News from the Mister

So this is my time again to tell everyone Bonjour... As Dorothee is making all of you wait for the next instalment of our story on the ranch... I hope all of the people reading this are doing well and experiencing the most that life has to offer... As for me, it's terrible fun to be around such a lovely person such as my wife... She's incredible and without her and her support I would be Les Miserable Homme that I was before I met my tres special wife... See I try to put some French in here and there even when she is not around to help me... I know I know I must work on getting that in tune so that I can communicate better with everyone posting on this site and with Dorothee's family... But they make it so easy for me to just speak English with them seeing how they all love speaking English with me... I mean really!!!! How often do they get to speak English to someone... Now they have to excuse to practice everytime I'm around... O.K. O.K. So that's a terrible reason for me to procrastinate learning the language of my beloved wife... I will come around in due time...

Alright... Now that's said and done... Let's get to the nitty gritty part of this blog... I've been asked to write on so many subjects and it would take me the rest of the day to write on all of them... I've decided to be fair and write about a subject that one of my "new family" has asked me... So this blog is for Gwladys, my cousin-in-law who is soon going to be in the same shoes as Dorothee and I with a new job bringing her to the U.S. and with her American Boyfriend just hours away... I hope she knows that she will have to make a special trip down to Texas so that Dorothee and I can meet this young man who has captured the heart of this lovely French woman... Is it me or does it seem that French girls really dig American boys??? Is there something special in the water that we drink here that makes French girls go "Ga-Ga" over us... I like to think so... But I have to admit... I knew Dorothee didn't stand a chance when it came to me... Because, Come on now... We are talking about me now... How could she even think about not being with me for the rest of her life...

Gwladys wanted to know what I thought about French girls before I actually fell in love and married... Hmmmm, honestly I hadn't given it much thought... It was a fluke me running into Dorothee and a pleasant one at that... I have to say though, that Americans are not subjected to much of the French culture or the French language... Most of what Americans see about the subject are from the Cinema or TV... For example... A lot of Americans see films like the "Pink Panther" and we assume that is what a Frenchmen sounds like when speaking English... Although Peter Sellers as Insp. Jacques Clouseau does a fine job with the French accent it wasn't till much later that I found out that French people don't sound like that when they speak English...


Let me think about some of the more stereotypical French cliches that Americans have of the French... Hmmmm..... First one that comes to mind is "Smelly" I think this stereotype comes from the very old days before "Running Water" inside the house, back when you had to carry buckets of water up to the house in order to take a bath... Or bathe in the pond, lake or river... But I have to defend the French here.... DIDN'T WE ALL STINK BACK THEN????

O.K. next would be the Cuisine Francaise... Snails... I have to admit... That's one most Americans have trouble wrapping their tongues around... But I guarantee though, that any American that wraps their lips around one of those succulent mouth watering Garlic Herb Butter stuffed delicacies all steaming fresh from the oven will know exactly why the French love to put a large platter of them on the table... Thank God for my wife introducing me to that little gem of heaven in Paris... Anybody else hungry right now or is it just me???

Hmmm.... I know there are tons more of examples but my mind is just coming up blank right now... As I think of them in the future I will try to remind myself to post them so that you all can tell me if you have encountered that stereotype or if it's something new to you...

I think that to answer the question about what it's like to be married to a French woman I would have to say that it's the same facination that French people have for the Americans... I think anyone who comes up to you with an intriguing accent and talks to you for any length of time you get so caught up in the fact you are just spell bound or mesmerized by the beautiful sound coming from their voice that you find yourself listening more intently to them than you do any other person you socialize with... And isn't that the most important feature in any relationship??? Communication is the single most essential part of any relationship... Let me get off my "Soap Box"... I have to say that... I'm a Communication Studies Major at the University, so that's what I'm taught... Anyway... I found myself just curious and more curious about getting to know Dorothee, partly because she was French and it's always interesting to get a completely different point of view about things than I have or hear over here, partly because she's SUPER HOT and I love the attention we get when we walk in the streets... Partly because I love listening to her speak... But most of all it's because I never get tired of learning new things about her... It's obvioius that Dorothee and I come from different worlds... And I'm sure that Gwladys can agree that with her new boyfriend Dan, that it's just a completely different environment to be around that persons family and friends than it was spending anytime with family and friends in France... Completely different worlds, and I love that about my relationship with Dorothee... It's something special... You never can explain it properly or give it the justice it deserves... But trust me when I say that the communication even if misunderstood from time to time is the greatest gift in a relatioinship between the two countries... So all you people that's dating interculturally... Congrats!!!

Well I think that's all I have for this post... But this isn't bad... 2 posts in the same month... Maybe I will get just as addicted to this thing as my wife... I think I'm hearing that I need to post about how Dorothee and I met and tell my side of the story.... Hmmmm I'll have to think about that... Let me know what you think....

The Mister