Back Home

Even though one out of two elementary schools were closed, even though I was told not to work last strike, even though this one was supposed to be bigger, I only had one out of 7 teachers striking, so I had a full day of work. It was too bad since Julia was visiting, but there are certainly worse things in the world. No matter what I do, no matter how bad it seems some of my lessons fail, the kids still like me, and there's nothing that cheers you up better on 8:30 on a morning you'd rather not be working than catching in the corner of your eye a little girl doing the fists-clenched elbows-to-the waist "Yes!" motion when she sees you walk into the room, or to have a classful of kids say "awwwwwww" when they find out that because of rescheduling, they are having science class with another guest teacher instead of English class that week.

Last Saturday I went to Villeneuve-les-Avignon, a city established across the river from Avignon by France to monitor that city when it was the seat of the Pope. Much of Provence belonged to the Pope during the middle ages, and when their was unrest in Italy, the Papal seat was moved for a time to Avignon. Villeneuve has a fort inside of which is an abbey with beautiful gardens. Despite unseasonable below-freezing temperatures, Robyn (an assistant in Avignon) and I decided we would go see the Gardens and spend the day outside. The first picture is of snails on the railing of the bridge between Avignon and Villeneuve-les-Avignon. It was about as cold as it gets all year that day and I bet that was the warmest place they could find. The picture of me was taken in Villeneuve, with Avignon in the background. The rest are in the gardens of the abbey within the fort.