The Senate

From the lack of postings you may have guessed it has been pretty quiet around here. It's been a week and I don't have a whole lot to report. Which is lame for you to read, pretty great for me. I needed a lame week.

Sunday we checked out the Senate Building at the Luxembourg Gardens. Most of the municipal and government buildings and some museums were open for free all weekend. It was really cool to see inside this mysterious building that is always heavily guarded. (The president lives there, I think...). The ladies really enjoyed the experience as we walked through all the beautiful rooms and learned that some people put art work on the ceiling! And we got to see Napoleon's thrown! There was a LOT of gold! ;)

Not much else has been happening. Everyone except me is very congested and having trouble sleeping. Elise and Celia are also battling a cough but I think are slowly getting better. Brian is pretty miserable but gets less sympathy because he's not as cute! :)

Hence we have been taking it easy. I'm helping to organize our Mother's MESSAGE Halloween Party next month. We found a park that we are going to host the "Trick or Treating" in and a little cafe that will take us all in if bad weather comes our way. Look at me, PTA mom of the year in Paris! :)

We are also enjoying this freakishly hot weather. Although it rained on us about two weeks ago and every Parisian warned us that summer is gone, fall has arrived, and it will rain for the next 6 months, it is now well into the 70's and 80's, bright, sunny, and pleasantly warm. I love it! Especially since I went out immediately after our first big rain storm and bought Elise a rain coat...it's still sitting in its bag in the closet...no need for it. But I'm not complaining!

It's also filming week on campus. There are 2 or 3 different films that are using our beautiful campus as their backdrop/scenery. The other day our main building was closed off and actors were roaming the campus in big black top hats and tuxedos. Yesterday there was a great scene that we got to watch over and over again as they tried different angles, props, and lighting. It was a comedy/love story and a fascinating process to watch. I wish I knew what was going on or at least who the actors were so I could show off that I'm star gazing! But the ladies and I just sit from a distance and observe. It's pretty fun!

Okay, I'm off to get more exciting in Paris so that not every blog has to be so lame. I did take a nice stroll through the streets of the fabulous 13th and 14th last night. However being a Monday night there was not much going on, most places aren't open on Mondays. I'm going to try to make it a weekly thing to get out and see places. More on that later.

I'm off...

It's cold!

I know, I'm an embarrassment to the family. It's 18 degrees here (yes, I'm working with the celsius...you figure out the fahrenheit. I'm so French now. We eat dinner at 20:00 heures egalement!) and I need my winter coat. I don't know what I'm going to do when it's zero! We are in for a wild ride this winter. You think I'm crying now...

The picture shown above is from our walk home on Saturday. We enjoyed a fabulous birthday picnic with our friends and on our way to the Tram spotted the Eiffel Tower as we crossed the south western end of the Seine. What a great picture, eh? It's moments like these that I really love being in Paris. It's so beautiful. Saturday was an amazingly perfect day. We continued our picnic theme that evening with the ladies, Katy (my friend from Prep), and Andy (Brian's colleague). It was a fabulous Saturday.

Now I don't want to boast too much, however Friday night I tackled la cuisine francaise and I must say it turned out pretty magnifique! I made a pretty delicious cream white wine sauce with eggplant, mushrooms, and zucchini. The special sauce topped a pretty delicious chicken, cooked in capers and wine. Now, give me some gas burners and I'm probably going to take my cuisine over the top, but I am making progress with these electric burners. More on that as my cooking develops...

Such developments may come quickly: I discovered the Rue Daguerre this weekend in the fabulous 14th. It has everything a chef de francaise could ever desire: poissonnerie, boulangerie, boucherie, and fromagerie. I could easily spend a million euros there. I was in heaven walking the short pedestrian street; the fruits and vegetables looked so fresh and the fish places were amazing. There were a couple wine shops with samples outside to try and you could try and match your wine tasting with a cheese tasting from the fromagerie next store. Heaven! The street is home to one of the most famous boucheries in all of Paris. This family owned butcher serves all of the best, most famous restaurants in town. I haven't figured out which one exactly it is, but when I do... :)

Celia is done coloring and Elise will be done with school soon. Thus we are off to picnic in the park.

A bientot!

Christmas in September

We received all our stuff today. It finally came and without sounding too materialistic I must say that it feels very nice. It's comforting to look around and see little pieces of home around the apartment and feel like we have finally arrived. I can already sense the change in Elise and Celia. Elise has taken every "baby" around for a ride in her shopping cart and is loving re-opening all her toys. I do feel bad that this is what it takes to feel at home, toys and such, however after spending a month in a strange new city where it's difficult to communicate with the people we meet on the street in a lime green apartment that feels cold and unwelcoming, if my ladies are finally happy and comfortable, I'll take it.

Am I materialistic, I ponder as I blog from my iPhone.

Just kidding, I'm writing from my fairly newly purchased Macbook!

Oh geez, give me a break guys. I'm just kidding! Well, not really but I must stress how good it feels to be home. I have a decent cooking pot and warm clothes, with options. I think my new friends were wondering if I owned something more than the grey, the brown, or the blue gap t-shirt? It was dangerous if I saw them four days in a row without a break in the rotation!

