The Promise of What?

MY DAD RECENTLY had a book published called The Promise of Peace and like most books it is available on Amazon's website. Though I already have a copy (my dad sent me one and basically forced me to read it!) I was browsing the amazon.com website and looked up the book to see if it had made it to the Top 10 in terms of sales (just short!). While poking around I found the following review from an anonymous reviewer (I am not making this up -- hit the above link and you can read it for yourself):

From the moment I picked up this book, I felt it's raw power. My hand shook, and sweat dripped down my brow. I KNEW I had to have it! So I bought it and took it home and DEVOURED IT! Never have I read a book with such voracity! When I finally when to sleep that night I felt good...no great, almost as if I was born again, yet entirely drained as if my body was experiencing a transformation. So I slept, and slept for days, until I awoke a week later, with perfect vision and hearing, I had lost 200lb pounds and grew 12in! I was now 5' 6" and ready to take on the world. With the promise of peace in my hand I stepped out of my house and headed to work. I was expecting to get written up for missing so much time, but I was met with a smile and hug from my boss and a pay raise! I found out then that my latent homosexuality was cured as well! No Ted haggard for me now! Armed with this new found knowledge I hit the beach! I didn't need sunglasses or sunblock! I was impervious to cancer and the blinding sun! I pulled the book out and started to read it again and immediately found myself surround with women, drooling over my body... [the next day] I called up my doctor and asked him if everything was alright. He immediately asked if I had read Charles Scriven's book and I said yes. He then said this was a normal side effect! Wow! This was all in the first 2 days after reading!!! The possibilities are endless! Read this book! experience the power! 5 stars is not enough!

Wow! Not bad for a book about the principles of Christian theology.

Halloween, Gambling, and Football

THE FRENCH ARE starting to catch on to the idea of Halloween, but the concept of going from house to house in search of candy is not yet 'the norm.' -- especially in this part of the country. So we just did it at home (again). Scavenger hunt, bobbing for apples, caramel apples, pumpkin drawing/carving, trick-or-treating, the whole works. My brother an I even had the great idea to go as a two-man luge team (photos to come).

But in between the torrents of rain we also had time to play a little football and teach the kids how to gamble (leave it to Uncle Jeremy to teach all three kids how to play Blackjack).

A witch, a 'baller', and Santana Moss

Jeremy teaching the kids all they need to get ready to pay for their college education.

Taking a break from the football game near Gordon, France.

Me and my dad getting into the Halloween spirit.

This is how we Rock the Red

WHEN A GRANDPA and an uncle come to the Cote d'Azur, the obvious thing to do on a Saturday night is...go to a French League Division I hockey game. We like/love hockey around here so we took my dad and brother to the Nice game against Neuilly. Nice got crushed, but we Rocked the Red (a reference to a marketing campaign launched by the Washington Capitals a couple years ago).

Shameless Brother Plug

SINCE MY BROTHER is coming to see us tomorrow, I might as well give him a shameless plug. He's a featured blogger on a website called Hockey Independent where he covers the Washington Capitals. The site just put out a little promo video on youtube:

Visitors

BIG DAY FRIDAY! Although the kids don't know it yet, my dad and brother are flying in Friday morning and will be with us for about 10 days. You have no idea how excited I am about that.

To be fair, the kids know they are coming 'soon', they just don't know it's tomorrow. But I think they are catching on because we spent most of today cleaning their rooms, shopping for food, getting the garden looking good. But,\ they're not the brightest kids in the world, so we'll probably still fool them.

(Note to self: do not let kids on computer this evening or tomorrow morning because they may read this post and the whole surprise will be ruined. Apparently, I'm not that bright either!)

Reality Show for Former Half-Term Governor of Alaska

I DON'T EVEN know where to begin. As hard as I try, I can't pry myself away from US politics. And it seems that everything going on in American politics is somehow tied to Sarah Palin -- the Vice-Presidential candidate in 2008. But the more I read about Sarah Palin, the harder it is for me to believe that she is a serious candidate to be the President of the United States. Now she has a reality TV show.

I'm sure her show will be fun, interesting, and a big hit -- but how does this help her convince Americans she is presidential material? My favorite quote is when she's talking about life in the great outdoors and she says: 'I'd rather be doing this than in some stuffy old political office.'

Really, Ms. Palin? Don't you think we kind off got that message when you quit half-way through your first term as Governor of Alaska?

Oye. Here's the promo from The Learning Channel.

Love the Badge

I'M IN GENEVA at the moment because I had a meeting yesterday with my doctorate thesis adviser. We met for about 90 minutes in his office and had a productive time talking about my project and planning-out the next 15 or so months -- months that will be spend reading, research, and writing.

