going to la rochelle

Goodbye Friends and Neighbors, Farewell to the CIty that has embraced us so warmly pt 2

2008-06-27T15:54:00.001-07:00

Goodbye Friends and Neighbors, Farewell to the CIty that has embraced us so warmly

2008-06-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

2008-06-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

Leaving La Rochelle

2008-06-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

I am so sad right now. I feel like I am being torn apart and I'm not sure where the pieces will end up. As we investigate returning to Chicago but finding a new neighborhood,a new school for the kids, and new schedule I feel like I am going to a country more foreign than this was when we came. When we arrived in La Rochelle we had someone help us find a place to live, recommend a good school and were so lucky as to live just around the corner from the school. Somehow I never doubted from the first time I visited the schools that they would be a place where I could be comfortable leaving my kids, even with them not speaking the language. In Chicago, every school is like a fortress, and a labyrnth- they all seem so big, so distant, so troubled, so industrial. I was so set on this idea of having continuity between our experience here and after our return by Miette being able to continue in the bilingual French-American School. After tireless searching, and an increase in our price range for rent, there still is nothing available in the district which is necessary for enrollment in that school. I feel like I am so lost again, and with one week to go , we are back at square one. I know we have been exceptionally lucky here, and that it's not everywhere in France that you find a lovely little neighborhood school that feels like a family, but we have it and I am so deeply grateful for all we have- every teacher in the school knows Miette, and Miette knows almost every name of every kid in the school. There are fewer than 150 kids total. Julian's preschool is across the street, and many kids in his class have siblings in Miette's class. Julian is so loved at his school. It is his little family, full of 5 and 6 year old girls that mother him and boys that he loves to be silly with.

I keep leaving little pieces of myself every time I move- Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Paris, Hyde Park, La Rochelle. I think it's okay for me, but I am realizing that its' not the same thing for the kids. I am not ready to take their hearts away from here yet, though I know they need to reunite their hearts with their Daddy. I want us to be together and I also want them to have a great school, and a great neighborhood, and all the other things we all want for our kids. We do miss friends and family, it's true, but I guess, all the other aspects of day to day living weigh in heavily on my attachment to being here.

I think I need to do a little meditating and reflecting through a Buddhist lens- everything is impermanent, right Lynn? It is uncertain how long present conditions will remain. Everything is fresh and meaningful, radiant with unlimited potential....But grief is natural too, and I am feeling the grief right now. Trying to let it wash over me, not holding on or holding in, just feeling the sadness of letting go, and the sadness of not knowing. Which can be a joy as well, the joy of potential. Anything can happen but nothing is guaranteed. I suppose the best thing I can do for myself and everyone else is to keep my center strong and clear, and my intentions directed towards positive results.

I will finally out up some photos from Julian's Fête de l'Ecole. He is wearing pom-poms on his wrist and "lifting weights". They did a mock sort of fitness competition for the kids "show" to jazz music and it was pretty cute. I tried a few days back to post the video but it took so long then didn't work that it put me off blogging for awhile. Then I got sick and still feel crappy, and Julian got sick as well,and no on e has slept well for a few nights now. And now in my emotional state I have to pack up our stuff, only 11 day to go- and go to a hundred parties in all my spare time.

I did it!

2008-05-31T13:43:00.001-07:00

That's me coming in to the finish line of my 10 kilometer race this morning. It was hot and sunny and at started at 4 PM, all things I'm not used to when I've been running, and it was a strange experience to have to start out running in a crowd and trying to weave around and pace myself in the midst of so many different runners. My friend Florence who has been "training" with me didn't want to actually do the race, so my friend Lucy ran with me though we had only run together once before. I did the race in one hour (and 22 seconds).That was my goal and I did it! I feel great, but my legs are a little sore at the moment! At the end of the race we all got a rose, a t-shirt, and a cool travel hanging toilet kit. There were many friends along the way that cheered us on- all 2000+ participants!! Miette watched with a group of grown-up friends and we saw other parents and their kids from her school both as spectators and (moms) as runners.

My thanks to Juliet for the initial inspiration to try a race!

Jules finally in French

2008-05-24T15:29:00.000-07:00

Ludothèque outdoors part 2

2008-05-24T15:16:00.000-07:00

Our day at the Ludothèque Outdoor Game Festival

2008-05-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

Miette at the Masked Ball

2008-05-24T13:46:00.000-07:00

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!

Il Meurt Lentement

2008-05-09T00:30:00.001-07:00

This is a poem by Pablo Neruda that I read aloud in French last night at slamalamer. Valerie had brought it with her and it really spoke to me. It is originally written in Spanish, I read it in French and I am going to post a translation in English although I found that all the English translations I came up with are a little odd in places.

Il meurt lentement
celui qui devient esclave de l'habitude
refaisant tous les jours les mêmes chemins,
celui qui ne change jamais de repère,
Ne se risque jamais à porter une nouvelle couleur
Ou qui ne parle jamais à un inconnu

Il meurt lentement celui qui fait de la télévision son guide

Il meurt lentement
celui qui évite la passion
celui qui préfère le noir au blanc, les points sur les "i" à un tourbillon d'émotions
celles qui redonnent la lumière dans les yeux
et réparent les cœurs blessés.

Il meurt lentement
celui qui ne change pas de cap
lorsqu'il est malheureux
au travail ou en amour,
celui qui ne prend pas de risques
pour réaliser ses rêves,
celui qui, pas une seule fois dans sa vie,
n'a fui les conseils sensés.

Il meurt lentement
celui qui ne voyage pas,
celui qui ne lit pas,
celui qui n’écoute pas de musique,
celui qui ne sait pas trouver
grâce à ses yeux.

Il meurt lentement
celui qui détruit son amour-propre,
celui qui ne se laisse jamais aider.

Il meurt lentement celui qui passe ses jours
à se plaindre de sa mauvaise fortune ou de la pluie incessante.

Il évite la mort celui qui se rappelle qu'être vivant requiert un effort bien plus important que le simple fait de respirer.

Die Slowly
by Pablo Neruda

He who becomes the slave of habit,
who follows the same routes every day,
who never changes pace,
who does not risk and change the color of his clothes,
who does not speak and does not experience, dies slowly.

He or she who shuns passion,
who prefers black on white,
dotting ones “is” rather than a bundle of emotions,
the kind that make your eyes glimmer,
that turn a yawn into a smile,
that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings, dies slowly.

He or she who does not turn things topsy-turvy,
who is unhappy at work,
who does not risk certainty for uncertainty,
to thus follow a dream,
those who do not forego sound advice at least once in their lives, die slowly.

He who does not travel,
who does not read,
who does not listen to music,
who does not find grace in himself, dies slowly.

He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem,
who does not allow himself to be helped,
who spends days on end complaining about his own bad luck,
about the rain that never stops, dies slowly.

He or she who abandon a project before starting it,
who fail to ask questions on subjects he doesn’t know,
he or she who don’t reply when they are asked something they do know, die slowly.

Let’s try and avoid death in small doses,
always reminding oneself that being alive requires an effort by far
greater than the simple fact of breathing.
Only a burning patience will lead to the attainment of a splendid happiness.

Twittering little girl

2008-05-05T02:46:00.000-07:00

Miette had a friend from school sleep over last night. They had come up with a plan to go together to this neighborhood festival that took place yesterday then come back here for a sleepover and go to school together the next morning (today). Her friend's mother and I agreed with the plan on the condition that they were in bed and asleep on time so they wouldn't be tired for the school day. All went well except for the impression that my child had turned into a French bird on amphetamines. Chirp chirp chirping away in French. Miette took it upon herself to remind me that Marie didn't speak English and to correct my pronunciation of things in French and to make jokes and was basically talking non-stop until they fell asleep at night and when they woke up until I dropped her off at school. It was if she had turned into a different animal. She never talks so much and so quickly when she speaks English! What is going on? It was cute and very annoying at the same time. She was making bad puns in French! (THAT is a talent she inherited from her good old Dad, I guess it doesn't matter what language she's speaking.)

Otherwise, we have had a beautiful weekend of warm weather and relaxed activities. The doors and windows have been open to let in the breeze and the warmth and we dined al fresco on the balcony for lunch on Sunday. The only downside to this is that the spiders are back and they've obviously had an easy winter- they are big, scary, and they bite. We caught the biggest one yet yesterday- the photo isn't great but I'm posting it anyway because I want you to see the beast. Hopefully you can get a sense of scale from the picture.

Les Trois Singes de la Sagesse

2008-05-03T13:37:00.000-07:00

This was the beach sculpture of the day- see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. As it happens Miette had just learned about the "Three monkeys of Wisdom" from China in school last week. I think it's also funny that the monkeys also look like topless women.

There's a place in France...

2008-05-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

where the ladies wear no pants- but the men don't care cause they're in their underwear. Well, that's not true (so far as I've seen), but I just felt that the toplessness at the beach deserved a blog post of it's own, and the old song we chanted as kids popped back into my head.

YES. They do go topless here, and it's a free for all. We spotted a bit of it last September but the weather was already cooling down and beach season wasn't in full swing. But today was hot and the beach was packed with topless women and men in speedos. Liberté - Egalité - Fraternité (sororité?) All ages, all shapes, all sizes. It's all very cool and nonchalant, a totally not-for-show, comfortable in our skins kind of thing. As I reflected on bared breasts at the beach, I saw one of my students walk by, notice me, and come over to say hello. And I thought, "And now, if I was missing half my bikini, what kind of situation would this be?"

Still debating what picture should accompany this post........

spring - stone - sky

2008-04-28T13:20:00.000-07:00

can i post too many cloud photos? (i am guessing yes, but they never cease to be beautiful to me, especially over the ocean). also the largest poppy ever (probably my favorite flower, followed by lily of the valley). some amazing rocks that are omnipresent here, mitzi was an expert finder of the most amazing ones with perfectly round holes. we also made a rock house last week as the tide crept back up where we had been exploring tidepools and snail activity. when the tide finally chased us away, we ran off the park across the way and romped in the blossom dotted grass. i climbed a tree (and then twisted a muscle in my leg jumping down, that's what i get for being a show-off)

we had some beautiful little moments with the snails and the tide pools. The snails attached to dry rocks appear to be all dried up, as if dead, when you pick one off. But I wondered if they were dead or just waiting for water so i decided to put into in to the shallow tide pool and lo and behold, it's little leg starts to unfurl and extend from it's shell upon contact with water. it seemed to be searching a place to latch onto, to orient itself. it was a bit like those mini-sponges you got sometimes as a kid that would swell up in a full sink of water, magically growing upon immersion. but then, as miette reached toward the snail, wanting to help it to turn itself over, her shadow fell over the snail and it recoiled, shrinking immediately back into itself. no contact whatsoever, just a shift in light. when she moved her hand back it came out from it's shell again. over and over we watched as we would block the sunlight over the snail and it would shrink, remove our hand and see it come back out. and it responded similarly to touching the water's surface or vibrating the ground next to the pool. i was so amazed at the sensitivity of this little creature.

Plug for unplugging

2008-04-27T04:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.adbusters.org/metas/psycho/mdw/

Well, its no longer "mental detox week" but I thought I'd put a blurb here anyway having noticed that my brother in law Sean had posted to his facebook profile that he was offline for the week. So I went to the adbusters' site and read more. Though I don't have a TV I have spent more time in front of the computer this year to stay in touch, and as a sort of companion substitute since I'm on my own after bedtime this year. But sometimes it feels like a vacuum and can be a distraction from more fufilling things. So check it out, think about it, turn some things off for awhile, and relax. (you too, Ry!)

