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