account reports if one hadn't done them plus a lawyer or qualified C.P.A. to help out). The ones most likely to renounce are the American children born abroad and the accidental Americans, the ones born in the US to foreign parents and who never really lived in the US. The US only sees their potential as taxpayers, none other, so the country will lose them as potential ambassadors. In addition, the country will lose those of us who followed our hearts and chose to live and work almost our entire adult lives elsewhere.

Busy first week of February followed by calm babysitting

The last week of January was busy. Nothing to write about, just generally busy. It was about the same with the first week of February. For example, on my birthday, I had to go into Paris for an appointment with the chiropractor, then to the travel agency to pay for the rest of our trip in March, home for lunch, an appointment with the rheumatologist, back to Paris with Paul to meet with Anne to go to the movies and then meet with Louis and Gwen to go out to eat for a birthday meal.
The movie was "The King's Speech", which just opened on the 2nd, so we got to see it on its first day out. It was worth all the hype, but I do wish there were less hype. They talk and write so much about a film before it comes out that you often wonder if you need to see it, and if you do go, you're often disappointed because it's not all that fantastic. "The King's Speech" is a good movie, a good feel-good movie. The acting is excellent. I'm glad I went to see it.
We ate at L'Enoteca, a wine-bar restaurant in the Marais. We've gone there off and on in the past but not recently, so it was a treat. The food is good and the wine is excellent. Luckily, we did not drive into Paris because we certainly drank over the legal limit for driving. We got on the metro and had a nice invigorating walk home from the RER to clear our heads. I had a very nice birthday.
Thursday, I drove into Paris to pick up brochures, posters and other stuff for the AARO and AAWE booth at Expat Expo. I got home for lunch and then met one of the volunteers at the Parc Floral to set up our stand. It took all of 10 minutes once we got there. Getting there was not so easy. We came through the park and found the exhibit center at the very back of the park. The door was locked. After several attempts to catch someone's attention, we finally got help and were told to come around through the exhibitor's entrance, which meant going back out of the park and following the street even further back and come in and around through some parking lots. It was a long walk. Once we got the stand set up, we had to go back the same way to go back to our cars.
Friday morning, I rode my bike to the Parc Floral. This time, coming in the exhibitor's entrance and parking my bike right in front of the building was an advantage; the back entrance is nearer to home. The AAWE needed more space than AARO because of the books they have for sale, so we grabbed a second table and set that up. It was a strange exhibit. The booths, like ours, catered mostly to the expats (foreigners) in France, but most of the conference sessions were for French about to expatriate or just back. Strange.
What I really liked during the three days was seeing friends from AAWE and AARO who were manning the stand with me. Recruiting volunteers went very easily and we had plenty of people on hand.
When I got home on Sunday it was to news that Aurelia had the chickenpox and would I like to go to Northampton to babysitThat is not a question to ask me. It's a great excuse for me to cancel and postpone appointments and rush off, which I managed to do on Monday. So, I'm here watching Aurelia play, eat and sleep. In fact, I've been taking advantage of one of those naps to write this letter.
While I've been gone, Paul has been holding the fort. We had a new separation put in between us and the neighbor and new plantations to go with that. We are also having the attic insulation redone and that was supposed to start today, but it looks like it's being put off until next week.
That's all for now. I suspect that I won't be writing again until we're off on vacation.

