Month: January 2011

Meet Laura (our next door neighbor and the girl on the right) and her good friend Ariane. Melinda and I have been providing Laura an opportunity to practice conversational English every Friday and the last two weeks she’s brought along Ariane. Wow, what nice kids. Given how much I enjoy teaching and teenagers, it’s no surprise that this is a fun activity for me, hence the title of today’s post (if you don’t know, a “Busman’s Holiday” refers to a person on vacation engaging in an activity similar to what he does for a living).

I had to provide today’s lesson by myself as Melinda accompanied Chloe to a new babysitting job some distance from our house. Laura, who is a fan of the TV show “Desperate Housewives” and who has learned a fair amount of English from it, will be traveling to Washington D.C. in February and wants to get in as much English practice as she can. Today we focused on various slang terms, Laura having asked me to help her understand the more idiomatic uses of words like “puke” and “kick.” She heard them on “Desperate Housewives” but didn’t understand them in that context; you know, “you make me puke” and “I’m going to kick your a$$.” I suggested that “hurl” may be a more common term than “puke” for someone her age, but cautioned her to be careful with its use. Regarding “kick,” I provided multiple definitions that concluded with her saying, “I get a kick out of the TV show ‘Desperate Housewives.'”

The girls also got to experience nachos, we talked about the importance of the phrase “trick or treat” on Halloween, and I explained multiple uses of the word “plug.” Ariane was so pleased with the nachos that she said to me as they were leaving, “I will do Nachos at my house.” Nice.

Melinda and I just got back from a little afternoon excursion. We try to get out of the house and do something together every day, even if it’s just a trip to the grocery store. That may sound quaint or obvious, but it’s an important part of our sabbatical. What it lends itself to us doing is having some good conversations. Melinda is quite intelligent and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. For instance, we were comparing our hand size today. Ours, both the rights and the lefts, are pretty much the same size, mine being quite small, like my maternal grandfather’s. Anyway, looking at me a little sideways and with raised eyebrows, Melinda said, “You know what they say. ‘Small hands…'” And there she paused for effect before delivering the laugh-out-loud line with an affirmative nod, “Small gloves.” Trust me. It was funny.

So what got us on the subject of our hands had to do with hers being cold and me trying to warm them. Our excursion today was to head to the river to see if we could watch Ella’s rowing class. When we got to the rowing club, the students were nowhere to be found. But the sun had gone behind a cloud and the wind along the river had whipped up, making all of Melinda, not just her hands, cold. So rather than waiting to see if the students would appear, we explored a nearby neighborhood on foot on our way back to the tram.

Speaking of the tram, today’s title is referring to Melinda’s latest adventure, knitting! And she has found that riding the tram affords her the perfect opportunity to knit. I think our neighbors are all getting a further chuckle out of this. Not only do we go to the grocery store with our caddies, now Melinda is knitting on the tram. What’s next? Walking canes?

After Ella got home from school, which was about 12:30, Melinda, Ella & I took off for a lunch out. There is an Italian restaurant, Pizzeria Pinocchio, that we heard has the best Italian food in town and we wanted to check it out. We had tried to go there one night a couple of weeks ago and were turned away. Apparently, they are so busy that the only way you get a table is to have made a reservation. We arrived at the tail end of lunch and Ella, no surprise, had a pizza. It was delicious. I ordered pasta and Melinda had a salad. All very good.

After lunch we split up. To be blunt, Melinda and Ella wanted to go do some shopping and I didn’t. Instead, I went for a long walk but with a specific purpose in mind. I wanted to make a deposit at our French bank. To get to the branch where we’ve made in-person deposits in the past I walked up the street in today’s photo and saw the huge cathedral in Nantes bathed in sunlight. I stopped to take this picture before continuing on my walk.

The downside was discovering that our favorite bank branch has been closed. So I continued my sunlight adventure by taking a couple of buses and Line 1 of the tram to get to another branch and then back home. It reminded me of my excursions last summer when we first moved in. With a Vonnegut book in my pocket, my Tan pass and the sun, I’m in good company.

