We're counting down... Today is the 30th! That means we are home after a very long July 1st. We'll get our 7 hours back - and we'll get home about 6:30pm your time on the 1st!!! (That's tmw - or perhaps even "today" by your reading). We can't wait to see family, friends, and puppies again. We're sure they all think we're gone forever.
We started the morning by taking the B train down to the deaf school again... Its an adventure, who needs catacombs with tunnels like these? Left, right, up, down... And then over this 2 block long moving sidewalk, then over and down.. And the train is always like a sauna, oppressively hot, and cram packed with people. Maybe the french wear so much perfume to cover *other* people's stench. If you enter any enclosed space it either smells like pee or sweat (or a lovely bouquet of both), or like perfume masking pee or sweat.
We have a *very* nice tour of the school - we learn a lot of history that we didn't know or forgot. We saw much more of the school than we expected to see after our "no tours" conversation yesterday. It was a full and formal tour, but our guide spoke very little English. She conducted the tour in spoken French, and LSQ sign language (at our request) - there are similarities with the languages, and its visual, so we get *some* of what is being said, the major points. Its just us and two other women from Winnipeg Canada, so an intimate group. One was an interpreter (used ASL, and spoke English as a first language) - and her friend was French, possibly from France and not Canada. Sometimes the French woman would translate to English for her friend when
she didn't get the French or the signs... So 
we benefited from that too. I videotaped a lot of it and Dana took tons of pictures at my request. :)
she didn't get the French or the signs... So 
we benefited from that too. I videotaped a lot of it and Dana took tons of pictures at my request. :)The grounds are beautiful, a lovely courtyard with a flower garden, and the fountain that you see in the movie about the "wild boy" that Itard taught. The movie was filmed here, and its actually where the wild boy lived. There are beehives, kept bees, on the grounds, great hands on project for the students. They have dorms, of course, their own little hospital, and there is an old kiln that in the past was used to make pottery - but now is preserved under glass.
Also there was a pool in the gym, and similar to the old jim at Gallaudet, it was filled in and built over.
Also there was a pool in the gym, and similar to the old jim at Gallaudet, it was filled in and built over. We saw the library, filled with old books and a display of artifacts like school uniforms, notebooks from past students, and original writings by l'Eppe. There is a sculptu
re proudly displayed that was made by a deaf artist.
re proudly displayed that was made by a deaf artist. (Now all you "hearing people can skip this part)... We learned about Berthier, the first deaf teacher at the school (back in the 1800s). Learned their signs for Abbe de l'Eppe (hungry+sword flourish), Sicard (shaky A), Itard (Y at the mouth), Berthier (Pittsburgh), Jean Mark Jacque (??) (A at mouth), and they used the same signs for Clerc, Gallaudet, and "deaf"...We caught their signs for Paris (just a P in the palm like "butter"), blind (like our blind, but the same handshape on the chin also), professor (polite), student/pupil (point to the eye), infirmary (draw a cross on the forehead with your thumb), doctor (open 8 hand touches the chest like board), France (open 8 hand in the air like "blank"), hearing (P circles like "government" but lands in the ear)...
After the Milan Conference of 1888, the school used the oral method, but used the a
rm for sounds - they touched in specific places up and down the arm for different sounds. L'Eppe fought to keep the school only for Deaf students and not to be combined with Blind students - because of different needsThere 
is a painting after the Milan conference, its of the institute and it portrays a visit by the French President of the time, and they seem to be showing the President how they're teaching the oral method - but a subliminal message encoded. The oral method is being shown to the President, but two pupils are signing to each other, and the window opens and sheds light on them - 
the rest are in shadows. It was just a fabulous time - worth the whole trip to Paris and every sweaty train ride.
rm for sounds - they touched in specific places up and down the arm for different sounds. L'Eppe fought to keep the school only for Deaf students and not to be combined with Blind students - because of different needsThere 
is a painting after the Milan conference, its of the institute and it portrays a visit by the French President of the time, and they seem to be showing the President how they're teaching the oral method - but a subliminal message encoded. The oral method is being shown to the President, but two pupils are signing to each other, and the window opens and sheds light on them - 
the rest are in shadows. It was just a fabulous time - worth the whole trip to Paris and every sweaty train ride. On our high from the school, we head back to the Louvre to see if we can find Patti's artist that drew the elephant turning into the Eiffel Tower 
- and he's there, and he has one left! Success!We have lunch at a place right on a corner across from the Louvre - I do love that building... Nice view if you can get it. We have french eggs for lunch.. Patti and Dana have ham and cheese omelettes (omlette is french), and I had an interesting dish that was very good, and I think I can recreate. It starts as just a grilled ham and swiss sandwich, but then on the top is melted white cheese (thick and bubbly), topped with sliced tomato, an
d on top of that, an egg sunny side up. Yum. I feel like we finally had something that we won't find at home. On the walk back to the apt, Dana gets one of the nutella crepes she's been craving. They make the crepe right there, then spread out the nutella so its nice and melty, and then fold it until it looks kind of like an ice cream cone. We go back to the apt to pack - and then down to the train station to catch the chunnel. We used the last of our 10 pack this morning to go to the school again, but just thought we'd pick one up at the station. Wrong. No tickets sold at this entrance - of course not at this entrance. So instead of hauling the bags back up and over, Patti volunteers to go alone on an expedition and get 3 tickets a few blocks down. We get through the gates ok - that's kind of a lottery system too. We've been stuck more than once.
