Michele's life en franglais

B1 to be French

2012-01-27T08:53:00.000+01:00

For those who are considering applying for French citizenship:

At the beginning of the month I stumbled upon this article (in French) discussing the changes in the language requirements for becoming a French citizen. Apparently they have just changed the law and now candidates applying for French citizenship must demonstrate a B1 level of French, rather than the previous A1. If they cannot demonstrate this new level, they will be required to take language classes until they obtain the level. These can either be free class with government accredited "FLI" (français langue d'intégration) institutions, or, for those who want to reach the level faster, private lessons that the candidate must pay for.

Apparently, included in this new language requirement is the elimination of the traditional language interview to obtain citizenship. Now the candidate will be required to supply proof that they have the appropriate level in the form of a diploma or an attestation de niveau from an institution recognized by the Minister of the Interior.

At the moment I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this change. While I agree that it is important that a person who is trying to become French have a firm grasp of the language, I don't at all agree with the elimination of the language interview. What happens to those people who have been living in France for years and learned French by being surrounded by it, and definitely have the B1 level or higher, but do not have a diploma to prove it? Are they going to be forced to give up their time to attend unnecessary language classes? And doesn't this cost an awful lot for the French government? Or are taxes on immigration services going to increase even more as a result?

What do you think?

Cuisine française in the USA

2012-01-18T07:10:00.000+01:00

The entire time I lived in France, I never really cooked any traditionally "French" food. I cooked all the time but it was always American, Italian, Mexican or some kind of Asian. I never really went searching for French recipes to try, and I never really took an interest in preparing French food. Even though I love French food, it was something we rarely ate, not even in restaurants.

But now that we are in the US I am finally looking for and testing out some more traditional French recipes. I guess it's a combination of that fact that in France it was more readily available so it didn't interest me as much (kind of like peanut butter...when I'm in France I eat tons of it, but in the US I rarely eat it) and the fact that now I want Lionel to get to enjoy foods from his culture so he feels more comfortable and at home. And, of course, I'm also hoping to impress my friends and family with my impressive cooking skills and fancy French meals!

So here is a recipe I tried out last week and that turned out really well. It's for a traditional French country-style daube and Lionel and I, as well as my parents, really enjoyed it.

I cut the amount of meat in half because there were only 4 of us eating, but I didn't change the amount of wine and it was just enough sauce, so if you really like sauce, like we do, then I recommend using more wine. We also felt there weren't enough vegetables so I added a few more carrots and also some mushrooms and one chopped turnip. I served it with homemade mashed potatoes and it was delicious and very similar to the daube that my belle mère served when we were staying chez les beaux parents in November.

Give it a try and enjoy! And let me know if you have any great French recipes I can try out!

La vie so far in America

2012-01-14T06:07:00.000+01:00

Since arriving in the US life has been very busy. And I also gotta say that the US has been scoring a lot of points against France! So what have we accomplished so far?

I bought a car...a beautiful little 2012 Ford Fiesta 4-door sedan with manual transmission. Exactly what I wanted - a nice, small, relatively inexpensive car that gets good gas mileage. And we got car insurance...which was the only little headache we've encountered so far because they wanted Lionel's driving record from France, which has proven more complicated than expected. But we should receive the translation sometime this week so the insurance company can have it on file.

This is what my beautiful new car looks like...I absolutely love it!

We got fancy smartphones. Yes, we have entered the 21st century finally...a bigger change for me than for Lionel who never even really had a cell phone before! Plus we found a great deal with T-mobile and were able to get unlimited international calls and texts on Lionel's line for only $15 extra per month! So no need to have a house phone (once we finally have our own house).
We have both been working for my father...nothing fancy, just delivering pizza, but it's ideal because we mostly work at night which leaves our days open for the job search, and hopefully soon (fingers crossed), job interviews. It also allows us to earn a little cash and not completely empty out our savings accounts. Also, 1 point for the US that Lionel had the right to work the second he entered the US and didn't have to wait 4 months like I did in France!
We opened 2 bank accounts for Lionel...a savings and a checking at my little hometown bank. And that's another point for the US because it only took us about 30 minutes to get his accounts open (and it would have been less if it hadn't been such a small bank that had never opened an account for a foreigner before, which is actually shocking considering all the Mexican immigrants who live in this area), compared to the 2 months that my best enemy, La Poste, in France took to open my bank account (which I talk about here, here and here).
We finally got our caution back from our apartment in France. They waited the ENTIRE two months they have by French law to send it, but thankfully we got it and we don't have to fight with them about anything.
We FINALLY got our money transfered to the US. Though, as usual, La Poste made me want to kill them. We all know that they can't be bothered to do their job, but it's just getting ridiculous. My father ended up calling us on our cruise ($8/minute phone call!) because my beau père had been contacted by La Poste a week and a half after we mailed in our request to have our money transfered to my small bank and they wanted to verify the amounts we wanted to transfer. Really? Really? I couldn't believe it considering that on the form we actually had to write the amount to be transfered both in figures AND in words, so it was quite clear. But I guess it was their way of delaying the transfer so they didn't have to hand over the money. So thank you La Poste, because of the change in exchange rates from when we asked for the transfer to when you actually bothered to do it, we lost about $1,000 total. And ended up with a very high internet bill on the cruise (75 cents a minute!), and a lot of extra unnecessary stress and headache.
We FINALLY got (I think, and now that I think about it, I actually have to verify this), our joint account at La Poste closed...of course that was not without it's own headaches, stress and naturally, La Poste-related stupidity. And I really have to check on this because I'm not 100% sure it's actually closed, but if it is it finally happend about 5-6 weeks after our request and after they continued to transfer money from our personal (and empty) accounts into the joint account even though it was supposed to be closed and we had asked them to stop those automatic deposits!
Lionel got his US social security card. When we arrived they told us we would receive it in the mail 2-3 weeks after arrival, but it came only 1.5 weeks later which was great. And there was no hassle, we didn't have to do anything but check a box on one of his visa documents and voilà! So definitely another million points for the US compared to the 3 years of fights, paperwork and visits to La Secu that I had to suffer in France to FINALLY get the social security number and carte vitale that I had been paying for in taxes the whole time (which I talk about here, here and here).

Lionel got his Ohio drivers license. And it was so easy! Our original plan had been to have him take the test and get it that way instead of handing over the precious, expensive and difficult to replace French permis to do the license exchange. But when we went in they insisted he only had to do a quick eye exam and he would get the Ohio license automatically, for $22 like everyone else, and that they wouldn't take his French license. So we said OK, and a few minutes later we were walking out of the BMV with his Ohio license and French permis in hand! Lionel was also shocked by how quick it was at the BMV and how you walk out with your new license the same day...in fact they manage to make it in less than 5 minutes! So another couple hundred points for the US for not taking his French permis, for being so fast and efficient, and for not fighting with him about, and at first refusing him, his right to a license without having to pass an exam (I talk about my less than satisfactory experience in France here and here).

example of an Ohio drivers license...don't ask me why they are pink now, that change while I was in France!

Lionel got his 10-year green card!!!!!!! This one is really exciting because they told us it would take about 6 months - 1 year after his arrival for it to arrive (once again, magically and hassle free) in the mail, but he got it a month and a few days after we got here. So once again a million points to the US because not only did it come so unexpectedly quickly, and conveniently by mail, but it's also good for 10 years unlike France which makes you suffer EVERY SINGLE YEAR for the first 3 years of marriage to get your "temporary" carte de séjour even though you are married to a French person.

sample green card...that's what they really look like! I had never seen one until Lionel's arrived!

We got a membership at the YMCA, because we both want to get in shape!
We did the holidays and did them right, which was no small feat in my opinion considering we arrived in the US just a few short weeks before Christmas and yet we managed to pull off all our moving stuff and still do all our Christmas shopping!
We unpacked. EVERYTHING. 12 suitcases. And packed most of it into boxes to wait until we have our own place.

I have to say, while from time to time I still have doubts about the decision to move to the US, especially when I think about health insurance, vacation or the upcoming misery of living through the US presidential elections, when I look at this list I can't help but think that we never, ABSOLUTELY NEVER, could have accomplished all of this in so short an amount of time. And thinking about how easy all of these administrative tasks were here in the US compared to the constant torture of French bureaucracy makes me wonder if moving back to a place that doesn't make you suffer for months just to open a bank account can really be that bad.

So I guess I still need some time to adjust to being in the US, and while I'm sure there will always be things about France I will miss and regret, for the moment at least I am quite happy to be in America!

The cruise and the arrival in the US

2012-01-06T07:19:00.000+01:00

First of all, Happy New Year!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, things have been busy here what with working 20-30 hours a week for my father and searching for a "real" job at the same time. But I promise I'm going to make an effort to post more often.

So to start I wanted to finally post a few pictures from our cruise. I definitely have to say that a cruise has to be the best way to travel between Europe and the US, especially if you only need to go one way since you can find such amazing prices and get a great vacation at the same time!

We absolutely loved the cruise. It was very relaxing, we never had to deal with jet lag, we got to see some interesting places, we met a lot of really nice and interesting people and it was a great introduction to the US for Lionel since it is primarily English speakers on the cruise and mostly American style food.

As planned we left from Barcelona, about 30 minutes later than planned because of some extra cleaning they needed to do on the boat.

the Grand Foyer on our boat

having a martini sampler in the Martini Ice Bar, it was pretty impressive he poured all six at once!

our boat

We went to Alicante which was nice, but my least favorite of the our stops, perhaps because it rained the whole day. However we made an effort to explore as much as we could stand in the rain and managed to walk around the city some and go up to the hilltop fortress above the city.

Esplanada d'Espana

Alicante from the port

a little square in the old center of Alicante

Then we went to Malaga which was an absolutely beautiful city in the south of Spain and probably our favorite stop. There was so much to do and see in that city including 2 amazing hilltop Moorish palaces overlooking the city, a beautiful cathedral and small, winding streets in the old center.

street in the old center of Malaga

cathedral of Malaga

view over Malaga

Lionel and I exploring Malaga

inside one of the two Moorish palaces

view over Malaga and the sea with the city's bullfighting ring in the bottom right corner

Next we were supposed to go to Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, but due to a national strike in Portugal that day, it was cancelled. I was pretty bummed because Funchal was the city I wanted to see the most. But oh well. Instead we stopped in Gibraltar, and while I don't think it was as beautiful as Funchal would have been, and it was definitely overcrowded with two big cruise ships worth of people there that day, it was still interesting to see, and it was a nice little stop in the UK. We had a lot of fun exploring the Rock of Gibraltar, though Lionel is afraid of heights and had a few moments of panic up there, and the town was actually pretty nice as well. It was also interesting to be able to be in the UK and see Spain and Morocco all at the same time!

Casement's Square, the main square of Gibraltar with the Rock towering above

one of the famous apes of Gibraltar from a colony of small apes that inhabit the Rock

an ape on Lionel's back...it just decided to jump on him!

view of part of the Rock, the sea, and Morocco in the background

another square in Gibraltar

Finally we went to Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands. It was just beautiful. The city was very big but we did a little walking tour of the historic center then hopped a bus out to a nearby beach and village which was a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

the island of Tenerife, Canary Islands from the ship

the oldest church in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the largest city on the island of Tenerife

the market of Santa Cruz de Tenerife

a beautiful little beach only 20 minutes by bus from Santa Cruz de Tenerife

the beach and the hillside village of San Andres

the church of San Andres

After Tenerife we spent 8 days at sea with wonderful, hot weather just relaxing and enjoying life. We participated in some of the cruise activities and spent some days just doing our own thing, playing basketball, reading, playing ping pong, exploring the boat, etc. Probably our favorite cruise activity was the pirate party complete with pirate costume contest which I won and Lionel came in second. Of course we were lucky because while most people only had their vacation wardrobes to work with, we had half our lives packed into suitcases so I was able to make us eye patches, hooks, entire pirate costumes and I even had an inflatable parrot with me! Unfortunately, I don't have any photos though.

I think the only problem with taking the cruise was our arrival in Fort Lauderdale. Apparently we should have informed the cruise company and/or the Fort Lauderdale port that Lionel was arriving with an immigrant visa because the port was not equipped to deal with the necessary procedures to process someone arriving with an immigrant visa which caused us some headache the day of arrival. In the end they had to put us in a search room so we could actually sit to wait until they could arrange transportation to take us to the Dept. of Homeland Security's port office at the entrance to the port where we then had to wait even longer because they had to drive to the Fort Lauderdale airport to go get a fingerprinting kit to be able to process Lionel. They told us while we were waiting that they had never had someone arrive through the port with an immigrant visa before. I was pretty surprised considering they had 7 huge cruise ships arrive that same morning alone carrying roughly 15,000 passengers, many of whom are foreigners, and they didn't even have an ink and paper fingerprinting kit at the port! Makes you wonder about the security. If you arrive by plane every foreigner has to be fingerprinted when they pass through passport control, but if they enter the US by boat they don't have to do anything at all? Kinda strange in my opinion, but oh well. It all worked out in the end and everyone was really nice about it, even letting us use their personal cell phones to call my friend Amy who was picking us up. However, for anyone else who ever considers taking a cruise to move to the US with their foreign spouse, just make sure you contact your cruise line and/or port of arrival in advance to let them know you will be coming through with an immigrant visa so they can be prepared!

After we left the port, we headed north to Amy's house where we spent a relaxing few days enjoying the beautiful, warm weather and visiting Palm City, Stuart, Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale before finally heading up to the cold of Ohio.

Amy and Lionel on the beach in Stuart, Florida

Christmas lights on palm trees in Palm Beach!

the beach in Fort Lauderdale

Les fêtes

2011-12-29T04:52:00.000+01:00

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Mine was great. On Christmas Eve we had a big dinner with my parents and my brother and then we spent some quality time together opening presents and playing games.

Then on Christmas Day, as is tradition, we drove up to my aunt and uncle's house and had a big Christmas meal with my extended family. It was so nice to see everyone, especially because it has been so long since I've seen a lot of my family. Lionel and I even got really motivated this year and made a traditional bûche de noel, which actually turned out to be much more complicated than expected, but it sure was good in the end!

Then on Christmas night we were invited to my friends house for her 2nd annual Naughty Santa Christmas party. "Naughty Santa" because the whole premise is that everyone brings a bottle of alcohol for a gift exchange, and then afterwards everyone ends up drinking it all, along with the beer and wine everyone brought.! It was a lot of fun and I ended up seeing a lot of people I knew in high school and haven't seen since high school or early college and it was really great to see them again and to catch up.

Unfortunately, because we were so busy with our arrival in the US and all that goes with that, we didn't really have the time to do any of the other holiday activities I usually enjoy so much in the US. But I'm still very glad I was able to be in the US this year for the holidays, even if it made the move even more exhausting and stressful with all the Christmas shopping to do!

And I know someone else who really enjoyed Christmas, or at least the Christmas tree:

Happy Holidays

2011-12-24T21:11:00.000+01:00

Happy Holidays to everyone out there in the land of the internet!

Enjoy whatever plans and celebrations you have. I know I'm looking forward to a wonderful Christmas in the US with friends and family that I haven't seen in quite a while.

I'm back!

2011-12-19T07:37:00.000+01:00

Sorry I've been a bit MIA lately, things have been very busy and just completely crazy here. But I wanted to post really quick to let everyone know that I'm still here! The cruise was amazing and we had a wonderful time exploring new places, meeting lots of wonderful people and relaxing for 8 days while crossing the ocean...but more on that in another post.

Lionel and I arrived safely in the US on December 3. After a slight snag at the port in Fort Lauderdale (they didn't have the materials necessary to process someone arriving with an immigrant visa and they had to drive to the airport to get a fingerprinting kit), Lionel's visa was processed and he is officially good to work, live and travel in the US for the next year with his stamped visa in his passport while waiting to receive his green card in the mail (which will hopefully arrive in around 6 months, or so we've been told).

Since then we spent a few days enjoying the hot and sunny weather in the Fort Lauderdale area with our friend Amy, then we headed up to Ohio, where it is considerably less hot and sunny...in fact it is freezing here and I've already seen a little bit of snow! Quite a shock for someone who hadn't worn her winter coat until the arrival in Ohio!

Since we've been in Ohio things have been going incredibly smoothly and we've pretty much finished the mile-long to-do list we arrived with. As soon as I get a chance I'll publish a more detailed post on the stuff we've had to do for Lionel since arriving, but for now I'll just say that I LOVE the US for the ease of the administrative/bureaucratic tasks and the friendliness of the people who work in all those offices!

We still haven't really processed the fact that we are in the US "for good" and sometimes I still feel like I must be here only for vacation (which is strange because I've already started working and everything), but I'm sure that as time goes on it will set in. So far I have to say I'm pretty happy to be here and I'm not yet regretting leaving France, though I'm sure that will come after a month or two. But for now I'm just enjoying being back in the US and I promise I will try to post again soon with more details and photos from the cruise!

The move encore and feeling like an SDF

2011-11-17T22:44:00.000+01:00

As planned, we are still in the process of moving. I think this must be the longest, most drawn out move ever! I'm starting to feel like it will never end!

We are still at Lionel's parents' house in the south. Tomorrow we leave to head to Bordeaux where we will be staying the night and visiting with his grandfather in his nursing home. Then on Saturday morning we are heading to Carcassonne. We are going to spend the afternoon visiting Carcassonne (because it's a city I have always wanted to visit and never been to and it's mostly on our way) and then stay the night in Carcassonne intra muros. Sunday morning we are getting up bright and early to drive the rest of the way to Barcelona to catch our cruise which leaves Sunday late afternoon.

I'm a little sad that I won't have any time to visit Barcelona, as I have never been, but oh well. I'm happy to see Carcassonne and that's where Lionel's parents wanted us to stop to break up the drive some, and since they are the ones who are driving, I can't really complain. They will be staying an extra few days in Barcelona because they've never been either, and we will be heading off on our cruise to visit Alicante, Spain; Malaga, Spain; Funchal, Madeira; and Tenerife, Canary Islands before spending 8 days relaxing while we cross the Atlantic.

Once we arrive in Ft. Lauderdale we have a friend of mine, Amy, who is coming to pick us up and we are spending a few days with her before heading up to my parents' house in Ohio, where we will be staying until we find real, full-time employment and can get a place of our own.

I hope we will be able to find decent jobs quickly (though I'm really freaking out about this because of the unemployment rates and the crisis and everything) because I really want to be able to get out of my parents' house as soon as possible (no offense mom and dad!) and get our own place. For the moment, even though we haven't at any point been without a roof over our heads, I'm feeling kind of homeless. And I guess I technically am an SDF (sans domicile fixe or homeless person) because I don't have a permanent (or even semi permanent) home. While we have a place to sleep and a roof now, and we will in the US, I won't feel stable or like this move is really over until we have our own place. Someplace where we can unpack ALL of our things (instead of just what we need to get by) and do things how we want, when we want. I'm sick of living out of suitcases and having to eat what people tell me to eat (even if it's good and I can't really complain) and always having to be considerate and keep my little bit of mess controlled and of not really having a space that is mine. Unfortunately, and I'm not trying to be pessimistic, I fear that we won't have our own place for another couple of months which really makes this feel like the move that never ends!

I really can't believe we are leaving France in a few days. So far everything has gone more or less according to plans, with a only few little snags along the way. The only remaining issue is transferring our money to my American bank account, but hopefully (and I'm really crossing my fingers on this one because I don't want get to the US and discover that our money has disappeared somewhere in cyberspace!) we have figured that one out and the money will transfer while we are on the boat. Luckily with all the people who came to visit and the increased luggage allowance of the cruise, we are able to get all of our things back to the US without having to pay to ship a single box! It only took 12 suitcases (I know, it seems insane, but I had a lot of things I had brought from the US over the past few years thinking I would be in France for much longer than this) and 7 different people (us included) to get it all back across the Atlantic!

