Every now and again while traveling you are struck by an experience that reminds you of the incredible and beautiful diversity that we have in the world and how languages and cultures can bridge that diversity in unexpected ways. My first of these such experiences occurred on one of my very first travel adventures, a week-long trip to Brussels, Brugges, and Paris.

On the last night of the final stop in my adventure, at the Notre Dame in Paris, I sat down to eat a picnic dinner that I had bought myself when I serendipitously stumbled upon a Boulangerie (bakery), Charcuterie (meat shop), and Fromagerie (cheese shop) all adjacent to each other. As I was eating, a man sat down a few feet to my right and proceeded to do the same. Continue reading →