I am going to blame my visitors

2008-04-27T00:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know I haven't been keeping up with the blog and I didn't even really get into telling about Paris or our travels in the Loire Valley. But to my defense, my friend Mitzi showed up here in La Rochelle only one and a half days after our return from Paris. We hadn't even gotten all our bags unpacked yet and we all had little colds and felt kind of tired. But we did a few things around town together until she ate a bad egg and got food poisoning and spent the better part of 2 days between the toilet and the bedroom. During this time her boyfriend joined us as well. They waited for her to recuperate and visited La Rochelle a bit more and then headed off to Paris and Berlin this past Thursday. So this weekend is only my second weekend without visitors or traveling in 6 weeks.

Starting with the present- Finally I can't gloat about our gorgeous weather while imagining the snow being dumped on Chicago. It is absolutely beyond beautiful here but I get the feeling it is for everyone everywhere. People are flocking to the beaches and strolling along the port and one just feels happy to be alive and outside. There are flowers in bloom in every imaginable place- pushing through the cracks on sidewalks, overflowing the walls of yards and adorning vines that creep up the buildings. Miette and I have especially been enjoying the fragrances. I love the way springtime overwhelms all the senses- the wind like soft hands on your skin, smells from blossoms that are so intense it's as if you are eating them, digging in warm sand on the beach, seeing the range of colors exploding everywhere, the magical light at the end of the day, eating sweet little strawberries that are in season again, and hearing birds chattering up a storm. Yesterday walking into town as we crossed a little bridge over the stream in Park Charruyer, we heard a crazy sound and looked over to discover tons of frogs swimming and hopping around and making the wildest noises. So this is probably the real reason I am not blogging, I'd rather be outside!

Since I spent two weeks non-stop with the kids during vacation, starting back to school and work this week actually gave me some alone time again and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and time by walking to my Thursday school rather than biking as I usually do. This school is actually in a suburb of La Rochelle and is thus the farthest away from our apartment. It takes me 25 minutes pedaling fast on my bike to get there so I gave myself ample time to go on foot. Well, this was a great theory, walking and all, but I was wearing my knee high boots and work clothes and after about a half-hour I started feeling the pain of blisters, especially one on the underside of my heel. And I still had about 45 minutes to walk before arriving. I thought of my friend Lynn and her reflections on pain and the precious human body. (She has just started a blog which is already inspiring me but I will talk more about that later). Anyway, I had to seriously meditate to make it 45 minutes uphill with a huge painful blister to get to my classes on time. And then I took the bus home :) (Next time I will wear gym shoes and change when I arrive at work!)

Yesterday we went to the Ludothèque to return some things and walked out with 2 scooters for the kids and a skateboard for me! Julian is bugging me to go outside and use them now and I think that's a good idea so I will wrap this up for the time being. I will note briefly all the things on which I hope to update later today:

-I have started learning a little German with a (German) friend of mine in exchange for helping her practice French (?!) We are going to meet weekly for this exchange.

-I have been running a little bit and biking a ton this year but have been inspired by my friends Juliet (who wrote to tell me she did her first race recently) and Lynn (who is training for a 5K) and I have decided to do the same and run a race in La Rochelle. It is on May 31st just for women called "Les Filles de La Rochelle"and you can do either a 5 or 10K. My friend Florence (with whom I go the gym from time to time) is going to run with me twice a week to train.

-I am trying to educate myself about French music and singers and am borrowing and checking out CDs from the Mediathèque.

-Last night we went to Miette's school's "masked ball" a fund-raiser with dancing and lots of food. It was a lot of fun and made me appreciate what a great group of families are in the school / neighborhood here.

So I am internally dealing with a whole other set of questions relating to the imminent shift that will occur as our time here draws to an end. I am so happy here and the kids are really flourishing. They have lovely friendships, are speaking the language, and are in amazing school communities. I am torn about leaving these things behind and returning to the big city hustle. Miette's teacher and the Directrice want us to stay. Her teacher can't say enough about her astonishment at her level of French and success in school here. But we miss the papa so much and all of you friends and family and I think that the answer is that you should all just move here. What could be simpler? Anyway. I am going to go make a fool of myself trying to skateboard and enjoy the present.

Continuing

2008-04-17T00:29:00.001-07:00

Happy April- Jokes, Travels, Visits and MORE!

2008-04-17T00:22:00.000-07:00

So there is much to catch up on, apologies for lack of blogging recently but we've been out of town for more than a week and before that was the end of the term. We've had the Hennessys visiting in La Rochelle and then traveled through the Loire Valley visiting the famous castles with them. We ended our time together in Paris and then the kids and I stayed there for 5 days with a friend and revisited the city for my first time since I was there as a student almost 10 (!!!) years ago. The order of the pictures that I've posted is a bit random and there are tons more- it was hard to decide what to put up, over the next few days I will probably add more as well as some tidbits and stories. I just got another visitor, my friend Mitzi, who arrived last night from San Francisco, so my time is still pulled in more than the usual directions, but I want to catch up on blogging before I start back to work next week. Stay tuned....

Sean and Westie visit!!

2008-03-28T14:27:00.000-07:00

These photos are from our day on Ile de Ré with Uncle Sean and Westie. We climbed on church ruins, chased chickens, explored bushy sand dunes, and saw a real rainbow. All on their first day here.

happy easter!

2008-03-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

Today the kids and I made little easter baskets, hoping that the Easter Bunny will make the transatlantic voyage to visit us and leave a few surprises. We don't have much faith in the French flying bell. (in case you weren't aware, in France apparently the church bells leave the church, FLY to Rome and return to France with chocolates which they hide for the children. right.)In France they only get chocolates- no marshmallow peeps, no jellybeans, no dyed eggs, no baskets. Thankfully the Cincinnati Easter Bunny sent jellybeans which makes the holiday for me. For me, Easter without jellybeans is like Christmas without presents. It's all about digging down through the easter grass to fish out each tiny jewel-colored treasure and gorging on pure sugar before breakfast. Tomorrow we are joining some Anglophones for an easter brunch and I may even take the kids to church next door- since we have been watching it from outside for almost seven months now, I figure Easter should be the perfect time to check it out inside. We observed a bit of their Palm Sunday service last weekend- it started outside with all the people holding what looked like branches cut from regular old bushes (unlike the actual palm fronds that we had in church in the States).

a few random photos

2008-03-22T03:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of me and some friends at the last "slam" as well as a couple of the kids at the beach where we went to see the ship that had gotten stuck.

still sick

2008-03-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

miette has been sick off and on, has fever again and i think i am getting it too. we are going to try and stay home tomorrow, not going to school and work... hope we kick this soon. otherwise nothing big to report, just hoping we can rest and get better. spring fever....

ship on the beach

2008-03-12T14:39:00.000-07:00

Today the kids and I went with a friend and her son to Les Sables d'Olonne, a city an hour or so from here, to see a freighter that ran aground Monday after serious storms. Here's a link if you are interested in seeing a photo:

http://fr.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080311/img/pwl-france-stormy-weather-9-2da75ebf98300.html

Apparently it got pushed off course from high winds and got stuck on the beach there, very close to the wall that separates the beach from the road. No one was hurt and the ship is totally intact. We drove to check it out and the area was swarming with onlookers watching the progress of the bulldozers trying to dig away the sand to make a passageway for it back into the ocean when the tide comes up again. It is pretty surreal, seeing this huge ship just stuck like a beached whale in the middle of a big beach, right next the center of town.

I was also thanking Michel Crépeau (former mayor of La Rochelle) for his preservation efforts here after visiting this beach side town. The entire beach front of Les Sables d'Olonne is looming with monstrous high rise buildings and looks awful. The city center on the port here in La Rochelle has been totally preserved and has only the old small stone buildings, and retains a strong feeling of history as well a an aesthetic congruity. It also lends a sense of openness and accessibility to downtown, a place for sitting, walking and exploring. Ah, how I love this town.

of sickness and death (don't worry)

2008-03-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

Miette has been on the couch asleep and breathing noisily with a fever of 103.4 since 6:30 PM this evening. She just had a visit with the school nurse (who comes into all the classes for a check-up on their hearing, sight, teeth, growth, etc.) a few days ago and Julian had his visit today and oddly enough, I was just thinking how lucky I was to have kids that rarely get sick... I guess I forgot to touch wood.

It was interesting getting the reports back from the nurses though! Miette said the nurse told her she was "une jolie petite fille parfaite" and on Julian's form she (a different nurse) wrote "adorable petit garçon". My perfect pretty little girl and adorable little boy. And neither of them have any problems with hearing, sight, or any cavities. Julian's nurse even evaluated their language development and graphic skills (they see if they can draw a complete person)! They send home a little booklet with information on where a 4 year old should be development-wise. These are nice things about the french system....

On an unrelated note, I made mexican food for lunch with my friends S and C and it was so good to have some great people with whom I could share some of my favorite food that I miss so much here in France. Jaffrey's refried black beans, guacamole, and homemade salsa.... And as somehow our post-lunch conversation meandered over to the subject of death, in the thick of the discussion, we noticed a hearse pulling up to the church that we see from my balcony, and people starting to flood in for a funeral. We scrambled to touch wood then...

music, food, and the anatomy of a face

2008-03-06T10:21:00.000-08:00

I have been enjoying so much new music this year and thought I'd share this one that my friend Niina put on a mix for me. It is called "le vent nous emportera" and here is the link to the video

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xliwq_noir-desir-le-vent-nous-portera_music.
//
On an unrelated note, Julian asked me this morning why our noses are below our eyes.
//
and Miette is cooking these days. I am letting her get creative in the kitchen and I don't oversee anything- only constraints are that she clean up after herself. Her friend Apolline was over for one of these cooking adventures and they planned and prepared a whole menu which was actually quite good! She named the dishes "Fleur de pommier" "Pomme d'Amour" "Creme Brulee". the first dish had fromage frais (a kind of fresh cheese, soft and slightly sour) spread on a plate and overlaid with almonds and fresh chopped apples and pears. The Pomme d'Amour was a combination of nutella, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg and sliced apples to dip in it and "Creme Brulée" was a beverage made of milk, spices, cinnamon, and chocolate. Then she cooked dinner all by herself (only asking me to heat it on the stove after everything was done). There was a soup (of olives, carrots, and red peppers), bread, and cinnamon stuffed prunes with almonds and jam for dessert. I was skeptical of the soup but it was really tasty. I think she may have a future in the restaurant business.....