I must admit that I'm getting more and more stressed about this move. It's kind of funny because when I decided to move to France, I wasn't stressed about it at all, I was just excited. But now I am very stressed and I shouldn't be because I'm going back to my country, to all the things I know, to my family, to my friends, to everything that used to be so familiar. But now it is freaking me out and I keep asking myself if we made the right decision. We were starting to establish ourselves here. We had a decent apartment (even if we didn't want to stay in Paris much longer), jobs (even if we didn't particularly like them), a whole apartment full of furniture (that we finally managed to sell) and we were creating a life together. And now we are back to having next to nothing (except each other and a furball waiting for us in the US) and starting all over from scratch. We have to look for jobs, which I hate more than anything in this world, buy cars, get an apartment, get some furniture, find cell phones (which are very expensive in the US!), open bank accounts for Lionel, get a drivers license for Lionel, find health insurance (damn the US for that one!) and probably a million other things I'm not even thinking of at the moment because it stresses me out too much and really makes me wonder what we are thinking.

But I guess it doesn't matter now. I can have all the doubts I want, but we are still going to move, especially now that we have gotten rid of everything we have here in France. So I guess all I can do is look forward and start this new adventure in the US. After all (and is it a bad sign that Lionel and I are already telling ourselves this?) we can always come back to France if we want, though we are giving the US at least 2 years before making that possibly very expensive decision!

The visa process

2011-11-10T15:43:00.000+01:00

Here it is, the long-awaited, very detailed post explaining the process we went through to get Lionel’s visa for the US. Warning: this post will be very long and boring for those not interested in the visa process!

The visa we had to get for Lionel was an immigrant visa for immediate relatives (the spouse, widow(er), unmarried children under 21 and parents of a U.S. citizen who is 21 or older), though immigrant visas exist in four different categories: immediate relatives, family based, employment based and Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (also known as the "green card" lottery). Immigrant visas are necessary for anyone who plans to reside permanently in the US, whether or not they plan to work there. Non-immigrant visas (for those who which to reside temporarily in the US for work or study) and emergency visas are also available for the United States. However, since we are planning to move to the US, with the idea that this MIGHT be a permanent move, we had to get an immigrant visa, and since Lionel and I are married we needed the immigrant visa for immediate relatives.

For the most part we relied on the visa section of US Embassy in Paris website for information about the process, though the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website is also very helpful.

In order to get Lionel’s visa we first spent a lot of time researching our different options and the process, finally deciding to go with the normal, longer process (which usually takes anywhere from 4-6 months) rather than the faster process (K3/K4 visa) which is more complicated but much quicker for those in a hurry to enter the US (but not yet have permanent residence status). Since for personal and professional reasons we did not want or need to rush to the US, we didn’t see the point in spending the extra money and doing the extra paperwork in order for Lionel to be able to enter the US faster.

Once we decided what route we wanted to go and had learned more about what was involved, we actually started the process of getting Lionel’s visa. First we had to file a petition for an alien relative. Once this was approved we had to gather all the documents necessary for the visa interview. Then, finally, we had to go to the visa interview and provide them with all of the documents they requested and then wait to be “approved” and receive the visa in the mail, “postponed” meaning they need additional documents, or “denied” meaning we are screwed.

Because this post is meant to be informative, rather than entertaining, I am going to talk about each step of the process individually, provide any helpful hints, insight or tips I can and include all possible links to helpful websites and necessary documents. And if you get lucky I might even include a little rant or two! So here we go:

The Petition:

When we did our Petition for an Alien Relative, we were still able to do it at the US Embassy in Paris, which is no longer possible. So for us we just had to prepare all of the documents and then show up at the embassy on a Friday morning between 9am and 10am (first come first serve). To do our petition we first had to go see someone and show that we had all our documents, and while we were going through the documents, one of us had to go and pay the petition fee, which is a whopping $420. After turning all our documents in, we sat back down and waited for them to call our number again for a short “interview” where they asked us a few basic questions and then we were able to ask any questions we had about the process. They also explained how the rest of the process would work at this time. After this short “interview” we were done, all in all 45 minutes at the embassy (a far cry from the 4-5 hours I usually spend at the prefecture for my carte de sejour!). We were told that we would normally receive a letter in about 4 weeks telling us if our petition had been approved or not (if it’s not approved, you lose your $420), and if it had been approved we would also receive a list of the documents we would need to prepare to bring to the visa interview and further instructions about the interview process.

However, since August 15, 2011 you can no longer file a petition at the US Embassy in Paris. It now must be done by mail. I know that some people were worried about this, but I really don’t think it will change the process much. In my opinion, the only differences will really be that you won’t have the opportunity to ask questions in person at the beginning of the visa process and you will need translations. Otherwise, you are still gathering the same documents, and instead of bringing them to the embassy and handing them in personally on a Friday morning, you are mailing them to Chicago to the USCIS Lockbox where they then review the papers and decide whether the petition is approved or not. You would then be notified by mail of the decision, and if approved, receive the list of documents needed for the visa interview as well as the additional instructions. I really don’t think that change will make the process take much longer, and it saves you from having to take time off work to file in person. The only real problem this new system might create is the need for translations. Before, when filing in Paris, you could submit any documents in English or French, but now I imagine that all documents must be submitted in English, therefore increasing the cost.

The purpose of the Petition for an Alien Relative is to establish the nature of the relationship that exists between yourself and the potential immigrant in order to determine if the potential immigrant should be given a visa. As such, the documents that must be submitted when filing a petition are primarily documents that prove the nature of the relationship. When filing a petition for a husband/wife you need the following (a more complete and detailed list is available in the instructions for the form I-130):

Completed and signed form I-130
Birth certificate of US citizen
Unexpired passport of US citizen
US citizen’s carte de sejour in France (or proof that the US citizen has been residing in France for more than 6 months, and not as a student)
Copy of marriage certificate
Photos of yourself and your husband/wife
Completed form G-325A for yourself and your husband/wife
Divorce records for yourself and husband/wife, if applicable

And a few of the following:

Documentation showing joint ownership or property
A lease showing joint tenancy
Documentation showing co-mingling of financial resources
Birth certificates of any children from your marriage
Affidavits by third parties about your relationship
Any other documentation establishing a marital union and ongoing relationship

We also needed the completed and signed form DS-230, part 1 (part 2 should be brought to the visa interview and signed in front of a consular official), though apparently with the new procedure you don’t need this form for the petition, but you send it to the embassy after the petition has been approved…this is not how it was done for us.

These documents are all very easy to get, as you should have most of them in your home already, and therefore you just need to make photocopies, get translations when necessary (because of the new system), download, fill out and print the appropriate forms and voila!

Once you have all the documents, and you have verified that everything is correctly filled out, you send it all to the Chicago Lockbox along with form G-1145 (if you wish for e-notification that your petition has been received in Chicago) and then you wait to hear if you have been approved and to receive further instructions regarding the visa interview.

The Visa Interview:

Once we filed the petition we waited impatiently for the response. They told us it would probably take about four weeks, but in the end we had the response in only two weeks! Obviously, the petition was approved and our relationship was established in the eyes of the government. Included with the approval was a packet informing us of the documents we needed to prepare for the visa interview as well as a form to fill out, sign and send back to the embassy once we had gathered all the documents.

Again, in general, the documents were not too difficult:

Completed form DS-230, part 2 (but NOT SIGNED, you must sign it in front of the consular official)
Birth certificate of intended immigrant
Unexpired passport of intended immigrant
Criminal record of intended immigrant (they even sent us the form to fill in and mail to request the criminal record in France, though this can also be done online)
Military record of intended immigrant, if applicable (since Lionel comes from the time when they still had mandatory military service in France, we had to provide a copy of the exemption he had received)
Recent photo of intended immigrant
Deportation record of intended immigrant, if applicable
Marriage certificate (again)
Divorce records, if applicable (again)
One Chronopost envelope (1kg or more) self-addressed
And, the most complicated of the documents in my opinion, form I-864 Affidavit of Support., which can be found here, and the instructions can be found here

The Affidavit of Support must be filled out by the petitioner (the US citizen) pledging to financially support the intended immigrant for the next 10 years (the length of the green card they will receive) should the immigrant fail to find employment, in order to avoid the immigrant becoming a public charge. Basically, if you are in the same position as mean and live in France, you basically cannot pledge financial support unless you already have a job in the US (and even then I’m not sure unless you have been working this job for a while already) or if your job will not be changing, even when you move to the US. Because my job was in France and I wouldn’t be continuing it, and I didn’t have a job in the US that I had been working for awhile and therefore showed on my US taxes, I couldn’t sponsor Lionel alone. And even if the intended immigrant has a job, they cannot sponsor themselves.

Since I couldn’t sponsor Lionel, I then needed a joint sponsor. The joint sponsor can be anyone, as long as they are willing to fill out all the papers, provide you with a lot of their financial information to bring with you to the embassy and to pledge to financially support your husband/wife for the next ten years, even if you get divorced (oh yeah…even if you get divorced the intended immigrant could come at you for financial support!). In our case we used my dad as the joint sponsor, and then he had my mom fill out form I-864A Contract between Sponsor and Household Member saying that he had her agreement that he could use her income as well (because they fill out joint tax forms in the US). In order to sponsor someone you must me the income guidelines based on the number of people in your household. These guidelines can be found here or you can get more information from the embassy.

In the end, we ended up with a lot of documents for the Affidavit of Support. I still had to be the primary sponsor, as the petitioner, then my father had to be the joint sponsor with my mother’s household member contract. For each sponsor, and for my mother as a household member who signed a contract, we had to provide (and the documents, except for the tax returns, all really depend on your case and financial situation):

Completed form I-864
Completed form I-864A, if applicable
The most recent years US tax return (or transcript of the tax return which can be obtained from the IRS, but it is generally recommended, but not required, to bring the 3 most recent years of US tax returns
Any bank account information proving liquid assets, if necessary
Other documentation proving assets (such as cars, houses, etc), if necessary
Copies of the passports of each sponsor and/or household member
Proof of employment or most recent pay stubs, if necessary

Once you have gathered all of these documents, you can inform the embassy that you are ready for the visa interview using the form they provided with the instructions they sent you. They will then schedule your appointment for the visa interview and send you an appointment letter about one month before your appointment. The appointment letter will tell you how much you will have to pay in visa fees (these are in addition to the petition fees and range from $400-$800 depending on the case…we were very happy to only have to pay $400 more!). With the appointment letter (which you must save and bring with you to the embassy the day of your appointment or you will not be allowed to enter) you will also receive your final instructions concerning the medical exam. For the medical exam the intending immigrant must contact one of the few doctors permitted to give US visa medical exams (I don’t know if there are any in other cities, but there were only 3 doctors possible in Paris) and pay a hefty doctors fee of about 180 euros which is not reimbursable through French social security. The medical exam includes a blood test, chest x-ray and a basic check up (and you must bring the carnet de santé and vaccination records). The doctor then gives you a sealed envelope which you are not allowed to open. Only the consular officer can open this envelope. We had not problem getting Lionel and appointment with one of these doctors, but we were upset to see how inconveniently located they were for us…they are all on the western side of the city or in the western banlieu.

The appointment letter also includes information on the visa interview and what to expect the day of your interview. All visa interviews are conducted on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 1pm at the US Embassy in Paris. The interview was pretty easy, we just showed up the day of our appointment, went through security and then got a number from the machine. We then sat down and waited for our number to be called. The first time we were called it was to go pay the visa fee. Then we sat back down and waited to be called again. The next time it was to go turn in all the documents we had prepared and for Lionel to provide his fingerprints. Then we sat back down and the final time we were called it was for the “interview”. They tell you that the length of the interview depends on your case and that it can take up to half a day. In our case we were asked one or two simple questions such as “how long have you known each other” and that was that for the interview. The entire process took maybe an hour at most.

After the interview you go home and wait for them to send the visa in the mail with the chronopost envelope you provided. I imagine that if you are denied they tell you this when you are there and they don’t keep your chronopost envelope and your passport (though they do keep your visa fee), but I don’t know for sure. It takes about 7-10 days maximum to receive your visa in the mail, but for us it took less than this. When they send you the visa it is already stuck in the immigrant’s passport and they also send an envelope with (I’m assuming) your visa documents in it which you are not supposed to open and you are supposed to give, still sealed, to the US Customs Officer upon arrival in the US. Once you have the visa, it is good for 6 months, meaning you have 6 months to enter the US. Upon entry in the US the immigrant will receive a stamp in his or her passport with an alien registration number. This allows the person to live and work in the US for one year while waiting to receive the 10 year green card. I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty jealous of this since I had to wait 5 miserable months in France before having the right to work, and Lionel will be allowed to work the second one of his feet enters the United States!

The USCIS will be informed when you enter the US and provided with the alien registration number that was assigned to you. At this point they will begin to prepare the 10 year green card, which you receive by mail (!!!) usually a few months after arriving in the US, but it can take up to a year which is why the stamp is good for one year. You will also notice that when filling out form DS-230 that you can choose to check a box requesting a US Social Security Number. If you do this, then the immigrant will receive their US social security card automatically, in the mail too (!!!), about 2-3 weeks after arrival. Obviously, we haven’t even gotten to the US yet, so I can’t really tell you how all of this works out, but I will keep you posted.

We did have a few snags along the way, two out of three of which were caused by the damn Poste (my enemy). The one that wasn’t La Poste’s fault was with our Affidavit of Support and the documents our joint sponsor gave us…it’s a long, long story and had to do with one of my dad’s businesses. In the end we didn’t even notice it until the consular official was examining the documents at the embassy for our visa interview and then we thought “crap” we are going to be denied for the visa! In the end they were really nice, postponed the visa application, and explained everything we could provide to remedy the situation, as well as who we could contact with further questions. We went home that afternoon and started gathering the other documents and sent them in the mail the following afternoon, after communicating through email with the embassy about further questions, and received a confirmation that the documents had been received, the visa had been approved and had been sent in the mail two days later.

La Poste, however, was not very helpful (not a surprise)! They lost our packet with our appointment letter and medical exam information and we only knew we were supposed to receive it because, after a month and a half of waiting, I started to get nervous and emailed the embassy to make sure they had received our notification that we were ready for the interview. When I told them we never received the packet, they were happy to send out a second one. Also, when the visa was sent, La Poste once again failed to leave us an avis de passage in our mailbox. Luckily it was a chronopost so I had the tracking number and the email from the embassy telling us when it had been sent, so we knew to go get it. However, we had an adrenaline-filled hour when we went to our Poste and they couldn’t find our chronopost and we thought we would have to take them to court for all the visa fees, the lost passport and certainly the missed cruise to the US because I’m sure it would have taken us quite awhile to get all those documents again. Luckily, after two trips to La Poste in one afternoon, they were finally able to find the envelope and we were extremely relieved, especially when we discovered, upon reading the envelope, that chronopost is only liable for up to 250 euros in the case of undelivered/damaged/lost mail. The visa and cruise certainly cost a hell of a lot more than that!

Regardless of those little problems, all in all the experience was very good, very well organized, and quite simple. We now have the visa in our hands and we are ready to go in less than two weeks! The things I really like about the US process compared to my experiences in France are how organized it all was, the small amount of time you need to take off to accomplish it all (for us we only spent about 2 hours total at the embassy on two different days in order for Lionel to get a 10 year green card which will arrive in the mail and will require no more visits to government offices compared to my carte de sejour which requires 3 days per year and usually at least 3 hours per trip to the prefecture). I love how the US is so willing to do so much by mail. I also love that you can email them with questions and get quick responses whereas with the prefecture I have to go there every time I have a question. Another plus, in my opinion, is that we just had to check a box and Lionel will have a social security number and card issued very shortly after his arrival in the US, whereas I spent 3 years battling the secu in order to get my number and carte vitale, even though I was working and paying for it! In the end we ended up paying $820 for the visa, but he is good for 10 years, so I feel like it was worth it. Besides, here in France I spent 300 euros for my first card and then 110 euros to renew the first time and 85 euros to renew the second time, not to mention all the time taken off work to do all of it, and I still only have a temporary, 1-year card.

People used to ask me how I could criticize the French immigration process when I didn’t know about the US one, but now I feel quite confident that I have every right to criticize the French system because I have also been through the American one, and ours is definitely better.

Well, I’m very sorry for how long this ended up being, and congratulations to anyone who managed to make it to the end of this post! I just wanted to be as thorough as possible and I really hope this ends up helping someone out one day!

Le sud

2011-11-08T23:27:00.000+01:00

The last post on my recent trips...while my parents were here we also went to the south of France. We spent 4 days in the south. On the first day we took the TGV to Nimes where we spent the day visiting the city and we stayed the night. We spent most of our time visiting the incredible Roman ruins in Nimes such as the Roman arena, La Maison Carée and the Tour Magne.

Roman arena in Nimes

La Maison Carée, a well preserved Roman temple

Jardins de la Fontaine in Nimes

The next morning we woke up and hopped the train to Avignon. We spent the day visiting the city and then stayed over night. I had always heard that Avignon was an amazing city, and I really enjoyed it. While we were there we made sure to see the Palais des Papes and the very famous Pont d'Avignon. We spent the rest of the time just walking around and exploring.

Palais des Papes

Pont d'Avignon

view of Avignon from the Rocher des Doms

The next morning we got up, went to the train station and picked up our rental car. We rented a car for the day so we could drive out and visit the Pont du Gard, Glanum and Les Baux de Provence, all of which are in the Avignon area. The Pont du Gard is a very well preserved ancient Roman aqueduct, Glanum is the ruins of an ancient Roman city in the Alpilles and Les Baux de Provence is a famous village and chateau on top of a rocky outcrop in the Alpilles. Les Baux was absolutely beautiful, but there was a lot of very strong winds when we were there and we were afraid to get blown of the top of the chateau! We dropped the car off at the train station that night and then hopped on a train to Marseille.

Pont du Gard

Glanum, in the Alpilles

view over the village of les Baux de Provence and the Alpilles from the chateau

We spent the last day in Marseille and we stayed mainly near the port and went out to visit the Chateau d'If because I've already been to Marseille and I'm not a big fan of the city. Plus, the coast is really nice and there is a lot to do in the Marseille area. This time we only went out to the Chateau d'If because we were catching a train back to Paris that night, but last time I spent more time in Marseille and I also visited the Ile de Frioul by boat and did a boat trip to the Calanques and Cassis, which was really nice. I had also already been to Nimes and the Pont du Gard, but my brother was with us and he absolutely loves all things ancient Roman so I thought he would really enjoy it.

Vieux Port of Marseille

Chateau d'If on the Ile d'If, made famous in the book The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

view of Marseille from the Chateau d'If

the Chateau d'If and Marseille from the boat

Exploring Normandy

2011-11-06T22:16:00.000+01:00

While my parents were here they wanted to see some more of France since they have only been to Paris and Bordeaux. We decided to take them to Normandy for a weekend since my dad has always wanted to see the D-day beaches and it's a region I haven't explored much either.

We decided to go by car and go see le Mont St. Michel the Saturday, then drive north to stay in a hotel near the beaches and visit the beaches on Sunday. In the end, this plan worked out great. We had beautiful weather and we spent the Saturday afternoon visiting le Mont St. Michel, which is the only place I had already been to in Normandy. My parents really enjoyed. Then we drove up to a town called Grandcamp-Maisy along the coast where we were able to find a cheap place to stay for the night only a few minutes drive from the start of the D-day beaches and sites we planned to visit.

le Mont Saint Michel

port of Grandcamp-Maisy, where we stayed the night

On the Sunday we headed off to visit D-day sites, starting with the Pointe du Hoc, which was right outside of the town where we stayed. The Pointe du Hoc is the clifftop site of an attack of the US Army Ranger Assault Group against the Germans in WWII. When you visit you can see bomb craters all over the ground as well as some German fortifications such as shelters and artillery casements.

