Soccer Saturday!

Eric and Inga left early this morning for an all-day tournament in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat . Eric came back mid-day to bring Ivy to her game in Cannes, then they went back to watch Inga's last game. Her team played 5 games and Inga scored 5 goals! Ivy's team lost 2-1 after being ahead 1-0 for all but the last 5 minutes.

I've been getting ready for the upcoming breech retreat next week. The first two guests arrived today and one more is coming this evening (I'm hosting them in the two apartments downstairs).

Zari has her first yacht job tomorrow! It's just one day but still--very exciting. She's helping out on a boat going to/from Saint-Jean and Monaco during the Grand Prix. She was told to wear a standard yachting uniform--skirt and white polo--so we went shopping today. While we were at Decathlon, I also bought her 2 pairs of hiking pants and new running shoes.

She's nervous because she doesn't know what to expect. But the person hiring her knows that she's new and I figure that they'll tell her what she needs to do! It's a fairly small boat and from what she's been told so far, she will mainly be there to greet guests and assist the captain.

My brother left yesterday and is visiting Paris for a few days before he goes home. He's single and available if there are any older men interested 🙂 Every year the goal is to find him a "sexy French boyfriend."

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Violin repair, Ivy is back!

My violin's fingerboard is touching the body of the violin, which is not good! I don't know how long it's been doing it, but the strings are super far away from the fingerboard ("la touche") and I don't remember it being like that last year.

I brought it to a local luthier. He was really puzzled because there's no cracking or loosening that would explain why it's happening. He did find some other areas of the violin that had come unglued, so he fixed that. I have to bring it back after he gets back from vacation to fix the fingerboard issue. It involves a bit of major surgery but he's very good and very affordable.

His shop was stuffed full of violins, violas, cellos, half-made instruments tucked in every shelf or corner, violin cases piled 4 high and 4 deep. And a very cute cat that let me pet it for a bit.

Ivy came back from a week-long "classe verte." Right after getting off the bus, she said, "Can I go back?" She loved it! They had lights out at 9:30 pm with pretty strict rules about going to bed. As a result, she said she slept super well and always woke up spontaneously at 6 am.

I did some sanding and priming in the staircase and got Zari to do a bit as well.

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Last uncle day and a no from the police

My brother leaves tomorrow...our local ice cream shop will miss him. I don't even know how many times he's taken the family out for ice cream! We said that next year we should create a bingo card for all of the flavors at the store (close to 100) and see if we can come close to filling it.

Zari's friend and I made lemon cheesecake today. Zari was going to help but we had some free time while she was at a job interview.

Speaking of which...she got called for an interview for a job working as an assistant to the police (patrolling on bike)...and once she got there, they realized she wasn't a French citizen and were sad to have to tell her no! They were super excited about having someone bilingual and I think they would have given her the job.

So no police career for Zari in France :(

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Storm and sunset

We had a huge thunderstorm roll through this afternoon, making it feel like late evening. I love hearing the rain and thunder with the windows open...

It cleared up in the evening, with a gorgeous sunset. Zari kept stopping to ask me to take pictures. Of course they look even more stunning in real life.

Zari has an interview for a police job she applied for! It would be full-time in July and August, serving as an assistant to the municipal police, patrolling mainly on bike. Hopefully she makes the next cut. It's this Thursday. She's also been doing training for the bike tour company, which at the moment means going on the tours to learn the routes and the scripts.

I've made great progress towards getting German citizenship by declaration, and I've confirmed that my grandmother's case falls within the requirements! I have someone who is helping us fill out all of the applications, which we hope to send off in the next 2 months. This means me and all 4 kids could become German citizens!

When I started taking German in 9th grade, with my classroom name Gitta (a shortened form of my grandmother Brigitta), I never imagined I could actually become German! Thank you to the 2021 amendments to the German Nationality Act (StAG)!

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Classe verte

Ivy left this morning for a week-long trip in the mountains with her school class. It's called "classe verte" (green class). She's rooming with her 3 best friends; they even bought matching pajamas for the trip.

She called me this afternoon during the few minutes of phone time they get every day (from a friend's phone--she doesn't have one): "Hi mama, I wanted to let you know that I'm not dead and I'm having a great time. Okay, I have to go, bye!"

Now that Dio's and Inga's schools have had the "conseil de classe" and given out final grades, very few students keep attending. Dio is going just to his specialty classes plus French. It's a weird system because school doesn't get out until July but essentially learning ends at the end of May, since most students stop going to class as soon as grades are posted. Why don't they either do grades until the end or just actually end school earlier?

I was up early this morning so I went for a run rather than trying to get back to sleep.

Zari got called for the next round of interviews for a job with the municipal police. She's super excited. It would be full-time in July and August and much of it on bike. She's also going to be leading bike tours part-time starting in a few weeks. Not as ideal as having a full-time job right away...but she's making progress.

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