Susan in France back in Houston

A Good Cause

2009-12-04T18:55:00.000-06:00

Those of you that know me are familiar with my attempts at athletic prowess. There was the mountain climbing phase which saw me undertake Mt. Hood, Mt. Humphrey and Mt. Rainier (twice thank you). There were others, but I have blocked them That lasted about 2 years then one day while slugging in crampons up a mountain carrying a 35 lb pack I couldn't find the motivation to go on. I just lost it.

Then there was running. I have tried to train for a marathon twice. Both times with HoustonFit, a group that takes non-runners and turns them into runners. Or is supposed to. Both years I got stress fractures in the same ankle. One year at 7 mile training point and the next at 8 mile. I have been to a bunch of doctors for my knee and ankle, they all tell me not to run. "Bike!" they say.

So I did. I moved to Sedona and mountain biked for the two years I was there. I loved it. It became a passion to go out for 3 or 4 hours on the trails, scare the crap out of myself, sustain a few injuries then come home and stand in a hot shower with a cold beer. I love that feeling of exertion after a long ride.

Then I went to Thailand and broke my leg (love me some Ko Phi Phi)and tore a bunch of crap up, got a blood clot on the 32 hour trip back (Phukette - Bangkok (10 hour layover)- Soel, Korea - Atlanta - Houston) and was on crutches for 12 weeks due to the broken bone, cartilage and ligament repair. After that it was for sure; no running. My doc and rehab people also said that mountain biking was too intense at first so to try road biking. I had moved back to Houston to have help (read Mom and Aunt Mary driving me everywhere because it was the right leg) with the leg so giving up mountain biking, though sad, was easier to do here because the red rocks weren't calling me everyday. Only Memorial Park.

My physical therapist said I should sign up for the MS150. So I did. I also dragged my friend Lori B. along the training rides and met some great friends like Cheri. Cheri's boyfriend was the lead of a team for the ride so I joined up and did it. I loved the biking, but the real motivation became what I learned about MS.

For those of you that don't know, the BP MS150 is the largest fund raising event in the United States. In 2009 the Lone Star (that would be Texas folks) Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation raised 17 Million, yes MILLION, for MS research and services for people living with MS. This is a staggering number and truly makes a difference in research and assistance in our state.

I also found out that I knew a lot more people that were affected by MS that I thought. A friend and co-worker told me her mother had MS. I sent an email to her mom and we started talking and I learned her story (which I will publish if she is ok with it). She told me about how she could see progress in MS but she knew she probably wouldn't see a cure in her lifetime. I took Doris as a Pedal Partner, which is like dedicating your ride to someone with MS. I wrote her and told her about my training progress and wore a bandanna with her name on it during the ride. I also had a friend diagnosed with the disease that year. She had numbness in her fingers, was dizzy and had other health problems. Come to find out, it was MS. She's doing well right now after adjusting her diet, exercise and medications. But it was a lot of work to get her up and running again where she felt she had the energy and confidence to do everyday things.

Oh, I guess I should tell you WHAT the MS 150 actually is eh? It's a two day bike ride from Houston to Austin that will take place April 17-18, 2010. It's actually a little further than 150 miles, I clocked in between 160 and 170 the two times I have done it before. The first day you ride from Houston to La Grange, TX where you spend the night. I think this day is about 80 miles from what I remember, then the next day at 8am you take off again for the rest of the ride to Austin. They limit the ride to 13,000 participants, and yes, it fills up. I felt lucky to get a spot when I did today. They only have 8,000 spots left open but I logged on today at the exact time, had two laptops running and got both Cyr and I spots. Whew!

A lot of people do the ride, you probably know folks that are doing it other than me. We all pay to ride, then we have to raise money in order to be able to ride. My goal is only $1,000, which I hope to hit before the ride in April, though we have until May to get it in I think. Any way...I will probably use this blog to tell you all about my training rides and how things go leading up to the event.

I'm thinking about putting a link on my blog so you can donate, but I'm leery about putting my last name out there so right now I'm undecided. If you would like to donate just email me and I can send you my link!!

Here are some photos of the last ride I did:

This is me at the start line. It was really foggy! Cyr and I had been dating about a month but he drove me there and took pictures to see me off!!

Here is a group shot...crazy eh?

You can see how foggy it was. The start was a little delayed, but not too bad.

Here is me finishing with some teammates including Cheri!!

Here are my sexy tan lines after the two days. Check out the little circle on my wrist. Interesting choice of gloves I guess...

I spend the entire summer trying to get ride of those short lines. Fancy pants for sure!

So...there you go. I have a quest. Stay tuned for updates along the way!

Baccarat or Waterford?

2009-12-02T19:16:00.000-06:00

Really...you DONT'T have to decide. I love Waterford. My family is Irish and it's a bit of a tradition to register for it when you get married. I only registered for champagne flutes, Lismore Nouveau, but I love them. I love, love, love them. Even if I only have 4. :-/ Gimme a break...I got married in France, people don't carry that stuff over seas people!

Back to Baccarat though. It was beautiful! I don't just mean the crystal either. Cyr and I parked and walked around since we had time before going to the museum. We had time because it (of course) was closed for lunch from 11:30-2. We walked down by a little river and I took this of the town hall.

Across from the town hall was the most modern church I have ever seen in France. A plaque on the door said St. Remy.

The inside was, as you might guess, colored by the light that spilled in through Baccarat crystals that made up the stained glass windows of the church. Here is a shot from behind the font, which was also made in Baccarat though I am not sure it was actual Baccarat crystal.

I really liked it. Cyr spent a while taking some really good photos that he will probably post on his photography site.

So there you go...I finally posted some more pictures!

Thanksgiving!!

2009-11-30T14:54:00.002-06:00

Well, last week was crazy, just like everyone's week I'm sure. We went to San Antonio to visit friends like we always do. And it was great, as usual!

My Mom and her friend Kathy actually did the stake out thing for Black Friday. For those of you who are not familiar with this day of consumption; Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving Thursday and is typically the biggest shopping day of the year. By this I mean that more people go shopping on this one day than any other day of the year. Because of this, stores often have one day sales on items with crazy low prices. The trick is that they only carry a limited number of these items, so if the Wii is on sale for $149.00, they might only have 50 of them, so you gotta get there early. Well...Mom and Kathy did just that.

The Target: Nintendo Wii for $149.00
The Store: HEB Plus
The Plan: Get there early and be aggressive
The Players: Susan's Mom and best friend Kathy
Rooting on the sidelines: Susan, at home in bed wishing them the best

The store opens at 5am, so the girls arrive at the HEB Plus at 4:30am with 30 minutes to spare. When they arrive they estimate that there are actually about 300 people ahead of them and others are pouring into the lot to stand in line.

They have grocery baskets tied together to form one long aisle that snakes back and forth to keep the people in line. Once in line they hear announcements asking everyone to "please remember to remain calm", "remain in a single file line" and "there will be only one entrance open to the public and there will be no running once these doors open." I picture them having lavender incense to calm the nerves and playing Enya over the loudspeakers, but that could be a slight exaggeration.

After listening to a woman state to Kathy "I should have just come over here after the game last night" and being absolutely serious about this, 5am finally arrived. The doors opened and people walked in an orderly fashion to the entrance. Once inside the doors the speed walkers come out in force all heading to the electronics section. A slight frenzy of wide eyed fully awake men and women search for the special items they have come for. Mom and Kathy see the Wii display! They rush up to it, sick arms through holes and pull out one Wii each! Success I say!!

I'm sure it was a bit anti-climactic to stand there with Wii in hand, no blood having been drawn, no threatening words having to have been thrown around. Maybe the sounds drowned out in their ears and they heard silence...or...they started looking around and finding toasters for $5, cameras for $50 and other great things!! They did however report a wounded comrade. A woman was heard crying and talking to security because a man took her Wii out of her basket! The security guards then offered to have her identify the man and said they would get her Wii back for her. No news on if this happened, I wish her luck though.

So that and 2 extra pounds on my hips was Thanksgiving. Again, I didn't actually go on this adventure, but I almost feel like I was there. :-)

Friends in Epinal

2009-11-05T18:09:00.000-06:00

The second stop on our tour, after Nancy, was Epinal. Epinal is a really cute city just about an hour south of Nancy. The hour flew by, it seemed so short compared to the painful trip to Nancy. Next time we might have to just find a place just outside of Paris to regroup. Although I really did like Nancy once we got there.

But I digress, back to Epinal. Cyr's best friend lives here with his wife and new baby. You can see here Martin with his little girl, Julietta, swaddled to his chest. Can you see? I looks like he has a big growth, but it's just little Julietta snuggly tied onto her Papa so she keeps warm and feels secure!
I can't believe I didn't get more pictures of the baby...but she will show up in later posts once I get Cyr to send me a better picture of her. In the above photo we were walking (hiking in the US) up a big hill to get to an old fortress that is still standing. While walking along I saw a sign that said "Parc des animaux" and I thought, "oh, they must have little statues or something." Well. They actually had animaux!
I really thought some kid was going to get his/her fingers eaten off by these pigs. They were pretty agile even with all that fat on them!
I think these were Alpacas. I was told they were not Llamas and that's all I can think of.
And Bambi of course!
Then we walked around and saw what I am sure is where women who wear short skirts or Daisy Dukes buy their bread.

Get it? Hoochie?!
And here is where women used to wash clothes for the men-folk. We actually saw TWO of these! I don't know if it was a very clean town or if people still use them, but this one was covered so I think I would go to this one. Yes. I would go to this one and supervise while some man did my wash for me. It would have to be a very small man that I could bully into it, but I might be able to find one...

If you notice there is a little Virgin Mary at the back. I think it's there so that the woman could immediately ask for forgiveness when they were cursing the fact that they were born women or that their men were so dirty.

I also thought it was quite interesting how the city was built. Here we have a very old church and right up next to it is a shopping area. Check out how they are almost fused together. Now the church is older than the shopping area, and there is a tunnel on the left side of the photo so you can walk through (the church wall, not the photo) to get to the other side of the church or the shopping area. My only guess is that there was a building there before that was replaced. Odd though eh? I mean...where does the property line end and why did they put the windows behind the church wall?!

To end this post I'll show you are friends walking ahead of us down from the main fortress area. The large columns used to support a bridge that went across the gap there. I have to say, I thought it was a really cute little town. I also really like Martin and his wife. They live so simply. They eat healthy foods they buy almost daily, they don't own a car and walk everywhere (we did have to help them buy and bring home a fridge, but once that is over they are set), they live in a really cute apartment where they can walk into town. Makes me want to simplify.

Halloween Break!!

2009-11-03T19:17:00.000-06:00

Ok - do plan to continue with the Tour de France blogs, but really wanted to post some of the pictures of our little Halloween Gathering we had!! I really didn't think people would show up, but they did.

Here is my darling husband and I. He was a cowboy, complete with bolo tie, hat. a big buckle and jeans tucked into his boots. I was a Germain Bar Maid. Or maybe St. Paulie's Girl. I bought this dirndl when we were in Munich and have been counting the days until I could wear it. It was so fun!

Here are the Grim Reaper and a Sexy Vampire;

Dorothy was there too..

Even Cleopatra stopped by with some friends!

The one in black and white might look like a nun. In fact she was "A Bad Habit" (harhar!) with a stickie of curse words and a drink always in her hand. :-)

Anyway...thought those were fun to share. There were a lot of others that showed up, but I didn't get pictures darn it.
Hope everyone had a good Halloween! We made sure and kept Duncan (our all black cat) inside and hidden away from creepy people who might want to harm him. So we all made it though the weekend with only a slight headache on Sunday to remind us of it. Not to mention about 5 lbs. due to all the candy and cupcakes I ate...

Fancy Nancy

2009-11-01T17:33:00.000-06:00

Dear Continental,

What ever did I do to you? Why hast thow forsaken me?! I am not quite sure what I have done to deserve to always, and by always I mean the last 4 flights to France I have taken, be sat in a seat that has a broken television, but I am sorry. I am truly sorry. Maybe it was that time I accidentally left a 1/2 a dozen used tissues in the thing that holds magazines. I was really sick and I actually just forgot. At least I put them in the barf bag and didn't just let them sick up the Sky Mall! I shudder to think what you would do in revenge for me spreading my germs not just within a bag made for puke, but in the seat back and onto the magazines. I just hope this public display of regret will find it's way to your little, cold, aerodynamically shaped heart and allow me a functioning entertainment system the next time I fly overseas.

Hugs to you Continental,
Susan

Ok, so now that that is out of the way I can get on to talking about our trip! Our flight, other than the 1/2 broken tv, was fine. It must have been our row, Cyr's only got 1/2 the channels too. He actually watched Ice Age II without the sound. There is a man with an imagination I tell you.

When we landed in Paris at 8:30am we marched our sleepy drunk (drunk from no sleep, not really drunk and about to drive) selves to the rental car place. The computer was down, so they couldn't tell us actually what we were going to be charged, but she is sure that it will be the same as on our receipt. Bien sur! Being the risk takers we are we decline the extra insurance and head out to find out little Citroen that will be our part time home while in France.

We then begin to drive to Nancy. I believe Nancy is about 3 hours from Paris. I say "believe" because we hit the road, got into a little morning traffic, then headed out. About an hour into it we needed coffee and a break. We stopped at a little roadside eatery thing. Those of you who have been on French highways will know that there is a gas station and typically a real restaurant thing near by. I get a cheese plate and a coffee, Cyr opted for an apple tart and coffee. I had to use the rest room of course. There I was greeted with the cutest little potty in France! It was right next to the baby changing station and was just for itty-bitty-butts! I took a picture but not sure if you can tell how small it is. You can see the little cleaner by it and those are usually about 2 foot tall. I wanted to put something next to it to show it's size but I wasn't about to put my purse on the ground in the rest room. Ewe, you will just have to use your imagination. Cyr thought I was nuts to take a picture but I just had to. :-)

We then get back on the road.

About an hour and half later I ask him; "how much further?" It says on the GPS but it seems odd we are so far. He taps expertly on the little gps making it blink and hop from screen to screen. How he knows that things so well amazes me. Then I hear; "Aach." then a "mumble, mumble" and maybe a "bordel" thrown in for good measure. Well friends, while we were taking our little break we wanted to be safe so we took the GPS in with us. Somehow it got all tapped about. Well, it had changed routes and was taking us to Lille. We had driven about 45 minutes out of the way. Please remember that this is after a 9 hour plane ride where Cyr got about 3 hours sleep and I didn't sleep at all.

I couldn't be angry, and I wasn't. I was however not a very patient or understanding person by the time we got to Nancy. I mean to tell you that I would have gotten out of the car and physically assaulted someone if they would have gotten in the way of our getting to the hotel.

Once we actually got there it was great. Here is a shot of our hotel room. High, high ceilings with crown molding, check out the door, it's put in at an angle. Odd eh?

The pictures of the room were taken on Day 2 of the trip due to sleepy irritation the day of arrival. I know you are not supposed to, but we fell into bed and had a good 3 or 4 hour nap. It was so tasty...but not as tasty as this:

Beer and fondue. Oh yeah. Welcome to France. Tune in next time for some animal fun!

Back in The States

2009-10-30T12:58:00.002-05:00

So...vacation is over. No more waking up late, drinking wine/beer with lunch (or at least not without feeling a little guilty or lushy), marveling at how low the dollar is and how high the prices are, eating in restaurants that are old than my country...but Houston isn't so bad. My family and friends are here to welcome us back!

The last 2 weeks or so was spent traveling through France and visiting friends and family. We mainly stayed in the northeast going to places like Nancy, Baccarat and the Lille/Valencienne area. I have lots of pictures and am going to write the posts and set them up to be posted every other day so you can all see a little bit of where we went.

While we were there our 1st Anniversary passed as well!! October 25th was one year that Cyr and I have been married! We were in Paris and went to dinner at Ciel de Paris which is on the 56th floor of the only sky scraper in Paris; the Tour de Montparnasse. We ate dinner and looked out over Paris and the Eiffel Tower. Right when we sat down, at 9pm because the French do eat late, the Eiffel Tower lit up and sparkled like diamonds for it's hourly dance of lights. One of the things that really amazed me was that the lights on the horizon actually twinkled!! I asked Cyr if he saw it too or if it was just the good wine. Apparently the lights really do sparkle! I thought they just made that happen in the movies. Alas...I recommend that you don't take my word for it. Go and check it out yourself.

So...I am logging off for now and going to get my pictures in order to send out our trip highlights!
Thanks for dropping by...

Busy Days

2009-10-07T10:04:00.002-05:00

So the French Days are going really well! I have even been getting extra practice because Cyr has two friends / work colleagues in town from France and we have gone to dinner a few times. They all speak French and I get to practice. It is such a nice change to actually be able to understand them when they talk now. In the past a conversation would go like this;

Group is talking in French.
I don't understand that word. I think about word.
I think I know word and try to focus back on the discussion.
Discussion has changed.
Another new word, what could that mean?
Oh, look at that bird outside!
I wonder if he speaks French.
Maybe it's a girl bird, why do I assume it's a male?
Male birds have pretty feathers. Huh.
Oh yea, focus on French conversation. I missed that whole thing.
Why are people laughing?
Laugh with them!
I don't understand that word...

Now I can at least focus more. We head back to France next week so at least my ears are ready for it. Don't know about my mouth...but my ears are ready!

I also have to take a quick trip to Florida for work. I fly out Monday and return Wednesday then we leave the next day for France. I booked an early flight Wednesday in case of delays. Am also going to pack before I leave Monday. Yes. I must remember to pack early...

A French Wednesday

2009-10-01T17:14:00.002-05:00

So...we had our first day of speaking French yesterday!

Some of you have posted or emailed me and said "why don't you do it everyday?" While I can see how this would be a good idea, in practice it's pretty hard. For instance; Cyr wanted to tell me about something that happened at his work. He is an engineer in the oil and gas business. I don't understand most of what he does when he speaks English, so in French...super frustrating. I admit, we too some time to talk in English about a few important items, but then went back to French.

We actually did a pretty good job! I think I learned a few things that will hopefully be reinforced tomorrow when we have Day 2 of The French Language Project. There was a funny moment; Cyr was in the hall trying to tell me something in French. But he was looking at me with his head tilted to the side, brows furrowed, rubbing his tummy and speaking in a very halting and slow way, like he couldn't think of the words. It was so funny, it was like he couldn't speak French to me, literally! He looks at my face and English comes to his brain, he said it's pretty strange to speak only French to me, but he'll get used to it.

I guess I should also admit that part of the reason I wanted to start this now is that we are going back to France in October and I really want to be in the groove of speaking the language and maybe improve a bit before we get there. We will get to travel around a bit and then get to see his Mom and brother for a few days. I'm really looking forward to it. It's strange because I don't know them very well when it comes down to it, but I really like learning more about them. Getting to know about personalities and what makes them laugh and what doesn't. Plus she is a fantastic cook. Uh...yum...

So there you go. It was not 100% French Day, but I would say it was closing in on 75%. Tomorrow will be even better.

