Merry Thanksgiving Day!

One unanticipated pleasure of working for a treasure hunting company is that I get to deal directly with Chinese suppliers because, when cost is your primary motivator, there really isn't anywhere else to turn.

Most recently, I bought 100 promotional LED blacklights to give to players. We often use invisible ink in our clues thereby making blacklights an indispensable part of the effective treasure hunter's toolbox. I spent a good amount of time looking for the best price online until I came across Quality China Goods. In addition to the confidence-inspiring name and the website full of flashing HTML, they had ridiculously low prices and the option of getting the Ravenchase logo printed on them for a reasonable charge. I ordered them through "Joel", my customer service representative who was very attentive and professional. I had to get the express shipping to be sure that they would be here in time for the Paris Expat Olympiad (otherwise shipping would have been free) and they arrived on Saturday. I opened the box and, well, they are a little crappier than I was expecting, but still worth the price I paid for them. Suffice it to say that I'll be going back to Quality China Goods and their parent company, Shenzhen Wholesale, for future blacklight needs.

Beyond the general pleasure I get, as an economic liberal, from dealing with a Chinese manufacturer/wholesaler, I also get to read nearly perfect emails from their customer service reps. In their quest for good relations with their American customers, they are careful to never forget a national holiday (would we, in comparison, remember the date of the Zhonghe Festival?) which, when mixed with nearly perfect English results in well wishes of the sort that I received from "Joel" which serves as the title to this post.

Mmm, globalization. Merry Thanksgiving Day to all, and to all a good turkey!

Ravenchase: The Expat Olympic Adventure Race!

Brits? Yanks? Aussies? Canucks? Kiwis?

Just which national allegiance claims the title of the wittiest, the cleverest, the most cunning Paris expat community? Well, on December 1st, Ravenchase, with the help of several meetup.com groups, intends to determine just that. On that day, I'll be running an event for several different Paris Expat meetups, I've already got the Brits and Yanks on board, whether the Canucks, Aussies, and kiwis come out is yet to be seen, but it's hard to imagine that they could turn something like this down.

Ravenchase is offering this as a free event for the meetup groups as means to get our good name out in front of interesting, adventurous people. With just the Brits and the Yanks, I'm expecting at least 30 people, throw in the other nationalities and that could climb rapidly.

All in all, it's good news for Ravenchase Europe. It gives us some practice in creating larger events and, naturally, shows people how awesome we are. (Anyone other than myself notice how I've begun to refer to Ravenchase in the third person? I think it helps me separate the professional life from the private life which is, in general, a good thing to do.)

If you know any Anglophones in Paris, let them know, it should be a real hoot!

Ravenchase!

So, now that we're happily married (it's true! we're really happy that we got married!) I've had some time to dedicate to other things, like my job. "What's your job?", you ask. "Have you been living under a mushroom?", I respond.

It's working for Ravenchase Adventures, of course! According to my business card, I am "Regional Director, France". Translated, that means that I do everything, from creating their games, to finding actors, to finding clients, to putting on the games, to... well, you get the point. I do it all, but, thankfully, with a lot of help and support from the US.

"So, wait, back it up a little bit. What is Ravenchase?", you ask in wonderfully colloquial American English. Well, according to the website (now also linked in the sidebar on the left), "Ravenchase is the best thing that has happened to guide your adventure since the compass." I'm pretty sure that maps came before compasses, so if the list goes:

1. Map
2. Compass
3. Ravenchase

I think that I would have to agree with it. More directly, Ravenchase creates experiences, adventures really. Most of the adventures are something like treasure hunts, but not your average, everyday treasure hunts. These events have stories, actors, magic potions, and gadgets. There are public games, corporate games, and custom private games. In brief, if you can imagine it, it's safe to say that Ravenchase can create it and a lot more that you could never have imagined.

My job, then, is to produce all Ravenchase operations in France, based out of Paris. So far, things are off to a good start. We had our first event this past Saturday. It was called, The Quest for the Docteur's Dark Secret and it revolves around a World War II figure named Dr. Marcel Petiot who used his profession to kill dozens of Parisians. Mix in the Freemasons, a secret society in the Freemasons, executions, prison, and plenty of other ugly things. (Here's the promotional flier I created for it.)

All in all, it went really well. Everyone that played said that they had a great time and it would seem that it was sufficiently immersive that they were willing to run around with treasure maps without the slightest hint of self-consciousness. Here are pictures from that event:

Ravenchase - Event 2007-10-27

I'm already working on the next game, it should be a lot of fun.

That's about it for now, I'll be trying to post more soon, but chasing ravens is hard work... And if you know anyone in Paris looking for a good time, tell them to give me a ring.

The Trials and Pimpulations of Teaching

I'm finding that nothing creates such an appreciation for teachers as being a teacher yourself. As a student, the teacher is just a figure, a concept made real that serves as a repository for whatever feelings you may have toward adults, authority, knowledge, etc... If you want to rebel, this is the perfect person to rebel against. If you are intellectually curious, this is the ideal person to whom you can pose your most challenging questions. Perhaps because of the subject I teach and the inherent communication barrier between myself and my students I haven't had too many difficult questions. Until this exchange following a class on Thursday...

"What does 'pimpass' mean?"

"I'm sorry, what does what mean?"

"'Pimpass,' what does it mean?"

