And in other news...

Now that I have gotten the emotional "I want my mom" update off my chest, I remembered I also have some pictures to post from the weekend.

On Friday, Geraldine, Pierre and Adele came to visit for the gouter. I have made a tarte au citron and we had a great visit. I was asking Geraldine to translate parts of the cookbook she gave me the night of the French fiesta, and as she tried to explain to me the different instructions for gougeres au fromage (fancy cheese puffs), we decided to just give it a try.

They didn't turn out *quite* right -- the first batch, in fact, could have been used as baseballs -- but I think the temperature in the oven here was too high as the second batch turned out a bit better. But it was so much fun to cook with a friend (and one who knew how to mettez, versez, otez, remettez, beurrez, saupoudrez and more).

Kate, Liv and Adele played beautifully. Liv said that Adele was beginning to understand them -- and they were beginning to understand her. At last!

Jack and Pierre kicked the soccer ball around for a while, looked at Jack's Pokemon card collection (who knew it would be as popular in France as it was in Japan and Canada?), and then decided to sit down to play poker. Eventually, John, Geraldine and I were drawn into the fun of Texas Hold'em, where Jack and Pierre promptly beat us (and Jack squeaked out a narrow victory over his friend). Fun French fact of the day -- the phrase for "I fold" in French is je me couche (I put myself to bed). Below, you can see Jack and Pierre sorting out Legos to make them work as poker chips.

Saturday held two social outings for us. First, in the afternoon we went to a gouter at Marine's, the daughter of my host family from Dijon. Her four girls and our three kids all played SO well in their huge backyard. We *may* be starting to make plans to arrange a marriage between Jack and either Penelope or Capucine... I'm sure they won't mind, right?

That night, we went to a dinner at Muriel and Sylvie's, who are connected to the local Buddhist community and who are friends of Geraldine and Thomas (who were invited to the dinner as well). They live in a wonderful old house in a small town about 30 minutes south of Beaune -- full of old wooden beams, great nooks, and twisty stairs. We had a very interesting, fun, and late night out.

Rounding out our incredibly social weekend, we had the great pleasure of having lunch here for a friend from university days who is living in Geneva with her husband and 11-week-old daughter. We hadn't see Cynthia and Lincoln in 12 years (although we had exchanged many an email and letter in the interim), and it was such fun to meet sweet Melina. It was a perfect spring day, with fresh food from the market, a walk up to Coconut Mountain (Mont-St-Victor) and to Rapunzel's Tower (the remaining tower from the old chateau in town), and some lovely cheeses (including a new favorite -- Epoisse). The kids fell in love with little Melina (and so did we).

The other excitement of the weekend is that I decided to give the kids haircuts. In the past, this has not always ended up working so well for us (especially Jack). Thus, this sign:

In case you have trouble, it says "I NOT GITING MI HAIR CUT" (his spelling is better in French at this point in his life). But I just trimmed around the ears, and he ended up looking like this:

Pas mal, n'est pas? Kate and Liv got just a trim, too... and new kerchiefs that are all the rage at their school right now:

We don't have much planned this week -- hopefully just cleaning and getting ready for a visit from my mom and friend Sharon on Sunday night. Fingers crossed for the winds to change!

A French fiesta

We had a great dinner last night with Thomas and Geraldine, their kids, and their friends Muriel, Sylvie and Jeremie. Geraldine had wanted to introduce Muriel to John as she has ties to one of the local Buddhist communities.

So we cracked open the Coronas and lime, offered fresh salsa, guacamole, (super-super hot) marinated green chilis and homemade tortillas and nibbled while the enchiladas finished cooking.

Everyone enjoyed it thoroughly, although it was probably the least French-like meal to be found in all of Burgundy last night, with a few small exceptions. I had to use shredded emmenthal and fresh mozzarella for the enchiladas as there was nothing close to sharp cheddar or Montery jack cheese (still tasty, though!), and instead of trying to make a traditional Mexican dessert (sopapillas or fried ice cream), I instead opted for a tarte au chocolat (with a dash of cinnamon).

And I was hugely relieved that the tarte turned out. Maybe I just needed to make a French recipe for my French baking skills to actually result in something edible? At any rate, I used Laura's wonderful and easy-peasy recipe for the pastry and found a French recipe for the chocolate part online (only to find out Geraldine has a recipe for tarte au chocolat on her blog that I should have turned to instead. Next time, I'll go there first!)

