Points in Dying

Yesterday at the park we found a bone. Anja, nine years old, evaluated it and tried to figure out what kind of animal it was. Sofie, four years old, sat back on a bench in quiet reflection and then declared, "I don't see the point in dying." I tried to explain the circle of life and how the bone was going to decay into the ground and give back to the plants that feed and shelter us animals. Though my heart wasn't completely in it, I controlled myself by not going off on a tangent and talking about the atrocities of embalming. So I simply ended the conversation bluntly referring her to uncle Sean if she really wanted to know her options. I remember being afraid of dying when I was ten and I remember discussing the subject with ten year olds at the group home I worked at as they had so many questions at that age about evolution, death, and religion. When I was ten I would have liked to be encased in glass like an image of snow white I had in my head. I wanted there to be air in case I wasn't really dead and a lovely bed to lie on until I awoke again, by whatever means. Now I just don't want to be embalmed. I have heard of people being left out to be eaten by the vultures in certain areas or the more costly option like on "six feet under" of being buried in the ground without the box and the chemicals. Partly for the environmentally obvious reasons, but I don't want to have people handling my body after death especially in such grotesque ways, except of course for donated parts which I expect to be re-used if there's anything of value left when I'm done with them. I have to wonder what people will really do in the future with my brother's frozen head? I'm not afraid to refer Sofie to Sean though because that girl will always make up her own mind.

The Lighter Side of Paris

The boat in back is ours. We got this boat more than once. One receives a stick to shove it off and runs around the pond sending it in the direction you want it to go. Of course the wind has it's way in the end as is expected.


But it is fun to chase it about the garden or around the pond atleast. To the right is Anja in front of a display of delicious delicacies which I'm sure there will be even more of when I return to Paris just before Easter with Lynne and Kristin. To the right of that is a lovely statue that helped me get my bearings and find my way back to our place in the Marais more than once on this trip. Also on the light side, Sofie got a bit carried away riding the ponies in the jardin outside the louvre. She had two rides on ponies and one in a cart. On the hilarious side, we went looking for an actual money gram store of which there are five in Paris to cash the Money Gram-International Money Order I received from my father for Christmas which no bank in Cluny would cash. We found one and then were sent to the main office where we were informed that one can only cash an International Money Order in Les Etats Unis. They told me to send it back to my dad and have him forward me money via MoneyGram of course. I assured them that if I knew my father, he would never use MoneyGram again for anything, and thanked them kindly laughing all the while. This was funny to us, but could have been serious in other circumstances. And quite a run-around in which we were able to practice our francais skills asking for directions repetitively from many different people.

The Darker Side of Paris

Here are a few photos from our most recent visit to Paris. On the left is a Vache that probably had a Tati coat. No, It's a cow that is luring young children to come sit on it's peeling paint and I thought a certain someone in the family might be motivated to send me photos of idyllic Northern California this season, perhaps a shady knoll beneath a tree in a meadow full of tall grass with deer romping through, if she were to see this photo of a merry-go-round in the city. The Tati picture is where Caleb would shop if he had it to do over again. Not really. He is the one that stood guffawing on the street when we saw Tati Marriage. He felt taken by the Tati clothes he bought for Christmas that are now all in tatters (go figure) and couldn't help but photograph the Tati Marriage display, granted my wedding dress was from jcpenney and less than one hundred dollars. It only has to last one day. Maybe there is a place in the world for Tati Marriage, not so sure about Tati cows though. It has even lost a leg. Do you think any kid really does choose this animal over the others? Sofie sat on a perfectly lovely though also imperfect and likely leady rabbit. I think Anja chose the classic horse. What are you gonna do?

These are pictures taken from the Bateaux Mouche, which was a really great boat ride we took with these lovely people whose three week visit is now over. Kathrin had her birthday yesterday, safely back in Northern California. She said she was planning on Shell beach complete with the Indian dining experience it offers. The Bateaux Mouche is one of the few things I really want to do again with Kristin and Lynne when I meet them in Paris mid-March. The book Sofie is holding is "Princess Poppy; The Fashion Princess." Anja was reading,"Witch Week" on the boat so she missed some of the tour. And Sofie sat beside her studying her own book with the exact pose and expression seen here on Anja's face. Very cute. Sofie loves reading to herself, but doesn't know how to read yet. Sometimes I think she will start reading on her own and surprise us, but in reality she is probably a long way off? Now we are planning on our next great adventures, trying to decide which things to keep, send, etc.. as we will be moving on from Cluny sometime in April after returning from England where we will spend two weeks with family, in Totnes, Devon, and Bristol. Caleb's birthday is this Sunday so we are also trying to plan a dinner party for that on Sunday which I hope will be fabulous. Our German friends want to try some South American food. I'm not sure if we are the right people to do that for them. If we pull it off, it will probably be Californian- Mexican with a French flair. Anja who is reading over my shoulder has informed me that the man wants Tortilla soup for his birthday, so Tortilla soup it will be. Anja is my writing coach. She sits beside me chanting, "Publish, Publish, Publish Post."