Julie & Julia & My New Goal

2009-09-29T18:54:00.000-05:00

Has anyone seen this film yet? Julie & Julia? I saw it on Sunday with my Mom and I loved it. The movie was 2 hours and 3 minutes and I could have sat there for another 30 minutes without having to take a potty break. I really wanted to know more about what happened in Julia Child's life actually. The movie ends prior to (not a spoiler) letting us know about the televised cooking show. So yes, I recommend it. I also thought Meryl Streep was amazing...really...I know everyone talks about how she is one of the best actresses of all time...I have to agree. Love her.

Another thing it did, as you can guess, is make me think about my blog. When I started it I had a reason, I had things to share. Now it's just Susan in Houston. Living her life where she speaks the language, has no kids to make things interesting, has tons of friends she already knows, her family lives here and works at a job she has done before. Granted, the job is sales, so it changes all the time. But I'm selling the same thing I have sold before. Incentive Compensation Consulting anyone? Anyone?!

So now I sit here reflecting, as most ex-expat ex-bloggers do I think, and I wonder; "what now?" I like to have goals. Typically I have something going on in my life be it preparing for an MS150 bike ride, some kind of run, or as it was in Lille; learning to speak the language and survive in a new culture. Now my goals are things I don't really want to share with everyone I guess. Like trying to pay off my car. Is it interesting to post that I have three - count them THREE - more payments to go on my 4Runner? To me it is, but generally it's not that exciting.

I think I know what I want to do though. I want to keep on with part of what I was trying to do in France. I want to be fluent in French. I don't want to speak like an 18 month old child for the rest of my life. Or keep telling people how I love their horses when I am trying to say "hair". I also need to learn how to read and write the ~~stupid~~ phonetically challenging language. Therefore it has been decided. I have not even told my husband about this...but I have formed a plan and am putting my proverbial foot down!

GOAL: We are going to speak only French Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday until December 31, 2009.

Exceptions: 1- Emergencies, 2 - when we are around my family and 3- if we are with friends that don't speak French.

I am also going to make myself do at least 2 exercised in my French Workbooks every week. Yes...I know...I should do one a day right? But I don't think I would learn it. I would get through the exercise correctly and then move to the next. Like High School. I passed all my history classes with good grades but couldn't remember when the US was founded (yes - I know July 4th, but didn't remember 1776) until I started reading the Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon. (side note - I have the new one, An Echo in the Bone, and I love it...mmmm).

This isn't even that long of a time period. I figure I will do this until Dec. 31st then take a language check. See where I'm at and determine what to do next.

So there you have it. Rather; there I have it! A goal. This need for something to shoot for must come from my over involvement with sports as a child...anyone else like this?

A Move

2009-09-28T14:24:00.002-05:00

Not an actual move, but a laptop move. I think this can be as time consuming as a real move sometimes!

I have an old laptop, but it's been acting a bit suspicious lately so I thought I better take the plunge and actually start using the work laptop I was sent 3 months ago. The thing is I have everything already installed on my personal laptop. Outlook, all my bookmarks, ACT (our horrible contact manager database) and other things. Not to mention all the passwords to silly sites like Kodac.com that I have no clue what my password is but my laptop has it memorized. Those things are going to take forever to clean up!

Right now I am on my new computer but need a break. I realized I have not posted in a while so I thought I would knock out a quick one. So...here is a question for the 5 people that read this post...can a person function with two computers or does one really just need to use one? I can't decide if I should move most of what I do to my work laptop or try to use two. I like the idea of keeping it separate, but I think I might get tired of working off two laptops. Do most people work from two? Please post your thoughts in the comments section.

Getting Outdoors

2009-09-14T09:30:00.006-05:00

I did a little traveling last week with work and slacked off the blogging...but I was thinking about it!!

Cyr and I have been trying to get outside and do stuff, although in the 98% humidity and 97 degree heat it's been hard. We did, however, make it out to Brazos Bend State Park a few weeks ago. For those of you who have not had the chance, or really the desire, to make the trip; it's worth it!

I have lived here most of my life and had never been to the park. It's less than an hour from Houston and there are not only all kinds of birds to check out, but the main attraction...alligators! Here is a little beauty we saw on the trail almost blocking the bridge to cross a little river. You can't tell, but this guy is about 6 foot long. I'm not exaggerating either. If I was I would say he was 9 foot long.

No, there are not fences. Yes, there are signs everywhere saying "don't feed the aligators" and "don't poke the aligators!". I'm telling you these things were everywhere!

Cyr, the French guy, was telling me all about the gators and how you see them. I thought "Sure, so all the little children can run up and pet them...right...America is a safer place than that."

Uh.

I for one will not ever be bringing a kid to that park under the age of 5. The child I do take there will have to be tied to me in case I need to jerk him/her back away from any reptiles. Here is one of the fellas swimming along in the bog.

Can you see him (or her)? He's in the back of the photo with his tail streaming out and his eyes just above the surface. No swimming for me thank you.

We did see some friendlier animals. Here's a bird.

And another bird.

And a cute French guy by a tree.

So there you go, a weekend in Texas! Now you know what to do when you come to Houston! Just make sure to bring the bug spray if you come in June or July. They actually were not that bad, but we also might have poisoned ourselves with the amount of Deepwoods Off we used....

I want to wear all black and dance with my eyes closed...

2009-08-31T08:34:00.002-05:00

Last night Cyr,two of my cousins and I went to see Depeche Mode. It rocked. I could end the post here!

I don't know if you are a fan of Depeche Mode, or even if you know who they are. But I can tell you that I was all kinds of into them, The Cure, NIN, Violent Femmes, even Pet Shop Boys, OMD, Erasure, New Order and really anything you could dance to. So going to this concert I was wondering if everyone at it would be around my age (that would be mid to late 30's) and if any young people would be there.

Let me tell you...this thing was better than the airport! There were old people in skimpy clothes, young pale thin people wearing the white t-shirt with skinny black jeans outfit, stoners, a guy with a Dungeons and Dragons shirt, preppy people, it was all over the board! Cyr and I were out there representing the "we have real jobs but are still cool without being arrogant" crowd. It's a big statement but I think we got it.

The really strange thing was being able to purchase beer legally this time. You mean we don't have to sneak hard liquor from our parents bar or go buy Boon's Farm Strawberry Hill from the seedy guy that will sell to us?! Killer! It was nice to catch a whiff of the throw backs smoking clove cigarettes and witness the interpretive dancing of the cool kids. It made me want to go to Numbers here in Houston and see if the old gang was still there. Sort of. I mean, I kind of like my memories the way they are. I think I might be disappointed to see if everyone turned out to be consultants who cover up their tattoos and drive sensible cars. I like to think that many of those people actually did end up in music or dance or film (maybe they changed their names so I don't recognize them) or something like that.

I used to go dancing 3 nights a week when I wasn't in trouble with grades or for doing something stupid. Most of the time we didn't even drink, we just loved the music. We didn't have cell phones, we never called to see where someone was or who would be there. We just showed up and hung out with whoever walked in. Heck, we didn't even know how to get in touch with most of the people we knew from the club. We came home late, smelly with sweat and a film of cigarette smoke so thick it would discolor your bedsheets if you didn't shower before sleeping.

Looking back it was a great time. I don't want to go back though, I like my memories the way they are. I have a lot of good ones and enough bad ones to make me cringe every now and then so that I don't forget to try not to repeat stupid mistakes. It was nice to hear the music and walk (or dance) down memory lane. It was even nicer to dance back into reality and sleep with my husband in our home that we now have together.

Ewe...that was a little sappy. Sorry about that. Don't worry, something funny will happen soon that I can write about. I'm sure of it.

Immigration Work

2009-08-27T00:33:00.000-05:00

Well, I knew it would come. The day I actually took the time to see what it will take to get Cyr a Permanent Residency Card so he can work here without a visa. He is on an L1 with his French based company right now. Don't get me wrong - his job is great and he doesn't plan on leaving it, but we need to get him set up so that if something happens with the job he can legally stay here since he is my husband. Right now if he looses his job we have to head back to France. Hey...maybe I should hold off on this thing now that I think about it...

I called the US Citizen and Immigration Services to see how to proceed. Turns out it's a little different because we were married in France, so technically we are already married we just have to file a bunch of things. So...I actually have to file that I have a "relative" that I would like to bring into the US. That sounds so strange, a "relative".

So there are about 6 forms to fill out, fees of around $2,500 when it's all done and then we wait I guess. The lady told me we don't need an attorney, just to file all the paperwork. I'm trying to take it slow. I printed out all the forms and all the directions for the forms and have them organized. The next step is to actually start filling them out.

The truth is I hate paperwork and filing and things that require me to check up on them. I like to do something and be done with it. This process will surely turn into a huge monster and I'm not looking forward to it. Cyr will have to do most of the paperwork, but I know I won't be able to keep from taking charge. I just have that pushy personality that I think if I don't get involved it won't get done right. So be prepared, over the next few months I'm sure you will all hear bout how crazy this process is!

Feel free to post any tips if any of you out there have done this before! Remember...I'm American, he is French and we got married in France and we are living in the US with him being here on a work visa.

Work Redemption

2009-08-24T09:00:00.003-05:00

Well, we made it back from Florida unscathed. No hurricane, not even any rain to speak of actually.

Turns out the meetings went really well. I think I even received a little work karma. One of the people I presented to responded to my "Thank You" email with the following:

"On a personal note…as I meet and work with many people from many companies I must say you personally provide an aura of energy and positive vibes that I rarely see in individuals…and you do an excellent professional job in your work…it was very much a pleasure meeting you and hope everything works out well!"

Get out-a-town man! I have to say...I was so flattered it was hard to not forward this to everyone I work with. Is that bad? Is it wrong that I want to parade my compliments around like a set of perky boobs and flat abs? I was, in fact, able to contain myself and only forwarded it to the person I presented with. Of course, he does own the company, and he did forward it to the rest of the group. Alas, I also posted it here, on the internet for all the world to see. Ewe...I think I'm done now. I have officially overdone my prideful display of a compliment.

I better be careful or my good work karma will bite me in the butt with the "pride" thing. That may have already happened actually. I mean, I have not heard if we won the deal yet...

The past weekend was great, Cyr and I just hung around the house, watched movies and relaxed. I also discovered that Duncan is shedding fur like crazy. It's like he is actually molting or something. So now I'm trying to brush him once a day to remove the hair in an orderly fashion as opposed to having black hair flying around the house. I hate it when there is a nice ray of sun pouring in a window and just when you smile and think; "Ah, the sun, how beautiful!" you see floating hairs and dust and think: "Ah, the sun, it shows me how I need to dust!" Poor Duncan, he's a little behind for the summer shedding thing, it's been hot here in Texas since March or so. Guess his little body is still on French time.

Florida!!

2009-08-19T08:46:00.003-05:00

Well, lucky me landed some meetings in Fort Lauderdale, Florida!! We came over Monday and had an hour to actually go down to the beach, it was so nice. The water is warm, the sand is white and the sun was out. There were also lots of surfers out there as the surf was up pretty good. I played around in the water but after about 10 minutes of being beaten to a pulp I decided to sit on the sand and feel what it's like to relax in the sun. I almost forgot. It was as good as I remembered. The only thing that could have made it better was if Cyr was with me. And I was naturally a size 6 but able to eat and drink whatever I want...

Yesterday we had two meetings. I think they both went well. I didn't say anything stupid and no one asked me to get my head out of my ass (see August 11th post). That's always a good sign isn't it? The second meeting was actually kind of funny. The woman who was meeting us brings us to her office. She tells us she will have work coming up she would like our resources to help out with. I tell her we don't have a contract, she tells me to send her one and we should be able to start in about a month. She ends the conversation and we leave. 15 minutes. No kidding. If this deal closes it will be the fastest deal in the East! She knows our resources so she feels good going directly with us for the work. She's also (as you might be able to tell) a no-nonsense kind of person. Very nice, I think you could even say "friendly" but not into small talk. I like that. You know where you stand.

So today we have the morning free. And today there is a hurricane coming to the area. Just when I thought I could get some fun in! At least we had the hour on Monday, that was good. So now we are trying to get back to H-town prior to the natural disaster that is potentially heading our way makes landfall. Wish us luck!

My Clean Colon

2009-08-14T16:16:00.001-05:00

Not to get too graphic here, but Cyr and I went on a "cleanse diet" for three weeks. No, I did not talk him into this. Yes, he wanted to do it!

A good friend of mine did this and was talking about it when we were out with her a few weeks ago. We decided that maybe we should do a little detoxing ourselves. Now I know these things don't work. I have read many studies and seen the BBC "Truth About Food" episode where they take tests before and after a "cleanse" and the after results are just like the before. Only the people loose weight. To be honest I am not concerned about having a toxin free body. I'm concerned about being a little too heavy right now. So I say "Yeah baby, let's do this thing."

This, I can say, might also be another reason I have not blogged in a while. I have been in a bad mood for about three weeks. This cleanse thing involves taking all kinds of fiber pills and green seaweed pills and vitamins. It's 21 days long and you can't eat meat for the first 10 days. You can only eat fruits, vegetables and these protein shakes that you can add frozen fruit to. No bread, pasta, sugar or salt. You can eat 1 serving of lentils a day and you can have sea salt, just not regular salt.

You are also supposed to try to eat only organic foods the entire time. Being as I am not Bill Gates or a Rockefeller we did not adhere to the "organic only" portion of this cleans. Which really probably means I ate more pesticides during my cleanse than I do normally now that I think about it. So I would make trips to the grocery store and buy things I have never purchased before, come home and look them up on the internet to see how to cook them. I would buy things that I thought sounded good like acorn squash, or butternut squash. We also purchased a food processor! You laugh...but I have used that thing 3 times in the last 2 weeks and Cyr has used it a few times too! I wonder how long we will continue to use it though...

My favorite was the butternut squash soup and the eggplant babaganouch which is pureed eggplant, garlic, tahini and olive oil. Apparently I don't like to chew much. So anyway, we came out the end of this me a 11.4 lbs lighter and Cyr down 15 pounds! My goal is to keep 6 of it off. I am rather certain I have gained back 4 but am refusing to get on the scale. Denial ain't such a bad place you know...kinda nice.

The diet was hard though. We both became a little snippy. We actually once got into an argument at the grocery store. It went something like this:

Me: I need to get some lentils, they are over on this aisle.
Cyr: I don't want to go into the aisles because I don't want to look at what I can't have. I get frustrated. We can only eat the food on the outside of the aisles, the fruit and vegetables.
(He, bless his heart, only ~~listens to~~ hears the second part of my sentence.)
Me: I need to go get the lentils.
Cyr: I told you I don't want to go into the aisles!
Me: Grow up!
(continue as if listening to two children argue.)

Poor guy was so traumatized by all the fruits and vegetables in his system he couldn't bear to be even close to carbohydrates! I was also short tempered so I didn't much help the argument. We actually ended up laughing, but we were serious for a while there!

My advice to anyone looking to "cleanse"? Take a shower.

Just kidding, I actually feel great. I hope I can keep up all the veg a fruit eating. I also learned how to cook some good healthy meals. Not too bad, but really really not fun at all. One cool thing, Cyr and I each had two beers the other night and that was all we needed. I knew that diet was good for something...

Where my head is.

2009-08-11T18:04:00.003-05:00

No, I'm not going to talk today about what I am thinking or how centered I am, or even about how I bailed on the blogging for a while. Instead I would like to talk about a sales call I had a few weeks ago that makes me smile when I think of it. I'm even smiling right now as I type this. It's one of those crooked smiles with a nasally "Humph" attached to it at the end.

So I started this new-old job about 2 months ago. I say new-old because though the job is new, as in I just started working for this company, the job is in fact old because I have done this job with these exact people at a different company. The great thing is that this new company is the cream of the crop of the last place. So it's the smart folks, the ones you trust, the ones that you are (fairly) sure they won't be looking for every opportunity to screw you out of something. Plus I'm good at it. I know the industry and who the creeps are, what to watch out for, how to qualify a lead and how to close them to become my client. It makes me feel good to be talking to people and dressing up again.

After a few weeks on the job I was able to book a meeting with a potential client that everyone at my company has had a hard time with. He is a no-nonsense guy who makes quick judgments about people, is extremely self assured and has a lot of influence with the software vendor (which he no doubt likes very much this power). He is also the decision maker of what company gets to do their software implementation. Well I want that to be us of course. So we go to his offices for a meeting. It's me and one of our Partners who is technical.

We get there early, get everything set up for the meeting and the Partner turns to me and says:

"This guy really likes you. I can see that he likes working with you."

I am excited that he has seen this and my chest sticks out a few more inches. Which doesn't hurt the sales presentation I tell you...

The "guy" in question has left the room so we can speak freely. He had to get something from his office and said he would return in a few minutes, so I am to watch through the conference room doors to see when he returns because he might need me to open the door to the area to let him in. He doesn't have his security badge.

Not 5 minutes after The Partner has told me how much this guy likes me, the "guy" walks in, points at me and says:

"YOU need to get your HEAD out of your ASS."

I think he is joking.

"Oh, you caught me, we aren't working right now."

I'm also shocked, I can't recall ever being asked to remove my head from my ass. I also note that I actually don't seem to have my head up my ass. I know this because although I am not sitting on the most comfortable chair in the world, I'm not particularly uncomfortable and I can see him clearly. I am sure my vision would be impaired in the "head up the ass scenario", but I see him fine.

"I have been waiting at that door for 10 minutes. I made so much damn noise that a person down the hall heard me and had to come let me in."

"No shit sir? A thousand humble pardons!!"

Ok, that's NOT what I said, but it did cross my mind. I actually apologized, I could not believe I didn't see him through the glass, across the waiting room through the other door. I am also a bit shaken, so when he poses his next question I don't really give the best answer.

"So, I don't have time for you to do your sales pitch in this meeting so just tell me why I should use your company as opposed to the other one."

"Uh. Because you like me? Well, you used to. You see, I'm really a great person and the people I work with are great and you would be just an idiot if you went with those other losers. Trust me on this Sugar-Bear, I have hear stories that would make your chin hair fall out."

Ok, I didn't say that either, but I wanted to. I actually stammered, gave some newbie answer then The Partner jumped in. I spent the rest of the prep time trying to blow it off and pretend I wasn't upset. The meeting went well, we showed them we were smart. Then we left.

I asked The Partner about it a few days later. His response:

"Really? That didn't even register on my radar. I thought he was pissed at you for giving a short sales pitch during the meeting when he asked you not to."

Damn...whoda thunk?! I spent the next two days trying to figgure out which I should be upset about; the missed door thing or the 5 minute pitch to tell the group the name of the f-ing company I work for and what we are here to accomplish today.

To bring you up to date:
It has been decided that I will be upset about neither one of these things. The truth is that I don't know if I want to win this deal. Ok that's a lie, of course I still want to win it, but if we do I hope I, along with our project team, can manage to keep our respective craniums out of our rectal areas for the duration of the project. If we loose it then I don't have to worry about it.

Is that the work-version of kissing a frog?

