Farewell Mysterious East

Bonjour Family and Friends,

I am in the moment sitting in my sister's kitchen, having just finisheda lunch of vegetarian Thai food that we made inspired by my month inThailand, showing Camille the chewed up food in my mouth (much toMaggie's dismay); it really makes her giggle, but then nearly everything does. After a breakfast of crossaints and coffee, Maggieand I managed to sneak out to the gym this Sunday morning, whileGilles and Camille explored the Sunday market.

I met the in-laws yesterday. Maggie and Gilles' dad got in a fight about his generalizations about how all Americans are fat and live on hamburgers and ice-cream that ended with him admitting that he was the only fat one in the room which appeased her. After dinner, we drove out to the countryside where Gilles' mom lives, and they planted a sweetgum tree for Camille's six month birthday. To alleviate her crankiness, I took her on a walk in the woods and taught her the trees. She was wide-eyed, fascinated by everything, as wasI. It's an old forest- so French- with all sorts of wild mushrooms, curly old oak trees, forts, and near ruins of the old manor house (or castle?) that was once the central point of the estate. I'm lingering in France. As it turns out, I have just experienced the first major disaster with my project, and can't identify these plants in London during the next three weeks as planned because they are still sitting in Borneo left in the care of the state parks office that has dozens of other priorities. It's slightly exasperating because I'vebeen all too ready to just finish it and move on, and now it'll be dragged out for another year or so at least. Anyhow, I now have a nice long Christmas break, so I'll stay in France for another week, then I think I'll go to Ireland for a couple weeks. I'm writing farms where I might be able to stay and learn to spin wool, ride horses, or play the fiddle in exchange for manual labor- it's mussell and oyster season, so maybe I'll help with that or dig up peat bricks or whatever else they do in rural Ireland in November. On December 8, I continue on with my journey westward, flying to NY. A week or so on the eastern seaboard, retrieving my car from Cape Cod, and then driving to Michigan around the 18th (so if anyone needs arideto the midwest...) I look forward to re-meeting all of you- I feel like I've been on a different planet. The last couple weeks in the mysterious east were spent in total silence hanging out with monks and learning how to do nothing. Okay, this kid is awake gurgling and giggling away, trying to eat my computer. I am smitten. Love, Betony