The Good Ole US of A

We have arrived safe and sound in the US! Ahhhh, it's good to hear English spoken again. Our trip was without mishap although long. We were all exhausted when we finally made it to the hotel but happy to meet my brother and his wife and daughter for dinner. Quincy was dying for a hamburger, I really wanted a margarita and Josh was craving hot wings! The funny things we miss.... Anyway, we are here and ready to enjoy a week of visiting friends and family.

Under Control

Things are looking up today and we have our trip home now under control. We are still all feeling stuffy nosed and sore throated but no one really feels "sick" today so we are hoping that it is just allergies and our symptoms will be gone when change our environment. My friend, Valerie - remember that she is bed-ridden from having 3 broken vertebrae - is a wonderful source of information and more than willing to help in any way that she can because she is bored out of her mind! She also speaks excellent English so we can communicate about anything. Anyway, I went to her house this morning and we made a plan and reservations to ignore the part of our trip which will include Air France so that we don't have to worry about their strike. It will involve much more driving for us as we will now drive to Paris versus just to Nantes but that's okay. We will also now leave tomorrow instead of Sunday to allow for the drive time. So, I need to get busy packing! After our planning (and coffee - of course), I headed home to start some laundry before going to another friend's house for lunch. My friends are now speaking more in French around me and I am understanding more and more. Most of my responses remain in English however as my vocabulary is still so limited. Right after school, the kids and I started doing some packing. They are so excited - not only to go "home" for 10 days but also to have the next 13 days off from school! That's always fun. I noticed a mile marker yesterday with Max though... in the past, when I have picked him up for school for lunch, it was like a godsend to him and he was totally thrilled to be leaving school and coming home. Yesterday, when I picked him up for lunch, he told me that I could take him home or leave him there, it didn't matter because he would have fun either way. He also is always busy playing with friends in the schoolyard at the end of the day now rather than waiting at the gate for me to arrive. The kids have 5 course meals at school every day for lunch and 95% of the time, love the food. Yesterday, I decided to make a hot lunch for the boys when they come home for lunch to simulate the meals that they have school. I made chicken cordon bleu, a tomato salad, baguette and a chocolate dessert. Max told me that it was very good but that at school, they usually have a starter to go with all of that! I can't win - it's back to PB&J for him! I had to take a picture of the difference in priorities between French families and American families. Look at the size of that peanut butter jar vs the Nutella jar. That is the largest peanut butter jar that I have seen here! We had a rousing game of Twister tonight and now I am heading off to my modern jazz dance class. Here is a picture of yet another of my favorite houses that I pass every day. I'm not sure how much blogging I will do next week while we are in the States - may have to catch you all up when we get back!

One of those days....

In general, things are going very well for us here, however..... some days are just better than others. Today was not one of those good days. I woke up this morning with a sore throat yet again and all day have felt less than well. All 4 kids are also complaining of stuffy heads and sore throats and now Josh is feeling the same! I had my community French class today and could not seem to understand anything! Our teacher only speaks French so when you're not feeling up to par, it's very, very difficult to learn anything when you don't even know what is going on! We are struggling with getting some of our maintenance prescriptions filled over here which is not something that we can fool around too long with - Calvin takes multiple asthma meds and I take thyroid medicine in addition to Quincy and Taba taking allergy meds. It's very frustrating to know what you need but jumping through new hoops to get stuff. Air France is planning a strike for this weekend! We are flying to the United States this week for a 9 day break at "home" that coincides with the kids' school holiday. We don't know quite what to do as we are flying Air France from Nantes to Paris but Delta from Paris to Cincinnati. We could drive or take the train to Paris and just skip the first part of our air trip but then the way back gets messed up as well and our car is not in the same spot that we are! We don't know quite how to do the whole train thing - it costs a fortune - and our times will be way off from what we need. Sighhh.... things are just difficult today. I'm sure that tomorrow will be better.... We have some calls into friends here to help us out. Hopefully someone comes through soon.

