Sunday 29 December 2013

DPP 28: No Lake Like Home

We arrived home late yesterday evening, with a car full of gifts and games, wrapping paper and gift bags, treasures and trinkets, and candy and cheese (oh, so much lovely cheese!). We also ended up with eight pounds of blackberries, courtesy of a sale we stumbled across in Meijer that was too good to pass up, and a wide variety of odd objects discovered at various flea markets on our meandering journey home. We spent two days driving home, setting a leisurely pace that allowed for the acquisition of various odds and ends and a few pauses for milkshakes and sightseeing.

This was one of our last stops, past the Tennessee border, near a town called Bean Station:

We are home again, and the clock is ticking before the spring semester begins. I will shortly find myself buried in grading and parental queries and disciplinary issues and other delights of secondary education. I am not exactly looking forward to this, but at least we have a home, and we are together, and there are pretty things to look at if we drive away from our home for an hour or two.

[Belated] DPP 23 & 24: Silent Lights

I. and I spent not quite a week with his family up North, enjoying time with both close family members and some cousins and aunts and uncles. We helped decorate his mother's house for Christmas, attended two beautiful Christmas Eve services, and ate a lot of food.
On Christmas Eve, between our two services, we took some time to walk around the neighbourhood and look at the pretty lights (accompanied by one of his lovely cousins). Some people go to such great effort! Above is one of the yards I liked the best, in part because it is mostly white (I have a particular fondness for white lights).

Sunday 22 December 2013

DPP 22: Star of Light

Tree-trimming this afternoon with my husband and mother-in-law. They have a lot of ornaments--but they are all very lovely. This was one of my favourites.

Saturday 21 December 2013

[Belated] DPP 21: The Shiniest Gifts of All

About a week before Christmas, my ninth-graders asked me what I wanted for Christmas.

"I'd like you all to turn in all your work, on time, completed to the best of your abilities, every day for a week," replied I.

"That seems like a lot to ask," said one young lady, and the room filled with giggles and murmurs of assent.

"What about your birthday?" asked another?

"Two weeks!" I suggested, and they laughed. I received many gilt packages this week (and they are beautiful!). I expect this means that they will not be attempting the Great Homework Gift. Alas!


Friday 20 December 2013

[Belated] DPP 20: No Place Like a Bookstore

To celebrate the end of the semester, we spent Friday evening in Knoxville at a wonderful used book store. My previous trip there took place on a rainy evening, so I missed the "Free Books" bin that the store keeps out front; into this space people will deposit unwanted books that the store will not accept. I retrieved a great selection from the bin on this trip, and we finished the last of our Christams shopping as well. The people silhouetted in the bottom right are all enjoying the "Free Books" bin, which has a very rapid turnover rate.

Thursday 19 December 2013

DPP 19: Let's eat Cake; let's eat cake; let's eat cake.

Today one of the mothers of one of my wonderful eleventh-graders baked cakes (two of them) and suggested that I take the remnants home (on account of a looming anniversary of my own nativity). She made it with all the things I like best (strawberries, mint, whipped cream, and angel food cake). It was delicious.
Last exam tomorrow!

Wednesday 18 December 2013

DPP 18: Red Sky at Night

The sky was beautiful tonight as we headed home.
In other news, I've now given three quarters of my midterm exams. The end is in sight!

Tuesday 17 December 2013

DPP 17: Moon over Shadowed Hillsides

Yesterday's work day ended with the moonrise; today's began just as that same moon was setting (behind the hill in our backyard).

Monday 16 December 2013

DPP 16: Hello, Moon!

Today as we drove the last mile towards our home, we watched the moon rise through striations of clouds and fog above nearby houses. It was beautiful.

Sunday 15 December 2013

DPP 15: Careers Play

This month, my husband and I have been trying to spend some time together that doesn't involve screens. Instead, we've resorted to the old-fashioned version of quality time: board games. In particular, I. has shown a fondness for Careers, which I've loved since childhood. Players establish goals (like priorities) in three areas: money, fame, and happiness, and then move around the board (and in and out of various careers) collecting money (straightfoward), fame (stars), and happiness (hearts). The goal of the game is to meet one's initial goal in all three categories, but we also have a lot of fun reading out the descriptions on each square.


Yesterday, my short jaunt in the Hollywood corner was my downfall: the square in focus in this photograph (just to the left of the "H") reads "Scandal . . . score 10 [fame points], but lose ALL your Happiness." We thought it was rather apt. 

