{"id":4462,"date":"2025-10-18T16:37:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T20:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/?p=4462"},"modified":"2025-10-18T16:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T20:46:08","slug":"roar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/roar\/","title":{"rendered":"Roar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does anybody have a guess about what we did this evening?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Did you guess, &#8220;watched a man use a chainsaw to turn a block of wood into a sculpture of a lion?&#8221; Wow, that was oddly specific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But you nailed it.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5705.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5705.jpg?resize=225%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"a block of wood sitting on a platform in front of a church, waiting to be carved into\" class=\"wp-image-4456\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5705.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5705.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5705.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1152w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5705.jpg?w=1500&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5722.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5722.jpg?resize=225%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"a man carves a lion into wood with a chainsaw\" class=\"wp-image-4458\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5722.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5722.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5722.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1152w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5722.jpg?w=1500&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5735.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5735.jpg?resize=225%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"a lion carved out of wood\" class=\"wp-image-4455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5735.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5735.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5735.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1152w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5735.jpg?w=1500&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the other parents from Lilian&#8217;s school sent us the event info, and I&#8217;m so glad that we went! It was oddly satisfying to watch the lion emerge from a block of wood. Plus, it was great people watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The whole process took about an hour, and it included a musical soundtrack that ranged from theatrical classical music to&#8230; the White Stripes version of Jolene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The artist is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lingl-sculpture.com\/\">J\u00fcrgen Lingl<\/a> and he&#8217;s a sculptor who works primarily with a chain saw. I made a few jokes about American-style wooden bears, but his work is the real deal. My photos don&#8217;t do it justice, the lion had so much character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lilian and I were trying to guess what animal he&#8217;d create, and we were pretty sure it would be a lion (the symbol of Lyon). We were pretty pleased with ourselves for guessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chainsaws aside, today was a pretty calm day. We tidied up our apartment as a family. It didn&#8217;t take too long, but made a big difference. A girl could really get used to having everything on one floor, with no yard or exterior maintenance. This apartment is pretty big by French standards, but it&#8217;s still a lot less work to maintain than an American-sized house. Especially since we&#8217;ve pared down our possessions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lilian took some photos today, I&#8217;ll let her post them to show you all what our common area is like. (Lilian is using all pronouns now).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lilian and I walked all the way back to our original neighborhood today. It&#8217;s a straight shot from our permanent apartment, and there&#8217;s an avenue that we can take that&#8217;s closed to motor vehicles. It was probably about 45-60 minutes worth of walking each way, but we took our time. We grabbed poke bowls at the beginning and boba at the end. Mostly, &#8220;nous sommes all\u00e9es faire du l\u00e8che-vitrines&#8221; aka &#8220;went window shopping&#8221; aka &#8220;went window licking&#8221; (the literal translation). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s amazing how many things my old french teacher, M. Richardson, talked about still live rent-free in my head. He loved telling us about clever idioms. He also loved joking about how the verb for &#8220;to fish&#8221; (p\u00eacher) sounds just like the verb for &#8220;to sin&#8221; (p\u00e9cher). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We didn&#8217;t fish or sin today, but we did find me some decent looking dress pants (I goofed and left all my nicer pants back in the US) and a really cute jacket. I&#8217;ve got a summit to attend next week, so hopefully I look tr\u00e8s chic, and not like an American who&#8217;s trying too hard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking of sins, last night I went to a special Halloween choreography event at the aerial studio near us. The teacher made us all up like freaky clowns and then we learned a routine to go with the vibe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I love Debora&#8217;s choreography. It somehow manages to be simultaneously accessible, fun and completely exhausting. I think because there are so many dance elements. I&#8217;ve been taking classes in &#8220;Cerceau Aerien&#8221; (aerial hoop\/lyra) as well as in &#8220;souplesse&#8221; (flexibility). The flexibility class is just what I need, some stretching and a whole lot of strength and conditioning. It&#8217;s only been a couple of weeks, but I feel like I&#8217;m getting stronger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Between the class last night and all of the walking today, I&#8217;m going to sleep well tonight!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does anybody have a guess about what we did this evening? Did you guess, &#8220;watched a man use a chainsaw to turn a block of wood into a sculpture of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[66,8,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerial","category-family","category-france"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s5yggS-roar","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_5735.jpg?fit=1500%2C2000&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4462"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4467,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462\/revisions\/4467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}