Well, this past week and this one coming up I am dealing with taxes -- for two countries. the USA is the only country that taxes its people no matter where they earn their income. As a result of being on French payroll, no withholding for USA income has been taken out, so now I will be writing a huge check to Uncle Sam very soon. A smaller check will go to the French government. UGH!
My French lessons continue, and my teacher swears she will have me fluent in another six months. I confess that she is more optimistic than I, but I am willing to give it the effort required! My interactions with the owners of the stores in the marche' de Sceaux is getting better, as I understand a little more of what they are saying, and can answer some of their questions. I am beginning to hear the price numbers better, too. Anytime I am in a shop with a line, I discretely listen to the conversations around me to try even get the gist of what they are saying, or at least pick out a few words. I also am using French subtitles on my TV, both for French and English programming. I look up new words all the time (as I come across them) using Star Translate on my Android phone, and it also does phrases, and translates in either direction. There are now sticky notes all over the apartment as I try to constantly expose myself to the language.
I made my LSD yesterday, covering the 10 mile (16 km) distance in 96 minutes, a 9:52 pace. The 8th mile (13 km) clocked in the fastest at 9:10. A guy on the sidewalk say me running his direction, and began to mock my running (in good fun) by bobbing and weaving toward me (this was about 6:30 in the morning, and in that 8th mile), and I guess he expected me to adjust my path for his bobbing about. I did not, and you should have seen his face when he realized I was undeterred by his presence! I brushed him aside without changing my path, and he said something, the tone of which was "I was only kidding!" I raised both arms in acknowledgement as I continued, and he laughed, know I was not angry, either.
I felt strong as I finished the run, and I originally intended to have a celebration breakfast (I had not done this run in 2 months) at Le Gare de Saint Michel, a brasserie near the St. Michel RER and Metro stations, just downstream on the left bank from Pont Neuf, my turnaround point. This is also the area for the University of Paris, and the brasserie was packed with what looked like the all-night college crowd. I was pretty sweaty, and the spacing was tight, so I spared everyone and headed back to Sceaux. I usually do an interval run through Sceaux, from the Robinson RER on the rue Houdan into the Marche' de Sceaux, looping back only Rue d'Ecoles to the Coulee Verte, normally a 1.6 mile run (2.6 km). At about the 1.2 mile (2 km) point, I was mentally tired of running. The body felt fine, I was not winded, my legs did not feel fatigued, but mentally I had enough. Weird the way our bodies and minds work with and sometimes against each other...
As you may have seen on my Facebook, I attended a classical guitar recital/competition in Antony, the "ville" immediately south of Sceaux. You can read about it here. We were invited to vote for our favorite performer of the night; of course there were more astute judges for the actual grading of the performances. I walked back from Antony, about 3 miles (5 km), getting home at 11:30 PM (23h30), just in time to catch the pre-game ESPN show for the NCAA national semi-finals. Kentucky received the kiss of death when Digger Phelps picked us to win. He has never like our program. Since Kentucky was the second game, I turned the TV on and napped through the first game. I watched all the Kentucky game against UCONN, but the boys when down 56-55. That was about 5AM (05h00) this morning.
Thanks for coming along!
Mark
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