Dear Family and Friends,Another week in France is coming to a close. We are starting to experience winter, such as it is in Provence, with cold mornings, mild days, and dreary skies.
The kids are studying hard at school, particularly in French where they are struggling to catch up after arriving here several weeks after the start of school. Nicolas, Elyse, and Nathaniel are taught in French two full days a week. Their teachers will occasionally slip into English when needed to explain new concepts. Otherwise, Nicolas and Elyse have a standard ciriculum consisting of math, spelling, history, and English and are doing fine.
Julie succeeded in signing up Elyse for violin lessons through the Manosque Conservatory of Music. Though Elyse will receive her weekly instruction from a student, she will meet with the professional instructor at least once a month to check her progress. We are very pleased that Elyse will be able to continue her music education while we are here. Our next challenge will be finding a piano for Nicolas!
After church on Sunday, Joe flew to England for a three-day work trip. He arrived at Gatwick Airport at about six o'clock and picked up his car. Despite all his efforts to prepare mentally for driving on the opposite side of the road, Joe was still surprised to see that the seat belt, gauges, and gear shift were all wrong as well. These things made his two hour drive from the airport to his hotel near Oxford University in the dark that much more interesting.
The next day, Joe took the train into London to attend a meeting. The trip involved taking a fast train into London's Paddington Station, connecting to the London Underground, and hopping a series of subway trains to reach West Kensington. In a somewhat cruel twist of fate, someone had taken all of Joe's maps and other trip materials out of his bag and forgot to put them back. As a result, Joe was able to become very well acquianted with the streets of West Kensington and London Bridge.
Though most of his time was spent working, in meetings, or traveling to and from London, Joe did find a few minutes to explore the town of Oxford. He was able to stroll through the old town and visit some of the famous colleges that have given rise to so many great scholars, poets, authors, and philosophers over the centuries.
A few of Joe's favorite sites were University College, where C.S. Lewis converted to Christianity after becoming friends with fellow "Inkling" J.R.R. Tolkien, and Christ Church, the former home to Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) who incorporated the medows immediately behind the college in his books about Alice.
Once he finished his business Wednesday, Joe returned to the airport to drop off his car and catch his plane. Unfortunately, his check-in took 2 minutes longer than expected and British Airways kindly gave him the option of staying an extra day without compensation. After paying a premium to stay at the airport hotel plus an extra 50 pounds (about 70 dollars) for a 15 minute phone call to let Julie know about his delay, Joe was able to catch the next available flight to Marseille on Thursday morning.
Finally, we have been able to look at several houses for rent and are considering one in particular. While we love our current home, it is somewhat small and doesn't provide the kids with enough room to run around and play. More importantly, we are looking for an unfurnished home to which we could ship some of our goods from Utah.
As always, we are very grateful for your love and support.
Joe, Julie, Nicolas, Elyse, and Nathaniel
University College, Oxford
1 comment:
What an amazing opportunity! I don't think I would be brave enough to do that. You are amazing! Your children will never forget all these experiences you are giving them.
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