The AAWE Christmas Bazaar, 2010

Last weekend (Dec. 4 & 5) was the annual AAWE Christmas Bazaar. Here I am at my calm station, in the basement, stirring the chile. I've been doing this for years on the snack bar crew. I don't make the chile; I just heat it up to refill the pot being served upstairs. Terry D. used to make the chile during the year and freeze it, but a few years ago she and the organizers decided to stop. Her chile was excellent, but I guess there were questions of responsibility in case of an eventual problem. So, the bazaar organizers did a blind taste test and it was a store-brand can, one of the cheapest available, that came up a winner. My job consists of opening cans and emptying them into the double boilers, rinsing, and then crushing the cans for the recycling bag. Then, stir. And stir. I get to sit down between stirring stints.
Before discovering kitchen duty, I served up at the snackbar. Before that, I used to work on setup day, setting up the books and during the bazaar, selling books. When I started, I was on the children's clothing stand on setup and selling. I love being down in the kitchen; it's less tiring for my back and I enjoy being out of the frenzy of the stands upstairs. I get to chat a little with Carol, the event treasurer, and Michele, who was the main liason this year between upstairs and downstairs, and all the other volunteers who come down to escape for a moment.
I love doing this bazaar thing every year because it's the one time a year I get to see some friends. We catch up on what's happening with our children, and now, grandchildren. We enjoy this annual get-together, even if we now see one another and our goings-on on Facebook. It's wonderful to have a real face-to-face chat.
After my kitchen duty, I went upstairs to buy, but I can't say what here because of certain readers.
I got home and had a couple of hours to rest  before Paul came back from the south with another car-load of things from his mother's apartment. We were much more efficient this time in dispatching the stuff throughout the house. We still need to make room for our sofa, which will be coming back from the upholsterer this week, I hope.

Getting ready for Washington

I'm off to Washington in a week. The build-up is very exciting, although calling and sending e-mails to senators' schedulers to try to set up appointments is not all that thrilling. I've been fairly good at it, making sure I get the calls in and the follow-up done. I've now had to hand the leftover following up with others as I'm pretty sure I won't be able to finish up this week.
In painting, I'm still in a series of trees. I should say it's a series of a tree - a very specific chestnut tree that I took a photo of last year in Montenegro, in what looked like an abandonned chestnut orchard, near the Lake Skadar. The first in the series is very realistic and the others get less and less so as I worked more from memory and less from the photo. I also imagined different seasons, or no season, just the form on colored background.
My medical check-ups have been good. That back-ache back in December set off a search. First came a sonogram to make sure it wasn't my kidneys. It wasn't, but my spleen was enlarged. For that, I saw a hemotologist at the Salpétrière hospital who ordered more complete blood work specifically to look for the hairy-cell marker, and everything came back fine -- no marker. She also ordered a scan to see if there was anything in addition to the spleen to look into. The scan seems fine. Through it I now know that my shoulder and arm are sore because of tendonitis in my shoulder and that is being taken care of. There are some glands behind the left breast which led to a mammogram ahead of schedule, but all seems okay, there, too. So, all is good.
What else has been going on? I've been to Paris almost enough to warrent using a weekly pass! The library on Tuesdays, no hikes recently, but I did some envelope stuffing at the AAWE last Wednesday.
This coming week, I have the library on Tuesday, followed by an AARO board meeting which I will have to leave early to return to the library for movie night. Then, on Wednesday evening, there's the AARO tax seminar. Thursday and Friday, there's the STCFrance and TAC Content Strategy forum. Saturday morning I leave for Washington.
What's really hard, though, is coming tomorrow. Our friend and neighbor, Christine, died last week and her funeral is tomorrow. She wasn't well and this time she wasn't getting better. I saw her a few weeks ago as she was coming home from treatment and thought that she looked especially gaunt because she had just had the treatment, but I guess it was more than that. I feel very sad. I feel hurt for Jacques, Julien and Emmanuel. And for Ken and Sandy, who became their close friends, and on to the Rodewalds and Shappirs.

Walking, walking, and more walking

This was a week of walking!
After walking to and from the painting class at Francine's. That wasn't too strenuous. On Tuesday I really forget what I did except for an appointment in Nogent near the big market in the middle of the afternoon. It really started on Wednesday.

Mary Lynne took us Ile de France Walkers on a wonderful hike along the Bièvre from St. Quentin en Yvelines to Jouy en Josas. It's always such a pleasure to meet up with old friends now and to meet newer arrivals. For once, I didn't feel like I was lagging behind, either, so that was nice. It seemed to me we were all walking at about the same pace. There were almost 30 of us for this walk, which is perhaps a bit too many, but we managed.

