From Gray to Green

I think Monday's events brought on a few more gray hairs for me, but towards the end of the week, I was happy to be wearing green in spirit of St. Patrick's Day.

Eric spent Monday in his Paris office for work.  Since he was running tight on time, the secretary there offered to call him an 'express taxi' to go to the airport before she left, letting him know that they were fast because they could use the middle lane.  Eric assumed this meant there was some kind of special commuter lane for taxis.  When the taxi arrived, it was actually a motorcycle taxi.  And by the 'middle lane', the secretary meant in her broken English that the motorcycles could split lanes.  So Eric rode the back of a motorcycle with a blanket on to protect his suit pants while his laptop bag was in the saddlebag and his carry-on strapped to the back of the bike from downtown Paris to Charles De Gaulle, splitting lanes the entire way, often at more than 120 km/h.  Needless to say, it was quite a ride.

Monday afternoon, Adeline's hand stitches were removed. This took two different doctor visits as her pediatrician could not remove the third one due to the knot being under her skin. After Monday's dance class, we took a ride to the clinic as they were expecting us  for her pediatrician so kindly called ahead to discuss in German what the issue was. Thankfully, Uschi so kindly accompanied us to the clinic after our ice cream and coffee get together.  We arrived and were immediately admitted. Her third stitch was quickly removed without any additional operations and the cut is continuing to heal.

This week, Adeline started her Nature program at the school. One afternoon a week, she goes walking out in the fields and forest for two and half hours with her fellow classmates and a teacher. Here she learns about the environment around her while they play games and explore the area. Adeline was very excited to share with me the games they played, the natural teepee they started to construct, and even how fun it was was sitting in the forest and sharing her snacks with the other girls.

On Thursday morning, Patti invited me to accompany her to an English speaking ladies brunch in the area to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. (The school put me intouch with Patti at the beginning of the school year as her daughter who is in the third class has been a helper to Adeline by translating in the classroom.) I met a group of six ladies who have been living here for various times. One of them was Irish, so she demonstrated how to make fresh Irish Soda Bread and Irish coffee. She also shared with us the Irish traditions from her family and her husband's family while making the recipes. The hostess set her table with festive green decorations for our gathering and we had a nice time conversing amongst the group and consuming the warm food.