Pointe du Hoc, complete with bomb craters and German fortifications

view from the Pointe du Hoc

After the Pointe du Hoc we continued to drive along the coast to see some of Omaha Beach and some memorials along Omaha Beach. Then we stopped at the American Cemetery, which overlooks a part of Omaha Beach near Colleville-sur-Mer. Finally we continued on to Arromanches-les-Bains where you can see the remains of one of the Mulberry B artificial military port which was constructed to aid the Allied forces and is located between Omaha and Gold Beaches.

a section of Omaha Beach

the American Cemetery

part of the Mulberry B harbor in Arromanches-les-Bains

Once we finished with all of our planned D-day sites, we headed back toward Paris, and stopped along the way to walk around Honfleur, a city I had always wanted to visit. And I was not disappointed, Honfleur was just as pretty as I had heard!

the port of Honfleur

Lionel and I in Honfleur

Metz

2011-11-05T14:32:00.000+01:00

On the drive back from Germany, my friends and I stopped for a couple of hours in Metz. We had just enough time to walk around and explore a bit, grab a quick lunch, and then hop back in the car for the drive back to Paris. Even with such little time in the city, I was very impressed. Metz is a beautiful city and I really liked it. I don't know what I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Since I wasn't there very long, I don't know much about the city, we mostly just walked around to see a few of the sites recommended on the map. So, if you want more information about the city, or what it is like to live there, check out this blog by an American living in Metz. But here are a few photos to picque your interest:

The Moselle River in Metz

Temple Neuf

Cathedrale St. Etienne

Porte des Allemands

Poland

2011-11-04T21:39:00.001+01:00

Well, I guess this is the next in a series of posts about some of my recent travels. Back in October I also headed off to Poland for 5 days with a friend. I had already been to Krakow before in 2008 and loved it, so I was thrilled to go back. But this time in Poland we also went out to Wroclaw, which I had heard was supposed to be another very beautiful town, and I was very happy to get to see a bit more of the country.

We ended up flying from Paris Beauvais to Krakow with Ryanair (which I really don't recommend and years ago I had sworn never to fly with Ryanair again, but I gave in for the price and I definitely regretted it, especially for the extreme hassle of the Beauvais airport) but Easyjet also offers a Paris-Krakow route that leaves from Charles de Gaulle. Once we arrived we headed into the city center to catch the bus to Wroclaw. It takes about 3 hours and is very inexpensive, 39 zloty (less than 10 euros) each way.

We stayed about two days in Wroclaw, which was probably a bit too much as the city is relavitely small and the most beautiful parts are the main square and the cathedral district, which can certainly all be seen in one day.

After Wroclaw we headed back to Krakow and spent 2 days/3 nights there. We rented a studio apartment that was only a one minute walk from the main square, and thus the city center, and it was incredible and very inexpensive (about 20 euros per person per night) and included a kitchen, loft with bed and nightstand, a nice bathroom, living room area and a washing machine that we could use. Last time I was in Krakow we found a one-bedroom apartment and paid about 10 euros per person per night for it, but it was about a 10-15 minute walk from the main square. If you ever go to Poland, I definitely recommend looking into an apartment as it is very inexpensive and convenient.

Last time I was in Krakow we stayed 4 days and so we went on day trips out to Auschwitz-Birkenau and to the Wieliczka Salt Mines but this time we just stayed in the city, relaxed and explored. It was just as beautiful as I remember (and as inexpensive!) and we spent one day wandering around the city center and the other day visiting Wawel Hill. All in all we had a lot of fun!

a square with a 24 hour flower market in Wroclaw

Michelle and I visiting Wroclaw

Wroclaw has this strange tradition of small dwarf statues, and you can find them all over the city. We made an attempt to find as many as possible, but there are more than a hundred of them hiding all over. This was one of my favorites but there are also dwarves riding bicycles, going to the atm, eating pierogis, fighting fires, dancing, riding motorcycles, swinging on lamp posts, kissing, etc. We were really surprised because we didn't read about this in any guidebook or on any tourist website and didn't discover the tradition until we arrived.

the Wroclaw Cathedral and the cathedral district, the oldest part of town

the main square of Wroclaw - the architecture is amazing!

Wroclaw city hall

in the main square of Krakow at night - giant head statue and city hall tower

Rynek Glowny, the main square of Krakow, and also the largest square in Europe.

Rynek Glowny at night with St. Mary's church

atop Wawel Hill, part of the royal castle and the cathedral

the market building in the middle of Rynek Glowny

Germany

2011-11-04T00:15:00.000+01:00

Well, the move went well and we handed over our keys to our little Parisian/Kremlinois apartment on Monday. It was actually pretty sad, I was so happy to move into that apartment a year and a half ago. Lionel and I started really building our lives there, but now it's all over. We are just waiting to hear if the Etat des Lieux went well and if we will get all our deposit back. The weekend before leaving we had a little going away soirée with some friends, which was a lot of fun, but alo pretty sad. Even though they are all Lionel's friends, I've now known most of them for 6 years and they have been a big part of my life in Paris, so it was pretty difficult saying goodbye (or I guess, "till the next time"). Now we are in Arcachon at my in-laws' house, relaxing and dealing with the administrative part of the move, since all the physical labor and packing is finished.

Since I've got a little free time now, I finally managed to upload my photos from all my travels in October, so here are some of the highlights from my trip to Germany for Oktoberfest and to visit the Romantic Road (a trip I've already done twice before, but still enjoyed this time!):

Rathaus (city hall) in Munich

Oktoberfest 2011

inside the Paulaner beer tent, where we spent the entire day enjoying

liters of delicious Oktoberfest beer

Hohenschwangau Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle

the gardens of Linderhof Castle

Nordlingen, Germany - a little medieval city along the

Romantic Road

Nordlingen's main square

Rothenburg ob der Tauber - another medieval city

along the Romantic Road

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Rasteau's becoming an American cat

2011-10-29T12:25:00.000+02:00

I've been driving my parents crazy with almost daily phone calls to see how Rasteau is doing in the US and I've been hounding them for photos and videos of my little furball in his new environment.

Other than a bit of a problem with food (he doesn't seem to like any of the American kitty food, even though it's the exact same brands...Purina One for dry food, other Purina cat foods for wet food) and a bit of a drug induced freak out upon arrival, he seems to be doing pretty well, though my mom thinks he misses us (I just hope he doesn't forget us!).

He seems to be enjoying the much larger house to explore (3 big floors, instead of a 40 square meter apartment with a 50 square meter garden), and all the nature to watch from the windows. I imagine soon he will be begging to go outside so he can climb all the big trees he sees from the house and chase after all the squirrels and birds, but he's not allowed out until we arrive (and even then it's not sure).

We made sure to send all of his stuff with him so the transition would be easier and he would have his odor and our odor in the house. And let me just say, this is one spoiled cat! He has tons of toys that crossed the ocean, his fleece blanket that he likes to sleep on, dry food, wet food, and two carriers (the one he travelled in which is new and he hates, and his old one which he loves and often sleeps in, but that he broke when he was high on drugs after his surgery the other week). But all in all he seems to be adjusting well and enjoying having a lot more space to live in, more things to explore and a lot more to watch.

Here are a few pictures of the little guy in the US:

Rasteau looking out the windows

Rasteau exploring the house

And two videos:

Rasteau enjoying the view, and a shot of the food he will eat...ham!

Rasteau meeting one of my parents' outside cats

Looks like he's going to adjust to the US quite well!

Really quick

2011-10-25T22:31:00.000+02:00

Sorry I haven't had a lot of time to post lately, and this is going to be a quick one too. Things with the move are going well. My US friends are all gone with a few suitcases of my stuff. My parents were here and we had a great trip out to Normandy and to the south of France. They just left on Sunday with another 5 suitcases of our stuff as well as our little furball.

Rasteau had a really rough week last week with a visit to the vet on Monday which resulted in him getting surgery as well as the rest of his vaccines, his health certificate, drugs for the airplane and his very own passport. Then Sunday off he went on the plane with my parents, drugged out of his mind. From what they said he slept the entire flight and is now acclimating to his new environment (i.e. sniffing everything in their house). Overall, it seems like he is handling the move as well as can be expected but I already miss him a ton, even though it's a lot easier to move things around the apartment and out the door without a cat rubbing around your legs!

There were a couple of visa scares, one when we were applying for the visa (more on that later) and another when we were waiting for it in the mail and once again, as usual, La Poste fucked up. But all is well now, and we have Lionel's visa!

At the moment we are working hard to pack the rest of our stuff, sell the rest of our furniture (the good news is we've already sold a decent amount of it - couch, elliptical machine, table and chairs, one bookcase to people on le bon coin as well as our kitchen cabinets and washing machine to the people taking the apartment after us!), clean the apartment and be ready to go on Oct. 31.

Speaking of Oct. 31, for anyone in Paris or coming to Paris around Halloween time, I just found out about this haunted history of Paris/haunted house at Le Manoir de Paris which promises an authentic Halloween experience. I won't be able to check it out, but I thought it could be interesting for anyone looking for something to do for Halloween.

I'll continue with the updates when I can, which might not be until I'm at my in-laws in November, when I also hope to get some pictures up from the trips I took as well as a long and informative post on the process of getting a visa for the US.

Quick update

2011-10-12T00:54:00.000+02:00

Well, I'm back from the first round of traveling with my US friends. We had a great time in Germany at Oktoberfest and exploring the Munich area and the Romantic Road (which I had already done before and loved, but was new for my friends). We also had a lot of fun in Poland, but I'm happy to be back home with Lionel and the little furball!

Now I have a few days in Paris before my parents get here and the travels start up again. And then right after that we have to finish the packing and cleaning to get out of our apartment at the end of the month!

So far everything is going as planned for the move and I'm sending back a decent amount of stuff with my friends and a ton more (including the cat) with my family. The only thing that I am really stressed about at the moment is selling our furniture. I really thought it would go relatively well, but we put the first round of furniture (the things we REALLY didn't need) on Le Bon Coin at the beginning of the month and so far we might have someone buying our coffee table Friday and we had a ridiculously low offer on our microwave and that is it. We are putting most of the rest of our stuff up this week and I'm really keeping my fingers crossed because we desperately need the money from selling some of this stuff and I really thought it wouldn't be too hard since it's all so new and in such good condition. Any recommendations? It's going to make me sick to just get rid of an entire apartment of furniture that was only bought a 1-1.5 years ago.

Other than that, we have Lionel's visa interview at the US Embassy tomorrow afternoon, so I'm hoping that goes smoothly, but we do have every document they requested as well as everything else I could possibly think of just in case (France rubbing off a bit?). After the visa interview I fully intend to do a nice, long, detailed post on the entire visa process for those who have expressed interest in learning more. Hopefully I'll be able to find the time to do it, but at the latest it will be in November.

I will also post some pictures and details from my travels as soon as I get a chance, which also might not be until November, but I'm really trying...I'm just extremely busy and stressed right now and dreaming of a good nights sleep!

Just wanted people to know I'm still alive and blogging and more information and interesting posts will be coming as soon as possible!

I'm free!!!

2011-09-29T20:09:00.000+02:00

I just finished my last day of work, and I couldn't be happier! I'm free! But it still hasn't entirely set in that I will never have to go back to that job again.

I mailed the books the lent me back to my boss Monday and put my final pay sheet in the mail this evening after my last lesson. Everything is done, and I don't ever even have to think about this job again.

I'm leaving for Oktoberfest tonight, but when I get back from Germany I plan to throw away all my old lesson plans/articles/files etc. and I think that is when it will really hit me that I am no longer a business English teacher and that I will never have to be one again! Though my boss did promise me that if we ever came back to France I could just call her up and have my job back...and as she said this, the thought that went through my mind was "no way in hell!" I plan to sell the other English books that I have and to delete everything English-teaching related from my life and never look back!

It feels so good, and yet hardly believable! Freedom!

La guerre des Post-Its

2011-09-28T23:57:00.000+02:00

This morning, as I was drinking my coffee before heading off to work, I stumbled upon an article on cnn.com about Post-It wars raging in Paris. Curious, I clicked on the link to read the article and discovered a surprisingly fun battle happening in some of Paris' biggest companies in La Defense and Issy-les-Moulineaux: apparently employees are having post-it wars. They are making huge designs out of post-its on their companies windows so everyone can see, everything from cartoon characters to messages to rocket ships. The largest one is 7 stories tall using thousands of post-its! And the companies are generally in favor of this war, seeing it as a good team building exercise (not to mention the Post-It company is certainly enjoying it!). To read more about it, click this link, or to view photos of the different images, click here.

So, on my way to work this morning at les Sablons, I looked up at the building of the company I teach in, and was very surprised, only an hour after reading the CNN article, to find this, staring back at me:

sorry the photo is so bad, it was on my cell phone, but click to enlarge

Yoda in Post-Its saying "may the Post-Its be with you" next to it!

Who knew the French worker bees could have so much fun! Do you know anyone participating in the Post-It war????

Details on the move

2011-09-24T01:56:00.002+02:00

***Warning: very long post ahead!

First of all, I finally managed to get around to responding to everyone’s nice comments and words of encouragement on my last post about the move. I really appreciate it!

So, to go more into detail about the move, we are officially leaving France on November 20. We are ending work at the end of September, and we have to be out of our apartment at the end of October. A lot of people have asked me what we are going to do in October and November if we aren’t working. Well, for the first few weeks of November, before we leave, we will be staying at my inlaws in La Teste de Buch and spending some time with them and visiting with some of Lionel’s other family, as the majority of his aunts, uncles and cousins live in and around Bordeaux, as does his grandfather. So it will be very convenient. We might also go visit friends in Grenoble and Nice before we leave.

In October we have a very, very busy schedule. I have two American friends, Michelle and Lindsay, who are flying out from the US to visit for a last trip in Europe together and to fulfill their dream of going to Oktoberfest. Originally Lionel and I had been talking about getting a group of his friends and a group of my friends together to all go to Oktoberfest as a kind of farewell party/weekend, but everyone bailed out at the last minute except for my two friends from the States. So we will be driving out to Munich as soon as I finish work to do Oktoberfest and a couple of days of travel in Germany. Then we come back to Paris and Lindsay leaves, and Michelle and I are off to Poland for a few days because I absolutely want to take advantage of as much European travel as possible before leaving France, since it’s one of the things that made me hesitate so much in the first place. I figure that travelling a lot before I go might help me feel better. During that time Lionel will be at home with the cat, spending time with the boys and trying to accommodate people who want to come and pick up furniture (since we are really hoping *fingers crossed* to sell most of it on Le Bon Coin, and don’t worry, I’m not leaving Lionel with all of the work, I’m in charge of preparing all the photos and descriptions of the furniture to put online). After we return from Poland we have Lionel’s visa interview (more details on that coming soon) and then my parents arrive.

My parents really wanted to come out and help us some with the move as well as have one last visit to France since they don’t know if they will ever be back here again. Since they have only really been to Paris (and a quick weekend in Arcachon), we are taking them to Normandy to visit Le Mont St. Michel and the Dday beaches and also to the south to see the Avignon area. When they leave they will be taking an extra 3-4 suitcases of our stuff with them, some carry ons of our stuff, and the little furball (because yes, he is making the move to the US as well!). We decided to have them take the cat because they are taking a direct flight and it would be easiest on the little guy, not to mention it will be easier for us to get everything taken care of with the apartment if we don’t have to constantly worry about a cat running around our feet and trying to escape out the front door. We will certainly miss him like crazy, but it is only for a month and a half (at least that is what I keep telling myself!).

Once my parents leave, Lionel’s parents will be coming up to Paris to help us finish with the apartment. We will have a little over a week to pack our remaining stuff, get rid of whatever furniture didn’t sell, clean the apartment and get out. Since my friends are each taking at least a suitcase of our stuff back and my parents are taking a lot as well, I’m trying not to be too worried about the packing. A lot of things will already be gone before we ever really begin the moving process. Then on October 31 we will hand over the keys and head south. Once at my inlaws we are going to deal with the last remaining administrative tasks such as sending letters to cancel cell phones, transferring our money to my US bank account, sending off our Freebox, transferring our bank accounts to La Teste and giving his parents power of attorney so they can deal with the bank for us if we ever need them to, and closing the bank accounts we don’t want to keep open. We will also spend a lot of time visiting with family and friends before leaving.

Finally, on November 19/20 we head to Barcelona with all our remaining belongings to catch our cruise! Yep, you read that right…CRUISE! We have decided to return to the US in style on a transatlantic cruise. After researching one way flights (WAY too expensive), and round trip flights (only to have to abandon the return trip) we found this transatlantic cruise that was much cheaper than anything else we could find at the time. Not to mention that we can bring a lot more luggage on the cruise, up to 200lbs per person in as many suitcases as we can fit in our room (and I plan to pile them up!), which saves us a ton of money on shipping costs. But this is another reason why we couldn’t bring Rasteau with us and we have to send him with my parents…animals aren’t allowed on the boat. Anyway, we are taking a 13-day cruise out of Barcelona, stopping in Alicante, Spain, Malaga, Spain, Madeira, the Canary Islands and finally arriving in Ft. Lauderdale. The time of the move and cruise actually falls perfectly as we are going to be able to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary and our 6th year as a couple while on the cruise. Once in Florida, my friend Amy is going to pick us up from our cruise and we are going to spend a few days with her before my wonderful father drives all the way down from Ohio to pick us and all our stuff up.

I am really hoping that with all the people who are taking things back for us, and with the extra luggage we can have on the cruise, that we will be able to avoid having to ship anything back to the US, but I won’t know for sure until my parents leave and I know what we have left to pack. I’m very stressed about this because I keep looking at all the things we have accumulated and all the things we want to bring and wondering how we will ever get it all over to the States. I’m also very stressed about the furniture because I really want to sell as much of it is possible since we just bought most of it only a year and a half ago when we moved into this apartment. We do have a few things that we have to throw away, but most of it is still in very good condition and it would be a shame not to be able to get any money for it. Rasteau’s trip is also stressing me out because I’m worried about him and I’m sure he is going to be terrified in the plane. However, I was very surprised by how easy it is to bring a cat to the US (more on that later). I just feel so guilty sending him with my parents to a place he doesn’t know with people he barely knows, but we didn’t have much of a choice. It was either that or spend a lot more money, and since we have to buy cars when we get to the US, that wasn’t really an option.

We are also very lucky to have family that is so willing to help. Lionel’s parents are helping a lot by coming to Paris to help us pack and clean, by letting us stay with them for so long, and by so generously volunteering to drive us to Barcelona for the cruise. And my parents are being absolutely amazing (mainly, I’m sure, because my mom doesn’t want to do anything that could dissuade me from moving to the US and she wants to do everything possible to make sure this move actually happens!). Not only are they flying out here and helping us bring back a lot of stuff, and a cat, but my dad is driving all the way to Florida to pick us up on the other end. Then they are letting us live with them until we get real jobs and are able to pay for an apartment without emptying our savings accounts. And on top of all that, as if it wasn’t enough, my dad is giving Lionel and I both jobs (nothing fancy…my old job that I did when I was in school…delivering pizzas for me and making pizzas for Lionel!) until we find real jobs. That way we are able earn some cash while job hunting, instead of spending our savings. I feel so blessed to have so many people willing to go to such lengths to help us…thank you everyone, we REALLY appreciate it!

Well, I think this post is long enough, and it covers most of the details of our move and the next few months in our lives (sorry it was so long and boring!). More to come later on the visa process and bringing a cat to the US, as well as stuff on all the trips, the actual moving process and whatever else strikes my fancy along the way!

4 years

2011-09-19T20:02:00.000+02:00

I just realized today is my 4 year anniversary of being in France. Four years ago I stepped off the plane, enchanted with this country after my 2 study abroad stints here, looking forward to an exciting year living with Lionel to see if our relationship could work when we actually weren't long distance and (though considerably less excited) ready to spend a year as an English language assistant here in Paris.

Clearly, Lionel and I worked out and I ended up staying here, fighting through all the ups and downs and twists and turns of living in Paris. Now, 4 years later, I'm looking forward to the next chapter of my life which will begin in a few short months back in the US.

French frogs?

2011-09-19T19:54:00.000+02:00

I was waiting for the metro the other day when I noticed a new poster out from the RATP, trying to encourage people not to jump the metro turnstiles because they risk being stopped by an RATP worker and paying a fine. Only, on the poster they show an innocent French woman who is passing the turnstile with her ticket as she should, and then next to her a (presumably) French person next to her, represented by a frog, jumping the turnstile.

sorry for the horrible picture quality, I had to take it with my cell phone from

the opposite platform

I understand they wanted to choose an animal that is known for jumping to help get their point across, but did they really have to choose a frog? I mean, the French stereotype right there on an RATP poster? It made me laugh...

Secret

2011-09-14T22:56:00.000+02:00

Well, I’ve been a bit of a lazy blogger recently, but that is because I’ve been keeping a secret: Lionel and I are moving to the US. We’ve been talking about it since the end of April, and we finally made the decision (more like, I finally made my decision) at the end of May.