Alexander (now almost 9 months old) came along with his mother again. He's now moved to a fantastic back pack I took pictures of to remember what brand it is in case we want to get one as a gift. When I think of the elementary front pack, and then the backpack, we had, I think the design improvements are extraordinary. The only drawback is, for the front packs, more complicated attachments, and for the back pack, added weight.

The Bièvre is a short tributary of the Seine. It runs into the Seine in Paris, not far from Notre Dame. The water, back in Louis XIV's day, was so pure it was used for rinsing fabric and thread dyes. The famous "toile de Jouy" was produced in Jouy en Josas and rinsed in the river's water and the Gobelins tapestrys were set up (still there) in Paris, on Ave. des Gobelins, Paris 13. They rinsed the dyed wool in the river. Apparently, there were also tanneries along the river and that would certainly have polluted the river for the dyers and in conjunction with dyers, the river became too polluted and was covered for most of its distance until recently. Interesting for those who are familiar with Paris, the printer who set up his fabric printing business in Jouy was Oberkampf, so that's where that metro stop got its name. He chose Jouy not only because the water was excellent for the process, but he also had enough land to dry the cloth, and he wasn't far from the court at Versailles to boot.

The walk is not always along the river, but close enough. There are several ponds and we had our lunch in a clearing at a pond. At Buc we also crossed under the aqueduct that was built in the 1680s to carry water from the Saclay plateau to the artificial canals at Versailles. It was still functioning in the 1950s and is still in good condition even if it is no longer used.

About half of the group decided to visit the museum at Jouy en Josas. It's interesting, although I'm not sure I'd go there on purpose just to see the museum. The museum is in the old Oberkampf home; all the other fabric works buildings are gone. I think what struck me is the variety of Jouy designs and colors. I'm so used to seeing the same design in red or black, I thought that was all they did. There are good illustrated explanations of how the fabric was printed, the chemical process and all that. The arrows led us upstairs, but when I tried to open what I thought was the door to the rest of the exhibit, it wouldn't open, so I just assumed it was closed and went back downstairs. I was not alone in doing this and, from what I heard afterwards, we missed about four rooms of samples and upholstered furniture.

We finished with a short walk to the train station, but no trains were operating, so we had to get on a bus. I ended up getting on a bus that went to the Velizy-Chavilles station, but the others took a bus to Versailles Chantier or Massy Paliseau. I should have gone with them. My bus took us meandering around Jouy for a while before heading on to Vélizy-Chavilles. It was a pretty ride, though.
On Thursday, I walked to and from Francine's again and then headed straight back to the RER station to go to Paris to meet up with a group of AAWE friends for a walking tour of the 1st arrondissement -- a chocolate tour. Iris is a young guide, a real professional guide, whom I highly recommend. She started us off at the Louvre, where Marie-Thérèse, Louis XIV's queen established chocolate as the drink of choice. We then went to where the first chocolat maker set up with a royal patent. We stopped at the boulangerie patisserie that supplies the Elysée Palace. There, we had a sample of an "Opéra", a coffee and chocolate pastry that is sold in almost every patisserie in France. This one was especially good as the balance between the chocolate and coffee was perfect. Of course, we only tasted the very finest quality of chocolate on this tour, all made with 100% cocoa butter and no other kind of oil. (Leslie Charbonnel has kindly allowed me to share her pictures with you -- I forgot to take my camera!)
We then made our way through the Palais Royal gardens (where Anne d'Autriche once lived with the royal princes, Louis XIV and his brother) and went on to three different chocolate makers where we tasted different samples. It was a very tasty tour, but it was just samples and not an excessive amount of ingested chocolate. I found where I'm going to get some year-end gifts, though! Unfortunately, this was a slow walk, though, kind of like a museum and my legs and back hate that.

Friday, Paul and I went to the Renoir exhibit at the Grand Palais. Being a Renoir exhibit, it was crowded. Too crowded. If you tried to look closely at a painting or even the sign with the title, you were pushed out of the way; if you stood back to admire, you couldn't see because of the people passing by in front of you. Luckily, I have a carte Sésame and can go back whenever I want. I might try some morning. I was very happy to stop walking when we got home. That walk uphill from the RER seemed interminable.

