The do not eat list...

When you go to France, do not eat Andouillette de Troyes.

The end.

- Pondhopper

The woman at the Wall....

Several weeks ago, I took a group of students on a walking tour of a section of Paris known as the Marais. Since the Marais is the third oldest section of Paris, it follows that it would also have a wealth of history. This tour started out like all other walking tours that I do in the Marais: Quick discussion about the Marais and how it was changed from a swamp into a living area by the Knights Templar, a discussion about Space Invaders, a history about the strong Jewish population, and a walk past the Memorial de Shoah (the holocaust museum).

Upon arrival at Shoah, I noticed that there was a very old woman sitting on the stoop of the Boy’s school just across from the memorial. At first, I didn’t think anything of it since the Marais is filled with the homeless and infirm. However, after a few minutes of talking about Shoah, I started to translate a placard located on the wall of the school just above the woman. The placard marks the history of the Boy’s and Girl’s schools of the Marais where, in 2 days, 400 children were deported to various camps in the east and exterminated. During my translation, the old woman started to speak very loudly at me. It was not as if she was yelling at me, but as older people with hearing problems sometimes do. Naturally, I stopped explaining the placard and tried to understand what she was saying, but it was very, very, difficult to understand.

At this point, the kids had a very confused look on their face and I was struggling to find the words to explain what was going on. As I was turning to explain to the kids that this lady was most likely homeless and a little crazy, a woman in her mid forties ran up to us saying, “Mom! Mom! Let the man do his job he is teaching these kids!” Then it all made since. This lady was just waiting for her daughter at the step because she could not make it down the alley to the bakery. Most likely, she lived around the area and was just out for a walk to get her daily bread.

After the younger woman reached us, she apologized profusely for her mother’s actions and asked me what I was doing. I explained that I was taking the kids on a walking tour of the Marais and that they were American students spending some time in France. As soon as I said “American students”, the mother exploded into cries of “Thank you, Thank you, my children!” Now I was extremely confused and convinced that this lady was a little unstable. Her daughter, most likely seeing the confusion painted across our faces calmly explained that this lady was a resistance fighter during the war.

Jackpot!

This usually benign tour had immediately become ten thousand times more interesting and a huge opportunity for the kids to talk to one of the only surviving French resistance fighters in the world. But that wasn’t all.

After I got the ridiculous grin of surprise off of my face, I turned to the woman and started asking her questions. This was like turning of a flood gate of memories for the lady. It was very difficult for me to understand what she said at first, but after I got past the aged accent it made sense. Her story was this:

In 1940, she was a 21 year old Jewess living in the Marais quarter of Paris. Initially, when the Nazi’s began to occupy Paris, the Jews in the quarter were content with obeying the ever growing restrictions on their rights and believed fully that the Vichy Government would not let them be deported because, after all, they were French.

Finally, when it was declared that the Jews had to wear the Star of David and were unable to leave there various quarters, it was too late. Early one morning, she awoke to the sounds of children yelling in the street beneath her apartment. She said that she was used to hearing these sounds because the schools for the elementary age children were just beneath her window. However, this morning the cries were different. When she got up to see what was happening, she said that the police and German officers were loading the young children into the backs of large trucks and taking them away. The officers were telling the children that they were going to join their parents in a new home outside of Paris. These children were being deported to the concentration camps in the east and she informed us that their parents were arrested later that afternoon when they came to pick up their children from school.

Her eyes were filled with tears after telling this part of the story and she had to take a minute to steady herself in order to continue. After 70 years the wounds were obviously still fresh.

Immediately that afternoon, she began conversing with various people in the Marais that were known to be in touch with the French resistance in “Free France” in the south, and with de Gaulle in England. She became a courier for the resistance and managed to survive the mass deportations from the Marais by, and this shocked me, befriending German officers and hiding in their basement.

Apparently, two German officers who had fought in the first World War hid her in their basement and aided in her sending messages because they were fiercely opposed to the Nazi’s. In fact, their names were enshrined on the Wall of the Righteous (a list of people who sheltered and saved Jews in France), just behind where this lady was telling me this story. Finally, she ended the story by telling us how she lived in the basement of an apartment for 4 years, risking death every day until Paris was liberated. She then went on to marry a fellow fighter and have 9 children, 21 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren.