So, why has it taken me so long to say something about it? I guess it’s because I’m still not sure how I feel about the move. And that shocks me. After all this time being unhappy and complaining about France, I should be thrilled about moving to the US, but instead, I’m still not sure how I feel.

When we first talked about this at the end of April, Lionel was completely ready to go and excited about it (a big surprise for me because before this he has never really wanted to ever move to the US), but I hesitated, and hesitated, and hesitated. I spent nearly a month weighing the pros and cons, torturing myself with “what ifs”, and trying to understand why I wasn’t as excited as I always thought I would be at the chance to move back to the States.

Obviously, I did finally make the decision to move back because I realized that my reasons for wanting to stay in France were silly. I mainly wanted to stay for the travel opportunities (not to mention the vacation time!), but also because I felt kind of like this was my identity. Clearly I know that wanting to travel is not a good reason to decide to live somewhere (especially when you aren’t even happy there), so I ultimately choose the US for the career opportunities, the quality of life, the chance to be near friends and family again and in the hopes of being happy again.

But since deciding to move back, I have come to realize that there is another reason why I can’t seem to be 100% happy about this idea…because I feel like I have failed. After studying abroad for the first time, all I wanted was to live abroad, preferably in France. Of course, I always thought I would get there by working for an international company, not by meeting a guy, but Lionel was just icing on the cake, and I’m so happy to have him in my life. And then it happened and I moved to France, not just to study, but “permanently” to be with Lionel. I was so happy and so excited about spending our lives together and about doing it in France. But now, here I am, only 4 years after really moving here, and I am going back. I feel defeated and I feel like maybe I should have tried harder, kept working at it, stuck it out for another few years to see if I could find a way to be happy here. But instead, I am giving up and going back to the States. I have failed. I truly feel like I have failed and it’s humiliating. I should have done more to try to find a better job or we should have moved somewhere else in France to see if we would be happier there or I should have made more of an effort to meet people and network. But I didn’t. Instead I sank deeper and deeper into unhappiness and (dare I say it?) depression. And now I feel like I am going back to the US, having failed at something for the first time in my life, with my tail between my legs, admitting defeat. I think this is what bothers me the most about this move.

So, I am moving back to the US and I should be really excited about it. I should be jumping up and down for joy, but instead I am still uncertain. I’m sure things will be fine once I get there and settle back in, but for now the only thing I am really excited about is ending my job at the end of this month!

More to come later about details of the move and our last few months in France.

***Mom and Dad, if you are reading this, NO, this does not mean that I am not looking forward to seeing you, and NO, I am not going to change my mind now.

Remembering

2011-09-11T23:04:00.000+02:00

At first I wasn't sure if I was going to post anything about 9/11, but after having so many students and friends asking me about it and wanting to talk about it this week, I decided it might be a good idea. All week students have been asking me about 9/11 and French television has been overloaded with 9/11 programming, but I guess what really tipped the scale was a conversation with some friends last night.

We were invited to a friend's house for an apéro, and we were all sitting on the balcony, enjoying the relatively decent weather, when one of our friends mentioned that Sunday was the 10th anniversary of 9/11. This got everyone talking and another friend made a comment about how important 9/11 is for the entire world, not just the US. He pointed out that, when speaking of these attacks, everyone can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when the World Trade Center was hit. However, this is not the case with other terrorist attacks. He mentioned, as an example, that almost no one knows where the were in 1995 when the St. Michel metro was attacked, but everyone in France knows what they were doing when 9/11 happened.

So, where were you and what were you doing? I was in my first year of college, only the second week of school. Though the first plane hit the WTC at 8:46 am, I didn't learn of it until 9:00 when I arrived for my first class of the day, Italian. Class started at 9:10, but I arrived about 10 minutes early, and when I walked into the room some students were already there watching the TV. I looked up to see an image of smoke coming from the WTC and continued to watch, not fully comprehending, as the second plane struck at 9:03. We continued to watch the news until 9:10 when our professor walked in to start class, yelled at us for having the TV on, walked over, turned it off saying "we aren't going to watch that" and then proceeded to hold the entire Italian class. As soon as class ended we turned the TV back on to learn that the Pentagon had also been hit and that one tower had just collapsed. From there, the rest is history.

I thought my friend's comment was very interesting, and it really shows the global impact that 9/11 had and still has. All week, and particularly today, I have been reminded by US media and facebook that Americans will never forget, but, even more importantly perhaps, the entire world will never forget.

Not much happening

2011-08-31T22:30:00.000+02:00

Still not much going on here. I had a friend visiting this weekend. She lives in Angers and was in Paris for a job interview last week and decided to stay for the weekend. We were able to have a nice weekend, despite the less-than-nice weather and went out to Bercy Village for some wine, had other friends over for a barbecue and just relaxed and visited the city some.

I'm still not working much at the moment because of the vacation season, but I can't complain too much about that since I hate my job so much.

Other than that, I'm trying to survive the completely ridiculous weather this summer...it was relatively warm for a few days and now it's back to pretty cold weather. This has to be one of the most miserable summers I have ever experienced!

Anyway, I've got some projects in the works and hope to have some more exciting posts coming soon!

Rien

2011-08-23T00:29:00.000+02:00

Not much going on at the moment, so here's an adorable picture of little Rasteau sleeping the other day, cuddling one of his little stuffed mouse:

Miracle at the bureau des étrangers

2011-08-18T23:38:00.000+02:00

I went to the sous-prefécture yesterday to pick up my carte de séjour and a true miracle happened...it was fast! I arrived at 9:44 am (later than I had been planning, but I just couldn't drag myself out of bed much earlier on an unexpected day off just to go to the sous-préfecture) and at 9:53 I was walking out those doors with my carte de séjour in my hands and a shocked expression on my smiling face.

Yep, you read that right...only 9 minutes at the bureau des étrangers at my sous-préfecture and I was finished! It's gotta be some kinda record. Do French people even manage to get in and out that quickly???

In fact, I think it's because it's August. There were still a lot of people of people waiting in line (no less than usual) but when I walked into the bureau des étrangers to try my chances at guichet 2 I was shocked and surprised to see that 1. guichet 2 was actually open and there was no one waiting at it and 2. that I only recognized one of the fonctionnaires there. Which makes me think that all the normal fonctionnaires are on vacation and they had to be replaced for partial hours (they are only open from 9-12 for the month of August) by people who perhaps, might actually know how to work and be semi-efficient. I mean clearly, just the fact that guichet 2 was open is an indication that some sort of efficiency was introduced into that office, though I am sure it is only temporary!

So here's to the best sous-préfecture trip of my life, wish they could all take only 9 minutes!

A few photos from vacation

2011-08-08T23:55:00.001+02:00

Not much going on right now, so here are a few photos from our vacation:

view of La Dordogne from Domme

Biarritz

port of St. Jean de Luz

St. Jean de Luz

cliffs along the Atlantic in St. Jean de Luz

Spain as seen from Hendaye

Lionel and I in Biarritz

Cap Ferret

Bassin d'Arcachon

La Dordogne from the Cingle de Montfort (a hairpin curve in the river)

La Roque Gageac

Rocamadour

Sarlat

Chateau de Beynac

Chateau de Castelnau

Chateau de Montfort

Vacation

2011-07-31T23:03:00.001+02:00

We got back to Paris at 4am Saturday morning and I'm very sad to say that my vacation is over. I feel like it wasn't nearly long enough and I'm not ready to be back in the city and to face reality, and of course my evil teaching job. On the bright side, at least I don't work tomorrow, and August should be a pretty slow and easy month since most of my students are on vacation.

All in all our vacation was great, though the weather could definitely have been better! Here are the highs and lows:

The Good:

La Dordogne. Our trip in Dordogne was absolutely amazing and I completely fell in love with this part of France. We spent 4 wonderful days there, exploring, visiting, discovering and relaxing. Although the weather could have been better, we were still very happy with our trip and we saw so many amazing things: Sarlat, Domme, le Chateau de Castelnaud, le Chateau de Beynac, La Roque Gageac, Autoir, Rocamadour, Carennac, Martel, la Grotte des Merveilles, la Grotte de Rouffignac, le Chateau des Milandes, le Chateau de Castelnau Bretenoux, St. Léon sur Vézère, le Village Troglodytique de la Madeleine and Perigueux.
Le Pays Basque. Since the weather was so bad and we couldn't really take advantage of the beach, Lionel's parents decided to take us to the Pays Basque for two days since I had never been. It's a part of France that has never really attracted me, so I was very surprised to discover how beautiful and interesting this region is. We visited St. Jean de Luz, Sare, Hendaye, Aïnhoa, Espelette, Cambo les Bains and Biarritz and it was all beautiful. We spent some time along the sea and some time in the mountains and I really fell in love with the area and Basque food!
Spain. I went to Spain for the first time! On our trip to the Pays Basque we stopped in Spain for cheap alcohol and cheap gas and it was the first time I ever set foot in Spain, so I was pretty excited! We also drove through the mountains for a little bit before entering back into France and passed through the adorable little village of Bera.
Family. As I've said before, I am very lucky to have wonderful inlaws and we had a great time visiting them. Since the weather wasn't so great we also had time to visit with some other members of Lionel's family since they almost all live in the Bordeaux area and I had a great time seeing some of his cousins and his grandfather. We had some lovely, long meals with his family involving good conversation and lots of oysters, fresh fish, cheese, delicious desserts, aperitifs and, of course, tons of wine. I'm just so lucky to feel so accepted by Lionel's family and it helps me feel like I have family here since my own family is so far away in Ohio.
Friends. We also have some friends whose families are from the Arcachon area and since they were there on vacation at the same time we were able to meet up with them and spend some time with some of their friends from the area as well. We had one particularly wonderful evening with our friends, their friends, all their children and about 500 kg of food all expertly cooked by Matthew on the grill - shrimp, duck hearts (yikes!...I didn't try that one...), chicken, beef, ventrèche, sausages, camembert on the bbq. It was a lot, but delicious!
Rasteau. I think our little furball enjoyed being on vacation even more than we did. He loved having the huge garden to play in, a new area to explore and the other cats to play with. He barely slept because he was so excited by all the new things. It was adorable!
Cap Ferret. We spent a day at the Cap Ferret (even though the weather wasn't so great). We took the boat across the bassin from Arcachon to the Cap Ferret to visit some of Lionel's family that was on vacation there and the Cap ended up being really nice. We ate super fresh oysters straight from the waters at one of the little oyster shacks along the sea, visited the area a bit and went to a beautiful, natural beach (though we couldn't lay out or swim).
Biganos. We stopped in Biganos to visit the small but adorable, and very rustic port and had a nice walk around the port and along the river.
Andernos les Bains. We also visited Andernos les Bains at the fond du bassin and had a nice walk along the sea and through the adorable little commercial streets.
Gémo Chaussures. Since the weather was so bad I did a little shopping and managed to get a new cute pair of wedges on sale for only 13 euros!

The Bad:

The weather. The weather was ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. In our two and a half weeks of vacation we had 5 days of sun, one of which was too cold to be able to go to the beach and two of which were while we were in the Pays Basque so we were only able to spend an hour at the beach. The other two days, one was too cold and windy to go to the sea, so we went to the beach at the Lac de Cazaux where we were at least protected from the wind and the other day (the last day of our vacation) was actually hot and sunny so I spent the entire afternoon at the beach before hopping in the car to drive back to Paris that night. The rest of the time was cold, gray and rainy which made it really hard to do a lot of the activities we were planning. On the days when it didn't rain we were able to go biking and things but on the rainy days we were basically stuck at the house or shopping.
Lionel got a ticket. Lionel ended up getting a ticket when we were in Dordogne...90 euros for dangerous passing. Long story short, there was a tractor in front of us that unexpectedly stopped right after a sharp curve so Lionel swerved to pass it in order to avoid hitting it, and unfortunately les gendarmes were coming from the other direction and saw the entire thing.
Le Gouffre de Padirac. Le Gouffre de Padirac is this amazing cave with an underground river and when you visit it they take you on a boat ride along the river and then take you by foot to see the underground lakes. We really wanted to see it and so we went one afternoon but the line was very, very long and we didn't want to lose the rest of the afternoon so we decided to come back the following morning. The next morning we woke up early and arrived before opening only to find another very long line and since we had a lot of other things we still wanted to see/do, we finally decided to just give up and visited the prehistoric Grottes de Rouffignac instead.
Canoeing. I love canoeing and I was really excited because we planned to go canoeing twice on vacation. We had planned a canoeing trip with our friends and their children for the beginning of vacation which was unfortunately cancelled and because of the weather we were never able to do it later. We had also planned to canoe on the Dordogne River but were unable to because of the weather as well. So we ended up not being able to canoe at all, which was a disappointment.
Les Mardinades. Les Mardinades is a little soirée that is put on by the city of La Teste de Buch every Tuesday night in July and August at the port. There are cheap drinks, good food, lots of oysters, live music, and dancing. When we were on vacation there two years ago we went twice and I really enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to going back this year. We were in Dordogne the first Tuesday but planned to go the second Tuesday. Unfortunately, because of the weather (which ended up being beautiful), they cancelled it and rescheduled it for Wednesday night when we were gone in the Pays Basque, so I ended up missing my Mardinades.

I think that about sums up my vacation. Pictures coming soon!

Freedom!

2011-07-13T18:35:00.000+02:00

Well, at least for two and a half weeks! Yep, that's right, we are on vacation! We are leaving tonight for two wonderful weeks far from Paris, and I couldn't be more excited to get away. We plan to leave around 8pm to head here:

Two weeks in Arcachon. Of course, this means we are spending our vacation with my in-laws, since they live in La Teste de Buch, the city that surrounds the city of Arcachon. But that is fine with me because I'm lucky enough to have very nice in-laws who I really like. Their house is only 10 minutes from the beach and we will spend two weeks relaxing at the beach (I hope, because the weather forecast isn't looking too great for the moment), going out on the boat to the Ile aux oiseaux and the Banc d'Arguin, eating good food, biking around, canoeing with friends, going to the lake de Cazaux, visiting the Dune de Pyla, and just relaxing far from the stress of Paris and our jobs.

We are bringing the little furball with us, and we are going to leave him with Lionel's parents for four days to spend some time visiting la Dordogne, which I'm really looking forward to. It's a part of France I have never visited and have always dreamed of exploring so I'm going to do as much as possible in those four days.

Don't know if I'll have a lot of time to post while I'm gone, but I'll try, especially if it's raining.

Visas, Residency, Titres de Séjour and the Préfecture

2011-07-07T00:54:00.000+02:00

Last week I had my annual ~~torture session~~ visit to the sous-préfecture to renew my titre de séjour, only 3.5 months after I went in to schedule an appointment, and only 1 month after my previous titre de séjour actually expired...but who cares about that. Lionel took the day off as required and we dragged our butts out of bed far too early to drive over there (at least this time we had a car and didn't have to take the buses!). As we pulled into the parking lot at 9:15 I gasped in shock as I saw the line for the accueil of the Bureau des Etrangers. Usually the line winds around a bit inside the building and then heads outside along the front of the building. But this year, it not only went along the front of the building, but around the side and to the back, effectively covering about half the exterior of the place.

I looked at Lionel with anger flashing through my eyes as I realized we might be in for a very long day. Then I left him in the line and fought my way through the crowds of foreigners to get inside, clutching the paper stating that I had an appointment for 9:30 and praying that, for once, guichet 2 - the window that is supposed to be for people with appointments or who are just there to pick up their card (and therefore allowing us to bypass the long welcome line) - would actually be open and have a person working it. Afterall, why should I have to stand in a 3-4 hour line when I have an appointment for a specific time (new this year)?

As I shoved my way past crowds of angry people, people who really need to buy deodorant, hot, crying babies, and strollers and finally got into the actual office/waiting area, I was shocked, first by the number of people already waiting for their numbers to be called only 15 minutes after the place had opened, second by the fact that not a single number had yet been called for any service, third by the sign stating that from June 22-July 15 the office was reducing their already non-existant hours and only staying open until 3:30, except on Thursdays when they would be closing at 12:30 and finally by the fact that guichet 2 was actually open (with a line of people waiting for it!). Still, thrilled to be bypassing the horribly long line outside in the hot, 35 degree sun, I quickly got in the much smaller line. Only 15 minutes later it was my turn and I went up to the window, showed my paper for my appointment and got my number: S107. Excellent, I thought! Only 7 people ahead of me for the S numbers and the line went faster than imagined! I glanced back at the screen and realized that in all that time, they still had not called a single number and I gulped thinking, well I hope they get to us rendez-vous people first.

I headed back outside to bring Lionel in to wait and then finally they started calling numbers, but nothing with S. By this time we were roasting alive in the hot, over-crowed waiting room which was designed for about 30 people and was accommodating about 100 with no air conditioning on one of the 3 hottest days we've had all year. So we decided to go outside and wait near a window where we could still see the numbers being called, but have a little air and not have to listen to the crying babies. And wait we did, in the very hot sun.

Finally, about 10:15 they called the first S and my hopes went up. I started thinking they would just zip through all the Ss and we would be free! But no, that was only a dream...from 10:15-10:30 they called S100, 101, 102. And then stopped. Until 11:15 when they called S103, 104, 105. They called those three all at the same time, so I thought they must be trying to hurry up and finish with S before lunch. Nope. They stopped again. Then finally at 12:15 they called S106 and I started to get excited. Freedom was in sight. Finally, at 12:30 my number was called and in we went, pushing through the hoards of people, noticing that the line was not getting any smaller and there were more and more people waiting in that tiny room. But we were the lucky ones, and we went straight back to guichet 7, where the S people were all going. And then my smile dropped as I recognized the evil witch at the window. But oh well, I fought through it, we handed her all the papers, she looked everything over, I got my stupid récépissé (again, because it wouldn't be better to just process new cards before the old ones expired therefore eliminating the need for the récépissé altogether), and then I asked my question:

Me: When will I be able to apply for the 10 year carte de résident? (knowing full well that it is after 3 years of marriage, but after hearing rumors through a Russian friend that her other Russian friend was able to get it after 2.5 years of marriage because it was in the year when she would reach 3 years, I thought I would give it a shot anyway).

Evil Sous-Préfecture Woman: What?

Me: When will I be able to get the carte de résident?

ESPW: What? The 10 year card?

Me: Yes

ESPW: After 3 years of marriage. So apply next year.

Me: Can I apply in November when we reach 3 years of marriage?

ESPW: (sighing) You can apply next year...if the law doesn't change before then...(cue ominous music...what scares me is that I've heard rumors that they are thinking of doing away with the 10 year card altogether, therefore requiring yet another temporary, 1 year card and I fear this will somehow end up screwing me over...)

Me: Okay..........thanks........(for nothing, I mumbled under my breath).

So there you go, I spent about 3.5 hours at the stupid sous-préfecture, roasting alive, miserable and suffering for a whopping 15 minutes at the window. I was finally seen only 3 hours after my scheduled, time-specific appointment (why even bother to give appointments if they can't even come relatively close to respecting them...they used to just give us a day and say to arrive between 9 and 12), and then finally, at 12:45, we were free...until, of course, I have to go back and pick up my card...probably anytime between now and the end of September seeing as we are entering the vacation period.

However, I must say I am far luckier than my 2 friends. My Russian friend has been here for 4 years with her Russian husband. When they came to France he had secured a job here and she was coming as the spouse of a Russian man with a work visa. Not knowing any French, she decided to spend her first year studying the language, then spent years 2 and 3 completing a Masters in Paris. Since then, a year later, she has been desperately trying to convince France to let her have the right to work, to no avail. She isn't married to a Frenchie, therefore she can't work unless she can find a company that will sponsor her. She's going insane because all she wants to do is be able to have a job and contribute financially to her couple and economically to the country. Instead, France would rather give her and her husband the CAF. Seems like it would be cheaper to let her work too, allowing them enough money to pay their apartment by themselves, and letting France collect taxes from her as well...instead, she is constantly fighting with the préfecture, preparing documents and investigating laws to try to find a way to work, and is constantly getting refused.

