Adventure Hopping...

so you may wonder...Why Are We In France?

Hi everyone, blogging for me is in fits and starts...small bursts of energy expended on our life and events, then nothing. Then small bursts of energy again. The goal would be to manage an even output over time...so updating can be in real-time. But these days that's been in my world of dreams.

France! It all started with the fact that our lovely little Kildare Steiner School in Ireland ends for Joshua at 6th grade -or class, creating a need for us to find a school for Joshua next year. That lead us to the French School in Dublin late November. All good, go check out the school, talk with the principal, get a tour, etc...

Little hitch: Joshua ne parle pas français, and was contingent upon his acceptance to have some french...! So we think: tutors, study, post-it notes around the house...couple months go by. This isn't going to work. So one day, Paul says he had a dream... that we did a full immersion for a few months, from January until the end of the school year.

That's when it really started.

Still on Christmas break - Early January: Wrote letters to 6 Steiner/Waldorf schools in France. Received 4 responses. Narrowed the choices down to 2: Paris Steiner School or Lyon Steiner School. Make plans to visit each.

Mid January: Make appointments with the schools. Travel to France (cheap Ryan Air!), Lyon then Paris. Visit the schools, meet with the teachers, look into housing options. It's all good, but which would be the best for us?

End January: Decision made - We're going to the Libre Ecole Rudolf Steiner School in Verrieres-le-Buisson 20 mins SW of Paris. Look into housing, move date, etc... Joshua and Sasha start school 3rd March, 2008, first day back from mid-term break.

21 February: Trains, Planes, Ferries and Automobiles - Arrive in Paris, car loaded with 4 months worth of goods! Move into a 3 level 'maison-ville' rural townhouse just seconds from the school's entrance! Incredible! Here we are, Ireland temporarily relieved of a few inhabitants...we'll miss you, dear Old Barracks!...but can't wait to tell you of our Adventures!

The following was a letter I sent to my parents and brother when we landed...

Dear Family,

I hope this finds you all well. I just wanted to let you know that we are now 'installed,' as they say here, in our new house 20 mins sw of Paris. Current plan is that we will be here for 4 months. Our address is as follows:

Paul and Natasha, Joshua, Sasha and Elijah Kewene-Hite
Verrieres-le-Buisson
France

THE WEBSITE and the SCHOOL
The School: Libre Ecole Rudolf Steiner
Look for the 'Enter Cet Site' then for an English Flag for an english version

Inside the site, photos will be scrolling through; you may see two photos of a teacher in front a blackboard, in the middle of a lesson. His name is Jean Pierre Ablard and he will be Joshua's teacher, and that will be his class. When you see the Grand Maison, or a large mansion, it is where all the classes (1-8, I believe) are held. Joshua's on the first floor, on the right. You can see it's the one with all the windows, like a main room. Sasha's class is on the opposite end of the same building.

WE'VE ARRIVED
Joshua, Elijah and I arrived on Saturday night, with Sasha and Paul having driven the car, loaded with 4 months worth of living 'stuff' the night before, loading it into our new place, just in time to sign the contract and return to the airport to pick us up!

IKEA
School starts next Monday, and we're very happy we have this week to get settled in. With IKEA only 15 minutes away, and get this, it being one of at least 4 to choose from in relatively close proximity to the house, we've been able to stock up on a few basics beyond what the car would hold (which, by the way, was stuffed to the gills!...though luckily, it didn't sink the ferry!).

THE HOUSE and NEIGHBORHOOD
Except for Paul, the rest of us moved into this house sight-unseen!...and I'd say we got lucky! It is funky in that it's sort of ad hoc in it's updates over the years, and has been in recent renovations, but is seriously cool in it's character, it feels very French, local and has history. We are, most importantly, literally steps from the entrance to the school, so we are all thrilled about this, especially the kids! Because the school is on holiday, most everyone around us are gone, so it's been very quiet. We do, however, get the feeling that we are in the middle of a neighborhood rich in community and feeling. The house is one of a row of townhouses, each facing one another with a little 'street' running through it, past us, off the main street, each town house being 3 stories high, from the ground floor, up 2 more flights. Our house is the second one in from the main street, on which sits the entrance to the school. With the houses facing one another and being side-by-side up a slight incline away from the street, people seem to walk up and down this path past the front of our door to get to the main road, but I would guess they would all be neighbors; this is not regular street traffic. It's very interesting and feels very local.

Just tonight, we met our first neighbor, Danielle, who lives about 3 houses up from ours. She was extremely welcoming and warm to us. She is a retired physics and science teacher, I'm guessing from the school here, but not sure yet. Paul and Sasha had learned from our landlord on the day they signed the lease, that the house she lives in was built sometime in the 1500's (!!), and she has a certificate that has authenticated it's age. While no one else in the neighborhood has anything like an authenticating certificate, the general thought seems to be, that based on the age of her house, most of these houses here are about the same ages, as well. They are certain that none of these houses is newer than the 1700's Isn't that amazing! THey've all been modernized and, from what I can see from the outside, they look really nice on the inside...i've seen lots of exposed beams. All, very, very cool! While our place is imperfect, and a bit funky, it has great 'bones' and there is a lot of cool stuff that can be done to it!

SPEAKING FRENCH
Lastly, it's been wonderful to be soaked in the french language. And it's just beginning. The kids are increasingly getting their bearings, and I think as they hear more and more and begin to get context for what things mean, it'll start sinking in. I believe they're excited for school to start, but nervous at the same time...it's the unknown. We're very open to this experience, and I must give Paul a tremendous amount of credit for making this whole adventure possible! Seriously, his adventurous spirit never ceases to amaze me, and I'm very grateful for his interest in creating experiences like this for his family.

COOL CARS and CRAZY DRIVERS
On that note, because the drivers here are so aggressive and parking is often tight, Paul has let us use his car, a little Mini Clubman, to get around! It's a great car...and most critically, small. The Volvo Estate (Irish for Wagon) has been left at home! So, due to the great abilities of "Kate" our very own, personified GPS, we can get around with her verbal cues and maps with great ease! So, getting from our new house to Ikea, was no problem at all!...neither was driving on the right side of the road again, in a right - wheel (however it's called) car! As long as I have Kate, I'll be okay!

VERRIERES
Today on a hunt for fresh produce, before the further hunt for other basics like places to put towels, things to keep our books on, we briefly discovered the local town of Verrieres-le-Buisson, and found it to be extremely beautiful, old, characteristically French and not at all touristy. I look forward to exploring it further. As our school is 50 years old, I get the feeling it's influence is known and felt. That said, we discovered today an 'epicerie' called Tonton, which has all kinds of organic and bio-dynamic produce. I think it's like being in Provo, UT and being in BYU bookstore and finding all kinds of church books, only this is food and produce and it's full of the food grown based on the agricultural writings and studies of Rudolf Steiner, which is known as bio-dynamics. It's where the Demeter brand comes from if that means anything to anyone. If I had internet, which we're in the process of getting, I would include links to what that's all about, but for now, i'll just say it's very interesting!

More updating to come...for now, we're here, have been here now for 2.5 months...and have been enjoying it very much, though we really miss the Old Barracks!...