But as great as the meeting was, I was most excited about getting an official pass to enter the UN grounds. Silly, I know -- but I'm like that. You can't even see it in the photo, but just imagine that it looks really, really cool. And the best part: I got to keep it when I left. The photo I took a few months back of the main entrance (left) turned out a lot better.

Wish List

IF SOMEONE WOULD like to buy me a little gift, I found what I want at a bike shop in Geneva yesterday. It's running about 7,000 Euros, but I really don't need the time trial version of the bike as shown, so the standard set-up will be fine and that will cut the costs by a couple thousand.

You Know It's Autumn When...

...PEOPLE START MAKING art out of autumn vegetables. The name of our village carved into pumpkins and squash. Pretty impressive.

OIB, Food, and the Eiffel Tower

AS I HAVE mentioned several times on this blog, I teach history and economics at an international school that offers the international option of the French baccalaureate (it's called the OIB). The option that we teach is the American option -- meaning the history and literary program has a slight US-lean to it. For example, in the terminale year we teach two major units over the course of the year: international relations during the Cold War, and US domestic history during the same period. It is a very demanding program and it is also growing rapidly around France and the rest of the world. A couple weekends ago I represented my school at a meeting in Sevres (just outside Paris) where more than 200 teachers and administrators from around the world (literally) came to discuss the OIB program in general. It wasn't just the American option -- the OIB currently includes Spanish, German, Italian, British, Russian, Danish, Japanese, Chinese, and many other 'options.' It was the diversity of the people at the meeting that was the most interesting and encouraging.

But why bore you with that! The most important part of the weekend was the food I ate. I had two incredible meals I ate with some colleagues in the 7th Arrondissement. The first was at La Fountaine de Mars and it was fantastic. I'm not usually one for hyperbole, but the beef burgundy that night -- which our waiter explained had been marinating in red wine for two days -- was the best thing I have ever put in my mouth -- and that includes Hot Tamales, which now rank second. The next night a few of us ate at a little bistro near the École Militaire called Le 7ème Vin. This time the food item I will remember was the Autumn Vegetable Soup -- a delicious puree of seasonal vegetables like pumpkin, squash, and potato.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: nothing is better than Paris on a per diem.

Oh, and on the walk back to my hotel I snapped this photo:

This is Getting Embarassing

IF I DON'T do a better job of posting here, Kerri's is going to get upset. OK. I got the message.

Familiar Sundays

WHEN WE LIVED in the States we really looked forward to Sundays in the fall. There were several reasons for this, not all of which are outwardly obvious. If pressed to list the reasons in order, I would offer the following:

• Fall means the hot, humid, summer is coming to an end
• Sundays in the fall mean NFL football games are on almost all day
• One of those games is the Redskins (our beloved, though terribly flawed, local team).
• Redskins games usually means a big meal with various parts of the extended family.
• That meal is always really good and may include: BBQ, Chili, or massive Mexican buffet.

We haven't had a 'typical' autumn Sunday since we arrived in France...until last Sunday.

Thanks to a promotion at nfl.com, I purchased a free week of something called 'Game Pass' -- a program that allows you to watch every NFL game on the internet in HD quality. Because of the time change, the first game of the day started at 7:00 French time and we got prepared. First, we put a large pot of Chili on the stove and let it simmer most of the afternoon. Then, at about 7:00pm we hooked up the digital projector to the computer and beamed football onto the wall.

Next up: whole family ate dinner while we watched football. Just like back home.

It was great.

Best Album Cover

AFTER LITERALLY DOZENS of votes we are ready to present the winner of the Album Cover Contest (what, you didn't know we were having a contest?). With nearly 20% of the vote the Macchie Road album comes away as the winner. I like this one too, but my favorite is still Against A Wall (also pictured below).

We're looking for ideas for the next photo contest.

Once a Week?

PERHAPS I SHOULD just plan to update the blog once or twice a week.

I spent a bit of time reading old posts from the first year we were here and was surpirsed to see that we added new posts almost every day -- sometimes more than one per day. Now I'm lucky to get one or two new posts up per week! Oye.

I could manufacture a list of pretty good excuses, but ultimately they wouldn't be any good.

Doing Nothing and Loving It

FIRST OF ALL, I need to say that I am writing this blog post while the Washington Redskins game is playing in the corner of my screen. A friend here in France introduced me to a website (which will remain nameless for the moment in case it's 110% illegal) and I now have access to all the games live, right on my screen, in pretty good quality. This is outrageous!