Are you still there?

2009-08-09T19:56:00.007-05:00

Ok...so I have taken a little break. Ok, I flaked. I became, for a while, one of those people that you can't count on. One of those people that says "We should do something for your birthday! I will plan something!" Then 3 months after your birthday that same person says "So, what did you do for your birthday?" I don't want to be that person. So I'm back. Planning your birthday. Really I'm just blogging again...

I have decided to return!! I am going to log my first re-entry into the blogsphere with something I have been promising for a long while; pictures from our Honeymoon in Egypt. Yea!!

I was married last October in France to my wonderful French husband. Then we got transferred back to Houston. We had not taken a vacation, so we packed our things in a container to be put on a boat to sail to Houston. Two days after the container left France, we set off for Egypt for a week. The interesting part for me was that it was through a French tourism agency. It came with tours and guides and everything. Since it was French all the guides spoke French and the people on the boat spoke French. By day 3 I would walk down the hall and people would say; "Ah. Yew ah zee American no? Bonjour!" No kidding...even the staff knew who I was. I would typically manage a shy "Oui. C'est vrai. C'est moi." Translated; "Yes, it's true. That's me." Closest I will ever get to being a rock star.

But no more talking...here are a few pictures. The first one is our boat. Ok, it's not really our boat, but all mostly look the same so I thought I could pass it off as ours. They raft up next to one another about 5 deep and when you get off your boat you have to walk through other boats until you get to the land. Very interesting. It was a little old, but we didn't mind.

Next we have the Philae Temple. Now you know my secret to knowing where the heck the pictures were taken! Seriously...though they really were all different and had unique things about them, I could NEVER remember the names of the places we went.

The temples were so large it was mind blowing. The carvings were also done like 5 inches deep into the stone. It was just crazy! Some even still had color on them, but my cynical self things that things might have been touched up a bit...

Cyr taking a photo...

Arc of the Covenant.

Not really, it's something else but I can not for the life of me remember what. Isn't that awful? Sorry to all you Egyptian artifact buffs.

And here we are next to a huge granit statue. Yea, they had granit. Not found anywhere near where we were...but there they were, these huge statues. I really have a hard time imagining these places being built by mere human hands. I know they took hundreds of years to complete, but it just seems an impossible task.

And here we are, the happy couple...

So to end this post I will tell you 10 things I learned while in Egypt.

1 - The French really do eat everything with a fork and knife. Even even apples (cut with a knife then eat portion), oranges (peel with a knife), and dates (use both knife and fork). Learned on the boat of course.
2 - You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can't take the Texas out of the girl. I ate all the above fruits and other items with my hands.
3 - Don't sit on the high-pressure-suction-toilet when you flush. I never made this mistake after we felt the change in cabin pressure while flushing. That thing was serious.
4 - I thought Cambodia was a poor country. Egypt seems even poorer.
5 - Sometimes it's ok to pay an extra dollar for something. The person selling you things probably needs it more than you do.
6 - You get the best price on things you don't want.
7 - It is hard to travel in Egypt as a single female. I don't mean "not married" I just mean alone. Cyr would walk across the room and 3 men would be on me asking me questions and calling me "Gazelle". I traveled 6 weeks in Thailand and Cambodia all alone and never once felt as uncomfortable as I did in Egypt at times. Not all the time of course, but the markets are harsh.
8 - You have no idea what the term "hard sell" means until you go to Egypt. These people are relentless. You must develop a tough skin and be firm. If you do this you can have one of the best vacations in your life. If you don't you will be angry and frustrated ever time you leave the boat.
9 - It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and I can't wait to go back.
10 - If you are scared to go to Egypt don't be. I would suggest going on a river cruise if you are nervous about it because you have the guides that will help you and you can roam around alone if you choose. I encourage you to go and spend your money there. I still have some perfumed oil I wear and get compliments on it every time I do. I also don't think it's a very "kid friendly" place and was always surprised to see tourists with children there.

It was an amazing trip. Next time I want to cross over to Jordan and go to Petra.

Oh, thanks for the emails from you folks out there who check in every now and then. I'm alive and well in Houston. But I'm back in the world of blogging!! Until next time, Assalam o alaikum (Peace be upon you).

Unhealthy or Healthy Americans?

2009-05-30T08:12:00.002-05:00

When I moved to France, and even now, many of my friends would comment on how thin and beautiful all the French women were going to be. I can not tell a lie; they were right. Most of the people are rather thin there, but you rarely see joggers or people exercising. At least they were not as common where I lived in Lille as they are here in Houston. Just a general observation on my part is that the French live a more active lifestyle. I don't mean they exercise, I mean they have to walk everywhere. Typically a person walks to the market and carriestheir groceries home. They just move more. Add that to smaller portions and you get smaller people. Not rocket science.

The thing is, when I lived there I only moved when I had to. When I worked I had to walk at least 45 minutes every trip. When I went to the market or to meet friends I had to walk to the tram or the store. But only once in 15 months did I lace up my tennies and go for a jog. However, I did walk with my good friend Lillian. We would walk about twice a week just around our neighborhood. In regular shoes. I always thought it was funny knowing that if I did that in Houston I would have changed and looked sporty. But she always just had on normal clothes so I matched by wearing jeans. It was always cold or at least cool so it's not like we ever broke a sweat.

I actually lost weight once I started working because of the increased walking. Well that and it took my body so many calories to keep warm on the way to and from anywhere. But I never changed my eating habits and I never once had a "light" beer. Living so close to Belgium I would think it a sin to even ask for a Miller Light. Actually I think you can only get Amstel Light or Heineken Light, but I digress. So I drank wine and dark beer and lost weight. But I never felt really healthy (shocker).

Since I have been home I have joined a gym and started a simple run walk plan. I even tried to swim laps last week! Who knew my ass was made out of lead? That sucker sank after the second lap. Solution: breast stroke and act like you belong there. I felt like a fish out of water while in the water! Let's just say I am not a natural lap swimmer. My point is though that I feel more healthy here now and have lost 9 pounds while living in Unhealthy America! Plus I really think Americans are looking more towards a healthy lifestyle, although that could just be in my neck of the woods.

Looking back I know I could have joined a gym and worked out, but I felt guilty spending 65 euro a month when I wasn't working. Then when I finally got my papers to work I had been there for 10 months and felt I needed to contribute to the bills, although Cyr always told me I didn't have to and to buy shoes. I married a good one didn't I?! Plus it was so cold from October until March that exercising outside was just too painful to think of. I didn't even bike because I just knew I would get in a crash and not be able to tell the people in the hospital what was wrong or that I would get lost and have to call Cyr for help. :-)

Lesson I learned: Looking back I did not find things to do or ways to exercise and feel healthy when I lived in Lille. I think it took me too long to feel comfortable with the language and I let that intimidate me and I sat at home too much. Thank goodness I met Steph and Marie Jose or I would have become a hermit! I should have pushed through it and found places to ride my bike. I used to ride an average of at least 40 miles a week here and then I did nothing when I moved. It was my own fault really.

Next Time: I'm going to get out more. Plus the fact that now I speak a little more French helps. But if any of you move to a place where you feel like you don't fit in, I would say take advice from Nike, Just Do It. I wish I had, it would have made my stay even better.

Back on Board

2009-05-27T17:36:00.002-05:00

Or at least I feel that way!

We have unpacked boxes and have a fairly livable home now. I really love it and Duncan has settled in really well. I also found a job (yeah), lost 6 pounds and joined a gym! All good things really. :-)

I actually joined the gym after I lost the 6 pounds so I plan to be getting all kinds of healthy in the next few months.

I have to be someplace in 30 minutes but realized I have not blogged in weeks. I start my new job next week which will be good for me. I really need structure. When I am not working and I have a few things to do, I never do them. But pack in a work day with many things to do and somehow I get all of them done. Guess I work well under pressure. Guess that's a good thing since I'm a sales person!!

Thanks for all the emails from folks. I'm in a good place right now and even have pictures to post! (finally)

Swine flu and a new home

2009-05-06T13:59:00.003-05:00

So first off...no, neither of us have gotten the swine flu, but I was pretty worried Sunday.

We moved in our new house successfully over the last few days. I guess I consider "successful" having less that 12 boxes still lingering around the house, most of the furniture in place and only a few broken or missing items. On Sunday morning Cyr woke up and was not feeling well. He had 101 temp and was down all day with fever spiking as high as 102.8 and dropping to around 100. At one point I was sure he was going to grow a curly tail and start rummaging through the garbage (this is my lame attempt at swine flu humor). I had him drinking chilled fluids like Gatorade and water and had a cold cloth to wipe him down with. I was almost ready to sink him in a bathtub of cold water when it began to drop. I was also considering the possibility of an emergency room visit.

His fever started at 7am Sunday and didn't get better until about midnight that night. Monday he woke up with no fever but feeling exhausted. His work (wisely) told him to stay home so that he would not be contagious when he returned. I think I missed it (cross your fingers) and feel lucky. He was so sad on the couch, poor fella.

So with the move, hooking up all the electricity, phone and internet along with Cyr's two sick days I have been a little absent. Oh, a few really cool things; I spoke with Steph on the phone. I didn't realize how much I really miss her, but it's a lot. In reality we really didn't have a long time to hang out and be friends, but I know I will always feel a special kinship with her. She was my English speaking buoy in the sea of alien France. Plus she is just a great person. Shout out to you in Canada Steph!! I have also had a job interview that wants to see me again next week plus a few others that are talking to me. Good sales people are wanted in this economy thank goodness. Now all I have to do is convince everyone I'm a good sales person. To be honest...I can't wait to use my brain again. I am chomping at the bit to talk to a client or potential client about anything...

Sorry I have been gone so long, but now I'm hooked up in Houston. ;-)

Expect Egypt pictures withing the week. As soon as I locate the cable to download them...

A New Cat

2009-04-23T09:59:00.002-05:00

Well, Duncan survived his surgery and is now lounging around the house taking pain meds three times a day. Although personally I don't really think he needs them, he just likes the relaxed feeling he gets from them...I have to watch that little guy, don't want him pulling a Rush Limbaugh on me.

I picked him up from the snippy place around 4:30pm the same day I dropped him off. I was expecting him to be quiet and drugged out, but he seemed fairly alert and even meowed on the way home a little. Poor guy was probably traumatized. Not only was he neutered, but he got a feline leukemia immunization and some other vaccine thing. Then, in my quest to be a good pet owner I tried to take a short cut home and it ended up making a 15 minute trip a 30 minute trip. Sorry Duncan...it tried.

Being that this is my first cat I had no idea of the aftercare but had looked up the info on the internet. Turned out I needed to use a special kind of little or news paper for a week after the surgery so that the incision didn't get infected. They don't use stitches any more in male cats, they just apply some super-glue type stuff and let 'em go. I bought the Daily News (cute name eh? It's litter made from recycled news paper) and paid for his surgery and the shots. It wasn't too bad, the whole thing cost me $95 at the non-profit SNAP (the Spay Neuter Assistance Program) place. I heard people talking about how their vets were asking $150 for male and $250 for females if the office did it. Crazy!

Now I love the earth and try to do my part as much as I can, but I might have to draw the line at recycled or newspaper cat litter. This stuff is hard to deal with because it doesn't clump plus it smells like a cat in here now. I hate that. Oh well, just one more week of this and we should have our new house (yeah!) and we can bring back the Fresh Step. He seems to be doing pretty well though, and miracle of all miracles...he has not cried during the night since we brought him home. I don't know if the night time crying is fixed (pun fully intended), and I hope not to jinx things with this email, but I am feeling optimistic about being able to let him roam the new house at night without him keeping us up. Especially with the pheromone thing we are going to unleash in the new place before he arrives. As my friend Steph says; I'm going to try to "Kitty Fung Shui" my new place. I hope it works. As you might have guessed from the title of this post; he really does seem like a new cat. Or rather just a slightly improved version of the original.

One more day...

2009-04-20T09:05:00.002-05:00

...until Duncan gets his manhood cut off. I hate to be heartless, but I can not friggin wait for this cat to be "less of a man".

Lately Duncan has taken to meowing very loudly and frequently beginning at 11:30 and not stopping until about 6am. The little bastard. We have tried locking him in the bathroom with water and food. He then proceeded to claw for 6 hours (not kidding) under the door ripping up the carpet that butts up to the door. Then he would eat the carpet and throw it up. This is the first cat vomit I have had to deal with. Now I know why I never had a cat.

We have also tried the "squirting with water guns" approach. As a matter of fact I have two (one for me one for Cyr) double barrel hand gun style water guns to get him with. He runs off then is back a few minuets later. I'm fairly certain he thinks its a game.

I have read a lot on line about this and there are many thoughts. Let me share with you what I have found starting from the most commonly suggested:

Ignore the cat at all costs and praise him during the day when he is quiet. --- I have tried this but I can't help but cry out for him to "shut the hell up" in my sleep. It just comes out.
Shut the cat in a room by itself and pay no attention to it. --- See above tale of carpet destruction and puke.
Get him neutered. --- Within 24 hours of this post he will be under the knife. If I didn't have it scheduled I swear I might do it myself with a Ginsu and some super glue to close the wound (no way am I putting a needle near an injured cat).
Get another cat to keep the first one company. --- I hope this person gets over his/her crack addiction quickly.
Play with your cat and keep him awake before bed. --- Yes, I am trying. I am poking and prodding and playing and such.
Use a shock collar. --- Is it cruel that I actually thought of this first prior to reading about it online? Our new rental house should have a room far enough away from ours that we won't be able to hear him so I am hoping this won't be a big deal in two weeks. Plus maybe the neutering will help. I know this sounds cruel to many, but all I can think is that my Mom spanked me when I was a kid and I turned out fine. Sort of.
Use Feliway, the cat pheromone thing to calm them down. --- Have looked it up and am thinking of getting some to put in the rent house before we move in. How friggin dorky is that?! It would be like "Welcome Duncan to your new abode. Sit. Relax. Be calm because you have nothing to fear here. Smell your acceptance little one. You are the King Cat in this castle."
Realize you are not meant to be a cat owner and find a better home with a deaf person for your cat. --- Cyr and I are too attached to get rid of the little guy. He just might never get to sleep in the same room, or within 35 feet of us, again.

So wish us luck. We have one more tormented night of sleep ahead of us and then tomorrow it's off to the vet! Maybe he knows it's coming. Maybe that is why he's difficult.

You can't keep me down! For long...

2009-04-16T11:55:00.004-05:00

"Welcome home Susan!" screamed the streptococcal bacteria that has made it's home in my throat over the last week.

I forgot how bad strep is. I never hear about folks getting this in France, other than my Canadian friend of course. Always being unique she is (wink at ya Steph!). I had a small irritation for two days in my throat. Then on Monday night I woke up at 1:30am because I tried to swallow and thought maybe I was eating a cactus in my sleep. After a desperate call to my old doctor, and $75 later including $25 for antibiotics, it turns out I have strep.

The good thing is that at least now I know why I was so darn tired. I also have this weird eczema thing on a small part of my scalp. My friend Missy said her hubby has the same thing and suggested T-Gel. I went out and bought some. Turns out it works. Turns out I also smell like a dog that has just been washed with flea shampoo. I'm hoping I can use it every other wash so that I can have the Gee Your Hair Smells Delicious (am I dating myself here?) thing going on again.

So today I am feeling pretty good after three days of meds. So good in fact that I went to the little gym in our temporary corporate apartment complex and did a light workout for the first time in over a year. Oh my how the body deteriorates. I am on a mission though. I WILL have arms that look more like actual arms than legs before June. Do not expect pictures of this folks. The leg-arms shall be hidden until the unveiling on June 1st. Mark your calendars.

OH - we found a house!! We are going to rent for a while until we see what the future holds for us then maybe buy down the road depending on our stay here. We both love the house, it's big and in a good neighborhood. Although for the first time in my life I will be an "Outer Looper". Those of you in Houston know what I mean. We are not that far out though. Less than 2 miles actually...so I'm more like a "Close To The Looper".

This weekend is the International Festival (Ireland is the country this year - go peeps) AND the Spring Crawfish Festival. Not sure which, if any, we will do, but I'm looking forward to a good weekend. Did I mention that Cyr LOVES his job? It's a challenge but I know he will be a success.

Thanks again to all of you who have emailed and posted to me about continuing my blog. I love my internet friends and family. :-)

Back in H-Town

2009-04-09T15:06:00.003-05:00

Well...after two weeks of being away from a computer, we are in Houston.

Egypt was AMAZING. We did a cruise down the Nile starting from Luxor and going to Asswan and back. We had 8 full days there with sun and nothing to worry about except making sure to meet the bus on time.

I'm currently trying to find the cable to download my pictures to my computer. With the move I can't find everything. Half of what I thought I brought with me I think the movers packed. Currently most of our belongings are on a ship sailing towards the port of Houston. They should reach here in about two or three weeks. Cyr's company has us in a corporate apartment until we find a place to live. I'm actually waiting for the Realtor now and going to look at some places.

I'll post about Egypt and the trip later, I thought I would write a little about leaving Lille today. I think I already miss it a little. Of course there are things here that I am so glad to be back with such as family, friends and customer service. Now it just seems that life is right here in your face for some reason. Everyone is talking about the crisis and loosing their jobs. It's a much more talked about thing than I thought. People are really worried. I am too now. I also came home to some jerk writing a check on one of my accounts that I just found our about when I opened a letter from a collection agency. Looks like I will spend tomorrow trying to get that sorted out. Then I guess I will find a job. English lessons anyone?

I miss my friends there like Steph, Flo and K. A quick tale about the move. The movers came to pack us up in Lille and things didn't go quite like they did here when they moved us from Houston. Here three guys showed up at 9am and the truck pulled away fully packed and headed for the container at 4:30pm. In Lille we had 5 or 6 guys show up at 9:30am, take a two hour lunch, leave at 5, come back the next morning to finish packing and finished up at around 4pm. So twice the people and twice the time.

I was going to end with that thought, but I find myself wondering what I am going to blog about after we move into our new home. We are thinking about having kids, but I don't really want this to be just a summary of my ovulation cycle. ::yawn:: I wonder if I will have anything to talk about. But then I think of some of my favorite blogs and they are written by people in Utah and Austin. For some reason I think I might just not be that interesting anymore. I guess we will see. Hope you stick around. Maybe something fun will happen. I still have Egypt posts after all. :-)

Crazy Times

2009-03-22T19:12:00.002-05:00

Wow...the last two weeks are a blur.

My friend Shari came to visit for a week and we had a great time. I will post all about our adventures next week. She left last Thursday, and Friday we had a dinner party to do to for Cyr's last day at work. Then last night we had a few friends over to help us drink all our liquor before heading out to the US. Not the best idea to have a party on a Saturday night when your movers are coming on Monday.

So tomorrow, actually later today if you want to be specific, movers will arrive at 9am to pack our belongings and ship them off to Houston. We move into a hotel for a week, then it's off to Egypt on Saturday for a week, then return to Lille for two days to pick up the cat and then our one way flight to Houston after that.

