Happy Halloween!

picture courtesy of Marwan CE2 ecole tourville

My kids are now proficient with halloween vocabulary and they all know how to say 'trick or treat!'.
The french version of trick or treat is bon-bon ou la vie which means 'treat or your life!'

I am missing the states and my friends and family. I am on a two week vacation called the toussaint holidays. I won't be traveling much, but am going to la Gendronniere for four days.

I have been hanging out with some of the lovely assistants who also live in the Blois area- have a look! Seema, Katie, and Christen in front of the Chateau. It is cool having friends from India, Scotland, England, Columbia, etc.

For some who might remember him, the title of this blog comes explicitly from the crazy landlord by the the Chicago street apartments where monique, bob, and sarah lived. He would always run up to us and say 'happy halloween' or 'merry christmas' even if it was in the middle of June. Here's to him wherever he is. Crazy landlords make for funny stories.

Since there have actually been some comments posted to this blog I feel like I should make a Q + A section to respond to these comments-
Dave- sounds like things are going well at the depot, the students I am teaching are from 8-12 years old.
Barb- Slim made it into town! Thanks for checking out the blog.

october weekend.

My first week of teaching is completed! The week went well, I think that I had an advantage that I was a new person and therefor interesting and worth paying attention to. I think I am going to have to come up with some new ideas to keep the kids interested in the upcoming weeks. If anyone needs to give lessons for Halloween, I am an expert now. Anyways, I have one more day of teaching on Monday before the two week toussaint holiday starts.
Im thinking of travelling to the north of France like Mt. Saint Michel and Rouen and maybe to Caen where they have a WWII museum. Then I also have a four day sesshin planned at La Gendronniere temple Then I think that my friends Tom and Dorine are going to visit me in Blois.

I got a new bicycle this last week for only 69 Euros! It even has a front headlight. I rode it to soccer practice last night where we had a friendly match to train the 'first reserve' team.
I finished reading Vingt Mille Lieus sous les Mers by Jules Verne this last week. I have started reading the Poetry/ Criticism/ Diaries of Margaret Fuller Ossoli and a book of 21 short stories by Graham Greene.

hope everyone out there is up to good things,
feel free to write
-Alan

I do like a bit of Cheese...

Compte, Camembert, Emmanteler, Beaufort

10/15

Its a quiet Sunday morning. I went outside to go to the store and realized that all the stores are closed on Sunday. I have to get a new bike. I fell a couple of days ago and bent the crank so that it runs into the frame now. I'm okay though.

I've started classes on friday. The kids are nice and little and full of enthusiasm. The younger kids do just as well as the older ones. So far we have been working on Halloween. The official six words to learn on Halloween are: witch, skeleton, cat, jack-o lantern, bat, and ghost.

Last weekend I went on a couple of hours bike ride along La Loire. I set out to see if I could find a zen temple called la Gendronniere. As I found out when I got there, it is the largest soto zen temple in europe. I might do a sesshin there in a couple of weeks. This is a picture of a carp, I think? It was a cool wood carving at the temple. There is a saying about people who are quiet in French, the say 'muet comme une carpe.' Which means 'mute like a carp'.

This weekend I've been attending some of the meeting for the 'rendez-vous de l'histoire' series going on here in Blois. For this week there are presentations of on money: those who have and those whom have not. I attended some movies made by italians about what physical money is and how it works. And another movie by Brazilians about l'isle aux Fleurs, which is a place where the people live near land fills and are very poor. (France beat them in soccer last week 5-0) Yesterday I attended a debate on 'Can we laugh about everything?'.

I guess the only other thing I have to add is that I have started training with a French soccer club in St. Gervais la Foret. We practice Wednesday and Friday nights. It's more excercise and intense soccer training than I've had in a while, but it's good to get in shape. Like the french language, I hope that some of my soccer skills come back to me.

ok, best regards to everyone,
don't do anything I wouldn't do.
-Alan