Ive got a million and one irons on the fire right now and I haven't had much time to write but a friend sent me this picture of Miette from her school's Masked Ball a few weeks back an I thought it was sweet enough to merit posting.
Tomorrow is Mother's Day in France, and my friend Katie R. formerly from Chicago (well really Iowa) but now transplanted to New York City, is coming here to visit me for a couple days before she heads off to Basel Switzerland for a big art fair there. I am excited to have someone visit me that will actually be excited for me to cook lentils! We were cooking/dinner buddies in Chicago and have a deep common love for Madhur Jaffry the Indian actress/cookbook author. Of course, I'm sure she'll also want to try some real French cooking not made by me as well!
Our time is tick-tick-ticking away here. I think of when I posted in the fall of my homesickness for the US, and now I am having premature homesickness for La Rochelle. I think I will spend the last couple weeks bursting in to tears all the times seeing all the people here we have come to know and who have welcomed and befriended us so warmly. I will miss my students too! I get hellos and huge smiles every time I come to my schools, and feel so appreciated by them, and love the fact that in the beginning of the year I felt I'd never learn these hundreds f names and now I not only know their names, I know a little bit of who they are as well. I never did tell about April Fool's Day here- in one of my classes I decided to play an April Fool's Day joke. It is probably my favorite class as well having the oldest and sometimes very rambunctious students. They can give me a hard time, so I decided it was time to teach them a little lesson as well. So I planned it out with the teacher, and before I started my lesson, he told them I had to talk to them about something. I proceeded to tell them that they were such difficult students that I couldn't return to teach them anymore and that it would be my last day with them. They have never been as quiet as they were when I was telling them this. Then the teacher proceeded to ask them what kind of behavior could have prompted such discouragement from me, etcetcetc.... and their faces were absolutely heartbreaking as I looked around the room. Finally I couldn't keep a straight face and as they saw me crack a little smile, someone said, "It's a poisson d'avril!!!!" (an April Fool's Day joke in French is called an April fish). And everyone's expression suddenly transformed when they saw that I had played a trick on them- they were really shaken to think that I would have left them!! Anyway, it was a funny way to feel loved, but I did. All that tangential story to say there will be some wrenching goodbyes.
Miette even admitted to Ryan on the phone that though she is looking forward to coming back to Chicago, part of her is also really digging being here and finding it hard to think of saying goodbye. She is having sleepovers left and right and her friend's Mom says her daughter is already talking about being sad that Miette is leaving because they like each other so much. The child never wants to speak English anymore either! It's nuts! Our friend Stephanie was over the other night for the first time in a couple weeks and she asked Miette a question and she said she could see on her face that she was trying to formulate her response in English but then just went ahead and answered in French because that was the language in which she was thinking and it just came out more easily.
As for my other activities in the present- the running/race training is a lifesaver. It is absolutely melting away the stress that otherwise would kill me as I plan the transition back to Chicago. I feel very balanced and energized. The friend that is running with me (Florence) proposed a bike tour to Ile de Ré last weekend and so we left the kids at her house with her husband and their 4 kids while we headed off à bicyclette. We ended up doing a full two hour intense non-stop ride on a perfectly divine Sunday, from La Rochelle over the 2 kilometer bridge onto the island. We came back relaxed, exhausted and starving to a late lunch of fresh homemade pesto, green salad, fruit salad, and fresh baked orange cookies all prepared by her husband. We ate in peace as the kids bounced on their huge backyard trampoline.
Running is great, but writing is not so hot! I've been invited to be in a writing workshop (in French) on the subject of immigration, travel, foreignness, etc.. that will be set to music and performed for the Fête de la Musique June 21st. Cool idea in theory and a fun experience overall, but what I see is that I'm not really much of a writer in English to begin with but make me try to be poetic in French and I stare at the blank screen my mind becomes and go uh...duh...duh... but I haven't given up yet. I think I just need to devote a little quiet time and space to writing on my own because at this workshop as we write the musicians are simultaneously improvising and playing which involves loud chanting, gongs, African drums and equals a huge distraction.
Well. That's all for now. I need to keep up writing more often to record all of the last sweet moments here. 5 weeks to go........ Mais moi, je t'aime, La Rochelle!
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