Homework Helper

Poor Josh, he is definitely the one that we all have to turn to when we need to understand some French and we just can't get it! So, Josh comes home from work after having to listen to French all day with his co-workers and he then has to help the kids to understand what they need to do for their homework and to translate any papers that come home from school and need attention. I can do some of this with the help of a dictionary and/or an online translator but since Josh can understand the grammar so much better than the rest of us, it often still comes down to him. We are all getting better though so it shouldn't be all on him for too much longer. In fact, today, we surprised him by having all homework done when he got home from work! Quincy had a great time at his sleepover with Raphael last night. His parents are very, very nice and speak some English as well as being fluent in Spanish. Quincy said that Raphael's dad made the "best" pizza in the world with sauteed onions as the sauce, homemade crust, an egg, olives, fresh tomatoes, ham and cheese. When I picked up Quincy this morning, I was able to talk to Raphael's mom some and she told me how wonderful it is that Raphael gets the opportunity to work on his English with someone as nice as Quincy. She would also like to get to know the rest of us better and plans to invite us over for an apertif one day soon. The kids and I did a little clothes shopping again today. Tabitha has outgrown her warm jacket and since it has been only about 5 degrees Celsius each morning, she needs to have something warm to wear. That girl is now only about an inch shorter than me!
You know how the inclination is to often speak more slowly and louder to someone who doesn't speak your language? Well, I am starting to think that this truly does help! Max's soccer coach and a salesclerk in a store today said something that they wanted us to understand but not knowing any English, they just repeated it in a slower and louder voice and I was able to understand so much better when I didn't have to strain at all to hear above any extraneous noises.

Pocketchange

The whole money thing over here is quite different.... Not only is everything very expensive and the exchange rate horrible for the poor American dollar right now, but the fact that the one Euro and two Euro denominations are in a coin form versus being paper money really throws me! You feel like you aren't spending much at all when you just throw change around to buy something but when you realize that you actually just threw down a 2 Euro piece which is actually $2.80 for that brownie, it adds up! Yesterday, I paid to park in a public lot where you have to put coins into a machine and it prints you a ticket for a certain period of parking time. As I was walking away from the machine to put my little ticket in my car, a woman approached me and asked me a very long, drawn out question. I had no idea what she said and told her that I did not understand and she looked just devastated. I then realized that she was holding a 5 Euro bill so I then assumed that she needed change for the parking machine. I was able to communicate with her that I could help her and was able to find enough coins to trade her for her bill. She was thrilled and I was happy to help but it again made me realize that I am not treating the 1 and 2 Euro coins like "real" money because I had that $7 just neglected in the bottom of my purse because it's "just change". I would never neglect $7 in paper money! Today, everyone was healthy and went to school as they were supposed to. Quincy rode the bus home after school with a friend from school - he is to have his first sleepover tonight at Rafael's house since tomorrow is Wednesday and they don't have school. He is very excited! Hope it goes well. We had to communicate with his parents through notes because they are easier to translate than the spoken word. Especially over the phone!! It is so hard to understand over the phone! You need gestures, context and face to face to really understand when you don't speak the language. The phone is just an impossible medium right now and I hesitate to answer unless I really think it will just be Josh or one of the kids. Taba had a phone experience tonight when a friend called from school to set up some play time for tomorrow. Taba is able to communicate with this girl all day long at school with her little bit of French and Leticia's little bit of English but over the phone, it took them 15 minutes to figure out that Taba thought they were getting together tomorrow and Leticia thought they were getting together next Wednesday! Whew!!
One of my pictures from a walk today shows the tide way, way out.....

Another sick one....

Today, Quincy didn't feel so well so at about 11:30, I received a call that he needed to be picked up from school and brought home....Guess we are all catching some new germs that we are used to. After a nap this afternoon, Quincy seems to feel much better already so hopefully this is just a quick illness. This morning, I attended my first French "Pampered Chef" party. It wasn't really Pampered Chef but something similar. The woman hosting the party and selling the kitchen supplies didn't speak English but I went with a friend who helped me out. I had to place an order for baguette and quiche pans so I can do some real French cooking! The hostess was very ready and willing to teach me about French cooking but I need to understand a bit more French before she and I can really "work" together. After picking Quincy up from school, he and I came home to a quiet afternoon. I made a big pot of white bean and rosemary soup which we all enjoyed for our dinner. I also made a quick visit to another friend's house this afternoon. She had just returned from Paris where she had been selected to be on a French quiz show called "Question pour Champion" - sort of like Jeopardy. She had all kinds of interesting stories to tell me about her adventure in show biz. Very exciting even though she didn't win! Her show will be aired in December so I look forward to watching her on television! We can't decide if it's fall or spring around here.... some of my plants are starting to blossom while other's have leaves that are changing color....

Oysters for Energy?

