I don't know why, but I have the hardest time understanding hair cutters in France. It is as if they all took a course on how to speak at just the right frequency that I can only hear hard consonants. I mean they just start talking, and it is not that I wouldn't necessarilly understand what they are trying to say to me, but I can't hear them! Yesterday they repeated something three times for me and finally they just asked if I spoke English. I felt totally stupid. And the music is always so loud! And I'm used to loud music! Whenever I go into a French salon, I feel befuddled by all the noise and the inablility to hear anything anyone says to me. And it doesn't help that I have no idea how to describe what I want done to my hair in French, so I just end up saying something about layers then they tell me what they want to do, which I can't hear, so I just nod and say oui and hope it turns out ok. So far so good.
Conclusion- get a hearing aide specifically for getting my haircut.

The italians. Who knew they could be so friendly? After spending the majority of my time with the French, who are nice, though not always the most overly friendly people, taking a weekend break to Venice was exactly what the doctor ordered. Not only were the Italians nice, they went out of their way to be especially accomodating to us. And they were so nice about the language barrier. None of us spoke Italian, but amazingly enough they really seemed to understand our French and what little Spanish we could speak.
And Venice. I can't remember who told me they didn't like Venice, but are you crazy? What a great city! Even while overrun with Carnival tourists, the city was incredible. I got lost constantly, but everytime I turned a corner there was something new to see. New churches (they appear to have one every 10 feet), new stores, new gelato shops . . . and they we took a gondola ride. They are just as wonderful as Hollywood makes them out to be. I even got rowed past Mozart's house! And it was at sunset and beautiful.
Conclusion: get off your butt and get to venice, and forget your English at home, no one seemed to really speak it.

I would just like to tell everyone how awesome the italians are. More later.