Saturday 14 December 2013

DPP 14: Blue Christmas Tree

This weekend we attended a Living Christmas Tree programme presented by one of out local Baptist churches. I. and I have both enjoyed participating in a Singing Christmas Tree in our high school and college years (respectively), but this was the first one we've ever seen indoors. It stretched almost to the very top of the sanctuary and was filled with several dozen singers. (My photo does not do it justice).

Here's part of the tree during the overture/light show.

Friday 13 December 2013

DPP Day 13: I See a Blue Christmas (Stage) Without You

Tonight my school held their annual Christmas concert. The whole lower school was involved, as well as six of my upper-school students, and two of my colleagues performed a very well-done skit. This shot was taken during the prelude, as we waited for the first choir to come onstage.

Thursday 12 December 2013

[Belated] DPP Day 12: Timeless Classics

My eleventh grade has been reading several nineteenth-century classics this term, including Jane Eyre and Walden. I was slightly surprised earlier this semester when I learned they couldn't name a single historical event from the Victorian Era (or its American equivalent), so we spent two days creating a giant colourful timeline for our classroom wall. 
I have no idea what I did yesterday, but I am fairly sure it involved going to school and going home late in a state of exhaustion. Apologies for the missed post.

Wednesday 11 December 2013

DPP Day 11: Sky at Night, Clouds at Night

Today, in a special turn of events, we managed to leave school before the sun had finished setting. We enjoyed seeing some amazing clouds in the parking lot at school, watched the mountains turn purple in the distance (beneath those same clouds) as we finished the commute, and were rewarded with a brilliant cluster of pink over a distant hill just as we parked in the driveway.

Tuesday 10 December 2013

DPP Day 10: Too Cool to Skip School

Though I paused for a few meals today, I've essentially been grading essays and quizzes; designing tests, projects, and learning objectives; and teaching classes or attending meetings for sixteen hours. I started at 4.00 this morning and left school (after a meeting with the Board) at 20.00. This is unusually late for my current school, though I've endured much worse at my other schools.

All that to say that I've not had time for artistic insights, and today's photos reflect not clever images or beautiful scenery, but two of the most essential research tools in my classroom: my decades-old encyclopedias (the first encyclopedias some of my students have ever held in their hands) and my secondhand dictionaries (used almost every day, though the print is atrocious).



Aesthetically insignificant, but essential to my daily sanity, these are.

Monday 9 December 2013

DPP Day 9: (Half) Night In

Tonight my spouse and I finally settled down to watch a film we've both been wanting to see for a good long time. It was cozy and the film was lovely . . . and then I became excessively weary and we decided the adventures of Spock and co. might be best spread over two nights, to facilitate attentiveness at work tomorrow.
The nights of movie marathons that begin at midnight are over. In retrospect, and considering my comfortable mattress, I'm not sure I mind quite as much as I'm supposed to mind.

Sunday 8 December 2013

DPP Day 8: Egg Noggin

My husband has many gifts, among which are several impressive culinary skills. Tonight he treated me to two glasses of delicious, homemade eggnog.


I am spoiled and delighted.

Saturday 7 December 2013

DPP Day 7: O! (or Yo!) Tree

Today my most excellent spouse, as a treat, bought me American cookies, and I enjoyed them.


I also stacked them on the piano to take a photograph, which is not exactly my usual response to cookies. However, they were delicious. Mint oreo cookies may actually be a fair trade for dark chocolate digestive biscuits.

[Belated] DPP Day 6: Q are you?

I wasn't going to post for yesterday, because although I took a lot of photographs, they all had small children in them, and I don't like to post photographs of other people's children on the internet.

Looking over my photographs, however, I found a crop that would preserve privacy while still allowing my blog viewers to enjoy the a fragment of the charm.

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the annual Wedding of Q and U. It is one of the major events on our school's calendar in the weeks leading up to Christmas, and featured a small kindergartner in the tiniest tuxedo ever seen playing Q opposite a beautiful small kindergartner playing U. U was walked down the entire hallway of the school by her father, the other kindergartners served as attendants, and the letters were joined under a flowered archway.

Here's Q's black tie and boutonniere:


Our headmaster read the vows, which included, of course, a quirky collection of relevant vocabulary words. No one from Qatar was invited.

