Day 73

Mon prenom est Ryan (REEOWN).

Quite a day today and it started off with a bang . . . literally.  I gathered up the boys for another day in academia and had them not a block from their school house when I inadvertantly caused a multicar collision which I thankfully was not a part of, but was perhaps a contributing factor in.  I was running somewhat behind this morning due to some relatively heavy traffic but was quite fortunate in finding one honey of a parking spot not far from the school.  I pulled forward, signaled and began to back my way into my parallel parking spot.  The car following dutifully stopped to allow me the courtesy of backing into my spot, but it would seem that the car behind her did not notice the break lights and absolutely slammed right into the back of her subcompact Fiat.  It was a horrible sound.  Huge crash for such a narrow corridor.  Unfortunately for me, he pushed this poor girl so far forward that I could not longer gain access to my sweet ass parking spot.  Now running VERY late, I was forced to circle the block for another spot.  I somehow had to drop of the boys and march myself down to the city center inside of 15 minutes.  Somehow I pulled it off and arrived at class on time.

This of course was to be my first group French class and after a fair amount of administrative detail, they showed me to my classroom.  It doesn't matter your age, you still get that first day of school feeling when you settle into your seat next to a bunch of folks that you share little in common with.  This is particularly the case when you are in a class full of multi-nationals attempting to make sense of a language other than their mother tongue.  I believe the count went something like this:  2 chinois, 2 bresilienne, 1 argentin, 1 japonaisse, 1 chilienne, 1 singapourien and 1 americain (guess who?).  My education level was on par, but I was very outmatched in the language count.  Each were at least bi-lingual and many were QUITE multi-lingual.  In fact, my partner for some of the exercises in this class was fully fluent in 4 languages.  Being the linguistic dunce in the class, it was clear I was going to have to win them over with my charm.  It didn't take long.  I was complimented multiple times on my accent . . . I don't have an accent . . . do I?  Class began with introductions.  I was quite prepared for this and threw out my name and nationality with my best French flair.  My prenom garnered quite a chuckle in deed.  You see there isn't a translation for Ryan and their pronuciation is "ReeOwn" phonetically speaking.  The long "I" sound was lost in translation.  So, in the end I went with it and am now known on the streets as ReeOwn, the hillbilly frenchman from the land of Dorothy and Toto.  Of course the freaking Wizard of Oz reared its ugly head again and I did my best Hickory to keep the folks entertained . . . If I only had a brain!  Class went well, but at break I had to break it to the instructor that I must leave early and that I would not be able to attend classes on Wednesdays.  She seemed to take this news in stride, however, once again something may well have been lost in translation as I had to describe my plight in French.  I sputtered out some crap about my son's and school and the hour that I must depart.  She seemed to understand so I left it at that.

An early departure and a mad dash back to the International School had me relatively moist with persperation.  Back at the house, I managed a quick lunch for the youngest and I and soon it would be time to pick up the eldest.  The very long hours and frequent trips to the primary school are really going to limit my ability to much of anything else during the day.  The house work would have to wait for another day and I did my best to remain awake for the remainder of the afternoon.  I had forgotten how exhausting education can be.  All the events of my hectic day nearly overshadowed the biggest news of the day.  Being on a bit of a communications delay, it was afternoon before the news tricked down to me that Osama Bin Laden had been killed in a firefight with Navy Seals in Pakistan.   I have but two televised news sourses at my disposal, BBC World News and Al Jazeera TV.  I may have bastardized the spelling there, but I will be interested to see the differences in news coverage from these two very different news sources.

Either way, while I was worrying about preparing bowls of cornflakes and getting youngsters ready for bed and ready for rise, a small group of American young men prepared themselves for a day that would not be filled with tasks as mundane as my own, but would instead endeavor to risk their own lives for the greater good.  Sort of puts things in perspective doesn't it?  While I lay sleepless in anticipation of a full day of education and administrative detail, another man (men) from my own nation also found himself (themselves) sleepless as well in anticpation of a full day at the business end of an AK47.  I am humbled.  Take care for now and we will talk again soon.