The man then shared with me a photo of himself outside an army barracks in Claremont Ferrand. He said he liked to look at the photo of his younger self because of the icicles that lined the eaves of the roof. He told me a story of having to go to the mess hall, returning with a tray of food for himself and others, only to slip on the ice and lose it all. He said he was coming from Germany, where it had been snowing.
At one point I was speaking in English with Cyrus and the man then started to speak to me in German, to which I indicated that I didn't speak german. He then said that since I said "jah" when I was speaking to my kids, that he assumed I was german! I explained that the area of the US that I was from had many german immigrants and this was probably why I naturally said "jah." His response was that he didn't like americans becuase they swallowed their words!
We were met at the train station in Blois by Alain and Helene, my AFS host parents. Alain quickly spotted Griffin's blond hair in the crowd, and we were wisked off to my "sister" Veronique's house, where she lives with her partner Christophe and their 3 children, Alexia, Alize and Alois. Alexia is the same age as Vero was when I lived with her in 1984-85 - very strange!
Today we had an egg hunts at both Vero's house and at Alain and Helene's house, where we had lunch. We were joined there by another of my "sisters", Marilyn, and her fiance Marc and their son Victor. After lunch we headed to a park for some fresh air.
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| Blois - March 2008 |
