A francophile comes into the world
At the end of summer 1981, a spectacular rumor spread among the kids in my small http://www.groupe-lagrange.co.uk/mens-lacoste/mens-outwear.html long island town:Our seventh grade class was purchasing a french exchange student that year.All i knew was that the majority of his name was guillaume, which my mother told me was bill in french, and that he would be living with a family whose son would france in guillaume's stead.
I was stoked.I had seen film production company private benjamin and was smitten with its portrayal of paris and armand assante's character, henri, a new dpershing, soccer playing doctor with an exquisite accent and chateau.I started having dreams about guillaume and what he might be like.
All i knew about french people right then and there was that they seemed to love food and wine, romance and underwater research but that was enough for me.Likewise, my grandma was born there, so i considered myself french despite the truth her family only lived on the outskirts of paris a few years while en route to ellis island from russia.That pit stop always sounded so exotic futhermore so than, mention, fleeing a pogrom and exotic wasn't something which happened on http://www.groupe-lagrange.co.uk/ long island very often, when.
My mother had some graduating college french, so in the waning days of august she educated me in a few words: "Bonjour,"Au revoir,"Phillipe s'av'e rrtre dans la piscine, i practiced all over the house and asked every kid in the area if they'd heard about guillaume, and was surprised when no one seemed as excited as i concerned his imminent arrival.But then it dawned on me that i wouldn't have much rival for his friendship, and he was sure to be rapt by my command of his native tongue: "Bonjour,"Au revoir,Yet, You can, The exact pice de rsistance, "Phillippe se 'vrrle rrtre dans la piscine, i didn't hear all others kids in those parts brushing up on any french.
I saw him in the hallway that initial day, and it was kismet no less for me.He had freckles and http://www.groupe-lagrange.co.uk/mens-lacoste.html a blood blonde, bowl shaped new hair-Do, and his clothes looked distinctive from ours, what with 1981 being long before globalization made everyone look basically the same.His denim denims, although blue denim enjoy the levi's we wore, had a very different look to them, and exactly how his crisp, white collar rested on his navy blue crewneck sweater had a je ne sais quoi companies which i'd never before experienced.Then ended up being the sneakers.The pair were a slim, white material, and didn't take a look all like our nikes.I spent half a lunch period gazing at them before i could make out the brand:Lacoste.
That night after barbeque, when i had finally finished regaling his dad with tales of guillaume, i attempt to learn what i could about france so that i might befriend him.I taken into consideration some world book encyclopedias, and hereafter became, i want, the only kid that year at oakdale bohemia junior high school to initiate chitchats about cassoulet, anas nin the actual films of the nouvelle vague.
I was thrilled and a little hurt, to the, when guillaume didn't seem to like what i had learned.He wanted to speak english and have a discussion about american football, the dukes of hazzard and ocean pacific sweat shirts.It took me a while to do not forget that i wouldn't be able to dazzle him with my knowledge of france, a place i only really knew by using goldie hawn and what i'd gleaned from the encyclopedias i'd read.
As the institution year went on http://www.groupe-lagrange.co.uk/mens-lacoste/mens-outwear.html i decided that i liked guillaume fine, but he wasn't the best person in the universe like i thought he'd be.He was a nice boy with extraordinary clothes and a great accent, and i soon a reality that i, just due to being american, had seemed unique to him, too no less at first.But once our fantasies of one another melted away, we were only a few kids in junior high.Guillaume went home at the end of the college year and i forgot about him.
I have since traveled to france alot of the time and during each visit i think of him.I often scan faces of 40 year old frenchmen, struggling to find guillaume, although i probably wouldn't recognize him if we ran smack into each other immediately in the tuileries.And even, if we did, i doubt he'd remember me or we'd have all that much to share.
I sometimes keep in mind what i'd say, even so, if i were to get him again.Perhaps i'd tell him how that year informed a lot of who i am now?Maybe i'd mention how his presence nurtured my sales of other cultures, as well as an admiration of my own curiosity?Or i might tell him that for this lifetime of a most fulfilling francophilia, which he helped teach me merci beaucoup!
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