0102 2010

Happy palindromic second day of yet another un-namable decade (the 10s?). If you're in America, that is--land of the free and home of the patriots who proudly retain our right to ignore the logical choices of the rest of the world to go metric, use Celsius, or sensibly list the date before the month. If you're anywhere else you'll have to wait until another month to enjoy a date that mirrors itself. Which means I'll get a second shot at nerddom when I'm back in France. 11 days and counting...woohoo!

I felt very American yesterday as I enjoyed our traditional New Year's day good luck supper: collard greens and black-eyed peas (with leftover Christmas ham, of course) doused in a healthy amount of French's yellow mustard. I read some of Bill Bryson's "I'm a Stranger Here Myself," which made me reflect fondly on the aspects of my motherland that I miss abroad, then followed it up with the chilling (and excellent) documentary "Food, Inc." which had the opposite effect of making me want to flee as far as possible from the American food machine.

Every moment of my time at home so far seems to provoke cultural reflection. For example: much as France seems to have *finally* discovered recycling, America is finally catching on to some basic green-living things that Europe hit on years ago. The front page of the Washington Post's Metro section this morning was an article praising Giant's new 5-cent reusable grocery bags (next step: start charging five cents for the disposable ones, too). A pre-film PSA at the Princess and the Frog the other day advertised the fact that appliances continue to use electricity even while off and advocated unplugging them when not in use. Baby steps, of course, but I love the movement toward awareness and education.

I have many more comparative cultural musings to share, but I should really stop blogging and keep writing my essay. Here's wishing everyone a wonderful last day of winter vacation; I'll have another post up by the time you're back at work and bored enough to read it.