My friend, Amy, is in even more dire straights as she was just informed, by letter, that she had 1 month to leave the country because France refuses to renew her student card as she did not complete her exams last year due to a death in the family. She decided to return home for the funeral, and since it was just before Christmas, she stayed home and came back in January, missing her exams in her expensive, private, French language school. Since she was not doing it for a degree, but only to learn the language after completing a degree in interior design in Paris, she didn't think it was too important. Since then, she has signed up for the a different, cheaper school, found an internship and been fighting with the préfecture to be allowed to stay. After months of fighting about paperwork and a million trips to the préfecture she finally got the letter rejecting her request to renew her student card and has to leave the country by July 15. France said she wasn't "serious about her studies" but she gave them a copy of the death certificate and the papers showing she had already signed up and paid for another 6 months of French language classes, as well as the fact that she found an internship if she could just get the renewal, and they still refused. Seems a little ridiculous to me for a 6 month student card...

But I guess that's the prefecture for you...here to make foreigners' lives miserable!

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T23:01:00.000+02:00

Happy 4th of July to all the Americans out there!

We celebrated on Saturday night with a barbeque and some friends. We had a wonderful time and ate plenty of American food including hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, homemade coleslaw, pasta salad, strawberry shortcake and cheesecake (now that I buy Philadelphia cream cheese!!!).

our American flag shortcake

Hope all you other Americans out there are had a great 4th of July, whether in the US or abroad!

Someone hates the hot weather...

2011-06-27T18:56:00.001+02:00

Our poor little furball is having a hard time acclimating to the hotter weather, and as a result we have seen him in quite a few interesting positions as he tries to find a way to nap and stay cool:

Rasteau trying to get comfortable

Rasteau looking at Lionel and I as if it is our fault it is so hot today

Rasteau trying to cool off under a chair in the garden...I guess he figures that if he exposes his whole tummy he will be more comfortable

We went out to the supermarket today and FINALLY bought a fan (yep, you read that right, all these years in Paris without air conditioning and we have never had a fan) and we set it up immediately. At first Rasteau enjoyed laying on his favorite chair while the wind blew through his whiskers, but then I guess he decided he didn't like the noise and is staying away. Now he's back to moving between the garden and the apartment trying to decide which one is cooler!

Afternoon at the Parc de Sceaux

2011-06-27T18:47:00.000+02:00

On Saturday Lionel and I spent the afternoon at the Parc de Sceaux. It was the first time either one of us had ever been (pretty sad considering Lionel has been living in Paris for about 20 years!) and I was surprised by how nice the park is and how much there is to see and explore there. There are manicured gardens, fountains galore, lots of grassy areas for relaxing, picnicing or playing sports, the grand canal to walk along, the chateau to see, woods to explore, a museum and some other buildings on site. We decided to take advantage of the excellent weather on Saturday and wandered around the park, exploring and relaxing. I think it's definitely one of my favorite parks in the Paris area, and what was really nice was the lack of people there Saturday afternoon!

the grand canal

the chateau

fountains-les cascades

Vaux le Vicomte

2011-06-23T21:25:00.000+02:00

On Sunday we took my aunt and uncle to visit Vaux le Vicomte. I had never been there before, and I was pleasantly surprised. The chateau was nice but the gardens were beautiful. It was also much nicer to visit than Versailles since there were far less tourists and you didn't have to shove your way through every room of the chateau. Also, it's 55 km south of Paris, and it only took us about 45 minutes to drive there, so it was very convenient.

the gardens

the chateau and the crown fountain

Vaux le Vicomte

Lionel and I at the chateau

Inside the chateau you could visit some period rooms with antique furniture and such and there was also an exhibition on Nicolas Fouquet (the vicomte de Melun and Vaux who built Vaux le Vicomte and who was famously arrested by the musketeers under the orders of Louis XIV who was suspicious of Fouquet's ambition) as well as an exhibition on André le Nôtre (the famous landscape designer who designed some of the most famous gardens in France - Versailles, Chantilly, Fontainebleau, Vaux le Vicomte, etc). Everything was very interesting, though the exhibit on Fouquet was a bit corny, and after visiting the interieur we spent some time wandering around the gardens, enjoying the fact that it wasn't raining.

A trip into the little known champagne country of Côte des Bars

2011-06-21T00:34:00.000+02:00

This weekend my aunt and uncle visited. They arrived Thursday and left today on a little stop over in Paris before heading to Israel. While they were here we made a little day trip into a little known part of champagne country called the Côte des Bars near the city of Troyes (the historic seat of Champagne).

Since I had already been to Reims twice and visited some of the bigger champagne houses there, I wanted to take my aunt and uncle somewhere different and near a city that was a little prettier than Reims. So Lionel suggested going to the adorable city of Troyes and going into a little champagne village or two to visit a smaller, less well known champagne house and to taste and buy some of their champagnes. In the end we ended up going to Champagne Chassenay d'Arce in the small village of Ville-sur-Arce, near a slightly larger champagne town called Bar-sur-Seine which also had some champagne houses that we didn't make it to.

In the end I was very happy with the decision. While the bigger houses in Reims and Epernay offer standard tours, they are not really personalized and they cost a lot of money with the opportunity to usually only taste one champagne, rather than getting to compare. Instead, at Chassenay d'Arce we had a private tour (though a few more people showed up later, there definitely weren't a lot of tourists) and we were given the opportunity to try 4 different champagnes, all for free (though they certainly hope you will buy something afterwards, and buy we did...6 bottles!). Plus, rather than being situated in the middle of a relatively ugly city, Chassenay d'Arce was located in the small champagne village of Ville-sur-Arce, surrounded by champagne vineyards cliimbing up rolling hills, and small stone houses. Before the visit we had a little picnic in the middle of the vines, then we headed back down the hill to explore the champagne caves and to taste some delicious bubbly (including one that was made of 100% pinot noir and was very special!) After our visit we hopped back into the car and drove back through the other adorable champagne town of Bar-sur-Seine before making our way over to Troyes.

champagne vines

champagne vines and countryside

Chassenay d'Arce caves

Champagne Chassenay d'Arce

Lionel and I at Champagne Chassenay d'Arce

Bar-sur-Seine

Troyes is an adorable little city in the Champagne-Ardennes region. Once the historic seat of Champagne, it is now a beautiful and charming little city full of 16th century half-timbered houses, beautiful churches, and best known for its outlet malls. I immediately fell in love with this city and could definitely imagine living here. The surrounding area is beautiful and the city is just enchanting with its adorable historic center. Unfortunately, as we arrived later in the day, after the champagne tasting, we didn't have a lot of time there, only a couple of hours, and we were chased out even faster by incoming storms. However I was very happy to get even a little taste of this amazing city, and I hope to go back some day to explore it further. The old town center is full of small, winding streets lined with half-timbered buildings and around every corner you discover some other amazing church or building. We spent a few hours wandering around the city, checking out the main square and surrounding streets, enjoying a coffee in a smaller square and visiting St. Urbain basilica, the cathedral, St. Nizier church and marvelling at all the amazingly well preserved old houses.

main square of Troyes

rue Champeaux

Lionel and I in front of St. Remy

back of St. Urbain

street corner in the old town

Unfortunately, we eventually had to head back to Paris, and with an impending storm, we reluctantly got back in the car for the 2 hour drive back to gray concrete misery. But all in all, it was a great day and I think my aunt and uncle really enjoyed it and I was happy to be able to show them some of the other wonderful things France has to offer, while discovering some new places myself.

Adventures in Picardie

2011-06-13T21:51:00.000+02:00

I'm a little behind with this post, but the other weekend Lionel and I decided to spend a day in Picardie. We had originally planned to only go up to Laon, so we left Paris in the morning and drove up. However, since we saw other things along the way that interestsed us, we decided to leave Laon a little earlier than planned to make some stops on the way back to Paris as well.

First we visited Laon, which is a pretty city with a charming medieval quarter called La Ville Haute or La Cité Médiévale. The medieval quarter is located on top of a hill with the more modern part of the city situated at the bottom of the hill. The ramparts and cathedral dominate the hill and there are also a lot of small, charming streets to wander around. You can also walk along the ramparts on top of the hill and the view over Picardie is amazing.

Cathédrale de Laon

Rue du Cloître in Laon

view from la Haute Ville

medieval gate into la Haute Ville

St. Martin in Laon

La Haute Ville

On the way back we decided to stop at the city of Soissons. We didn't know anything about the city, but were tempted to stop by when we say some tall towers soaring over the city. From what we understood, most of the city was destroyed during the World Wars (they say 7 out of every 8 houses was destroyed), so the city wasn't as charming as Laon but the cathedral was pretty, with only one tower, and the ruins of the Abbaye St. Jean des Vignes were very interesting.

Abbaye St. Jean des Vignes

cloisters of the abbey

facade of St. Jean des Vignes...the rest of the church is gone, there is no nave or anything

Cathédrale de Soissons

Finally we saw a sign along the N2 pointing to another abbey off the road, so we decided to investigate and we stumbled upon the adorable village of Longpont and the ruins of its abbey, the Abbaye de Longpont. Situated in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the woods, past some farmland, the village was absolutely adorable. Too bad by the time we got there the abbey was closed so we couldn't get a really close look at the ruins.

Abbaye de Longpont

village of Longpont

Buffet à volonté

2011-06-07T23:33:00.000+02:00

Apparently the hot, humid and now damp weather we've had recently is attracting mosquitoes like crazy, and I am their official blood buffet. In the last week and a half I've managed to accumulate nearly 100 mosquito bites (the last time I counted I was at 85 and that was last weekend). I don't know why, but they really seem to love my blood while Lionel and the cat have gotten off with almost nothing. Must be because I'm so sweet...

As a result of the invasion of the mosquitos (which we did NOT have at all last year), we ran out to the store to stock up on mosquito repellents. We ended up spending 20 euros on des plaquettes anti-moustiques, des diffuseurs éléctroniques, et Raid moustiques. This seems to have helped a bit as before I was averaging about 10 new bites a night and now I am down to less than 5, but still, it's getting insane! I finally had to drag myself to the pharmacy to buy some anti-itch gel because I couldn't take it anymore. I also officially look like I have some weird skin disease as I have red spots all over my arms, legs, stomach, back and face, but especially my right arm (which at last count had 30 bites alone), my left leg and my face. I also now need more time in the morning to put makeup on since I have to work extra hard to try to cover up all the red, swollen bumps on my face that make it look like Lionel beats me! I just don't understand why these things don't start healing already! This is getting a little ridiculous and I'm going to spend a fortune because of mosquitoes! Any suggestions?

Sécheresse

2011-06-06T00:00:00.000+02:00

What is this? This is the effect the sécheresse has had on the grass in my garden. It's dead and looks like straw. Poor little Rasteau is hating not having nice, green, comfy grass to roll in and to eat. Plus he is tracking in dead, brown grass that ends up all over my apartment.

Luckily the drought seems to be ending since we've had storms the past two nights. While I have been enjoying the nice, sunny weather, I know my garden (and the French farmers) desperately need some rain, so at least it's been coming at night!

Picnic on the Pont des Arts

2011-05-31T20:41:00.000+02:00

Last weekend we met up with a bunch of friends for the annual picnic on the Pont des Arts. Every year around this time we organize a picinic on the pont and every year it's a great time. The only problem this year was the police who were patrolling the bridge like crazy to make sure no one was drinking alcohol (apparently it is now officially illegal to consume alcohol on the bridge). The cops were relatively cool about it and if they caught you drinking they gave you the choice of throwing it out or going down on the quais next to the bridge. Nonetheless, it got a little annoying having to be very careful to hide all our beer and wine, but it was still a lot of fun, the weather was beautiful, we were able to enjoy some good company and some good food and I was able to destress a little, if only for one night.

sunset from the Pont des Arts Saturday night

Back en France

2011-05-30T00:18:00.000+02:00

Well, I'm back in France after a wonderful trip to the US. I actually got back a week ago, but I have been so depressed about returning to Paris and to my horrible job that I haven't been able to motivate myself to post.

My time in the US was incredible and I was very busy trying to squeeze in time with family and friends. Unfortunatly the weather wasn't very great and it was cold and rainy most of the time. We did have a few days of nicer weather though and luckily the rain held off for my friend Lindsay's wedding, which was the main reason I went back in May.

Overall I'm pretty happy with everything I managed to do and everyone I managed to see (though there were more people I really wanted to see, and I just didn't have the time). I saw the new Cleopatra exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center, went to a Cincinnati Reds game (though it was raining and freezing), did all the stuff for the wedding weekend (rehearsal dinner, wedding, reception, etc), got my taxes done, did a ton of shopping, ate a bunch of delicious food (including Mexican, bbq, real hamburgers, etc), went to Hofbrauhaus (my favorite bar in Cincy) with my brother and some friends, saw a lot of family, celebrated my dad's birthday, spent time with a bunch of friends and ran some random errands such as getting a hair cut (since I hate doing it in France because they never do what I ask). Even after all this, I still managed to find a little time to relax, though not much since I also couldn't stop stressing about having to return to my stupid job.

Go Reds!

at the Reds game

out for Mexican

Hofbrauhaus!

Congrats Lindsay and Tom! a beautiful wedding!

USA here I come!

2011-05-05T22:34:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow morning I'm off for two glorious weeks in the US. I'll try to post once or twice if I find the time, but my schedule is already pretty busy. I've got a wedding which I'm a bridesmaid in, a big family get together, celebrating my dad's birthday, lots and lots of shopping, I'm planning to go to a Cincinnati Reds game, I'm going to spend some time up in Columbus visiting some friends, I have some administrative stuff to work on, taxes to prepare and file, and some other plans which are in the works.

But for the moment I'm just thrilled about 2 weeks free from English teaching, the metro, Paris and I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends. The only thing that makes me a little sad is that Lionel didn't have any vacation left, so he isn't able to come with me this time. But that's ok because I'm going to take advantage of some husband-free time with friends!

L'atelier des Chefs

2011-05-03T00:32:00.000+02:00

For Lionel's birthday present I got us a cooking lesson with L'atelier des Chefs, and last week we went. I decided to get him the cooking lesson for us to do together because I recently tried it for the first time with a friend and he was really jealous that he couldn't come since we did one of their 30 minute lunch courses during one of my breaks from work.

L'atelier des Chefs provides cooking courses where you learn how to cook 1-3 recipes and receive different cooking tips for all kinds of different things in the kitchen. The courses consist of about 20 people and you work in small groups of 4-5 to prepare the recipes while listening to the advice of the chef. After you finish cooking you have the choice to either eat at the atelier or (for some of the courses) to take the food home with you. They have 6 different ateliers in Paris and can also be found in some other major cities in France. They offer lessons throughout the entire day, at a lot of different prices and a number of different formulas. The prices range from 15 euros (for the 30 minute lunch courses) to 72 euros for the 2 hours more intense courses and wine tastings.

The first course I did was a 30 minute lunch course where we learned to prepare massalé d'agneau et riz parfumé à la cardamome. Since it was only a 30 minute lesson we only learned one dish and afterwards we ate it and it was very good. We also had the option to pay extra for wine, coffee or for a dessert that the chef had prepared beforehand.

For Lionel's birthday we went to an evening lesson after work at 7:30. The lesson was an hour and we learned three courses, then sat down and ate there before heading home. For the lesson I chose there was a theme: La bière s'invite en cuisine. We learned to make:

Soupe de fraises et framboises, sirop de bière à la cardamome et tuile au gingembre

Croustillant au sésame et poulet mariné au citron vert et à la bière
Carpaccio de bar mi cuit, blinis et sirop de bière

Included in the price was a beer, of course. Unfortunately, I was too busy eating to think to take any pictures, so sorry! But everything was really good and Lionel really enjoyed the experience and wants to do some more lessons with l'Atelier des Chefs. He's very proud to have finally learned how to cut an onion like a professional chef, and he's been practicing his new skill at home! I'm hoping this means he will cook more!

Easter weekend à Paris

2011-04-26T23:22:00.000+02:00

For Easter weekend I took advantage of a nice four day weekend thanks to some students on vacation and took it easy and relaxed here in Paris.

Lionel's parents came and stayed with us for the weekend and we spent our time relaxing in the garden, barbecuing, going for walks and relaxing.

going for a relaxing walk along La Marne on Sunday

I know for some people that a long weekend with the in-laws at your house would be stressful and miserable, but I am VERY lucky and get along great with my in-laws, so the weekend was wonderful and relaxing.

The only thing that destroyed the weekend was the fact that I kept thinking about and stressing about work. Such a shame to think about work the entire weekend, but for some reason I couldn't stop and it kept popping into my mind and making me feel sick and miserable. So, needless to say, I was not at all thrilled to head back to work today and I'm just praying to make it thru the rest of this week and next week because then I'll be off to the US for vacation for two wonderful, work-free weeks!

Hope everyone else had a great Easter weekend as well!

Mon mari is getting old...

2011-04-22T22:42:00.000+02:00

On Wednesday Lionel celebrated his 35th birthday. He's getting old! But being the wonderful wife I am, I made him the birthday dinner that he's been dreaming about. For years I've been listening to him talking about how he wants to eat la lotte (monkfish). His mother apparently used to make a wonderful dish with la lotte and he's been dying to eat something like it again. So, I scoured the internet and finally found a recipe with la lotte that sounded good and like something I would eat.

Since my last lesson was cancelled on Wednesday I was able to get home early, run to the store and then head back to the apartment to make his surprise birthday dinner. En entrée we had scallops, en plat we had la lotte exotique au curry and en dessert we had key lime pie from another recipe I found on the internet. He was quite happy with the meal and said it was even better than his mom's lotte so I was happy too.

Overall, I think he had a great birthday (even if he's ancient now!), better than mine where he was nice enough to offer to order sushi for delivery cause he couldn't be bothered to make me something or take me out to a restaurant... And for his birthday present he got a cooking lesson with l'Atelier des Chefs, something I just tried out this week and loved, and he was so jealous that I thought I would give him a cooking lesson with them for his gift. So next Wednesday after work we are going to a cooking lesson called La bière s'invite en cuisine: But more about that later!

An American weekend

2011-04-17T23:50:00.000+02:00

We had a pretty nice weekend this weekend. It was pretty relaxing, and we didn't do much but it was very nice and very American. Last night we took advantage of the nice weather and had our first barbeque of the season...American style bbq ribs with coleslaw, vegetable skewers, good Belgian beers and strawberries for dessert. We were hoping to have a few friends over for a nice, quiet Saturday night in our garden with the new tiki torches I managed to find at Carrefour a few weekends ago, but no one wanted to come or was available, so it was just the two of us. And in the end, it was pretty nice...just our little family - me, Lionel, and Rasteau (who was very happy to have his masters in the garden with him the entire evening!). The ribs recipe was delicious and it was wonderful to cook together and spend the evening together, relaxing out in the garden and playing with the cat.

Then this morning I got up early and made a big American breakfast - scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese (because my Auchan started selling cheddar at the cheese counter!!!), buttermilk pancakes and bacon. It was delicious as well and I ALMOST felt like I was back at home in the US. Plus, I didn't have to feel too guilty about using some of my American supplies since I will be back in the US in 3 weeks!

An overall great, calm weekend full of delicious American food! It's making me really impatient to get back to the States in May!

Weekend à Grenoble en photos

2011-04-12T23:07:00.000+02:00

Lionel and I spent the past weekend in Grenoble visiting friends, and it was an amazing weekend. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time relaxing outside, visiting the city and exploring some of the nearby area. A beautiful city and a wonderful location, surrounded by mountains! It was our first visit, and we are already hoping to go back again soon!

Along the Isere River in Grenoble

the Isere

view of |Grenoble from la Bastille, a fort overlooking the city

Lionel and I up at the fort

the Grenoble area from the hike down from the fort

Grenoble and the beautiful mountains in the background!

so nice to see the mountains!

Grenoble from the park just below the fort

Lionel and I visiting the fort

Uriage-les-Bains, a small town we visited about 15 mins from Grenoble

Uriage-les-Bains

the hike up to visit the chateau in Uriage

Good times with another ami

2011-04-04T23:37:00.000+02:00

Sorry for my absence, but I had another friend visiting from the US so I haven't really had the chance to post. My friend Russ came to visit and we had a nice time in Paris and we spent a nice weekend in Tours. Russ and I met in Tours, when we both went there to study for the first year of our Masters program. This was his first trip back to France since we left Tours in May 2006 and he had a great time visiting Paris again and going back to Tours to visit some of our favorite places and to see some new things as well. Lionel and I were also very happy to see him and overall it was another great visit from an American friend.

