Me No Write Long Time

THE BLOG IS BACK! Well, it will be shortly. It has been sparse couple of months but I have a good excuse. Really.

First, let me say that I am sitting at the Hotel du Cynge in Paris on Father's Day. I'm here, as I usually am this time of year, grading the Baccalaureate Exam and getting prepared for 3 full days of oral exams at the Lycée International in St. Germain-en-Laye. After a full day of marking exams today I stopped by the FIFA Fan Fest to watch the first half of the Italy-New Zealand match. Here's the view from my seat:
Now for the excuses. I'll just number them to make it easy (in no particular order).

1. As many of you know, I started a doctorate program last December which requires me to travel to Geneva every week. While the courses have been terrific (!!!), the travel and the amount of work has been, well, heavy. Lots of research papers and even a few exams just for fun. But I'm not done with the travel part of the program after 25 trips to Geneva since December 5. As you can imagine, I'm very happy to have this part of the program finished -- as much as I love Geneva!
2. As many of you also know, we have to be out of our house each summer because the owner uses it/rents it during mid-June through early September. That means we have to clean up and pack up the house each summer (and by 'we' I mean 5% me and 95% Kerri). The good news is that we have a place for this summer and it is in central Italy! We're looking forward to it.
3. Our car completely died about 6 weeks ago (you can read about that if you scroll down). That has meant hours and hours of searching for a new one (again, 5% me and 95% Kerri). But we have both wasted numerous hours traveling around the region looking at cars in various conditions. We finally settled on one -- partly by luck -- and are excited to get it in a few days.
4. It's the busy season at my school: preparing students for exams; giving bac blanc orals, grading the real bac, preparing for Paris, etc.

There are other things I could use as an excuse, but I'll leave it there. It's mostly the school and travel.

But once the summer arrives (remember, school doesn't end until July in these parts) I hope to be a little more regular -- not just because I enjoy sharing our experience with friends and family, but because this blog is a way to document this European Experiment that our family is in the midst of.

And yes, I just ended that sentence with an awkward preposition, but I'm in a rush...a colleague and I are headed out for dinner at Bistro Romain here in Paris.

Au revoir for now.

Why Didn't I Get on TV?

A FRIEND ALERTED us to an item on the France 3 national news broadcast from Thursday night. That little item was our daughter, Julia. A reporter was broadcasting from the Cannes Film Festival and doing a short segment on the various street performers who line the Coisette during the festivities. Suddenly, right in the middle of the screen, Julia appears for about 2-3 seconds. She appears to be transfixed; looking at one of the performers. It's at about the 20 minute mark at this site.

All five of us were at the Festival that day, but only Julia got the sweet airtime. What's the deal with that?

Quite amazing that our friend Sandrine was able to pick her out while casually watching the news. Nice catch.

The Magical Classroom

I HAVE CHOSEN, up to this point, to spend a good part of my career teaching others. This ad is worth a watch for anyone who has been a teacher or who has appreciated a good one.

Follow Vic's Big Walk

I'VE WRITTEN SEVERAL times about our friend Vic and his Big Walk! Well, it started this week and you should really check out his progress on Vic's Big Walk. A very quick summary: Vic Heaney is walking from his current home in Puivert, France to the home where he was born in Blackpool, England. He left the on the 15th and he'll arrive in Blackpool in 70 day, in time to reach his birth home on July 23 -- his 70th birthday. It really is an amazing feat -- and there have been some amazing developments over the past several months.

Follow it from time to time. And if you feel like it, donate to the walk and help support Pancreatic Cancer Research.

Good luck Vic!!

Tackling Strangers on the Beach

OK, MAYBE NOT complete strangers!

On Thursday while the family and I were spending the day in Cannes, we took an hour or so to hang out around the beach under the croisette just down from the Palais des Festivals. A few minutes after we arrived a group of boys started to play Rugby/American football a few meters from us and I soon noticed that one of the boys was a student of mine -- a 2nde student (10th grade) named Theo. I looked at Kerri and asked her if it would be funny if I just ran over and tackled him into the sand, unannounced. She, of course, thought it would be very funny and dared me to do it. Patrick and Julia, on the other hand, weren't so eager for this plan to come to fruition. 'Oh, no! Please don't do it,' they pleaded. 'What if it's not even your student? This will be so embarrassing.'

