Oddyssei: flirting with Jurbise & Soignies

woke up fresh as a daisy at 6:30 with the rest of the family. i'm telling you, don't sleep for two days but for hour-long naps, and jet lag shudders away.

as everyone else had work or school, i wiled away a good part of the day with emails and tried to figure out how the heck we were going to get from Budapest to Istanbul in time for our presentation on the 27th. i'm thinking Budapest to Sofia by train and Sofia to Istanbul by bus, but anything could happen from now until then to change minds.

took Shawn's mountain bike for a spin, which was like a whole 'nother world after riding Bill's bike. when one rides a road bike for years, one forgets the slow hum that accompanies the tread of a mountain bike on pavement or the cushy way it tackles road irregularities. i have to say, i missed Sparky something fierce this afternoon. it's also strange to be without the ram horn handlebars; one feels so upright that it's easy to imagine oneself to be royalty. crouching over ram horns, i tend to feel like i'm trying to outdistance the cars behind me that would sooner run me over, while upright today i felt like i was graciously allowing other cars to use the space to the immediate left of my mobile throne. strange. their house in Mons is just on the borders of Soignies and Jurbise, so i put a few toes and at least one wheel in each of those municipalities on my relatively short ride.

when the rest of the gang got back, we got to hear all about everyone's day, then a small road trip to Mons for dinner. what a swell Grand Place! there is a fountain on one side that gushes straight onto the cobblestones and is collected by storm drains immediately downhill. plenty of road signs with bikes, and even one cameo silver cruiser with ape hangers. we stopped at the Excelsior for brew and salad, though for future reference the Copenhagen is said to have a nice rose wine. before the meal, the Three Musketeers suffered me to read a poem from "Archyology". good times, good times. i seem to remember more French than i thought i knew . . .

back at the home ranch, i started to learn Turkish and to make flashcards while Shawn played WoW (World of Warcraft). Matt let me read him part of his bedtime story, a Terri Pratchett novelette, but i fear we got a little rambunctious about what was supposed to be a bedtime story. i think i've been fired as a post-dusk storyteller.

then Shawn showed me a little treasure of Warcraft culture: the Leeroy Jenkins video on youtube. amazing that there should be so much notoriety and buzz from such a small video. it was hilarious! i don't know how, but the conversation then morphed to teaching. why do politicians try to micromanage the school system? will something similar happen to hospitals if health care is nationalized? from there came the topic of how to keep respect among students and parents, and how to quash potential problems before it starts. we have similar methods, which makes me happy!

Odyssei: LA -> Mons

the flight from LA to Amsterdam was 10 hours with a 3 hour layover to Brussels. i read the last Harry Potter book from start to finish on the flight to Amsterdam and took a nap on the 2nd hop to Brussels as phase 2 of Jet Lag Avoidance.

the customs procedures in Amsterdam and Brussels were completely confusing because there. weren't. any. i took my little bag through "nothing to declare", and that was it. completely anticlimactic.

headed down to the train to Jurbise, and 2 hours after i touched down in Brussels, i was at the train station in Mons. Becc and Shawn had told me to go to the house across the station to call them, but i was wrong as to which house it was the first time and then got too shy to ask any other houses. so i went into town and managed to buy a phonecard in French with the 10 French words i knew and then by coating some Spanish with a French accent. i also learned that Elvis' face was everywhere because it is the 30th anniversary of his death. the things you learn in a Belgian convenience store!

Shawn picked me up at the station and whizzed me to their house in Mons, which is almost as beautiful as Beccy but not quite. Matt just finished his first day of 4th grade, and he recounted his recent exploits while we bounced on his trampoline. Shawn poured a pint (ahem, or two) from the keg in his petit maison-come-private pub, and we rambled and rambled until i completely shut down for about a 12 hour repose at 8pm.

jet lag averted.