I know it’s only mid-January and I could get in big trouble with the Weather Gods for bringing this up on a public forum like this, but we’ve had a string of some pretty nice days in Nantes. When Ella and I have left for school in the morning this week it’s still dark, but it hasn’t been nearly as cold. I’ve worn my jacket over a sweater instead of my winter coat and even have had to shed the jacket on the walk home. The air has a hint of the warmer weather to come, too.

I just returned from a quick walk to the grocery store and bakery and got to glimpse this lovely sunset, which I’m taking as spring further tipping its hand in my direction. I took this picture from our front steps while looking out across the street. Inside I could see Melinda busy working away on a scarf she is knitting. I tried for a photo of her with the setting sun reflected in the glass door but it didn’t really work. So you get this one that did.

So we’re finally getting into the Monday groove around here, more than halfway through January. Romain came for lunch and his usual Monday English lesson. This has really evolved into a conversational English session. Today’s involved Melinda, Romain and me, per usual. But Chloe doesn’t start back up at school until next week so she sat in, and then Ella was home for lunch, per usual, and we had her sit in, too. Today’s topic was more of me trying to explain to Romain why many Americans are so fond of guns. He wanted to talk about this in light of the shootings in Arizona, something that he explained is very confusing to him and his friends. By the time I was through, we not only discussed the Bill of Rights, we were considering the American political spectrum, including the Tea Party movement, and 20th century history. It was quite the conversation.

Melinda had her first French lesson with Nathalie, mother of Guillaume who is getting English lessons from us on Friday afternoons. Nathalie offered to trade some French practice for our English lessons and Melinda took her up on it. They chatted for two hours.

Manon is in Spain on a short student exchange so we didn’t see her today. But we did have our first lesson with Alice, the 13 year-old daughter of good friends of the Boudeaus. Chloe joined in on this lesson, too, which evolved into a game of Pictionary and identifying vocabulary words. Ella got to play a little once she got home from school.

The final lesson of the day is today’s featured photo, Ella’s math homework. As you may be able to tell, she’s learning how to reduce fractions with exponents. She needed some help with this one, the last of her problems for the day.

We were invited next door, along with Christine’s & Bernard’s family, for a Galette des Rois at the home of Philippe & Cécile. If you are keeping score at home, Philippe and Cécile have four children, three boys and a girl, Laura, who has been mentioned here before. We just returned, Melinda having received one of the fèves and then being presented with two others. So not only does Melinda have to host the next party, I think she’s planning on hosting at least one in Seattle. She seems to be collecting fèves.

At one point, most of the kids went upstairs to play some games. The conversation among the adults, in French, turned to how much computer and video game time parents allow. See, some things are no different, no matter where you are. Through my limited understanding, I was piecing together that Clément and Nicolas, Laura’s younger brothers, are much more interested in video games than she is. She is more interested in sending text messages. I also learned that the kids had all gone upstairs to play a new X-Box game. Having heard them playing, I went up to take a look and snapped this picture. That’s Théo on the right and Nicolas on the left engaged in a foot race involving hurdles (I knew the word for hurdles or jumps, haies, because of my serious studying at the racetrack). Although you can’t see them, Celeste, Claire, Max, Laura, Clément and Ella are all watching, as are Bernard and me. It was quite fun.

Meanwhile, back downstairs the conversation continued. I walked back in and got to talk about gun issues and PSCS, and I spoke in English. Topics that significant don’t need my abbreviated French getting in the way.

This may very well be my all-time favorite sign. Not only is it funny, it’s to the point. I also think it treats you as if you already know how human beings use toilets and that seeing such a representation isn’t going to shock you. I spotted it while looking for, of all things, a bathroom while out in public. Needless to say, I had no trouble making sense of this sign. So, after fulfilling the reason of why I was interested in finding such a sign in the first place, I came back to it and took this picture. Not only that, I showed it to Melinda. She thought it was pretty cool, too, and she has a pretty discerning eye for all things design-related. Not that my approval of this sign needed her approval, mind you. But it felt validating to get it.