As you know, Tours is probably my favorite city in France and I have a lot of great memories there. I was thrilled to go back again, and especially with a friend who I had originally met there. It was great to go back and see some of our favorite places, check out the Quartier des 2 Lions, the area where we used to live, and see how it has changed in the past 5 years, and to just enjoy Russ' company. We also were able to find the time to visit a new chateau while we were there - the Chateau d'Ussé (the castle that inspired Perrault to write Sleeping Beauty) - and do some wine tasting in Vouvray, my favorite appellation for white wines in France. Lionel drove us down, and my friend Amy also came to check out the city I love so much.

Chateau d'Ussé

Lionel and I at the Chateau d'Ussé

Amy, Russ and I at the Chateau d'Ussé

view from the Chateau d'Ussé

Russ in the wine caves of the Chateau d'Ussé

the chateau had rooms showing different scenes from Sleeping Beauty. Here is the prince (with the ugliest shoes I've ever seen) waking the princess Aurora.

Chateau de Villandry which we stopped at on the drive from Ussé to Tours. Villandry is famous for its amazing gardens.

Russ and I enjoying a drink at one of our favorite bars in Tours - The Pale.

The brand new, super fancy, indoor/outdoor shopping center in the Quartier des 2 Lions in Tours. If only this had been here when we lived here. We drove all around it and there are tons of great stores and lots of little restaurants and cafes. |Back when we lived here (right across the street from this shopping center) there was only a cinema, a bowling alley and a McDonalds in the quartier and we had to go into the city to do anything!

This is where we used to live, the building in the back, on the top floor.

Russ and I enjoying a coffee in the best square in Europe...Place Plumereau!

Amy and Russ wine tasting at the Cave des Producteurs de Vouvray.

To study ou pas?

2011-03-24T00:46:00.000+01:00

To study or not to study? This is a question I have been asking myself and debating about for a year now, and I'm no closer to making the decision now than I was when I first asked myself the question. As is quite obvious from my birthday freak out, I desperately want and need to change careers before I go insane. But the question is, should I go back to school (and put myself through the miserable torture that is the French educational system) or should I just keep looking and trying and hoping that something comes around?

The background: I have a Bachelors and a Masters that I earned in the US, both in French language and literature. Basically as soon as I finished my Masters I headed off to France to be an English assistant so that Lionel and I would have the opportunity to live together and see if our long distance relationship could work. Since then, we got married and I found myself in France with little to help me find a job here (who in France really needs someone who studied French language and literature???). With little work experience (we're talking mostly stores and restaurants in high school and throughout college, and a lot of interesting volunteer work that apparently counts for absolutely nothing here) and basically worthless degrees granted by *gasp* American universities, I struggled for 9 months to find a job, and finally settled for English teaching out of financial desperation and because of lack of any other options or offers. Since I gave in to the evils of being an English teacher in Paris, I have continued to look for other jobs, to no avail. All I managed to find was another English teaching job (which fell into my lap) with better pay and better conditions that has basically permitted me to put up with teaching a little longer. But now I'm at my wits end and I've gotta change before I go crazy or become seriously depressed.

So, for a year now I've been researching and debating the idea of going back to school. The reasons I don't necessarily want to do it are: I hate the French school system; it makes me very angry that I would be able to get a good job in the US with my degrees and experiences, but that this country makes it extremely difficult and I really thought I was done with school when I finished my Masters, unless one day I decided to go back and get a PhD (in the US, of course); I can't decide what exactly to study; I feel like I'll be putting my future, happier career on hold for another 2 years, which frustrates me; and Lionel and I can't afford to have me not working, so I'll definitely have to continue with some sort of English teaching while I study in order for us to survive financially without emptying our hard earned savings accounts. But I also know that going back to some sort of school in France is probably the only way I'm going to be sure to get out of English teaching, and since it doesn't seem like Lionel and I will be packing up to head back to the US (unfortunately) any time soon, I have to get myself a better life going in France or I will never be happy.

I've been considering a number of different options. I've looked at the idea of a BTS Tourisme, but I'll have to get over the little bit of pride I have left since having moved to this country in order to go all the way back down to a BTS. I also considered a BTS Secrétariat, but I just cannot possibly justify going to secretary school (what do they even learn???) and I don't really dream about becoming a secretary. It's just a job I thought I would be able to find easily here in Paris since I speak English and French. Unfortunately that didn't really work out. I've also been looking into a number of different Masters programs at the different universities here in Paris. They all follow the same general theme of histoire, culture, patrimoine, gestion du patrimoine and I've looked at at least 5 such similar programs which all eventually lead to the hope of a job in tourisme culturel, métiers de tourisme, métiers de patrimoine, etc. These are all things that I would be very interested in and would love to do, but is it realistic? Can an American get a job in the secteur du patrimoine français? Tourism, I'm sure, is more realistic at least. And do I really want to put myself through all that schooling? Again? Another Masters (because I'm realistic enough to know that I will never get into a PhD program in France with an American Masters)? And then what if things change and we decide to go back to the US after all that? It would basically be for nothing.

So, this is where I have been stuck for nearly a year. Not at all sure what I should do, but knowing that I need to do something. And I don't really have anyone to talk to about it because Lionel just thinks I'm ridiculous to be considering a return to school. But sometimes I don't think he's very realistic. Any suggestions???

Guess my latest rant just didn't measure up...

2011-03-23T00:24:00.000+01:00

This just in from Keith's A Taste of Garlic:

"Rant of the Week Award!
The battle for the coveted Rant of the Week Award went all the way to the line when a late entry by MilkJam on the joys of unemployment narrowly beat Michele at michele’s life in franglais who was complaining that I’m getting vielle

MilkJam won the award because, after all, she is on the rock and roll right now and Michele is just getting ancient.And fancy them picking up that you’re not qualified to speak American, MilkJam!
Michele, don’t feel too bad about missing out to MilkJam.
After all, you’re only 28 and there’s no need to get depressed and down in the dumps about it. You’ve probably got another couple of years or so before you get REALLY OLD and things start drooping to your knees or falling off!"

Looks like my rant just wasn't good enough! Honestly, I'm so dissappointed that I can't decide if I should rant about it, or just try harder the next time. I do have a ranty blog post or two that I've been working on for a while, one of which I started almost a year ago...perhaps I can get back in the competition and win that award soon!!!

I'm getting vieille

2011-03-17T22:17:00.000+01:00

Well, it's official. I'm 28. Yesterday was my birthday. I just keep getting older, and I really don't like it. It was fine when I was younger, trying to hit that ever-important 21, and it was even ok up until 25. But since 25 it just keeps getting more and more depressing. And now I'm 28, two years to 30, and what have I got to show for myself? Not much in my opinion.

Sure, I live in France, next to Paris (practically every Americans' dream), but I'm not particularly happy about it. As a result I work a job I HATE and as each year goes by I wonder when I'm going to get to start my career. You could argue that, as an English teacher, I have started my career. But I'm not talking about just any old career, but MY career, the one that I WANT to do, the one that makes me happy. I want a job that I enjoy. I'm sick of dreading going to bed every night because that just means morning will come and I'm tired of literally forcing myself out of bed every morning knowing that the day is just going to bring the misery of teaching some more stupid, pointless English lessons. I can't stand the fact that the only thing that gets me through each and every week is the fact that the weekend will come and that the only time I feel even remotely happy is on the weekend, yet I still manage to spoil half of the weekend thinking about work.

Basically, I just thought that by 28 I would have started my career. I would be done doing jobs I didn't like (or in this case truly hate) and I would be doing something that made me happy, regardless of the amount of money earned. Instead, yesterday I realized that I am still in a thankless job that makes me more and more miserable every day and I find myself actually longing for the days of pizza delivery when I was in school. Perhaps it's not the best job in the world, but I sure was much happier when I was doing it and I didn't feel depressed every day of my life.

Maybe my expectations were just too high. I thought that if I worked hard, got the degrees, got good grades and dedicated myself to different projects that I would be assured of having a good career by this time. Of course, I had never factored a move to France into my equation, but I can't imagine that this country is all that is holding me back. So what is my problem? Why do I feel like my life is so much more of a failure at 28 than at 22 or 23 or 25 even? I mean I live in France, I'm married, I have a nice (by Paris standards) apartment, I have an adorable cat, I have friends (of course, most of them reside in the US), I have enough money to live decently (though not extravagantly by any means, but we aren't in the poorhouse either). But for some reason, with all of that, my life at 28 feels incomplete and I know it is the career that is missing.

Most of my friends in the US are already well established in their chosen careers and I have nothing but a job I despise. And now that I'm almost 30, I'm really starting to feel that all hope of starting my career is gone, that I will still be dragging myself through metro tunnels and around Paris lugging a heavy Longchamp full of books to various companies 20 years from now, and that is a future that makes me feel sick.

I know I never really seem to be that positive about France and about living in France, and I think that the biggest reason why I'm always depressed and down in the dumps about my life here is my job. But who knows, perhaps today I'm down because of getting older, but maybe 28 is when my career will really start.

And, on the slightly brighter side, though we didn't do anything special for my birthday yesterday because I was gone for work from 8am-8pm, Lionel did at least get me some flowers:

And he claims there will eventually (maybe this weekend) be a present, which I'm guessing will either be a new Longchamp since my old one is definitely feeling the pain of lugging those books around Paris, or a Blackberry.

Sous-préfecture fun

2011-03-16T00:08:00.000+01:00

Well, that time of year has come again, the time when I must begin the loooong process of renewing my titre de séjour. Technically I was late starting the process this year (about one week later than normal) because of my friend's visit, and I just couldn't justify spending less time with her to drag myself to the sous-préfecture to once again renew my temporary, one year titre de séjour vie privée et familiale that I personally think should be valid for longer anyway.

So, on Monday I forced myself to get up early even though I didn't have work and to head over to the sous-préfecture de l'Häy-les-Roses. As usual, upon arrival, I was greeted by the very long line for the Bureau des Etrangers winding through the building, and then outside and into the parking lot (because they can't be bothered to find more space so us foreigners don't have to stand outside in the freezing cold, rain, etc.). Luckily though, Monday was a pretty nice day, so it wasn't as miserable as it could have been.

As usual I got into line, trying to calculate about how long it would be until I got to the welcome window and could ask my ONE very basic question and get out of there. Since the line looked about as long as usual, and, last year at least, I had been having quite a bit of luck, I calculated about 2 hours of standing around a waiting till it was my turn. Then I whipped out my Kindle and settled in to read Pride and Prejudice (for the millionth time), hoping that this would be the time that the line moved really fast.

Unfortunately, I was in for a big and unpleasant surprise...my calculations were quite wrong and this time the line took 3 hours! I think that is the longest I have ever had to wait just to get to the accueil. And to make it worse, about 5 minutes after I arrived, a woman with her baby got in line behind me and so I got to spend those three hours listening to her kid cry while he kept trying to kick me in the legs. Fun stuff.

When it was FINALLY my turn, I tried to put on my happy face and look like I hadn't just spent the last three hours in the line from hell with an irritating child and the mom from hell preventing me from at least being able to really enjoy Pride and Prejudice. I told the not-smiling (big surprise there) and self-important fonctionnaire that I was there because I needed to renew my titre de séjour and thus I needed an appointment to come back with Lionel and hand in my papers. She pulled out the appointment book, grabbed the all-important appointment sheet and wrote down my appointment date and time: June 28. WTF? Three and a half months later??? Is this what I get for coming in about a week later than normal? Last year I went at the beginning of March and had an appointment for the end of May. Not to mention my titre de séjour expires June 1. But she promptly reassured me that, as long as I was carrying the all-important appointment sheet that showed I had made the appointment before the expiration date on my card, I would be fine and they couldn't kick me out.

And then off I went to catch a bus home and continue with my day. Three hours in line for 2 minutes at the window and I walk away with a date to come back 3.5 months later. Looks like in about 5 months I will have my new card. Thankfully next year I get to apply for the 10 year card and I won't have to deal with the stupidity of having to go to renew every year!

However, on Sunday, I discovered something that made me even more irritated about this whole process. I live in the Val de Marne and am therefore under the Préfecture de Val de Marne located in Créteil. However, because I live in the KB I have to go to one of the Sous-préfectures. This therefore means that I do not get treated like a person who goes to the Préfecture. If you live in a town that goes to the Préfecture in Créteil, they now have this fancy online system to sign up for your appointment to renew the titre de séjour vie privée et familiale so that you don't have to go and wait in a long line (as well as add to that line) just to get your appointment to come back. But, since I go to the sous-préfecture, I do not have this luxury and I have to suffer through a three hour line for nothing basically. Seems to me like they should have rolled out the new system for all the offices so that everyone can benefit! I really would have appreciated not having to wait in that line and having been able to make my appointment online, with the internet, since we are in the 21st century and all!

Continued genius of La Poste

2011-03-14T00:21:00.001+01:00

As a quick follow up to my most recent problems with the French post office, we have received more information about the Christmas package my friend Lindsay tried to send me. As I said in my last post, Lindsay requested an inquiry into the location of the package since she hasn't received it back in the US and I haven't received it either. The US Postal Service told her it would take France about 17 days to complete the inquiry but if she hadn't heard anything in 24 days, to call for information. So she finally called after 24 days and was told that the inquiry was complete and that they had come back with the following response: "We never delivered the package."

WTF??? No information on where said package might be or on what might have happened to it. Just that they hadn't delivered the package. Well, so glad it took France 24 days and who knows how much money to figure out what I could have told them a couple of months ago! So looks like my package is officially MIA and I'll never get my Christmas present and neither will that cat! Thanks a lot La Poste for such efficient service!

Not to mention my aunt and uncle just got the Christmas card they sent me back in the mail last week. I'm starting to wonder if La Poste has blacklisted me...it sure would explain all the ridiculous problems I've had with them in the past 6 months: my bank account, my Christmas package, my Christmas card, a package magically appearing IN my mailbox and the return of our taxes (they returned our tax form to us after we sent it on time to pay our taxes, therefore making us pay late because the form shifted and they couldn't see the address in the envelope window, so they peeled back the envelope to find the sender's address to return it to us instead of peeling it back to find the address of the destinataire or instead of just recognizing the very obvious tax form envelope that they certainly know well as they certainly deal with millions of them every year and just sending it on to the evil tax collectors). Oh, La Poste, you are one of my biggest enemies in France!!!

Fun with my US friend

2011-03-13T18:31:00.000+01:00

It feels like forever since I've written, and it has been. I was so busy with my friend, Michelle's, visit that I didn't really have a chance to post. But I had a great visit with her...we did some site seeing in Paris, relaxed a bit and went to Croatia and Slovenia together for a 5 day weekend.

Here in Paris we visited the Square Louis XVI, walked around, rode the ferris wheel at Place de la Concorde, went to Montmartre, saw the Moulin Rouge, had wine along the Seine, went to Bercy Village, and a few other little activities around the city as was possible around my work schedule.

Chapelle expiatoire at the Square Louis XVI (metro St. Augustin, square on Blvd. Haussmann). The chapelle marks the place where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were originally buried for about 20 years until their remains were moved to the royal burial site at the Basilique St. Denis.

Michelle and I on the ferris wheel

view of the Eiffel Tower from the ferris wheel

The first weekend she was here we headed off for our 5 day visit of Croatia and Slovenia, which was amazing. We flew into Zagreb, picked up our rental car and then drove to the Croatian coast (in our Audi! on the fabulous, empty Croatian highways!) where we visited Pula, Rovinj and Porec. We spent 2 days on the coast, then we drove back to Zagreb, dropped off the car and spent the afternoon visiting the city before we hopped our train to Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Porec, Croatia

Pula, Croatia

Roman amphitheater in Pula, Croatia and Michelle with our rental Audi

Rovinj, Croatia

Zagreb Cathedral

Zagreb, Croatia

In Slovenia we visited Ljubljana, which is a beautiful, absolutely magical little city and I highly recommend it. We also took a trip out to Lake Bled, about an hour outside of Ljubljana to visit the famous lake with the church on an island in a middle and Bled castle overlooking it all. It was beautiful, but unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side, and so our photos are all very misty and gray. Surprisingly we had no travel problems whatsoever, not even a delayed easyjet flight and overall the trip was wonderful and I definitely want to go back to Croatia and Slovenia some day to see some more.

Ljubljana, Slovenia and the Triple Bridge

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Ljubljana Castle sitting above the city

main square and Ljubljana Cathedral at night

Bled Castle and Bled city along Lake Bled, Slovenia

Lake Bled, Slovenia, shrouded by mist

church on the island in the middle of Lake Bled

Michelle just left to head back to the US this past week. It was really nice to see her and to spend some time with a friend from back home, to catch up on all the news with my friends in the US and to just spend some time with someone I've known almost my entire life. But now that she's gone, it's back to the real world, my miserable job, and life in stupid Paris. Tomorrow I have to drag myself to the stupid sous-préfecture to start the process of once again renewing my temporary carte de séjour vie privée et familiale, so I'm sure I'll have lots to say about that soon. And in 2 weeks I have another friend from the US coming out to visit for a week, so that will be great. We are going to head down to Tours for a weekend to revisit the city where we first met and studied together for the first year of our MAs, so it should be fun. But until then, I'm just readjusting to normal life and trying to look for a new, better job outside the field of English teaching before I go insane!

Some much needed thérapie américaine

2011-02-21T22:52:00.000+01:00

I'm about to get some much needed American therapy in the form of my best friend, Michelle, who is coming out to visit me. And she arrives tomorrow morning! She had been talking about coming to visit again (she's already come out twice) for awhile, but about a month ago she bought her ticket and now she is almost here!

It will be so nice to see her since it's been 6 months since I was in the US. I'm also hoping that her visit will work as a bit of therapy to help me get over the Parisian winter blues that I'm in, again, this year. I'm looking forward to seeing Michelle, who is like a sister to me (we've been friends since we were 4 years old), to chatting and having fun, to traveling a bit, to her seeing our 'new' apartment and meeting the cat and I'm also looking forward to the desperately needed change in my routine!

This weekend we are off to Croatia and Slovenia for a 5 day weekend. We are flying into Zagreb, Croatia, renting a car, driving out to the Croatian coast and visiting a few towns and then heading up to Ljubljana, Slovenia for a day and a half before flying back to Paris. Hopefully all goes well and it should be a lot of fun!

Michelle is staying for 2 weeks, so I might not be posting too much during that time. Then, shortly after she leaves, my friend Russ is coming out to visit during his spring break. Looks like the end of February and the month of March should be great for me!

Le petit monster

2011-02-18T00:35:00.000+01:00

So, quite a few people have been wondering why we named this little guy Rasteau:

Well, here's the reason:

He's named after a wine area we really enjoy...hey it's France, they love wine, so do we, it works! Where do your pets' names come from?

Le Saint Valentin

2011-02-16T00:12:00.000+01:00

After a very miserable Valentine's Day last year, when Lionel did absolutely nothing...no flowers, no restaurant, didn't even remember...I was pleasantly surprised this year when he actually planned something. Sure, I had reminded him 10 days before, and mentioned it again a couple of times after that, but I still didn't really expect anything. Not even when he mentioned taking me out to dinner a week ago.

Nonetheless, I still decided to get a little dressed up, do my hair and makeup and put on some nice jewelery, to be ready for the time he comes home from work. I did this fully expecting him to have forgotten Valentine's Day again this year, and was hoping more to make him feel REALLY guilty so perhaps next year he would actually plan something, but it turned out that I was the one who was surprised! Not only did he come home with flowers, but he also made reservations at the Mexican restaurant I love (and have been wanting to go back to for months) at Place d'Italie.

So, we had a glass of bubbly we had sitting around the house, and then we headed out for our 9:00 reservations. We had a great meal and great conversation, then headed home where he actually cuddled with me on the couch for the rest of the night (if you knew my husband and his addiction to xbox and the internet, you would understand how truly monumental this was)! All in all it was a great Valentine's Day, and while it may seem simple, I couldn't be happier!

And what did you do for Valentine's Day? Hope it was a great one!

Chipotle à Paris

2011-02-15T23:48:00.000+01:00

Paris finally has Chipotle...or almost! It's not called Chipotle, and it's not exactly the same, but for a fresh Mexican fast food in Paris, it is quite delicious and it's very, very similar to the popular American chain.. And it's pretty clear that whoever opened the place had visited Chipotle in the US before.