With understanding came laughter. This didn't seem to offer much explanation to the student. "What? Is it funny?" she asked. "No, no, it's not funny," I said, trying to think about how I could explain it. "Well, to begin with, it's an adjective, a positive adjective, it means that something is cool. Like 'awesome' or 'great.' But not really... Do you know what a pimp is?"

As soon as I asked this question I realized that I had just opened up a much bigger can of worms than I wanted to. Of course the response came, "No."

So I began, "Well, you remember when we studied the song by NaS, 'I Can'? Remember when I explained what is a 'ho' as in 'ganstas and hoes'? Remember, it was a prostitute, right? Prostituée in French. Well, the pimp is the guy who takes the money from the prostitutes. He is a bad man but he has a lot of money. So when something is 'pimp' it means that it's cool. And, well, 'ass,' you know what that is right? Right, that. So you have the two words, you put them together and you have 'pimpass.' Do you understand?"

Obviously there was little hope for their understanding. When they looked at me more confused than before I quickly realized that I wasn't going to be able to explain this one too easily. I just repeated that it was an adjective, it meant that something was good or cool and wished them a good day.

Who thought teaching would be this hard?


Note: After some internet research and from what I overheard from the girls asking the question, they had heard a song by Damian Marley (son of Bob) which they thought was called "Pimpass Paradise." In fact, I've found that it is actually "Pimpa's Paradise." So, rather than an adjective, it is a possessive noun. This means that even my most basic explanation will only leave them more confused in the context of the song.

To quote Brandt, "That's marvelous."

Esther has a job!

A few months of applying, worrying, and stressing are officially over! Esther has a job!

It's a managerial position with a non-profit, social services organization. She will be in charge of expanding the operations of the group both financially and geographically and will have a team of two working for her. From what Esther has described, it sounds like a good organization. Too often, non-profits either focus on research without action or action without research, leading to unimpressive results. This group is different in that they do everything. Once the researchers (sociologists, psychologists, criminologists, etc...) come up with a good idea, it is immediately enacted in the field. Rather than letting good ideas go to waste (or acting without thought) this organization tries to close both ends of the loop.

Furthermore, rather than trying to address criminal tendencies in youth once they have already been expressed (e.g. a 15 year-old boy is caught spraying graffiti on a wall) they look for parameters that are known to lead to criminality and work with kids between the ages of 6 and 12. This is controversial because it implies that an individual is predestined to a life of crime. Of course this isn't the case, but when you look at 50 different parameters (as this organization does) you can often see trends based on geography, family structure, etc... that make a child a likely candidate. This group then takes the child and puts him/her through an intensive 2-year program, coordinated with the school, family, and police, in the hopes of preventing the child from becoming a criminal in the future. Because the program is so intensive and the organization has only existed for a few years, it takes a narrow and deep approach to juvenile criminality. Rather than meeting with a few hundred kids once a week for a few months, the organization is deeply involved in the lives of a few children every day for two years.

In any event, it sounds like a good opportunity for Esther. It has a fancy title that she can put on her resume, the salary is right, and it seems like it is a good organization working for a good cause. Needless to say, we are both very pleased.

Time flies when you're ridiculously busy...

Oops. So it's been nearly two weeks since I last posted. Needless to say, I haven't spent that time at the opera. Rather, Esther and I have been mega-super-ultra busy getting our new house in order. The good news is that we are almost there. Our new curtains are hanging in front of our windows, dividing the main room from the bedroom, and covering our closet. Given the number of locations in our room where we're using curtains, it was a bit difficult to pick it all out at IKEA, but the result is worth the hours spent there. I'm really pleased with how well everything goes together, despite the fact that they're all different colors and textures. Everything seems to fit where it is.

We also got a new couch, well, it's new to us. We bought it from a lady on the other side of Paris who only bought it 4 months ago. She is selling it because she is moving into a new place with a roommate after her house was broken into. The thieves kicked in the door (it was still only partly repaired when we go the couch) and started putting all of her stuff in a gym bag when they must have been scared off by someone as they left the bag on the couch (our couch now) and made off with her wallet. She was pretty shaken up, she said that she hadn't slept in the 5 days since then. The good news is that she gave us a really good deal on the couch and the rug that goes with it. Here's hoping that the thieves don't come looking for the couch they missed...

Outside of the house, both literally and figuratively, I'm now fully into my work and school schedule. Work at the high school is going really well. I'm finding that I like the job quite a bit. The students seem to like me pretty much by default. I'm much closer to their age than the real teachers, I'm American (which is generally a positive, or at least interesting, thing in their eyes), and, most importantly, I don't give them any assignments or homework. All that's expected of them in my class is that they behave and they use whatever English skills they have. All in all it is pretty easy for them and pretty easy for me.

My classes are also getting off to a good start. I feel that I was placed into the right level; I'm learning a lot but I'm not lost in the material. The professor is a very nice, very intelligent lady and the other students are generally people like me, people out of college and working. It's pretty fun although, since it is at the end of the day, it is pretty easy for my attention to wane towards the end of two hours. Also, I will have some pretty long days in the near future, getting on the Metro just before 7am and not getting back until almost 9pm, mais c'est la vie.

I'll post more interesting observations and whatnot soon. Until then, here is a picture of myself showing my attempts at integration: