April in Paris

We're on the train from Paris to Amsterdam. Not Paris New York, but the Paris. It's one of those high speed trains (TGV) and it's packed. How come they can do it and we can't? That'll change when Bernie becomes President. Which means it won't change. We'll spend a couple of days with Henk and Marje who visited us years ago in Rhode Island and who came to Gabon with us last year.

Anyway, a week ago was the inauguration of the school we had renovated. Seems like a year ago. We left Sam the following morning and barely had time to catch our breath from the final full day of work to transition to Libreville and then red-eye flight to Paris.

We are working hard at the French bakeries to put back all the weight we had lost. We've done a few touristy things, like go to the Tuileries gardens, but we've also done a few new things and checked out some different quartiers. Oh and did we mention the ice cold Amstel and red wine and cheese?

And we're back on full Internet and catching up with Facebook. Most prominent was the Washington Post story on Johanna's illness. Mary gets a daily email from Amazon (which owns the Post) which highlights the most "trending" story, and it was on Johanna! I'm sure there's a story on how they learned of the story, but we'll save that one for face-to-face communication. Perhaps at Mt. Springs this summer, or even before. It was a good story, and relived a pretty scary time in her life.

We also saw that Oliver set a personal best for running the mile. I suspect it will not be his last personal best.

We were pleased/excited/thrilled to get an email from Joe and Leonore about September in Lisbon! We'll have lots of details to work out but we're looking forward to it already. Maybe we'll just stay here and meet you there. Maybe we'll win the lottery too.

Life back in the U.S. is inching back into our plans. Annie returns from her long trip to China and Malaysia tomorrow, and will finish her move to Boston this weekend, just in time to meet us when we return next Thursday! Mary has been keeping up with the two classes where she tutors with letters and photos. And my history activities are awaiting my return.

We expect to go down to DC the week after we get home, just in time to see Margaret before she takes off on a two week trip to Africa as part of her job. She and Andrew had been to Mexico for a friend's wedding while we were away.

We also just found out two more moves. John and Marilyn close on their new home near Daytona today, and we saw on Facebook that Kathleen is moving to New York City.

Lots of catching up when we get home, with the primaries, with baseball, with new movies, with spring! Speaking of which, spring here is glorious. April in Paris!

Love from across the pond. We close with a new motto we spotted in a bathroom here.