An then on Saturday was the Money Matters for Women conference in the 7th. I was a volunteer so I had to get there by 11. Paul drove me in. At least I didn't have to walk around too much. There was a lot of going up and down stairs, but that was a pleasant change. I think I attended some good sessions and the day ended with Samina, who led us through a speedy prosperity workshop. Having done a real workshop with her, I can say that one should take the time to think through the answers to the questions, because if you speed through it, you end up with a superficial view. I think everyone understood that the session was just the beginning.

American Abroad

There is a change in the air. It started after the election. I've lived in France since 1972. During the Nixon years, when you said you were American, people expected you to explain American involvement in Vietnam. They weren't concerned whether you were pro or anti; being an American meant you represented the country.
Ford? Well, his presidency didn't seem to affect us. You could say you were American and people didn't seem to judge you. They were, of course, curious about how the Watergate scandal could have gone so far as to make a president go away. They were amused by Ford's bumbles.
I don't remember any negative effects from the Carter years. I don't think the French remember Carter at all. When talking about Obama's family, they keep saying it's the first time there are young children in the White House since Kennedy. Amy Carter went totally unnoticed. And I guess they don't think Chelsea Clinton was "young" enough.
When Reagan became president, you got all kinds of looks. How could Americans vote for an actor? So, whether you were for Reagan or not, you found yourself explaining that he had also been governor and so on. There was a kind of anti-American sentiment in the air. As the US had a conservative government, the French voted in Mitterand.
Then Bush Sr. came along, but that was just a continuation of the Reagan years. The Gulf War more or less united everyone, but there was a feeling that the only coalition country that was going to get any business after the war was the US so you felt a little resentment when you said you were American.
Clinton years were pretty friendly. You'd say you were American and people would ask how we could be so naïve and be so upset about a little lie. It was like explaining Watergate. You had to explain how the government worked. It doesn't matter -- no one ever asks you -- what you think of the situation. People just assume that you are either the average American they see in the news and don't undeerstand or that you have adopted their views. They don't ask you.. This can be troublesome.
Most people I dealt with disliked Bush Jr., even before his first term. They felt he had no culture and no knowledge of the world beyond the US borders. It so happens, that's how I felt. But no one asked me. I received all the anti-Bush jokes in my e-mail and critical comments during lunch. By the time re-election came around in 2004, and the boss sent an anti-Bush joke to everyone in the office, I reminded him that he did not know my political opinion, nor the opinions of our colleagues in the US office, and that he shouldn't be sending that kind of stuff to everyone. He gave me a really strange look until I let him know that I happened to agree with him, but did not think it was good etiquette.
During the campaign, I think most of the people I dealt with could not imagine anyone being pro-Republican. Once McCain was the sure candidate, no one said anything against him except that he was too old. However, once Palin was selected, they were incredulous. So was I. They became pro-Obama fairly early in the campaign, but didn't think he'd ever be the candidate. The big change, though, is that when you say you are American, they look at you and smile and congratulate you for electing Obama. Again, it doesn't matter if you did or didn't. They just assume you did. No problem for me, but I imagine Republicans who voted for McCain, here, feel funny.
Paul and I went to the joint AAWE/AARO inauguration party on Tuesday. I don't remember being excited about an inauguration before, to the point of wanting to share the moment. Anyway, we went to this thing and Paul was not the only Frenchman. I observed them watching the procedings. In France the separation of church and state means that church (God) has no place at all in state events -- no invocation, no swearing on a bible, no "God bless France". So that religeous aspect never ceases to amaze them. The whole inauguration celebration is confusing. In France, the new president takes office a few days after the election. There is no prolonged transition period. So, here we Americans are again -- explaining.
I don't know if the French are especially curious. I wonder if Americans who have foreign neighbors are so curious about their elections or their government processes. I think that this curiosity is good. Right now, the people I am in contact with are very happy with the US. There's a kind of euphoria about Obama. That's nice. They smile when you say you're American.

