Random thoughts from September 10th

HAPPY GARDEN

There it is and it works. I've still got a little bit of cosmetic work to do around the ground, but other than that it's good to go. Unfortunately, other than the day I took this picture (late one afternoon), the weather has looked like this since it's been completed, about a week ago.

This may look somewhat similar to a picture on our website. Trust me, it's the same piece of panoramic bliss, it's just covered by fog (I guess it's called fog although if I drive down into the valley and look up I call it a cloud. All about your point of view I guess). Anyway, it is apparently rainy season here. I don't know if all this rain is normal, but if it is the roads don't show it. There are several spots on the road that have large portions of earth and trees now encroaching in on them. Not a huge deal back home as you can see a road hazard well in advance, but here they tend to jump out at you, making driving even more of a white knuckle thrill ride.

Normally the driving isn't to crazy. For the most part people allow you to be a slow defensive driver if you so chose, they just don't follow suit. There is a 3 km section of road on the way to our house that the kids have dubbed the "crazy road". We started using it versus a longer (probably safer) route, because we are really trying hard to "live like the French". As a general rule we find this seems to make life easier. Then one of the tutors showed up (10 minutes late) to our house and asked, "Do you take that back road?" "You're crazy". Apparently not all French people think it's a good idea.

For the folks that do use this road every day, it is cleary a different story. Dana has a couple of wide spots where she routinely pulls over to let people pass. I'm not sure this is what they want, in fact, I'm convinced it's the opposite. As close as they follow, they've got to be drafting. Europeans are much more conscious about fuel comsumption, you know. I, on the other hand, never let them pass. I just ignore them. Or.....Two days ago, I was coming up the road by myself, one of my favorite songs was on the radio (via my iPod of course), I was feeling good, and a BMW turned on the road right behind me. I hit the gas, started going through gears and my goal became to make sure that I didn't have a car tailgating me when I made it to the top of the hill. Mission accomplished, by the time I made it to the top I had two cars tailgating me. Even worse was that I was treating it like the Grand Prix with a concentration level to matchh while the guy directly behind me was checking his Email. Maybe the real problem was my VW minivan.

School is still going well, or as well as can be expected. By that I mean that the kids like going and seem to be having fun. As for what they do at school, who knows? In hindsight I should have expected to be clueless for a while, but it has kind of hit Dana and I like a 2x4 (or the metric equivalent) to the head. For those of you that know us well, you know that saying that Dana and I like to be on top of things is putting it mildly. Well, toss that out the window. Here is a standard conversation after school with Audrey (the poor kid)

Us: "How was school?"

Aud: "Good"

Us: "What did you do today?"

Aud: "I played outside and Lane chased me some"

Us: "Ok, what did you do in class?"

Aud: "I don't know"

Us: "Do you have any homework?"

Aud: "I don't know, look in my yellow folder"

Us: "Yes, Audrey, it's all in French. Do you have any idea what you're supposed to do"

Aud: "No, it's all in French"

Us: "ummm, OK"

Repeat every day

They tell us that this is normal and that she'll figure it out, as will we. I sure hope so, because it's hard to do anything about it. Before I chilled a few degrees, I decided that one morning I'd just ask her teacher how it was going. Her teacher speaks less English than I do French. It was a short conversation. However, via broken French and body language I gathered that there was nothing to worry about. Hope so.

Dana and I decided a long time ago that this was an excellent opportunity for the kids. They'll learn a second language at the best possible time and be better off for it. Everyone we talked to agreed, it's a fact. However, it seems a little like me saying that I want to run a marathon. It's easy to see yourself thinned down and in great shape on raceday, the part you gloss over is getting to that point. Well, that's where the kids are now. It is a lot of frustrating work. Honestly it's probably harder on Dana and I, but it's going to be a long month and a half till the first break.

