Taking the chance to look through someone else's eyes...by kim

My theme last week seemed to be about reminiscing, this week, I seem to be thinking a lot about seeing things differently, through someone else's eyes, through a French person's eyes.

Since knowing Thomas, I am amazed at how one person could change one big person and 2 little peoples points of views. He has given us the gift of looking outside of our boxes! Making us realize there was more than just the views that we had been presented in our giant bubble of a country. We have so much diversity, but unless we actually listen to those people we will only see it the ways a family presents it or worse, how media presents it.

I grew up with a German mom, so I have more of a European background than the normal American. But she never presented or taught so much to us. With every little thing, the frog is teaching us, showing us a different way. It's all so interesting and unless its pointed out to you, you just think it's normal for everyone.

When he first came here, he wondered why the houses didn't have fences and gates, well I explained that we liked to be free and not have such monstrosities and confinements, but then recalled how much I adored the fences and gates in Germany. Yeah why don't we have little fences outlining our yard, we don't really want our neighbors on our property, or their dogs, or kids and we just expect them to know where that property is exactly!

When he noticed all the houses were made in wood, he wondered why they were not in stone, surely the insulation would be much better and they would last longer, and besides that how could families pass down houses and keep them in the families years after, if they were made in wood, they would never last more than a hundred years. I had no clue, we've come up with many theories, from wood being cheaper, to people moving so often, not really caring if a house lasted or not, to that way back when France was building houses they mainly had stone and not many 2x4's. But really I had no idea!

He gave us a new way of eating chocolate, before we would just chomp down a whole bar, we loved it so much, he taught us to take a small piece, savor it in our mouths, enjoy it, and put it away, to wait for the next day. Pickles gave one of his favorite teachers a chocolate bar, and explained that is the best way to enjoy chocolate. Believe me, at first, when he gave us this spiehl, we looked at eachother and said "okay, but really can we have another piece NOW", but slowly, we realized it does taste so much better when we savior it!

So now we take our time while eating, we put less importance on getting the dinner on the table by 6pm, and take our time getting it ready as a family, setting a nice table, (or at least trying) cooking together, chatting and eating as late as 8 or 9pm. At first I questioned, but its not good to eat so late, its bad for indigestion and it will add pounds quickly, he reminded me that the French have been doing it forever and don't suffer from those problems I stated.

When I first met him, and we were talking about how much we were learning from eachother. I made the comment, that every American, should have in their lifetime, a Penpal from another country, just to discuss differences and pick each others brains! It's a big world out there, and things are different all over, but all in all, (as one of my most favorite blogger says) people are people, the world over!