Thursday 5 December 2013

DPP Day 5: Light Path to Laughter

I was so weary last night. We arrived home at 5 p.m. and I sat and waited for my evening event, which was a Womens' Fellowship dinner at church. I very seriously considered skipping the fellowship in favour of going to bed early, but I went.

The path to the Fellowship Hall was lined with candles in large jars (not quite luminaria, but they looked the same from a distance). At first I thought the tealights were taped to the tops of the jars, but they actually just put a single taper candle into each jar and let them burn down over the course of the evening.


In all our travels, I. and I. have been particularly blessed by God's providence in giving us numerous and wonderful church homes, and our current church is no exception. A night of laughter and prayer was exactly what I needed last night.

God is good. (Also, Lutherans do White Elephant exchanges like none I have ever before seen. Fascinating).

Wednesday 4 December 2013

DPP Day 4: Reading and Weeding

Our school library is pretty small, and currently filled more with donations from well-meaning parents than classics that children could read. Lately I've been making small ripples that might have long-term benefits, such as convincing the librarians that we don't actually need to keep books on being a good Christian wife in the Young Adults section.

This week, in anticipation of soome new acquisitions, I took photographs of our current stock. There's nothing especially signficant about this pile, except that it looked pretty (and colourful!) and I am actually very pleased that, of all the editions of The Hobbit available, we have The Annotated Hobbit in our school library.

Tuesday 3 December 2013

DPP Day 3: Two Pretty Things

For all the other ways in which I am sometimes frustrated by life here, we have been very fortunate to have a place to live--both broadly and specifically--that is very pretty, especially at sunset.

Here's a small fraction of tonight's sunset:


Recently I've been discovering tricks of Spotify, which I thought had an absurdly low number of foreign-language songs until I discovered how to search for them.

Zbigniew Preisner has long been one of my favourite musicians (I deeply love his Requiem for my Friend album), but I've just found his Christmas album Moje Koledy, and his version of the "Koleda dla Piotr" ("Carol for Peter") is breathtaking. (Also, foreign-melody Christmas music feels so much less trite than the American tunes that have been blaring in stores since All Saints' Day).

Monday 2 December 2013

DPP Day 2: Shifting into the Season

A long-awaited treat from Britain arrived today in the mail:
Though I very much enjoyed Wool, the first [five] book[s] in the series [collected into one volume], I am reminded by my excellent spouse that there is abundant profanity in the collection, and there are two scenes of adult nature.

Sunday 1 December 2013

DPP Day 1: Not Much to Show

Though Tennessee does have some very lovely outdoor features, today I was stuck indoors with the last of my Thanksgiving cold. I rested a great deal and graded a little, but I had energy for almost nothing that required effort or creativity, hence I present this rather helf-hearted attempt at a first photo:
I'm now off to sleep off the last of my sniffles.

Friday 29 November 2013

Past Days

One year ago, I lived in beautiful Sheffield, a city of rolling hills (miserable to walk upon) and frequent outbursts of snow and rain. Although I miss it more than I could express in words, I am thankful for the months we spent in Sheffield. 

Two years ago, we lived in beautiful Edinburgh, a city of bustle and history, filled with abundant, delightful pubs and the most wonderful international food selection I have ever had at my disposal for an entire academic year. Edinburgh is home to our extended church family, a thousand walking and cycle paths (each with their own charms and challenges) and two beautiful and amazing academic libraries. I am so grateful that we were able to live in Edinburgh.

Three years ago, we lived in St Andrews, a location in which I spent the very happiest year of my life, and a place that is home to some of the academics who have changed my life in wonderful ways. I am thankful for the not-quite-three years I was able to spend in such a beautiful and wild place.

Five years ago, I. and I (then unmarried!) celebrated our second Thanksgiving together with dear friends and members of our church family in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I am thankful that Isaac did not wait another year (from then) to propose, and that we were able to have a year together with such wonderful friends.

Ten years ago, I celebrated Thanksgiving with my adopted brother C. and his family, who provided a home away from home in the midst of the bustle of final exams and last-minute projects. I am grateful for all my longsuffering college friends, and for the three wonderful years I enjoyed within that community.

Below is my current home, or (rather) an image of the view from our back door at the prettiest moment possible. I have captured Tennessee, here, on a pretty day: one on which I was a little more relaxed and on which we were graced with weather that was not sweltering.

