Caen

So as I keep mentioning here, my time here is constantly growing shorter and shorter, but I don’t think that that fact has really hit me yet, I don’t know. But all the big things that were going to happen have passed now, Matt’s parents have made it back to the states, and I survived my last test at IFE, although I am sure that it could have gone better… oh well.

But this past weekend was really fun, and I wanted to put up a post about it before my life gets too consumed by writing this paper and I only have time to post little “god save me” posts… and before I leave on my adventures. Several people have asked if I am going to continue blogging during my adventures… and the answer is yes, but I am not exactly sure how. We will be travelling all over, and staying in several different hostels, and I am sure I will be able to find internet sporadically to keep things updated… but the question is whether or not I want to take my computer with me. I am only going to take my backpack and no other bags, and my computer will be heavy… but more than that I am just not sure how many secure it would be to leave it in all the different hostels we will be staying in, if they all have secure lockers or not… I would be really annoyed if I brought my computer to blog and it got stolen, although the chances of that seem kind of small… what does anyone think? I might take so many pics that I need a place to upload them to clear my memory card on my camera too… or I could just take my journal and write my entries there and type it all up and put up the pics and everything when I get back… I haven’t decided yet and I would appreciate any advice on this anyone has…

But back to this past weekend. On Saturday morning I got up bright and early and I met the Brauer family at Gare St. Lazare to go on a little day trip to the city of Caen… but little did I know how nice it was going to be. Part of the reason Mr. Brauer wanted to come to France this spring was because it is the 40th anniversary of the start of the study abroad program he did when he was in college… and the 30th anniversary of his year spent in France. So they spent some time during the week going back to visit all of his old haunts, and meeting up with friends who had come back as well… and he just happened to meet up with the son of the family he lived with 30 years ago, who called his sister Isabelle, who insisted that Mr. Brauer come visit her and her family in Caen on Saturday. She was 16 when Mr. Brauer was here before and they had seen each other a few times since but not in about 10 years, so it was high time for a visit… and for Matt and I to take a day trip outside of Paris, and a little trip down memory lane for the day.

So the train was delayed, but we finally made it out to Caen, where Isabelle and her husband were waiting for us… and they immediately welcomed us into their home, and fed us a wonderful lunch and took us on a tour of their town… It was really a great afternoon. And Matt and I had a great time befriending her French children, Julien age 9 and Tiphaine age 7. They were really fun, and really excited to hang out with us because we could speak French to them and the other grown ups couldn’t… and they are working on learning English but it is a process. But they have already had years of it at school, and it made me think about how much the US needs to get on the language train and start teaching languages much much earlier, long before seventh grade.

But as you can see from the pictures here we spent a lovely afternoon talking and playing soccer with the kids, and Mr. Brauer got to spend time with old friends which was really nice for him. The afternoon flew by, and before we knew it, it was time to get back on the train to come back to Paris for the evening. But the entire afternoon just made me think about where I want to be 30 years from now, the type of person I want to be, and where I want to be and what I want to be doing. I don’t know for sure, but I am sure right now that Paris, and all of France has made an imprint on my life that will not go away, and I only hope that in 30 years I will be back in Paris, visiting my friends from IFE and catching up with the wonderful people I have met here and all the places I have seen and love to go. More on this a little later, as I need to get working on my paper for the day, but here you can see the lovely house and cute kids we met, and I can continue to muse about where I want to be in 30 years, and marvel at how it may not all turn out how I plan it, but I am sure it will be good… and I look forward to seeing how the story unfolds.