Hello
d’ere! Has it already b’en a year since we last invaded t’at little box your
mail calls home? What a year it’s been! As our dear departed mother used to
say, “The Lord works in mysterious ways His wonders to behold” and we have spent
the better part of the year beholding many a wonder Thanks be to God, which
thankfully included most of you with high hopes of including the rest of you in
the weeks and months to come…through the miracle of email and the internet we’re
lucky enough to stay in touch with many a dear and distant friend. First, as
custom now demands, let me once again say a wee prayer of thanksgiving for all
your Christmas greetings—we do so cherish the spirit of that time and the joy
that your holiday wishes bring. And now, tis our turn to return the favor in
this our annual wee epistle (AWE) of the comings and goings of the clan known
farther and wider each day as the Ryans (I’m especially wider each day).
The magnetism of the emerald isle lured us 1000 km closer to its shores this
year as we were compelled by opportunity to make the jump from country mice to
city mice and move from paradise to Paris! [Perhaps you heard the loud scraping
noise as they pried us out of Oberammergau?] Well, we landed on our feet and
after the direct intervention of every French person I know, we successfully
navigated Level 1 of the French bureaucracy and rented a gorgeous and spacious
(hint to visit) apartment in downtown Paris just next to Place du Trocadero (for
those of you following along on your maps at home). Everyone loves it (except
our cats who are still wondering what happened to all the trees, fields, and
mice). As you recall from our last episode (AWE-01), Mike was asked to repeat a
grade in school (at government expense). To keep him from disrupting the entire
US professional military education system, he was assigned to the Ecole
Militaire here in Paris (picture to the right) where there is no danger of him
corrupting anyone because the French don’t generally listen much to Americans
anyway…or so they say…Mike is now learning French along with 70 friends from 55
different countries! Today France, tomorrow the world!!! One thing at a
time Napoleon…
Alas, there’ll be no more Volvo+4 excursions across Europe as the reality
of owning a boat on wheels in Paris set in all too rapidly. Recognizing that
discretion really is the better part of valor and that parallel parking is not
an option for her, Gloria gave up her beloved Volvo Cross Country in exchange
for a metro ticket and a bus route map (and a whole lot more money in her
checking account – and NO, Mike doesn’t have a checking account). However,
before the ink dried on the bill of sale we did manage to ruin Roman ruins in
Italy, pluck Parisienne patisseries (pre-move), absorb Austrian alpine
appetizers, and become bravely blitzed browsing Bavarian breweries…in short, we
lived well…Knight’s jousting on horseback (and the children didn’t try it at
home – yet…), parasailing off the beaches of the Mediteranean (and the children
did try that…and liked it and then tried it again and liked it again and then
their money ran out…), and skiing, skiing, skiing (“Can we stop now Daddy?”)
skiing (and the children went to the pool but there wasn’t a parasail there).
Many a fearless traveller joined in our expeditions: Gloria’s sister Elsa
jumped trains with her in Italy. Ray and Kim Phillips & Sons hurled themselves
down mountains with all of us in Kuhtai, Austria. Carissa’s God parents Joe &
Sarah d’Eon (plus Christie and Jody) came all the way from Sacramento to O’gau
for the weekend! God bless’em every one! (but someone must be an airline pilot
in that family?) Well, Carissa was especially thrilled to see them and she took
the occasion to introduce them to the entire “Sacred Family”—an “eternal” reward
if you know what I mean—and this year you should add wee stuffed Starlight and
Goldie to your updated Christmas card list. Daddy’s “little” girl (age 10) is
rapidly becoming a candidate for a full-body cast as that is about the only
thing we can think of to keep her from growing up into a beautiful and charming
young woman! If you fathers out there have any ideas on how to keep this
wonderful time with your daughter forever please send them to the address on
your screen. This is a free call! Call NOW! She insists that 10 is
pre-teen and I insist that 30 is still childhood (I was a pilot after all).
Carissa still loves her violin, dancing, skiing, and tennis (I played with her
for my first time and I needed new strings in my racket afterward—what a
backhand!). For her annual birthday trip to the theater, Daddy took her to
Stuttgart to see “Tanz der Vampira”, a musical version of “The Fearless Vampire
Killers” (the Bonnie Rait song ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ ring a bell?) and
she’s been singing and playing the CD ever since; however, music and dance are a
distant second as she is STILL “Perilously Potty about Potter” and has read and
reread the books in both English and German more times then I’ve read a stop
sign (and yes I stop…sometimes). For Christmas, she received Stephen Fry’s (Jeeves
of Jeeves and Wooster) version of the first three books on tape…and now she’s
memorized all of them. Of course, the movie was a watershed event in her world
(I’ve seen it five times with her—in German no less Thank God I read the book
first –and now we’ve finally seen it in English,
and I’m sure that French is next). Both kids are enrolled in the “Deutsche
Schule Paris” to continue with their German and the same curriculum in which
they started the year. They are learning French from German as most of their
schooling has been in German—helping with homework is a real challenge!. As a
reward for all this hard work moving and changing schools, Mommy sprung some
shackles loose from the vault to buy “season passes for Disneyland Paris” (OK,
so we are Americans after all…and Dominoes delivers to our appartment…and they
bring beer too!) and it means 
that
we get a big discount for our friend’s tickets when they go with us (hint to
visit). As an added bonus, we got passes to the new Walt Disney Studios park,
which opened March 16th, 2002, and free tickets to go to the park
before it officially opened (so the staff could practice on us) which is when
Michael became “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” (Does that make me the Sorcerer?