We are not in Kansas anymore!! Tonight, while talking to our next door neighbor who happens to be a commercial fisherman... we were told that he had spent the day helping out at the marathon that was run in Vannes by opening and passing out oysters to the runners as they ran passed!!! I have never heard of such a thing!
Today, was all about being social and drinking lots of coffee!! This morning, we had a coworker of Josh's over for coffee. He and his wife and two children will probably be moving to Batesville, IN next summer! They are really outgoing and friendly and spent 5 years in England (they speak excellent English) so I think they will love it. They wanted to hear all about how we are enjoying France and what to expect in the US. Their daughters are 5 and 8 so they had a great time playing with our kids while the adults chatted. With just a couple of hours in between, we were then invited over to our next door neighbors' house for coffee. The neighbors that live on the other side of us also came over and acted as our interpreters whenever the French/English got too complicated. Very enjoyable visit with some very friendly people. Our kids again enjoyed playing with their kids while the adults chatted. I have been concerned since we moved in that Quincy's drum set would be disruptive to anyone that can hear him play. However, we were told tonight that the boy who used to live in this house also played the drums and everyone is used to hearing them! Now we can relax!

Working around the house.... (Saturday)

Saturday was just a day of "getting things done". I directed while Josh worked - that's the way we work best! I made some curtains to add a bit of color (all of our walls are white and we have no plans to change them as this is just a rental for us) which Josh then hung. He also had all the boys helping while he hung light fixtures. You all know that I love home decorating (that's why we move so much!). This was a much scaled down version however - no granite countertops for this house! Max was well enough to go to school in the morning but he did skip his soccer game yesterday afternoon as he is coughing with any real exertion. The rest of the day was just spent around home. Josh took the kids for a long walk in the afternoon. It was beautiful but quite cool all day. Last night, it got down to 2 degrees Celsius!! We finally had to turn on some heat. We don't have central heating so it's a bit different.....

Pictures from Friday

Blogger was again giving me trouble as I tried to load pictures yesterday. Here are the pictures that go with the previous post.

"Living the Dream"

Sometimes in the midst of the every day tasks and difficulties, we lose focus on the fact that we are some of the fortunate few who get to live out their dreams and to do exactly what they've always wanted to do! We are doing that and we are loving it!
We kept Max home from school today even though he wasn't too sick, just a sore throat and a very runny nose. I'm not sure if I enjoyed more and or if he did but we had a great day. Just completely lazy but the weather was gorgeous and neither he nor I were feeling too bad so we took a nice, leisurely walk along the seawall and just enoyed the beauty of our surroundings. I then took the bull by the horns and went and got my hair cut! My hair has been out of control since we moved here with the constant steady breeze and the increased humidity. I have been terrified of getting it cut because I didn't know how I could possibly manage to communicate what I wanted with a beautician that spoke another language!! So, I asked for advice and practiced with my friends and today, I did it!! Much to my surprise, when I started speaking French to the beautician who was suggested to me, she jumped in with perfect British English!! From then on, I had a great time, got a great cut and am thrilled with my new look! Max loved watching the transformation and went from telling me that I looked totally "weird" to looking like "someone else's mom" to looking "pretty awesome"! After feeding the kids some pizza and tucking them into some Scooby Doo episodes on iTunes, Josh and I went out for "date night". We had a great time buying him some new work clothes (very few people wear khakis around here and that's basically all he has) and then went out for a wonderful dinner at a little Irish pub.

Street Signs and Sunshine

Today was just a gorgeous sunny day - the weather could not be more perfect - high of about 60 degrees with blue skies and minimal clouds. I had to stop and take some pictures of my favorite little inlet from the gulf yet again. The tide was out so all you see is the green algae and some boats sitting in the muck. While driving around today, I was realizing how much I appreciate the street signage in France. All roads are just labeled directionally so if you know where you are trying to go, you just follow the signs that point that you there.... for example, if I am trying to go to Conleau, at each intersection, I just follow the sign for Conleau. The Toutes Directions are also great signs to follow because if you have somehow lost your way, you follow the "all directions" signs and they will lead you to a roundabout that will have all the major surrounding areas labeled. Can't beat it! Roundabouts are another fantastic creation.... I can drive through town from a busy mall for 20 minutes to our house and only stop for one actual light. All of the intersections are roundabouts and I never have to stop and never have to wait for traffic to move. Of course, everyone here knows how to use the roundabouts which makes a big difference for traffic flow. There are even 2 lane roundabouts which everyone can manage quite well. You also never have to make a "u turn" because you can just hit the next roundabout and follow it in a complete loop to go back in the direction that you need to be going!
I am gradually feeling better and slowly but surely getting rid of my horrible cough. However.... when Max was home for lunch today, he seemed unusually sensitive. Then after school, he complained of being cold and then cried at the drop of a hat - very unusual for him. Next time I turned around, he was in his bed, sound asleep!!! I woke him up to eat dinner and take a bath but I definitely think he is getting sick! Bummer!!