Home-schooling in the Vosges

We went to la neige (snow) with the home-school group, Les Enfants D' Abord for a week before Kat and Boz came and we went to Basel. The home-schooling group trip started out fabulously with Anja and Sofie playing with all the lovely French children. But then children started falling ill with the flu and there were rumors of lice at which point more than half the crew abandoned ship. It was nice for me that so many people left as it made it easier to listen to their heated conversations about the Controller, the person who came to their house yearly to see if they were really teaching their children. Though Anja had already fallen ill with fever, so we couldn't go anywhere to escape the lice, though I think we managed to avoid them as no-one has noticed any yet, and it has been a few weeks now. We washed everything in hot water, staining Anja's pretty pink Les Enfant D ' Abord t-shirt a dingy grey-pink. This I think will help us to always remember the week as it really was, starting out pretty pink and fading to dingy grey-pink.

Basel

We went to the zoo in Basel and met this lovely family of five. They had two children and he had a second wife. Probably why he was so exhausted, he only got up once the whole time we watched them. But both females stood the entire time, one always by the cubs. Going to Switzerland really made me realize how much french we've learned. Because we couldn't understand word one of the Swiss German. And when the returning train neared Geneva they switched announcements from German to French and everything was easy to understand and we felt home again. Very odd, as we thought we were still lost in France upon leaving for Switzerland a week earlier. We learned that the Swiss have four national languages; Swiss-German, French, Italian, and Rumantsch. What's so fascinating about this last language is that it is directly derived from Latin as in very similar to Latin, but spoken, and considered very beautiful. In elementary school, the children choose to learn one language other than their native tongue plus everyone learns English.
While purchasing shoes and calling-cards in Switzerland we did meet some people who spoke little or no English and giggled at us some. Then we ended up giggling at someone speaking Swiss German to us later. This was all fun with no hard feelings which strikes me as somewhat different than our interactions in France. The French do take their language very seriously and I would never giggle at them. This might be due to the fact that one really is SOL if they can't speak any French in a little town like Cluny so it is a more serious matter. In Basel, there is always someone within earshot who could translate for you in a pinch. Or it might be just a matter of national pride. Or the fact that Basel has a University and is filled with light- hearted young people. Besides that, German is a funny language! I quite enjoyed listening to it all around for the week, not to mention the constant music playing and confetti dodging.

Fasnacht!

Fasnacht in Basel is a sort of Protestant Swiss version of Carnaval, or Mardi Gras. It began last Monday morning at 4AM with Morganstreich (spelling of all words not English may be incorrect) which is a sort of striking in the morning with over 200 cliques (groups) of Piccollo or drum players marching through the street with a large lantern decorated with their message of the year. Each player marching wears a mask and a small lantern on their head. Kathrin's cousin, Caleb's cousin once removed, Hans invited us to the unveiling of their lantern the evening prior to Morganstreich. This ceremony usually includes the clique and sometimes close friends or family. Then they re-cover their lantern and march through the streets, piccollos only. After Morganstreich, there are three full days and nights of parading ending at eight AM on Thursday. During the parades the people wear different masks and there are many floats carrying people costumed as veggis (pronounced vay-ghees-closest translation- hillbillies) with giant large upturned nosed masks, throwing candy and confetti. They sometimes grab people and completely cover them in confetti. The people put up their arms and say, "Veggis, Veggis" in hopes of getting loot. We managed to acquire, special thanks to Anja and Kathrin who worked extra hard, much candy, toy cars, little stuffed animals, red glitter hair spray, cough drops, kleenex, countless blood oranges, a fake red rose, and real acacias and roses. When we arrived, we went to our family's lovely, spacious apartment right in the center of town. We were met by cousins who presented Kathrin with a long list of family to call in the short week we were there. She managed to complete her list and we had many lovely meetings with the family including home-made meals and teas. We had a special Fasnacht dessert which was something like the crunchy cinnamon things you get at Taco Bell, or elephant ears from a carnival. Though they didn't have cinnamon on them, only powdered sugar.