february vacation

2008-02-25T12:44:00.000-08:00

So in case you didn't know, after every 6 week school term there is a 2 week vacation. Which also means no work for me. Miette's birthday was the Saturday after the last day of school and my folks flew over from Cincinnati to spend most of those two weeks with us. So we've been busy showing them around La Rochelle as well as traveling in the region, with a couple overnight stays in Bordeaux and St. Emilion, and I haven't made the time to post anything till now, problem being that there is now tons of catching up to do. In a nutshell, we visited the big and beautiful old city of Bordeaux, rode the tramway, admired the architecture, visited an amazing cathedral and had fun in a hotel (where the kids had an actual bath! they are bath deprived as we have only a shower stall here) before heading over to nearby St. Emilion which is a ancient tiny perfect town built onto a rocky hill with a church carved out of the rock as well as 2 levels of underground passages and catacombs (many of which are now used to age wine). It is a highly regarded wine area - we stayed that evening in a B&B on one of the many vineyards. We met an interesting Dutch couple also staying there who buy and sell french specialty foods in the Netherlands and they gave us samples of different french saucissons and Pineau (an aperitif). Then after a long day of trying to wind our way back to La Rochelle on the pretty backroads of France, we ran into a city with a citadel thing (kind of a walled in city that is still populated) and other lovely little villages on the way, and eventually got back here in time for me to take advantage of the grandparents here to babysit so I could go out a celebrate a friend's birthday. I can't remember in which order everything else happened, but we spent a day on the Ile de Re, the kids went with gma and gpa to the traveling circus that was in town, I went with my dad to talk to the department of city planning in La Rochelle where I was a partial translator, and got quite an education about many city operations- from zoning laws to governing bodies to funding. And of course, the obligatory visit to the Ludotheque, Mediatheque, towers on the port, and a day's bike ride along the coast from the port in the center of town all the way out the a beach on the edge of the city. The day we took our bike ride, we also had my friend Nellie her friend Kate who stopped here for a day en route to Italy. It was so beautiful and warm that day we all ended up riding our bikes jacket free, and me in short sleeves. Well that is a bit more than a nutshell, and I should move on to more practical matters that need my attention now that we've returned to the work and school worlds. I am so grateful to be here with this sun and warmth, and feel for everyone posting and emailing about being cooped up at home, enduring the miserable weather in Chicago/ Cincinnati / Pittsburgh... It may be a long time before I get to have such a luxurious winter again and I know I am lucky. I am glad I got to share the sun and the time with my family and look forward to the many visits to come. I hope we will continue to be so lucky.

water

2008-02-25T12:16:00.000-08:00

On the Ile de Ré, just a 10 minute drive away. A skinny amazing island full of beaches, marshes, herons, egrets, ruins, fortresses, chickens pecking and fighting, and some side roads full of rocks... (this kind of road can be bad for marital harmony when taken on a whim by the husband/grandfather). Water everywhere around.

iron and shadow

2008-02-25T03:17:00.001-08:00

St. Emilion

2008-02-25T03:14:00.000-08:00

stone

2008-02-25T03:04:00.000-08:00

Cathedrale St. Andre

2008-02-25T03:01:00.000-08:00

miam miam

2008-02-25T02:51:00.000-08:00

Miette turns 8

2008-02-25T02:37:00.000-08:00

The Tarbell grandparents were here just in time to celebrate with a birthday diner and amazing chocolate cake from the bakery across the street as well as Greater's ice cream that traveled across the Atlantic in dry ice. I think Miette is 8 going on 30. She is just too grown up these days.

SLAM

2008-02-08T12:41:00.000-08:00

it's a shame i don't write much because i have such a bad memory there are so many things that will be forgotten. but who has the time to go back and read it all anyway...? well, last night i went to valerie's friend kristine's slam thing at the bar "les deux tours". slamalamer (translation- SLAM at the sea). it was so great, full of people from all walks of life and an african dreadlocked contingent that one doesn't see too often in la rochelle, especially not in la genette! drums, accordions, guitar, spoken word and a few songs thrown in, one by a beautiful young man that i could have listened to for hours. in the beginning i concentrated to the poetry, trying to catch all the words and follow the meaning but after a glass of wine and many texts, i just listened as if it was music and didn't follow a thing. though i came to the event with a slightly skeptical attitude, and though there were a few duds, overall the effect was one of inspiration and rhythm. it made me want to speak, tell a story, sing, about what i didn't know, but just anything, to take part in the ambiance and the feeling of family that spread throughout those at the bar that night. of course valerie knows everyone and those she didn't know when she arrived she did by the end of the night so there was no shortage of peole to talk to during the breaks. but i also ended up feeling like my french is so far from perfect there are so many words, expressions that i don't know and after an entire evening of speech, poetic and full of slang, though i felt like i was floating in it, after a certain point, i also felt like i was drowning in the impossibility of ever knowing it all.

picture is me and valerie's daughter who came for a bit.

The kids seem to be maturing rapidly...

2008-02-07T03:21:00.000-08:00

...and are so full of wisdom! For example, Julian had this deeply philosophical question at dinner the other night - "Wouldn't it be funny if french was english?" Exactly. That's what I always say. These deep thoughts must be causing an accelerated aging process because all of a sudden he also seems to have grown the afeared mustache- he's opting not to shave for now because he's still afraid of the razor, but he's adapting quite well to his new facial hair.

no mustache

2008-01-27T11:56:00.001-08:00

Julian has been very interested in the inner working of the human body lately and consequently we have checked out various books for children on the subject from the Mediathèque. He is also fascinated and confused about growing up- how it happens and what it entails. I think he has associated the fact that he goes to school with being bigger and maybe thinks growing up means being away from home more, more school, less of the nurture and privilege of being the little one? There is also fixation on the details of our inner workings- how food makes its way through from in to out, how his bones keep him together and how they could break too. But as we were reading one of the books tonight before bed- it was telling about how when you get bigger girls chests grow and boys get facial hair and have to shave- he said, "I won't ever grow a mustache will I? Because I don't know how to shave." I told him it was no big deal, he would learn how to shave when he got bigger too, and that pretty much all boys will get mustaches at some point, but he wouldn't for a long long time.... and he was adamant that I reassure him that he would NOT ever get a mustache, he does not want one, and that he will not be able to shave. So I'm not sure which is the main fear, hair growing on his face or shaving, but he seemed really quite worried about these things forecast for his future. Very funny that he thinks that I can promise that it wouldn't happen. I still hold the power of a god in his world sometimes, I suppose.

see for yourself

2008-01-22T09:57:00.000-08:00

nothing drastic, so maybe the haircut won't live up to the hype, but as for me, I feel 100 times lighter and refreshed without feeling like I'm missing a limb! I'll see how I feel in a month and maybe go shorter.... but for now, I can still pull it into a teeny ponytail and that is a nice advantage. and yes, one picture is of the braid of my hair that was cut off....

A picture wouldn't describe...

2008-01-20T06:21:00.000-08:00

How lovely our day has been! It is probably 60 degrees outside and sunny with blues skies. In January. I could stop there! But I won't- we just got home from a walk along the ocean in the direction away from town which I discovered the other day when I headed out on my own for a stroll. I knew the kids would enjoy discovering this unexplored territory so we took advantage of this beautiful Sunday to walk down there. There is a bike & foot path running alongside the water with large rocks separating the two. The tide was out and Miette, ever the nature explorer, wanted to climb down and explore the tide pools to see if there were shells, urchins, etc. So we joined her and popped seaweed, collected snail shells, rocks, and sea glass, and examined all the nooks and crannies in between the boulders. After a while, we headed back up to the path and crossed the street to check out a little pond and the playground on the other side. Near the playground we found the best climbing tree for Miette in which she climbed so high she was completely hidden by the leaves. Then we saw a bike and skate park across the street from there and skipped across to watch the kids perform their tricks. Of course, I brought my camera along and had been taking pictures of the decorative ironwork on fences and homes along the way down, and as soon as we got to the beach, my battery died. But I was thinking to myself that any picture still wouldn't have captured the sound of the waves, the smell of the sea-air and the overall atmosphere of relaxed peacefulness amidst all the people on their Sunday strolls by the water. It was a magnificent morning.

Me, the american representative!

2008-01-17T13:50:00.000-08:00

Today I went into a class where I don't teach regularly (in a school where I have 2 other classes every Thursday) as a sort of cultural liaison to answer questions they had prepared in french and english regarding me and american culture and life in general. They started with the basics (Where are you from, what is your favorite color and food, how old are you, do you like La Rochelle, do you like France, etc.) and then asked more specifically about the US- What do people eat here? Do we have big houses and building in the US? Do people on the street have guns? Are schools different there and how are they different? And on and on. But I think the topic of food and buildings brought a lot of discussion- especially regarding skyscrapers! I didn't have all the answers because they wanted to know how many stories are in a skyscraper, how many elevators and how long it takes to go from bottom to top in the Sear's Tower in the elevator. I have to do a little research now and bring back some more concrete answers on that subject. This makes me think how fun it would be to get a whole class pen-pal exchange going on, especially between this small town french kids and a school like Miette's last year in the predominantly african-american southside of Chicago!! There would definitely be some surprises for the kids. (In all my schools here I have only one black student!)

video of jules

2008-01-14T22:12:00.001-08:00

http://video.google.fr/videoplay?docid=2183744952760401917&pr=goog-sl

see if that works! you have to copy and paste the link first. i couldn't enbed it on the site this time, or at least not yet!

Is it time for a (hair) change? SONDAGE!

2008-01-14T12:09:00.001-08:00

Well, I'm going to indulge myself in hair talk. I need advice. As those of you who have known me for a long time can attest, I have had a history of impulsive haircutting decisions. Finally I've passed some years without changing much and now whether or not it's drastic, I desperately need a haircut. It's downright ragged and the ends are destroyed. So rather than rushing into some crazy new hairstyle, I thought I'd ask everyone what they think. I could easily go just get a trim and tidy things up, mostly leaving my hair as it is. OR I could try something a little more fun. And I want some input. I was at a café this afternoon with a couple friends and talking about this subject and thus lifting my hair this way and that to get an idea of different styles and the waiter came over and asked if I was thinking about getting a new hairdo I explained that I was thinking about whether it would look good if I did a bob like this and that but I didn't have the right vocabulary in french. So he interjects oh, you want a "carré plongeant dégradé avec frange balayé." (layered plunging bob with swept-over bangs) I said why yes, that sounds exactly right. But how the hell does this waiter man know this hair terminology? Well, it turns out that he used to be a hairdresser. Just my luck.

So, let's have some opinions please. Keep it as it is, and just get a trim OR the above bob style (somewhere between chin and shoulder length) or other ideas? PLEASE humor me and leaving your comment. I am posting pictures I just took to show its current state, one showing how all the girls are wearing their bangs (balayé), and one pulled up to give an idea of it if it was shorter.

Back to school, growing up

2008-01-09T13:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry Im not posting so often lately, I think maybe I'll try to do shorter tidbits more often and not feel like I have to cover so much information when I wait so long to write again!

We had a nice end to our vacation, celebrating "La Fête des Rois" (Epiphany) with friends on the last Sunday. We enjoyed lots of cozy quiet time at home after Ryan left, luxuriating in the unhurried time and new playthings. La Rochelle has not been very cold (the past few days have been in the upper 50s) but there has been tons of dense fog and some rain so the general feeling outside is wet and chilly and home is a good place to be. Miette is reading a new Christmas book "Eldest" and both kids have been playing together beautifully and doing lots of drawing. Julian continues to practice his letters and writing his name when he's not on castle duty.

Miette had swimming for the second time this Monday. Her class will be going each week for the next few months and she loves it. She comes out of school just bouncing with energy after the afternoon swimming. I'm glad she is getting an opportunity to continue building on all the progress she made this summer in her summer camp and really enjoying herself.

Julian's teachers said he seemed so much more grown-up after the holiday break. I said that he did have his birthday after all! But it's true, he seems to have moved onto another level. And we've been amazed because during the vacation, we started hearing french from him all the time. Almost always, when he's playing by himself he speaks to himself in french, using funny little expressions and sentences and I feel like I can hear the voices of his classmates and teachers being channeled thorough him. His teacher also remarked that he seems to have a much deeper level of comprehension now than before as well and that she heard him counting in french for the first time at school- very seriously, she said. In fact, I recorded a video of him doing the same at home and will post it to the blog, just not now, it's already too late.

