Escape of the Snail

I was walking in the market the other day and I passed by a man selling loads and loads of live crabs, lobsters, and snails. I was mesmerized (simple mind, simple pleasures I suppose) by the little snails all moving around, not going anywhere. Finally, one of them managed to climb up over the lip of the bowl and I watched it maintain poise for a moment then fall to the table. It kind of gave me a sense of admiration for it's tenacity, but I honestly don't think it's chances were that much better outside the bowl.

Anyway, back to my latest adventures. The metros, buses, and trains were all on strike last Thursday and Friday. They do these every once in a while to prove to everyone (the government) that they are crucial to the city and should not be treated unfairly. "Unfairly" in this case, was not wanting the retirement age to be increased to what everyone else's retirement age is. Appearantly, the government is trying to save a bit of money with pensions, but the workers think that they still should be able to retire early (though they don't really work much now). Regardless, this meant more aggravation for all the rest of us. Because no one can use public transportation, everyone drives in from the burbs, so there is absolutely no way to take a taxi or drive without being stuck in traffic for hours. The best way is bike, walk, or roller blade. We opted for roller blades to take the kids to school, but that meant that I had to run along side them and carry the rollers back. They ended up just keeping the rollers at school and all worked out, but still a pain in the ass.

On Friday, the strike was still in effect though some metros were working. I was supposed to go to Amsterdam to meet up with my friends Andy and Katie, but obviously no trains, so I took the bus instead. I ended up not being able to leave until about 11:30 due to delays and what not, so 8 hours later, I finally got to Amsterdam. Oh what a crazy city! It felt like the Las Vegas of Europe, but with cooler buildings and nicer people. I say that because everyone goes there to get drunk, high, or have sex. Amsterdam is famous for it's red light district, but we did not hang out there very much at all because we couldn't handle the vibes. I was there for just a short time, but managed to check out the Van Gogh Museum the Oude Kerk (church in the red light with a huge organ), and biked all around the canals and what not. I would be lying if I said I didn't check out a coffee shop or two though :)

I ended up couchsurfing with an American guy who owns a specialty beer store and his girlfriend. They live above the store and let me crash on their couch for the couple nights that I was there. I dug those guys so much! They were really friendly and nice and Jeff gave me all kinds of beer suggestions which I preceded to accept until about 5am at the bar across the street. Amsterdam was a great town, but I think a couple of days was just enough for me. Below are some pictures from Amsterdam and from the strike. The sandwitch is a local specialty: raw herring with pickles and onions. Mmmm, apart from crepes, I think it is my second favorite street food. There is also a picture of the bike parking situation in Amsterdam and one of the public toilets for the guys that I thought was kinda a funny/dirty, yet an efficient way of urinating on the street.

Plans

Oh man just went to the Ani Difranco concert last night. It was AMAZING! She is so fricken talented it makes me want to cry. Concerts in France are a bit interesting. They start on time, go for a designated amount of time then have only one encore and it's over. Strange, but kinda nice too. I am posting some picts from it and also a couple picts from Normandy last weekend. The strange looking lamp is a piece that Marco (Anne's boyfriend) made himself out of wood and honey combs. Pretty sweet in my opinion. The two of them are standing in front of their dart board because we had a dart tournament (of sorts) Marco kicked both of our asses, but we all had fun trying to compete. Oh, and there is a picture of Pablo with my ipod for good measure just cause I thought he looked cute.

Ok, so today the kids are gone at their dad's place. I got to sleep late, have a leisurely breakfast and play on the internet all morning without being bothered. The internet can be a dangerous thing sometimes and right now my head feels like it's going to explode from all the information/travel planning I've been doing. I have a week in between leaving Paris and going to the farm in November, so I have to figure out where I will go. The plan right now is to go to Croatia. Why Croatia? Well, I've heard from several people that it is warm, friendly, cheap, and I need to go to a non European Union country if I want to renew my travel visa. Therefore, I am now looking at places for that as well. So the plan right now is: Farm outside Boardeaux in November, Greece in December, Corsica (maybe) in January or Spain, or the other way around, and then I don't know yet. Ah, so much planning, but it's a good problem to have I think.

Je suis d'accord

Fluff: to some it invokes a vision of pillows and marshmallows. But according to Pablo, it's actually dental floss. I've recently introduced floss to Pablo mostly because he likes pretending that the container (when empty) is a cell phone. It is so hard for me to contain my laughter when he comes up to me proudly and says that he just fluffed. I keep correcting him, but it doesn't seem to make any difference to him. Speaking of teeth, I can always tell when Elliot doesn’t brush his for some reason. Like last night for example, I heard the electric toothbrush going, but knew intuitively that he didn’t when he came back to his room. I knew it the other night too when he told me he did, but actually didn’t. I must have a sixth sense about clean teeth. Thanks pop, it must be passed on from you.