Pictures for Wednesday

Calvin hanging out with me during Max's soccer practice. He played Gameboy until 2 of his good friends showed up and then he took off running.



The kids and friends playing in front of our house.

Wonderful Wednesdays!

I really love Wednesday afternoons!!! The kids don't have school and we have no agenda. Weekends always have something going on but Wednesdays don't. I also get the opportunity to talk to my next door neighbor on Wednesday afternoons when the rest of the week, she is at work in her own physical therapy practice. We had such a nice day today. Max and Calvin had a morning of playtime and Max's soccer practice while Quincy and Taba were at school. After everyone came home and we had lunch, I sent the kids outside to play in the gorgeous, sunny afternoon. Pretty soon, 4 kids from Calvin's class showed up and they all played basketball, soccer, and rugby. It was so fun to watch! Some kids are yelling out in French, some in English and everyone is just getting along. Maybe it helps to not all speak the same language.... no way to fight.... no way to make up a bunch of rules.... Hmmmmm...... When we moved to this house, I was concerned that the kids wouldn't have other kids to play with since we are in a small neighborhood, on a very small street with mostly retired people, at the tip of a peninsula. However, one boy from Calvin's class discovered where we lived, accidentally while riding his bike and has spread the word ever since. I love it! It's always nice to have the house where the kids want to play.
Max corrected my pronounciation tonight when I said a French word, stating that he was saying it the way that his teacher says it and she "is a professional French person". Max can read but admittedly, we don't spend as much time working on harder reading with him than we did the older kids. Last night, Josh decided to really work with him and together they read a more difficult book. When Max had to sound out a word, he started sounding it out with the French pronounciation! So, we have decided that we have moved here at the perfect time to mess up Max forever in both French and English!
Blogger isn't allowing me to post pictures right now. I'll try again later.....

Filet of Beef Bourguignon

Tabitha tells me that I should get a job, I'm enjoying cooking way too much! I am enjoying cooking, but I have always enjoyed cooking, I just never had as much time to do it! Plus, the food here is so great that it just invites me to cook! This was our dinner tonight! Everyone loved it and it was great fun to make.
I'm not sure that the medicine I got yesterday helped at all because I am still coughing so much that I really can't carry on a conversation or sleep at night.... Sigh.... It's getting old.....
Anyway, this morning started out with dense, dense fog, especially out by our house as we are so close to the water. It was pretty fun to look at but not too easy to drive in. It also made me realize that we will never know if our school is delayed or cancelled or anything because we have no idea how to find out! The fog hung around until after lunch and then cleared off to reveal a beautiful fall day.
When I pick Max and Calvin up from school these days, they are always surrounded by a big group of kids and they are heavily involved in Pokemon card trading. They love it! The French kids are thrilled to get the American cards and the American kids are thrilled to get the French cards. It is fun to watch!

I'm Learning!

Today, I finally had to get myself to the doctor - enough coughing! He speaks some English so between his English and my French, he was able to give me two prescriptions to hopefully help with all the coughing. He also asked me why it seems hard for me to speak French - I told him that I don't like to make mistakes and usually the first words out of my mouth are mistakes, so then it's difficult to keep trying. He told me that he is the same way with English and that he always speaks better English after 3 whiskies because he loses some of his inhibitions! Maybe I should try that! After leaving the doctor's office, I realized that I then had to navigate the pharmacy to get the prescriptions.... So, I called Josh for some emotional support and then went for it.... I was so proud of myself, I went right up to the counter, apologized (in French) for not speaking much French and then handed over my prescriptions and asked to have them filled. Made it! Maybe not perfect but no major problems. I was then feeling so good that I walked down the street to the mayor's office and asked for some maps of the biking trails that I had been wanting. Again, not perfect but they knew what I wanted and helped me without either of us resorting to English! Hurray! Max has a bully in his class and today, spit in his lunch so that he couldn't eat it! He didn't know what to do but fortunately, some of his friends at his tables told the teacher. We'll have to keep an eye on Emma!

