Up-hair

This Christmas I will be in Rennes with a friend of mine (Maëlle) and her family. We are staying at her Aunt's house the 24th and 25th. Then, on the 28th I'm leaving for Chambéry in the French Alps to do some skiing! I haven't been skiing for quite some time so I am really looking forward to it.

On a different note, I fear that there are some who have not yet seen the glory of Craig's beard. This saddens me, so I have decided to post a picture on my blog:



...glorious. This picture has inspired me to write a sonnet entitled "Craig's Beard: an apologia"

Behold the man, a bushy bearded one,
who dares to wear his pride upon his chin,
with towering hair atop expressly done
so as to imitate a dorsal fin.
After this change some see him as a brute
and mothers come accost him in the square
"thou fiend, thou villain, man of ill repute!
What devilry hide you beneath such hair?"
O how much ridicule has this man borne
by those who see as folly facial hair?
would he be less a man if fairly shorn?
a man of lesser force his chin laid bare?
Ah! surely not for strength comes from within
nevertheless a beard is not a sin.


Merry Christmas!
Joyeux Noël!

Pictures

Maëlle sent me some pictures from the big family gathering last Sunday, so I decided to post a few:


This is during the aperatif. I am reaching for one of several helpings of pistachios. Man! do I like pistachios!


I guess there were five children. Plus the baby who isn't in the picture (I told you they don't stop moving!)


And here's the baby. In this picture he is enjoying a cube of cheese.

Sunday

Alas! I am so ashamed. It's been almost a week since my last post, so in order to make it up to you I am going to make this one extraordinarily long and wordy:

Two days ago, Maëlle's family invited me to a big family dinner in Nantes. I was, of course, very happy to accept this invitation. Everybody arrived at the Trévedy residence around twelve or twelve-thirty: aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, etc. In all there were fourteen adults and several children (I wasn't able to count the children; they are constantly moving, which inhibits my calculatory faculties). The dinner started with an aperatif; everybody had a drink and there was paté, pastachios, and other savoury snacks. Then we moved on to the entrée: two kinds of fish with white wine. When we got to the main dish I was already well on my way to being full (to be honest I had been eating a lot of really good bread, which had come with every course thus far). the main dish was chicken with fried balls of mashed potatoes and red wine. The cheese came next. In anticipation of dessert, I had wisely decided to take only a very small portion of swiss, but then I was taken in again by bread! arrg! Then we arrived at the dessert, which consisted of a variety of cakes and sparkeling wine . I had a modest slice of chocolate cake. Finally we had coffee at around six in the evening. Afterward, everybody went on a walk except me. I promptly went upstairs and took an hour-long nap.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving on Thursday everybody! (I am saying it now because I will surely forget to on the 27th). The French don't celebrate Thanksgiving, naturally, so I won't be having Thanksgiving dinner this year, unless you are planning on sending it to me in the mail Mom. If you do decide to do that just remember that I don't like cranberry sauce, so you can leave that out. And I don't like sweet potatoes either. Just send mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and of course turkey. To make it easier to fit in a package, you can stick it all in a blender until it turns into a beige looking puree. Mmmm! Can't wait.

P.S. don't forget the straw

Régate - part two

Well, things went well with the regatta on Sunday. In all there were six of us on Monsieur Quétel's boat, The Octopus. I was given a very specific job. When we changed tacks it was my job to release the ropes holding la grande voile (main sail) to allow the boom to swing over to the other side of the boat. Then I would lash it back down in its new position and join the rest of the crew on the edge of the boat with my legs out over the side to provide a counterweight. We repeated this process constantly, especially when we were tacking against the wind. Monsieur Quétel was at the tiller and he was the one giving all the instructions and calling out when it was time to change tacks.



The Octopus in all its glory! I am the second from the right, trying my best to be a good counterweight.



That big red sail is the Spinnaker, or "spi" for short. We hoisted this sail when the wind was more or less behind us.



Here's a good view of the front sail (in this case a genoa, which is used in light or moderate winds).