Winter

It's winter and I feel like hibernating. I suppose that once we can actually see the days getting longer, I'll wake up, but right now, I'm feeling very lazy. Not at all ready for the ten days....
We're going down to Toulon in a couple of days to spend Christmas with Marguerite. That should be fun; it ususally is. We're driving down with Anne and Louis is joining us by train. We'll spend Christmas and the 26th as a "small" family and then Claire, Geoff, and Charlotte will arrive. We'll have a day all together before we head back to Paris with Louis and Anne. In Toulon, I imagine, we'll go up to the zoo on Mont Faron and also take in the view and we'll take Marguerite out for meals as much as she can bear. The others will follow on Monday and we'll all have a few days in Paris together before the English contingent returns to England. Louis and Gwen will be with us on the 29th, but then they leave for New York on the 30th.
We've got a day at Disneyland on the schedule and New Year's Eve we've got tickets for "The Lion King"! I've gotten as far as thinking about what we're going to eat and got stalled at that point -- next Monday I'm going to have to get some food in the house.
Yesterday, I stripped all the old sealing joints in the shower and replaced with new silicon. The shower looks much nicer, at last. Ready for guests. Paul was great, doing the clean up.
I also managed to take the time to get the photos from Australia on to the card in the photo frame.
After this, I'll do our New Year's greetings.
I've managed to put the files I've already made of Louette's papers (about 100 scanned letters and such) on to my wiki and hope that Tony and Jon will help out by adding their comments, and perhaps, correcting the order they're in. Next year, I promise to do more on this project. The suitcase the rest of the letters are in happens to be blocked by some of the stuff that either Louis or Claire has stored with us. Louis' stuff should be out soon, when the work on their apartment is done. Paul and I are going to try to get rid of a little bit each month -- easier said than done.
I haven't been on a hike in a long while. I want to go and then something comes up on a Wednesday and I can't, or it's not a walk for me. The weather doesn't help.
A bit over two weeks ago was the AAWE bazaar. I always love that. It's tiring, but I get to see some friends that I only ever see at the bazaar. I didn't think we had as nice used clothing or toys for sale as we usually have. I'm already setting aside next year's offerings -- just have to find somewhere to put the stuff. I ended up buying two books that I realized too late I had already read -- probably my own donations. Happens every year!
Emma called, at last. She and Laurent were stopping in Singapore on their way to Thailand. On Facebook, today, Laurent says they'll be in Phuket by this evening. It's strange following them via Facebook. It's not enough. They had a run-in with corrupt police in Bali. Seems they did not get international drivers' licenses and they got fined for it, but the fine, paid in cash most likely went straight into the cop's pocket.

-------
Pas de grandes nouvelles ces dernières semaines.
Nous attendons les prochains jours avec impatience. Nous allons à Toulon pour voir Marguerite pour les fêtes de Noël. Anne vient avec nous et Louis nous rejoindra en train. Après Noël, Claire, Geoff, et Charlotte arriveront. Nous aurons une journée tous ensemble avant de remonter à Paris. Les Husaunndee suiveront le jour suivant. Ce qui me donne un jour pour faire les courses.
Nous avons des places pour voir "Le Roi Lion" pour le reveillon du Nouvel An et des billets pour passer une journée à Disneyland. Louis et Gwen partent à New York le 30 pour une semaine.
Emma nous a donné des nouvelles la semaine dernière depuis Singapore en route vers le Thaïlande. Aujourd'hui, sur Facebook, Laurant dit qu'ils arrivaient à Phuket ce soir.

Lots of Activity

I'ts been pretty busy these last few weeks. How on earth did I manage to do anything when I was working?

Speaking of working, I went to a job interview at a small company in Fontenay sous Bois - very near home. They are not really paying for a technical writer; it looks more tlike they want a part-time office assistant who can print out whatever is needed for bids as they come up and write new material when necessary. I suggested they use me (through an agency) to do the writing and find someone else for the lesser tasks. It was interesting, though, and I enjoyed the atmosphere of the company.