I’m sure I had this ridiculous look on my face and then tried in vain to transmit to the kids how I was feeling and how important this woman was. I’m not sure if I got it across substantially because of my own shock, but I hope I did. It’s amazing to hear those stories and they are getting rarer every day. Its times like these that remind me how much I love this job and remind me how blessed I am to hear these stories.

- Pondhopper.

The last few weeks...

Sitting in airports is always an interesting way to pass some time. Currently, my “home” on the go is the Frankfurt Main airport in the wonderful, candy gumdrop filled world of Deutschland or “Germany” for those of you who don’t sprechen the Deutsch. This particular visit to “Germany” was very interesting for a number of reasons that I will choose not to delve into at this juncture but will hold until the end of the post so that you, the cherished reader, can tensely wait with baited breathe my musings on the subject. But for the moment, I will fill you in on the last several weeks of shenanigans, tomfoolery, and bally-hoo.

Immediately after my last post, I met my group of kids from the U.S. who had decided to embark on the Paris and Paris Language trips. Earlier, I had talked with my friend/coworker Phil about what we needed to tackle with this group of kids. First and foremost on our minds was a 13 year old boy named Jerry who, by all accounts, was small, intelligent, and most importantly, very young. A young child poses their own unique questions when it comes to international travel. Some of these questions are easily dealt with and others can become incredibly difficult. This young man was no problem to us whatsoever and in fact, we learned more from him than he learned from us.

After the kids arrived, we spent time around Paris, seeing the museums, parks, street festivals, and boat cruises. This trip was especially good for me because it gave me some time to spend with my friends Taylor and Phil and catch up a bit on what had been going on. Taylor, a student at NYU, was in the process of trying to manage her move to Paris and Phil was just being Phil. We spent the majority of the two weeks trying to figure out where the cleaning ladies were from and why they kept asking us when we were going to leave (Tu Pawww Kaww!!). Either that was the only question that the poor dears could formulate in French or they didn’t like us. I personally lean towards the language answer because they helped themselves to plenty of our stuff.
Following these great several days, we said goodbye to these kids and Taylor and it was just Phil, Jerry, and I. Since we had a day to ourselves, we decided that it might be a good idea to catch a movie. Initially, we tried to go see Fatal, a French movie making fun of American rap stars, but then we decided that it might be best to go see Twilight.

Ok, stop the shocked, amazed face. Yes, I went to see a Twilight film in a theatre. In my defense we had a 13 year old with us and it had French subtitles, so there was an educational language element involved. But I digress.
That was most definitely the worst movie I have ever seen. One phrase sums up its incredible nullity.

Lame shirtless werewolf guy to cold vampire bag of douche while cuddling next to said bag of douche’s pathetic, insecure, social pariah of a girlfriend: “You are just mad because I am hotter than you.”

French Subtitle: “Je suis plus chaud que toi”

English translation of French subtitle: “I’m hornier than you.”

Et voila! Behold the beauty of translator/Google error and another reason that Twilight will never be taken seriously by “yours truly”.
After this debacle and waste of my carefully saved euros, we headed off to dinner and then back to the hotel to get some sleep. The next morning, I awoke and went to Charles de Gaulle in order to find some of our campers for the next trip. After spending about 6 hours in the Airport, we had everyone and headed towards Paris. Sadly, one of our campers was not feeling well, but after some rest, she was back to 100 percent. Over the next few days we hit everything again. The Louvre, Eifel Tower, D’Orsay, Montmartre, etc. It was a great few days ended by watching the 14th of July fireworks at Concorde and meeting my friend Stani whom I hope to see again in Amsterdam.

Then came my favorite part of the summer, Nice! I love Nice. The people, the water, the food, the atmosphere….the girls…uh hem. It is a beautiful city. The first day, we spent 3 hours at the beach and had a delicious dinner at L’abbaye in Old Nice. I got to see my friend Patya again which is always wonderful, and then we gave the kids freetime to walk around the city. The next few days were spent seeing Monaco, VilleFrance, St. Paul de Vince, Eze, and the beach. It was so relaxing and the food was amazing. If anyone ever goes to Nice, please let me know so that I can give you delicious restaurants and the names of wonderful people.

