Our Lone Survivor

Oh boy! Chicken farming is definitely not for the faint of heart. That's our lesson learned in a nutshell. They are totally fun and delightful and of course produce the most delicious eggs BUT so much of their survival falls outside of our control as we've learned.

We lost another chicken this week; Zoe. Thankfully not to a predator but to what we can only assume was an illness. For the last month or so she's been a bit off. Not producing eggs (which is not totally unusual in the winter) and alternating between her normal perky self and sleepy and lethargic.

Since we got the chickens back in October I feel like I've always been able to hear Zoe breathe. Almost a bit labored. But that definitely got worse in the last month and was followed by little squeaks here and there, which I eventually figured were sneezes. We assumed she was dealing with some kind of "chicken cold"?! Figured it would eventually pass but that ended up not being the case.

This was the day before she died.

Sadie snuck in through the kitchen door but Zoe's in the back pecking away like normal.

She died Wednesday night. We found her the next day in the coop.  :(  Marc actually found her and graciously saved us (and especially the girls) from seeing her.

After only 5 months we're down from three to one!! Sadie thankfully has always seemed to be the strongest of the three and that hasn't wavered at all in the last week. I wasn't sure what to expect. Do chickens grieve? Would she not like being alone? Would we be able to tell? Thankfully she seems completely normal and content! Phew! I was not prepared for this emotional roller-coaster when we decided to become chicken owners. Little did I know.

Sadie posing on the window sill.

Hoping that Sadie will continue to live out a long and full life with us.

On Parle Francais

It has officially been six months since we arrived in France. It seemed time to update everyone on the state of the language.  In other words, how is our French going?  It's been a different experience so far for each of us.

As you know from previous posts it has been hardest for the girls as they've been immersed in the French language all day. BUT after 5 months of French school, they are officially speaking French! Sure, they still search for words on occasion but seem to have enough vocabulary now that they can find the words to say what they want to say. The first time I heard them play with their friends in French, I was astounded. For me it seemed like all of a sudden it was there. They could speak it. When their friends' parents told me they were not only speaking to their friends in French but the parents too, I was ecstatic. And then the teachers confirmed that they were speaking to them in French too and participating more in the classroom.  Yahoo!!  In some ways it very much feels like mission accomplished. So in case you were wondering how long it takes to learn a language if you immerse your kids in a new culture? In our case, 5 months!!

For Marc, his French has gotten a lot more natural. Although he is French and was born and raised here, after living in the U.S. for 25 years and only speaking French on the phone with his family once every week or two he had lost quite a bit. Now of course he can still get by fine, but at first, most people thought he was American with a really good French. Now his French is back to speed but his writing is still a bit rusty; that's taking longer to come back.

For me, the progress has been slower. Not that it's not happening, it is, but much slower than for the girls. The reality is I spend all day working in English and speaking to Marc and the girls in English. We had considered switching to French at home but the girls put up a huge protest, arguing that they have to listen in and speak in French all day and when they get home, they need a break. Okay, fair point. So, we never made the switch at home. There are some days when the only French I hear is from the radio. And then of course there are other days, when we're out and about, and I'm surrounded by French. My vocabulary is slowly expanding and my confidence is starting to grow when I'm speaking to Marc's parents or even just going shopping on my own. At dinner parties it varies. At some parties there is only French being spoken and my skills are put to the test. And then on other occasions we're speaking English most of the time. Several of the families we've befriended who have children at the girls' school speak English really well. So in all honesty I get to "cheat" quite a bit.

There are a couple of things though that I'm sticking with and do feel like they are both helping with my progress.

1. Every Monday I go to a yoga class that is all in French and I carpool with a woman where we only speak French together.
2. Every morning I get on Babbel (on the computer or phone) for at least 30 minutes and am working through their lessons. Over the years I've used various language learning tools (Rosetta Stone, CDs in the car, and even classes at the local community college). I don't think any have been as good as Babbel. Definitely look into it, if you're trying to learn another language.

I'm not sure how long it would take to really feel 100% fluent. I've heard various lengths depending on who I speak to. Most people though seem to think around a couple of years. I'm sure this would go faster the more you force yourself to speak the new language. And I definitely think that if I was trying to work in French that that would really help speed things along. But for now, that's where we are. And honestly I'm just so happy the girls are picking it up and finally able to really speak with their friends and family in French!