I have two bags packed; one for Egypt and one for the other stuff. I'm sure I forgot something important. Like pants. I'll make sure to blog about our move. Our successful move. See how positive I am?

A last visit...

2009-03-11T17:22:00.002-05:00

Well, I have finished my classes at all my schools now! It's so strange, I even finished tutoring at my Big School for the faculty. I really liked doing that, the person I worked with was so nice and so much fun to talk to. It wasn't much like work at all. I do have one more thing to do though! I received an email yesterday from the Small School asking if I would please participate in interviewing potential students for their Fall Term. Ha...interesting. I said I would and it's on a day I am free so why not? Plus it's paid...

Tomorrow I am going to Paris to pick up my last visitor of this stay in France. My friend Shari is coming for a week long visit and we have a full schedule! Paris, Brugges, and even a VIP tour in Reims at some winery! She is in the know of the cool peeps one should know. I'm an acquaintance but am more than happy to come along for the ride. I will take photos and let you know what that is like. That is planned for the first part of next week. I have never been to Champagne so I am eager to see what it looks like. According to mapquest and GPS it's just under 2 hours from here.

There is also a big party of some sorts here in Lille on Saturday that we are going to go to. There are some CRAZY statues on the streets I will make sure to photograph and post. Just to give you an idea, they look like black lacquer babies with dragon tails. And they are wearing diapers. Some have wings like bats. They are about two stories tall. I'm intrigued.

So everyone have a great weekend and I will post on Monday!

A Kitty Passport

2009-03-08T16:11:00.007-05:00

I'm sitting on the couch still full from another great meal at my mother-in-laws. Mmmm...champagne, little appetizers, great wine, some lamb and green beans with bacon wrapped around them and then home made chocolate mouse to top it off. I am one lucky woman!! I was mad at myself that I did not take my camera to take photos of it. She always makes things looks so good. We had a salad that had smoked fish, caviar, tomatoes, lettuce and grapefruit pieces and hard boiled egg pieces on it. It was fantastic. Next time I will take pictures darn it.

As you might have read in my last post; Duncan will be riding with us to Houston in the cabin of the plane. To do this he will need a kitty passport plus some drugs. A quick visit to the vet and about 130 euros and it was all taken care of. Check out the little guy with his passport!

Notice it says "France". Guess he will have to go through the "Non-US Citizen" line.

He also got a rabies shot and a chip put in the back of his neck so that if he gets lost they can scan him (like a can of beans at the store) and figure out where he is from. I guess we register him when we get to Houston with our vet. His chip says he's French. "FRA" plus his number. He will be the tres cool cat on the block. I wonder if he has an accent...

I also asked about drugs to make him sleep on the plane and if I should put a shoe box with little in the bag. You can see the bag, it's like a duffel bag with one end that is firm so it doesn't collapse. The doctor said she would prescribe him a pill for the flight. She told me to give him half a pill and wait two hours. After that I could give him another 1/4 or the other 1/2 if he needed it. When I paid she gave me a box with the following.

Uhh...didn't you say ONE pill? They don't have dosing here in France. I forgot. When you get meds you get a box full and take what the doctor says. It's the same for animals I see. Maybe I can get rich at the airport selling these things...anyone need to make an animal sleep? Just call or email me. Concerning the shoe box and litter idea; she just said to put some paper towels in the bag in case he had to go. I'm bringing zip lock bags in case of poop. I don't want anyone to be subject to that stuff. It's amazing what a big smell comes out of such a small butt. She also said to take his water away about 3 hours before we left. Poor fella...he is going to be thirsty.

So it looks like Duncan is ready. We also walked around a bit after the visit just so he could get used to the carrier. I don't know if it helped, but it made me feel better.

A quick week of travel

2009-03-04T04:45:00.004-06:00

Many of you out there live away from your families, I know this because I ~~stalk~~ read many of your blogs. Even those of you that might live close to your family and friends can imagine what a trip home is like. Here is a brief overview of how my trips tend to go:

Before you leave you need to plan your time home. Who will you see what days? You might book lunches and dinners and movie times. Don't forget the family time.
Arrive feeling like you have actually walked to your destination as opposed to flying. While carrying your luggage of course.
Feel guilty that you have not made arrangements with more people than you have, so you try to blend a few groups together maybe. Or maybe not.
Feel bad that you didn't buy gifts for some people because you know just what they would like but it was raining/snowing all week and you didn't ~~have the will power~~ make the time to drive to the big grocery store.
Stand in amazement of how we functioned without cell phones once you arrive (because you don't have one). Sometimes I get a throwdown phone for the time I will be there just in case.
Make the rounds, wishing you had more time to visit family and just hang out and watch TV, because you actually REALLY like to do just that. Sometimes just being in the same room with family is what I miss the most.
Eat LOTS of Mexican food.
Board the plane home knowing you forgot to buy gifts for people that you should have.
Arrive feeling like you not only walked to France, but that that you had to push a cart with other people in it and swim across the Atlantic.

So I know many of you are thinking "oh I wouldn't do that, I would just let people know that I can't see them. Yes, I try to do that too. The problem lies in that I really DO want to see these people that I miss. So here is how my trip went this time:

Pack up a few gifts to take but see #1 above. We also packed clothes to leave in Houston because when we move we won't have our things for another 4 or 5 weeks. We plan to take our honeymoon after our things are shipped and leave two suit cases here; one for honeymoon and one for going back to Houston that we will pick up when we return from Egypt. I made a few phone calls and sent one or two emails but didn't plan much (which I am glad).
See #2 above, although after a good nights sleep it's not that bad when you fly west. Sunday morning we felt pretty good. Until I almost had a heart attack when the front desk lady handed me a note and told me there was a family emergency. Turns out it was a little serious, but my Dad will always tell me nothings wrong and he is fine (yes Dad, I am on to you and will still worry about you). He's at home now though and making a slow comeback.
Spent all day, I mean all day, Monday looking at rent houses. We found some we liked and decided to fill out applications for them.
Had dinner with my Mom and some friends throughout the week, even got to see my friend Missy, oops, Melissa (she is so grown up now) and her 4 week old baby. Hello there River!!
Waited until Thursday to get responses from house folks. Turns out both of the ones we liked found renters that would move in during the month of March. We really need May 1st but would pay for April 1st. We lost both of them.
Friday - stress a little about the housing thing but realize we can find a place when we get back. There is a ton of stuff on the market. Besides, maybe we should buy...prices are great and with the tax benefits Obama is talking about it could be good. Still have time to decide.
Friday night - go the Houston Rodeo Cookoff!! Rodeo is starting and the cookoff was going on . We had tickets to some booths and proceeded to stay out until 1:30AM. Then we ate at IHOP at 2AM. An American tradition...though Cyr didn't eat, maybe it is just an American thing...
Saturday - buy $25 Levi's for Cyr and $25 Converse for the beau-frere at Target. In France Levi's are about 100 euro and Converse can be found on sale for 60 euro. Crazy...should have bought some and sold them to my students.
I think I ate Mexican food 6 or 7 times. :-)
See #8 and 9 above.

I'm glad we went and I was able to see my Mom and Dad and Sandy (step Mom) and even my Aunt Mary. But the week was too short and we were so busy. Right now I'm recovering from jet lag and working this week at my Big School and tutoring three days. I need to start worrying about tax stuff and get that all to my cousin...sorry Sally!!

Looks like my days here are numbered. I have a friend coming in from the 12th to the 20th and we are trying to schedule the movers for right after she leaves. Then we will have our honeymoon, come back to France for one day, pick up Duncan and fly to Houston to live in a hotel for a few weeks until we find a place.

Oh...and on the flight back Duncan (cute little black cat) is going to ride in the cabin with us because he so small. I'm a little worried about this. We are going to the vet to get some Kitty Quaaludes to make him sleep, but this will be a 13-15 hour trip for him if you include the train ride from Lille and time to get to the hotel in Houston. I was told to put a shoebox with litter in it in his bag so he could do his business in it if he needed. Anyone out there have to make a long trip with a cat in a bag? I decided this week he is going to take some field trips in it around Lille to practice. I don't want him freaking out too much. Any advice is welcomed, please post a comment if you know of something!

Live from H-Town

2009-02-25T10:35:00.003-06:00

Surprise!!!

We took a last minute trip to Houston, courtesy of Cyr's work, to search for a house. I guess it's really happening...we are moving.

We got in late Saturday. Sunday at breakfast the receptionist walked up and said a message was left for me and that there was a medical emergency. Well crap.

Turns out it was my Dad. Nothing serious thank goodness, but he is still in the hospital and should get out tomorrow. We have been so busy with family and house hunting and his work stuff that I have not gotten to do a lot of things I was hoping to do.

So I am going to post this short note to say "I'll write soon!" and then go and fill out rental applications for homes here.

A+!!

PS - We miss you Duncan!!! Thanks S and F for baby sitting. We WILL notice if he is not there when we return. ;-)

Valentine's Weekend

2009-02-17T16:12:00.006-06:00

Ok...I'm not usually a big Valentine's Day kinda person, but this year it was really fun! Of course, maybe it was fun because I was given some really fun gifts and taken to a great restaurant. I tried to give a really good gift, but after I bought it I had buyers remorse and knew I should I have gotten something else. I hate it when that happens.

Cyr, however, really surprised me with some great gifts!! He found some website that sells fancy jams and teas and things. I got a box full of preserves, chutneys and things. Check it out, way better than a box of chocolates. I even had a baguette to cook for breakfast (thank you Picard).

Don't they look amazing?! Some of my favorite times with Cyr are sitting on the couch eating breakfast, so this is perfect. It gives us another reason to sit on the couch and eat bread. :-)

But he didn't stop there! I also love tea. I have this thing about smelly things. I love soap, candles and tea. This is a set of tea with a really pretty silver spoon-steeper-thing and spoon holder. I didn't know it, but apparently I am an Earl Grey fan. The Earl Grey in this set is so fragrant. I now understand...

There is also some fruit and flower blends but I have not opened them yet. I'm sure they will be great. For dinner we went to a Moroccan restaurant and had couscous and rose wine with a champagne aperitif that had champagne soaked raspberries in it so that it was pink and pretty. Plus you could eat the raspberries with a spoon they gave you. Yummm...

And here is a picture I took last week on the 12th when it snowed here like crazy. Check out the cars!! I stayed in all day with the cat and watched it come down. It was a great day.

Ode to French Music and TV

2009-02-12T10:37:00.003-06:00

I have posted once before here about French TV. If you check out that post you will even get to see The Dukes of Hazzard theme song being sung in French. Really...it's a must see. I'll be here when you get back, go ahead, click and listen.

So, if you are thinking "I would love a little more French singing" then you have come to the right blog my friends!! Here we have the theme song to Dallas. Now you might being saying to yourself "but there are no words to the Dallas theme song Susan!" Oh contraire mon frere. (Or soeur.) I really like this clip because it has some dialog in French with subtitles in Flemish. I think it's Flemish. My favorite part; "DAA-las!!"

Awesome. Right?

So here is a Name that Tune for you. I have found that I ~~am a complete dork~~ like 70s French music. Specifically Claude Francois. :-) He is a French singer who I think Cyr showed me because he thought he was funny. Turns out I totally dig this guy. I have a 3 CD set that I luuuuuuv. I think Cyr might regret introducing me to Claude. He does a lot of songs you might know in English. Such as "Mandy", remember Barry Manilow? Claude actually was the first to do "My Way". I love that song in Spanish, and it's not bad in French either. So anyone out there recognize this gem?
The French title is "Dimanche Apres-midi" translated it means "Sunday Afternoon".

I'll leave you with that bit o'trivia. I'm going to listen to Claude.

2009-02-11T15:15:00.006-06:00

I was flipping through French tv trying to find something to watch. Yes, it's true, watching tv in another language does help you learn it. Television is where I learned the word "flic" meaning "cop" as in a policeman. :-)

I have posted once before about French TV, it's crazy, I love it. This evening my channel surfing was rewarded with "Starsky and Hutch". I don't mean the movie my friends, I mean the two "flics" in tight polyester pants. Did I mention they speak French over here?! Yeah! Both Starsky and Hutch speak French. They dub everything on television, no subtitles. Cyr told me that they even have the same people dub the same characters, so Brad Pitt has the same guy dub all his films. The dubber (if there is such a word) will also do other parts though, so you might hear "Brad" on "New York District" which in the US we call "Law and Order". Why oh why do they feel the need to change the title of everything? Especially when they change it to an English title?!

Prior to my arriving on my couch I worked at my Big School today. I actually really like that job. ::gasp:: I look forward to them now. It's funny, they seem to actually listen to me when I give them tips on negotiation or a sales cycle. Anyway...I was walking home in the light rain with my Ugly Hat. Thusly named for obvious reasons (see below). It seems to have the proper affect and keep people at a distance. This hat PLUS my iPod is typically 90% effective in warding off unwanted conversations by drunk men in the metro.

Check out Duncan, he's raising one eyebrow at the camera. He's cute though eh? Don't know if you can see it, but he has one white whisker. Awe....

I promise he is a happy cat. Even if he doesn't look like it here. Maybe he is camera shy.

So...as I was walking along with the Ugly Hat in light rain (which by the way I very much enjoy for some reason) I was listening to a little Gary P. Nunn. Translate: Texas Music. Yes, it is it's own genre. Gary P. always makes me a little homesick for Texas. The music, the dancing, the food, the hill country, just the whole atmosphere really. The song that really gets me is "You Ask Me What I Like About Texas". Really Gary, did you read my diary or something? I tried to go to utube and copy one of the videos...but I couldn't get it to load. I'm taking a chance here and just cutting and pasting the embeded link to see if maybe it works. I hope it's a good version. I'll have to give it a look-see tomorrow. Man...I even sound Texan in my typing right now. Better go watch some more French TV...

Raclette!!

2009-02-07T15:09:00.004-06:00

Well I did it! Sort of...

I took pictures of our raclette thing, but we were so wrapped up with talking and eating that I forgot to take pictures with all the food! So here is the raclette grill thing, you can see the little pan that each person gets to melt the cheese. I have to say...it is amazing.

Isn't it pretty!? It was the best Christmas gift I have gotten in years!! Cyr's Mom gave it to us...thank you Annie!

Here is a cute picture of Duncan trying to find the missing cheese that used to be in the Auchan bag. He knows he smells something good, but where is it?!

We heard a little news about our move, but not the dates. Darn it! But at least we know the visa for Cyr is in process. I have been waiting two weeks t get the info on my free French classes from the government but still no news from them either. By the time I am able to take them we will living in Houston. Grrrr...

The Countdown Has Begun...

2009-02-05T03:29:00.002-06:00

To the last day of my teaching at the Little School that is!! I have two more classes to teach there. Next week they are 1 hour 30 minutes and the following week they are both 3 hours. That makes for a long class, but I am so excited I think I already know what I am going to do. At least I will leave them on a good note. My last few classes I think will be the best I have done so far. And no letting these suckers out early either...no way buddy.

As you might be able to tell, I feel human again! I am still coughing a little bit but I am not gasping for air and having to take steroids to clear my lungs. I'm off today to buy a few things for a dinner party we are having tonight. A few folks are coming over for Raclette!! Reflecting on my past entries I see that I have not been as good as I should have with the promise of pictures, but this time I have my camera read for the event and will do my best to document the "Easy-Bake Oven For Adults" type meal that Raclette is. Nothing like a meal consisting mostly of melted cheese to kick off a healthy start eh? Apologies to my arteries...but I'll drink red wine with it and plan to poach pears in a sweet red wine sauce for a light desert. Fruit and anti-oxidants, that evens things out? Right?

Random thoughts on Friday night...

2009-01-30T18:20:00.003-06:00

Well it's Friday night and I'm on my way back to the Land of the Living after a visit to the Land of the Can't Breath Because of Lung Infection. Maybe it's because of this I find myself pondering some little things about life. I was just sitting here looking at my little cat Duncan and noticing how much he has grown.

I was also staring at his face and wondering; "Does he have a friendly face, or a face that says 'I would eat your liver if I could find it'?" I find him very friendly, but he is a cat. I have never had a cat, can you trust a cat? Really?

This train of thought lead me to the idea of human faces and if you can tell by a face what a person's personality is going to be like. Cyr has said something like "people with puffy lips are nicer people". Actually he said the negative thing about thin lips, but I was trying to be positive. And on the other hand I think my Mom has said "people with puffy lips are good kissers." I don't know, I think maybe there is something about "kind eyes" or a "strong jaw". This kind of makes me sad though. I hate that my packaging determines some of who I am. This is probably because I would like to change my packaging a little though. I also think maybe most people don't really know how others see them. This could just be me, but have you ever heard yourself on a recording or seen yourself speaking on camera and thought "Oh please, I do not sound like that" and then quickly added "Do I?"

End of ramblings for today, see you over the weekend!

Velcro, thy name is "Crazy Nigerian Flu"!!

2009-01-28T04:55:00.002-06:00

So...turns out maybe I had an excuse to be glued to the couch!

My husband was in Nigeria four days last week and returned Thursday. On Saturday he came down with fever, chills, cough and all kinds of nasty symptoms. He called his doctor who booked him in for a 10:30 appointment. All you American's reading this, yes, it's true! They work on Saturdays! AND...Cyr spoke with the doctor, who answered the phone, not a nurse or a receptionist. Crazy stuff I tell ya.

We went in and Cyr got meds for his flu. I thought I was escaping it as I didn't really have any symptoms. Then Monday I started getting the fever thing, my asthma started acting up, and my neck hurt so bad I couldn't look left or right, I had to do that all too irritating to be witness to full body turn thing. Cyr had another appointment with his doctor to pick up a note for him for work. Yes...here doctors give notes to work and you can miss as much work as you want as long as a doctor says it's ok. I laid on the couch napping and somehow pulled myself up to go.

Turns out it's not something crazy, just flu. I have different symptoms because of my asthma; respiratory infection being the big one. The doctor saw both of us, treated both of us, and only charged us for one visit; 26 euro. He also did this cool neck-pinching-torture thing to clear out my muscles a little. In the words of John Cougar Melencamp; "Hurt so good". Oh yeah...so now, two days into antibiotics, mucus thinners, pain meds and steroids for my lungs I am feeling a little better. I did have to teach yesterday though. He gave me a note to get out of it, but since I teach one day a week I didn't think they could get a replacement and I didn't want to have another bad mark against me after the complaint about my letting classes go early and then loosing the stupid key (which was found).

Since Cyr was home he drove me and picked me up so I didn't have to take the Metro and walk. Ahh...l'amore. Classes were ok, though the student that complained about me letting classes go did sit in the back row, head up with his eyes closed almost the entire class. I didn't even call him on it because I thought I might loose it. I did however try to breath on him as much as possible.

The sticky couch

2009-01-23T05:18:00.004-06:00

I am fairly certain that I must have velcro on my butt because I can't seem to get it off the couch.

