French TP-ing the Past January 22, 2008
Posted by caratime2 in Connecting with the Past.trackback
Once again I sat down behind my laptop to work. Once again I was immediately distracted by a quick trip to check out what’s new on some of my favorite expat blogs.
Madame K, of My So-Called Life in France fame, got the wheels of nostalgia turning when she shared her personalized version of a questionnaire a well-known expat site publishes. It was a howl! And made me instantly regret that there was no such thing as blogs/blogging/bloggers when I first moved to Strasbourg, France in 1974. Although I have my memories, much has been forgotten. Although I wrote lots of letters, a lot of them probably no longer exist.
I remember one letter to my parents, for example, I wrote on what was passed off to us ignorant expat kids as French toilet paper. Seriously, that stuff resembled nothing as much as a thinner version of what Americans use to make brown shopping bags! Coming from the land of Charmin and Mr. Whipple (bless his soul) there is NO WAY I could take that stuff serious. Let’s just say, too, that its effectiveness was…*ahem*…sub-par.
One of my favorite things about 2007 is the fact that I was virtually reunited with three of the girls from my year in Strasbourg. Susan and Priscilla are both back in the States; Lena is back in Lebanon. I think we’ve all enjoyed touching bases with one another and finding out what life has held in store for us since our wilder times spent at the Château.
Above: A picture of me, Priscilla and Carol taken in Strasbourg in 1974.
I’m speechless! Could that really be us? Am loving this blog idea of yours Trina – brings back so many memories. I hadn’t checked my e-mail for a week and now I’m so totally involved reading all the blogrolls. Well done and thanks for all your work on this wonderful venture.
It’s given me such pleasure to have found you in 2007 and to get a slice of German everyday life from time to time.
Priscilla
Now that I’ve started, I don’t know what took me so long! I just found myself reading all the other expat blogs and thinking “Wow! I remember when I went to XX and we XXX, too!” Sometimes I would write about my adventures in a short comment on someone else’s blog, but that was only partially satisfying.
Getting back in touch with you, Susan and Lena and hearing about what’s gone on in your lives since Strasbourg probably really got this ball rolling!
Thanks for leaving your comments, too. They are a real inspiration to keep this up!
Trina