No Tuberculosis, Cheval Passion, and Other News

     Getting permission to come to France for a year (you have to go to the consulate in San Francisco and pay money and jump through other hoops) is only part of the process.  Once you've arrived, there is another step.  You receive a "summons" from the Office of Immigration and Integration to go to a mandatory medical examination here in France on a certain day at a certain time.  Then you have to pay more money and provide more information.  And then you get another stamp in your passport that means you can stay.  It is not clear to us what happens if you don't get the other stamp.  But they say that if you miss the summons three times they will kick you out of the country or not let you come back again if you leave.

     Anyway, Le General does things by the book.  And since I had missed the summons twice already, Le General made sure that I responded to the third summons.

     Le General and I went to the office in Avignon.  There were lots of other people there from lots of other countries.  Then they called me into an office and literally weighed and measured me (I was 92 kilos 183 centimeters if you're interested).  Then they gave me an eye test that lasted 10 seconds (if you can say the first letter you're done).  Then they put me in a room with three other people:  a Turkish person, an Algerian, and a Brazilian (I peeked at their passports).

     Then a doctor came in and took me into another room and gave me an X-ray to see if I had tuberculosis.  Then he asked me if I smoked and made me show my teeth "like this" (whereupon he smiled a smile of crooked yellow teeth).  Then I got a special paper and I was done.  Here is a picture of me holding up my X-ray:

Look Ma, No Tuberculosis!

     This is all quite ridiculous of course.  I've already been here for quite a while.  Wouldn't I have already spread my tuberculosis by now if I had it?  And why do they make only adults do this, but not kids?  And why do they check only for tuberculosis but not all the other communicable diseases?  And what would they have done with me if I had had tuberculosis?  Is this just a ploy to raise more money for the slowly crumbling French economy?  I tried to put these questions directly to French President, Nicolas Sarkozy:

      Lush.

     Anyway, I got that all taken care of so that ends the that part of the tale.

     Now I will tell you a little bit about Cheval Passion, which is the name they have for a giant touring horse fair that comes through the area once a year.  It's very much like a county fair except it's only about horses.  The French are horse crazy so far as we can tell and we were invited to go along with Asha's friend Camille and her brother and mother.  There were horses of every size and color from all over the world.  Here is a picture of three fillies together -- American, French and Argentenian:

     We even watched people play a form of basketball on horses.

     It all culminated in a two-hour horse "spectacle" that took place inside an indoor coliseum.  There were thousands of people in attendance (tickets were 37 Euros!).  There were lights and music and performers in ridiculous costumes making the horses perform all kinds of humiliating tricks.  There was also a very spooky emcee with white makeup and a dandy costume:

All in all, it was an "interesting" evening.

     In other news:

•  Ed has been trying harder to learn French.  He recently placed his first "business-related" phone call (much more difficult than an in-person conversation where you can use sign language).  It was a great success.  The ball was volleyed back and forth over the net several times, and the conversation ended amicably and at a natural termination point.

• Ford's friend Nicholas slept over.

• The new load of firewood got stacked:

• And Asha is having a slumber party.   (The date on the invitation is wrong . . . it is actually this weekend):