Laid Back Sunday

Not much to report for yesterday.... we really just took it easy. My incessant coughing has been keeping both Josh and I up every night so we needed a bit of down time. The kids played very happily both inside and outside yesterday. Josh and I did some work around the house - put up light fixtures and a few curtains. We also took Josh's car out to again work on my stick shift driving - no problem! I drove all around town with stops, starts, round-abouts, etc without any trouble. Now I just have to convince Josh to trade me cars one day so I can run all my errands alone and see how it goes! He's pretty protective of his Peugeot! We then hopped on our bikes to explore some of the trails right around our neighborhood, we didn't make it too far before my coughing put a halt to things but we did see some pretty areas and see some of the leaves starting to change color.

Two Hour Meals - Saturday

Another beautiful day to enjoy in northwestern France.... The little boys had one of their Saturday mornings off from school so we could start our day out at a little bit of a more relaxed pace. Tabitha had horseback riding class where they took a long trail ride. She is starting to begin to understand the French commands of her teacher and to communicate those to her horse. She is thrilled when they are allowed to "trot" their horses - she likes the increased speed and seems to be afraid of nothing when it comes to horses. After horseback riding, Calvin had his first basketball game - they lost terribly - 38 to 2 but Calvin's enthusiasm and assertiveness never wavered and he was able to provide the assist for the one basket that his team did score. Quincy then had a basketball game in a little rural town about 30 minutes from here. They also lost terribly. After hitting the ball games, we ran our Saturday errands which unfortunately involved a long visit to "Home Depot". Most of our home just has single lightbulbs dangling from the ceiling as apparently French people change their light fixtures quite readily and easily and the previous renters took most of theirs with them. We picked out a few to start to improve this for ourselves as well as a set of curtains for our front windows. We also had to purchase a power drill for Josh - I"m not sure how we thought we would make it through 3 years without a power drill. After all the shopping, we dropped the car off at home before walking the 5 minutes to the restaurant that we pass a million times a day but had never been in. It is a beautiful restaurant with a gorgeous view of the gulf - unfortunately, it was a bit more expensive than we had anticipated so it will not be a place we hit often with the 6 of us! We had a wonderful meal of seafood and steak. The kids enjoyed the Menu Enfant with ham and fries. This was the first multi-course French meal that we had undertaken with the kids and since their food was served with the "entree" (the starter - not the main course here) for us, they had 3 more courses to sit through before we were finished. Everyone held up well though and we certainly enjoyed ourselves. Josh had a big plate of fresh seafood as his starter which he had to crack, pick, and slurp his way through. We headed home to watch France get beat by England in the Rugby World Cup semi-finals. Very disappointing sports day!

Friday - Bridging Cultures through Cooking

Friday started out quite poorly but fortunately improved quite a bit as the day progressed. We woke up to find that we did not have hot water for our showers! It is definitely different being a renter instead of a home owner and something that we have not experienced in a long time. After numerous phone calls, Josh was able to arrange to have a plumber/electrician come out to the house later in the day. Turns out that the hotwater heater had been wired to the same circuit as the garage door opener so when one happened to run at the same time as the other, it blew the fuse. The problem was resolved fairly quickly with three very friendly guys hired by the real estate agent. After lunch, I joined 3 of my new friends at the home of one and we had a baking party. It was great fun! Valerie, Clemence, and Sabine were all fascinated with the chocolate chip cookies that I had brought to an earlier gathering and were anxious to know how to make them. In exchange for me sharing my "top-secret family recipe" (the Nestle Tollhouse recipe) with them, they taught me how to make a chocolat gateau (little chocolate cakes) and Far Breton, a flan like dessert with prunes which is very typical to this region of France. We had a wonderful time - they taught me how to use a kitchen balance for measuring the ingredients and they, in turn, loved my measuring cups and the ease at which I could establish quantities. After enjoying some coffee before we started, and some tea and cookies after we finished, we decided that our next cooking gathering would have to include a whole meal. At school, Tabitha's class had an English test that her teacher asked her to take (even though it was very easy for her). Taba was thrilled to find out that the whole test was about her!! It involved translating a greeting exchange between several people and the topic of conversation was the wonderful American girl in their class named Tabitha! That just made Taba's day - very nice of her teacher!

Sunsets, shopping and architecture!