I've fallen in love with a french illustrator who's inspiring me a lot at the moment, check her out- Emmanuelle Houdart. Here's a website with an interesting interview with her http://lsj.hautetfort.com/archive/2005/10/30/»-j-eponge-mes-peurs-l-alphabet-d-emmanuelle-houdart.html (in french). She's amazing but unfortunately when you see her images online in small format they absolutely don't do justice to the richness, vivd color and detail of the work. I got the kids each a book of hers for Christmas and have really been enjoying reading them with Julian an Miette. One titled "Emilie Pasteque" is about a little girl who is always collecting and bringing little objects home (stones, keys, leaves, bus tickets anything and everything, the kinds of thing one finds on the street, in nature, etc) until she doesn't have space for anyone else but herself in her room and her parents worry about her spending all her time alone with all this stuff instead of being with other children. I won't tell the rest of the story but I asked Miette why I might have gotten that book for her.... and I guess it is also somethings that reminds me of myself....the trash to treasure collectors. She knew the answer to that question without thinking too long.

Our little guy turns 4, our big guy leaves

2008-01-01T13:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday as we ushered out 2007, we celebrated Jules' fourth birthday and spent our last full day together with Ryan. That's a lot for one day and one family to handle! We went to Place de Verdun to let Julian choose what rides he wanted to go on (I had promised him multiple carousel rides but they also have motorized swings and these funny robots you can drive specially set up for the holiday season/Christmas village). In fact, he chose the swings and the robots but not the carousel. He was wanting to cut to the chase and get home for presents. We took a little detour to watch the roller-skaters on the indoor rink and the associated french teenage hoodlum scene but slowly made our way back so he could open his gifts and have cake. The only cakes patisseries have at this time of the year are buches de noël , couronnes, and galette des rois so I chose a chocolate buche with a little marzipan mushroom and chocolate "bonne année" greetings affixed with icing. Julian was so preoccupied by the star wars lego spaceship Daddy gave him that he barely touched his cake before heading back to play.

I am posting a picture of Julian's name- he has just learned how to write it himself. You can see (obviously) my model on top and his below.

Ryan and Miette spent the morning furiously reading together to finish the last pages of "His Dark Materials" before his departure. They did it! We then took a cab together to to see him off at the train station this morning. He is going to Paris for a day before returning to Chicago. We got out of the house smoothly, to the station early and then tearfully watched the train slide away with Ryan inside...............

A sad and happy beginning to 2008.

top this charlie brown!

2007-12-28T11:55:00.001-08:00

Well, our tree was more pauperly than I would have actually liked, (and we had a fire scare while attempting to pop popcorn to string... that's another story) but a combination of factors made it the one that worked for us, and in the end, it really doesn't matter relative to simply wonderful fact of being together as a family for Christmas this year. Basically the best christmas present ever was the miraculous fact that Ryan's travel plans went exactly according to schedule so that he was in fact here, at our apartment in La Rochelle, in time to walk around the corner and wait for Julian and Miette at each of their schools to greet them as they finished their last day of school before christmas break. Ryan missed the terrible weather that blocked air travel by one day, made it to Paris on time to catch his train here, and from the station here caught a cab bringing him to the correct destination in la rochelle completely on his own. I met him downstairs in the dentist office where I had left the keys to our place 2 minutes after he arrived! I had my last afternoon of work that day and didn't think I'd be able to meet him before I got off (especially because I missed a day the week before when Julian was sick) but it turned out that I was done early because of holiday celebrations and could run home to check and see if he'd arrived in time. So in fact we got to walk together to pick up the kids. This was a big deal to me because otherwise he wouldn't get to see the whole school thing- the other parents and kids, the classrooms, their teachers, Julian's first school ever! Miette got to take him in and give him a little classroom tour.

So far our vacation has been lots of slow mornings at home with various little outings of different sorts each afternoon. Of course, we had to show him our beloved Ludotheque the day after he arrived before it closed it's doors for the holiday break, and another brief stop at the Mediatheque. Then we had dinner together here with our friend Stephanie before she left town to do some vacation traveling in the UK. The next couple days we walked around town to check out the Christmas village at Place de Verdun, to see the main market, do a few last minute errands and window shopping.

Christmas day we stayed in and played with new toys and started on some of the building/project gifts that Ryan, urhmm, i mean Santa, brought. We ate a hybrid pancake-crepe thing for breakfast with nutella and bananas, later had peppermint hot chocolate and cookies (store-bought:( we'd already finished the ones mom sent!) and for our Christmas dinner we bought sausages for the boys and I made mashed potatoes, garlic bread, and broccoli. Unfortunately either the food or a bug made Ryan sick in the night and he had to take it easy the next day- he stayed home and napped it off and I took the kids to see a french film called "Le Renard et l'Enfant".

Yesterday we visited la Tour de St. Nicolas and la Tour de la Lanterne which were absolutely amazing. These are the towers one sees in every postcard of La Rochelle and they are situated on the port which borders the center of town. The Tour de St. Nicolas was built in the 14th century and has stone walls 3-5 meters thick. It feels labyrinthine. There are 2 spiral staircases which are intertwined like DNA (without the ladder rungs). You can go out on the top and see the entire city and the sea from above, and you can actually feel what it might have been like back in the day when they had to keep the city safe by guarding the harbor from these towers. I'll take it over the Sears Tower any day. I could go on and on, I didn't really want to leave. The other tower is cool (but not as cool as St. Nicolas) and it's interesting feature is "grafitti" carved into the stone walls from the many prisoners it held over the years- their names and the dates they were held captive, a couple had etched tally marks, there were various different carvings of large sailing vessels, and there was even a hand carved chessboard in the floor. The tower walk there was practically intolerable for me- The wall is about waist high, the walkway is extremely narrow and there is nothing between you and the sea or ground far far below. Ryan walked around with Miette but I wouldn't let Julian do it, just thinking about it makes my stomach lurch. I got the view but quickly returned back down with Jules leaving Ryan and Miette to enjoy the view.

Today we planned on doing a self-guided bike tour of the city (you can borrow bikes free for 2 hours at Place de Verdun) but as soon as we headed out we realized that it was too chilly to really enjoy being on bikes for long so we switched plans and went to the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle instead with a coffee afterwards at the gorgeous Café de la Paix nearby and then browsed the Friday afternoon market that sets up by Place de Verdun. We bought some tartes salées (one salmon and one tomato-goat cheese), a little apple cake, spicy olives, pickled garlic, and wine to bring home for dinner.

I'd also like to mention that I finished a mystery novel already and am ready to start (and finish) a second, which has been something I've not been able to do since I've been here- not for lack of time but because I get too scared to read them when I'm here alone!

NOTE: As Ryan is reading and editing over my shoulder, commenting on my excessive run-on sentences and lack of proper use of semicolons and commas, I would like to state for the record that I DON'T CARE! and I have no pretensions of being a great writer!!!!!! This is a purely informative blog!

Did I mention its freezing here?

2007-12-18T01:50:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is currently colder than I though possible for this supposedly-insulated-from-extreme-temperatures-by-gulf-stream-waters seaside town. There is frost on the grass and cars and when biking, the wind absolutely cuts like a blade. But no snow still! I won't complain about the cold, it makes it feel like Christmas. Rain and 55 degree weather just doesn't fit the bill.

I am leaving momentarily to do "english" in Julian's classroom. This will consist of singing a couple songs and doing little fingerplays. I may sing "We wish you a Merry Christmas" but it's kind of boring and doesn't have any motions to go with it. 12 days of Christmas is cool with the numbers and animals etc., but too complicated for 4 year old non-english speakers. Anyway, I dressed Jules in his american flag sweater that Grandma Debby sent so he would be our little cultural mascot for the day! (Plus, it's warm!)

Our tree is up and already shedding. Miette has already started putting random crap on it to decorate- a habit which I'll have to nip in the bud before we have a franken-tree. We got packages from Grandma and Grandpa Brown and Aunt Rhonda with some ornaments and other christmas doodads and the little angel from Rhonda is already perched on top!

feeling better

2007-12-16T11:47:00.000-08:00

Jules is finally better but just barely. Now the poor kid is starving after 3 days of limited food and everything that went in going right back out. We had a nice weekend regardless. I think it forced me to rest up a bit as well which I needed so I can be in good form for the last week before Christmas. There's so much going on in the next 5 days! Meetings, dinners, school christmas shows, and I even still have some stupid french bureaucratic ends to tie up to top it all off. Christmas will be a welcome calm.

Little people funnies: Julian's new favorite phrase is "freak out". As in, "Miette would be really freaked out if I..". (fill in the the blanks). I wish I could remember the multitude of ways he's used it lately but it's been in every other conversation we've had lately. Pretty funny coming from the mouth of a not-quite-four-year-old. Also he has been speaking little tidbits of french more and more often. Usually almost secretly though, to himself while playing I'll hear him say- "pas comme ça, pas comme ça". And a couple times when I've "caught" him, he acts kind of mad that I've heard him! We got a "Schtroumpfs" DVD (the Smurfs in french) from the Mediatheque and while he was sick watching it, he made a comment about the smurf who gives trick presents that explode and referred to it as a "cadeau", choosing to use the french rather than the english in his description!

AAAAAH! Christmas is almost here...

2007-12-14T14:30:00.000-08:00

Why, even after countless discussions about gifts and travel and this and that does it always sneak up on me?? I am so NOT on the ball this year so just a word of warning that New Years cards may be in order this year.... So far, we have only some paper snowflakes on our window and little clay-and-paper scenes of trees, santa, and presents that Miette made for decorations. I think we will buy a very small charlie brown tree tomorrow on our limited budget! I was going to scramble around town this morning to try to get some things to send off to the States in time but my plan was foiled by Julian waking up to vomit at 5:55 AM. Oh joy! So I called off work, kept him home from school and we played it cool at the homestead today. No more vomiting but the illness migrated out the other direction so it was good he was home. He also took a 2 1/2 hour nap and was asleep again at 9 PM. Poor guy.

Miette is thrilled that I am coming tomorrow morning to see the play her class will be performing for the parents. She has the role of the duck with whom the story begins. It is called "SILENCE!!" and involves many barnyard animals. I will write a detailed report afterwards. I will also try to videotape it and post it if possible, or at least her part.

I am posting an image of the snowflakes and their shadows through the curtain. Stephanie, our Australian friend, had never made a paper snowflake before- it doesn't snow in Australia. In fact, it's hot for Christmas and they go to the beach! So we taught her our cold weather craft and she was delighted.

All of the english assistants have been being observed while teaching over the past few weeks by the language administration people. We all know them and they are very wonderful people so it isn't a worrisome thing, mostly it's just to give us feedback and help us deal with problems we may have run into etc. So for my lesson the teacher wanted to do something about Christmas. For whatever reason, I figured it would be cool to introduce shapes with a little Christmas vocabulary and made paper cut-outs of a tree, ornaments, star, presents, and snowman (big / small, all different shapes, different colors) and magically transformed the separate shapes into the Christmas scene with the help of the kids. Anyway, my observer thought it was wonderful and wrote it up into a whole lesson plan with accompanying worksheet and has already taught it herself to other classes! So,just a little pat on my own back!

Next week we have a dinner with all the people in the language office, their families and all of us, the assistants. We are supposed to bring a typical regional specialty dish to share. Any suggestions? Skyline chili? Deep dish pizza? nah, maybe greek spaghetti! Seriously, send me your ideas, quickly, it's on Tuesday! I have also been invited to share pre-Christmas dinners with the teachers at La Genette (Miette's school) and another of the schools in which I work. The week is absolutely going to fly by.

I hope that everyone else is more on the ball than me with their holiday prep! Best wishes for these last days of scrambling.

