Graduation and modern amenities in the country

Congratulations to my cousin T who’s graduating and speaking at the Babson commencement ceremony today. Good luck on your speech and I can’t wait to see pictures and hear about your day later.

Day 4: I’m still feeling a bit wasted this afternoon from major jetlag. R just woke me up to watch the last few minutes of the French Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on TF1 a French public TV channel. For my friends who've inquired about my access to Internet and TV (in jest I hope), it's a "oui". In addition to French TV, we also have Dutch satellite TV where many of the shows are in their original languages. Most days shows and movies during prime-time are in either American or British English with Dutch subtitles. As for French TV, most shows are dubbed to French with no subtitles. I'm happy about this actually because it's going to force me to learn French toute de suite. Right now, we’re watching Obama talk about the BP oil leak on Aljazeera TV in English. The oil spill is apparently 5 to 15 times larger than they originally anticipated. I learned today that they are collecting human hair cuttings to absorb the oil—did you know human hair can absorb up to six times its weight?

We’re both feeling lazy today because the past three days have been quite busy. Early morning clouds have given way to a bit of sunshine and R and I are thinking about going for a walk. He’s laughing at me because I’ve created a to-do list for today:

• Go for a walk
• Finish unpacking
• Enroll in French language classes, though R is my favorite French dictionary. Yesterday I learned the word for "top" which is crête in French and crest in English
• Do exercises in my French Now language book
• Map out the vegetable patch today before planting the transplants we bought yesterday. I’ll also have to start the beet, mesclun salad, basil, pepper, leek, green onion, and coriander seeds

Neighbor P didn’t pass by with the rototiller today—it was also a bit cold so I put off planting for another day. Seeking some sun, R and I drove up our mountain. We started up a long windy forest path even though we felt the first drops of rain. It was refreshingly crisp, and the air smelled like an old forest with dead leaves should smell. For an hour we hiked up and down without seeing anyone but a small herd of large brown cows. Have you ever noticed that when you're near a herd of cows, there's always one that stands watch while the others go about their business? We watched some female cows trying to mate with one another and then a cow try to mount a young bull who looked a bit confused. R and I continued walking past the meadows even though the winds were picking up. From there, for as far as you can see, the terrain crests and dips with waves of green grass and trees.