Summer break

Another school year has ended. My husband always finds it funny that the year in my personal calendar starts with the first day of school, and basically ends on the last, or rather, when I leave our host country to go back to Europe, the US, or Haiti, depending on where we are spending our summer holidays. But that's how things make sense for me. So, it's holiday time! Whenever I think that, I hear the voice of Sheila singing - a bit cheesy, retrospectively, but when I was growing up, boy, was she popular ! : "give me your hand, do take mine, yes and yes, school is over." This is a litteral translation, so very, very bad. Anyway, you have to be French, born in the Sixties, to understand.

No matter. It's that time of the year when most expats pack their bags and go back to their home country (countries in the case of our family), catch up with friends and family, and just enjoy summery activities. It's also a time for our children to get as large and varied a sample as possible of their parents' home countries and cultures !

This year, it's going to be France. We used to try to visit everyone, with the consequence that we spent our entire holidays plane and continent hopping and we came back more exhausted than when we'd left. No more.

So I'm flying to France for 6 weeks, and I'm really looking forward to it. I intend to eat as many types of cheese as I can, all the seasonal fruits that we don't find here, lots of fresh baguettes and croissants, lots of charcuterie, saucisson, etc, etc. I've already brainwashed my kids about that, painting - with words, of course - tantalizing images of velvety peaches and apricots, prunes with lovely names like Mirabelle or Reine-Claude, ripe, juicy berries in all shades of red, purple, and blue... Yum, yum, yum.

I doubt I'll be posting very much. I'll be participating in an online workshop on characters using the Enneagram. Dad, friends and family being around, chances are I'll have more time for myself than during the last two months! And the rest (of the time) I shall dedicate to:
a) writing - maybe
b) reading - definitely
c) playing lizzard in the sun, jumping in the pool with the kids, cycling in the countryside - absolutely definitely
d) gorging on French food, drinking lots of good wine - absolutely positively definitely
... not necessarily in that order, but you get the picture.

But before I leave India for these few weeks, I wanted to post some photos shot around Hyderabad. To inspire anyone who sees them to come and visit - just wait until we come back. And also to take with me, the way expats always seem to take away a little bit of all the countries they've lived in.

Have a great summer, everyone !