Régate

Tomorrow I am taking part in a régate, in English, a regatta : a rowing, speedboat, or sailing race or a series of such races. In this case it is a sailing race. Monsieur Quétel invited me to be on his crew. I told him this would be a great opportunity for me to try out my new peg-leg and eyepatch. I have so much pirate paraphernalia and so few opportunities to put it to good use. But Monsieur Quétel said it probably wasn't a good idea since his was a legitimate ship and we probably wouldn't have any time for pillaging anyway, being in a race and all. After much discussion we decided that I would leave my pirate gear at home but I could still call all my crew-mates "me harties." It was a good compromise. I'll let you know how it went tomorrow.

Veterans Day / Armistice Day

Happy Veterans Day and Armistice Day! Today reminds me of a story I had forgotten to tell you. The last time I was at Maëlle's house in Nantes I noticed an old dented bugle sitting in the living room. I thought it would be fun to play so I asked Maëlle if I could try it out. She said yes, so I picked it up and played Taps (very slowly and badly I should add). It was only after I had finished that Maëlle told me the bugle belonged to her great grandfather who used it in World War I. I didn't think to take a picture of it at the time, but I will try to remember next time I'm in Nantes.

Sanglier (wild boar)

Here is, as promised, a visual representation of one of the wild boars I saw, the father boar to be exact. Now, at first glance you might wonder what makes this boar so wild. He might even look like a pretty respectable boar. Ah but it takes a discerning eye to pick a wild boar out from his respectable brethren.

Notice the bowler hat carelessly, nay rakishly perched on his head, as if to issue a subtle yet insolent challenge to any passers-by. On top of that he has chosen to wear a cravat without the accompanying shirt and waistcoat. A respectable boar, when donning neck wear alone, chooses a scarf or a "foulard" as it were. From these subtle clues we can conclude with confidence that this is in fact a wild boar, very wild indeed. If you ever happen to cross his path, it's best to keep moving as quickly as possible while avoiding eye contact. If he does address you though, respond politely and be especially sure to compliment his cravat.

Wild Boars!

Friday afternoon while Madame Quétel and I were driving home from school we suddenly saw a cluster of animals crossing the street which divides two pastures. At first I thought they were small bears, but as we got closer I realized that they were wild boars! We stopped the car to let them pass. They were two adults and three children. My thoughts immediately turned to Lord of The Flies, by William Golding. I felt an irrepressible desire to leap out of the car, shed my encumbering garments and hunt some wild boar in the state of nature. Unfortunately I realized that I had left my spear at home. Plus I didn't want to be late for dinner. By the time I reasoned through all this the Boars had already crossed the street and were almost out of sight.

P.S. Regretfully I did not react in time to take a photo with my cell phone, but I am working on a visual representation, which I will upload shortly.

Beware of the Dog

A while back I was looking for a good short story to use in my classes. Eventually I stumbled upon Beware of the Dog by Roald Dahl. It's worth reading; the imagery and the way he makes transitions are great. If you want to read it you can go to the following site:

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/botd.html

If you like it you might also want to check out Flying Solo, an autobiographical account of his experience as a pilot in the RAF during WWII. It has been a while since I read it, but I remember really enjoying it.

Three days in Saint Malo

We caught the sunset on Friday while on a walk. The town in the picture actually isn't Saint Malo, but it is really close. To see the rest of the pictures just follow this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/evilmoosethecat/SaintMalo02?authkey=33I74n-IhPo#

All the pictures of Saint Malo I've posted there were taken by me.

...Hold on my mom probably just fainted in disbelief so let's give her a few seconds to come around. My dad is probably going for the smelling salts right now; either that or Moose the cat (Moose usually stinks strongly enough to be a handy alternative to smelling salts).

OK! Welcome back mom. Yep, I took those pictures. And you can expect more in the future!

I'm back in Nantes at Maëlle's house so I thought I would write a quick message. Saint Malo was great! I took a lot of pictures that I will post when I get back to my computer in Guérande. We went to the beach (the English Channel) and walked along the ramparts of the city. Also it was really windy and kind of rainy, as it often is in Brittany, so I caught a cold the first day. But it wasn't too bad. I took large amounts of cold medicine to counteract it.

Uh oh, Maëlle needs to use her computer so I'm going to have stop here for now.

