First Day of School, Sept 2, 2005

Zoe-Pascale has entered CP (first grade) at the local public school in St. Quentin-la-Poterie. It takes us 5 minutes to walk to school if we don't stop and talk to anyone and 10 or 15 minutes if we do. Her teacher is Mdme Evelyn Faisse and she has 22 kids in her class. There is an additional CP-CM (combination 1st and 2nd grade) class at the school. Zoe-Pascale has been meeting other kids and has met one new friend, Rose and received her first birthday party invitation which is a great sign. The last couple of days it has been raining cats and dogs and has caused flooding. As a result, the school was closed for 2 different days. Babette, the village policewoman (more later on Babette) made sure all the kids got home safely.We are starting to get into a rhythm and especially feel this way as we hired a teenage babysitter who lives down the street (her parents run the best restaurant in town) for every Thursday night and sometimes on weekends. Today (the day school is closed) they are out walking Emilie's dog in the nearby Forest. Secondly, I have found a great French teacher who will come to the house twice a week for two hours each time. I asked her in addition to learning French could she teach me some French recipes and we could talk and learn to cook!! We shall see.As you can see we are focusing on making things easy and simple. Walking to and from school twice a day, a babysitter who can easily walk to and from the house and a French teacher who comes to the house also. We are figuring out the rhthym and trying to remember to keep things simple when possible.Love to you all