OK, so we managed to make it through the entire weekend without even starting the car. We went absolutely nowhere...and loved it. Partly because I was pretty sick (normal for me for this time of year) and partly because we are still re-settling into our house, we decided to just stay chez nous on both Saturday and Sunday. We read books, played golf in the yard (and by 'golf' I mean hitting whiffle balls with a tennis racket around a make-shift course), took some dips in the pool, organized the kids' rooms a bit, rearranged the kitchen, threw a football around, played ping-pong, cooked good food, did homework -- lots of homework!, talked to grandparents and my sister on Skype, played with toys that have been packed away all summer, and watched 'Field of Dreams' with the whole family.

And when I get to work tomorrow and people ask what I did over the weekend I'll say: 'Nothing. Just stayed at home.'

Coffee View

PUT A NEW photo on the top of the blog for fun. It's the view from our balcony and is often the setting of my favorite part of the day: it's where I drink my morning coffee. Kerri and I love to sip our coffee while looking out at the view. We'll never get tired of it. Ever.

Yeah, I Know

THANKS FOR THE hints, but I already know I need to change the top photo.

Back in the House

AS GREAT AS it is to be able to (read as: have to) explore new parts of Europe each summer, it's is equally great to get back into our house each September. Living out of suitcases isn't the worst thing that can happen to a person, but after a while -- total drag.

On Sunday morning I did what I always do after our first night back: enjoyed a huge cup of coffee out on the balcony and enjoyed the spectacular view. We're very happy to be back. Now if we can just take care of of few damn French paperwork issues (those never, ever stop).

Here's that view:

The Case of the Missing/Found Video Projector

I'M NOT SURE how to explain a little incident that happened over the weekend, but maybe someone can help.

Because I use powerpoint/video/music in virtually every lesson that I teach, I carry around a small video projector that has been issued by my employer. Before each class I hook my laptop to the projector and beam images up on a screen in front of my students. Last Thursday evening I went to a meeting at my school and left the projector in the Salle des Profs -- the faculty lounge. This is something I do quite often and think nothing of it. When the meeting was over I went back to the salle des profs to get the projector only to find that the building was locked-up. This didn't worry me in the least since I had left the projector in the room overnight before. If anything, I felt good knowing the place was locked. But when I got to school on Friday morning and went to find the projector...you guessed it...it was gone. I searched everywhere, asked everyone, checked all administration offices, and finally gave in to the possibility that it had been stolen. I reported it to the appropriate people and went home for the weekend convinced I was now down 1 new video projector.

But when I returned to school this morning I wishfully looked over to the area where I had originally left the projector and...saw it sitting right near where I had left it. What the...? I can't understand what happened: it wasn't there Friday and it was there today. Did someone take it for safe keeping because they saw I had left it in plain sight? Did a member of the cleaning crew take it? Is it possible someone took it thinking it was a computer, then returned it when they saw it was a projector? What happened? Several of my colleagues are also on the case and we're going to try to get to the bottom of it. The only thing I know fore sure is this: I haven't lost my mind! I wasn't there Friday -- and I have lots of people who can verify my story.

Of course, all that really matters now is that I have it back.

New Schedule

NOT FOR ME -- my schedule this year is exactly the same as last year. But the twins have radically new schedules and are experiencing their first year in collège -- the French equivalent of middle school. This means, of course, that Patrick and Julia now attend the school where I teach and they are now mixed with about 1500 other students in an international school that features students in English, Spanish, Italian, German, and Russian programs. It's quite a change from last year when most of their classes were in the same room. Now they have classes sprawled-out all over the large CIV campus in Valbonne. And if you've ever wondered what kind of schedule a 6th grader in France has, here's a hint: long days. Most days start at 8:00 and end at 5:00 with a break for lunch in the middle. A quick sample (note: English means general literature, etc. -- not English as a second language):

• MONDAY: Hist/Geo in French (2 hrs); French (1 hr); Music (1 hr); English (2 hrs).
  
• TUESDAY: French (2 hrs); English (1 hr); Education Physique (2 hrs)
  
• WEDNESDAY: Math (2 hrs) -- done with school at 10:00!
  
• THURSDAY: English (2 hrs); Hist/Geo in English (2 hrs); SVT - Science (1 hr); Education Physique (2 hrs)
• FRIDAY: SVT - Science (1 hr); French (1 hr); Math (1 hr); French (again for 1 hr); Math (again for 1 hr); Art/Art History (1 hr); Theater (1 hr);

Friday is a pretty long day. It's almost like cruel and unusual punishment to make kids have math and French twice in one day -- and not back to back. Torture I tell you.

But the kids are adapting well. They eat in the cafeteria three times per week and one day each week they eat with me. Today we went up to the square just near the school and ate at my favorite little spot - Le Petit Cafe. But by far the best part about having them at the same school as me is that every once in a while I get a glimpse of them from across the campus and we share a little wave (or, in Patrick's case, a cool head nod). Those are great moments.

So far so good -- but with the added work and the extra hours, things could get tougher in the weeks ahead. On verra!