It's called Boca Mexa (127 rue Mouffetard) and I recently went to check it out with a friend.. I had actually first noticed it in the fall, but I just finally went to try it out and I am VERY excited about this place!

The set up is very similar to Chipotle...you pick what form you want (burrito, taco, quesadilla), the meat you want (beef, chorizo, chicken or vegetarian) and what other items you want (rice, beans, type of salsa, cheese, etc). For 8.50 euros you get your choice of main dish with a side dish (chips with a choice of guacamole or salsa, Mexican soup, etc) and a drink. Not too bad and definitely plenty filling!

inside the restaurant

Even the serving style is very similar to Chipotle. Burritos wrapped up Chipotle-style in aluminum, sides of chips served in brown paper bags, etc. The similarities are unbelievable. And I must say, even the taste is very close to Chipotle. Not exactly the same, but not too far off and definitely close enough to fulfill any Chipotle craving I may have while living abroad.

When you go, be sure to ask for a carte de fidelité which they will stamp each time and after a certain number of meals you get some free stuff.

Also interesting for us expats craving Mexican foods is the fact that they sell some Mexican products in the store including a variety of hot sauces.

the wall of hot sauces

Definitely worth it to check this place out for the food and the Mexican products!

La Poste and "customer service"

2011-02-11T00:14:00.001+01:00

My hatred of La Poste has reached a new level. I didn’t think it was even possible to hate them even more than I did when they royally screwed up opening my bank account this fall. But I do. I hate them SO MUCH MORE! I truly believe they should all be fired and replaced by people who 1. have a brain 2. know how to do the job and 3. might actually want to work.

I’ve already alluded to my current post office problems once on this blog, but I was hoping to never get to the point of actually breaking and writing about this f****d up dilemma. However, thanks to the post office, I have reached that point today and my anger is overwhelming me. I feel an uncontrollable rage and an unbelievable desire to scream and shout at a postal worker and then to punch one (or five) in the face. Instead, to try to avoid going to jail, I am hoping to release my anger here. However, if this doesn’t satisfy my desire to bitch and moan about those idiots, don’t be surprised if you hear a story in the news about a crazy American who goes postal on La Poste.

***Warning: This will be long, and possibly full of expletives, as well as a lot of other angry language. Proceed with caution.

Back in December (yes…2 MONTHS ago…Dec. 16 to be exact) my friend in the US sent me a Christmas package. I was very excited at the prospect of getting a Christmas package and I waited anxiously for it to arrive. However, knowing La Poste and with all the snow and bad weather in both the US and Europe, I expected it to arrive late and therefore was not surprised when it didn’t arrive before Christmas.

January comes around and still no package. M friend messages me on Facebook to ask if I got it, and I responded that I hadn’t and I wanted to know the tracking number so we could look it up and see where it was. For some reason, Facebook didn’t feel like functioning and she never got my response. So, about a week later she messaged me again, and this time it worked, and that is when all the problems began.

She sent me the tracking number, and upon investigation using the USPS tracking service I discovered that the package had supposedly been delivered to my apartment on Dec. 27, Dec. 28 and Jan. 13. Hmmm…I thought. That’s odd. La Poste tried to deliver 3 times!?!

So I figured I should get my butt on in to the KB post office to find out what was up and to pick up my package. On Jan. 22 I went in armed with a printed copy of the USPS tracking information, hoping for the best, but with a very bad feeling in my stomach. The first guy I talked to wasn’t very helpful and just said the package had never been at this post office and passed it off to another colleague, who was surprisingly very nice. However, niceness (the first time I’ve ever experienced it at La Poste) didn’t pay off, and after trying to search for the package using the US number in their computer system, asking his boss, and physically searching for the package all he could tell me was that he didn’t know, he couldn’t get any information without having the French number for the package, he didn’t know why the USPS had so much information when the French had none and that he didn’t remember seeing a package with my name on it in the post office. He also added that I would have to call the number for le service international to see if I could get the French number and find out where the package was.

Of course, I went in on a Saturday, and the phone number is only open during the week, so I had to wait till Monday to call. Once I reached them, they were able to give me the French number, using the US number, in less than a minute (why couldn’t my post office do that???) and they informed me that the package was still at the KB poste.

So on Wednesday, when I had time, I went back, armed with the US number and the French number. The mean guy who I had talked to first on Saturday was unfortunately working and he recognized me immediately. Our conversation went something like this:

Mean Postal Worker: You spoke to my colleague the other day.
Me: Yes, I did and he told me to call a number, which I did, and they insisted that the package is, in fact, here.
MPW: Well, we’ve never seen your package here.
Me: Well, they say it’s here.
MPW: I can’t do anything for you with the US number.
Me: Well, I happen to have the French number right here.
MPW: Oh. Let me look. (types away at the keyboard) Oh, here it is. (prints out the tracking info from the French system) Look, it was here but it isn’t anymore. They tried to deliver it on Dec. 27 and then they brought it here. You never came to pick it up, so on Jan. 13 it was returned to the sender. Look, on Jan. 13 it was at Moissy Cramayel, which is 20 kilometers from here.
Me: Yes, well, I never came to pick it up because I didn’t know it was here because I never received the delivery slip.
MPW: (famous Gallic shrug that makes you want to kill them all)
Me: Well, who is going to pay for this package to return to France once it arrives in the US?
MPW: I dunno.
Me: Because clearly it should be La Poste since you failed to do your job.
MPW: (handing me a paper) You can fill out this form and mail it in to file a complaint. (he turns away)
Me: (storm out of the post office loudly muttering about the stupid f***ing idiotic postal workers)

After my miserable second encounter with the post office I returned home and called the international services number again to complain and find out where my package was, if it was still in France and if it could be returned to my address. After a lot of anger on my part they explained that they couldn’t do anything else because coliposte is in charge of international package deliveries and I would have to fill out a complaint form on their website. However, since I was not the one who paid to send the package, they told me I could only complain about not receiving the delivery slip and that my friend would have to go into her post office in the US to make a complaint that the US would then send on to France to be treated (genius considering the fact that the US did their part of the job and France is the one who failed). They could not tell me if the package was still in France, but that it was very likely that it was (why can’t their tracking system tell me where the package is!?!?!).

And now, the misery of trying to make a complaint. I went to the coliposte.fr website to fill in the complaint form on Thursday. After spending about an hour writing a nicely worded and just rude enough complaint I pushed the send button and, surprise, surprise, the service wasn’t working. Since it was late, I decided to retry on Friday. Friday comes and I push the send button again and surprise, surprise this time the service is working, but the message that you include can be no more than 600 characters (really, 600 characters to state your case, explain the problem and make your complaint when you have no number to call???). Nice of them to say that on the form…my amazing message was 1,600 characters. So, I had to reword and edit without losing the meaning of the message and without cutting out any of the most vital points, while still including some of the nastier comments to keep them on their toes. About an hour later I push send again, and of course, the service isn’t working. Finally, after about 15 minutes of pushing the send button, it finally went through and I received a speedy confirmation that they had received my complaint and they would treat it quickly and get back to me. This was Jan. 28.

On my friend’s side, she went to her post office the following Monday, and after a few phone calls and transfers she was able to request an inquiry into the package’s whereabouts. However, the USPS informed her it would take La Poste about 17 days to conduct the inquiry and if she hadn’t heard anything in 24 days, to call back.

Fast forward to today. I arrive home and check my mailbox. I have a strange looking letter from La Poste. I tear it open and it is a letter asking me to fill out a form and send it back, pertaining to my friend’s request for an inquiry. Ok, great. A little strange that they want me to confirm by mail that I never received the package, but whatever. Then I turn on my computer and check my email. My long awaited response from coliposte has finally arrived! I click on it with excitement only to find a worthless form letter that doesn’t respond at all to my complaint, to any of the questions that I asked, or even to the box that I checked on the form to indicate the reason for my complaint. I mean, does "Les recherches effectuées par nos services indiquent que votre colis a été mis à disposition durant 15 jours consécutifs dans votre bureau de poste habituel. Au-delà de ce délai, comme précisé dans nos conditions générales de vente, tout colis non réceptionné par son destinataire, est retourné à l’expéditeur" (basically, your package was waiting for you at your post office for 15 days, as required by our rules, and was then returned to the sender) really respond to a complaint marked "absence d’avis de mise en instance"? No, it doesn’t! Sounds to me like they are trying to throw the blame on me because I never thought to go in to get the package that I didn’t even know was there! Also sounds like they didn’t even bother to read my complaint…And really, the fact that they said that if I didn’t find this response satisfactory, I could send in another complaint using the online form just makes me even more furious. Why the hell can’t I just call someone!?!?!

So, in a fit of rage I started writing this now extremely long post and then stopped mid-post to send in two more online forms complaining about the online form itself and the quality of their “relation client”. Maybe in 2 weeks I’ll have form letter responses to those too…

And so now I hate La Poste with a burning passion and all I freaking want is to call up a damn number and to scream at some idiot until they tell me where my package is, or at least call this distribution center at Moissy Cramayel to see if it is still there (because there is no public phone number for me to call, apparently, though I might try the regular post office there tomorrow) because I don’t really believe that it has left French soil since it was supposedly returned to the sender on Jan. 13 and last I checked it didn’t take a month to send a package to the US!

In all reality I’m starting to think I will never see the package and I’m really starting to believe that some evil French postal worker saw the contents and took it home and that they have eaten all of the wonderful American goodies that were meant for my stomach and now all I want is to make La Poste suffer. I might just send in a complaint every day until they finally do something to make up for their stupidity and inability to function.

***if you read all of this, I thank and applaud you. It made me feel a little better to get all that out, but I won't feel 100% better until I'm munching on my American goodies!

Encounter with une française

2011-02-08T23:45:00.001+01:00

The other day I was on the bus with my American friend, Amy, and we had a very strange encounter with an older French woman (read: nasty old française).

As we were getting on the bus we noticed that she was glaring at us and seemed offended by the fact that we were speaking (in English?). So we moved out of her line of sight and continued speaking in lower voices. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Oh, look at that sign on the bus (pointing at a sign telling people to give their seats to the elderly, the handicapped and to pregnant women and showing a young man with a bunch of plants sitting in one seat and using another seat for his plants while and elderly man with a cane and a pregnant women are standing next to him), it's so true!

Amy: Yes it is! People never give up their seats to those who need them! Instead they try to act like they didn't even notice that the person was there!

Me: Yep! I'm always shocked when I actually see someone give up their seat. It's a miracle!

A little bit about how we need to go see the show "How to Become Parisian in One Hour?" Then:

Me: And look at that sign outside the bus (pointing at a sign in the window of a shop saying "-50% soldes exceptionnels"). Why do they say soldes exceptionnels? It's not very exceptional since it happens twice a year, every year, once in the winter, once in the summer.

Amy: I don't know. But it's true, exceptional isn't the best word to describe it.

Old French Woman (OFW): blah blah blah critique blah blah blah vomir blah. Si vous avez besoin de vomir allez ailleurs, loin de moi pour vomir.

Me and Amy: We just stare in shock and surprise with our mouths wide, not fully understanding because we didn't expect her to speak to us and at first didn't realize she was until she fully turned around. And at first I was trying to understand the vomir comment until I figured out that it must be referring to spewing nasty comments, not actually vomitting. But the old woman turns back around before we can say anything and we decide to avoid a fight on the bus and just return to our comversation.

Amy: So, speaking of soldes, I went with a friend to the outlet mall on Thursday and I found a Versace dress on sale for 85 euros. I just had to buy it because you don't normally see a designer dress, originally price over 500 euros for only 85 euros. Plus I can wear it on my dinner date this week!

Me: Wow! Not bad! I need to do some more shopping before the soldes end too. I want to find another pair of boots, and I need to take Lionel shopping to buy another suit for his new job.

OFW: (turns back around to stare at us) C'est de l'antisémitisme!!! (turns back around)

Me and Amy: Just stare at each other perplexed while half the bus stares at us and the woman. We have no idea what to say to this very strange comment.

Luckily we were almost to our stop, but as soon as we got off the bus we starting laughing and then tried to figure out what we had said that could possibly be understood as anti-semitic...

Or perhaps the woman just didn't understand English?

Enfin the 21st century comes to France!

2011-02-02T21:44:00.000+01:00

Obviously, from my lack of posting, not much has been going on in my life recently (other than a very long, drawn out and complicated battle with La Poste which I don't even want to go into at the moment because it gives me such a headache just thinking about it).

However, last night on the news I discovered that France is finally entering the 21st century with new drivers licenses! Apparently it's actually an EU directive that is forcing member states to update their licenses to new card-sized electronic licenses that contain a chip with all of your information and your photo on it as well as this info being on the license. And France won't start introducing the new license until 2013 and will not finish updating their licenses until 2033 (really...20 YEARS to change 40 million licenses!?!?!). Even though it's going to take ages, it's definitely a step in the right direction and a vast improvement over the huge old paper book licenses that you can't even put in a wallet.

Sometimes you gotta just adorer this country

2011-01-23T04:37:00.000+01:00

I was going over to my friends tonight and I had a very special experience. He lives in the towers above a centre commercial and I was told to enter through the centre commercial and then to take the elevators up to the apartment level. So I did, and when I stepped out of the elevator on the apartment level, there was a security guard with a guard dog. I said bonne soirée and continued on my way. However, when I rounded the corner to pass through the sliding glass doors from the centre commercial into the apartment hall, the door was locked. Usually it just slides open. I figured you needed a code so I called my friend, but while I was waiting for him to answer, the security guard and I had the following conversation:

SG: Madame! Madame!
Me: Yes?
SG: Do you have the code?
Me: Nooooo........... :/
SG: Oh, it's ****
Me: Ok, merci!

I was shocked! The security guard who gives out the building code to any random person...you just gotta shrug your shoulders and shake your head!

Art in the KB

2011-01-19T00:16:00.000+01:00

Walking from my apartment to the centre commercial the other day I stumbled across this little piece of artwork (?):

Unfortunately there was no explanation or indication as to what it was and it wasn't there Saturday and was gone by Monday. Guess it's a KB mystery!

Musée du vin

2011-01-14T00:50:00.000+01:00

This one has been a long time coming, but back in November finally went to check out the Musée du vin de Paris.

wine jug

The museum isn't bad, but it also isn't the best wine museum I've ever seen and you will certainly find better in regions that produce a lot of wine. However, if you are itching to learn about wine making and the history of wine and you are stuck in Paris, this is the place to go.

The museum is located in underground caves in the 16th (metro Passy) and is full of different tools and machines used to produce wine, information on different kinds of wines, different wine bottles and services throughout history and other wine related paraphernalia.

Bacchus, god of wine

At the end of your visit you get to do a little wine tasting in their underground restaurant depending on the ticket you bought.

The museum also proposes events throughout the year, dinners and wine tasting classes.

In my opinion, the real highlight of this museum is the location. It was very interesting to see these underground caves in the heart of Paris. Otherwise the museum is a bit overpriced (11.90 euros for a visit and one small glass of wine), but still interesting and I definitely learned a lot about wine!

inside the museum

Notre petit cat

2011-01-05T23:42:00.000+01:00

Well, it's official. The cat is ours. We haven't heard anything or found anything about a missing cat so we are keeping him.

After a difficult Christmas, we rushed to the vet as soon as we got back to Paris to get him fixed. While we were at my in-laws his puberty hit and he started spraying the house and meowing the entire night, preventing everyone in the house from sleeping. We think it was provoked by the other cats in the house. As a result, we hurried him to the vet, and while he was there, the vet put in an electronic chip as well. So he is ours now!

And so, I present Rasteau:

taking a cat nap

hiding under the bar

surprise...another nap!

Rasteau and his new favorite toy...a Bata bag

Un petit peu late...

2011-01-05T23:17:00.000+01:00

...but here are a few photos of my Christmas in Arcachon:

the tree with too many gifts

dinner table for Christmas Eve

Lionel and I at my in-laws

walk along the Bassin d'Arcachon Christmas Day

walking at Pereire

Pereire

Happy New Years!

2010-12-31T19:03:00.000+01:00

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year, wherever you are.

Since our plans to go visit friends in Grenoble got cancelled at the last minute, we are spending New Years here in Paris. After some last minute phone calls this morning to try to plan something, we have a few friends coming over for dinner and to celebrate the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 (can you believe it, 2011?!).

Enjoy your New Years and have a very happy and prosperous 2011!

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-25T18:51:00.000+01:00

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you are enjoying the holidays with friends and family.

I'm having a very nice Christmas with my family-in-law down in Arcachon. We had a long and delicious meal last night of figs, toasts, oysters, sausages, salad, goose (!), stuffing, chestnuts, green beans wrapped in bacon and buche. We washed it all down with tons of different wines...white, red and champagne. At midnight we opened all our gifts (and there were a ton this year) then off to bed.

This afternoon we had another big meal of foie gras, magret de canard, lamb, potatoes, salad and pecan pie (made by yours truly). After eating we went for a walk at the port. It was a bit cold and windy along the water, but it was a beautiful day with sun and blue skies, so it was well worth it. This evening we will be eating another big meal and then certainly passing out from having filled our stomachs too much!

Hope everyone else is having a wonderful holiday!

Le nouveau house guest

2010-12-15T23:08:00.000+01:00

Well, we have a guest in the apartment at the moment:

Lionel found this little guy lost and alone in the cold outside his work on Monday. He brought him into his office and one of his colleagues called a vet friend to come check him out. The vet couldn't find anything to identify him - no tattoo, no chip, nothing. So Lionel decided to bring him home rather than let him go to get killed by a car at the Porte de Champerret. He is keeping his eye out for posters near his work about a lost cat and he has been looking for information on the internet too, but if we don't see anything and can't find a family who is looking for him, we are going to keep him. Secretly, this is what I really want...for there to be no family so we can keep the little guy since I've been begging for a cat for almost a year. Not to mention he has been here since Monday night and I'm already getting really attached. So here's hoping there is no family out there with a little kid crying about their missing cat so I get to keep ce petit mec adorable!

So far he's made himself right at home, sleeping all over the apartment, following Lionel and I wherever we go, sleeping snuggled up with us in bed at night, exploring and climbing on everything and claiming every surface as his own.

He seems to be pretty young, though we aren't certain of his age. We think he is somewhere around 8 months. We already love having him around, except when he wakes us up at 6:30 in the morning. But he is absolutely adorable, loves to be petted, loves to cuddle and likes to have all of the attention!

Let's just hope I get to keep him, cause if we have to give him back it's going to be very hard! And then Lionel will have to find me another cat because I can't imagine not having one around now!

***Of course, this does not mean in any way that I have forgotten about my precious little Rusty who passed away a month ago. I'm actually feeling pretty guilty about wanting to adopt another cat so soon after my dear pet's death.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2010-12-13T00:46:00.000+01:00

Been busy with Christmas decorations this past week:

wreath we bought at the Christmas market in Germany

our tree...the biggest one we've ever had in France

the tree

some of our decorations

Weekend away

2010-12-09T00:10:00.000+01:00

A few photos from our weekend trip to Trier, Germany where we did some sightseeing and enjoyed the adorable Christmas market in Germany's oldest city:

Porta Nigra, the world's best preserved Roman city gate

center of town

Christmas market and the main square

the Christmas market

Enjoying some hot wine! You pay a little extra for the mug and then you can either return the mug

and get the money back or keep it as a cheap souvenir!

Lionel and I freezing our butts off at the Christmas market

the town decorated for the holidays

Christmas market at night

And on the drive home we decided to stop in Luxembourg City for a few hours to check it out:

Lionel and I visiting the city

the main square

city gate

the Christmas market

the cathedral

Christmas decorations

Even though the weather wasn't so great (freezing cold and snowing half the weekend), it was a great trip and a wonderful weekend and I was thrilled to get out of Paris and spend some quality time with Lionel!

A la biche au bois

2010-12-02T23:30:00.000+01:00

Last week I mentioned that Lionel and I went to one of my favorite restaurants here in Paris to celebrate our second anniversary. Let me just say that, as usual, it was fabulous.

A la biche au bois (45 avenue Ledru-Rollin in the 12th, 01 43.43.34.38) is a great restaurant serving delicious French cooking in very large quantities for a pretty reasonable price.