I had my classes Tuesday and should be grading papers and planning for my Small School classes. But I just can't do it. I know this means that Monday will be a cram session, but the though of grading papers and oral exams...well I can't even come up with a witty end to that sentence. I don't want to do it (work that is). Maybe if I go grocery shopping and get out a bit I can make myself grade/prepare this afternoon.

Nothing like a day or two of avoidance to really throw you into a good fit of procrastination. Maybe it's the clouds in Lille these days. Any one else out there feeling like this lately?

Progress. I think.

2009-01-21T03:03:00.004-06:00

So yesterday was a full day. It started with giving oral exams to a class of my students at the Small School. I took them in pairs and had them talk about/present an unethical activity for 10 minutes. It was not so bad really. Some were interesting, like the ones about abortion, prostitution or euthanasia. Some were dry, like the ones on using office supplies for personal use, but they did well overall.

After the exams I met with my supervisor. We talked about the person taking over for me next week with the start of the semester, but he needs to sort his schedule out so it looks like I will be teaching here until the end of February. Oh well, the extra money won't hurt. Much. She also mentioned that she is meeting with the student that complained about my letting classes out early. What...come on people. I spoke with the kid, it's settled. She is going to meet with him though. Who knows what will come out of his mouth. At first I thought "oh no, what if he complains more and I get fired?" Then I thought..."I wish" and moved on to "Ah, it's France. Virtually impossible to fire someone here. I think." Who knows. I refuse to be upset about it any longer.

So I should be done with all my jobs in March and ready for our move back to Texas. Which we still have no idea what that is going to happen. If we end up here through May I am going to see if I can continue at the Big School, I really enjoy those classes. We had a class last night and it went really well. I actually enjoyed the class and we ran over the time! Crazy what a syllabus can do for a teacher...

The day ended with a quick dinner with my friend K from London and then we went to see the moving Twilight. Yes...I am a lemming and have read the books. And I thought the movie was fantastic! I thought they did a great job reflecting what was in the books. Though there is a good possibility I am biased because I read the books so I know everything already. I don't know if the movie stands well on it's own, but after the book I thought it was it was great. Jacob is smokin...along with all the vamps of course...and I was really impressed with the girl who plays Bella, I thought she did a great job.

This morning I was all ready to visit my friend Marie and her daughter. Her daughter likes to practice her English and is really sweet. I was looking forward to it. I grab my keys and get to the car but am having some difficulties with the GPS. It's falling all over the place, has come unplugged and is seemingly smeared with olive oil because I keep dropping it. A very 1990's Chevy Chase couple of minutes. I ended up pulling over right as I got out of the garage and got the Inspector Clouseau moment under control. Then I thought I remembered something sounding funny as I drove out of our parking garage. I decided to take a look. Sure enough...front driver's side tire is completely flat. Not a breath of air in that puppy.

Uh. No big deal, I'll just put the old girl back in the garage and go make some coffee. I back up and am prepared to break the rules of driving (see how well integrated I have become!) by entering the garage the wrong way. Oops, there is a car coming out. It's being driven by the man who was standing outside our spot glaring at me because I had, temporarily I'm sure, lost the ability to see through concrete and I didn't know he was waiting to walk behind me. I smile sheepishly and pull the car out of his way. In retrospect I should have rolled the window down and yelled; "Hi yall!" in my best East Texas accent. I say East Texas because I have family there and, in my humble but I am sure correct opinion, they have the best accents in all of Texas. (Shout out to S., S. and Aunt H!)

After blocking the street (twice) with my ~~flailing while holding my breath~~ skillful three point turn and pulling in the lot up the exit ramp successfully, I came back home and decided to let you all know how my week was going. Not too bad really. Though I do hate that we might have to buy new tires right before we friggin leave the country. What a waste of money. If gas were cheap I would make sure to drive a lot and use up our (soon to be) new tires, but at over $7 a gallon I don't know if that will happen. BUT...I am having a visitor in March so we will be doing some driving for sure!! Yeah!!! My friend Shari is going too come over for a week and has already bought her ticket. It's perfect timing since I might be done with work at that time.

Well, I'm off to see if I can watch Obama's inauguration speech from yesterday!

French Integration Day

2009-01-18T03:42:00.004-06:00

Well, the week ended not so badly after all. I (of course) made a few mistakes, but nothing life threatening. Maybe job threatening, but not life threatening.

After thinking more and more about the conversation with my Small School supervisor I ended up sending her an email. I let her know that since the end of our semester is in two weeks I really thought it might be better for the students to get their new professor at the start of the semester as opposed to half way through it. Changing teachers half way through in such an unorganized place leads to incredible difficulties with grading. I didn't say this but it's true. There are no standards as to what a 10 is or what a 15 is. (All grading in France is done on a 1-20 scale.) All I know is that "no one gets an 18, 19 or 20." So why have them? Why set grades that are not attainable? This drives me friggin nuts. But enough...bottom line is that I asked to be let go early from my contract and we are meeting Tuesday to talk about it.

One a good note, I went to my Big School Thursday to check in and they found my key under the desk. Yeah! I looked all over that classroom but apparently I missed it. Whew. Too bad I alerted my boss about the whole situation. If I would have kept my mouth shut no one else would have known other than the receptionist, the technician who found it, and me. Grrrr...Drat my need to communicate!

On Friday Cyr went with me to my day of French Integration. This whole process started last July 16th when Cyr and I went to the Marie. Only 6 months to get my card. Huh...so we were running a little late (how very French of me) but we got there before anything started. The day was scheduled from 9-5 (break into song! what a way to make a livin', barely get-ting by...) which seemed pretty long to me. Apparently it seemed long to the instructor too. Here is how the day went:

9:05 - Instructor enters but does not say hello. He untangles wires from projector and laptop to plug in.
9:15ish - All wires in, role is taken. He asks us all to say our names and what country we are from. I'm the only American and the only one who needed a translator.
9:25ish - He begins a presentation about the history of France, it's symbols and government. It was actually kind of interesting.
10am - Let's take a 30 minutes for a break. My thoughts "let's not and get out early." Ah! Here is my fatal flaw of liking to end things early...it has followed me here I see and has reared it's ugly head.
10:45 - Class resumes, more history. I had no idea Clovis was the first King of France in 481 AD. Damn...this country is old.
12:00 - We break for lunch. He gives us 1 hour and 50 minutes. Again...could we just take an hour and get our early? It's Friday man! Already I have counted almost an hour and a half we could lop off this day. They brought lunch in but Cyr and I decided that with almost two hours it might be nice to get outside.
2:10 - Class starts up again, he tells us we get out at 4:00. It's actually all the interesting stuff now though. We talk about where we can work and all that jazz. Here is what I learned about the Titre de Sejour:

Turns out I can only work in France, I thought I could work in the Schengen Countries, but nope, just France. Well pooper...it's going to be hard to find an English speaking job in France other than English teacher.
It's only good for a year from the date of first application, which means mine expires November 11, 2009.
You must renew your TDS 3 months prior to it's expiration. So basically you are doing something every 3 months almost because of all the receipts and crap.
I can renew my 1 year TDS 3 times, then after the third time I can request a 10 year TDS.
If I want to have French citizenship we need to live in France for 4 consecutive years, then apply and it takes 18 months to process. So that would total 5 and a half years in France total consecutively to be a French citizen. We won't live here that long because of the business Cyr is in, but our instructor said that "everything has an exception" That sounds very similar to "everything is negotiable." Hmmm...ok. But the laws change all the time and by the time we get back they will be different.
France allows duel, tripple even quadruple citizenship.
Our kids will be French no matter where they are born (an American too of course).

3:00 - Take a break, he fills out paperwork and starts up again about 3:30.
4:00 - He let's us go right on time!

And there you go. Now I have a shiny new Titre de Sejour and am integrated! Now we will probably move in 3 months...ha...you have to laugh really.

I thought it was a good week. Until Wednesday.

2009-01-14T15:21:00.001-06:00

My week started off great. We had Cyr's family over for raclette on Sunday. I thought it went pretty well, even though I do get nervous having everyone over. What if there is an awkward silence? I can't fill it because my French isn't that good. I can only ask questions really. But it was fun. Cyr's Mom brought two bottles of the fantastic wine and we sat around and ate melted cheese and hams all afternoon.

Monday morning was spent trying to get rid of the headache I had from the wine and the Chartreuse I drank on Sunday. The afternoon however was fairly interesting as I had a meeting with some division of the French government about my carte de sejour. Cyr went with me to translate. I saw a doctor and got a chest x-ray, they took blood, weighed and measured me and then put us in a room to watch a film about France. I really do wonder if they don't let people in because they have high blood sugar or are too heavy. "Oh, sorry miss, but we already have our quota of women under 5'2" (translate to metric though) so we are not going to issue you a Titre de Sejour. Merci."

Then I was called in to speak with a women who was to determine my level of French and see if I could get the free classes. I did a quick one page test and tried to speak with her. She said my French was not that bad, but that she could give me 150 hours of class if I would like them. I told her "heck yeah" in French and I should be getting a letter that tells me when and where. All I know is it's 12 hours a week and not on Tuesdays. I am really excited about that.

Then we waited some more and saw another woman (girl really, probably 22) who had me sign a contract with France. Apparently I am now legally bound to believe in the equality, fraternity and liberty. Not a problem. Then she pulls out a folder, after much stamping and signing of documents, and hands me my shiny, new laminated Titre de Sejour!! WOW!! I have it! I can work with my real card! Until November 11, 2009 that is, then I have to renew it. They also told us that after we are married for 3 years I can apply for a 10 year card, that's nice to know.

Tuesday I had my classes. I thought they went well actually. I had my two crazy classes first, which I ended early and began doing oral exams with part of the class. I had them sign up last week so they knew it would be a short class that day. I then went to teach at my Big School and the class went pretty well there too. I ended up staying late helping a student with a letter, then packed up to go home. Then came the first problem of the week. I could not find the key to the classroom. I searched everywhere and it was not in the room. I searched pockets and it was no where to be found. I thought maybe the person that was teaching before me picked it up because we both had our things strewn around the front of the class. Alas, no key.

This typically wouldn't be a big deal. If it were not for the fact that the keys are ALL master keys and open every door in the building. I tell the receptionist I will look through my things at home and bring it back if I find it. On Wednesday I looked through my things and there was no key to be found. I decided I better call my supervisor at the school. Before I could do that, my cell phone rang. It was my supervisor from the Other School, I guess I can call it The Small School because it's not a Grand Ecole (Big School). She sounded very upset, I could tell in her voice something was wrong. She finally got around to telling me that one of my students complained about me yesterday. He went to someone (I think the front desk person) and told her I had ended class early and it was not the first time I had done so. Wow, this is the first I have ever heard of this happening. Then she said I should either write to the student and apologize or speak with him and tells me his name. Seriously? I need to apologize to a student for letting them go early? Interesting. I told her that if they felt this was something awful maybe the teacher that is going to take over my classes in March should take them over right now. She said the kids had enough change this year with new English teachers and that I should continue. Oh...please fire me. Please.

I got off the phone with her and called my Big School supervisor to tell him about my inability to locate my key. When I asked him what typically happens he said "Well it's a master key, so all the locks in the building will have to be changed." Fuck me. If they dock my pay I will probably owe them money. What a freaking moron I am. Plus I had to tell everyone that I was leaving and it's hard to find teachers so I'm not exactly on everyone's favorite list. I hope I don't plan on teaching when I return to Lille. I'm leaving quite an impression on everyone, and unfortunately it's not a good one. Maybe they will have all forgotten me by then...

My plan is to talk to the student and tell him that if he has a problem with the way I teach or what I teach that he is free to come to me to talk about things. I thought this was a business school. Is that how they teach them to do good business? "To get along well in the workplace kids make sure to complain about people to their bosses as opposed to working it out with them." I just don't think it's necessary to go over someones head. It' s not like I am intimidating or anything. I find it a bit cowardice to not face your problem head on. I'll talk to the kid, but I won't be bullied. I am half tempted to let them go early again next class just to piss him off, but I won't. I also don't understand why everyone is so afraid of the students here. I remember when I first started and they kept changing the day and time of the class because the students didn't want to have class on a Friday, or they didn't want to have it after 4 during the week. They are students, I thought we told them what their schedule was. I was wrong.

I'm sure something else will go wrong, it's only Wednesday today after all. I have a group of oral exams Thursday, maybe someone will freak out on me.

SOLDES!!! Another Interesting Fact...

2009-01-13T06:00:00.000-06:00

For those of you that don't know about the soldes...France being the interesting country it is actually has government regulated sales twice a year. Yeah, you read correctly. The government regulates how often stores can have sales. Wouldn't want to encourage competition you know. Any way, the sales time is now! There are a three weeks in January and then three in the summer. Yes, it's true, the government tells them when they can have huge sales. Wouldn't want to get all capitalist and just run your business the way you want to now would you?

One of the things I really like about the Soldes is that each week there are bigger price cuts. So now things are on sale for 20-50% off, but next week they will be a little more, then the final week it's just bananas!! Here is the best part though, the part that makes me glow from the inside of my left ventricle all the way out to the tips of my slightly dry hair...I'm the perfect size for the sales. That's right ladies. You know how in the states all the 8s, 10s and 12s are GONE by the time things go on sale? Well here it's the 0s, 2s, 4s and 6s that are all sold out first. HA! It's like a Nordstrom's shoe sale and I have a size 6! I actually have a 7.5 so all my sizes in the real world are sold out. :-/ But here I can buy tops and sweaters and coats until the very last day. I have yet to try on pants in this country. Very few of these women have hips and an ass so I am relatively certain mine would explode out the rear pockets. I have great tops though!

So if you are thinking about coming to France to visit...come week after next when things are 75% off. They are practically paying you to take things home! I don't really need anything, but there is this one really cool store I might have to check out. I will keep you all posted on any fantastic purchases...

Feeling the pressure

2009-01-10T10:27:00.001-06:00

Grab a beverage and a snack, this is a long one.

As I scroll through my favorite blogs I see that almost everyone (except Steph, but that's because she just likes to be "edgy" *wink-wink*) has posted about what they did in 2009 so I think I might do that too.

Ok, let's be honest. The ONLY reason I want to do this is because finally, after three years of crap-on-a-cracker I finally have a bunch of good things to talk about. It's actually purely self serving that I do this. It's like people who send out Christmas cards with pictures of their family on it. They don't want to wish you "Merry Christmas", what they want is for you to see their family and know that they are happier and better looking than you are. Ok, maybe not everyone thinks this way, but I am sure there are some out there. You can be damn sure that if I ever have a child, and if that child is cute, all my friends and family will be getting Christmas cards all of a sudden. "Look what my uterus did this year!!" is what my card will read. Oh, and "Merry Christmas". I digress yet again...here are some highlights of my 2009 for those of you on the edge of your seat:

January was spent in Houston getting ready for my move to France to live with the love of my life and going out with all of my friends for dinners and drinks to say goodbye. Cyr (the aforementioned "love") was in Lille already so it was just me trying to get my fill of American and Chilean wine. And Shiner Bock.

February 1st I arrived in Brussels with three suitcases and proverbial bells on. I never posted this...but when I arrived I was soooooo excited as you can imagine. I even changed clothes on the flight so I would look cute for Cyr, brushed my teeth and everything. After collecting my luggage, clearing immigration and checking my hair, teeth and eyes in a mirror I ~~nervously shuffled~~ casually walked through the doors into the Brussels Airport. I ~~eagerly~~ calmly looked around, but not too much because I wanted Cyr to run up to me like in the movies. But alas...no Cyr. Huh. Well surely he is just around the corner. Nope, not there.

Half an hour later: I have no euros, don't speak French or Flemish, have no working cell phone. Am sure I have been left to fend for myself in Belgium. I figure out how to use the credit card payphone after (not kidding) 25 minutes of trying. I reach Cyr. There was a strike in Lille and he couldn't get out of the city, he's 20 minutes away still. It's like the whole country wanted to welcome me in the most French way they could. Merci France...Cyr made it to pick me up and after I drank two beers while waiting it was a fantastic reunion at last with one of the best welcome kisses in history. It all worked out.

My friend Karen came to visit in April and I was so excited! We had amazing weather. Until she showed up of course. Then it snowed for 3 days. But her visit really lifted my spirits and I found myself loving Lille and wanting to go back to Amsterdam. Then Mom came to visit and we had a fantastic time in Paris and Lille. My friend Bonnie even stopped by for a weekend during her tour of Europe!

In June I took a French course that saved my life. Plus I met Olga there who I love but moved back to Canada. :-( July 16th was Cyr and I's special day at the Marie. Just us and his best friend, best friend's wife and Olga.

Then the church wedding planning began and didn't stop until October 25th. It was a dream day. I really loved every single minute of it. I walked down the aisle with my Mom and though I know my Dad couldn't be there, he was in a way. The whole day was perfect. The champagne, the food, the man, the dress, my family and a few friends. I would not change a thing...it really was my perfect day. And I'm so glad it's over.

November brought my Carte de Sejour and the ability to work, not to mention Duncan our little black cat. Work turned out to be teaching English. Not really my passion, but it's work. December was great with a visit to Gent, Belgium and Aachen, Germany. New Years was special in Lille and then here we are in January and it's looking like we might already be headed back to Houston in 2009.

Of course we are...I can finally speak a little of the language and know where everything is. Not to mention I have friends now. But that's ok, we'll be back if we really want to. Now the hard thing is that I feel like I am in the waiting room of life waiting to be called so I know what happens next in life. We don't know when we will move. Could be quick, could be summer. I actually found myself standing at the grocery store yesterday pondering if I should buy a bottle of balsamic vinegar because "if we move soon we won't use it all". A simple choice I know, it was 3 euro or something. For some reason it seems so important at the time. There was a voice saying "Deal? Or no deal?" over and over. I seriously couldn't decide. I ended up not buying it (what!?). Now I just think I was being an idiot and I want some stupid balsamic vinegar. What a maroon...

I think 2009 will be a year of few yet large changes once again. A move to Houston and who knows what else. Maybe I'll take up knitting and start a business selling tea cozies. No one knows for sure. But the sure thing is that I can't imagine spending it without Cyr. My life will be forever changed for the better not so much because of living here in France, but because of the man from Valenciennes who I will love until the day I cease to be.

Don't know if you are out there, but thank you Shari for making me have a glass of wine with you on March 6, 2007 at Sonoma...that Tuesday changed my life.

Fun with food

2009-01-08T16:16:00.007-06:00

Well...there was a bit of a traumatic incident with the rabbit. As I was taking the little guy out of the wrapping and telling myself that it was not in fact someone's beloved pet, but a piece of meet just like a hamburger I felt sure that I was going to have no problem cooking this thing.

That was until I moved the top part and Thumper's head peeped up at me. His teeth bared, his eyes glossed over, his fur missing...it freaked me out. I ran out of the kitchen and grabbed my manly carnivore of a husband and asked him to please stop the rabbit from checking out the ceiling lights. Well, it might have been more like "flight" from the "fight or flight" instinct. I just couldn't do it! Here is the evidence.

