Bonjour

                                                         Le Prieure a Ambialet
My first Blog, so bare with me.  I arrived with my wife Debbie, a colleague, Dr. Lori Woods and 8 great students.  Unfortunately we have only 7 students still here because one had allergy issues and returned home. Our French home is a beautiful monestary in Ambialet.  There are 34 people in the village and we live high on the mountain.  It is very rustic, with no TV, no store within 22 km except a small cafe, and very few roads.

I'm learning French slowly but surely.  Today I had an experience that was evidence of my  minimal verbal skills.  One of our resident dogs, JayZ, coaxed me into taking a walk with him down "Heartbreak Hill" which is about a mile straight down (and of course back up).  As I approached the villiage, both of the calfs on my legs started to tighten up.  JayZ kept turning around to look for me, would see me finally catch up, and take off again. As I approached the small park in the center of the villiage, which is located on the Tarn River, two children, ages betwwen 8 and 10 approached me.  Bon jour I said, at which they both started laughing and shaking their heads.  As I hobbled over to the river they followed me.  I pointed to the lake and said "poisson" which means fish in French, again they laughed and started to skate away.  When JayZ reteurned from his run I started to walk towards "heartbreak Hill"  The two kids skate up to me and say, in better English than I speak 'goodbye sir", started laughing and took off again.  I determined I would work harder on learning the language. 
JayZ continued to show is concern as we walked up heartbreat hill on the way back to the Prieure. he'd walk about 100 yards ahead and then slow down until I caught up.  At one point I stopped to rest my aching legs and he actually looked back, saw me sitting and returned to stay beside me.  I'm not sure if this was protection or what.  Just interesting behavior in a chien (dog).
I started a French class at the University of Albi yesterday.  Students looked at us like visitors from another planet.  In the French aptitude and assessment test, I scored a 2 of 100. I new my name and that I was from the USA.  That's it.  The professor looked at me, shook her head and said bien.  This I learned  means good.  What bad would have been, I have no clue. 
The food has been very good.  The chef makes enough for double the number of people and we have wine for dinner each day.
I miss having soda.  he first 2 days I had none.  This is first for me since I was about 5.  The addiction is bad, so I was pleased when we able to stop at a Geant store (Kind of like super Wal-Mart) and got a 24 can case for 10.75 Euros.  That is $15 in our money.  Gas is about 7.00 a gallon.  They have tunnels in the mountains that have two lanes with barely enough room to have one car go through.   I haven't driven yet and don't really look forward to it.
We have another guest at the Prieure.  The program manager's 93 year old mother is here until October.  She is just a joy!  She's funny and sharp as heck.


Well, I'll tell you more later.  My first blog hopefully won't be my last and as I learn I will put some pictures up.  I will also tell you about the first day and tour in ALbi next time.  Au revoir for now.