Tennessee is pretty, but I am weary. I can do very little about the weariness, but I am determined to focus, at least in part, on the beauty. Therefore, for the third time, I have enrolled myself in the December Photo Project, and I think Tennessee may make a decent subject.

December Photo Project 2013

Saturday 21 September 2013

Tentative thoughts on Tennessee

It's pretty here. Tennessee boasts some beautiful mountains, and the drive to school in the morning--even though we haven't found a way to avoid driving through construction--is typically stunning. The mists in the morning (after which the 'Smoky' mountains are named) are pleasant, and the colours in the sky are muted hues of the most elegant and somber blues imaginable.

Five weeks after our whirlwind departure from Maryland, I thought I had a strong enough grasp upon life (and my grading load) to start appreciating our new locale, so, last weekend, I. and I ventured forth on our first Tennessee hike. Many of my new colleagues are fond of hiking, so they were happy to recommend easy but beautiful hikes that would get us back into shape; the first of these was Hen Wallow Falls. The hike itself wasn't particularly lovely, but the falls were pretty, and it was nice to enjoy the great outdoors.


As you can see, it's not fall here yet; the days are still sweltering and the humidity is frequently oppressive. The air conditioning in my classroom has been broken for the past three weeks, so I have been struggling through the weather and praying desperately for crisp fall mornings and cool fall nights. In the meantime, though miserable for breathing and walking and driving and even sitting outdoors, I must admit that Tennessee is beautiful, and I look forward to enjoying the autumn colours once summer departs.

Sunday 25 August 2013

(Overly) Warm, (Pleasantly) Welcoming Warszawa

In December of 2004, I set foot on the island of Britain for the first time, and was entranced as a reader.

In September of 2007, I set foot on the island of Britain and made it my home.

I spent so much of this spring waiting for God to work a miracle so that I. and I could stay in that country that we had made our home, but when it became apparent that this was not to be, I began planning the most glorious final hurrah I could imagine for our final weeks in Europe. Britain was determined that we leave their shores by the traditional anniversary of American independence from Britain (by this I mean the fourth rather than the second of July) so we went to my new favourite country for a three-tiered holiday intended, nebulously, for "getting healthy."

We began in Warszawa, in a hostel on the fourth floor of a stately old building with the most enormous stairs conceivable. Most of our stay in the capitol city of Poland was spent eating and drinking (because "getting healthy" requires rest and relaxation).


(Above: I. consults a map at one of the sidewalk cafes we visited on our first afternoon in Warszawa)
(Below: I. with his own cone of what was possibly the most disappointing ice cream I have ever had in Poland, in part because despite its rather significant volume, the middle was hollow!)


We had goulash at this restaurant one night. Although they had indoor seating, this photo was actually taken from our dinner table.

This building is called the "Palace of Culture and Science." We've neve been inside, but it is one of the big Warszawa landmarks.

We began our Poland trip in Warszawa this time for two reasons. First of all, the plane tickets were delightfully inexpensive. At the same time, having had only an hour to see Lazieniki Park and the Palace on the Water on our last trip (and in the dead of winter) I particularly wanted to spend a day wandering around the park and showing I. (who was already back in Britain for my Lazieniki dash) its splendors.

We had a very happy afternoon in the park, though we walked less than I had planned because it was ridiculously and miserably hot for our entire two days in Warszawa.

I. was able to see his first peacock up close!

There were several peacocks in the park, and they kept up a rousing discourse with one another from various sides of the lake.

Eventually, we found a bench and stopped to enjoy the view for a while. It was quite tolerable:


One of the big plans for this trip was to hike the Tatras mountains in Southern Poland, so we spent only two days in Warszawa before hopping on a train to the mountain city of Zakopane. And, in the interest of drawing out our final hurrah for as long as possible, I shall save the Zakopane photos for our next post.

Wednesday 21 August 2013

On the Move Again . . .

At the end of July, I. and I settled down to a new regime. Living in my parents' (lovely and spacious) attic, we began sending out dozens of applications (about five a day apiece) to jobs in locations all over the United States. When I finished my five applications early in the day, I blogged (hence why August has been a semi- productive blogging month) and scouted for more jobs to which I might apply the following day. I looked at a number of retail posts, while my charming husband focused on jobs in the tutoring and teaching industries. We had phone interviews, Skype interviews, and recorded video interviews, and I was offered an in-person interview for a temporary job in upstate New York, although eventually that one.