I even forgot to take a picture of the done deal! It's was pretty good once his beady eyes were not checking me out and judging my culinary skills. I pretty much just slathered him with mustard and cooked him for about 30 minutes. I know next time to cook at a lower temp for an hour maybe. Not sure why, it just sounds right.

Though I don't have a picture of the rabbit, I do have a picture of Cyr's fantastic leek quiche!! He surprised me with a heart on top made of cheese...awe...ain't that sweet...

We also went out and got a "galette" which is a crusty pie thingy that has a plastic figure in it. The person who is given the piece with the figure in it gets to (has to) wear a crown (that is so conveniently supplied with the cake) for rest of the day. Or something like that. You must be careful when eating that you don't bite down on the little guy and loose a tooth. I'm sure dentists are frequented this time of year for just that. We were pretty cheap and got our galette at Carrefour which is the big grocery store near us. It was a Harry Potter themed galette. Turns out I was the lucky one. Without even cheating not only did I get the guy, I got him on the first bite!! The bummer was that it wasn't even Harry!! It's some random guy who probably taught math at Hogwarts.

So far 2009 has been a pretty good year. I did discover that I gained 4 lbs. over Christmas. But each gram was sooooo worth it! The food and drink...ahhh....beside, I'll burn that off just trying to fend off hypothermia while walking to work.

A Holiday Photo Fest

2008-12-31T09:46:00.011-06:00

Well...ok...I have been absent when I said I wouldn't. It's just that Cyr has been off work and it's been so nice having him home all day I didn't make time to post. But here I am, and I'm doing fine. Yesterday was my birthday...the big 37. I am now officially in my late thirties. Ouch. Cyr and I went to dinner at my favorite restaurant here in Viex Lille; Le Lion Bossu. Mmmm. I also got some really pretty sparkly gifts! A matching necklace and earrings. I will have to post a photo later of me wearing them.

So for Christmas...although I did miss my family, the day was really great. Here is a photo montage of the day:
Here is our tree, and you can see Duncan at the bottom of the photo doing what he does best which is whatever is off limmits. He seems to think this tree is his personal play toy. About the time he understands the fact that it's not we will be taking it down. Notice how all the ornaments start at about branch number three.
Here are Cyr and I in Aachen, Germany drinking hot mauled wine. We went there the week before Christmas, but I just now got the photos downloaded. I love the little Christmas trees on the table! It's like the Holiday Banzai Tree!

Cyr seems to be enjoying his much more than me!

On Christmas Eve we went to my new mother-in-laws house for some great Champagne, a fantastic meal, and my favorite wine in the whole world. I don't have a picture of the bottle of Champagne, but she had a huge magnum and we (the four of us) drank the whole thing as an aperitif. That was actually over the course of about 2 hours I think. The meal was amazing, it lasted from about 9pm until midnight! I love this family...

This is my favorite "entree" which is appetizer in French. Yes...the word entree means appetizer, not entree. Just one example of how French can mess you up. This is called "Lounge Luculus". It's a specialty of Valenciennes, the town Annie (Cyr's Mom) lives in. It's slices of cow tongue with layers of fois gras (goose liver) in between. Sounds crazy, but it's amazing! She makes gelatin and serves it with fresh fruits too. She even had these really pretty eatable flowers to put on the plates though they had to be tossed because they had turned a little brown. They really know how to do presentation here, that's for sure.
The second course, well third if you count all the little appetizers we had with the Champagne, was a dish with scallops and a cream sauce. It was amazing...I love scallops. If you look close you can see some orange things on the side of the scallop that looks like a foot or something. I had never seen this until we moved here. It's the sex part of the scallop! Apparently we in the US don't like to eat the sex part...I dunno...I kinda like it. You have to respect the scallop a little more as well, check out how big it is in comparison to the body! Impressive I know...
The main course was pheasant with mushrooms. She was going to cook pasta too but we told her to hold off since we were eating so much. It was amazing....
Then we had a cheese course, of course...

The meal was served with my favorite wine I have ever had. Cyr's family purchased a few cases of this wine when he was younger and his mother pulls one out for special occasions. It's a 1985 Tour-de-Roc Burgundy. It's like drinking velvet. Uhhh...

Then we had a typical French Christmas desert that is an ice cream cake like thing that looks like a log. It was dark chocolate on the outside, milk chocolate on the inside and had pears on top of it. I was so damn full by then that I didn't take a picture. She also had little chocolates and fruit snacks that reminded me of gum drops. Before the desert it was midnight so we kissed Merry Christmas and opened up gifts. Cyr and I got a raclette set!!! I can't wait to use it!! We are having his Mother, brother and cousins over in January and plan to use it. I will make sure to post photos so all my American friends and family can see what it is. The best I can describe it is an Easy Bake Oven for adults. You melt your own cheeses and bake little quail eggs and mushrooms right on the table! We will be taking this back to Houston with us so get ready folks...we will be having dinner parties with it!! Annie also gave me a really pretty gold necklace with a heart on it and Cyr's brother gave us a Chinese tea set that is really cool. It's orange and black, will post photos soon as well!

Overall I had a great Christmas even though I missed a call from my Mom and family. I also felt so bad that I didn't call that I did have a little cry, but I was ok. I talked my my Mom and Aunt Helen the next day. I cried a little after we spoke. Not so much because I was sad as because the holidays remind me how much I care about all the people back in Houston. I will probably cry next year when we are not with Annie and Cyril. Oh the joys of being an emotional person!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, or whatever you celebrate or didn't celebrate over the last few weeks. Tonight is New Year's Eve and we are taking it easy and staying in. I'm excited actually. I'm going to try to cook rabbit!! Photos will be taken and posted within the next few days. Love to all...I hope everyone stays safe and has a great end of 2009.

Retreat

2008-12-23T09:57:00.003-06:00

Some people eat when they get stressed out, some drink, some exercise too much. I wish I was the latter, but I tend to just hole up in my house/apartment and read or watch tv. I don't talk to anyone or read emails. So that's where I have been the last week or so.

It's not like I have a particularly stressful life, on the contrary, it's quite nice actually. I do have the students at the junior college to deal with, but that's just a few hours a week in person with a few more for grading and preparing. I think part of it is that France has lost it's new car smell for me.

You know what I am talking about. When you buy something new or get a new job and it's all shiny and bright and fun. France was that way for me when I first arrived. Then I had my French class over the summer, my friend Olga to talk to, my new job. But French class ended, Olga moved back to Canada after breaking up with her boyfriend and my new jobs are not new anymore. One think is for certain, teaching difficult kids is not my passion. I like the adult education stuff and the upper tier college, but this trying to save the world via privileged 18 year olds that think they deserve the world isn't my idea of saving the world. I guess the positive thing is that I am finally earning money. The even more positive thing is that I am loosing weight since I have to walk 30 minutes to and from work and the Arctic temperatures cause my body to burn more calories to keep it warm. That's not so bad really. I know you guys don't want to hear this, but I eat chocolate every day and drink really good beer and am slowly loosing weight. It's not fast, but I think I have lost over 10 lbs. since June.

Now I am trying to force myself to grade papers and prepare for the following semester with the students. The crazy thing is that I might get to leave my semester early because we might get the go to move to Houston sooner than expected. I'm still going to say it will probably be May, but who knows, it could be sooner. But enough drivel...

Christmas is two days away!! Yeah!! Cyr and I will go to his Mom's house about 45 minutes away and celebrate with her and his brother. I'm looking forward to it. The last few times we went to visit I really enjoyed myself. I can understand more of the conversations and it's like his mother has learned more English or something! I am always amazed that she says she learned English in high school but she knows so much. Maybe she is studying on the side because she really seems to have improved, plus I understand more French so we can actually talk. I'm so glad I like my mother-in-law...I actually bought her some cool gifts. She loves roses so I got her some chocolate with roses in it and some rose syrup that you can use to make kirs. She likes to make royal kirs (Champagne plus a syrup) so I thought she might like it. We also got her some new pool balls for her pool table. That was Cyr's idea though, I can't take credit for that. I have all my presents bought, now I just need to wrap them.

I'm going to miss my family. It seems so far away. Usually I would be driving with my Mom (and Cyr as of last year!) to Tyler or Jacksonville, Texas to stay with my mom's sister and my cousins for Christmas. They are so fun!! I love it there, it's always no stress, good food, drinking and laughing. I love to stay up late and talk with my aunt too. After Christmas I would go to visit my Dad and step-mom Sandy. They always cook and seem to be so happy at Christmas. I wish I was there, but I know that next year we will be and I am already looking forward to it. I have no clue what we are doing for New Year's Eve or my birthday (that would be Dec. 30th for all you curious folk). I think I want to go to my favorite restaurant for my birthday. It's called Le Lion Bossue (I don't know how to spell that...but I love that place, we did a dinner there the night before our wedding). I'll keep you posted, and I won't retreat and disappear. Promise.

Hugs to all of you out there, no matter where you are. Happy first Christmas to Mimi D.!!

Oh, and thanks Leesa for the phone call!! You brightened my day and I hope you can come visit Lille soon! Steph - hope you are getting your fill of snow!! See you when you get back...

Irish Folk Dancing in France

2008-12-15T15:53:00.003-06:00

Oh yes my friends, you read correctly! Steph invited me to come with her and her man to experience a night of Irish folk dancing! To answer my friend Jen Z...no there is more to Irish folk dancing than staggering around drinking a Guinness and trying to sing along...and it's not completely River Dance.

We take the Metro to this cute little (emphasis on the word little) Irish pub in the Wazemmes area. It's built like a shoebox; long and narrow. At the very back there is a cleared off floor area, like a smaller shoebox. If Shaq were here he might be able to touch each wall when his arms are spread out. The instructor is French (I think) but she studied dance in Ireland and gives these classes for free twice a week. It turns out to be a bit like square dancing!! We hopped around and counted to 3 or 7 all night in French! She often would call out moves in English too because that is how she learned, whew...here is a picture of some of the dancing.

You can see the wall on the left, the people on the right have their backs against the one on that side. Guess it's not that bad now that I look at it. We all kept running into the walls and stuff, maybe it was our skill and not the room size now that I think of it. Oh well, I had such a great time! I wish Cyr could have been there, but he was in Brazil. As you can imagine he was really disappointed. ::Please re-read the last sentence with much sarcasm added.::

To thank Steph for the great night I asked her and her boyfriend over for dinner last night. I made some simple mustard chicken with veggies and potatoes, she brought desert. Friends...she really brought it. She called it "Ch'tis Tiramisu" (pronounced Shtee) which I then dubbed "Ch'tiramisu". It was tiramisu made with Speculos as opposed to lady fingers. Oh man...it rocked. Unfortunately I think I might have poisoned her though as her blog today read that she is sick, sick, sick. Even worse...she has a flight tomorrow to Canada. I had that horrible flight home sick this year (some of you might remember) and I hope she gets better very quickly. I'm saying some prayers for you girl!!

So although the Irish dancing was a great success, My memories are dampened knowing that Steph has to head back to North America for a few weeks. I'll miss you Steph!

Rolling along...

2008-12-10T06:28:00.004-06:00

Well the last week has been spent dreading teaching Zee Class and then finally getting through it yesterday morning. Not so bad, the smart ass kid didn't even make fun of my voice this week. Or tell me about how he doesn't care about his English grade because it's not important to him. Practically a victory.

I had my two crazy classes and then my one eager beaver class at the Grand Ecole, which directly translated means "Big School", as if the others are just little tiny schools that are not as important. Which is actually almost true I guess when you look at hiring practices here in France. I am still shocked at how important your college is here. Even when you are 40 years old they STILL care where you went. Your life is very much laid out for you at 17, scary.

I did have a much nicer weekend than I thought though. Friday I met Steph from Double-Double or Un Petit Cafe fame. She is so much fun! We went for coffee then ended up hanging out until dinner. I had a hamburger, and I ordered it with a French accent and felt completely stupid. "Un ahm-buhr-guhr." I had a Friday night dinner out on the town with a friend, how cool is that!?

Saturday was a fantastic day spent with Duncan. His new favorite toy is an old Champagne cork I had on the counter. He seems to find the fact that it doesn't roll straight extremely entertaining. Here he is reaching for his new favorite play thing with his old favorite staring on with envy.

Sunday I went with a few friends to Gent, Belgium. Gent is a really cute city about 45 minutes drive from Lille that has beautiful architecture and fantastic waffles. Unfortunately I was not thinking and only have one good picture. I didn't even get any photos with friends in it! But here is one of the canals right before we left to go home.

You can even see the moon right above one of the rooftops! Now I'm trying to get motivated to clean house and grade papers. And of course plan for all of next week's classes. But after next week I am free until January from my scary classes.

Balance??

2008-12-05T04:59:00.002-06:00

Ok...so I stopped working in February and didn't work again until November. I had 10 months of moving to France, decorating, friend visits, wedding planning and other things that didn't actually take up too much time. Now...I have three jobs (5 classes) and a kitten. How come I can't find a happy medium?

I must admit, I am typically a peeks and valleys kind of gal but this is nuts. This past week I taught everyday but Friday. This may not sound like much, but it has taken over my life! I guess I forgot how much work actually goes into teaching. It wouldn't be so bad if my school with two classes provided a syllabus or lesson plan, but there is NOTHING. This is what the description of my class says I should teach my students:

Business English around the following areas:
- Human Resources
- Corporate Structure
- Marketing

That's it. That's all I have. I have talked with the other 1st year teachers, but I have not really gotten too much. Everyone teaches something different. How in the world these students get out with any sort of similar education I don't know. The good thing is that they are going to implement a structured English program next year. By next year I mean Fall 2009. When I will probably be back in Houston because of Cyr's job.

Oh...did I mention that yet? Looks like we will be headed back to Texas in 2009 rather than 2010. We don't know when yet but I will keep everyone posted. At first I was really upset and dissappointed. I have been here (of and on) since February and I am still not fluent in French. I feel like I have wasted so much time and have not committed. I was waiting for free classes from the government and I have not even gotten my social security number yet. It take so long to get anything done here I will probably be back in Texas by the time we get the approval for the classes. But now I am warming up to the idea. Houston really does have a lot to offer, plus I can speak the language so I don't feel frustrated all the time when I need to try to do something myself.

Plus...the plan is for us to be in Houston for somewhere around 3 years. After that we will probably end up back in Lille for a while. Cyr also promises that we will try to speak more French with each other when we move. Plus there are so many people in Houston who speak French (get ready Jeanne, Marine, Ann and Ari) that I will be able to use the language a lot. Plus I will get to spend more time with my family, which is always good. Not to mention my friends and all the new babies they are having (Jen and Missy hello!). Silver lining. I'm looking for it...

Crazy Week

2008-11-26T07:58:00.003-06:00

It's been a while since the last post. Everything is ok, Duncan is settling in very well and now seems to feel very much at home. At first he hid a lot and would come out to play every now and then. Now he demands attention in the morning and then again about 10pm when he really wakes up. Perfect timing for when we are trying to calm down and get ready to sleep.

Last Thursday and Friday he seemed really sluggish and he had some pretty awful poops. I won't go into detail here, you don't come here for gore. Friday we took him to the vet down the street just to get him checked out since he has never had any shots. Turns out the little bugger had worms!! AND ear mites. I have not stopped itching since Friday. First I was convinced that I had caught some sort of parasite from him. I'm sure I'm ok, but oh man. How icky is that. Worms.

Everyone I tell this is not surprised and everything I read online seems to suggest that most kittens get worms. I don't know, I feel like if my cat has worms I should have wheels on my house and be drinking Milwaukee's Best or something along those lines. Because of all the pooping and such the poor guy was really dehydrated and the vet wanted to keep him overnight just in case he had some virus or something. Animal health is not socialized of course (bummer). He got the overnight stay, an IV, two ear meds, what looks like 6 months of worm pills and some vitamin stuff we have to force down his throat twice a day for 5 days. I think all of that cost us 190 euro, so $245 later we have a healthy and overly active cat. Once all his little stomach passengers died off, which the vet assured me was overnight, he was a new cat! He is jumping all around, chasing invisible bugs and learning how to climb onto the couch. Although he did cost a bit upfront, I'm hoping he is going to be a healthy guy in the future. I swear he seems to be growing right before my eyes...oh they grow up so quickly...

School is ok. I was giving the go ahead to split the class up into two groups and have only one group in the room at a time, that has helped a great deal. I also like working with the kids, but it's not a dream job. I would actually really like to get involved on the administration side in recruitment of students or something along those lines. For now it's perfect though. I have three classes on Tuesday and two on Thursday. Perfect for a little extra spending money. I spend way too much time planning lessons though. I know it won't be like that forever though.

A new addition....

2008-11-18T14:22:00.003-06:00

Well...we were hoping to have a "family" of course, but we thought it would be while. We just got married less than a month ago. I still have my wedding dress out in the guest room!

Last Saturday Cyr and I went to his mother's house to celebrate her birthday. We went to eat lunch at a Greek restaurant in Belgium and then went back to the house for the afternoon and had a light dinner there as well. She really enjoyed her presents (three large wooden owls and a bracelet) I think.

When we arrived everything seemed normal. Once we said our hellos and did all the kissing cheeks we headed into the kitchen (which seems to be the meeting area in all countries). Both Cyr's brother and his mother were talking about what I thought was an accident that one of the cats had. "Ewe" thought I. When we got to the kitchen Cyr's brother picked up a little black furry thing and said, "c'est la petit merde!"

Annie found 3 (or 4, not quite sure) kittens at her office in a some machine thing last Wednesday. I think one of them died, but two were adopted and then she still had the little black guy and was looking for a home for him (or her). He was so cuddly! I have never had a cat and didn't really think much of the little guy until Cyr said; "Uh oh, I think Susan might have found a home for the little guy." I actually never thought we would take him home, I just thought he was cute and liked to hold him. Of course I jumped on the boat though and we stopped by a pet store coming home from lunch and bought all the necessities. One thing I can't handle is a house that smells like a cat lives there. So far we have been pretty good. But when the little guy goes...you know he goes...I'm a fairly immediate pooper scooper. Thank goodness it only happens once or twice a day. I'm hoping the poop will mellow with his age, but I'm thinking this is actually the opposite of the developmental cycle of cats. But hey...our house doesn't smell! It actually smells better because I'm so paranoid I am lighting candles and such. Before the kitten the candles just sat around, now they are being used.

So then there was the naming thing. Apparently there is a cat/dog naming convention that I was not aware of. Each year has a letter of the alphabet (as opposed to another kind of letter. Why do people say that?) ascribed to it and you are supposed to name your animal a name that begins with that year's letter. This year is "D". We don't really know if it's a boy or a girl, things are really small down there, but we think it's a boy. We went through a few rounds of names, but then we settled on a strong Scottish name from the Highlands...Duncan. Because there can only be one... Check out our newest addition!!
So far he's great. Very friendly and playful!