I'm finally feeling quite a bit better and was able to join the land of the living again today! Hurray! I hit my two french classes today in downtown Vannes and did some window shopping in between. The French classes are quite interesting as there are people from all different countries. Unfortunately, French is often our only shared language and since we are in "beginner's French" that isn't saying much! Someone compared these classes to adult charades! Needless to say, there is not a lot of chit chat around the room while the teacher is trying to talk! I did meet a girl today who is from the Czech Republic and is working here for a family as an au pair. She told me that her host family is from Cincinnati! They have been here for 3 years though and will only be here until January when they are moving back to the US. She is very excited to follow them back to the U.S. Today was just absolutely perfect. The sky was blue, the temperature was about 50 this morning and got up to almost 70. I had a wonderful time just window shopping and enjoying the sights of Vannes. This evening, the sunset was absolutely gorgeous and Josh and I were finally able to time a walk to be right on the shore while it was happening. The rest of my pictures are from my ramblings around Vannes. In case I have falsely given any one the idea that all of the architecture here is beautiful, I"m also including a picture of our grocery store. Most of the more modern buildings here are just as ugly if not uglier than in the United States.

Crafts and Baking....

I am beginning to feel a little better but still not 100% so we just took it easy today. The kids didn't have school so we just stayed home all day. I always feel better when I'm doing a little baking so while the kids played, I made our first batch of pancakes since we moved here. No Bisquick to be found around here so we had to make them completely from scratch! I also had to find the maple syrup in the "Imported" foods aisle, imported from Canada! Of course, it comes in a tiny bottle so it won't last long around our house. I set up a "craft" table in the guest room so the kids would have room to do what they wanted so while they happily made all sorts of craft projects all day, I baked two loaves of cranberry bread and a big pan of croissant bread pudding. Yum! Calvin was thrilled to have two of his best buddies from school come over in the afternoon and invite him to play. He was very excited to learn that they live only a 10 minute walk away along the seawall path. He spent a good two hours with them before coming home for basketball practice. I talked to our neighbors out in the yard for a few minutes and we were again able to arrange our carpool for basketball. I was even able to ascertain the time of Calvin's first basketball game on Saturday from his coach tonight. My French must be improving!! I don't know if I believe anything about this 35 hour work week in France - Josh left for work before I got up this morning and it's 9 pm and he's still not home from work. The big, big boss is in town so they are having some long meetings....

Stupid, stupid, stupid....

I'm going to blame this on the fact that I still feel pretty miserable today but... I decided to surprise the kids and actually hook up "their" computer while they were at school today. They have gone so long without their own space. Anyway, we were warned by our friend, Kim, that you have to flip a switch on the back of the computer to handle the voltage differences.... Well, I didn't see an obvious switch and since we had no problem at all with either my iMac or with Josh's laptop, I plugged it in.... A large popping noise and smoke coming out of the computer signaled to me that this didn't quite work so well!! Ughhh! Expensive mistake. Should have stayed in bed like I wanted to. I cancelled my French class today as I just wasn't up to it. I did spend an hour doing my French lessons online however so the day wasn't a complete loss. (I think the word "stupid" is the same in French and English!) It was a gloomy, cloudy and cool day with a little rain coming in this afternoon while I picked up the kids from school. I took this picture while waiting on the draw bridge for a red light. You can see the tide coming in as well as the rain clouds.

Feeling Poorly....

I'm not feeling well at all today so I"m going to keep this short. I"m hoping that it's just allergies but my head and throat are so sore that it hurts to talk. I just took it easy today - even skipped my weekly bike riding group. Hopefully, I will be much better tomorrow. Just had to give you this one little tidbit from today.... Taba had an English test where she missed the spelling of "favorite". She had spelled it correctly of course, in American English but not the "favourite" of British English! A little tricky speaking English in a country so close to Great Britain!

A Day of Rest...

Finally, we spent the entire day at home. Our cars didn't leave the driveway a single time. I think we all needed some time at home, just relaxing and not trying to think or speak in French! After the exciting upset last night with France beating New Zealand in the quarter finals of the Rugby World Cup, Josh, the kids and the little neighbor girl had a wild, fun rugby game out in the yard. I spent some time making our house feel a little bit more like "our" house. I hung pictures on the walls and did some rearranging. Very fun. We had some wonderful kids stop by to "welcome us to the neighborhood". Two 12 year old boys and one 11-year old girl tentatively rang the doorbell at about 4 today. The one boy was obviously the spokesman because he could speak English. He explained that his father is Irish and he is just the friend of these other kids who live in the neighborhood. They were so cute and so grown up! What a nice gesture!

Ooops!!!