But in all seriousness, we are all feeling very good after being here a little over a month. This has been the best adventure of my life. I have learned so much about myself and even after pondering the materialism issues I'm dealing with tonight, I'm still feeling good about myself. We took a leap and a chance on life and look at where it's gotten us? We are living in an amazing city with fabulous new friends and as I ride the metro up to the Eiffel Tower with my ladies every Wednesday, we are surrounded by so much beauty and mystery. There is never a dull moment.

Speaking of dull moments. I was looking for one the other day as I rode the metro to soccer. There I was on Line 6 listening to some music when the train stopped suddenly. The train lost power for about 15 seconds and then the conductor came on to explain the situation. I guess it was ironically funny but still very serious because there were mixed emotions of anger and amusement from the crowd. I had no idea what was happening but it caused quite a stir in the train compartment. People were excited and talking to one another while I just absorbed as much of the experience as I could. Then as we started on our way ten minutes later, the people on the train went back to their own business of reading, sleeping, jamming, or staring off into space. I loved it!

Okay, off to bed. We had a fabulous evening at Brian's lab. They hosted a very informal party to celebrate the kick-off of the new school year and welcome everyone back. I got to spend some time with Sophie, Brian's boss, and his new office-mate Andy; both of which are fantastic and very interesting people. Brian is really liking his new job and is adjusting nicely to the new world of science in Paris. He has a lot of colleagues and is meeting new people every day. He will make a guest appearance soon and share more with you about his new world but in short, he's happy and doing some great work.

Hope all is well!

A week of random thoughts

So I have not been a very good blogger this past week. My only excuse is that there was a lot going on and we were squeezing in activities before school started on Thursday. We went to the Science Center, Eiffel Tower, and then experienced all the Drama of the First Day of School! Busy week! Here's our week working backwards from this morning...

1. Ignorance was Bliss...So I think I liked it better when the crazy old Frenchmen and woman made their comments to me and I just nodded my head and smiled because I had no idea what they were saying. As my francais is improving, I am understanding more and more that these sweet little old men and woman are not very sweet at all! On two separate occasions this morning I was scolded by different woman because Celia did (a) not have shoes on and (b) was wearing a skirt. They were very unhappy with me! It was quite amusing though to have them wagging their little old fingers in my face slowly yelling their disapproval.

2. I survived my first Parent's Open House...for my 3 year old! This was intense. Back to School night and I brought my friend Greg to translate. The parent's association of France is intense. I was only able to get about half of what they were saying because I finally had to tell Greg to stop -- meetings, elections, democrats, and republicans. It's a well oiled powerful machine that basically runs the education system. The directrice was very supportive of them however I did sense a little tension as they reviewed their goals for the year. I think I'm going to sit this one out for the year and see how things go. Yes, I'm scared. But the rest of the Open House was great and I got to hear about Elise's schedule for the morning, their goals, and ways that I can help at home. I think Elise is really going to like it there!

3. Elise's teacher is fabulous! Elise has officially made it 3 days and today was fantastic. Although there were many tears during the drop-off, I learned that they quickly disappeared and that Elise had a great day. She was in great spirits when I picked her up and is excited to go back tomorrow. I'm feeling so much better about her enthusiasm for the school and her willingness to want to go back. It was a hard morning thinking about all those tears and sadness. But my lady is a fine, dramatic actress and I know she knows how to turn it on for me!

4. Finally, the phone! I have had my iPhone now for about 10 days and I must say that it is fabulous! I don't know how I survived life before. I just love it. The only problem is that the lady inside the phone that tells me about my messages and inbox is French and I can't understand a word she is saying. So, I can't change my outgoing message and if I need to replay a message I'm screwed! Next on the list of translations, figure out the phone!

So there you have a quick recap of my adventures. We have been getting out and seeing some of the city too! We went up north to the 3rd and saw some of the Jewish District and bought some nice treats there. We had a nice walk along the Seine and enjoyed the beautiful sights of Notre Dame Cathedral. It's the Tower and the Cathedral that really get me excited about living here. It's so crazy that this is my home. I love it.

I also wanted to share my fabulous doctor visit. I went to get a medical clearance so that I can join the Cite Sports Club and work out. So I made an appointment with a doctor I found on my MESSAGE website (the mother's group). One of my favorite experiences of the day was sitting in the waiting room with all the other patients. As people entered and left the room, there was always a greeting and response. For example, when one woman came in, she entered with a Bonjour to the entire room and everyone responded with a Bonjour. Then when another woman left, she called out a bonne journee and everyone replied right back. I just loved it!

The doctor was great. Of corse he claimed to speak no English and took my family/medical history all in French (I brought a notebook full of notes in French. I came very well prepared!). Then we chatted a bit about what I was doing and why I came to see him. He admitted that he attends some English speaking classes and spoke really great English. There were a lot of medical terms that neither of us could translate, but it is very interesting how many frenchmen will refuse to speak English. They are embarrassed if it is not perfect and won't try. I found the same thing with the Directrice at Elise's school. Luckily my translator friend Greg was there and helped us along with the registration. However as I made jokes/comments to Greg about the process and school, she laughed at all of them. It was fabulous! They are sneaky those Frenchmen!

Off to parle francais. And then work on my futbol skills!