Le weekend

2007-12-09T12:06:00.000-08:00

No new pictures to add this week- it's been raining non-stop which isn't so conducive to snapping photos left and right! But we've been busy and had a very full weekend so the rain hasn't stopped us from getting around (we've just gotten quite wet in the process). The weather has been mild, temperatures during the day in the mid to upper 50s and if it weren't for the Christmas decorations everywhere I think I'd forget that it is December. Unfortunately some heavy winds blew away the first beautiful sky we had this morning and I think slightly cooler weather is here at least momentarily. La Rochelle apparently has lots of wind in the winter that can be quite fierce. Funny huh, moving from one famously windy city to another!

Miette had a birthday party yesterday afternoon which was great fun for her- face-painting, treasure hunting, bead-making, and the usual festivities. We had to get there in the rain which was funny- we took a bus partway and then since the other bus that would have brought us right to the girl's house wasn't leaving for 20 minutes that we'd get there just as soon if we walked. But since Julian was with us and can be a wuss about walking if he decides he doesn't want to anymore (or worse, since all the stores and buildings are decorated he wants to stop and tell me about each thing he sees and it takes us 15 minutes just to cross the street). So I decided to borrow a free bike that from the public bike "depot" located at Place de Verdun. This is the central plaza where all the buses arrive at the end of their routes. Anyone can check out a bike for 2 hours free of charge and they have them with baskets and child seats as well. So I checked out the one with a kid seat on back, strapped Julian in and walked him in the bike next to Miette to the party. After we dropped off Mimi at the party I biked with Jules to the Ludotheque and got drenched on our way there so first we had a coffee and hot chocolate in the little cafe upstairs to warm up before heading in to play. It was nice to have this little time together there to play and then we left, biked around for fun because the rain had stopped and he fell asleep in the seat! Then we took the bus to get Miette and got another bus back home. All of this led to me to realize that though it is easy to get around in La Rochelle, I need to get a good raincoat so we can also circulate in all kinds of weather!!! (Maybe that should be the one and only item on my Christmas list, and maybe a matching rain hat! Or an excuse to finally buy myself the beautiful one that I've coveted from Boden!)

After the party, I had an evening out to look forward to. I got a new babysitter, a 17 year old girl named Felixe who is a friend of the daughter of my landlord. She was super nice and the kids took to her immediately - I think she's a keeper! I headed out to see a concert (only my 3rd evening out alone since we've been here) and met a group of 4 friends to see KerenAnn at La Coursive, a concert venue/cultural space on the port in the center of town. As soon as I saw a poster saying she was coming, I made up my mind to go because I love her music- which I discovered from Mom who gave me one of her CDs for my birthday. She sings in french and english and I think for that is well-known here. Her performance was amazing. She did 2 encores and one of those included a funny story about her traveling in the States on a tour heading to play next in Tennessee. She basically ended the story by saying that we all had a little Tennessee in us and then played the Tennessee Waltz. This was especially funny for me to be here in France hearing someone tell a story in french about the U.S. and then play the song that I danced to at my wedding! After the concert we all got a quick bite to eat (I finally found somewhere that sells falafel) and we found an amazingly cool funky little bar where we hung out for a couple more hours. It was great to get out, hear amazing music and taste the night-life of La Rochelle.

Today we were invited to the home of a guy and his daughter who we had met at the park a few weeks ago. He has another friend with a son of a similar age and all of our kids were having a blast together at the park so we made plans to go to this rope-climbing place together. When the day came to go there, we found out that the place was closed for the season. So we finally got together today to make sushi with the kids at their house. The kids got along very well again, had fun making sushi, playing in their backyard and watching movies. We spent all day there, arriving home just for dinner, phone call to daddy, shower and bedtime.

fog, rain, and christmas lights

2007-12-02T14:50:00.000-08:00

The weather has been very mild but also extremely wet lately. The Christmas lights and decorations are up around town and we did a little window shopping downtown this weekend, coming home as the night fell. The pictures are of Julian on the bus de mer, the church before the sunrise on a foggy morning last week, the Hotel de Ville with kids out front, and Mimi one evening surrounded by the night-lights.

We rearranged furniture today. It sort of hit me that though we're not staying here forever, I can still claim some ownership over the space and there were some things that just needed to be shifted. I highly recommend this activity for anyone feeling the need to re-energize and get out of a rut! Though we didn't make huge changes, I feel like we live in a new place! Try it, it works!

We also started the advent calendar yesterday which for us is more of a countdown to daddy than to Christmas.... Only 19 days to go!

french

2007-11-29T11:42:00.000-08:00

Well, Julian is finally letting on to the fact that he hears french all day... he has told me how to say three things in french! I'm sure he's getting much more than that, just as I''m sure he does more all day than he can ever remember to tell me, but for now, he has told me that in french banana is "banane" and that blue is "bleu" (both pronounced very well in french despite the hilarious fact that the first 2 words he's chosen to tell me are practically identical to english- but still, he recognizes the difference!) and today he said, "you know how they say I'm coming, I'm coming quickly"? -J'arrive" wow. cool. maybe he'll actually learn the correct genders of things without even knowing it. Miette, though she is speaking french like she's been here forever (really, she sometimes has to think for a minute before she describes things from school in english because I think she remembers them in french) she still has trouble with le and la. But nevertheless, she's acing spelling tests, even with all those pesky accents and silent letters and her teacher says she's better in grammar than many of her classmates! Not the be the proud mother or anything...

evening walk

2007-11-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

these are just a couple images from our evening walk last night.

must blog....

2007-11-25T14:07:00.000-08:00

It's getting harder to find the time to write this but there is even more to say! Now I am jotting words and notes on random pieces of paper so I won't forget the tidbits about what we've done, discovered, thought and the list gets longer and the scraps of paper multiply and I still haven't blogged. But for now, though it is late and I have a new book and bed calling to me, I am going to try to at least recap a few things before the clock strikes midnight and my coach turns into a pumpkin. Not that there is anything monumental to write about, only just the little things that make one day different from the next!

I must say that our 2 most exciting finds of the week were the "bus de mer" (a boat-bus that crosses the La Rochelle port) and a dumpster being loaded with the remains from the IUFM (Institut de Formation de Maitres, I think that's what it's called, it's the teacher's college) which must have been from the 50s because we found very vintage-y teaching tools like fridge magnet type things in french cursive letters, geometric tiles for pattern making and geometry, old wooden puzzles, and cigarette tins that looked like they had been used as a school project because they were covered with a super-cool vintage contact paper that had been hand cut to cover the front of the tin. Anyway, Miette, Jules, and I trash picked and brought our favorite treasures home, cleaned them up and i think they will be some source of creative inspiration for me! After that, which was last weekend, we were heading toward the Mediatheque and just when I thought the kids wouldn't make it walking any longer, we saw that we could hop on the bus de mer and cross straight over there! The kids thought it was amazing, and as Julian is currently obsessed with anything having a motor (or fire), he was riveted by our little boat adventure, taking mental notes on every detail.

I've been noting the funny names everywhere that until recently I hadn't really noticed until one day, riding a bus, I looked out at the bus stop and noticed it was named "Patte d"Oie" which is more or less, goose-foot. Can you imagine an american bus stop being called goose foot? I need to write them all down, because there are funny names everywhere but the only other that pops into my mind at the moment is a kind of apple we just bought called "clochard" which means a bum/tramp/homeless person.

Yesterday we finally celebrated something resembling Thanksgiving. We met another american guy who is here doing his master's degree but did the same job as me last year and decided to get together and do "the meal". He and I were the only americans (and the kids of course) but there was also his russian friend Svetlana, his german rommate Felix, his french friend Juliette, and my australian friend Stephanie. i made mashed potatoes and brought bread and cheese, he made an apple pie and turkey, and there were also peas, corn, salad, and the closest berry-jam that france has anywhere near resembling cranberry sauce. We feasted and talked and felt at home with each other at by the end of the night, I felt closer to home and in the spirit of Thanksgiving. We even went around that table and said what we were thankful for before dinner. (Miette said she was thankful that daddy was coming soon and that we won't be staying here forever and also, she added, that we had enough money because everything was so expensive here.... heehee, I guess she's overheard enough conversations about he weak dollar....)The kids even watched Frosty the Snowman.

Today we woke up to the La Rochelle marathon passing outside our front window (All-ez, all-ez, all-ez!!) Next we went outside so Miette could try out the rollerblades she checked out from the Ludotheque in the church parking lot out back. When we came back, we dove into our respective books, mine being a new one Ryan sent me about motherhood and creativity called Mamaphonic, and Julian had a rare nap. We had a lovely evening stroll in the foggy moist air of the day and wandered back home as the sun set.

This one's for you Greer

2007-11-19T13:12:00.000-08:00

Jules was being "Greer" yesterday.... Thinking of you Gree-lo !! (For those of you who don't know Julian's little soulmate Greer in Chicago, she always has to touch a neck while she sucks her thumb. So Jules was channeling her the other day by touching my neck and sucking his thumb)

The French Gym

2007-11-19T02:28:00.000-08:00

I had a gym date this morning with a mom from Julian's school. Her daughter Lili (short for Clementine) is one of Julian's friends, the first one he pointed out to me as "not feeling shy around". Anyway, Lili's family is new to La Rochelle- they moved here from Angouleme this summer and Lili, like Julian, was missing her friends from before so maybe they sensed that in each other and bonded a little. Her mom joined a gym and invited me to come along so we went today to a group muscle toning class. The place was hilarious because everything is english- the place is called "Garden Fitness" and the class is called "BodyPump" they also have step aerobics- called "step" and yoga-ish classes, one called "Stretching" and the other is called "BodyBalance". Hilarious. I can't even pronounce them correctly beacuse it just feels weird to say english words with a french accent. Of course the teacher was a totally french guy and all the instructions were in his hyper-enthusiastic french shouted over the accompanying american pop music! It felt good to have a proper workout and it was actually pretty hard. Though I've been quite active here I haven't gotten the kind of workouts I was getting at Bally's back in Chicago. I must have gotten weaker in the meantime!

Tomorrow the teachers are on strike so none of us have school. France is striking everywhere at the moment! Luckily I don't depend on any public transportation for work (I go everywhere by bike or foot) because it sounds like hell for commuters to Paris....

Thanks to everyone sending me warm fuzzies from abroad in response to my last post. It helps and means a lot to hear the outpouring of support and affection. We'll try to call and touch base with the family groups on Thanksgiving and try and feel the togetherness via telephone! (Obviously it is not a holiday here so we'll be at work and school during the day! I may try to find a couple americans and have them over for dinner though!)

Life is not bad but....

2007-11-16T14:14:00.000-08:00

I am missing everyone so much today. Not much else that I'll include in this post but just wanted to say that everyone feels far away and very much missed. You will all be together with family and friends for Thanksgiving next week and we are here so far from home.... The comforts of family and good friends are precious. I don't know why it hit me today, I think there is a relationship to the cold coming in strong for the first time. I think of this time of year as preparing for hiberation when we don't have as much extroverted energy and need to be around those people with whom we are very close. Love you all.

stream of conciousness update!

2007-11-12T12:35:00.000-08:00

Long time no post, that's vacation! Funny that i have more time when I'm working than on vacation to do things! But now we're back into the swing of things and I am ready to spew out an update. I don't have all that much to report about our trip to Fouras. It was nice to be at the beach in autumn and to have a change of scenery but feel like it was a distraction from sinking my teeth into things here in La Rochelle. The kids need to be with other kids at school and I am enjoying teaching and am happy to be back at work. I realize that I will probably not have many opportunities to teach part time like I am doing and that I have a lot of freedom without the burden of responsibility that come with being a full time classroom teacher so I will do my best to enjoy it while I can. I feel like I am getting the hang of being in front of the class and thinking on my feet while doing a lesson. The first few times it literally made me sweat but now I know the kids and teachers and what does and doesn't work. It's fun to think of interesting and creative ways to teach what are simple concepts to a native english speaker but always harder than I expect for the little ones to grasp.

