Starting my Life in France

Bonjour Mes Amis!

C'est moi encore! Shoshie!

Do you remember what I said I would write about next time? Going to Carcassonne, going to school, and having a playdate (though I didn't really tell you about that one). I'm going to start with school even though that's the last thing I did because I'm so excited about it.

At first, I was really nervous. I thought people might tease me and talk about me . . . in French. Mommy and Daddy and Naomi walked me to school. Naomi brought Aracella, my specialist toy, my special blankie, and a knight's helmet. I'll tell you about the helmet later. When we got to school the principal was there to meet me, Madame Helene. A friend of ours was there, too. Her name is Diedre and she translates for the United Nations, but today she was just translating for me. When I went into the classroom, everybody stared at me. They all said "Hello, my name is. . . WHATEVER" in English. And they made space for me on the bench. When Circle Time was done they gave me a desk. When it was work time they let me read a book. Then they taught me how to write my name in cursive -- but it didn't really work out. When it was science time we put sugar in hot water but I don't know why.

The kid named Pauline who sat next to me was my best friend in class. But I have another best friend. His name is Noah and he's my neighbor, sort of. He's also 7 and he is the grandson of Diedre, the woman who translates for the U.N. The other day we had a playdate at Noah's house. He doesn't know a lot of English but he knows more English than I know French. He has a big dog named Misha (which means Teddy Bear in Russian). He has a really fluffy coat. Noah hugs Misha a lot. He also plays with Misha's nostrils. He pretends Misha's nostrils are a cannon and then they shoot him down. We watched a movie, Indiana Jones, but I didn't like it because it was too scary. So we stopped and we watched Looney Tunes cartoons in French! He also used my lap as a cushion and when Diedre came into the room he said, "Nice cushion!" in English. He wanted to wrestle me a lot, but I kissed him to defend myself and he didn't like that. It's my secret weapon. So you boys better watch out!

On Sunday, we went to Carcassonne which is a town where there is a HUGE castle. We took the scenic route to Carcassone. It was very tiring because it went through so many mountains and the road curved this way and that. I was whining to get to Carcassonne in a hurry because I wanted to get back in time for my playdate with Noah. We passed a lot of vineyards and I told my mom and dad that I thought France should be known for its vineyards!

The castle was very big and it had a moat filled with grass. I wasn't sure how the grass had got there. There was a carousel in the front of the castle. I really wanted to go on it but it was closed. A woman at the ticket place told me to put on my coat because it was windy up in the castle and it was a cold day. I didn't want to, but I put it on.

Some of the parts of the castle were scary becuase it was dark and there were monsters called Gargoyles around the castle. My dad said they were supposed to keep away bad spirits (and also used as gutters) but they looked like bad spirits themselves.

I climbed a lot of stairs and I could see for miles around . . . I mean kilometres because we're in France. I saw pretty houses from one of the windows. They were very old and the roofs were made of tile. One room had pieces of statues and a bunch of faces. I counted 9 faces and then I counted three more. There were also stone cannonballs. One big thing I saw I asked my dad if it was a dragon's tooth. Another one looked like a dragon's tooth, too. They were about a foot long. There were also grave stones with old fashioned crosses and the grave of a knight that looked like he was sleeping.

The best thing was when we left the castle, my dad bought me a new knight's armor and sword. I loved the shield and sword but the helmet was too small for me so I gave it to Naomi and she brought it to school the next day.

But the coolest thing I saw at the castle was ancient writing. You don't get to see that every day!

Au revoir mes amis!

Shoshie