I saw Yamina - always pick up where we left off - as if it was yesterday. Well, yes I did see her a couple of months ago, but before that, it had been years. She told me about her trips to the States as supervisor of groups of French kids on linguistic trips. The organization she goes with seems to be hooked up with a weird group of host families, mostly evangelical Christians who seem bent on converting their guests. I don't know if it is giving these kids a warped vision of the United States or if I've been away so long, I'm the one with the warped vision.

I also went to a lunchtime AARO meetup at a pizzaria at Montparnasse. That was fun. Most of the 25 or so attendees were members and I already knew several from AAWE and other meetings. Just a pleasant social event.

It's amazing how many Americans are in Paris on a temporary basis. I'm used to seeing the ones like me who are married to French people and even the ones who came to work and have stayed on, but I've been meeting more of the kind that are retired and have come here to spend a year or so and others who still maintain residences in the States, but come here for several months a year. I meet them in the Ile de France walks, too. The falling dollar is an obsession for these people. A few years ago, they were really well off and now, they can barely get through the month. Even for me - when I calculated what I might draw from US funds, I wasn't thinking in terms of almost $1.50 per €1.00.

Last week, I went to a Democrats Abroad for Hillary meeting. It was a conference call with meetings in many major cities around the world and one of the head honchos for Clinton's campaign - a fund raiser. I was hoping for some help in deciding. The meeting was for Hillary supporters, but there were a few of us there who are undecided. I got invited to the Democrats Abroad for Obama meeting the next evening, but didn't go. While we were waiting for the call to begin, we were asked if we had any questions and I offered mine: Why should I, an American living abroad, want to vote for Hillary Clinton? It was deemed a good question and I got to ask it during the conference call. Unfortunately, it didn't get answered. I don't know that there is an answer. Considering all the problems in the States, why should we (some 3-7 million Americans abroad) be of any consequence? Why? Because there are so many of us, we could almost be a state! I could give an easy answer and say that we need tax reform - have our income abroad removed from the tax declaration if we are declaring and paying tax on it where it was earned. But there are other things - when the kids were growing up and I didn't have a clue as to how to pass on the "American" part of us, I could have used some help. In Paris, it is not all that difficult - just join AAWE. But there are many who do not have such help, who can't afford even what is there. Medicare extension, too, for people who paid into the US system all their lives and are now abroad. Again, it doesn't concern me, but it does affect others.

I saw Chilla again at both the AARO meetup and the Dems Abroad for Hillary meeting and yet again at the Jay Gottlieb recital at Neuilly the other evening. This time he played a full program of American composers: Copeland, Ives, Bernstein, Gershwin, Glass, Jarrett, and Adams. I find Ives a bit hard to listen to; the Copeland and Bernstein pieces were not the usual things you hear. Iwas totally hypnotized by the Glass and loved the Koln Concert (Jarrett). Jay is totally absorbed in the music as he plays; he's amazing to watch. And of course, Rita came to this recital, too.

On Mondays and Thursdays I go to an art class in Fontenay, just 10 minutes from home. This replaces the art classes I went to in Paris, before. Last week was the first time I went on a Monday and everyone was doing his or her own thing until the end, when Francine, our hostess and instructor, asked us to bring over our work for group comments. There was the portrait of a man - and I immediately recognized him - our neighbor, Bruno. (Actually, he moved away a few months ago, but still, he was our neighbor for 20 years!) Turns out I'm in class with his sister, Isabelle. And she's a damned good portraitist. Just another instance of the small world phenomenon.

So now, I've spent too long at Anne's computer and it'll be too late to call FNAC to get help getting my own computer in order. I think I screwed up some settings and can't find my wi-fi connection. I'll see if I can get it done on Thursday. Tomorrow, I'm going on a walk at the Parc Citroën. Last week, I joined the walk through the Parc de la Courneuve but did not continue to the Basilique St. Denis.