An acquaintance of mine is bestselling author Dan Pink. Dan is a fan of what he calls “emotionally intelligent signage” and posts regularly about the topic on his blog, providing examples. Here are a couple: Parking Lot ** Airport

Dan says that such signs appeal to people because they invoke the power and language of empathy. I certainly think we all share the feeling of knowing the discomfort of needing to find a bathroom now.

The dinner dishes are done, school doesn’t resume until Monday (Ella went back today, btw), and it’s that great time on a Friday night when your whole weekend is before you. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve got a craving for The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family. Either that or some high school football.

Instead, the house has been taken over by a group of women and girls. Okay, so “taken over” is a bit over the top. Melinda, Chloe, Ella, Christine, Celeste and Claire (not a Marcia, Jan or Cindy in sight) are all sitting around the dining room table. Melinda and Chloe are giving knitting lessons. I took this picture less than 5 minutes ago of Melinda telling Celeste just how much fun a ball of yarn can be. Just ask a cat. And Melinda’s last name is Shaw which sounds like chat, the French word for cat. So it all makes sense.

No, I haven’t been drinking.

Well, I did make smoothies. You can see Celeste’s empty glass in front of her.

Speaking of Celeste, doesn’t she look older? I mean take a look at this blog posting from last summer to see a younger-looking version by the pool.

Okay, so someone comes knocking on your door. A little nervous, you don’t answer and instead say, “Who is it?” From the other side of the door a mumbling response comes, “Plumber.” You say, “I didn’t call for a plumber,” to which you get a reply of, “Pizza.” But you didn’t order a pizza and say so. In response and from the other side of the door you hear, “Flowers.” Flowers!? No one ever sends you flowers so you excitedly open the door, only to be devoured by a land shark. A land shark is, of course, nothing more than a person standing upright wearing the top of a shark costume. It’s a classic “Saturday Night Live” skit from the 1970’s, a fabulous spoof of the movie “Jaws.” You can see it here.

As you may have gathered, many things make me think of 1970’s American TV so when I walked into our neighborhood grocery store and saw this particular display being created, I thought of the old Land Shark sketch. I almost laughed out loud, right there in the grocery store. I think it was odd enough for folks to see me taking a picture of it. But laughing, too? That may have been too much.

Speaking of people knocking on the door, neighbor John came by this morning to check on me. He didn’t devour me, nor scare me in any way. We chatted for about 30 minutes and he gave me a couple of wrapped presents for Chloe and Ella, the kind man that he is.

First, some housecleaning duties. Melinda and Chloe are back from Bordeaux, having returned to the land of the zombies this afternoon. Zombie-Ella was pajama-clad and under a blanket watching a TV show on my laptop when they returned. Zombie-Andy had showered, shaved and was fully dressed when they arrived, just too exhausted from the effort to greet them at the door. So, yes, the family is reunited but Ella and I aren’t fully ourselves yet. Ella will spend another day home tomorrow. It somehow seems unfair to send her in for an 8 hour school day in another language when she’s not feeling 100%.

Regarding the blog title and photo today, I’m referencing a king’s cake, part of fun French ritual in January we are learning about. If the concept is new to you, as it was to me, take a minute to review this very informative Wikipedia entry. It’s all pretty fun and the entry seems to have it spot-on, or it was written by an American like me who is trying to figure it all out. My favorite part about the whole ritual is having the youngest person sit under the table and tell who gets each slice of cake when its sliced. Perhaps that’s because growing up I was the youngest in my family and wish I could have had such a power.

Melinda picked up a king’s cake from our favorite bakery tonight and was surprised to find it came with a crown and a bottle of hard cider. She and I each had a small slice of cake but the fève remains hidden. We should have had Ella under the table dictating how the cut slices were to be distributed, but she was in her room not wanting dessert (THAT’S how sick she is). And Chloe missed dinner for babysitting.