Then came the part that I hate the most: saying goodbye to the kids. It is really difficult sometimes to say goodbye to kids. I know I haven’t brought it up really in any earlier posts, but it is the one part of this job that I find the most difficult. It is wonderful teaching kids about all of the things that are great about Europe and seeing them soak it up like a sponge. But then comes that day in the airport where you are all sitting around talking about how much fun it all was and knowing that in a few minutes they will be gone. That was yesterday and I would be completely lying if I said that saying goodbye to them was not extremely difficult, especially Jerry. However, there is also a good feeling involved because you know that you have given them a new perspective and that will stay with them forever.

And now for the part that you have all been waiting for.

After making sure that my kids were on the plane, I headed for my hotel in Frankfurt. As many of you know, I am not the biggest fan of Germany, so I was headed into this with more than a little apprehension. Upon arriving at my hotel, I immediately turned on the Tour de France and took a 4 hour nap. My coworker Lucien and I then headed out to Frankfurt and had a delicious meal and started up a conversation with a group of people next to us. As it turns out, one of the people had just arrived in Germany that morning and was trying to get into school. The whole reason that he was in Germany to begin with was because of a girl and he was doing everything he could to make sure that he could stay there.

Following a great conversation revolving around the downfalls and victories of the capitalist system when it comes to healthcare in the US, we said goodnight to our new friends and headed for an Irish bar down the street. I must say, that the few hours that I spent at this bar completely changed my view of Germany. Though it was an Irish bar, many of the people in the bar were German and were some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. We exchanged stories and talked until about midnight when we had to leave. It was a great evening and we met some amazing people. Once we got back to the hotel, we crashed and then I got up and came to the airport, where I am currently writing this blog.

This two day stent in Germany has been great. I got to practice my German which has become more than a little rusty and I had a complete perspective change. Both of which, I feel, are very good and one was perhaps more than a little needed. So, Here’s to Germany and Irish bars and Magners Irish Cider and Guiness and nice people. Thanks for the good times and hopefully I’ll see you again soon.
To the rest of you, thanks for reading and I’ll talk to you soon!

- Pondhopper.

It might be....lol!

I think that there are certain times in your life where everything just seems to come together in a perfect moment. It happens in different ways to different people, but I think that everyone has that one particular moment that they can look back on and just be happy that they were there.

Right now, I am sitting in a hostel with the windows open, my friends (not so quietly) sleeping, and memories of the last couple of weeks going through my head. The last weeks have been a rush full of new experiences and old, wonderful, familiar ones.

I arrived in France about three weeks ago after a nice flight next to an old French lady who was on her way to Cherbourg to visit her family. We talked lightly on the plane, but by the end of dinner, her very quiet and unassuming personality was heavily sleeping in a position that, almost assuredly, left her great discomfort once we landed. After landing and be berated by the customs in Paris for wearing my Olympique Marseille jersey, I quickly found my luggage and met my friend Sebastien and his father outside the airport. It was amazing to see them. Sebastien was in the process of finding an internship for the next few months and had refused to shave until said internship was found, therefore he had a very thick matting of facial hair, that his mother was much less fond of than he. After reaching the car and saying goodbye to Dominic (Seb’s dad) we headed off to the house. This adventure was incredibly ridiculous because what usually takes only 20 minutes took us just shy of 2 hours thanks to rain, silly French drivers, moto’s, and roads that are almost as old as the Louvre. Once we arrived at the house, it was great to get back into “my” room and settle in. Seb and I then ate some lunch and watched the warm-up for the world cup. Over the next week, I spent the majority of my days eating, sleeping, having picnics in the park, and watching exorbitant amounts of the World Cup. (Insert random joke about the pathetic showing of the French team here….). Christoff, Seb’s brother, and I also saw Supergrass’ last show ever at Cigalle. That was an amazing concert and my love for Supergrass has tripled since that amazing concert.