A day of mistakes.... some days are better than others.... some days we can understand more French than others.... some days everything just seems difficult! Tabitha had horse back riding lessons this morning which we managed to pull off quite well. Quincy then had a basketball game where Josh was quite sure that he would need to be picked up at 16:00. Max then had a soccer game at 14:00. It took us more than 1 hour and 20 minutes of driving around to find the soccer field that we had been quite sure we knew where it was! We arrived at the game 40 minutes late but fortunately, at this age, they just play several short games instead of one long one so Max was able to still play for 50 minutes. We then left immediately for Quincy and arrived almost 30 minutes "early" only to find out that we were more than 30 minutes late!! Ughhh! "(It takes a village....)" Fortunately, one very nice father who spoke some English and who plays basketball with Josh on Thursday nights, stayed with Quincy to make sure he wasn't left alone. Quincy had also tried to call us but had called the home phone instead of our cell phones! This evening, we joined some friends for a mass and welcome dinner at their church. We met some very nice people and priests but the whole thing was a bit overwhelming with many people, much noise and much French!!! Poor Max was in tears by the end of Mass and I'm afraid that I almost was too! Sometimes, when I'm tired, I cannot understand one word!! During the Gospel, the only thing that I was sure that I understood was "souffle" and "eclair" and I'm actually quite sure that the Bible never says those words at all!!

The Loss of a Pet - Friday

We lost a dear friend to our family on Friday night. Ginny, our guinea pig for the past 4 years, died a quiet death. My sister's family had quite generously become her foster parents when we left the country and she has been living very happily with them since August. Unfortunately, she got suddenly sick on Thursday and died Friday night. The kids (in both families) are just heartbroken as everyone has enjoyed Ginny for a long time. She was really Tabitha's pet and Taba is just crushed, it was hard enough to leave her in the US and now this... Ginny was certainly a great pet!
Friday was a busy, busy day for us! I had yet another French class at the community center where I met another group of people. Some were from Portugal, China and Vietnam. I also met my first American (since we've been here). He is in a more advanced class than I but made the point of sticking around after class to meet me. He has been here for 4 years and just loves it. Very friendly (although quite a bit older than I) and offered to help in anyway that he can with our transition to the French life. After class, I did a bit more window shopping and finally figured out what French sizes I wear! Now I'll be ready to do some buying one of these days! I grabbed a quick lunch before joining 2 friends for a 2 hour walk along the trails that follow the shoreline of the gulf. I cannot get it right with the French attire!!!! I was invited to go on this long walk on trails with these women. So, I debated about what I should wear as everyone always seems to be fairly dressed up with nothing too casual and no sweatpants or sweatshirts! So, I compromised by wearing jeans instead of exercise pants but I did put on a sweatshirt and tennis shoes. Well, I joined Klervi and Daniele to find them in cute little capris, sweaters, button-down shirts and flats!!! We walked hard and fast for 2 hours on some rocks and some beaches and they just moved right along in those cute flats!! Whew! I've got some adjusting to do. We then joined another friend for coffee at her house before going our separate ways to pick up the kids from school. After school, we ran to the sports store where we finally got Taba properly attired for her English-style horseback riding. It's amazing how cheap the horse attire here is than in the US! We bought her a tall pair of riding boots for $30 instead of the $110 we had paid in Indianapolis for a short western style pair before her horseback riding camp this summer. They also had helmets for $30 instead of the $200 in the States! Kind of nice to do something that's considered more common. The general sporting goods store had a huge equestrian section instead of having to drive 60 miles to a specialty store. We then met Josh at the electronics store to finally purchase a television!! The kids are very excited although we haven't quite figured out how to make it work yet (we have to investigate attenas and cable first). We then ate dinner at our favorite creperie which we had ignored since moving out to our house. Wonderful, wonderful food for all! After coming back home, I then really went out on a limb! I had been asked to join this "dance" class by a group of women from Max's school - they suggested that it would be a good way to get to know more women in our village. I was not sure what I was getting into but decided to give it a whirl!!! I wasn't even sure what kind of "dance" they meant but I figured it was probably aerobics or jazzercise or something. This language problem is really a barrier sometimes! Any way, it turned out to be a modern jazz dance class!!! Way out of my league but very fun!!! They were really dancing, learning routines, etc but they were very accepting of me, very friendly, and I really enjoyed it!! Once again, I was attired inappropriately. After telling Josh about my incorrect dressing for the walking, I let him convince me to again wear the jeans and t-shirt with flats and socks. Of course, this time, everyone was in dance shoes and spandex. Sighh....... I'll learn..... Quincy took a class field trip yesterday to the basillica of St. Anne d'Auray. They actually took a "pilgrimage" where they walked about 4 miles to pray for the healing of someone sick in the school community. Apparently this place is a very, very popular site for praying for healing. They spent the whole day at mass, walking,and visiting the relic museum. Finally, our Catholic school does something Catholic!!