I did lessons on the english alphabet to some very beginner classes last Thursday and Friday and brought in a song called "The Alphabet Rap". I wasn't sure if the kids would think the song was lame- (Give me an A-A, Give me a B-B, .... let's snap, let's clap, now get ready for the alphabet rap) but they started bopping in their seats to the tune and snapped along happily (some kids still can't even snap that well yet!) If I'm into it, they get into it. I also read "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" (an alphabet book) and the kids liked to repeat the words chicka chicka boom boom. Never underestimate the power of simple things.

On Friday I teach in Miette's school where by far they do the most creative things! I get to do one session of "arts plastiques en anglais" which is my favorite time of the week. They were creating a prehistoric moquette using clay, sticks and ther natural materials collected from outside in their courtyard. I work side by side with the teacher because we're going around giving a hand where needed and answering questions. This teacher lived in the States and has by far the best english (and american accent) of any other teacher with whom I'm working so it feels comfortable to do english together. She is doing english with them in class at other times during the week with them so I don't have to worry as much about them getting specific concepts and can just enjoy doing art and expose them to a more casual natural language experience.

Miette's class is doing lots of different work using the story "The Little Red Hen" and another called "Poulet Pizza" using the same books translated from the english originals into french. Her teacher uses the texts side by side in both languages to to compare grammatical structures, expressions, and vocabulary. Now she has created a "jeux de famille", a kind of card game, with the english text from the story. I will be in the class working with small groups playing the game where they have to ask their classmates (in a group of six) in english for the cards to complete an episode of the story. All the classes at her school seem to do a lot of comparative work between languages which is fun for me too because I am also seeing it from the other side and finding new insights into french.

I do have other classes where I have the floor entirely. This is very satisfying while also more challenging. I have to do more discipline and speak more in french to explain activities, clarify directions, translate vocabulary, etc. I also have to plan these lessons from a-z. These are the classes where I am learning the most about teaching by being thrown in there and having to make it work. One of these classes has dream angel students who never have discipline issues and generally seem to love when I am there. (Last time half of the girls in the classes gifted me drawings of hearts!). Another class has 30 students, 21 of which are boys and they are really a handful. If I don't have a very firm hand and a rapid-fire pace they start to go nuts.

And Jules and Mimi finally? I am happy to say that overall, I think they are doing fantastically. I really feel like Julian has found his niche at school and has reported the past few days since we've been back from vacation that he's had a lot of fun at school. Yet when I ask "What did you do that was fun?" he says "I don't know". So it's hard to get a inside view of his day but he tells me things about his friends and just the fact that he refers to having friends makes me happy. He no longer seems totally exhausted at the end of the day and hasn't once chewed his sleeves during the past weeks. He still doen't want to go to lunch at the "cantine" but that's the least of my worries. Even when he complained about having to go last Thursday, he told me he had fun there anyway. I also feel like either school has influenced him and/or he's made a developmental leap because he's made a lot of progress in his graphic skills. He made the coolest drawing this Sunday of an airplane, helicopter, and boat. Of course, he is also quite a perfectionist and gets very mad when his drawing don't turn out how he intends and will scratch them out and thrown them down if something isn't right.

Miette is totally into marbles and plays with them at school every day thus winning them, trading them with her classsmates and adding to her collection daily. She has started mixing french words into her conversation with me at home- tonight at dinner she said "mama, after dinner can we faire the puzzle together?" I notice her playing with language all the time: rhyming, comparing, joking, talking to herself. She goes up to kids at the park or wherever we may be and asks them to play and it seems like the timidity is gone. In fact I think she is so much less reserved here now than she was when we were in Chicago.

Our australian friend Stephanie is also a saving grace and is starting to feel like an extension of the family. The kids love her and I think it has been really important to have another anglophone adult with whom they can bond. It is also great to have clicked with someone and have that security of feeling like I have someone I can really call a friend, who's also new here, with whom we can speak at ease in our native language! I read this article on culture shock that talked about the importance of finding people of the same ethnic group to socialize with to ease the sense of isolation that comes with being totally plunged into another culture and language. When people go abroad there is always this pressure to "hang with the natives" but the reality is that as human beings we need to have people with whom we can connect and irregardless of language, we connect more easily with people who are also strangers in a strange land too. Having someone to call a friend who is in a similar situation makes it easier, in fact, to reach out to others that are native! So. Funny that she's from even farther away than France but feels closer to home.

Another fun thing I started is a french-english conversation exchange with Valerie, my landlord's wife. I feel like I may have included this earlier in another post so I won't write more about that now.

I feel like the floodgates have opened and I could write for hours. I'll spare whoever's reading from that and stop myself before I lose all sense of what actually might be interesting!

Topics to come:
How much I adore, really truly love, the Ludothèque: part 2.
The wonders of free (or almost free) institutions: Why I love the Mediathèque.
La Rochelle is beautiful all the time, we are unbelievably lucky to be here.
We finally found another wonderful big playground.

Fouras

2007-11-07T15:07:00.000-08:00

We just came back from a little vacation in a nearby town in Fouras which is on a "presque-île", a little peninsula abut 40 minutes away from La Rochelle. These pictures are just of the beaches at sunset and also one from the Hallowen party we went to this afternoon right after we got back into town. (Yes, I know it's not Halloween anymore but the family who threw the party was out of town for the school vacation and so had it today after their return.) I'll write more later about our time there- for now just the pictures!

Toussaint

2007-11-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

Today is Toussaint, All Saint's Day. It was absolutely the most magnificent fall day imaginable. See picture above where I tried to capture a sense of the sky. Everything was closed and so we had slow home day then went to the park and thankfully saw kids from school there. Miette played with Léonie, from her school, and they were shouting rhymes for Miette to each other on the swings- "arrete, je suis une baguette de miette- arrete- baguette-miette- arrete- baguette- miette!!! They made a boulangerie selling cakes, bread and tea from sand, acorns and leaves.

Though vacation in theory is great, being with the kids 100% day and night by myself is making me feel a little crazy at the moment. We all need some more human interaction (and I desperately need a backrub!) Yesterday we went to the Museum of Natural History which has recently undergone serious renovations and reopened this weekend so we took advantage of our vacation time to have lunch in a cafe and spend our afternoon at the museum. Miette made lots of sketches of animals that interested her. Julian was very interested in the creatures displayed there but was a little frightened by some such as the stuffed bison and lion. We also discovered a great playground in the botanical gardens behind the museum and the kids had a blast there. Most playgrounds we've run into here are for preschool age children and they don't have monkey bars, big swings or other things we think of as standards in U.S. playgrounds so we were happy that this new one had some structures geared also towards older kids.

It's been feeling like autumn inside and out- we've gotten local apples and made our own applesauce (thinking of Grandma Katie), made a batch of potato soup, collected autumn leaves and have been drinking tons of tea (in fact, I've switched back to tea in the mornings too! Without Ryan here to share the pot of coffee my heart just wasn't in it anymore!). I'm hoping that since La Rochelle weather is supposed to be mild that maybe it means we'll have a sort of prolonged autumn... It really is my favorite season!

p.s. I added picture of me since I there was a request... but it's not very interesting. You can see me, I am still looking pretty much the same, I think! I will try to hand over the camera and get something with me and the kids in some sort of interesting location next time, If I remember!

Movie of Miette

2007-10-28T00:28:00.000-07:00

Hopefully you can now see this little movie of Miette right here on my blog. Let me know what you think! This is her telling, in french, about a game she plays with her classmates at school recess.

Ludotheque

2007-10-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

Today we discovered an amazing thing La Rochelle has to offer- The Ludothèque! This is a game and toy lending library! We got ourselves membership cards and checked out some toys! One can go there and play on site with anything- they have hundreds of "jeux de société" (board games) and puzzles plus tricycles, rollerblades for kids, stilts, toy kitchens, trucks, dolls, castles, you name it! Julian fell head over heels with a castle set including knights and horses in full armor with lances, swords, axes and a prison in the castle building. Miette chose a castle building block set. And I had just the other day been lamenting not having any blocks here! They even have KAPLA blocks, just like the ones we have waiting for us in Chicago upon our return! So we have a place to go play on chilly winter days and a constant source of new playthings! Maybe this will be my mission when we come back, to establish a Ludothèque in Chicago- it's very environmental too!

Above pictures are: kids at home, our friend Steph with Miette, Julian having a turn with the pedal horses at the park today, Miette at the old towers in the center of town by the port, and the back view of the beautiful church which is what we see through our windows and balcony.

School Updates

2007-10-25T12:02:00.000-07:00

Today Miette said "I like it here!" followed by a qualifier of "of course I still love Chicago and miss it too" but obviously she was showing some spontaneous contentment with life in La Rochelle. Kids will be kids. When the going gets rough, they won't like it here, and when it's good they'll love it. Miette has also informed me that she and a boy in her class (Antoine) are in love with each other. I said "Why are you in love and how do you know he's in love with you too?" and she gave me all these examples of how her gives her his marbles, leans back into her lap when they are sitting outside together etc. etc. Though it is kind of funny it is also so sweet. Too young to be self-concious about "love"... And also feeling close enough with her classmates to have that kind of attachment! I am so happy with how school is going for her.

Julian still has his ups and downs but we're definitely getting more ups. All the big girls at school love him to pieces. They are always trying to hold his hand, hug him and care for him. When the mamas come to pick up their kids and wait outside for the gate to be opened I spy on him playing in the courtyard and see what he's up to. It's great to get those litle snippets of how he plays because its so hard for him to tell me about his day, it all gets jumbled together with other days and times. Today had a slightly rough beginning but ended up going swimmingly. He was unhappy going for morning drop-off because he didn't want to stay for lunch (which he had to because i have a class to get to during that time) and then when we arrived at school I realized that I had completely forgotten about the field trip they were taking that day. I knew a new event on top of an unhappy drop-off would be a double whammy so I looked for Lili, the girl in the class that he "doesn't feel shy about" (his words) and asked her if she would stay with him, hold his hand and sit on the bus with him. She said okay and took his hand and he immediately was fine. The day went well, aside from not eating at the cantine again, and he told me he had another new friend, a boy that is always nice to him. Of course he doesn't remember the boy's name, but what are names anyway?! So I think he's finding friends and feeling more comfortable. Another good sign is that he is no longer chewing his sleeves! He had been coming home with his sleeve cuffs wet and stretched out from gnawing on them all day long and I haven't seen a wet sleeve in days.

As for me and school, The initial nervousness has worn off and the issues with some of the rowdier kids last week were already easier to deal with this week. I've been talking about Halloween all week- related vocabulary, telling how we do it in the States and a little history of the holiday. I included a picture of a princess in my Halloween flashcards figuring it's probably one of the most popular costumes for girls in the U.S. and someone asked why there was a princess- they were shocked to find out that we dress up in costumes other than witch, ghost, pumpkin, vampire, devil or monster! (They really got a kick out of hearing what Miette dressed up as in the past: hot-air balloon? house? flower? WHAT??) Halloween is sort of an a la carte holiday in France, some people do it but not all and I can't say I've seen a single decorated house anywhere. Miette has been hand making decorations for our house! Life is hard though, after my first 2 full weeks of work in the classroom, I have a 12 day holiday starting Saturday! Tough life, huh?