As for teaching...today I had The Class and Zee Class both. The Class was first. I went in with the same lesson plan I did last week with Zee Class. Low and behold...it went great! The class ended and we had finished the lesson (advertising campaigns) and I really felt they had learned something. I went to a meeting for the language classes during lunch (chicken baguette sandwich) then went on to Zee Class. We had to finish up the lesson from last week, which we did. After much prodding and poking. Then we moved on to some grammar work. Then all hell broke loose. Seriously...35 kids in this class. A few kids are completely fluent, most of them are conversationally able to survive while speaking English, then there are about 8 of them that are really, really behind. I'm going to have to split the class up next week and plan two lessons because the fluent kids are going crazy with me trying to work with the slower ones and the material I am supposed to use for the class is WAY over the heads of many of them. I am so glad I had the first class because I would have left feeling like a total failure. Blah, blah...I'm not in the mood to be all dark and pissy tonight. I get so irritated when I read blogs that do nothing but complain so I am going to reserve my "oh woe is me" post for another day. Things really are not that bad. Other than the fact that I have to go back to Zee Class next Tuesday. :-(

Happy B-Day Annie! (and More work)

2008-11-14T11:12:00.004-06:00

I meant to post this yesterday but forgot...oops! Yesterday was my new mother-in-law's birthday. We are going over to her house this weekend to celebrate. I'm looking forward to it actually. I had a great time the last visit and am feeling a lot more comfortable speaking in French. She actually speaks good English, but I think I should speak French because we are in France.

As for work; well when it rains it pours. (Uh...how cliche...but very appropriate being I live in the north.)

So I was offered the 2nd class and have my schedule all set up. Looks like Tuesday is college day with The Class in the morning and Zee Class in the afternoon. I am excited because I already have both lessons done for next week. Woohoo!

I also was offered an adult education class at a large mail order company here in Lille. There are three classes with only 3-7 people in each class. The pay is not as good as the college one, but it's half the work. We even have a book!! How crazy...the company has a book and a syllabus, but the college does not. Hmmm....maybe if folks learned more English in college they wouldn't need the adult courses after they graduate eh?

I also discovered a super cool store which most of you living in France may already know about. My friend Marie told me about it. A big thank you to Marie in Lille!! It's called Picard. It is a store that sells nothing but frozen foods. You might think "ewe...frozen food?" but it's all (what I would call) slightly fancy (some full on fancy) and super pretty. They have tons of little snacks for aperitifs and little desserts along with fantastic full meals. Including pizzas and pancakes! It's like the freezer section of Sam's Warehouse if they were owned by Neiman Marcus and sold small portions instead of the bulk sizes. Best yet, the prices are not bad at all! We were going to have guests tonight so I bought some little snackies and desserts. Turns out they are not going to make it, but I think I might implement "snack night" and munch down on them anyway. I am going to charge my camera to take pictures so I can post them tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Dad! (plus the quest for a Carte de Sejour)

2008-11-12T15:21:00.004-06:00

First things first...Happy Birthday Dad!! I'm over here in Lille thinking about you! I just got off the phone with my Dad and told him Happy Birthday...but I just love birthdays so much I thought I would say it again. Miss you!

UHHHHH....I JUST LOST A WHOLE POST!! Apparently there is a magic button that erases everything. How irritating. Ok...so now round two of typing my trip to the Prefecture. I don't know if I can spill out the magnificent prose that was flowing forth from my fingers...so here is an overview:

I asked Cyr many, many times if we are prepared for our meeting. Almost to a point that begins to annoy him. I remind him I don't speak or read French well so he has to be the responsible one for this thing. I also tell him I have not read the list, because I can't read French. On Saturday, after a visit to the Marie, he is able to tell me that we have everything except my passport: photos. Yeah!!

I repeatedly ask him. He repeatedly says "yes".

We show up for our meeting 10 minutes early. We see a sea of people waiting in the same room looking at the monitor for their number to be called. We get ready to settle in for a long wait.

We are the first ones called at 13:01!! (1:00) No way...

We sit down and the woman starts asking for things. Oh...there is a form we had. It's not filled out. I raise an eyebrow at Cyr but he apologizes and begins to fill it out. She asks for our photocopies. Cyr shoots a glance my way. Eyes dart to the woman.

We have no photo copies. I look at the yellow sheet and at the top, in BOLD LETTERED CAPS UNDERLINED is a word that looks like PHOTOCOPY.

Susan; jaw drops, eyes widen, head tilts to the side, one eyebrow finds it's way much higher than the other. Daggers then begin shooting out of my eyes.

Cyr begins to be very charming in French. Apologizing also because apparently there is a SECOND form in our packet (which we had, we just didn't fill out) that is not complete. He asks if there is a copy machine in the building. Yes there is. He runs to find it. He leaves behind a document. I think I actually began to show my teeth at this point.

I run to catch him. Through the crowd in the waiting room, up stairs, past the entrance, into another crowded room. I tap (ok, maybe it was a bit more than a tap) him on the back and ~~shove~~ hand the other document to him. He smiles sheepishly and finds the machine. We make copies. Meanwhile I am telling him of stories I know of people being sent home for the no copy thing. Having to wait weeks for another appointment.

We run back through the room, past the entrance, down the stairs, through another group past the guards and to our lady. Cyr again becomes this charming French speaking person repeatedly telling her "C'est ma faute, c'est ma faute." Translated "It's my fault, it's my fault." Uh. Yeah. Meanwhile she sees me trying to inflict mass amounts of pain in him with my stare. I think she understands, the amazement and anger in my stare must translate well in French.

This is where things get really crazy.

She accepts all of our paperwork and then tells us all about everything. She answers all of our questions and we are out in under 20 minutes. WITH my temporary CDS.

No...friggin...way.

Once out of the office Cyr immediately does the right thing and invites my scorn. But how mad can I be? We actually got my temporary Carte de Sejour and I can now have health care and a legal working paycheck. I am mostly in shock. I try to bark at him but mostly just can't believe it worked out. Then he bought me lunch with warm mauled wine, three new hats and we have moved on. He is so lucky things worked out...It's like I told him; "the execution was horrible and you get a D- on that, but the result was an A so I guess you pass."

Thank goodness yesterday was a holiday for this lady. I think she got some sleep. And maybe she felt sorry for Cyr when she saw that I could not take my eyes off him with my Death Ray Stare. Maybe she wanted us out of her office because she was worried I would actually succeed in making his head explode. Either way...I'm legal baby...

Week Number 2....

2008-11-11T05:20:00.004-06:00

So I had my second class with...well maybe I was too harsh...how about Zee Class? (Read: someone from the school might find this blog) :-)

So I had Zee Class last night. I went in an hour early to make sure I had everything prepared. I even typed out an agenda to follow as a sort of lesson plan guide. I had more than enough things for the two hour lesson. Side note: I find it odd that one week the class is 2 hours and the next week it is 2 hours and 30 minutes. It changes every week. It also changes rooms and sometimes the time. Why not have a set schedule? Every week the kids have new schedules to follow. They also change things around if the kids don't like something thing. I don't know if I have mentioned this, but it is VERY different from American universities. They are with the same group all day long and take every class together. So my 35 kids are with each other in every class, all day long. It sounds a lot like high school but the classes are very intense and they take way more class time than normal college hours. They are in class 8 hours a day every day.

But back to the changing things around part...The kids in one of the classes didn't want a Friday 2-4 class because on Friday they feel they should be able to go on vacation for the weekend and they want to be able to get out of town early. The kids bring this to the attention half way through the semester mind you. So what happens? The administration changed the class to Wednesdays. You have got to be kidding me. I really just have too many thoughts about why I disagree with this action. A few would be: they knew from the start the time of this class, not to mention all the time that has gone into scheduling a professor and a room not to mention that if they do end up getting real jobs, can they just tell their boss they don't want to work Friday? Is this mirroring real life? Plus...I thought the weekend was your vacation? Did they start implementing Friday as a day off here too? Well, I guess if that 35 hour work week thing sticks then maybe the previous questions are all answered "Uh...maybe. Yes."

Back to the class. So I was waiting for the class. And waiting. It was time for class and no kids. It was 5 past and not one student. I know I was in the right place at the right time because I actually checked two different times in the office to make sure I had the correct room, time and day. Did they all decide to skip? I walk into the hall and see my kids in the room next to mine. They slowly begin to file in about 10-15 minutes late. The computer teacher kept them. Oh. How thoughtful of him. Of course why would English class be important right? I know I should have been upset, but part of me thought "oh well, now I don't have to fall back on the stupid vocabulary thing if we finish early."

It was a bit of a rowdy crew at first. I put together a marketing lesson and had a few fun things prepared. I cut the lights and showed a Top 10 Commercials from one of the Super Bowls. They all stopped as if they were hypnotized. Crazy...they calmed down and I was able to talk to them between clips. They then created campaigns and presented them. There was a lot of talking, but they actually delivered. Some very well even! I feel much better about the class now. I know they are bright, they just need a little herding in the right direction.

I also got a call from the teacher that is taking The Class over. (That was the 2nd class I was subbing in that was a bit easier to control.) She said the kids didn't like having such a late class and were going to go to the Dean to see if they could reschedule the class. (See paragraph 3.) She asked if I could teach that class if it moved. Heck yeah!! Well how about that, the power of the student worked in my favor. Huh. With the extra class I can now start putting a little money back in my US bank account (which has not seen any action since January). I have not gotten the official word, but I might pick up the second class next week. I'll keep you posted!

Tomorrow Cyr and I have our appointment with the Prefecture to present my paperwork for my Carte de Sejour. Crossing my fingers it goes well and she accepts everything we have. It seems to me that many times the government folks here decided what happens depending on what mood they are in and how they feel about you. I know people that have presented exactly the same paperwork I have for a certain thing, but their papers were rejected and they were asked to supply additional things. I guess I caught the person on a good day. Hope our nice government worker is having a good day tomorrow. I want to be able to travel back home without too much trouble. Cross your fingers!!

Class Number 2: "The Class"

2008-11-06T03:17:00.003-06:00

Ok, so I was not overly excited about taking the Wednesday class last night. It is not actually scheduled to be my class. There is a Canadian girl who is supposed to take it but is having visa challenges so she is not able to start yet. I said I would pick it up this week and then she is supposed to have it back next week. The good thing was that I knew it was only two hours and I had the huge packet my director gave me so I knew they would have things to work on. This class however ended up being MUCH different than my original class. Which from now on I will refer to as "The Zoo"...

Scene 1: Enter young man with facial hair.
Susan: Hello there, welcome to English. You are a little early (it was 20 till) but have a seat and can you show me where you are on the attendance sheet?
Young Man: Sure, no pro-blum! Air ewe going to be are teasher for zee rest of zee yeer?
Susan: Remains frozen...he is speaking English!! Eyes wide but trying not to look like deer in headlights. Respond accordingly.
Scene 2: Enter a group of 4 young men. All greet me in English, all begin talking in English.
Susan: (Not out loud) OH DAMN!! This is not even my real class and so far they understand me!!
Scene 3: 30 kids are in the room (5 are absent), all of which seem to be understanding English and speaking back. Two people speak English with British accents. No way...why isn't THIS my class? This is what I was told I would actually have. Now I'm prepared for The Zoo and I actually have "The Class".

The same thing happened when I taught 2nd grade in Houston. I was the new teacher in the 2nd grade block and was given all the kids the other teachers didn't want. But by Christmas I loved them and we had a fairly cohesive class. By the end of the year we all cried when we had to leave. I am nothing if not a sales person...and teaching to me is selling an idea (or group of ideas). Now I need to sell English with the challenge being I have a varied audience. No problem. Wish I could up my commission. Maybe add some kind of spif or hazard pay for The Zoo?

Anyway, The Class was great, I really enjoyed them. There was of course some talking and cutting up, and another Facebook surfer during class, but we were able to get through it. At the end of class they actually told me they learned something and that they hoped I would be their teacher next week. Me too guys...me too...

So. I am already putting together some exciting things for The Zoo (which will be held on Monday because of a bank holiday Tuesday I am told). In truth I think I am more excited by the idea of The Zoo because it posses a larger challenge for me. I am planning to split them into three groups to work. The kids all seem bright, just at very different levels. Last night I actually had The Class all work on mostly the same things but at different times so I could work with small groups and it went well. Who knows, it might turn out that I get both classes because of the visa issues with the Canadian girl.

So thanks for all the good karma folks! It worked!

New Job

2008-11-05T07:56:00.003-06:00

Ok, I know I should probably say something about the elections right? I did get up at 3:30am to watch CNN and see how things turned out. Not so much because I am so political as that I was coughing and felt bad about waking Cyr up. I actually love election coverage the day of. Watching the states come in, seeing the excitement from both parties.

Is it strange that all of a sudden I feel like I can be "proud" to be an American again? I am so tired of feeling like I have to apologize for Bush every time someone finds out I am from Texas. This is not a political blog and I do not want it to be, but the people have chosen and it's time to once again be proud of our country and our leader. Unfortunately I went last night with a group of people (me being the only American) to see the Oliver Stone film "W". How I wish I could get those two hours of my life back. From now on every time I hear "The Yellow Rose of Texas" I am going to think of W. trying to bong Jack Daniels or stuff a burger in his face. I am not making a statement other than to say; "Not all Texans are like W. He isn't even FROM Texas and he didn't go to Texas colleges."

Well that was longer than anticipated....

So my first day at work...was completely not what I expected. I was told that they all had a firm grasp on English and that I was to teach high level Business English to them. The first two students walk in, I say "Hello, welcome! I know we are part way through the semester, is this your first English class of the year?"

Response: ::Eyes dart from side to side. A slight smile and cock of the head reminds me of when I used to make funny noises to my dog to see him looked confused. It's the same look. It's because they don't understand a friggin word I have said. Ahh...nothing like exaggeration while selling a job eh?

So as my 35 young 18 year old students file in for my 2.5 hour class I begin to see that most are not very good with English. About 5 of them can hold a conversation. I try to start off by telling about myself and the course objective. I move on to a simple lesson and ask why there is so much talking.

Response: ::"I have to translate for my friend" respond a few people.

Ahh...I see.

So needless to say it was a fairly long class. At one point I asked the kids to use paper to put their names on so I could see who they were. One kid told me "That is a waste of paper." I told him he should go hang out in the office and see how much paper this school wastes making copies if this bothered him. Maybe next week I will suggest he start a coalition to use less paper.

Funny thing is that it really wasn't that bad. We had some good conversations, I got a few groups to get up and argue (or try) points of business and one person even told me he learned a few new words. 10 years ago I would have been upset because my plan crashed, but I recovered. It was like a sales meeting where you find out the person you are selling to doesn't need the product you thought they did but instead needs something about 90 degrees different. I can identify with and see how frustrated they are and am planning to break them up into groups next week. 35 kids is a big crew to teach English to, especially with such a broad array of levels in the room. Should be a nice challenge I guess.

Today I am picking up a class from the Canadian teacher who has a conflict with the class time. I teach the same material but only for 2 hours so it should be better than yesterday. At least I know what to expect today! I have asked to sit in on a colleague's class, but I doubt he will let me. This would be someone who was not willing to share lesson plans after all...

The Last Part of my Succes :-)

2008-11-03T07:01:00.009-06:00

Ok...I have taken a few days away from the computer but I am back!! I thought I would post a few pictures of the reception so you could all see what it was like. I was really worried because I thought it would be too small, but our friends really stepped up. My table of friends and family all made sure to dance and have fun, Cyr's tables all made an effort as well. The food was fantastic and the music was great. We had a combination of classic American hits, French classics plus even a little country!!

Above is a picture of me and my family and friends going into the Chateau where we had the vin d'honnour. We were so lucky with the weather!! We took pictures with the photographer during the vin d'honnour and I regret that we didn't spend much time with out guests. I would have liked to talk to them a little more. It seemed like the night passed so quickly!!

There was dancing...

By the time we ended the vin d'honnour my feet were killing me. So I had to bring in a little Texas...

Cyr and I danced our first dance to Anne Murray, "May I have this dance". Nothing like a waltz in a big ivory colored dress while wearing a tiara. Ahhh...

I don't have those pictures yet, but here are Cyr and I in the background after a dance. The handsome fella in the forefront of the picture is Cyr's brother. A real "Beau-Frere" eh?! He's only 18 ladies...no phone numbers!

I still think I got the best one though!

Here is our fire-hazard-dessert-buffet. It was awesome!! There were about 6 or 8 of those things all over the table!!

Then the toast...

Ok...now I am sure you are completely weddinged out! I think I am done here. I might send out a link to folks once we get the professional ones back. I will for sure send it to family (don't worry Dad and Sandy...you will get more!!).

Tomorrow is my first day of teaching. Woohoo! I have a fairly solid plan though I'm sure something will go wrong and make it exciting. At least now I will have something to blog about other than wedding plans and photos. :-)

Really quick though...thanks to all the folks that came over. Lori, Lori, Tracy, Melinda and Ann; I will never forget you all for being here to support me. Ari and Betrand; you guys are great, I can't wait to see you again! All of Cyr's friends; Kate, Alex, Marc and all the rest. Thank you!! You are now my friends too! Aunt Helen, Sally, Kathy and Joyce; you are all family. Really great family. I know it was not easy to come over, thank you so much. Mom...what can I say...there are not words that can tell you how much I appreciate you always being there for me when things are hard, or listening to me when times are good. I could not have a better Mom, I hope I can return all the kind things you have done for me. I love you.

Ok, enough mushy stuff. Let's move on to real life eh? The one without tiaras, fluffy ivory dresses or great champagne. Well, maybe with great Champagne...and maybe I can wear that tiara sometimes too. And maybe I can dye that dress...I love that dress... ;-)

Wedding Success (Part 2)!!

2008-10-29T06:23:00.006-05:00

I have an amazing friend...her name is Ann. Ann is still in France, in Paris for the rest of the week, and she took the time to download and send me pictures from the wedding!! These are great and you can get a glimpse of what we both looked like. It was a great day...here is a picture she took of me in the cab on the way to the church.

Here is my Mom and I walking down the aisle. My Dad and Sandy were not not able to come because he is not feeling well. I thought of him though and I know he would have been here if he could have.

Here is Cyr and I with my Mom beside me and his mother beside him. I'll have better family pictures later. I think I will probably post them all to a site so you can all go take a look at them when you like.

Here is Ann and I!!
I am wearing a wrap that was given to me by one of my best friends Jen. She was not able to make the wedding but was there in spirit I know. She and her new daughter Mimi (just born in September) were thought of often.

Here we are just married!! I loved my flowers. Just simple roses and greenery, but not red roses. I'm not a big fan of red roses...

Tomorrow I will post some reception pictures for you to check out. We had a great time and I was really happy with the food as well. Now I have to start thinking of real life again I guess. I have a meeting at my new school tomorrow with some of the faculty to discuss the rest of the semester. I'll also get to see my classroom and get my attendance sheets. I want to take it home so Cyr can help me pronounce the names, don't want to butcher them too badly!

Wedding Success (Part 1)!!

2008-10-28T06:37:00.008-05:00

WOOHOO!!! It's over!!