On the health front -- Katie showed no more signs of illness, thankfully, although she did take a BIG nap yesterday afternoon. So while Jack and Liv crashed before the party ended, Katie stayed awake til the end, and at midnight she was munching on chips while watching us clean up. What a party girl.

Here are a few photos of our fiesta. The first two are evidence of successful tortilla making:

Sorry about the bad shadows on the next two -- but I wanted to show off the tomato-and-(canned)-corn salsa (lots of garlic and cilantro, too) and the limey-guacamole:

The kids set the table and were happy to have their own small kids-table. In the second photo, Jack is making name cards:

I forgot to take a picture of the beer or the enchiladas -- you'll have to trust me that they were all tasty. Here is everyone at desset, and a close-up of the tarte:

And finally, a photo of the beautiful orchid Muriel and Sylvie brought us.

The French seem to have a wonderful talent for bringing the most thoughtful gifts when coming to your house for a meal. We are now the happy owners of this amazing orchid -- and, from Thomas and Geraldine, a terrific cookbook... on French cooking, of course.

Merci mes amis!

This is not a boondoggle. Really.

When John and I first talked about possible travel plans for his study leave, I knew the logical choices would be to head to Japan again, or perhaps a university library in Chicago, LA, or New York. But he's the one who brought up going to France. France? I reminded him that he teaches BUDDHISM and Japanese religions. How, exactly, was he going to sell the university on a plan to pack us all up and go to France.

You see, at the University of Lethbridge, study leave isn't a given, and you *do* have to "sell it". Professors can apply for a study leave (or sabbatical) after six years of teaching and once they receive tenure (which John did in March 2009). But the professor has to have a well-designed research plan -- a clearly outlined course of work that will take place during the year off of teaching (rumors are that this requirement, or enforcement of it, was put in place after a prof in the 70s remodeled a house during a study leave).

So John put his application together and demonstrated that this plan to go to France fit with his overall professional development since grad school. He did it by emphasizing his growing expertise in Buddhism in the West (outside of Asia). His PhD dissertation was on the introduction of Buddhism in the U.S. in 1893; he has recently co-edited a book on Buddhism in Canada which will be published this year; and he did work on Buddhism in England during the year we spent in Cambridge. So clearly (CLEARLY), the natural progression was to look at Buddhism in France.

And there are some interesting things to study. For one thing, Buddhism is poised to overtake Protestantism in France in the coming decade (who knew?). Additionally, John thinks there could be some interesting comparisons in the way Buddhism is practiced in England vs. France and the types of Buddhism most popular in each place (reflecting the practice of Protestantism and Catholicism in each country). And Thich Nhat Hahn, who is kind of a rock star among Buddhist monks (I think I can say that -- John probably would have a better way to describe the Vietnamese Buddhist poet, scholar, and peace activist) teaches in Plum Village, France, a Buddhist monastery for monks and nuns and a meditation center for lay people.

After receiving the leave, he applied for a small grant to support some of the research costs (including the travel he will need to do once we are there) as well as a U of L study leave relocation fund. We were thrilled when he received both -- and in the comments on the grant, the outside reviewer (a scholar or expert in the field from outside of the U of L) said that John's proposal is a fascinating project that is long overdue, and in fact, the reviewer's only concern was that "Dr. Harding" might be too ambitious in his plans.

See. Not a boondoogle (def: scheme that wastes time and money). Really!

But deep down I also think of this trip is a bit of a love letter from John to me (and the kids). I have wanted to go back to France for an extended stay since I left Dijon in 1993 and now we are. Who knows where we'll be in seven years (the next time he'd be able to take a full-year's leave) and what work I'll be doing by then and how easy it'd be to convince kids who are 14, 11 and 11 that we should leave home. And it's such a good fit for the kids now, too. Jack's French immersion school is thrilled he's going (he is, too), and Kate and Liv will get a headstart on their French and be more than ready for kindergarten in the fall. The kids still like to be with us, and we are eager to do a bit of exploring together. We feel incredibly fortunate that the pieces have all fallen in place like this.

So there you have it. The Buddhist professor is heading to France.