Late one Tuesday night, I tossed out a random application to a small Christian school in rural Tennessee. I had such difficulty finding a correct email address on the website that I didn't even bother to list this job on my running database of applications. On Wednesday morning, the headmaster called to arrange a Skype interview (always exciting on my parents' rural internet connection), and then two more, and at half-past four on Wednesday afternoon, he offered me the job. I. and I threw some clothes into a suitcase, grabbed our laptops and toiletries, and were off! I had my first social engagament as a member of staff on Thursday evening, and began teaching the following Monday.

In the last two weeks, we have found a house to rent, bought our first grown-up appliances, and started church shopping. My amazing husband actually hooked up our dryer all by himself (which is, I think, the most complicated mechanical task either of us has ever accomplished) and I have spent most of my days trying to wrap my head around last year's syllabi and trying to create a strategy for teaching students with a very wide range of skills and abilities. Everything about the last two weeks has been a bit of a surprise, but God's hand has been evident in every step we have taken so far. (Moving to rural Tennessee has still been a bit of a culture shock).

As we await an opportunity to pack and ship or transport our belongings, we have been relying heavily on the generosity of my new colleagues and other members of the school's community. Southern hospitality has come out in full force lately, and we are benefitting from a colleague's air mattress, a table and chairs belonging to another colleague and her college-age child, and the advice of dozens of friendly and well-intentioned families. I originally worried that our adventires would dwindle away when we moved back to the United States, but my fears, so far, have been unfounded. 

Last week, I asked my students to introduce me to the area by recommending a place I should visit once I had a bit of spare time. After some protestations that there is "nothing to do around here," they eventually suggested a very wide range of stores, parks, and other destinations, most of which I am looking forward to seeing with my own eyes very much.

Given that I am trying to catch up on a lot of prep work, I've not yet been to any of my students' recommended destinations. However, for simple beauty, our backyard isn't bad. This is the view from the back patio:


The front porch sports a decent view in the mornings, as well:

More later!

Saturday 10 August 2013

C'est la Heatwave

Last autumn, possibly before I even applied to my Sheffield post, I wrote proposals for a short assortment of conferences, mostly in North America and one in France. I've never been all that interested in going to France (though I enjoyed my day trip to Calais a few years ago, that was in large part due to the company and the eclairs) and, indeed, was not particularly excited about the location of this conference. I may have been one of the only people who applied to this conference in spite of (rather than because of) its location in Montpellier, only a few miles from the Mediterranean Sea.

My ever-patient husband, who listened to a litany of anti-France grumblings for at least a month, would have loved to have spent four days in sunny Montpellier, basking in the heat and enjoying the coffee. (I did, at least, enjoy the coffee). Originally I had invited him to come along, but the School of English funding petered out a bit at the end of the year (and I waited a bit too long to book my travel) so I used up I.'s travel money on my own travel.

In a blog post that showed growth and maturity, the previous paragraphs would then be followed by a paragraph explaining that my bias against France was unwarranted, that I now love France, and that I had a wonderful time. It's more fair to say that I enjoyed the conference in spite of the location, and that the coffee, cheese, and colleagues actually made up for the exhaustive and incessant heat in a land that has clearly never even considered the idea of refrigerated air. It was also, as I think the photographs will show, actually quite beautiful whenever I wiped away enough sweat to allow myself to see the scenery.

(I whine about heat a lot, but during my trip, I actually spent four consecutive days sweating constantly, even when taking ice-cold showers. I had planned for this somewhat by bringing an assortment of sleeveless dresses, which I peeled off at the end of each day and let dry overnight before shoving their stiffened forms into a plastic bag in my suitcase, but it was pretty awful).

At most academic conferences, attendees can usually choose to attend various seminars (or discussions between people who have already read one another's work) or panels (where the panel members read papers aloud and then invite general questions and discussion) that often run concurrently. (This conference was primarily built around seminars.) Almost every conference I've ever attended (including this one) has also had several sessions called "plenaries," in which invited guests give lectures (or read papers) to the majority of the delegates, with no other scheduled items on the schedule. Our plenaries were held in the oldest Theatre of Medicine in Europe.


The acoustics were occasionally challenging, but the setting was pretty stunning. I stayed a bit outside the city, so I took the tram to the School of Medicine each morning, and the following two photos show two parts of my walk from the tram stop to the Theatre (you can see the tram tracks at the bottom of the first picture).



