Our internet has been nonexistent since Thursday night. We are told that the internet company has shut down service to protest some injustice or other. Ah, the joys of living in revolution-happy Tunisia. And Tony woke up yesterday morning with his right pinky toe swollen to double its normal size and an angry red rash all over the lower half of his body. Apparently, he picked up something nasty during his last Hammam visit. Fortunately, our landlord and next-door neighbor is a doctor. He looked at it right away, and then wrote up some prescriptions. Alistair kindly provided a lift to the Pharmacy.… Read more
future plans
Where should we go first? Libya or Algeria?
I do a fair amount of airing of exasperations about moving on this blog. But there are some delightful things that happen as a result of our wanderings. And one of the best of those is meeting new friends. We just moved to a different vacation rental (closer to the beach. Hurrah!), and our newest friend is a retired British gentleman who lives downstairs. Alastair (not his real name, but I assure you that his real name sounds just as British) is one of the most pleasant conversationalists I’ve ever met. He is unfailingly polite, thoughtful, interesting, and has a brilliant dry wit made all the funnier by by his proper English accent.… Read more
Shifting Providence
“Fool,” cried the witch. “You will suffer greatly for this when I have conquered your world!”
Tony’s latest read-aloud for the children is The Magician’s Nephew. I’ve read the Chronicles of Narnia countless times, and just like with the Lord of the Rings, whenever I read them, I seem to identify with a different character. This time around, the one who impressed me the most was Jadis. Yes, Jadis, the proud, ruthless queen of mighty Charn, and the future White Witch of Narnia. You might think that the arch-villainess of the series is an odd choice for a heroine, especially given my current obsession with the deposition of dictators.… Read more
Light My Fire . . . Kindle It, That Is
Yes, my #1 favorite Christmas present finally arrived today! Thank you to my in-laws for the funds, and Tina and Robert for getting it over the Atlantic for me. As an inveterate bookworm, I have been contemplating getting a Kindle for years. At first, I was one of those people who just couldn’t stomach the idea of replacing a real book with an electronic device. I loved the classic Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk visits the eccentric with the real, old-fashioned library. It makes me feel at home to have shelves and shelves full of books, preferably nice, heavy hard-bound ones.… Read more
The Sun Egg
Overheard in my living room last week:
Dominique (to Axa): You’re the women who did not kill her baby.
Axa: Yes, I’m not the harlot.
Before I am accused of a shocking parenting lapse, I would like to point out that this is a Biblical allusion. Bonus points to you if you can guess the story.
Dominique also has his own way of coping with the winter weather. He announced a few days ago that from now on, we will read the same story at nap time every day. His chosen story is called The Sun Egg. It is a Swedish fairy tale about a forest elf who discovers a beautiful brightly-colored sphere in the forest.… Read more
From Zappos to XUBI
Once upon a time, I used to spend hours a day hammering out business strategy. I read Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur. I interviewed potential employees, approved new products, designed magazine ads, and wrote telemarketing scripts. I lived between laptop and blackberry. The business my husband and I started from our cinderblock apartment in college eventually grew into a company that did things like selling nationwide to high schools and colleges and sponsoring Team USA at the World University Games. Along the way, we gained a lot of practical experience in manufacturing, supply chain, import/export, and marketing. But most important were the things we learned about ourselves and each other, managing people and relationships, and juggling work and family.
Jane Austen and the Mock Turtle
I like to read treatises and how-to books on education. But I also enjoy distilling educational theory out of books that have nothing to do with education. It fascinates me, for instance, to hear the Mock Turtle’s summation of the subjects offered at his school: Reeling and Writhing, Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision, Mystery (ancient and modern) with Seaography, Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils, Laughing and Grief, as well as Dancing the Lobster Quadrille. That’s Lewis Carroll’s whimsical but accurate summation of the typical education of his day (for boys. You’ll notice that in the same chapter Alice carefully mentions her French, but earlier as she tries to think how to address a mouse in The Pool of Tears, she can remember the vocative only from her brother’s Latin Grammar).… Read more
Homeschooling with the Romans
Once again, with moving and other things, my grand ideas for homeschooling have fallen a little by the wayside. Luckily, Axa spends lots of time every day practicing writing, and they both roam the yard studying the plants and animals in it with as much detail as little scientists. Charlotte would be happy that I’m not put together enough to do all the academics I would like to do with my two little under-sixes.
They’re also beginning to use quite a few Italian words. I don’t even know where they’ve heard some of these words. One of their favorite activities in the car is to quiz each other about Italian vocabulary.… Read more
Perseus fails
Sure enough, it’s Thursday, and I have been unable to obtain Medusa’s head. So sometime within the next few weeks, after the Vigili come by to verify that we really live here, I shall be able to return to the Questura and hopefully get my paperwork started, even though it’s not within the eight-day window. And I just have to be O.K. with that. After all, I believe I was really supposed to get a visa before we came, although they’re not too strict about these things in Italy. (In Florence, weirdly enough, Tony didn’t even have residence, and they were going to give me a residency permit.… Read more
There and Back Again
In Ireland, “mixed spices” is a fascinating blend of garam masala and pumpkin pie spice. It made delightful cinnamon rolls the other day. But we will not be remaining long-term in Ireland. Tony has accepted a position at a company in Italy, in the same area of Piedmont where we lived before. So in a sense, we feel a little like we’re going home. Of course, we felt like that the first time we moved there, never having set foot in Italy before. Life can be deliciously unpredictable.… Read more