Funny story

2007-10-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I'll start with the end first: I ate meat last night. Here's what happened. A girl named Stephanie from Australia (also here teaching english) has become a friend and the kids love her so she has come over the past three Tuesday evenings to watch them so I could go to this meditation group. It's lovely- the kids love her, get some time away from their mom and get to speak english and I get my meditation and an evening out of the house. So I head over to the meditation place and when I arrive the man who's setting up tells me it's a different meditation than their usual tchenrézi. Once a month when it's on or almost the full moon they do a ceremony for Milarepa which involves everyone bringing offerings of food and drink which are purified and shared at a certain point in the ritual. There are cakes resembling stupas, wine and juice, candies, cookies, crackers, cheese, and meat. He tells me there is a point where first you share a drink of wine and everyone takes a piece of meat and the idea is that after the rituel they are purified and therefore no longer considered alcohol or flesh. I say to the man, do you have to eat it, I am vegetarian, and his reply is well, you really should have a small piece at least because the idea is that in eseence it is all the same food, the same taste, and sharing in it is refraining from adversion or attachment to what one habitually does like or not like/eat or not eat. So I decide I better give it a go, not such a big deal right? It seems like the underlying principle has reason. Well, when the time came, they passed the wine, passed the meat (small pieces of someting steak-like) all very communion-esque as well, and eat my tiny piece. Actually I was amazed at how good it actually tasted when i was expecting to be revolted. But then they passed around more stuff and just gave you some of what was on each platter and you didnt choose what you got. Of course, I got a slice of some other meat, like prosciutto or some thin cured sliced kind of thing which I wasn't expecting to have and then really didn't want and had to rince that down quickly with some juice. So much for the "neither aversion nor attachment" thing! Everything else went fine and I came home, hung out with Stephanie a bit and then went to bed. Well a short later I woke up with the worst feelings in my digestive system! I wo't go so far as to say pain but it was not comfortable and I couldn't sleep for a bit. Immediately I said to myself, my body is revolting against this foreign substance! I suppose it could have been anything, even just the odd combo of many different foods eaten together but my conscience wasn't believing that! I don't think I'll be dipping my toes back into that water!! But I will admit, that little piece of steak was mighty tasty......

Market day, Rest day

2007-10-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning while Miette was at school Julian and I finally made it to the central market which takes place Wednesdays and Saturdays. I really would have gone sooner but since the market days coincide with when the kid(s) are off school, it just always seemed like to much hassle. But I've been missing out! It is so beautiful and exemplifies the idyllic small town french lifestyle! There are heaps of gorgeous vegetables, fruits, nuts, and cheese from the region, butchers in the inner covered marketplace displaying animals with heads on and claws intact. There was a cow head in a glass case with parsley inserted in its nostrils. Roosters with feathered heads adorning plucked skin, whole skinned rabbits with visible eyeballs. Miilions of shelled creatures from the sea. Needless to say, I stuck to the veggies and cheese. I finally got my bright little strawberries, some fresh goat cheese, sheep cheese, and real parmesean. It was nice to think back to being in Paris and feeling so nervous when I would be at the market and not always know how to say exactly what or how much I wanted and now I can confidently ask whether it's okay to tear some celery or do you have to buy the whole thing? In other words, it feels good to be here speaking french without worries.

Later that day we were invited to the home of one of the teachers I'm working with for the "gouter" (snack time). When I looked up her address on my map it seemed to be a reasonable walking distance away so I pushed Jules in the stroller and Miette on her bike. Well, we ended up overshooting our mark, turning on the wrong street getting quite turned around and accidentally discovered a huge community garden area. But with the help of a passerby and some more map examining we finally made it to her house at least a half-hour late. But it was great, she has a ten year old daughter who played with Miette and they had a pet bunny in their backyard and we all got along really well. She just moved to La Rochelle this summer so is in a similar place as me, just getting settled in and looking for new people.

This morning we stayed home for a long time and just took it easy. Ryan just sent us all the legos that were still in Chicago and the kids are in heaven (aside from the squables about who found which piece first!). So while they played I cooked a pot of soup, caught up on New Yorkers (that Ryan also sent) and drank lots of tea. Eventually we made our way to the park where we run into everyone on Sundays, saw kids from Mimi and Jules' schools and chatted with a mom. It felt like a true traditional Sabbath sort of rest day. Slow, cozy, quiet and peaceful. And ended with bowls of lentil soup garnished with parmesean from the market and baguette from the bakery. So good night tranquil Sunday!

Le Manege

2007-10-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening on our way home the grand and magnificent carousel that we often pass, but is never open, was moving so with the few euro coins i scrounged from my pocket I indulged Julian in a long-coveted go round. Here are 2 photos of him and the carousel and also one of Miette and her new used bike.

Fall weather brings homesickness.

2007-10-15T12:31:00.000-07:00

Well, autumn is usually a time of turning inward and stoking the home fires, preparing the nest for winter to come. In our case I think it is heightening the sense that France isn't really our home and there's a little heartache going around. I think now that the preliminary installation is over, the newness worn off, and all of our beloved are so far away it feels a bit lonely at the moment for all of us. Miette especially had a hard night tonight. She is especially missing her daddy and needing a friend. I think in part because she has been quite stoic and very resilient about things so far she's been sort of overdue for an emotional spell. After her crying jag the three of us all cuddled together in our pyjamas under the covers in the bottom bunk and read lots and lots of stories. Books are such constant friends!

Aside from that, I did have my first class today which was a piece of cake. I also used the bike that I got this weekend for the first time to get there and back and found it exciting to finally be able to zip around the city. There are hills here which is hard to get used to after biking only in eternally flat Chicago. The streets are about half as wide and though sometimes they have a bike lane, it still feels tight and somewhat intimidating. i also felt i crossed more territory in such a short time that the city seemed to open up to me in a new way. I'll have to use some of my morning free time to do a little vélo-adventuring.

Oh, I forgot to mention that when I posted a request for people to send american "stuff" for me to use in my classes, I also would love to have some photos of everyone to put up in the apartment. I didn't bring any and feel like we need a little altar here to friends and family. It would mean a lot to us!

Birthday party and bike

2007-10-13T14:46:00.000-07:00

Today Miette was invited to the birthday party of her classmate Apolline. I called to see how they "do parties" here and whether parents usually stay or not and how many kids would be going and was given an open invitation to stay or go as I wished. I ended up staying. This family does not live in the neighborhood, which is rare, so I got to see a different area of town and got to know some other fellow parents as well beyond the everyday pleasantries. There were about 10 french kids all from her class and a couple other parents stayed for the whole party like me. The kids played in the back garden for a couple hours then had cake, opened presents and then made things with clay at the end. I was impressed because they had real clay! The kids had fun until the moment when other parents were arriving to pick up their kids and Mimi and Jules started to melt down. Tired and blood sugar levels crashing, we got a ride home with another family back to our neighborhood. Miette had her usual Saturday half-day of school this morning and then she showered and dressed, ate lunch and headed out to find a present, went to the party and by the end of the day we were all ready to crash. But regardless, it felt good to spend a weekend day with other kids and families. For the sake of the kids, I really need to put myself out there to make rendez-vous for the kids on days off school so its not always just us getting stuck in a routine and to help them be closer with other kids their ages.Apolline's parents are closer to my age than the average of most other parents at La Genette, artistic, and well dressed...... her father is a graphic designer and her mother used to own 2 children's consignment boutiques so we have a lot in common with each other!

Well I too am exhausted now, not so much from a long day but it's getting late here now and I need to take care of myself so I'm "en pleine forme" for starting real teaching this week! Next time I write, I'll have to share more details on the different classes, school, and teachers wth whom I'll be working . There are some pretty drastic differences between them all.

Photos

2007-10-10T12:53:00.000-07:00

Photos are of the kids feeding the goats, street signs, the kids at the kitchen table drawing, and one of the schools (Valin) in which I'll be working (it is a very old building in the center of town and I particularly appreciate the beautiful benches in front).

Sunday in the Park

2007-10-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend we spent most of our time in the two parks nearby, each on either side of where we live. One is called Parc Franck Delmas and the other is Parc Charruyer. Parc Charuyer has a sort of mini-zoo in it with ponys, goats, deer, peacocks and other exotic birds. The kids spent an extremely long time feeding leaves and sticks to the goats who apparently eat anything. This was a very absorbing activity for Mimi and Jules and just about every other kid that came through. We took a brief detour through the amusement section as you leave the park but before you reach the beach where they have bumper cars, a kid train, mini-golf and other such activities. The kids each got to pick one activity so Miette did bumper cars and Julian did the train. I had a coffee! On our way home, we stopped in to check out a sweet little chocolate shop/patisserie where they make their own chocolates and everything in house and also their gorgeous cakes (Miette noted that they had a chess cake in the cooler complete with molded chocolate chess pieces and declared that that is what she would like her birthday cake to be!)

On Saturday when we were at the other park we ran into a teacher who works at one of the school where I'll be teaching. I won't be in her class but I had eaten lunch with all the teachers and met her then. She lives in a neighborhood on the other side of the park and had come there with her husband and three girls- 8, 6, and 3 years old. We chatted for a long time and got along really well as did Miette with their 8 year old daughter. The dad was amazed because Miette spoke to him in french and he couldn't believe how capable she was! I have to say everytime french comes out of her mouth with this beautiful little accent I can't really believe it's her!

It looks and feels like autumn here now. The trees are tinged with color and there are all kinds of nuts and leaves blanketing the ground. We are finding so many varieties of acorn-like things here that resemble something you might find in the States but yet are not at all the same. There are also marrons (kind of like buckeyes) and chaitagnes (chesnuts) and then exactly like the US, stinky ginko fruits. Nature feels more present and powerful here- from the spiders coming into the house to the vines creeping out of courtyards and over walls. In many ways Chicago is a very green city too but somehow the traffic, congestion, and population density seem to overwhelm the natural elements. Now that we have a balcony, we can just open the door for the weather report too. The kids do this every morning!

This neighborhood has a very small town sense to it. Every morning we see the same people walking their kids to school and picking them up as we do. My landlord and other people I've met with dogs come walking them in the evening in the grassy spot behind our apartment on the balcony side so if I am out there I see them. The bakery (right across the street) owners' daughter is in Miette's class. Many of the teachers from her school live in the neighborhood and we cross paths on days off school. One day last weekend we joined a family whose son is in Julian's class at school in an excursion to the nearby beach. The path to get there cuts through Parc Franck Delmas and there we ran into the family who had invited us all to our first dinner party. They were playing rugby and had just had guests arrive from Norway and since they were wanting to show them the area, they joined us as well. Then when we arrived at the beach, we saw 2 girls from Miette's class at the beach with their families and with whom Miette went off to play. So if you get the idea....it's a small world here already.

So I suppose in terms of actual news, the main thing that is new is me starting to actually be in the schools. So far we've gone in only for observations of the teachers with whom we'll be working. As it turns out I am going to be in 4 different schools: La Genette (Miette's school), Valin, Puilboreau, and Paul Doumer. It has been quite opening to get to watch all these differents classes and teachers in action. It's really the insider view. So far as I can tell from my experience with Miette being in school and my past education, things are pretty different here! The teachers are very strict and everything is very exacting. The kids have meticulous handwriting at a very young age and everything they do has to done with a ruler. For example, in their "cahiers" (different notebooks for each subject) the pages are gridded (narrower spaces horizontally and wider vertically) so they can measure the height of each letter. When the teacher writes the date and a subject or lesson on the board, she specifies how many squares in and down they must count to place their title and on which line they need to create a line with their rulers to delineate the title from the subject matter. After the have done an exercise, they correct it together as a group and they have to use a different color to note their corrections which must be made (crossed out) with their ruler> EVERYTHING is with a ruler! You can tell that good work habits and neatness are high priorities. I now understand why Miette was especially stressed out about her handwriting.But I diverge.... Basically, being there watching the teachers has been fascinating and I would spend all year watching and taking notes for a comparative thesis on educational systems (then Id have to spend equal time doing the same in the States). The reality is that next week it will be me up there hoping the kids are interested in what I can offer and that I can keep the creative juices flowing for different ways of presenting the english language to these kids! So far all the kids in these classes seem to be excited to meet someone new that isn't from here, like Thierry said, we are kind of like Martians to them!

