"My" French graduation

I get asked frequently how my french is going, whether or not is improving, how much I understand and how I'm communicating with people. Here is a little story on that:

I consider myself, and therefore declare it official, as having graduated from French (the language). In other words, I feel I can checkmark the French language box …for now. Of course there is still a lot I have to learn and practice in order to master and be up to par with the language of great writers such as Dumas, Victor Hugo, Maupassant, Moliere and Camus and the language which has left us those words that we always squeeze into our mother language to make us sound so “chic”: déjà-vu, cul-de sac, avant-garde, chic, RSVP, etc etc etc. But during 2 days of the week prior to my trip to London I had to deal with a French plumber who spoke no Spanish, no English and no German. It so happens that one of the hoses on the kitchen sink broke and water started to leak. On Monday morning the bell rang and I opened the door to a lady (one who looked like “la Bruja del 71” from El Chavo or Samantha’s mother in “Bewitched”) and a gentleman. They came to figure out why there was water leaking from our apartment into hers. She even asked me to accompany her to her apartment so I could see myself the water leaking into her kitchen wall and the damage it was causing to her allegedly “just painted” wall. Of course!!! It never fails: they’ve always just painted the wall when something from your apartment leaks into their’s; people always have a small baby or a dying relative when they are out of power and are talking to you, an employee of the electric utility company; and passengers always have their most expensive and valuable object or the medicine they need to take every 8 hours or else they will die, in the bag that they checked-in and did not arrive on their flight and you are an employee of the airline’s baggage service. But I guess that is a whole other story on its own. In any case, the plumber looked at the sink and gave me his first diagnosis: Mademoiselle, one of the sides of the sink is broken; don’t use it for now and just use the other side which is OK. He later came back, checked to make sure the leaking had stopped. It hadn’t, so he checked it again and gave me his second diagnosis and the information I needed to provide to my roommate as to what needed to be done: replace one of the little hose that carries the water to the sink valve. Please mind you that all of these conversations were taking place in French. I wasn’t really prepared to discuss plumbing issues in French. I don’t even recall learning any “plumbing” words or the “plumbing” language in class…or maybe I just missed class that day…ja ja ja!!.
The following day he came back to change out the hose but he ran into a small problem and that is when he gave me his third and final diagnosis: The whole piece (the faucet) had to be replaced as this one was not a standard one which could just take any hose. To make a long story short I had to go with him to the “Sherwin Williams’ type of store across from my building and purchase the piece. 30 minutes later he had fixed the sink, the leaking had stopped and I was very happy to have communicated with him in French all the time. Not bad, is what I say!

I’m currently back from London (where I had a great time) and in my last week in Paris. My friend Eliana Silva from Munich came to visit me and just got here last night. Giving her a tour of Paris for the next couple of days will give me a chance to visit my favorite places one last time before leaving and to say good by to this amazing city which I will miss tremendously. This morning, as I was coming back home from my jogging it dawned on me how much I will miss Paris. I don’t get tired of saying how amazing, wonderful and spectacular this city is to me.

The London story and the pictures to come soon!!!