Honor the Texas Flag

A mysterious red car sits on the side of a street I pass going to tutor Hinata. Two stickers decorate its back window. One is the Scottish flag, the other is a Texas flag in the shape of Texas. It made me so happy to spot the flag the first time! I thought maybe some English speakers lived there. So, before vacation, I left a "I like your flag" note under the windshield wiper.

Well, yesterday, a woman was weedwhacking in the lawn outside the house next to the red Peugot. Seeing that I was early, I mustered up some courage and asked her about the car. Turns out it indeed belongs to her! Apparently Mary Elise and her husband travel to the US every year (and have for the last 10 years), and they visited Texas last summer. She said she really liked Austin and found all the Texans she met quite charming.

At some point her husband and father-in-law came outside to talk, too. The father-in-law was cute because he ended or began each sentence to me with Mademoiselle. According to books, this is a very old-fashioned mannerism. Feminists in France strongly object to Mademoiselle like the Miss/Mrs/Ms controversy at home. But I think it's sweet. Which is good because it's common here in the country.

Another mannerism I find charming--the die-hard penchant for 10 and 11 year old kids to avoid holding hands with members of the opposite gender AT ALL COSTS. Yesterday my class played a game called Fishs and Nets in the courtyard where we held hands in a circle. Instead, actually the girls grabbed the boys' jacket sleeves just next to their wrists.