To be honest, the thought that I was mis-identifying the student hadn't crossed my mind so I took a view extra glances toward the boys just to make sure. When I was satisfied that it was indeed Theo I slowly got up and walked toward the boys, trying my best to look like a regular guy walking down the beach. I waited until Theo had the ball then prepared to pounce -- moving slowly from the water's edge toward the middle of the pack of boys. I sprinted the final 5 or 6 steps and launched myself at him, hitting my unsuspecting prey in the back and driving him into the sand. All around me I could hear shouts of c'est qui? c'est qui? -- who's that? who's that?

When it finally registered with Theo that it was his 38-year old history teacher who had sucker-tackled him from behind on a crowded public beach in the middle of Cannes during the Film Festival, all he could muster was a feeble 'Mr. Scriven?'

Oui, c'est moi. Ca va?

Turns out a few of the other boys were from my school as well -- including another one from my class -- and we had a good laugh. I even played a few more minutes with them before heading back to my blanket where Kerri and kids were waiting with odd looks on their faces.

It was a great day all around, but the tackle was probably my favorite part -- even better than getting my photo with bloodied, almost-topless women (see next story...)

[Note: I didn't want to brag during the story, but I also forced the kid to fumble!]

Festival 2010

LIKE WE DO each year (just to say we did it) we meandered down to Cannes during the jour férié on Thursday. Despite heavy downpours in the village where we live, the weather in Cannes was spectacular the entire day. We walked around and took-in the atmosphere; ate a little lunch; spent some time on the beach; and tried to get on the 'Today' show (we didn't get on). We did run into our friend Cyril who is a free-lance cameraman and he was doing shoots for BFM News -- a 24 hours news channel here in France -- so we watched him work for a few minutes.

'Lady Moura', a yacht usually docked in Monaco, but is now in Cannes. 105.5 meters!Our friend Cyril (holding camera) doing a shoot with a reporter from BFM

That's me (yes, the head is a bit cut off) with some scantily-dressed seekers of attention.

The Red Carpet: just hours after 'Robin Hood; opened the festival

Julia tried to get on 'Today'; she really tried.

Cannes '10

IT'S HERE. THE 2010 Cannes Film Festival starts Wednesday and, as usual, the weather report is for rain, rain, rain.

I'll just make a couple points:

1) If Ann Hornaday is reading (she's the movie critic for the Washington Post), can't you find an extra ticket and take me to the 'Robin Hood' premier?

2) Kerri and I may have a pretty cool thing going on this year. All I can say for now, but if it happens you can be sure you will be able to read about it right here.

Thursday is day off so we may head down to Cannes to check things out. We'll see how the weather holds.

30 French Soccer Players

FRANCE JUST RELEASED its list of 30 provisional players who have made the cut for the World Cup 2010 team. Without going into detail, the team doesn't look like it's going to scare anyone. The list must be cut to 23 by June 1.

I will be rooting for the USA, of course. But I'll also be pulling for Les Bleus since I'm currently a resident of France. I'm also not a soccer expert by any stretch of the imagination, but one thing I can tell you after watching France's qualifying games last year: they don't look great. They got into the tournament because of a freaky hand-ball by Thierry Henri, but what really struck me about their matches was that they were quite a boring team to watch. No spark! No young gun coming up and wowing you!

Could be an early exit in South Africa, but we'll have to wait and see.

Are You Kidding Me?

CHALK IT UP to bad luck, but I spent most of today on a train. Why? My flight was canceled due to...ash. No, this is not a repeat post from a few weeks ago when most of Europe was grounded because of the volcano -- I'm writing this today...May 9. Apparently there was a section of ash that swept around Europe to the west then headed east through Spain, Portugal, and the south of France. There was just enough to shut out my route into Nice. So instead of a nice 45 minute flight I got to spend 7 hours on the train. Of course, the real worry around these parts is the Cannes Film Festival, which opens in three days! If the airports are closed...who will make show up and who won't?