Winter Wonderland

Although all in all it hasn't been a very wet winter so far it's definitely a new winter experience for me. Coming from California I am not used to living where it snows or where the temperature drops below freezing. That's not to say it never drops below freezing at home but it usually happens at night and then during the day will warm up another 20 degrees.  Not the case here.  The range between mid-day and the middle of the night is only a couple degrees.

It finally started snowing here after the first of January. Just in time for the girls Wednesday afternoon ski classes.  I loved watching the snow fall during my morning yoga. Hearing the crunch of the snow under my feet when I walked on it. And of course playing in the snow with the girls. So much more fun than I thought it would be. And surprisingly more pleasurable than rain. That first weekend the snow storm continued. We headed up into the mountains to enjoy some snow time at Marc's brother's chalet. I felt like I was in a French Alps Postcard.

The view from my yoga mat.

The other view from my yoga mat.

The girls made a snow man (bonhomme de neige) at Mamie and Papi's house. To the dismay of Papi's dog Louki who proceeded to bark at it for 3 days until in the end he got the courage to grab the snow man's hat end shred it to pieces. May be he just knew he who must not be named was from New York!

Sledding down the small hill behind Mamie and Papi's house.  Mamie found this toboggan for the girls and its the same one Marc and his brother used to play on when they were little. 

Playing Monopoly with the cousins at Tonton's chalet.

The next week the snow stopped but the temperatures dropped so low that all the snow remained. To add to the cold, the wind (called La Bise) started blowing and temperatures dropped even further. Apparently this wind travels all the way from Siberia blanketing much of Europe in cold, freezing wind. It was honestly difficult to be outside for any real length of time, even with 2 layers of pants, 3 layers of shirts, a jacket, beanie, gloves, etc. It was so cold that we had to head out to the chicken coop every hour or two to add hot water to the chickens water. It would freeze over and the hens couldn't break through it with their beaks!

With the wind also came waves in the lake and because of the freezing temperatures, icicles developed all along the shore of the lake. They were amazing! Marc and I braved the cold to take a walk to see them. Marc managed to get some beautiful pictures.

And then finally the glorious sun returned; several weeks later. For me, that is the hardest part. Going days on end without seeing the sun. Only different shades of grey filling the sky. A grey fog rests over our region, along the lake. It reminds me of the marine layer in Southern California, only much colder of course. For the lucky ones who can escape into the mountains, you are able to climb above the fog to see the sun. One thing is for sure. I definitely don't take the sun for granted, which admittedly I'm fortunate enough to do in California. As soon as any rays of sunshine start to sneak through the grey you move into it and attempt to absorb as much of its warmth as possible. You definitely get out and take a walk! I feel like a cat seeking out the sunny sports in the house and just sitting or laying in it as long as I'm able.

As Marc keeps reminding me. When you live somewhere that has more extreme weather you appreciate the changing seasons much more and learn to love parts of each season that you end-up waiting all year for. I am starting to understand the allure of the snow. But my body is still craving more sun!

P.E. in France

This month the girls got to embark on a very interesting addition to their French schooling experience with some "special" physical education classes.  In the Fall P.E. consisted of walks to the lake or to the park to play games.  As the weather turned colder they walked to the community/activity center to do tumbling and other indoor games. This month they got to add in swimming and skiing!

A very cool thing they do across France is teach the kids how to swim, as part of the school curriculum. Apparently one of the requirements to graduate in France is that you know how to swim. In our Region every school gets 4 weeks of swim lessons, which they rotate through at the local (the only indoor) pool, for all children grades 1st and 2nd (although communities that have access to more pool time extend this all the way to 8th grade).  Every Tuesday and Wednesday morning for the month of January, they bus the children to the pool, conduct the classes, and then bus them back for lunch. Being a swim family, the girls actually already know how to swim, but I LOVE that they make this a priority for all children.  AND a bonus for the girls is that it finally gives them something they can excel at in school!!

Fun obstacles!

Teah showing off her diving skills.

Don't you love how she's rocking the Marlins cap! 

(in case you don't know that's her Papa's swim team back in California)

An interesting side note here is that because it's technically part of P.E. the teachers have to teach the swim class. The lifeguards/swim instructors (Maitre Nageur) at the pool help, but generally the pool never provides enough staff to take over the process.  This is also different from how they run pools in the U.S.  Each pool employs a staff of professional lifeguards that have chosen this as their career. In France it takes about 1000 hours of education to become a lifeguard, compared to about 25 hours in the US. They teach swimming to the local schools in the morning and guard the rest of the day. Some of them also help coach the swim team if they have one at their pool.

