bon nuit

it's 11 pm, and I just finished my last French dinner. I have to be at the bus by 4:45 in the morning, so I'm going to bed. I'll update when I get back to Wilmington.

Everything seems better when you're eating a baguette and cheese

Wow, my blogging pattern has slacked to every other day--quelle dommage!! Yesterday, we went to a authentic French pottery village where we were able to see how they made various pieces of pottery using clay dug near the Rhine river. Then we went to a German town, had a picnic lunch and lounge in a park, and we finished at the Roman baths. While in the German town, Baden-Baden (incidentally, Obama spent some time here on his visit), I was walking with some students. We all turned back to look at a store. This fatal mistake of not looking where I was going lead promptly to me falling off a curb, twisting my ankle and skinning my knee. I guess we can all acknowledge this has been a trip full of injuries for me. But I really didn't care about my knee as I ate my baguette and cheese for lunch. We walked to the baths, where all of our students were able to enjoy the soothing mineral-filled waters in a variety of temperatures, as well as a steam room with menthol vapors to clear the sinuses and the pores. It was the perfect way to end our official activities in France. When we got back, we all went to a school dance with the French students replete with strobe lights, smoke machines and rocking techno beats. This dance lasted until 10, and by the time everything was cleaned up and all students safely picked up, it was 11 pm before I got home--thus the delinquent blog entry. My apologies. Well, I'm off for a bike ride on this resplendent day. A bientot.

Europa Park in Germany

Today we went to an amusement park in Germany. We crossed the Rhine river and were there this morning. The boarder between France and Germany, as with many European countries, is open--they don't check passports or anything. Fun was had by all today. I myself rode the newest roller coaster in the park: the Blue Flame. It goes from 0 to 100 mph in 2.5 seconds. That's how the ride begins--shooting you off like a rocket up this 120 foot drop, where you go down and into a 360 degree turn. There are some corkscrew turns and everything in the ride. It's crazy. It's weird to think that we will be leaving France in a few days. On the way to the park, we saw the Hotel Ibis that was burned in the anti-Nato riots last week. I wanted to get a picture, but I couldn't. We returned this evening, and the teachers got together for dinner and France's favorite past time: soccer. I've reflected a lot today about this experience. We worked so hard to get here, and the kids have seemed to enjoy their time here and have learned many new things. I'm looking forward to the next trip already...

Holy Crepes, lunch was good today.

Wow. Sorry that I missed another day of blogging. I am usually on it, but I have been crazy busy. I am happy to report that on our trip to Paris yesterday, we were able to get all of the students there in back in one piece. We walked through the streets holding hands like the little students in kindergarten.... Only one casualty, sorry Mr. and Mrs. Cole's parents, we had to leave him behind--he got stuck in the protective gating around the Eiffel tower.

Kidding, of course. After our 2 hour train ride from Strasbourg, we took a bus tour of the city of Paris. Many students had to fight their stereo types of Paris, I kept hearing, "Is this Paris?" "I didn't think Paris would look like this." We stopped at the Notre Dame for a few minutes. We went to the 2nd level in the Eiffel Tower and we spent a short amount of time at the Louvre. All in all it was a great time in Paris. What beautiful history.

Today, our students participated in this crazy French revision of dodge ball. Wow, what a great work out this game was. There was a red box where each team had to stay, then the gray area outside of the box was a prison for the other team members. Needless to say, there were balls flying, kids flying, me running around like a crazy fool getting exercise. Then we went bowling. My first game was tres mal. By my second game I was more respectable. After this, we ate at this amazing restaurant that served the best crepes ever. I'm totally in love with them. We ended the day with a tour of the European Parliment.

Je suis fatigue

Tomorrow is a big day for us. We will travel to Paris at 5:45 in the morning. I am convinced that everyone in our group should hold hands all day. This way we are assured that we will lose no one. Today, we met up with an old colleague from Murray--Ian Cotton--and had lunch at a cafe. After that, I got to meet my friend from Germany. I went to college with her and haven't see her in years, so that was fun. We drank coffee at a cafe. Then all of us went to one of the French teacher's houses for dinner. We also played ping pong. I don't have pictures yet, I will have to hijack them from someone. So, until then...

Je suis desole

I will post twice today since I didn't post yesterday. Yesterday was the big day of NATO protests because the NATO meeting, and its 60th birthday, were yesterday. I saw a group of protesters dressed as clowns yesterday, firing balloons and riding toy horses through the streets. I really wish I had gotten better pictures of this. But I had a battery crisis and by the time I fixed the batteries, they protesters had moved on. I didn't think it was wise to run after them carrying my camera. They were laughing and smiling, and making horse noises, etc... There was another man staying on the corner dressed as a Charlie Chaplain, or maybe a Hitler figure, singing "Happy Birthday" to NATO in protest. All of the violence and tear gas on t.v. was far removed from me. It was very frustrating the other night when all of the teachers tried to meet up for dinner. Every road we turned down had a police barricade. Every person we talked to told us to go a different way. Wow. Everything is cleared up now since the heads of state have left. Obama is actually in Prague now. So life resumes in Strasbourg. As a note on life in the States, I was up until about 4:00 am watching the UNC final four game...Go Heels!

Bon anniversaire a moi....

I spent my birthday waiting an inordinate amount of time to sit and listen to Obama speak for only about 45 minutes. But then I remembered that this was an opportunity that very few people have--to meet the President. There was this moment when I realized how amazing it was to be sitting in this room with the President only 300 feet from me. I realized the reason he won the election is because many Americans believed he offered change and hope. Then I felt like the moment nearly encapsulated the entire reason why the other teachers and I wanted this trip to happen: there can be change and the change can be good, but it needs to come through the education of our children. We must teach them to be compassionate, generous, intelligent and sensitive beings, and part of this education must come from cross-cultural interactions. While I wish that we could have actually shaken hands with Obama or that he could have signed my book, I am still amazed that we all had this experience. It's the kind of birtday you don't forget: I saw the President of the United States in person, and brought 30 students with me. As a side note: France is quite ready to kick the tail of anyone who wants to threaten the NATO meeting--there are police and military personel everyone. I'm going to try to take a picture of this.

I need my bed

I am extremely tired and tomorrow we have a long day ahead of us. We're suppose to meet Obama tomorrow. It's crazy how they've done security around here. You can only walk in certain areas of the city and you must have your passport and a special card depending on what zone contains your house.
Today, we went to a "reconstructed" medieval castle--it was never entirely clear to me which part of the castle was original to the middle ages. We also went to a typical French grape-growing village and met some assistants to the major. This village was particularly important to us because it's the area where Charles P. Murray fought off the Germans during World War II and won a Medal of Honor. After that, we went to a Brazilian restaurant to celebrate Caroline's and my birthday. Hers is April 1, and mine is April 3.
Well, au revoir and to bed I go...

Jouez au volleyball

Today, we played some sports with the French students. While my volley ball skills may be lacking, they're enough to beat whatever the French students or American students had to offer. After volleyball in the gym, the teachers walked around Strasbourg to eat lunch and look in some stores. It was great! Also, the whole city is gearing up for the NATO summit this weekend. There were lots of helicopters and military vehicles driving around. We all have to have a special card to even leave the houses this weekend. Crazy!!