LIZ SAYS: Dick has been gone for over a week. It seems like forever. He will be gone for some time longer. Being alone in a country where you have a tiny understanding of the language is a bit difficult. Being used to talking to someone constantly, now, I feel like a monk. Solitary, soundless. I can plug the earbuds into my ears and listen to music in my new language. That reminds me of the feeling that made me move here in the first place. But, the silence is deafening. I realize how much I miss my friends and how few friends I have now. When a couple of people are busy in Paris, the silence is deafening. I turned off the cell phone and computer today, just so I would know that no on could call. It was easier than thinking someone could and didn’t. Yesterday was gorgeous, I sat in the Luxembourg Gardens for 3 hours and sketched. Time passed without me even noticing. Pity party for me. Dick is taking care of family. It is a sweet thing. So, I am noticing the things I didn’t before. The birds swarming and swirling in the sky over our apartments at 7:17 p.m.. You could set you watch by them. They are beautiful and amazing in the most mundane of ways. Swirling above the apartment buildings gathering and eating, I assume. Nature can be so beautiful.