Then, on Wednesday the 16th, the work started. At about 5 in the afternoon I met my friend Fritz at a train station outside of Paris and we then headed into town to get him situated in an apartment. After dropping off all of his bags, we headed into town and had some great dinner and watched some great soccer. After spending the night wandering around Paris, we agreed to meet up the next day and get some work done. We grabbed breakfast at a small café and spent the entire day working on reservations, housing, trains, planes, etc. Then early on Friday morning, I headed out to Charles de Gaulle Airporte to meet the first group of students.

In a word…awesome. That is probably the best way to describe the first trip. Our kids were great and we had such an amazing time. We walked around Paris and saw all of the great things to see and do including Versailles, Montmartre, Le Louvre, Palais Royal, Luxembourg, Tour Eiffel, etc. Then last Monday, we headed to Switzerland.

It had been about 3 years since I had been to Switzerland before last weekend. In my memory, I remembered a bit about what it was like, the natural beauty, the lakes, the temperature, everything. However, I was not prepared for what I saw when I got there. The lakes were blue, I mean the deep clear blue with a greenish tent that you see on postcards from Aruba. The sky was perfectly clear and the towering Swiss Alps were still covered in snow at the very top with waterfalls cascading down their faces from the snow that had already melted. I love Switzerland. After arriving in Geneva and meeting our guide Robert, we headed off to Anzere, where we would be spending the next couple of days. Fritz was stoked to be going back to Anzere and frankly, I was just as stoked as he was. When we arrived in Anzere, our hotel was right on the edge of town so we had a perfect view of Dome Blanche and the mountains surrounding it. The town had one bar called the Peter Pan which was owned by a guy named Ughi and had the best Heineken that I had tasted in a while.

The next day, we spent at the Chateau de Chillon which was a medieval castle situated on the banks of lake Geneva. Following the visit to the Chateau, we headed down next to the water to have lunch. During lunch, Kent, decided that he had had enough just sitting around and he decided that he was going to jump into the water. Since we had told the kids to bring their bathing suits, this was no problem, however, once he hit the water he immediately regretted that decision. Then, of course, everyone had to jump in and experience the incredible feeling of 40 degree water all over you. I’ve got to tell you…if you ever get the chance to jump into water that cold…do it. It only hurts for a second. 

The following day was filled with mountain biking down the mountain from Anzere and then hiking around the top of the peak. The biking was great and the hike was incredible. The vistas from 15,000 feet are incredible in Switzerland and when you are that high, you are past the tree line, so there is nothing that can get in the way of your view. Our guide, Laura, showed us all around the mountain and we got to taste some amazing cheese from a small farm near the peak. Cheese is everywhere in Switzerland and it is always incredible, no matter which town it is from.

Thursday was by far, for me, the best day of the trip. We awoke very early around 6:30 and headed off to breakfast. After eating, we hopped on the bus and headed off to Chamonix for some Canyoning. If you are not familiar with Canyoning, let me explain it to you. You head off into the woods in Switzerland wearing a wet suit, a neoprene jacket, booties, shoes, an oversuit, a life-vest, and a harness, you find a huge freaking cliff with a glacial waterfall that goes into a large pool, then you jump off of it. Awesome. It was one of the biggest rushes I have ever had. I jumped off of a 40 foot cliff, a 30 foot cliff and ziplined down a 150 foot cliff. It was incredible. All the while being knee deep in freezing water that has just melted off of a glacier. The rest of the day was spent at a high ropes course swinging from tree to tree and enjoying being outside.

That night was when it all came together into one of those perfect moments. All the kids were outside and were talking about how much fun we had on the trip. Some were tired, some wanted to play soccer, and some (myself included) wanted to find a way to stay as long as possible. It was after that meeting, sitting in the Peter Pan with Fritz, Laura, and Robert, watching the Swiss team play when I realized how incredible the experience was and how thankful I was that I could have been a part of it. I miss those kids and the times we had, but I know that at some point it had to end. I can only hope that they will come back and do it again.

Thanks for reading.

-Pondhopper