Speaking of the first break.....Here is where we are headed.

http://www.bandbnormandie.com/

We are really looking forward to it. Normandy is about an 8 hour drive, but it should be fun. We'll leave early and break it up

A couple more notes about school. The kids stayed for lunch (a.k.a. Canteen) yesterday, meaning that I dropped of the kids at 8:15 and picked them up at 4:30. A very long day for them, but it went great. They loved it. Their lunch is hard to believe. They sit down for close to an hour and have four courses. From what I gathered, their menu was as follows: 1-Some sort of seasonal melon 2-Ravioli and sauce with cheese 3-a cheese course of some sort 4-Desert was a collection of seasonal fruits. A little different from your standard cafeteria fodder and the alloted 15 minutes (maybe) to inhale it. The flip side is that it should be for 5 euros each per day. They certainly view food differently over here and it starts at a very young age.

On Saturday we went to our local "Forum des Associations". This is a fabulous idea. Sports are not school related in France, they are public and are village or city related. Every Septembre, there is a Saturday devoted to signing kids (and adults) up for everything from pottery class to ping-pong. If you are new to a town, you don't have to search out who is in charge of what. It's all right here in one large room on one day.

Everyone got signed up for something. Yes, everyone. Dana signed up to play some volleyball one night a week and I signed up for local basketball, which I was told actually travels to play against other villages. I took this as an excellent indicator as to the level of play. Who would waste their time at something they suck at? Well, apparently plenty of people. I haven't actually been yet, but since signing up I spoke with a local ex-pat and fellow Midwesterner who did not give me good reviews. Oh well, we'll see. I'll be sure to update Hopefully the volleyball is a little better.

As for the kids, they are very excited. Audrey is signed up for ballet. She could not be more exicited. She starts next Wednsesday after which we will probably have to buy shoes and a tu-tu. For Lane, we'll be buying a judogi, that is the name for the judo uniform. He hasn't been to one lesson and already acts the expert. It gives him an excuse to run around chopping and kicking (like he needed one). We've been told that the teacher is excellent and stresses discipline, so we'll hope he likes it after he's told it's not just running around doing karate like SpongeBob.

WARNING: The following story conatins graphic images. It is not for the easily queasy.

Do you remember me mentioning the slugs? I wasn't joking around. It's like a plague of locusts only they're slimy, terrestrial, and slow moving.

This picture is of the beginning of my children's "slug collection". They were bored one afternoon so they decided to start hunting. They used Audrey's butterfly net to bring them to a pile 3 feet from my chair, which, at first, I condoned. Slugs are slow, but when you leave to collect a net full a few sprinters can start to get away, which was constantly interrupting my book reading. (terrible, I know) Plus, for some reason this upset Audrey. She wanted all the slugs to stay together, in their "family". So, I (scientist that I am) constructed a simple cheap "slug prison". Unfortunately this prison, like most prisons, was constructed before the number of known inmates was determined, which is always many more than you ever thought possible. Part of the reason for the increase in number is that they somehow, someway got Dana to help them collect.

What you are looking at is 300+ slugs in a circle of Sea Salt. Who needs TV.

I say that jokingly because, the anser is me. I was oblivious, until Sunday afternoon (our time), to the current status of American sports. Then an email alereted me to the fact that it was opening Sunday for the NFL. I suddenly had an acute attack of home sickness. Now, I'm working on eventually gettng a satellite dish that includes some NFL games, but I don't have it yet. So, I started searching frantically for some way to scratch my NFL itch. Specifically the Bears. I figured that, considereing all predictions, I'd better watch some of the 1st half of the season, because I probably wouldn't care by the second half.

The good news is that I actually found a way to buy all NFL games via the internet for those out of the U.S.. The bad news is that, for some yet undiscovered reason, our internet is extremely inconsisstent in the evening. So, there I was late Sunday night cornocopia of NFL games at my disposal and my internet would not stay connected for more than 5 minutes at a time. I was not a fun person to be around. Luckily (for me anyway) the games are archived and the internet works like a dream during the day. Good thing I don't have a job to get in the way!

GO BEARS!