In the above picture, one would turn left near the stoplight to go to the medical theatre, but on the right side of the street was a lovely large botanical garden originally designed to supplement the scholarly work being done in the School of Medicine.

One of the most amazing things about this conference were the coffee breaks, in which the university supplied copious amounts of espresso and little baby pain au chocolats or croissants. We had long breaks (allowing lots of time for networking) and enormously long lunch breaks (necessary in Montpellier, we learned). On one of the first afternoons of the conference, I also took a long lunch to re-read all the papers for my seminar, accompanied by a very delicious cup of espresso that, like most things in Montpellier, cost far more than I had anticipated. It was nevertheless very delicious (also, to be fair, like most things in Montpellier).


My seminar was easily the best thing about the conference, but given the relaxed nature of our schedule, I also took some time to wander around the city, something I don't always manage to do on academic trips. On one lazy afternoon, I meandered to the aforementioned botanical gardens, which were not only beautiful, but also filled with quite a lot of other conferencegoers.

The gardens were stunning (and also really hot).



I really loved this flower, though I don't now recall what it was called:


One of my favourite parts of the botanical gardens was the very large bamboo garden, around the edge of which were many stalks on which people had carved their names and initials.


I took this picture of cacti for Isaac; the shadows are funny because the cacti were kept in a greenhouse (in case it got too hot in Montpellier, perhaps?)





This cat was supremely friendly, and each time I stopped down to try to take a photograph of her, she would exuberantly scamper towards me and try to wind herself around my ankles. I mostly evaded her, and eventually managed to take a photo from some distance.

I also spent one afternoon skiving the conference sessions and wandering around the city centre for a bit. Montpellier seems to have been built upon a hill initially, and that hill is now a warren of alleys and squares, most of which are lined with shops and cafes.


(I had lunch in this square one night, and my seminar group had dinner down a little alley from it one evening as well).

By far, one of the best features of Montpellier were the grocery stores and markets selling probably hundreds of differing types of cheese. On my last night in Montpellier, I played recluse and treated myself to a round of brie and a bottle of wine (only to find that my little French apartment with a kitchen hadn't stocked a bottle opener!).


My skiving afternoon took me to some very beautiful locations. The two fountains below are at opposite ends of an enormous pedestrian walkway, which is shown more clearly in the third photo. Many parts of this walkway are lined with cafes and shops, and it begins at an enormous shopping mall just at the edge of the city centre and ends at a little canal with a cluster of internationally-themed restaurants.




The palm-tree-lined street below is on the south side of the city centre, I think. 


These two photographs show two parts of the square in front of one of the large Montpellier theatres (the Commedia, perhaps?). The theatre is the building at the top of the first photo. Apparently lots of people like to sit on the steps and drink, which--although the entire square is more or less surrounded by outdoor cafes serving alcohol--seems to be frowned upon by the authorities.



The above photo is almost the view from the theatre's front steps (not quite, as they were covered by a pop-up cafe). There's a tram stop at the right side of this photo.

On my last evening, I briefly considered going to the sea just to say I had been, but eventually elected to stay in my flat and unwind. Someday, God willing, I. and I will go to the Mediterranean together, and see it for the first time in one another's company.

Perhaps because of the conference and the apparently enormous popularity of southern France, flights to Montpellier were excruciatingly expensive during the dates I required, so I elected to make this trip entirely via train. It was my first trip on the Eurostar, and also required two confusing (and fast-paced) connections in Paris. I appreciated getting to see this staple of American-films-set-in-Europe with my own eyes:


I don't think I'd ever realised until this trip that the flipping board is actually real, and modern. I tried to take the photo while the destinations were switching, but it isn't quite as exciting in this static capture as it was in person. (Also, it only flips every five or ten minutes--or every time a train departs--which is decidedly misrepresented in American films, in which it seems to be in constant motion).

By far, the best part of the travel was getting to take my first double-decker train from Paris to Montpellier, which involved getting to see the Pyrenees. Although French, they were actually very lovely.





After I arrived safely back in Sheffield, I had a day to finish wrapping up things at the University, spent another day transcribing at Chatsworth, and then I. and I spent two days absolutely crazed with packing and cleaning. Despite a somewhat crazed last-ditch attempt to give away all our worldly possessions on freecycle, we managed to shove twelve suitcases into a storage unit, and then treated ourselves to a wonderful final hurrah in Poland (coming in the next blog installment).