...and this time I didn't even listen to the readings or read up on Islam or do anything spiritual to make up for it; I'll have to take some meditative-focus-type time during the week. (It's not so bad, but I am mildly superstitious that I have a bad week when I don't go to Mass.)
La Japonaise Arrive
Yesterday was fairly laid back, being a Sunday. I just managed to haul myself upstairs by noon, so we could go pick up our new arrival, Noriko, at Le Buisson. Considering the fact that I'm travelling to Japan soon and there's a tri-cultural mix about to occur, I was a little uneasy as to what would happen: would we all understand each other and get along well? would I be expected to speak Japanese at some point? would something cultural make the ride awkward for all of us?
Turns out I do take after my mother somewhat, because my worrying was entirely unfounded. Noriko arrived and everyone exchanged bisous--the traditional French cheek-kissing gesture you (probably) all know about--and introductions went briefly and well. An uneventful car-ride later, we'd had a brief chat and discovered that, in fact, Noriko has already been in France for eleven months babysitting in Paris.
Rien à Dire
Which is to say, that I have nothing to say, really. Kelly, Noriko, and I had a nice conversation yesterday after lunch and, all in all, we're getting along pretty well. I feel like I'm speaking enough French now and all that jazz, too, though there'd been a brief slump about a week after my arrival (maybe the end of that "honeymoon phase" Daniel wrote about in his journal).
Japanese accents are a little more interesting in French, and Noriko's keeps throwing me off--I either anticipate Japanese because of the sound quality or I just don't understand at first. This normally happens with short phrases that come out of the blue, fortunately, and not all the time, though I occasionally do a mental double-take when listening to her. The mélange, though, is feeding my linguistic curiosity, which I'd count as good (wouldn't you?).
Today was rainy so we didn't do too much work, though we de-mossed the well and did a little weeding. Kelly and Noriko painted some (new) chairs, and I did some research for Christian and Pascale regarding how they can improve their web-presence. Other than that, we basked in the sunlight during a pleasant conversation this afternoon and enjoyed a great lunch together, too.
Les Personnages - Christian
Christian's nearly sixty, but looks like he's closer to my dad's age. He grew up in Paris, learning to cook there--not only did he work at a few restaurants for his first jobs, but he actually attended a professional cooking school there, too. Sometime in that mispent youth of the late sixties--he and his friend Jacques talked to us about the classic free love generation outlook on youth--he took up photography and he seems to be pretty good at it. Friday his photo club met here at his house in the morning for coffee to plan an exhibition in Sainte-Alvère in August. You might've noticed that I mention him fairly frequently; he's usually our task-master around here, telling us what to do during the day and randomly taking us to the market or to nearby sights.
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I'll try to post with a little more style later this week, but the main thing today was just to get some thoughts down and work on habit-forming (y'know, the good kind?).
A Bientot!
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