- and he's there, and he has one left! Success!We have lunch at a place right on a corner across from the Louvre - I do love that building... Nice view if you can get it. We have french eggs for lunch.. Patti and Dana have ham and cheese omelettes (omlette is french), and I had an interesting dish that was very good, and I think I can recreate. It starts as just a grilled ham and swiss sandwich, but then on the top is melted white cheese (thick and bubbly), topped with sliced tomato, an
d on top of that, an egg sunny side up. Yum. I feel like we finally had something that we won't find at home. On the walk back to the apt, Dana gets one of the nutella crepes she's been craving. They make the crepe right there, then spread out the nutella so its nice and melty, and then fold it until it looks kind of like an ice cream cone. We go back to the apt to pack - and then down to the train station to catch the chunnel. We used the last of our 10 pack this morning to go to the school again, but just thought we'd pick one up at the station. Wrong. No tickets sold at this entrance - of course not at this entrance. So instead of hauling the bags back up and over, Patti volunteers to go alone on an expedition and get 3 tickets a few blocks down. We get through the gates ok - that's kind of a lottery system too. We've been stuck more than once. We grab the train and have another sweaty train ride to the train station - it feels like 90 with no breeze. We are literally dripping sweat. We go through customs, and they always ask you little things to test you, they asked Patti when her flight was (I'm glad they didn't ask me that) - but I put "instructor" on the form for occupation, and the agent had a thick British accent and asked, "What do you instruct?". It threw me off, I've never heard it like that... What? "What do you instruct? It says you're an instructor..". Ooooh....and I explain. We get our France stamp in our passport, and find some AC in the waiting room- aaaahhhh.. Civilization. The train is nice - AC, carpeting.. But the chunnel is pretty anticlimactic. Its just a dark tunnel for a long time. I was hoping to see a cool glass tunnel with fish swimming by or something. Oh well.
Our train ends at Pancras (which we call pancreas) - which is in the same terminal as Kings Cross and we decide we're going to give the Harry Potter 9 and 3/4 station another go - we're here already... After a little exploring, and wading through TONS of people - there were announcements about trains being stuck on the tracks and other trains were cancelled or delayed - it was a crazy time! But we found it!! It was literally right under our noses the last time we went - but its actually right off of platform 8, not 9.... And others that found it also made the same comments. Its not EIGHT and 3/4. 
We posed with our compulsory pics of us pushing the cart through the platform, and head back. Because of the crowds and Dana's complete lack of interest in anything Harry Potter, she stayed behind with the bags so we could search without having to pull our bags through the crowds.
We posed with our compulsory pics of us pushing the cart through the platform, and head back. Because of the crowds and Dana's complete lack of interest in anything Harry Potter, she stayed behind with the bags so we could search without having to pull our bags through the crowds. Now a very long tube ride to Hounslow... And we are beat! We have a quick fish and chips
and Balmers (pear and apple beer! Yumm! We wonder if we can find it in the states?)...
And head back to the hotel. Its just a Days Inn, but its luxury to us. AC so cold, *I'm* actually chilly, comfy beds wit
h thick feather comforter, internet, English speaking tv... We don't know what to do with ourselves. We have two rooms because the rooms just come in "doubles" and that means two people, they don't have rooms with two double beds, they have two twin beds. So Dana and I are in one room and Patti and Amy are in the other. For a while we couldn't figure out how to get the lights to turn on - you have to leave a key card in this card slot near the light switch in order for anything to work. Its really smart, because if y
ou leave, you take your key with you and it ensures that you don't leave any lights on and waste energy. 
The shower is twice the size of any shower we've had on the trip - but it's weird because it's open at one end. it looks like a sliding glass door, but it isn't. That door doesn't move.
and Balmers (pear and apple beer! Yumm! We wonder if we can find it in the states?)...
And head back to the hotel. Its just a Days Inn, but its luxury to us. AC so cold, *I'm* actually chilly, comfy beds wit
h thick feather comforter, internet, English speaking tv... We don't know what to do with ourselves. We have two rooms because the rooms just come in "doubles" and that means two people, they don't have rooms with two double beds, they have two twin beds. So Dana and I are in one room and Patti and Amy are in the other. For a while we couldn't figure out how to get the lights to turn on - you have to leave a key card in this card slot near the light switch in order for anything to work. Its really smart, because if y
ou leave, you take your key with you and it ensures that you don't leave any lights on and waste energy. 
The shower is twice the size of any shower we've had on the trip - but it's weird because it's open at one end. it looks like a sliding glass door, but it isn't. That door doesn't move.Its late here and we're going to bed - Amy is getting in soon, and the four of us fly out to Newark at 12 tmw (but we have to be there 3 hours early) - so we have a full English breakfast on the schedule for tmw, and then HOME! By the time we land it will be 6:30pm, but that's 1:30am by time that we've shifted to - we'll see if we catch some winks on the plane. Oh, and enjoy this... one last giggle at the British signs... 
its your refuge from the "disabled".
its your refuge from the "disabled".NIGHT ALL!! See you soon!
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