They serve a number of traditional French dishes such as coq au vin, homemade foie gras, terrines and steak au poivre all year, and during hunting seasonn they also serve gibiers, or game. My favorite time of year to go is during hunting season because their cassoulette de biche is incredible. I pair it with the salade biche en entrée, whatever cheeses I feel like, and then the amazing opéra biche en dessert. We wash it all down with a good bottle of wine, and then we roll ourselves out the door as it is nearly impossible to avoid stuffing yourself at this place.

the delicious cassoulette de biche served with the best mashed potatoes I have ever had.

I would have taken photos of the other courses, but I was too busy eating and I forgot.

The restaurant has a great fixed price menu and the price is more than reasonable for the quality and quantity you receive. For 26.90 euros you get your choice of appetizer, your choice of main dish, your choice of cheeses off of the cheese platter that they bring to your table (I highly recommend the chèvre au poivre) and your choice of dessert. That's right...4 courses for less than 30 euros. While this may seem expensive (and we certainly only go once or twice a year for special occasions or with visiting family), the food is excellent and homemade.

The place is small but comfortable and the owner is very nice. The service is great by French standards, thus average by American standards, and the restaurant has somewhat of an old-fashioned feel to it. While the decor may leave a bit to be desired, the food is the real treat, and in my opinion, you can't go wrong. I've tasted a number of things off the menu and I've never been disappointed. Though if I go during hunting season I never order anything but that cassoulette de biche.

I definitely suggest checking this place out, but reservations are a must!

Thanksgiving à Paris

2010-11-28T23:45:00.001+01:00

I celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday with Lionel and some of his friends, and it was great. I got home from work, cooked like a madwoman and then everyone showed up and we enjoyed a little aperitif then sat down for dinner. We ate and ate and ate till we couldn't eat any more, then we took a little break before digging into dessert.

the buffet...pumpkin bread, green bean casserole, corn, mashed sweet potatoe and butternut squash,

roasted carrots, stuffing, gravy and a whole, stuffed turkey from Picard (thanks Ksam!)

enjoying Thanksgiving dinner

my delicious plate!

The only little snag was there were supposed to be 7 of us, but then two of Lionel's friends just never showed up and never called, which I think is pretty rude, but oh well. We still had fun and it just meant more food for us!

the pies...one pumpkin and one pecan (and the pecan pie was DELICIOUS!)

All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving with lots of traditional foods and tons of eating. Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving, wherever you were!

Gobble Gobble

2010-11-25T23:46:00.000+01:00

Even though Thanksgiving is today, I'll be celebrating tomorrow with a big Thanksgiving dinner, after I cook it of course! I have at least 7 people coming and lots of cooking to do once I get off work, but it should be worth it! On the menu is turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, roasted carrots, corn, mashed sweet potatoes and butternut squash, corn bread, pumpkin bread, pecan pie and pumpkin pie. Should be a great time with lots of good food!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

2 years!

2010-11-23T00:05:00.000+01:00

Today Lionel and I celebrated two years of marriage! I can't believe we have been married for two whole years...its seems like the time has passed so quickly! It still seems weird to me to say that I am married, especially since if you had asked me 6 years ago, I never expected to ever be married. But there you go...funny how life happens like that! But I'm thrilled to be married to my little Frenchie and I'm looking forward to many more years to come!

So, in honor of the occasion, Lionel and I went out to dinner to celebrate tonight. He took me to my favorite restaurant, A la Biche au Bois, and we enjoyed a wonderful meal of delicious French country cooking. But more about that in another post...

The only downside was that we are both sick (his fault as he got sick first and gave it to me) so we weren't able to completely enjoy our evening out and we couldn't completely taste our food...but it was still a nice night out!

We will also be celebrating in two weekends when we are treating ourselves to our traditional anniversary/Christmas trip. Every year around the time of our wedding anniversary (and incidentally the anniversary of when we met) and Christmas we take a weekend trip to visit a new city in Europe, but always one that is known for it's Christmas markets as well. We've already been to Strasbourg, Brussels and Prague for little Christmas/anniversary trips and this year we are planning to take the car and head to Trier, Germany to visit the oldest city in Germany and enjoy it's charming Christmas market. While there we are either gonna take a day trip and hit up Aachen, Germany (Aix-la-Chapelle) or Luxembourg City. We haven't decided yet, but we'll see!

All in all I'm pretty happy with this year's anniversary celebrations as last year (for our FIRST wedding anniversary) I got nothing...no restaurant, no trip (cause we were about to head to the US), nothing! This year is much better!

So, happy anniversary Lionel!

Blah...

2010-11-17T00:01:00.000+01:00

Yes, blah. Because that is pretty much how I'm feeling right now. This week is looking like it is going to be pretty crappy, and at this point I am just hoping to make it through to the weekend.

The week started off badly with the bad news about my cat on Sunday, and it hasn't been getting any better. Monday we woke up to an unpleasant email regarding Lionel's grandfather who is currently in intensive care after a heart attack. Unfortunately, we don't have much news other than that for the moment...

Then today I woke up to head to Val de Fontenay this morning to see my two favorite students. But after four hours of chatting about everything and nothing, I left feeling even more depressed than I was Sunday and Monday. It was quite strange actually, and I don't know how the conversation even started, but for some reason we were talking about shopping*. The two women are good friends and so they started to talk about each other's style (all in English, don't worry) and give each other fashion advice. Then they turned to me to give me some advice and to tell me what they thought my perfect outfit would be (a dress, apparently...like that is ever going to happen!). Up to this point it was all good, we were talking about shopping and clothes...only natural for three women!

They continued saying that they really thought I should buy a dress the next time I went shopping, but that I should make sure that I bring a friend with me because it is always important to have a friend's advice when picking out clothes. It is, afterall, best to have someone else's opinion besides your own and a girl friend is best for this, NEVER your husband, they said. And I started to think in my head how nice some retail therapy would be considering the way this week started. I hadn't been shopping in forever (the last time I bought clothes for myself was in the US in August and it was all stuff I needed, nothing I WANTED), so I told myself to find some time to meet up with a friend and go shopping this week or over the weekend. And that's when it hit me like a ton of bricks...

...I have no more friends in Paris.

I wrote before about how all of my friends were leaving France to return home, but it hadn't really hit me yet that it had actually happened. You see, the last holdouts left last week on Monday and Friday respectively, and this morning when my students were talking about how great it is to go shopping with friends, the reality finally hit me that I no longer have any friends here.

Ok, that's not entirely true. I still have Svetlana, but she is so busy being the "perfect" Russian wife that I don't see her very often, usually about once every 2-3 weeks and its only for an hour or two for coffee.

So, while just 2 months ago I had a small, but great network of friends here in Paris and I found myself so busy between friends and Lionel that I thought I would never have a chance to just sit back, relax and sleep, now I am realizing that I am back to being all alone with nothing to do but spend time with my husband. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with spending time with my husband, but he is a homebody and sometimes I just need to get out and do things outside of the house and see people and have girl time. But it doesn't look like that will be happening anytime soon. For the first time in all my years in France I find myself with no one to turn to and no one to do things with and it just really hit home this morning while listening to my students talk about the importance of shopping with friends.

Looks like I'm really going to have to make an effort to go to some meetup groups now in hopes of meeting some interesting people and making a friend or two before I go insane by myself.

*I promise I'm not a horrible English teacher and we don't usually talk about shopping during my lessons!

Bad news...

2010-11-15T23:36:00.000+01:00

I spoke to my parents yesterday, as I do every Sunday, and I got some bad news. Rusty, my/our cat, was put to sleep last week.

We had the little guy for almost 15 years, since before I started high school, and he was always such a good, but strange, cat. He hated being held, but always had to be in the room with everyone. He never really appreciated traditional cat toys, but instead preferred hair ties and a black Beanie Baby cat that he stole from me when I was younger and carried around with him every where he went. He would even try to "feed" his black toy kitten. He loved to play with bubbles in the sink but was terrified of bubbles in the air. He was also terrified of plastic bags, the washing machine, vacuum cleaners, other cats, most people and a million other things. He didn't show his love by begging to be petted, but rather by following people from room to room and sneaking into bed at night.

Unfortunately, while I was home in August, I noticed that he had lost quite a bit of weight. When I asked my parents about it they said he had been coughing a lot and breathing weirdly lately and he hadn't been eating as much as usual. We took him to the vet and were told that Rusty had asthma and needed a shot every 6 weeks, but that otherwise he would be fine and start eating again.

However, a week and a half ago my parents told me he had been getting worse and had lost more weight so back to the vet he went, and after a ton of tests and more problems, they discovered he had to tumors surrounding his heart. They were told that if he didn't start eating soon they would have to make the decision to put him down. As you can imagine it was with trembling hands that I called yesterday, fearing the worst, and unfortunately he wasn't improving and they had to have him put down rather than slowly die, suffering.

They took his ashes home and buried him next to the birdbath (that I didn't even know they had!) with his little black kitty.

I'm devastated that I didn't get to see him again and I'm going to miss the little furball so much. He was my first real pet (before that it was always hamsters and fish) and he was truly loved and an important part of the family.

Chronopost vs la Poste

2010-11-13T02:08:00.000+01:00

After today, I can't decide which one is worse**! Lionel and I made a important purchase online this week, and since we wanted it to arrive quickly, we decided to pay the extra 4 euros for Chronopost so our order from Tuesday night would arrive Friday morning instead of sometime in the next few weeks with la Poste. Boy was that a mistake!

As promised, the package arrived today. However, Chronopost claims to have tried to deliver it at 10:41 this morning, but if they did, they certainly didn't try to call to the apartment because I was home all day and, bien sur, no one knocked and no one called with the interphone or the phone. As a result, we had to go pick up the package this evening. But where?

One would think this would be a simple question...normally the location is indicated on the slip that is left to let you know they tried to deliver your package. But it wasn't clear. The delivery guy marked that we could pick it up at the bureau de poste, but didn't indicate which one (we have 2 near us). But also on the slip it was stated that the package would be held for 7 days at the bureau de Chronopost indicated on the slip before being sent to the bureau de poste where it would be held for 14 days. Ok, strange. And fabulous; the bureau de Chronopost is in Rungis!

Just to make sure, I decided to check online with the suivi de l'envoi using the tracking number. When I checked it stated, and I quote "RUNGIS CHRONOPOST Parcel awaiting collection at point of retrieval." So to me it seemed pretty clear, the package was indeed at the Chronopost in Rungis.

So we checked on mappy for directions then hopped into the car. After 30 minutes for miserable traffic on the N7 we finally made it out to Rungis. But where was the Chronopost? This place is IMPOSSIBLE to find. We passed it once, had to turn around, take the N7 back, go around the centre commercial, pass next to the tolls to enter the Marché International de Rungis, then take the N7 back south to try to get to the Chronopost. Only one problem: which exit do we take? So we picked one and prayed for the best. Unfortunately; it just took us to the tolls on the other side of the Marché de Rungis. So we had to go all the way back around and try another exit, which finally brought us to the Chronopost (all this driving in circles...and I mean circles...ended up taking about an hour). At this point we were just relieved to be at the Chronopost and we hurried up to the door to get our package. We handed our slip over, the guy looked up the tracking number, and surprise surprise, our package isn't there! It's at our bureau de poste! Idiots!

At this point it was 8pm and la Poste was closed so we have to go in tomorrow to pick up the package, after making a call to verify which post office it is at and, bien sur, that the package is actually there since I apparently can't trust any of the mail delivery services in this ridiculous country anymore! Knowing my luck it's probably lost somewhere in France! And clearly that was an extra 4 euros well spent...

So you be the judge...which is worse, Chronopost or la Poste???

**I know that in my last post I indicated a desire to try to be slightly less negative toward la France, but I just can't help it...it's all so stupid!

Trop negative?

2010-11-09T23:04:00.000+01:00

Lately I have been hearing a lot that I am too negative regarding France/the French and that some people are even starting to wonder why I even live in this country.

I was honestly a little shocked by this as I didn't think I was ever that negative, and I also always thought that when I was being negative against France that it was only things that most French people would even agree with i.e. slow bureaucracy, la poste, etc. However; according to most of my husbands friends, a few of my French friends, and even some distant acquaintances I am far more negative than I ever thought.

While my extremely negative mind is screaming "it's because you are French and you are happy to critique everyone else and any other country, but can't stand the thought that there could ever be anything bad to be said about yours because France is perfect and the French are perfect," I have to wonder whether or not there is any truth to this; perhaps I am very negative and there is a reason to ask why I am living in this country. I always thought it would be interesting to find out the good and the bad about what people think about America and their experiences living there, but I guess this is another cultural differences between France and America; while I am very curious, the French, perhaps, do not want to know.

So, I have decided I want to open myself up to some critique about my country and see what I think about it and if I find myself being insulted. I, of course, already know the basics, the things I hear all the time about America/Americans: we are all fat, self-centered, unfashionable, superficial, cultureless, gun-toting cowboys who like to shoot everyone, don't know or care about the rest of the world and who work too much and never take vacation. But I am very curious to hear more about what other people (especially the French) think about our system, our way of life, etc in America. I am hoping that hearing other people's critiques of the US will help me realize that things are complicated and ridiculous everywhere when you are an expat and will help to cure me of some (if not all) of my negativity.

And so, I am hoping to get some help. I am looking primarily for books, but I suppose blogs would work as well (though I would like at least one book) that talk about a French person's experience living in the US. I am thinking something similar to Stephen Clarke's books, A Year in the Merde, Merde Actually and other such books that point out the problems/differences in an entertaining way. I'm also, of course, open to any blogs on the subject of ex-pat life in America (particularly from the French viewpoint).

I am very open to whatever suggestions I can get as I am very curious to hear what foreigners think about life in America, the administration, the differences between their culture and ours, etc. So please, help me!!! Thanks!

Finally des bonnes nouvelles!

2010-11-03T23:09:00.000+01:00

After ranting and complaining here and here about my 2 month long battle with La Poste to get a checking account, I am happy to report that said account is FINALLY OPEN!

I am also thrilled that none of my money was lost...my check from my old job showed up in the account and my new boss ended up getting my September pay back after 20 days and she sent me a check for it!

Now I just have to decide if I am going to listen to Lionel and keep my money in that stupid bank with its incompetent workers, or if I'm going to remove my money, close my account and stick with Société Générale.

Today I feel guilty...

2010-11-03T00:59:00.000+01:00

I am a bad American. Why? Because I did not vote today. I was too late trying to get my absentee information in and so I was not able to vote in today's elections. And I feel guilty.

I can't say that whatever disasters happen in my country are my fault as I'm sure that my one vote wouldn't have made a difference in the end, but I still feel guilty for not voting. I try very hard to continue voting even though I live abroad, but this one time I let time get away from me and I realized too late that I wouldn't be able to vote. And I feel horrible because my party of choice definitely needed all the support they could get...

Here's hoping things work out the way I want in the end, though looking at the projections has me very concerned!

Burger King de retour en France?

2010-10-27T00:34:00.000+02:00

...nope! But it's a hop, skip and a jump away...in London.

The other day I was taking the metro home, and as I passed thru Chatelet, I looked up to see how many people were getting on, only to see a wall of posters with the Burger King logo and a hamburger. I immediately got excited at the idea of Burger King returning to France...Burger King à deux pas d'ici! Yes! I thought, and then I noticed at the bottom of the posters, (because seriously, there are like 5 alone at Chatelet on the line 7) London in 2 hours and 15 minutes.

I immediately thought this was some kind of cruel joke seeing as many French people are upset that Burger King ever even left France. But no, Eurostar is actually advertising Burger King in London to try to attract people who miss the fast food restaurant and are willing to travel to another country to get it. Apparently the French blogosphere and Twitter community have been going crazy about Burger King coming back and the French seem to have been very excited about the possible return of Burger King...but oh, joke's on us cause they aren't coming back! This just seems mean to me!

Honestly, I'm not even that big of a Burger King fan, but I do prefer it to most other fast food hamburger restaurants and I would be happy to be able to go from time to time if it were back in France...but I'm certainly not taking the Eurostar to London just to get Burger King! Who had the idea for this advertisement because it's just ridiculous!

Continuing battle with La Poste

2010-10-20T00:42:00.000+02:00

Well, my battle with the evil Poste continues, and unfortunately with no end in sight. A week and a half ago (after one of the banker strikes ended) Lionel went to the post office to bring them the pay stub they needed in order to FINALLY open my account. When I had spoken to my banker on the phone, he assured me that once they had that precious pay stub, my account would be open in 2-3 days.

Well, guess what! It's still not open (big shocker there)! Since I had no time around lessons to call today, my husband spent his morning before work, as well as some of his time at work, trying to call these morons and get some information. At the centre financier they were only able to tell him that the account was still not open (of course they didn't know why) and apparently the people Lionel spoke to were so stupid they didn't really understand anything when he asked them about my check from my old job and the transfer from my new job.

He then tried to call our banker, who of course didn't answer (let me guess...he's on strike???). So, Lionel is going to go there tomorrow morning (since I don't have any time to do any of this before Monday) and have a "nice chat" with the idiot to find out what is going on.

At the moment, as far as we can tell, despite the stupidity of the people at the financial center, they still have my check somewhere but my September pay is still missing in action. My boss still has received it back in her account - it was debited at the beginning of the month - and no one seems to know where it is.

Hopefully we will have some more info (and some good news) tomorrow when Lionel goes in and raises hell. I have a lot of money in jeopardy, and it is really starting to stress me out and affect my sleeping! If we don't know anything by Monday, these morons are seriously going to regret their absolute stupidity when a VERY angry American comes in screaming!

I mean really...individual bank accounts are the most basic service they offer, and if they can't even do that, then what are they doing? How do you trust a bank that hasn't even mastered the most simple aspect of its industry???

And once again...I highly recommend that you never bank with La Banque Postale...I certainly don't think I am going to after all this!

Musée des Egouts de Paris

2010-10-18T12:00:00.001+02:00

This weekend I finally went to the Musée des Egouts de Paris (Paris Sewers Museum), which I have been wanting to do for years, especially after having read Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, and just haven't gotten around to until now.

display on sewer inhabitants...

The museum is located in the sewers and is actually pretty interesting. At the beginning there is a somewhat boring display on water in Paris - how it circulates, how it gets to our apartments, how it is cleaned, etc - but then there is a large and interesting display on the history of the sewage system in Paris, starting in the Gallo-Roman period and continuing to present day.

a main sewer tunnel

access tunnel

Since the museum is located in a section of the actual sewer system you also get to see the different kinds of sewage tunnels and you get to have an idea of how the system actually works. The only problem is the somewhat unpleasant smell, but it's not too bad.

smaller sewer tunnel

All in all, an interesting and different museum which is definitely worth a visit!

Sécu miracles do happen

2010-10-13T22:37:00.000+02:00

After my long lasting battle with the Sécu and my small success back in May, I am happy to report that I am FINALLY the proud (and ecstatic) owner of my very own carte vitale!!!

I found out while I was on vacation in the US that I finally had a social security number for France, instead of the numéro provisoire that I've had since somewhere between December and May, and now I actually have the card to go with the number! I think, however, that the only reason I got a number so quickly (can we call 3 years quickly?) is because upon hiring me, my new job put in a request for a social security number for me since they thought it was ridiculous I had been waiting so long for one. It must have really made the difference, seeing an additional request for my number, because not even 2 weeks later, I got an email from my new boss telling me that I had my number.

Upon returning from vacation I found a letter from the Sécu requesting a photograph and I immediately sent it in and crossed my fingers that I would have a card by the end of 2010. However, imagine my shock and surprise this evening when I pulled our mail out of our mail box, glanced down at it in the dark parking lot and thought "assurance maladie, it's certainly for Lionel," without even looking at the name on the envelope, and then when I entered the apartment and could see better, noticed my name. I stood there for a moment while comprehension set in and then I screamed. Lionel looked up from cooking (yes, he actually cooks!) and stared at me like I was crazy as I screamed and ripped open the envelope only to see my brand new carte vitale with my name and photo and scream even louder.

Anyway, long story short, after 3 years of waiting, I am overwhelmingly happy to have this carte vitale that has caused me such a headache and cost me so much time. Looks like I'm going to start scheduling some appointments with doctors since I haven't been to any sort of doctor in 4-5 years (since I had insurance in the US).

And thus the end (I hope) of the carte vitale story!