Don’t ask Gloria) – It was such a great opportunity that we did almost
everything twice! (especially the desserts – Mike had double desserts twice!).
Little Michael (check the 9 box on your scorecards) is playing the piano now out
of Daddy’s big books and sounding great (Don’t tell him about the tip jar idea);
he was dubbed “Ritter Michael (Knight)” at the Kaltenberg Medievel Tournament;
and most importantly, he made his first holy communion in the parish church in
Oberammergau…and of course, for his meal we went to the only “All you can eat”
buffet in Bavaria…eat, not drink…and he didn’t gain a pound…I wish I could do
that. Michael spent most of the year with his twin brother Maxi biking, playing
playstation on the Big Screen TV (a huge hit in a small German town), and
swimming (and being thrown across the pool by Maxi’s 48 brothers and cousins –
he loved it!). He’s now thinking of becoming a stand-up comedian when he grows
up and is really fond of telling jokes in German (Maxi’s brothers would have to
answer for that if only I understood the jokes)…Once, I bought donuts for a
treat and Michael said seriously “Daddy, just because we are eating donuts
doesn’t mean that we’re policemen!”--he’s got a future!
Gloria,
the former beer barrel brunette of Bavaria, is now living her dream in France as
a wine-loving wisp of a woman, speaking French like a native (spouses get to
take French classes with us at Ecole Militaire and she is in the group ahead of
me!), and attacking the French bureaucracy with élan (isn’t that
a dessert ?) in order to get our phone, electricity, heat, plumbing, mail etc.
etc. etc. Gloria went to Kiev, Ukraine with Mike to a conference to show all
those blond women what real beauty is—it worked right up until she drank the
water—can you say Alka…uh…Seltzer ? (pre-water picture at left) After that she
went home to her native New Mexico for the annual pilgramage to Mom’s kitchen
and was just fine. When she got back we all went on the overnight train to Nice
on the Cote d’Azur (Riviera in English) for Mike’s pre-Paris French course (no,
I’m not making this up)…the family stayed for a week drinking in all that the
south of France has to offer—and believe me, there’s a lot to drink in even for
an Irishman—I know because I had to stay for a month! A high point for all of
us this year was the wedding of our friends Heike & Herbert Burkart, especially
the “Polter Abend” at which you could break as many dishes as you could
carry…Gloria took advantage of my “bull in a china shop” tendency to get me to
break all her dishes so she could buy new ones! I tricked her back because we
used her checkbook to do it!! As for Mike, he too realized a dream in
Rome as we attended an open-air audience with his holiness the Pope (along with
50,000 of our closest friends). Strategically placed, the kids were up front
when the Pope-Mobile went by—the kids loved the Roman ruins because they could
play on them and not have to worry about breaking anything! You’ll recall from
AWE-01 that Michael Sr.’s WWII radio operator Bob Chism couldn’t make it to
Europe last year—well, he made it this year and we had a great visit and even
spent a day searching for the place where their plane went down! Turns out it
was in the middle of one of Europe’s most important battle fields (Battle of
Blenheim – don’t be ashamed to look it up-I did) so we stopped in to the local
museum for clues and the curator turned out to be a German veteran who was
captured by the Russians on the same day that Bob was captured by the Germans!
Bob got home a lot faster than he did…[For more on the grace of the 398th
BG, read “Angel: A Mighty Fortress” and “The Stained Glass Window” both by
Don Gaddo at amazon.com] Along with us as our “interpreter” was Wayne Merry, who
had graciously donated some of his retirment funds by doing pro-bono work for
his personal NATO cause. Also on the bright side, we were finally able to get
all the details in order for St. Benedict’s Church in Carrolltown, PA to buy
their much-anticipated hand-carved outdoor crucifix for the church grounds…stop
by and see it! On the down side, not only do we miss many dear friends from the
NATO School, but Mike had to sell his beloved “deux chevaux” (albeit in
anticipation of getting an even better one in France). We’ll be here in Paris
‘til Jun 2003 (hint to visit) and the
n
only God knows where–t’is good enough for me! So, as “Doc O’Graham”, a 398th
navigator and a hell of an American, wrote me recently: May you be poor in
misfortune this season and rich in blessings, slow to make enemies, quick to
make friends, and rich or poor, slow or quick as happy as this year 2002 is
long. And might I add “May the enemies of Ireland (and of peace and freedom)
never find a friend.”
Godspeed.
Mike, Gloria, Carissa and Michael…Phone France 1.44.05.99.69…email
Ryan.Michael(nospam)@wanadoo.fr