Maybe now would be a good moment to also put out a call for lots of american paraphanelia to be sent to me !!! I am supposed to be not only working with language but teaching about my culture so if I can bring in "original" stuff from the U.S. to use as props and points of departure for particular subjects it would be great. So if whoever is reading could kindly send me even just a postcard of the city where you live, a menu from a restaurant/take-out place, a local newspaper, a small flag, historical info or pop culture stuff WHATEVER it is that seems american to you- SEND IT TO ME!!! (especially for the realms in which I am totally ignorant like football and baseball- so totally american and yet I'd be at a total loss for words trying to explain any of "our" sports!) feel free to offer ideas of things to present regarding culture and history as well!

the weekend

2007-10-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

on saturday (when miette has a half day at school, technically julian can go to school too but the maitrese said most kids don't come). petra, the dutch woman that has befriended me recently and with whose daughter miette has become friends, invited me to come over while they were at school to help dye her hair! julian came and played with their toys which is very exciting for him since we have so few toys here and he is already tiring of them. so, i hung out with her and had coffee and tea and dyed her hair and talked all morning. her family is moving back to the netherlands next friday which is too bad since she has been very easy to get along with and very welcoming but she has also introduced me to other moms and told them to take care of me now! one of those moms is marianne who is her closest friend here and i was also invited to marianne's house this afternoon for coffee. so much coffee! anyway, i met her partner (they're not married but have 2 kids together) and he was actually who invited me to come over and got to see yet another beautiful little paradise home in la rochelle. they have this amazing courtyard which is contained by their house on three sides and a fence/wall on the other. They have grapes and figs growing out there and i ate 2 figs straight from the tree. also antoine, the dad/partner, prepared a little dish of figs cooked in wine and sugar to go with the coffee. their place reminds me a little of bob bingham and kathryn sitter's place in pittsburgh. antoine is a menuisier, someone who works with wood (he said it's not exactly charpentier, like carpenter, but i looked in the dictionary and we don't have another translation. anyway...) and he and marianne have done all the work on the house themselves. it has that handbuilt beauty and things still in progress plus the general disorder of children and other things all togther in a jungle like tangledness. i'm already jealous of everyone's quaint old homes with these amazing gardens and courtyards! (caroline, the norweigan woman that invited us for dinner last weekend also had an amazing courtyard and when i went out to dinner on my birthday with the erards i got a little tour of their house which is the biggest by far and on which they have also done some work themselves but is a little less wild and quaint with more of a modern polished quality. i prefer the older and less polished ones myself!)

so, already things are getting busier, seeing and meeting more people, and soon starting my job. i had a whole list of things i though we would have gotten done today and haven't gotten to any of them since we chose to go visit people. tomorrow is the vide-grenier for the neighborhood (garage sale, literally, empty-attic!) which is right outside our back window in the place de l'eglise. i am going to look for a used bike, bike seat for jules, kids clothes, and any other little things of interest. if nothing else, it will be interesting to see what kind of things french people drag out of their closets for their garage sales! angelique, my neighbor in the studio apartment next door, said she got sweet little set of coffee cups last year for 5 euros. i think they may have little food stands too.

i met two more assistants yesterday as well. thierry stopped by here to bring me flowers (potted cyclamen) for my birthday and to introduce them- a girl from new york and another from australia. i told them to come by tomorrow for the vide-grenier and kind of invited them to have lunch or something. so there will be another american after all! i actually have met all but one of them now and it seems like a nice group.

miette is speaking more french every day. petra said she heard her saying a lot in french while playing with emma. i think it's already helping her out in school, i think she really gets most things. I also find myself speaking to the kids in french if i'm with someone french and have been in conversation my brain goes into french mode and it's just the first thing that comes out.

petra was also comenting on how miette had made all these clothes for the bear aunt patti sent her out of only paper and tape and how resourceful and inventive kids are, especially given our situation and how little we actually brought with us- she is using her creativity and the materials she finds to come up with things to do. she has also been collecting snails (real live ones) and making little homes for them including plant matter etc for their environments.

2007-09-28T05:23:00.000-07:00

Today is Julian's first full day of school including lunch at "la cantine". Consequently, I accomplished a great deal since I didn't have to rush back from something to pick him up at noon! I hope that he isn't too exhausted from his big day but he was fine this morning when I said goodbye and I think he is taking things in stride. I set off to the Prefecture to apply for the carte de sejour, the residency card one has to have if you come to stay here from outside of the EU. Luckily, it went smoothly and I had everything they needed so, knock on wood, that is in process without complications! I got to explre the city on foot a lot afterwards and finally stumbled upon the Place du Marché in the center of town where they have the city's main open air fruit/vegetable/fish market. On Wednesdays and Saturdays it is bigger but there is a smaller version all the other days of the week. I didn't buy anything today but I think I'll go back with the kids tomorrow morning and shop. They have the most beautiful strawberries here and I am dying to get some. I haven't seen anything resembling the huge pale american variety one usually finds inthe supermarkets back home- here they are all small and a totally bright succulent red. They have tons of beautiful grapes as well but, contrary to the states, most of them have seeds! I am already frustrated again by the difficulty of being vegetarian here, the same as when i was in Paris. You really can't even get a salad in a restaurant that doesn't come with ham or chicken on it. Only the pastries are meat-free and I try to restrain from indulging in them too often! I must say that the french are obsessed with their yogurt and cheese and we are enjoying that. We love "fromage blanc" which is sort of like yogurt but we can't figure out exactly what makes it different- it's a bit thicker or something. I am really missing cooking our staple mexican meal of bean burritos with homemade guacamole! Black beans and pinto beans don't seem to exist here and it is not easy to find tortillas. Hopefully the one grocery store I haven't been to yet will have some hidden treasures......Obviously I am not someone who has come to France because I am in love with the cuisine.

Here is a little bit about school here for the kids: Their schools are a half block from our apartment which is amazing, and they both start at 9 AM. The morning session goes till 12, lunch and recess till 2 and the afternoon session until 5. So the period from 12-2 is totally for eating and playing outside which means no rushed lunches like Miette had at Lenart in Chicago! For those of you reading this that didn't hear it already, their lunch is eaten at tables set with real plates, silverware and cloth napkins and they eat in courses! They have bread with every lunch, choice of milk or water and occasionally juice, and Miette was so excited the day she got salad at school! (I don't think Julian will feel the same about salad but I'm sure he will be introduced to a whole world of meat that he would obviously never have experienced at home!) Miette's school will do different sports activities around La Rochelle throughout the year and starting in December they do swimming lessons as a class during the winter months. Julian's class goes outside 3 times a day to the school courtyard/playground which is shared by the three classrooms at his "ecole maternelle".

I start my job Monday October 1. Our first day is just an introduction to what we will be doing and walking us though other practicalities related to living abroad here. If they've figured it out yet we may get our schedules but from what I've gathered it often takes them a long time to figure out what schools need us during what times and so forth so we still may have a little bit of lag time before actually entering the classrooms. I won't complain! Though I am ready to have a little more structure in the day to day, there are still plenty of things to do with my free time! It will be nice to meet the other people that are here to do the same job- so far I have met 3 of them, one australian and 2 british women. I think I may be the only american among the english speaking natives!

Turning 30 in La Rochelle

2007-09-25T05:17:00.001-07:00

Well, not that I actually feel different but I feel that this birthday signifies moving into the next chapter of life. The next decade beginning in a new country definitely gives it a positive spin. I had my first dinner party Sunday evening and now have been invited out for a birthday dinner this evening with my propriétaire, his wife and another couple. Their teenager will babysit! I am definitely looking forward to having an evening out after what has probably been the longest strtch in the past few years that I've gone without being able to leave the kids home in the evenings and visit with friends, go out to dinner, see a movie or whatever!

I feel very cared for today as I've received many cards in the mail, a couple packages, and countless emails and e-cards. It's amazing how much the computer has changed my experience here compared to when I was a student in Paris and had only letters and the occasional highly regulated phone call. As an FYI, it seems that with global priority mail, it takes about 5-6 business days for packages, and wih express about 3 and letters seem like they've come within 7 days of being sent.

I have been letting the fact that I am here with the kids and don't have to work for another week sink in. I am just sort of realizing that, although briefly, I am doing what i really have wanted to do for awhile- just be here for them. It is great that when they are home with me, it is just us and no other kids and people running in and out all day. There is a kind of calm that we haven't had in such a long time in our home and maybe that's why I am feeling so settled. I can think of just me and them. Julian seems really happy with it. He is so perfectly content to be here, with me all the time, just chilling.

Yesterday Julian kissed me goodbye at sat quietly playing at the table when i dropped him off for school. he had a little fit in the morning when he woke up and i told him it was school day but quickly got that out of his system so that when we actually went he was fine. yeah. his teacher even said "il a même travaillé un peu!" Today was the same, calm as could be at dropoff and all morning with no problems or sadness.

2 little things i've been wanting to note. Julian is obsessed with the letter slots in people's doors here! Everytime we walk down the street he goes to each door to see what kind of letter slot they have and pushes his hand into it to look inside and check it out. One morning a woman actually opened her door when he did it, thinking someone was coming by with mail only to discover it was a little curious boy playing. Very cute. I think he is super curious about them because on our street, all the houses' front doors are right up on the sidewalk and of course the letter slots are at Julian's eye level, and there are many different little variations in each of them, old and decorative, push-in, pull-up, two sided, and so on. The other thing he and Mimi are both noticing all the time is the dog poop! It's closer to their eye level! But even though you don't see litter on the streets, no one ever scoops the poop and there are so many small dogs that you have to look down as you walk to dodge the tiny turd bombs everywhere.

Julian is enjoying play-dough right now. He's making spaceships with fire coming out and doors that really open. Yesterday he made a playdough face with 2 long arms coming out of either side. most everything he does/plays with/makes involves having fire coming out of it somewhere. He loves his race car undies because those race cars have fire coming out of them!

Yesterday and today it rained in the morning but now the wind is blowing the clouds away and the sun is coming through. so far that is a pattern. If it starts gray, it blows off my midday. most days start chilly and heat up to the mid 70s and then cool down in the evenings again. lovely. I do wish we'd get a day that stayed grey all the way through, just to satisfy my love of cozy overcast weather, but i really won't complain.

YEAH!

2007-09-24T02:33:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the blog. Today I can't write much because I have to leave and pick up Julian from his first calm day at school here. Last week was difficult for him but he had settled down by Friday and this morning's drop-off was a calm kiss and goodbye. I am proud of him and glad we are moving forward. Next step is getting him to the routine of being at school for the morning and afternoon. That is the project for the week before I begin my job next Monday October 1st when he has to go for the full day so I can work.

Tomorrow I turn 30 in France! I turned 21 in Paris and now pass into the next decade here in La Rochelle. I have a dinner invitation with my proprieteur and his wife and we had our first dinner party last night with 2 other anglophone families.

More soon!

testing this out

2007-09-24T02:31:00.001-07:00

hi anyone, i am not sure how i'm going to get this blog going if i can't figure out how to post so i'm giving it a try. if this works, then i'll try to start keeping a log of how things are going here on this blog so everyone interested can check in with us in la rochelle.

wish me luck!

eva