The Events of Thursday, March 31, 2011               

                Today was a day of rest. We began by sleeping in. When I did wake up, it was to the delicious smell of baking French toast wafting up from where Daddy was making us breakfast in the kitchen. The room that all four kids are sharing has heavy shutters, making the room very dark and warm, but when Mom came in, she threw open the shutters to wake us up with the bright morning light. And thus, we began our day.

                The French toast that Daddy made us was superb. At the town grocery store, Auchan, the maple syrup was imported from Canada and therefore was extremely expensive. So instead, Daddy had bought apricot and strawberry jam, and honey and had bowls of each warmed up on the table with jars of chunky peanut butter and Nutella to put on top of our special breakfast. After a leisurely breakfast, we took turns in the only shower (that doesn’t have a door or curtain), and had family devotions and quiet times. After about an hour of just laying around and reading, Daddy got restless and invited any of us who were interested to join him in a game of ping pong. Abby and Ben consented and soon were tearing off layers and coming in for water because of their active exercise. Mom joined them a little later and taught them her version of the rules of ping pong.

                Over the course of our waking hours, we each got two hours on the computer to catch up on blogs and e-mails, since our house here in Aubagne has Internet. Lunch was a short meal, consisting only of orange slices, milk, and bread with Nutella, chunky peanut butter, jams, and honey. Afterwards we researched future countries we plan to visit, did some math and other school work, learned our languages, read, and rested the afternoon away. In the middle of the afternoon, our landlord’s son, Clement, who is fifteen just like Ben, returned from school and challenged Ben to a game of ping pong. For the first time in a while, Ben was humbled by the outcome. Clement then took Ben to his part of the house for a friendly game of foosball and Ben came home sweaty and stinky after competing in one of the most popular games here in France. It seems Clement spends a lot of time playing with his foosball table and was able to line up his players just so, spin the rods and score a goal. Ben had an even harder time with this game.

                While Ben was still out playing, Daddy took a walk through the town where we are staying. He walked west into the setting sun. First he stopped by a tourist information center. Here he asked if there were any special events going on this evening. They said no, but kept on looking for something for Daddy to do. Daddy told us later that they were very frustrated with themselves and that they kept on saying, “Two mo’ minute an we fine some-sing for you,” but he came out of the shop empty-handed. Next, he stopped at a library, but couldn’t find any English newspapers, so he headed home.

                We managed to connect with my Grandma and Grandpa (my Daddy’s parents) over Skype despite the nine hour difference between the West Coast and France. Grandma was in their house in Oregon and she was very excited to see us and we had fun catching up together. She has been taking some police courses and recently they have been doing lessons on search and rescue. Her call was interrupted by a call from Grandpa, so we said a quick good-bye and changed lines. Grandpa was in their condo up in Lake Tahoe where there has been a record of 61 feet of snow this winter season. Grandpa told us that there was six feet of snow when he arrived, but the snow had since melted about a foot, so it is only 5 feet deep now. We asked him what time it was and he said, “Very early.” We asked how early and he said, “About half past nine.” Silly Grandpa. He wanted to know all the ‘nonsense’ we had been up to and we had fun catching up with him as well.

                Around dinner time, after changing out of our lounging clothes and into jeans, we hopped into our car and drove to a nearby KFC for the cultural experience. Mom later said that it was an experiment that we will not be trying again anytime in the near future. We could smell the KFC smell all the way in the parking lot. I, being the French translator for our trip, walked up to the counter and asked them if they spoke English. The man shook his head. This was going to be interesting. We ended up pointing out what we wanted on the menu and after about five minutes of chaos and total confusion, he sent us to our table with what might be dinner. After praying, we uncovered the tub of chicken and found it half empty. We thought we had ordered a 12 piece bucket, six crispy and six original. However what we ended up with was a box of mini drumsticks and chicken strips. At least there was eleven of each. But, the chicken pieces were so tiny, that we were somewhat glad for the mistake. The sides of fries and corn on the cob turned out to be hard French fries and short soggy corn chunks. As I said, it was an experiment that we will not be repeating. Mom proposed that we walk over to the grocery store and get some ice cream and then go home for some real veggies and ice cream. We did just that. After trying to figure out what the labels said, we avoided almost buying sugar-free ice cream and drove home with a small tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream. We each got a long carrot for the healthy portion of our dinner and then the ice cream. And that was the most unusual meal I have ever eaten in my life.

                We were going to watch Aristocats in French, but the VCR player didn’t work, so we could only do the activities that we had been doing all day long, pack our suitcases, head to bed, and think up ideas for April Fools’ Day. And we did just that.