On vacation!

Cuisine Quotidienne was the first to go...on vacation. Then La France Profonde. Now, as I face my last four days in Olympia and prepare for a one-week trip to Colorado, I have to declare And So Forth officially on holiday until September.

I have noticed a lot of bloggers taking time off this month -- so if that is the case for you, relax and I'll see you in the blogosphere in September!

Ouway le montagne bike trail?

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's vacation in the USA seems to be cause for plenty of chuckling.

I had to laugh at the big flap in France about Nico Sarko daring - -and deigning -- to set foot stateside for his vacances. Who does he think he is, anyway? Shouldn't he just go to some two-star campground like everybody else? Maybe he'd run into some of the Socialist party mucky-mucks who are criticizing his choice of destination! Right...

And Meredith over on Poppy Fields brought up an interesting hypothesis about Cecilia Sarkozy's sudden case of a sore throat right before she would have been spending the day with Bush. Could she have faked it all to get out of the photo... "ops?"

Now Bush is claiming he would be delighted to holiday in France...as long as he could hit the open mountain bike trail:

" Asked by reporters if he would be willing to follow Sarkozy's example and take a vacation away from home, Bush said: 'Of course I would ... there's some spectacular spots around the world ... great places to relax.'

What about France, if Sarkozy should invite him? 'Absolutely. Absolutely. Particulary if he could find a place for me to ride my mountain bike,' responded Bush, who is an avid enthusiast of the sport."

(Extract from "Bush would holiday in France, if he could go biking," The Economic Times)

S'il vous puh-leeease!

Back to School Resolutions

Some people make New Year's resolutions; I make back to school resolutions.

Sure, it may be a little early to write about going back to school. After all, I have well over three weeks left in my decidedly generous summer vacation.

Yet, as August advances, I can't help but think about getting back into the classroom and back onto a routine...a better one than last year, of course.

I will streamline my lesson plans, all the while trying out new methods and activities.

I will better organize my grocery shopping in order to cook simple and delicious meals on weeknight evenings.

I will use my long ( I do teach in France, don't forget) lunch break to good avail.

And so forth!

Sunday Scribblings: Decision

I can see why some people are tortured by choices. Not by what to eat in a restaurant, or what to wear in the morning -- although, come to think of it, some can get pretty worked up by those seemingly minor questions.

We often feel we would have made better decisions with hindsight. ("If I had known that, I would have..." or "In retrospect, it would have been better to...?") Yet I would posit that the consequences of any major decision are so vast that knowing them beforehand would only paralyze us more.

18 years ago I decided to move to France to be with my future husband. Of course, if a voice had told me "You will be happy there and have two beautiful children, but if you stay in the USA you will be killed in a car accident at the age of 33," the decision would have been all the easier to make.

But what if a voice had laid out several equally attractive and fascinating life paths? How could I have ever made a proper choice?

It's likely a good thing that most life-changing choices are made relatively rashly, with little understanding of how overwhelming their consequences will be.

(Read more decision-oriented Sunday Scribblings posts here.)