A Day in the City....

Today was quite fun! I was very focused on my French as I started my group French classes at the Vannes community center. I am scheduled for 2 two-hour classes on Thursdays and one on Fridays so today, I spent the day in Vannes. I took the boys to school and then went straight to my first class. My teacher speaks only French but is very nice and patient and my only other classmate for this section is a Malaysian woman who speaks excellent English due to spending 5 years in Florida. We had a great time together and could really help each other out. After that class, I had a little time to go window shopping in the wonderful little shops in the area. Shopping has been quite intimidating since we arrived here because the shops are so small that you are destined to be approached and talked to by a sales clerk. I then have to explain my limited French and am uncomfortable from that point on. I have also been hesitant to do any clothes shopping (despite the wonderful French fashions!) because I don't know where to begin on the sizes and fitting rooms seem to be few and far between. This is no way to live!!! I have to be able to shop!! So, feeling quite confident after my successful French class, I tackled a couple of clothing stores and managed to just browse but to find some things (and find some fitting rooms) that I will come back to and try on when I have more time. Whew!! After shopping, I picked up the boys from school for some lunch at the house before taking them back to school and hitting my second French class for the day. This class had 8 classmates, some from Vietnam, Portugal, Russia, Ireland and England. An interesting group. It was fun for all of us to try to figure things out together and to laugh at our mistakes. This might be a good learning format for me! After class, I again had some time to run some errands in the city and enjoy the absolutely perfect weather!! I have noticed two huge differences in day to day life in France versus the U.S..... The first is that the car is not king around here.... Pedestrians assert themselves and rule the streets as the cars just try to find a way through. It's very interesting and you often feel like you are taking your life into your hands to step out on the street to cross - but the cars stop and wait, often quite patiently! It's amazing! The other big difference is that you have to plan your life around when things are open instead of everything being open all the time for your convenience. That is a really hard adjustment to make! I once asked Josh to pick something up from the store on his way home from work but since he was coming home after seven, everything was closed! Stores are closed early, open late and truly close for 2 hours at lunch! Even the huge electronics and home stores! Also, nothing is open, I mean nothing, on Sundays! So, you can't push off that "Home Depot" run until you have time to do the project on the weekend, you need to know what you need before and make sure you get it before the store is closed. That is tough!

Playgrounds and televisions.... who needs them?

Our day didn't exactly get off to a wonderful start as 10 minutes after I dropped Tabitha and Quincy off for school, I got a phone call from Taba saying that she didn't have school today!! What?!! Where did we go wrong? I still don't know. Quincy and Taba are supposed to be on the same schedule having just a half day on Wednesdays every other Wednesday with the opposite week being completely off. Well, last week, they didn't have school so this week they should have but only Quincy did!! Ughhh! We have looked up the schedule twice now and still don't have an answer so I have put in an email to the mother of a classmate of Taba's to see if she has an explanation. We'll see what happens next week! So, since Taba didn't have school, that meant that Quincy had to ride the bus home alone. After the difficulty they had getting off at the right stop 2 weeks ago, I was worried all morning that he would be lost forever.... (He arrived home perfectly fine without any mishaps). So, Taba, Max, Calvin and I hit the open air market hard for some fresh fruit and bread. We stocked up before taking Max to soccer practice. It is so great to see kids run up and welcome our kids when they arrive. Max has one boy on his team that sort of gently pushes him in the direction that he is supposed to be going per the coach's instructions and then another boy who pats him on the back when he has done the right thing. Calvin had two friends who were also waiting for little brothers to play so he had a great time all through practice, playing with his buddies. After Quincy came home and we all had lunch, our next door neighbor stopped over for a visit. It was nice to get to know her a little. We are also now officially integrated into this society as we are carpooling!!! Hurray! Calvin and her daughter play on the same basketball team so we have now arranged a carpool to and from! After Pasquale's visit, I baked an awesome cobbler out of some of our fresh fruit while the kids played. We then took a break to go to the rocky beach 50 yards from our house to explore. Max is such a natural climber, he climbs all over the rocks down there and is happy as can be. He says that all he wants for Christmas is climbing gear!! Quincy is a natural little scientist and he just gathers "samples" of sealife, sand, moss, etc and then later checks them out under his microscope. Calvin is just plain active and ready to walk and walk and walk along the beach (my favorite thing) whereas Taba just wants to sit and enjoy the calm and watch the boats. Something for all of us!!