Unexpected School Visit

For the Class of Mrs Mangan.

So, on a visit to Wisconsin, this most recent yule, I was talking to a friend of mine about our life in  France, growing organic, living sustainably and the other challenges we face compared to our previous lives in metropolitan UK and America.

It dawned on my friend that maybe I could share some of my experiences with her class at the school she taught at in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  Unaccustomed as I am to talking to groups of people I was a little taken aback and somewhat shy... I mean 3rd Graders, what exactly does that mean to someone who hasn't been through an American education system... Ah ok, 8 or 9-year olds.  With this in mind, I agreed.

I turned up, Mrs Mangan briefly introduced me, and off I went... in exceptionally poor French...

"Bonjour à tous, mon nom est Monsieur Palmer et je suis ici pour vous parler de ma vie en France..." lots of confused faces and lots of side glances towards Mrs Mangan.  I continued this charade for a couple of minutes, eventually offering them the option of me continuing in English, I'm slightly better in that language.

Without boring you all with the full details of the topics covered, we included latitudes, thermohaline circulation, growing seasons, beneficial beasties, similarities and differences.  That about covers some of the topics.

Before departing the Badger State, I was handed a pile of hand-written letters, from all the students from Mrs Mangan's class.  As promised, I will answer some of their follow-up questions for you all:

'Alex', my favourite meal would probably be Chicken Malaya (Madras Hot).
'Ciera', don't forget that slugs and snails do a really important rotting biomass removal service.
'Donovan', good luck with finding a WWOOF host that inspires you, although you'll probably have to wait until you are 18-years old.
'Madison', remember that beneficial beasties help us all, not just me.
'Keisha', I've not been able to do a head count on the number of animals in France, but perhaps this website may help you: http://www.wildlifeinfrance.com/mammals-in-france.html
'Rowan', apparently, yes, we do have basketball in England, see here: http://www.bbl.org.uk/
'Lindsey', I'm glad you enjoyed learning about France.
'Josiah', in order to help you stay up to date with the number in my village, you can look at this website: http://www.beauchene61.fr/
'Walker', they do have toys in France, many very similar to the ones you will find in the US.
'Benson', favourite colours are of course green and gold.
'Lucy', these animals are different though: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragondin AND https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver
'Dominik', I only speak the two languages, English and French (poorly).
'Vi', I don't want you to think the French are lazy, they just don't WANT to work as much as you Mid-Western people do!
'Jack', you may want to read this about the Norsemen of Normandy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norsemen#Connection_with_Normandy
'Callam', what's your favourite fruit and vegetable?
'Captain Questions', there are bad people in the world, but every time something bad happens, look around and look at all the good people helping out... there are MORE good people.
'Sam', right now the temperature difference between you and me is 32 degrees, 15f where you are, 47f where I am!
'Noah', looks like the Blackhawks are having a better season than the Bruins.
'Brady', I like France, The UK and US equally.
'Emma', I enjoyed speaking with you all, glad you enjoyed it.
'Ben', there certainly is a lot of differences, but that just makes life more interesting.
'Isabelle', I don't tend to play sports these days but stay active gardening and chopping wood, It's really important to stay active.
'Remy', yes a lot of my family lives in Wisconsin, more than those that live in both France and the UK.

There you go.  Hope you all have a great New Year, stay in school Kids!