Kids can be so manipulative. For example, Pablo wanting me to stay in his room last night when I put him to bed because he couldn’t get to sleep. There was no way I was going to, but it just pulls at you and he did get a couple of stories out of me. Then again, I can be pretty manipulative too and to my benefit, I don’t take everything literally and also have the benefit of experience to see their traps. They don’t know that I don’t always mean what I say. Example: "Pablo go brush your teeth. No. Oh man there is something cool in this box. What is it? If I show you, will you go brush your teeth? Ok… And the other day, I said to be nice to me otherwise I wouldn’t bring their rollers to school. Man, you should have seen Pablo. He got into his pyjamas right away and said please and thank you and everything all evening. It was great.

Yesterday AM left for work and isn't coming back till tonight (Thursday). In the morning I woke up to the table all set because Pablo and Elliot wanted to be helpful. I love when they are helpful. I've now started babysitting another little 4 year old on Wednesdays because his parents work and they want him to speak English during the day. His dad is Australian, but Ethan doesn't really like speaking English, so he ends up saying yes, no, right, and okay a lot. Oh well, maybe he will get into the more we hang out. But man, Chloe was being a little jerk yesterday when we were going to watch a video. I don’t really want to get into it, but I think she wanted to watch a particular movie, but I said no movies in French. Then she said that all the movies were in French and that we couldn’t change it cause we lost the remote. True the remote was lost, but I argued that the movies started out in English. She was adamant that I didn’t know what I was talking about. Eventually we ended up watching Saddle Club in English. Whatever, I really didn’t care, but was damn sure we weren’t watching a movie in French. She can be pretty stubborn, but I can be even more. It must be really frustrating to argue with me sometimes.

Welp, I had a great time in Normandy last weekend. I went to visit my friend Ian's cousin and her French boyfriend. Oh, I can't tell you what a great time I had! I forget how quiet things can be when not in the city and I saw stars! And the moon! (which was big and orange, but not quite full) We went for walks in the woods, ate some tasty vegi meals, and had some really great heart to heart talks. I also saw the WWII war memorial in Caen, but was so overwhelmed that I was happy to be on my way to their place in Flers (south of Caen). The clouds parted just as I got there and came back just as I was on my way back to Paris. Perfect. My last day in Paris is the 26th or 27th and have made plans for after, but will talk more about that on my next post.

Voila!

Oh my new French class is sooo much better than any that I took before the summer. It was great taking individual lessons, but I like having others around too partly because it takes the pressure off, but mostly because I think I learn more from them than I do my teacher. It's funny how making mistakes with others feels so much better than making them alone. This class also only has maximum 8 people at a time, though most of the time it's 5 or 6. And my teacher is great too. He speaks very quickly, but I find I can understand most of what he says. We get a lot of talking time because he is constantly introducing concepts and then making us practice them or doing roll plays with each other. Even better is that it's about a 2 minute walk from the kids' school. Which means no taking the metro for 20 minutes to a chic part of town with no cool places to hang out. Now, I can walk and stay in the center of the city where there are a ton of people and coffee shops and what not. I've finally started to find "my hang outs" too. Like for expample, I've taken to going to Starbucks right after dropping the kids' off because they have the cheapest esspresso (imagine that huh) and are one of the only places to 1)be open at that time in the morning and 2)have comfy chairs you can sit in and watch the people for as long as your little hear desires. I've also found this little bagel place (yes, it's french) right around the corner that has a really great atmosphere, is also cheap, and has plug ins/internet. The French are really into hanging out, which I can completely appreciate. I've also joined a gym that is close to the kids' school. It is about a 1.5 minute walk and have taken to going there almost everyday. I've got a bit of a cold this week (as a result of being coughed and sneezed on by a little 5 year-old australian) and last week tweeked my knee a bit. I think this weekend I will be back on track though. Next weekend I'm heading to Normandy for a couple days I think. I can't wait to go for some walks in the countryside, meet some cows (and eat cheese of course) and hopefully see some WWII stuff. Welp, enough for now. I'll write more on my future plans soon. I'm digging Paris a bit more than I did before, but still can't wait to move on...

Voila!

