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.

l'hiver fait chaud maintenant, c'est bon!

Yesterday, we went to the land of the German family with the shop here in Cluny.  Really lovely place with a small lake that has recently thawed due to unseasonably warm weather here.  It was fifteen degrees celsius here today and we turned off the heat for the day, though it's back on now and promising to cool in a few days I hear.  Tomorrow we will go to the country again with Hagai and Annabelle's family.  They live in a little hameau (hamlet) near to here.  We are lucky for these opportunities to see the country, as we do not have a car of our own.  Nice people driving us to see their lovely places on these warm days in January.  Lots of plans in the works for us.  I'm working on planning a trip to Paris with a couple friends, and my aunt Mary has invited us to visit her for Easter which will be great fun, and probably a bit of a shock what with all the English spoken in Great Britain.  Kathrin and Boz will be here in a few short weeks and we are all going to Switzerland together for Fasnacht!  That should be spectacular, and even before that we're trying to get on board with Les Enfant D' Abord, the home-schoolers group here to go to the meeting in the Volsch, snowy mountains of France because the meeting in Germany was cancelled.  Meanwhile we are trying to work out exactly when we intend to go to Baddeck in June -July sometime to spend some time on the beach with Jesse, Mel, and Kira.  Sofie has made it clear that we are to be at Ton Fun in Amsterdam on May 21st, and Anja is planning on being in California on October 30th.  They have decided it is important to get in on the decisions concerning, 'Where?'  And find that they usually get what they want on certain days of the year atleast.  Meanwhile we have mainly been here in Cluny with small trips to doctors, and skating.  Anja has been mostly un-well, but she's a trooper.  The doctors have concluded, and we have finally come to terms with the fact that she never completely got over the Babesia which apparently keeps the lyme , Bartonella treatments from being completely successful.  Though they have clearly helped some, she is ill and in pain much of the time lately.  She hasn't taken any antibiotics since mid- October, but soon will start taking Mepron and Zithromax.  I am very impatient to be done with this.  Meanwhile, the gift in it all is spending so much time together, and perhaps learning patience as well.  She also got glasses but hardly needs them.  Her prescription is -.5 in both eyes.  She is slightly near sighted.  Some people say use the glasses, some say don't.  We will let her decide if they are useful or not, I guess.  They are cute anyway and she enjoyed picking them out.  Even got a second pair of sunglasses for one Euro.  Our ordinateur is broken so I am blogging downstairs on Caroline and Toms'.  They went away for a week, and have been very patient and generous with us using their computer even when they are here.   I don't know what happened to the computer, but it is truly a mess.  We are trying to sort it out as well as ordering a new one.  We no longer live in our whole large apartment as we are avoiding the area with flaking lead paint.  I'm sure Boz and Kathrin will find their quarters lovely and spacious.  If you are healthy and over six, lead dust is really not a concern.  Caleb and I occasionally go sit together in the adult lounge we call it.  No children allowed.  The girls miss their room a little but it seems like too much work to re-paint it all for the limited amount of time we will be here.  They are taking care of two lovely guinea pigs for the rest of their time in France though.  We have been feeding these guinea pigs almost entirely fruits and vegetables and we find that they drink a lot less water on their natural diet of vegetation, compared to our guineas who we gave a lot of the store bought food.  Probably much healthier to eat more of the veggies.  It's easier feeding them scraps when they live in your kitchen / dining room /living room / kid's room.  We still occasionally wonder why we have so much stuff and what we're going to do with it all, but you know it can't be that much if we have it all in two rooms now.  The children collect stuff on a regular basis.  Today for example they were planning Fluffy's birthday, which is tomorrow in case any of you forgot.  Fluffy is a peluche (stuffed animal), a rabbit to be more specific.  So we had to go to the store, Friday being allowance day as luck would have it, they were able to indulge Fluffy sufficiently.  They had a one euro sale so Fluffy is going to receive beaucoup cadeaux dumain pour elle anniversaire et il sera surment un hereaux un.  I'm counting on noone who reads this blog being able to correct my errors, assuming Caroline is too busy with work, for instance I really don't know if birthdays are masculine or feminine, or if it depends on the gender of the person /peluche born / fabricated.  In any case, I hope you all enjoy the day as much as I know we will.  

Bonne Annee!