Kerri and the kids enjoyed a fantastic lunch at the home of some friends, and I'm lucky that Candide saved me some. I'm eating it right now. So it wasn't a completely lost day.

High Shooting Water

GENEVA ISN'T THE most exciting city I've ever been in, but it sure can be beautiful. It sure helps when a city is on a substantial body of water.

Getting in Trouble at School

PATRICK WAS NOTICEABLY distraught when he got into the car after school today. When Kerri asked what was wrong he informed her that he had received a punishment from his teacher that afternoon. He had gotten in trouble! That comes two days after Julia got into the car in tears because her teacher had kind of 'yelled' at her. Without going all My-Kids-Are-So-Perfect on you, I should say that Patrick and Julia almost never get into trouble at school. In fact, by all accounts the teachers seem to think they are polite, respectful, hardworking students (don't worry, they are big disappointments to us in other areas).

Patrick had a note written in his carnet (kind of a big deal in France) because the teacher felt he was 'playing around' a bit too much in the minutes before class ended this afternoon. Something about pretending his ruler was a gun and getting into a faux shootout with some friends. Patrick was quite distraught because he felt he was unfairly targeted and it was, in fact, other kids who were horsing around much more than he. His punishment was to write 'I will not play around in class' 50 times on a sheet of paper (yes, it's still kind of like the 1950s around here). Later this evening when he told me about his situation I simply gave him some good fatherly advice: "try not to do it again...unless you got some good laughs out of it from your friends -- in which case it was totally worth it. Hi-five!"

Julia's situation revolved around homework. Actually, to be more specific, it revolved around Julia not doing a piece of homework. The teacher asked to see some work and Julia was confused because she didn't know it was supposed to be done at home. She told the teacher she thought they were going to do it in class and the teacher looked at her and said, "Well, you thought wrong." This, of course, was devastating to Julia who explained to us that she nearly started to cry right there in the room. Later that evening, when talking with her about the incident I once again decided a little fatherly advice was appropriate. "Julia," I said. "The next time your teacher tells you that 'you thought wrong' try to have a snappy comeback ready -- something like, 'Oh, you mean like how you thought wrong this morning when you thought your shirt matched your pants!'"

Zing!! Oh, Snap!!

That's what I'm hear for, folks. Good, solid, advice for the kiddos.

Looking Through Old Videos

NOW THAT I am going to Geneva frequently, I can have Starbucks coffee pretty much any time I want. Within 10 minutes of my hotel I can be at any of three Starbucks shops. But that wasn't always the case. The nearest Starbucks to our home in the south of France is...Lyon. Yes, five-hours-away Lyon. While looking through some of our old videos I came across this little 'commercial' we made during our first visit to Lyon in 2008. It was 8 months after we arrived in France. Watch what happens:

Our Own TV Bloopers

ONE OF THE fun projects I do every year with my 3eme students (that's 9th grade) is to have them turn the Cuban Missile Crisis into a news segment that they write, produce, direct, and finally perform on camera. It is a creative way to get them to speak publically and get feedback on how they sound when I edit the broadcast and show it on a big screen in front of the whole class a week later. It's usually a fairly stressful day for the students who still struggle a bit in English -- but that's the point.

Today's first group -- the first person on camera, actually -- was a kid playing the role of the anchorman. He rehearsed his lines, prepared well, even put on an anchorman-like voice. When it came time to shoot the scene it went like this:

• Me (filming): Ready in three, two, one....
• Student: "Good evening and welcome to the Shix o'clock new...ah, sh**"

That'll be one for the blooper reel (something I always add at the end without telling them).

Quick question: do I need to bleep out the expletive since it was said in a fairly thick french accent -- as in: "ah, sheet".

Just Hit Pause

SOMETIMES IT JUST helps to know where the pause button is. For us, that button is usually just outside the window.