Vacation

I'm on vacation! I have ten days for All Saints. On Saturday I hopped on the train to Nantes to see some friends (I literally ran and hopped on the train because I was so late in buying my ticket. Utlimately it wasn't as cool as it could have been though. After rushing into the train I waited for a couple more minutes before it pulled away. It would have been more dramatic if I had lept onboard as the doors were closing...better yet as the train was pulling away. Someday I'll time it like that). Anyway, where was I. Right, so here I am in Nantes. I stayed with David and Mel Macfarland from Saturday to Tuesday. It was really fun, and I saw a lot of friends that I hadn't seen for almost two years. Now I am staying with Maëlle and her family for a couple nights. Tomorrow Maëlle, Céline, Noëmie, Guillaume and I are leaving for Saint Malo (it's up in the North of France). It is a beautiful city, so I will take lots of pictures. And if I forget to take a lot of pictures, I will steal Maëlle's pictures because she never forgets to take them.

This is a pre-fire picture of the fireplace in the house I live in. It's really nice. The dining table is just out of the picture on the left, so we are all nice and warm during dinner.


Here we are a good way into the fire.


This is my bed.


This is the desk where I work and do important things such as updating my blog. I'm actually sitting in that chair right now.

My Kettlebell

Just in case you thought I was letting myself go over here, I've decided to introduce you to my kettlebell. It is a twenty-four kilogram (fifty-three pound) ball of iron with a handle on it. I go outside to swing it around like a maniac at least three times a week in the backyard.

Classes and Cognac

Hello everybody! I started teaching classes on my own this Tuesday and so far everything is going well. I like the students a lot so it is fun to be around them. In one of the reinforced English classes they are reading "A Lesson Before Dying," by Ernest Gaines, so I get to follow along with them in the book and lead discussions about it in class. So far that is what I enjoy the most.

Also, I went to Cognac this weekend with Eva (a friend of mine I met last time I was in France) to visit her boyfriend, Cedric, and his two roommates, Xavier and Hubert. Cedric, Eva, and I took a tour at Martell, a maker of cognac. There was a tasting at the end.

Cedric and I drank our cognac in a very professional manner as you can see.

Here are a few photos of the Quétel's house where I live. You can click on them to make them bigger. If that gets annoying let me know and I'll go back to posting them in the bigger size.

More pictures of the raclette

The grill for cooking the Raclette is on the top left. I am in the middle there sampling some eau-de-vie made from apples. And below is some cold meat we ate with the Raclette.

La Raclette

I headed down to Nantes on Friday for an orientation with all the other English assistants. While in Nantes, I stayed again with Maëlle's family. For dinner Saturday, I was introduced to La Raclette: A Swiss specialty consisting of melted cheese prepared at the table using a special heater or grill, served with potatoes and cold meats (Larousse Unabridged Dictionary). It was amazing! I've never eaten so much cheese in my life!

This is a picture of the cheese. It is special cheese

made specifically for La Raclette.

I will post more pictures later, but I am still trying to figure out how to use this blog.I'm not going to tell you how long it took me to do this much...let's just say five minutes.

Monsieur le crapaud (Mr. Toad)

Yesterday I worked out on the back porch around ten in the evening while it was drizzling. There was a toad on the deck who, when I came outside, slowly hopped over onto the base of an umbrella, then watched me for the entire hour. I offered him the kettlebell in case he wanted to pump out a few reps, but he was too lazy. Madame Quétel says that he often comes to visit. When it is hot and dry in the summer, she puts out a little tub of water for him to swim in.

My home in France

I finally moved in with the family I'll be living with while teaching: the Quétels. They have a house just outside Guérande in the countryside. There is a rabbit/lawnmower in the backyard named Monsieur Moustache, a horse across the street, and a deer-breeding farm a few houses down. The highschool is about fifteen minutes away by bicycle (or horse if I can swipe the neighbor's), so the commute isn't too bad. My job officially starts in two days on Wednesday, October 1st; then I have an orientation in Nantes on the 3rd. After that things should settle in to a routine.

Sailing

Today I went sailing. The family I am staying with owns a sailboat and they invited me to go out for a bit. Sylvain (the father) let me steer and showed me how to keep the wind in the sails. Then I got seasick and vomited all over him.

...No I'm just kidding. I didn't get seasick. heh heh. But seriously, it was really fun.