Back to the ole diary... We're having a great New Year so far. Made some new friends and we're planning a trip to the black forest of Germany, by Freiburg with them. They are homeschoolers and the mother actually works for my old pre-school, Clonlara in Ann Arbor, translating homeschooling programs for German and French families here. They have three young girls between eight and twelve and then a couple grown girls as well. I learned a lot of interesting facts from her. She said the music of the sixties and seventies was all dubbed in France. I began singing a Beatles song and she said that was something we had in common. I of course thought that was something everyone had in common, but then learned everyone but the French, and of course there are probably others out there who somehow missed the Beatles. They do say there are some sauvage folk yet. Sauvage simply means wild in l' francais. Would be interesting to hear the francais version of Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin, or may be not. Now they have piped in Christmas music in Onglais throughout the town for the season. We can all breathe a sigh of relief, we won't find ourselves tapping to the tune of, "Santa Bay-Bee" as we walk to and from the market place today. These sweet German girls are going to loan Anja and Sofie a guinea pig so they have someone furry to cuddle while they are here. The girls are very excited. Going to see, "Le Renard et L' Enfant" today. Went skating in Macon yesterday for the last time. The ice will be gone on the sixth. Our friends who have everything also have a small pond that might be skateable though I doubt it, though it is up higher, and a pony we have yet to meet as we have only played in town thus far. There is an extra bounce in Anja's step since our first visit with them. Also learned home-schooling is illegal in Germany though the people tend to have more alternative idealogies and alternative schools than the French where home-schooling is legal. Home birth is shocking to the French also. Whereas in Germany Naturopathic Physicians are as popular as massage therapists in Sebastopol according to this couple though that could be an exaggeration as he is a Naturopath and has since retired from that profession as it is not a business according to him. If you do it well, you have no patients, and then you are only seeing people who seek medical care as a hobby which is not very rewarding. Nice to make more connections here and learn more interesting cultural differences and likenesses. Small World!

Joyeaux Noel! -Christmas is masculine- duh!

Every noun has a gender. They don't necessarily make any sense. It's Christmas eve eve. Had our last francais lessons till January 7th when life resumes at it's normal pace for the Clunysois. Thinking about travel for January. Anja has doctor appointments in Macon, lyme-literate doctor January 2nd, and eye doctor January 11th. My lovely translator, Caroline will accompany us to the first appointment, and we're on our own for the second I believe, though the office has been forewarned as I was the one that made that appointment and explained that the doctor that would work best for us is the one with the most knowledge of Anglais, assuming they all know about eyes. We had the most lovely time skating in Macon by the Saone river the other day. Sofie and I are at about the same level. We both improved greatly in the hour we were skating. Anja and Caleb are far more skilled and were able to skate longer as Sofie's stamina dwindled and her and I took off for the health food store where we purchased gluten free- cookies, pasta, flours, crackers, and beer. I especially liked the beer brewed with Millet in Germany. It's called Schnitzer Brau. I hope they sell it in the U.S. also. Perhaps the brew pubs make a gluten-free beer. Perhaps I should contact Ace in preparation for our home-coming? Wine is gluten-free anyway. I noticed the french put warning labels on things too. There's a cork on our kitchen table that says, "Mis en Botteille," which I took to mean, "put in bottle," (different priorities) though upon reflection it might mean bottled by as it was followed up with,"a la propriete." So you know what I've been busy doing here in the land of booze and food. Caleb's off walking in the woods. I'm making home movies with the kids. It'll be a wonder if I don't weigh an extra ten pounds when I return to the land of sunshine. This is sounding way too much like a diary. Will try to wait till I have something to write about next time.

la reine de neige et l'arbre de souhaite

We watched the snow queen create snow with her magique wand in Macon today. We lit our candles at the tree of hope last weekend in Cluny. Joyeuse fetes, not just Noel, but fetes galore. We intended to skate but the very small outdoor rink alongside the immense Saone river was very crowded as it is Sunday, the girls got cold waiting in line to get to the rink, so we decided to try again on a weekday. Don't know if this will be any better as the local children will probably be out of school then anyhow. Though it will be fun to try. I finally tried the Vin Chaud and it was delicious. I decided it is the reason the French live longer. Warm wine with a slice of lemon in it on a cold, wintery day is delicieux and doesn't even make one sleepy.