Oh my new French class is sooo much better than any that I took before the summer. It was great taking individual lessons, but I like having others around too partly because it takes the pressure off, but mostly because I think I learn more from them than I do my teacher. It's funny how making mistakes with others feels so much better than making them alone. This class also only has maximum 8 people at a time, though most of the time it's 5 or 6. And my teacher is great too. He speaks very quickly, but I find I can understand most of what he says. We get a lot of talking time because he is constantly introducing concepts and then making us practice them or doing roll plays with each other. Even better is that it's about a 2 minute walk from the kids' school. Which means no taking the metro for 20 minutes to a chic part of town with no cool places to hang out. Now, I can walk and stay in the center of the city where there are a ton of people and coffee shops and what not. I've finally started to find "my hang outs" too. Like for expample, I've taken to going to Starbucks right after dropping the kids' off because they have the cheapest esspresso (imagine that huh) and are one of the only places to 1)be open at that time in the morning and 2)have comfy chairs you can sit in and watch the people for as long as your little hear desires. I've also found this little bagel place (yes, it's french) right around the corner that has a really great atmosphere, is also cheap, and has plug ins/internet. The French are really into hanging out, which I can completely appreciate. I've also joined a gym that is close to the kids' school. It is about a 1.5 minute walk and have taken to going there almost everyday. I've got a bit of a cold this week (as a result of being coughed and sneezed on by a little 5 year-old australian) and last week tweeked my knee a bit. I think this weekend I will be back on track though. Next weekend I'm heading to Normandy for a couple days I think. I can't wait to go for some walks in the countryside, meet some cows (and eat cheese of course) and hopefully see some WWII stuff. Welp, enough for now. I'll write more on my future plans soon. I'm digging Paris a bit more than I did before, but still can't wait to move on...

Back in Europe

Well, back in g’dol paris. In a way it feels like I never left, but after the first week in the new house and taking the kids to school again, I have to say re-entry was a bit rough. After a ten hour flight across the atlantic, and a bit of pain in the ass in Frankfurt, I arrived just fine to find three blonde headed kids waiting for me. When I checked in for my flight in Portland both the woman at the desk and the man at the counter who gave me my paper tickets commented on what a great seat I had. I was extremely curious and when I got to my seat, sure enough it was the best one on the plane apart from business class. By the way, what’s the difference between business class and first class? Anyway, the seat was next to the window, infront of the wing, behind the bulkhead. Meaning, I had a great view, the TV screen right in front of me, tons of leg room AND no one sitting next to me. It was beautiful.

Why was it rough? I thought though that I could just breeze right through the first week, but it turns out I should have done a bit more mental preparation (ie knowing exactly where the bus stop was, etc.). I had to get back into discipline mode too. I had the kids alone a couple nights the last week and a half and I found that I had to re-assert my authority a couple times. Just as I get really frustrated though, something hilarious will happen or I will have a good talk with them about feelings and all of a sudden, all is well again. C'est la vie I suppose.

It was really great to be back in Portland. It wasn’t too bad sitting on the beach in sunny Santa Barbara either, but I have to say it’s even better being back in Paris, well, Europe. Yeah, I bitch and complain about Paris a lot, but there is just an awareness here that there isn’t back in the states. It’s not just the news or the TV that is US centered. It’s books and everyday conversations and everyone only speaking one language. It's a bit bizzare to one day be hanging with friends in Portland and the next taking rollerblading lessons in French and falling on my ass (several times actually). I've got a lot to write about Kyle's wedding and finding a new French course, but I'll do that next time. Above are a couple picts from my summer.

a la compagne

I am definitely diggin being in the country. Last sunday I flew from Stuttgart to Paris then took a train Monday from Paris to a town just south of lyon with a nice little organic farm that has lots of good people, animals, fruit, vegetables, and beautiful scenery! I really wish I could post some pictures, but my pc is in Paris and well, itll just have to wait.

Germany was great! I didnt really go in with any expectations because really i just wanted to see my friends while experiencing another culture. I got to do much more than that I think. Steffi and I decided the first day that we were going to try to do as many free things as possible. those included: getting a free soda, one of the mawe (wall) museums, another exhibit on the holocost, getting a grand tour of the Reighstag (German Parliment), and hooking up with a pub crawl Friday night. I dug Steffis roomate Laura too who took me up to the roof of an abandoned warehouse one rainy day while steffi had to work to see the view of Berlin. We had some good life philisophy talks too. Steffis other friend Lena was the one who gave us the tour. she was working as an intern in the parliment and had access to places where normal tourists cant go. my favorite part was getting caught using the microphones (which had been left on) in one of the main political party rooms. i was just in my first line of the corus to billy jean when another group of people walked in. nobody cared, they just went on with whatever they were doing. I could go on and on about Berlin, but I cant handle this french keyboard, so just a bit about the rest of the trip so far and then more later.

Basically, I got to see not just Timo, but Hannes and Connie too, who I had also worked with in Oregon. They had just got back from Corvallis last month. I had so much fun hanging with them! They are just really good people. We bummed around Berlin another day then stayed with Hannes family in Liepsigh. After we went to Stuttgart and I stayed with Timo the rest of the time. Such a great place! Came back to Paris then hung out with steffi again because she was visiting her old family. Finally after getting to bed at 4, i had to catch at train at 7. Basically missed my train because I didnt hear my alarm obviously, but made it to the farm where I am happily picking plums, seeding lettuce, weeding, eating fresh bread and vegetables, and hanging with the dogs, cats, and chickens. More on that later. Cheers!