Ode to ma chère Barbara and her sweetheart Yann…

It was the beginning of my first semester at Madison, the moment where the students in my program were to meet their French tutor. What a treat, a personal tutor coming from one of Paris’ top commerce schools by our side for the entire semester. Barbara had my heart within minutes… offering me salted caramels from her region and a French fashion magazine. But, my admiration lay deeper than my tummy’s appreciation for her goodies. I was impressed by her knowledge of several subjects in my field of interest, her objectivity and open mind. But one thing shines above all the rest, her sincerity. She is a real peach… genuine and kind. I’ve showered her with compliments from the start and she never got any better at accepting them. I think this is in part, a French thing. If someone praises you, you down play it as much as possible, or just completely ignore it. Even now, Barbara will read this and feel a little uncomfortable… "ah shucks, Lili, you are exaggerating!" But no, not at all. It is my pleasure to provide a multide of proofs.

During Barbara’s semester abroad she had a lot more work than she was used to. On top of that, she was doing correspondence work for her internship based in Paris. Even with her very full schedule she made our weekly meeting a priority. She was a devoted teacher and helped catch even my most subtle errors. In the beginning, I must admit, I was intimidated. She was always on point… prepared and ready to go, with an answer for everything. If she didn’t know right away, by the evening I’d have an email in my box with the pertinent grammar rule and an explanation. When I was tired or a little lazy and repeatedly made the same mistake, she would get concerned. It still makes me laugh… so adorable, “Ah Liliane, oh no, I’m not a good tutor”. But on the contrary, it was the pupil who wasn’t rising to the occasion.

On top of everything else, she would always come through in a pinch. I had several papers to write over the course of the semester in french on some heavy topics. All together, I wrote probably 7 papers… at least 80 pages in all. A mix of procrastination and a super busy schedule resulted in many stressful late nights of racing the clock to finish my work on time. Babs never let me down. I could always send my work to her for one last revision before handing it to the professor. I have never felt so good about my work.

We shared her first “real” Halloween. My room mates and I threw a huge costume party at our pad. She also came over with her boyfriend Yann for Thanksgiving. They were completely dumbfounded by the amount of food… granted, it was a lot… hee hee, the sous-chef and I wanted to do it up right. 15 large dishes for 5 people… but it was the best Thanksgiving meal I’ve ever had! In France, turkeys are not common and I’m not sure that the big ones even exist. Yann was super cute repeating “That’s just the biggest chicken I’ve ever seen!”

Obviously, I was very sad when Barbara left. I remember driving her home on her last night in Madison. Their was a beautiful downpour of snow but it was making it hard to see, especially with eyes all teared up. But, we kept tabs on one another as I finished my year and got ready to leave for France. Once again, Barbara came through… she put me in contact with people looking for sub-leasers. I ended up with such an awesome deal… I LOVE my apartment and my sweet room mate, Fanny.

Since I’ve been in Paris, Barbara and Yann have completely taken me under their wing. In a foreign land, they are the closest thing I have to family. They invite me over for dinner on a regular basis. They include me on almost all their outings. They introduce me to interesting, cool new people. Gosh, I feel so lucky.

And, Baraba is a lucky lady, Yann is fabulous. He and I share 2 of my biggest passions; photography and food. He is an excellent photographer, he definitely has the eye. Eventually some of his shots will be on my blog. And he is a terrific cook. Even when Barbara was in Peru for 3 weeks, Yann made sure to keep in touch, check up on me… he invited me to the school bar for brewskies and pool, we made gourmet dinners together. Lot’s of fun.

I hope to keep these 2 precious people in my life… I’m excited for the rest of my time here with them. It will be great when my honey is here and we can do geeky couple stuff. And, they have each invited me to visit their home towns and to meet the family. Wow, what a privilege… so you can expect to see a blog on Bretagne and Lyon.

Merci Babara, Yann… vous êtes si chers à mon coeur…