The Money Pit (our version)

DO YOU REMEMBER the scene from 'The Money Pit' where Tom Hanks' character has just about everything imaginable go wrong with his 'fixer-upper' house -- then, as he is preparing for a bath, the entire tub falls through the floor and crashes into 10,000 pieces on the level below? Do you remember the laugh that comes next? Well, Kerri and I sort of feel like laughing like that right now. Before I explain why, take a look at the clip I just referenced:



For us the situation isn't the house, but our vehicles. When we moved to France we purchased relatively inexpensive cars with the hope that they would survive for the few years we planned to be here. Last spring our Renault Scenic had a major problem (distributor belt) that ended up costing us a couple thousand Euros. This spring -- last Friday to be exact -- the gearbox (boite de vitesse) blew out. The initial quote we got today is several (as opposed to 'a couple') thousand Euros. While we try to figure out what do with that car we're counting on our other car to 'hold the fort' for a few weeks. The other car is a bit smaller and is the one I normally drive. To be fair, it's been quite reliable in the two years we've had it, but it needs a few upgrades in areas like brake pads, exhaust, and some other tweaks here and there.

But as of this evening it needs a slightly more major tweak -- like a new back door. A slight accident backing out of our longish driveway had resulted in a bent door that no longer closes appropriately. [Note: To be fair I won't say who was driving, but I'll give you a clue: it wasn't me!] The car is now sitting in our driveway with the door partially closed and a couple of trash bags taped along the edges to keep out any rain. It really is quite a sight.

Cue the laughter!

Anyone have a spare left rear door for a 1992 VW Golf GTI? Black? Just shoot me an email if you do!

Southern France v. The Alps

TWO PHOTOS TAKEN on the same flight -- but only about 30 minutes apart.

Odd Yardwork

I DID SOMETHING today that I have never done in the States: I weeded our pétanque area. Tomorrow I'm going to smoke the kids once again in a family tournament.

Side note: I love the sound that les boules de pétanque (is that how you say it?) make when they crack into each other.

The Kids Picks the Activities

THAT WAS OUR plan for how to spend a few days of our Spring Break. Each of the three kids made their choice and planned an entire day's worth of activities. It went a little something like this:

Day 1 (Patrick): Patrick wanted to wash the cars to start his day (which I thought was a great idea). After a bit of playtime outside we prepared a picnic lunch to take to the beach. Spend the afternoon at the beach in Cannes playing soccer, football, paddle-ball then returned home for dinner: steak-hache, salad, frites. The evening entertainment: Shrek (the original)!

Day 2 (Julia): with bad weather in store, Julia chose to go to Fun City (thanks to a suggestion from a friend of ours). Fun City is kind of like Pump-it-Up in the US -- a huge area with loads of moon-bounce-type apparatus-equipment. On the way home we stopped off at some stores for a little shopping (daddy even got a pair of shoes) Then home for dinner (baked ziti, salad, cassis to drink), and a movie (can't even remember what it was called!)

Day 3 (Henry): Henry's day was today and he only had one thing in mind: riding his bike! So we went to the little village of Chateauneuf just up the road where they have a huge sports area and intended to stay for a while. But when the rains came about 20 minutes later we had to improvise. After a little lunch the weather cleared up and Patrick and I rode up to the old Roman Camp above our house and toured around the area. Henry and Kerri took the car part of the way and met us for...lots of bike riding. Henry was incredible -- riding up the hills and over the rocks. After a dinner of homemade pizza the kids watched 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids' while enjoying chocolate-covered strawberries.

Some fun days. Kerri and I are still waiting for our 'days' -- which may still come. We have the rest of the week to fill.

Spring Break

IT'S ONE OF the greatest things about the French school calendar: two week vacations sporadically sprinkled throughout the year. Spring break started yesterday and if the weather cooperates (and it looks like it will)we'll have a nice relaxing time here at home. It's been a long time since we spend an entire break at home and we're kind of looking forward to this one. I, for one, am going to get back on the bike and put in a bunch of kilometers.

We've also told the kids that each week they will get one day where they plan the activities -- the entire day. They can pick the food we eat, where we go, what movie we watch (if we do that), etc. Tomorrow we will 'plan' the first week. Could be a lot of trips for gelato in our immediate future.

A Nice Visit from Some DC Friends

THAT'S THE BEST way to describe a two week period when your great friends come to visit you in France for the first time. I won't try to explain it all now, but we had a great two weeks with Kevin, Lynn, Eliot, and little Sophie. Thanks, guys. Come back soon. More photos later when my Picasa program stops acting up.