After speaking with some of the other parents at the school apparently in the Spring when the weather starts to get nicer again the kids get to walk down to the lake for kayaking for P.E.  Seriously!!  These kids don't even know how lucky they are.

The other pretty amazing thing the girls are getting to do for the winter is learn how to ski. Throughout this Region of France (Le Chablais) the local government offers a subsidized program for elementary school kids to learn how to ski on Wednesday afternoons.  Assuming the snow co-operates the program goes for 12 weeks (January - March).  They get out of school at 11:30, we rush home to eat and change, and then drive back to the community center to catch the giant double-decker bus at 12:15, which takes them up to Morzine (~45 minutes away).  The bus also picks up the kids from another school along the way.  They ski all afternoon and get back to the community center around 6:00pm.

This program, called L'Atel Ski, has been in place for over 50 years! Marc learned to ski with the same organisation....not so long ago. ;-) It costs each child $14 per Wednesday they choose to participate.  This covers their transportation and ski lessons.  In the Fall, L'Atel Ski also offers used gear for a very low price. We bought their ski boots (which we can sell back at the end of the season if we want) and rented their skis and poles for the season, all for ~$50 per kid. Thankfully the cousins had hand-me-down ski clothes and all we were left to purchase were the helmets; thankfully Santa helped us out with that.

Since the girls had never been on skis before (or let's be honest, even real snow) Papa decided they needed to put all their gear on and cruise around on the snowy grass before their first day. 

Totally geared up (literally), name tags on, and ready to board the bus.

Pretty sweet bus, right?!

After 3 Wednesdays of ski school, we can report that Lola is very excited about it; she really loves it. Teah, on the other end is "comme ci comme ca' (so-so). On the plus side, the bus has a TV and they get to watch a movie - nice! - on the minus side, skis and poles are heavy and hard to carry in her little arms, the shoes are super heavy and do not bend like what she is used to. The very first day Teah couldn't keep up with her sister because of the challenge of walking in the shoes and she was separated from her within minutes of arriving. She spent the entire afternoon alone with kids she didn't know and with still only a very basic french. We decided to head up into the mountains again on the weekend to give the girls a little more practice and to see if we couldn't salvage Teah's enthusiasm.

After about an hour of practicing, it was time to play in the amazing soft (seriously, cloud-like) snow. That certainly helped seal the deal for Teah to try it again the next week.

The next time was better. Lola walked slower and stayed with Teah. This time they got to ride up the lift together and actually Teah did so well in her group that she got moved up to Lola's group. Theoretically this was fantastic except now she had to navigate a steeper slope and without having a solid stopping skill yet, kept running into the snow bank.  Lots of convincing this weekend to give it another try this week. Let's just say that this little one is having to grow up really fast, but hey, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? Or at least that's what we keep telling ourselves.

Holiday Festivities

Just to bring everyone up to speed I wanted to share some highlights from our winter break.  Aside from Christmas we were able to enjoy some of the regional traditions during the holiday break. Back home we always spend a day in San Francisco to go ice skating and see all the Christmas decorations. This has become an annual tradition and admittedly I was a bit sad to be missing it this year.  So we decided to go to our closest big city, Geneva, and take in the Christmas sights there.  It was spectacular!!  For the last 3 years, Geneva has hosted a beautiful festival of lights, called Geneva Lux. A display of 17 works of lights by Swiss and International Artists situated throughout the city. Most of them were in and around Old Town Geneva and along the water.  We had a lovely afternoon and evening strolling through town and enjoying the lights.

One of many chocolate shops!  Yummy!!

The "bubble man" let Lola and I take a go at it.

This was actually an 8 minute light show set to music on the front of the Four Seasons. 

Definitely the most impressive of all that we saw.

We ended the evening at Starbucks for coffee and hot chocolate.  This was actually the first Starbucks I had seen since arriving in France last August.  I have to admit it was pretty exciting to see that familiar mermaid logo.  But when we got inside to order our drinks I just had to take a photo of the prices!!!

Seriously?!?!  You know you're in Geneva, Switzerland when your small "classic hot chocolate" costs almost $7.00.  It was a splurge we all enjoyed and won't be doing again anytime soon.

We also got to head up into the mountains to enjoy some ice skating in Morzine with some friends from school.  Was at first going to tackle the outdoor rink but was way too cold so we headed to the indoor rink.

