Talia's excursion to Xronupt

Yes! Our Talia is back!! She had a great time. 

We were supposed to give the kids disposable cameras. I found this kind of expensive, since my kids will take really silly stuff and I didn't want to pay for it. A better solution was to give Talia my old camera, which often doesn't focus. I figured that this would not be a big deal and instructed her to take multiple photos of each scene. If she lost it, then it wouldn't be a big deal. I gave her a 2gb memory card and fully charged it before leaving.

Thank goodness they had good weather. I'd see the other parents at school during the week (those who had siblings and I know) and we'd be all smiling, looking up. It's kind of a cliché that you send your kid away on something like this and it does nothing but rain. 

There was a meeting a few weeks prior. We parents were very pleased with the look of the site and they seemed very organized. We were well assured that they could handle these kids in bad weather or whatever. 

We're lucky the Vosges are so close. It allows the kids to go on excursions like this, not so far away but a change of atmosphere, from the Big City.

Here were her digs, Monday through Friday.

They had a sink in the room but only three showers for everyone. They were restricted to 5 minutes each. This is not ideal with Talia's hair and the result was... she didn't wash hers' the whole time! It seemed to bother me more than her. 

She shared her room with two other girls. Yousera's parents (the one in pink on the left) are from Algeria and Kenza's parents are from Morocco. Kenza lives down the street from us and is also attending St. Jean for the bilingual program. Yousera's two brothers are also in the program, going to two schools close by.

This is Andrea, whom I don't know!

This little girl Syrine has a little sister in Davina's class. She's also North African background. She's very curious about me, the English, etc. and keeps coming up to me, asking questions.

Being American, I overpacked. They said three pairs of pants. I packed 5 plus sweats. Kenza ended up borrowing a few things she had forgotten, this purple jacket as well. 

The only scenery picture she took! 

Outdoor games of some sort.

They did circus school and climbing. Also dance, theater and some other activities. 

Usually these excusions have some kind of dance night. 

The whole hair deal was a challenge. She basically came off the bus with a rat's nest. She could only put it in a pony tail or let it loose.

Here are Yassine and Cesar. I put the funny video of them. Yassine's mom is Alsatian and his dad Algerian, and he's one of four boys! 

The return was a big chaotic. They said 5pm, then 5:30, then 6 and finally it was 6:40. Ronnie's judo class got somehow overlooked. Daniel, by coincidence, arrived at almost the same time so I picked him up from the train station (he had been in Paris for the day).