I'm a Californian, living in France since 1996, in Alsace since 1999. This originally was a general blog about our family but when I couldn't post pictures, I abandoned it. Now I'm reviving it to recount my Cancer Journey. I was diagnosed on Oct. 22nd, 2013 on a routine check for Breast Cancer.
(2005-2007 covered in http://calgirlinalsace.blogspot.com)
Once again, I've thrown in my services to take yet-another kid's class to the pool. They are hurting for parents who are available in the day and I volunteer out of principal. I love to complain about it but honestly, the kids are cute and it ends up being much better than I expect it to (except for my ears).
This time, we're using the Bains Municipaux (Public baths). Not all kids get to do school swimming in a 102 year old swimming pool!
http://www.ziegelau.com/bains-romains.php
Patiently waiting their turn to go into the water. There is another group before them and they have to wait till all are out of the showers.
These pools need a lot of repairs and the showers don't all work.
I get to help the reds, the weakest group but they're improving.
The teachers explaining things to the reds.
Pool noodles!
Davina sticking out her tongue. She's in the strongest group, the yellows.
We were supposed to go to Geneva for the weekend and we thought the French Championships were the weekend before. Not! So, in an effort to fit it all in, Talia left on Friday afternoon with the club. We left soon after to get to Geneva in time for Friday night services.
Everything was going smoothly. We woke up early on Sunday to drive up to Besançon(we were lucky it happened to be only a couple of hours from Geneva).
Daniel couldn't start the car. Well the valet guys couldn't and then he couldn't and then we were all panicking when the repair people said it would take 1 1/2 hours to get to us...
Finally, with nonstop fiddling, Daniel managed to get the car to turn on. It's a hybrid so it's kind of special and our first. We just took off, sometimes doing 190km on the way.
It was a beautiful drive but no time for photos. We actually made it with a half hour to spare and I did see some of the competition.
Here are the girls ready to start;
These are the professional pictures I took off the Strasbourg GRS website.
Not sure who filmed this but it's on YouTube!
Laurence, the coach, having a chat with them afterwards. She was very pleased.
Getting ready for the awards ceremony.
Lining up to go on.
They announce the winners in order in France apparently. They start with no. 1 so we then had to hope for each spot. They came in third. I knew because of the scores.
Talia after with the trophy.
The crowd is actually three categories all competing the same morning. The other two groups were older (I think they do that on purpose) so not all the girls were competing against them. There were 30 teams though in their category.
Strasbourg had two teams competing and the other team won so they took a podium picture together.
Strasbourg GRS did very well overall. Of the 7 teams that competed in the various categories, they had two golds, two silvers, one bronze (Talia's group) and the remaining two teams came in 6th, which is still a decent showing out of the 30 odd teams in each category.
For those who are curious, this is Thionville, who won;
These are the professional pictures I took off the Strasbourg GRS website.
Getting ready for the awards ceremony. 
Lining up to go on.
They announce the winners in order in France apparently. They start with no. 1 so we then had to hope for each spot. They came in third. I knew because of the scores. 
Talia after with the trophy.
The crowd is actually three categories all competing the same morning. The other two groups were older (I think they do that on purpose) so not all the girls were competing against them. There were 30 teams though in their category. 
Strasbourg had two teams competing and the other team won so they took a podium picture together.
Strasbourg GRS did very well overall. Of the 7 teams that competed in the various categories, they had two golds, two silvers, one bronze (Talia's group) and the remaining two teams came in 6th, which is still a decent showing out of the 30 odd teams in each category. 