Teah getting her ice skating legs back.  It's been a whole year since we were last on the ice.

Lola skating with Papa and her friend Lison.

Lola with her friends posing for one last shot before packing up the skates and heading to the closest bar for hot chocolates and vin chaud (hot wine)!

November and December have been very dry here so we didn't get to enjoy the snow or do some skiing over the break. Typically this time of year we would have been able to do both.  But apparently this is the driest winter on record for the last 60 years!!  I sort of feel like the drought is following us. For the last 3 years in California we've been living with a drought, we leave and it's been non-stop rain and snow there. We arrive in France and it's been the driest winter in 60 years!  Was starting to feel a bit jinxed but then this last week have seen lots of snow.  Perhaps January and February will still be snow filled.

Another really cool thing we got to do over the holidays was visit Le fabuleux village ou la legende des flottins in Evian.  (click on the link to read more about the village) Evian has been hosting this village for the last 10 years during the holidays. It was originally created as an alternative to the traditional Christmas Markets hosted by different villages throughout the region.  It's totally magical and amazing.  All the "flottins" are made entirely from driftwood and they're placed throughout the entire city.  We had so much fun walking around and exploring all of them.

Some other highlights of the holiday.....finishing a 1000 piece puzzle from Santa with Papa.....and the girls getting their very first haircuts from a salon.  It was Mamie's gift to them plus new dresses for New Year's Eve.

Of course doing the puzzle in our new bear jammies and ear muffs!!

Marc was determined to finish this puzzle before school started.  

Many hours were spent in that corner.

And it happened!  Literally the night before.

Teah was so excited for the hair cut, up until she was actually sitting in that chair.  

Second thoughts?!?!  And don't you just love that hilarious princess cape she's wearing!

Not one smile until it was all said and done.  She was so excited with her new cut that the next morning the first thing she asked me when she woke up was if her hair was still short?  She was afraid it had grown back over night.

Lola on the other hand was definitely more into it.  Big smiles from the beginning.

Finished product...and with "frange" (bangs in French).  Not my choice but she really wanted them, so....who was I to cramp her style.

 And then we got to round everything out with New Year's Eve.  Holy cow!  Another food orgy is all I can say to describe it.  Except this time it was a very late food orgy.  We didn't even start appetizers until 9pm, sat down to dinner around 11pm, took a break to ring in the new year with fireworks and chinese lanters, returned to the table for bread and cheese around 1am, followed by dessert around 2am!!  There are just no words to adequately describe this experience.  Of course the food was amazing, as always.

Appetizers -- oysters and champagne, sushi (that Marc made) and sake
1st Course -- salad with seared salmon
Entree -- lamb tagine with couscous
Bread and Cheese
Dessert -- citrus salad, ice cream buche de noel, and a dark chocolate cake

My sister-in-law outdid herself as always with the table setting!

The girls showing off their new dresses and haircuts.

Once dinner started I guess I was too famished to actually stop and take any photos.  Sorry about that.

Break from the table for Chinese lanterns and fireworks.

The French really do know how to end a meal!!  

Delicious, amazing desserts, which somehow you always magically make room for.

We got to bed at 3:30am and were back at Mamie and Papi's the next day at noon for lunch. Unbelievable!!  On the menu.....Braserade (a traditional Savoie specialty).  Oh boy!!  I have to say sitting down to the table with trays of raw meat staring back at me was not what I had in mind.  I honestly was still full from the night before. The girls reaction was pretty funny too.  As Mamie starts putting chunks of raw meat on their plates they look at me with that shocked expression of "are we seriously about to eat raw meat?!?!" Now of course the intent was not to eat the meat raw.  We were cooking them as we went on the table-top grill.

I ate my share (like any good French daughter-in-law would) and followed it with a lot of salad, then more bread, cheese, and dessert.  Ugh!  At this point I'm not sure the exact culprit but I was literally sick for the next 2 days.  To spare you any graphic details let's just say my body was clearly cleansing. Did I pick up the "gastro" bug that had been going around, did I get food poisoning from the raw meats that were touching my plate, or did I simply eat too much?!  Who knows, but a detox was just the doctor ordered.

Not exactly the image I had for starting off the New Year but here we are.  A New Year!!  With another 6 months to go in France and a lot of unanswered questions still in front of us.  What will this year bring?  At this point I have no idea.  But I can safely say that I'm excited to see what it will be.

Happy New Year everyone!!