Well folks...the weekend was a great success. Even the weather cooperated! It was a beautiful sunny day and crisp, clear evening. I could not have imagined it going any better. Well, maybe a little, the only snaffu was that the bus that was supposed to pick the guests up from the church was 15 minutes late, and then it had a problem getting out of the neighborhood because the streets are so narrow. I was worried it was going to get stuck, but after what seemed like a very long time, many horn honks and frustrated French people later, they were off to Belgium!! Where, by the way, the Champagne was excellent, the food amazing and the Chateau a perfect romantic setting for our little party. (Pictures to come later as our photographer left on a two week vacation yesterday...damn it...)

I only have the pictures from my camera, and as I was the bride, I don't actually have any of myself to post yet, but those will come soon!! So here is a photo parade of the beginning of my week last week. It started in Paris, where I met my friends Lori B., Tracy and Melinda. After heaving our luggage up 5 flights of stairs we went out an enjoyed the town.

My family came in the next day (Monday) and we went on a fantastic tour that included dinner at the Eiffel Tower, a river cruise on the Seine and a show at the Moulin Rouge with Champagne.

Above you can see my friends and family that came in to help us celebrate. From left to right we have Cousin Sally, Mom, Aunt Helen, Joyce and Kathy. The Eiffel Tower is gorgeous right now with the blue lights and the stars representing the European Union. During dinner the lights went off and twinkled brightly as if to sign out "Welcome Everyone! Congratulations Susan and Cyriaque!" It was really the highlight of my trip to Paris. Although the after affects of the Champagne the next day were pretty rough. I have realized that it's not a good idea to drink Champagne in the dark. You don't count your glasses and then before you know it, it's too late...I tried to hang in the next day but I was feeling about a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10.

I also had a great treat in getting to meet Leesa the Cupcake Princess!! If you don't know Leesa, go check out her blog. She is an American who has been in Paris for quite a while and has really been a source of moral support for me in my effort to try to fit in this strange land they call France. Here is Leesa and I right before breakfast.

We had a girls night out the Friday before the wedding in Lille as well. But this time I paid attention, I was not about to have a bad day on my Big Day. Her is the crew from Houston that came to see me (missing is Ann, not sure where she sneaked off to, she will show up in later pictures though!)

There is Lori, Lori, Tracy and Melinda. They all brought awful things they make me wear...someone better put an APB out on Big Bird...I think he is missing...

That is me with Alina, she is married to Cyr's best friend and lives in Romania. She is the bride we went to see in Munich a few weeks ago. After this we all went out salsa dancing and had a great time. More photos to come!!

PS - Thank you so much for all the kind emails and posts!!

Egypt will have to wait...

2008-10-21T02:32:00.000-05:00

...for a little while at least.

Oh the joys of trying to be legal in France! So...I won't bore you all with the details of trying to gain a long stay marriage visa thingy in France. It takes quite a large amount of paperwork for a French person to marry a person who is not French in France. One would hope that by completing this task you would then be able to stay in this wonderful country. Oh contraire mon frere! I knew most of this going into this thing so it was no surprise that after you are married in the Marie (town hall) you have to then take your Livre de Famille (proof of marriage) to your home country to get your long stay visa stamped. Once you have done this then you need to return to France and schedule a meeting with the prefecture.

Our meeting is scheduled for November 12th. During this meeting I am supposed to get a temporary something that will allow me to work, but it's not my actual carte de sejour (work permit if you will). That will arrive in about 3 months after that. During the time I am waiting for my CDS to arrive I am not allowed to leave France except for one visit to any other schengen country . I'm not sure why they allow you one visit, and if you drive or take a train they don't check at the boarders any longer so there is no one to stamp the passport. Anyway, all this adds up to no Egypt in November. I was a little upset about this at first, but I know that we will go eventually, just not now. I think I am mostly upset because we used TravelersJoy.com as a wedding site and many people have donated to our honeymoon. We still get to use this for our trip next year, it's not like we loose anything, I just really wanted to be able to post a followup web site to everyone who gave. Guess that can wait until next year when I can legally leave and return. Thank goodness TravelersJoy has no expiration date! (I highly recomend this site to anyone getting married, very easy to use and a great deal when compared to similar sites.)

This also means that I am not allowed to make a trip home for Thanksgiving which makes me a little sad. I have a friend who is about a month ahead of me in this process, that really helps. She also told me that the government will grant each person one emergency trip home if needed. So if something happens and I need to leave I can, but only to my home country. Now I'm getting a little frustrated because I want to plan our trip and book things and I can't because I don't friggin know when I will get this stuff. I am hoping I will know more after November 12th, but that's just a hope...after that meeting I will most likely just start planning for March I guess. Oh well, c'est la vie.

I actually wrote this post prior to leaving for Paris and scheduled it to post on Tuesday. I feel so techie...

Hair Products

2008-10-19T06:25:00.001-05:00

When I got my hair cut last week I bought some fancy conditioner that one of the women said I should use. I have rather dry hair, and from what I could make out of the French the woman was speaking to me, if I use this stuff I am going to have some old school Charlie's Angels hair working for me.
I was suckered, so now I sit with this stuff and am not sure how to use it. I thought she was telling me to sleep in it, but I don't think that is right. I think she was just saying to put it on my hair before I shampooed it. Tonight I thought I would put the directions into the Google Language Tools thing to see how to use it. Apparently I will be needing some heavy tools and flower. Here is what the translator spit out at me:

Apply to hair not wet in small quantity sure the lengths and tips, a hammer, using a brush and let set a minimum of 15 minutes, preferably in paper or aluminum-free cello. Eliminating the product followed by a light shampoo refer to your type of hair, or cream flowers if the hair are very dry.

A hammer? Come on...my hair isn't THAT dry. And do I "cream" the flowers myself? How does one do that exactly? I'm thinking a mayonnaise type thing...

Off To Paris!!

2008-10-18T17:27:00.003-05:00

Well...my train takes out from Lille in about 8 hours and I am headed to Paris to pick up my friends at CDG. I am so excited to see them! Then my family (Mom, Aunt, Cousin, and two friends that are like family) comes in Monday. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and trying to show them just a little of why I love France so much.

I often worry that if I try to show people around I will forget something big, or waste a day by getting lost and not seeing the real sites. But the thing about Paris is that even just getting lost is an adventure. You see beautiful things everywhere, not just the well known spots. I also really want them to see Lille. I know the north doesn't get that good of a wrap here, but I really like it. I'm also a bit nervous because the weather has been really great here for quite a while and this can't hold out much longer! I was actually hoping it would rain all last week so that maybe the week I had visitors it would be nice. Seems like every time someone comes to see me we have freakishly bad weather. Maybe it's a ploy...every time visitors come to Lille it rains, that way no one will actually know how great it is here. Man...Mama Nature...that's mean lady.

I won't be blogging until about Thursday, but I have scheduled a few things to pop up over the next day or two. Very techie of me eh? I got the idea from Susan and thought I would try it out. Of course I have had weeks to get ready and I am scurrying around right now looking for battery chargers and hair things.

Wish me luck on being a good tour guide and I hope to meet up with Leesa and Ksam too! I have yet to ever try a rhumrhum, and I think it's time I do...

JAY-OH-BEE!!

2008-10-17T13:45:00.004-05:00

That would be a job!! Though sometimes it seems to take forever for things to happen in life, sometime things just fall into place and in the blink of an eye you have a whole new part of your life taking shape. Since Thursday at 10am my life took a nice little turn.

I received an email from Mari about a university that was looking for someone to teach 1st year Business English. The class is to familiarize students with things like human resources, company structure and other business type of language. I didn't think I had much of a shot, but I called the woman and left a message. She called me back and said that they had actually found someone already for the role but that she had a schedule conflict with one of the classes. By the time the conversation was over she asked for my resume and thought maybe I could take one of the classes. They were going to move the class so the other person could teach it, but if I could do Tuesdays then it would work out great.

I sent off my resume and received and email right back asking me to come visit with them today. Oh how I love having an actual reason to shower and put on clothes that match...In my usual American fashion I arrived 30 minutes early for the interview. I was to meet my contact at a specific Metro station and it was sunny so I just kind of wandered around a bit. Then I realized I didn't have her phone number in case she didn't turn up or I was at the wrong station. Let's all give a great big "YOU ROCK, THANK YOU SO MUCH!" to Mari in Lille!! I called her and she pulled up the original email and gave me number just in case.

Turned out I didn't need it, she showed up right on time. But if I would have needed it...I had it! We went to the school, I met the dean and they offered me the job right there. It's just one class, but hey, it's a start! I am really looking forward to it. Now every Tuesday I have a place to be at 2pm! I'm meeting my contact again tomorrow at the book store to buy a book for the class. To be honest I don't really think it was my amazing teaching prowess that impressed her so much as the fact that I am a native English speaker and I am breathing. Meaning I think they were pretty desperate. But hey...I'll take that!

I am also super excited about this coming week. I meet friends on Sunday then family on Monday in Paris. I am also hoping to get the chance to meet up with some fellow blogers Leesa and Ksam (of former Sam de Bretagne fame) while in town. I'm feelin a rhumrhum coming on...

Oh...I also got my hair cut and it looks pretty good. There are a lot more layers than I am used to but I think I like it. At first I was a little scared I had a fancy-mullet (if there is such a thing) because it is shorter around my face, but I think I like it. One of my friends said it didn't look that much different, I hope that doesn't mean that I already had a fancy-mullet...

A few good things...

2008-10-16T04:50:00.005-05:00

I went to order the flowers yesterday for the wedding. I'm not putting them in the church or anything, I just need a bouquet and some boutonnieres for the people in the wedding and the mothers. I waited until 2:00pm (14h for those French folks) to walk down because I figured they would be closed for lunch. As guessed; they did have a lunch break, but apparently florists are extra hungry folk and they need more than the normal 2 hour lunch break. They take 3 hours and 20 minutes for lunch. So alas I would have to return at 3:20pm (15h20) if I wanted flowers.

I was really glad I returned because I just love the florist! He is a slight man with kind smile that is a bit lopsided, olive skin, dark hair and brown eyes who had no problem with my child-like French. I told him what I liked and didn't like, "S'il vous plait, pas des roses rouge" (please, no red roses). He immediately began briskly walking around the small shop and grabbing things, making a bouquet right then and there to show me what it would look like. I love the colors (will post pictures after the fact) and the fact that they will be made by kind hands also makes me feel good. A little good karma on the day would do me fine. Ahh...the sweet smell of success! I pick them up the day before the wedding. I thought I would pick them up the day of, but he said they would still be fresh for Saturday. I'm sure they will, he seems to know what he is doing. I also have no idea what it is going to cost, probably a car payment...oh well...at least I have flowers! Plus we have even more money to spend because another person is having to cancel the visit. She is sick though, I can't blame her, the flight is hard enough when you feel good. Guess we can put her meal money to the flowers. Ha...

I'm having my British friend (who will be on vacation and won't make the wedding) over this evening for dinner. She has cooked a few times for me and I'm trying to return the favor. I'm planning chicken breasts stuffed with dried figs and blue cheese. Just some simple sides and some sorbet for desert I think. Not getting very fancy, but it will do along with some wine of course. Not too much though, I have a coffee thing tomorrow morning I am planning on going to. I realize I am really going to have to find some sort of work after I get my CDS (November 12 here I come) and so I'm going to bump up my networking attempts. I don't really care what I do here, just a job...

I also got to see Cyr this morning via web cam. Ha...I love those things. He had to make a trip to the Middle East and will be back Sunday. The same day I leave to pick up my friends in Paris...he promises to meet me at the alter though.

Actually we will be back Wednesday so I will get time with him for a few days prior. Plus we have to have dance lesson number 2! Cyr...the waltzing Frenchman...

3rd Race at the Honeymoon-Is-Over Downs

2008-10-15T05:56:00.004-05:00

Ok, this is a bit crude...but I cracked up when I watched it! Now Cyr and I are not running in this race of course. Being from Texas I like to compare our relationship to team roping rather than racing. ;-)

Anyway, I am feeling much better about life today. I am truly excited about the people that are coming in and am thrilled that I am going to have time to spend with each one of them. Enjoy this little video, I am off to buy my bouquet and the boutonnieres!!

Wedding Plans

2008-10-13T02:22:00.005-05:00

Well there is less than two weeks until the big church wedding!

Things are falling into place and I am fairly sure it will all go off alright. The only things I still have left to do are the flowers, pick the menu, sort some music out and confirm the number of guests. The last one is something that has been bothering me for a few weeks to be honest. I know it shouldn't, I know I am asking too much of my family and friends to come all the way to France for a wedding. The thing that actually bothers me is that there were a large amount of people saying they would be here and of course the number is (literally) now less than half of what I expected from my side. Yes, I know the economy is not well right now. Maybe I'm just a selfish brat. But I had people telling me all summer how they would see me at the wedding. Oh well, I know my Mom will be here, an Aunt, a cousin and handful of friends.

No matter how many times I read and retype this post I just sound like a whiny bitch. I am very excited about the day and the people that are coming. The truth is that most of my best friends and family can't make it for real reasons. One just had a baby less than a month ago, another has two kids she needs to take care of, my Dad is sick and can't make it, and some people just plain don't have the money. It's ok, I understand. Truth is that it's going to be just about the perfect size. With all of Cyr's family and friends coming I think there will be about 45 people total for the dinner and reception with a few more at the ceremony.

I'm also really excited about the people that are coming. I have some friends arriving this weekend in Paris and I'm going to meet them and have a great time. My family (Mom, Aunt, cousin and family friend who is like family) comes in on Monday and we are also going to spend a few days in Paris too. I think I am actually more excited about this than anything else! They have even booked a tour with a chance to see a show at the Moulin Rouge! Ha! I can't wait! Next week is going to be one of the best weeks ever, I can feel it. I have two more friends coming in next week the Thursday before the wedding and will get to spend time with them too. Then there will be the wedding, where the most important person of all will be; Cyr. Now that I think about it, I guess it is the perfect size. Just enough folks to really be able to share something special, not just have a huge show. I guess I can say that it may sound super dorky, but the wedding will actually be "intimate" which is usually code for "small" but the more I think about it, the more I like it. It's a special day for a small special group of people.

Plans are next year to have a big "not-so-intimate" party in the states so that we can celebrate with all the people that can't make it this time. And you can bet your ass I am going to wear my dress again. ;-)

A Night at the Opera

2008-10-09T15:43:00.005-05:00

Sorry I have been so slow to post this week, but I STILL can't breath and therefore can not get the oxygen I need to my brain in order to put together logical thoughts. But hey, thought I would try anyway...

This week Cyr had to go on his (as of right now) second to last trip of the year. I bought Opera tickets not knowing his schedule and just hoped it would fit in. Well, he was lucky, it didn't. A group of us bought tickets together, I was able to sell mine and off we all went for an evening of opera. I must say, I was really surprised at the cost of the opera. They had tickets starting at 11 euro. We ended up at about 40 euro each and those were great seats. Floor level, back of the pack. The building was much smaller than I pictured. I kept looking at the balcony level thinking I would see good old Abe up there watching his last show. It was quite cozy actually. It even had dark red velvet chairs. I have loved the Opera building here in Lille from the first time I saw it. It's gorgeous. Since my computer crashed I can't get my pics onto this new hard drive, so I can't post pictures. Darn it...

We saw The Marriage of Figaro. I had never seen it before, so being the curious person I was I looked it up online to get the story prior to the show. Which, by the way, I'm glad I did. The opera is sang in Italian and had the subtitles in French. It was like watching a tennis game you don't really know the rules of.
I still had (and have) my nose issue. I did have Afrin though and took a hit right before the show so I wouldn't be the mouth-breather-girl-in-the-back-row. I was so glad I did. But of course the minute the lights go out I have to cough. I went armed though. As the first chords rose up from the orchestra I held cough drops in one hand and tissues in another.

Act I: This consisted of me doing my best not to cough or blow my nose. My throat all of a sudden became very itchy and filled with mucus when I knew I could not clear it. I would wait for people to clap and cough. My timing was impeccable if I do say so. Once I got a Drill (cough drop) down I was much better. There was a scary moment when I felt a little tickle in my nose. A familiar buzzing sort of itch that I immediately recognized as a sneeze. I knew it was coming and I was prepared. I knew I could do the quiet sneeze, but what if a sqeek escaped? You know what I mean, you try to stiffle the sneeze and end up sounding like a nail being pulled out of a tin roof. Again I was lucky, no sqeek, just a jumping of shoulders and quick jerk of the head.

Intermision: One Leffe Blond for only 3 euro! No way! In the US they totaly stiff you on drinks at events. The $9 Miller Light kills me. 3 euro for a 33 cl Leffe was actually better than some of the bars I have been to. Rock on Lille...

Act II: By this time it has been about an hour and a half since the show started. Of course there were people in the auditorium prior to the start. I'm sure they helped to warm up the place. I was actually starting to sweat a bit. About 15 minutes into Act II I feel a bubble in my stomach. Uh-oh. That would be a beer burp. You can't burp at the opera! That's like peeing in the aisles of the ballet for goodness sake! Well maybe not that bad, but still bad. I am the ruler of my bodily functions dear readers. With my hardly noticeable throat reflex and controlled exhale, I think only the nice woman next to me noticed. I did have the slight hiccup like bounce, so I think she knew. That actually happened twice. Then I was so hot I had a hard time focusing on the opera. Yeah, yeah...person hides behind a chair, no one notices, people dress up like others...is anyone else hot? No? Really?

Clapping...I hear clapping...Oh yeah! I can now find oxygen! Must put on jacket so no one notices sweat stains (if they are in fact present). No, you must clap some more. Man, the French really like to clap. My arms actually got tired. We clapped for everyone, and finally when the best friend of the second cousin of the guy who is in charge of the third light to the left took his bow, we filed out.

Now don't get me wrong, I actually do like the opera. Except for Madame Butterfly. I have seen that one 3 times and each time I don't like it. Unless you count the time I saw it at Miller Outdoor Theater in Houston and we drank wine on the grassy hill. I liked that time. I like Figaro too. The music even without the lyrics is amazing. That Mozart was a heck of a composer I say. I just had a hard time focusing when I was not feeling well and was sweating. I never thought I was high maintenance, but maybe in the case of opera I am. I need to have the elements working in my favor. Unlike ballet or really any kind of dance. I could be puking and sweating and I would still enjoy a dance production. Or a musical. I could sit through Les Miserables or Cabaret in 104 heat with the flu. Now that I think about it...maybe I don't like the opera as much as I thought I did. Oh gosh, I am so uncultured, and disappointed in myself really. I probably should not admit that the opera is not my favorite art eh? I should pretend to like it a whole bunch, like most of the people that were there.

Great Sunday Food

2008-10-07T08:45:00.003-05:00

Although I still have a completely clogged up nose, the weekend was pretty good. Sunday we went to Cyr's Mom's house and had lunch with her and his brother C. Lunch is always good at the belle-mere's, she's a great cook.

I think I mentioned once before how time here seems to move faster than in the US, it's really strange. Somehow we left our place with 15 minutes to spare, stopped by the bakery to pick up a desert and then were almost an hour late for lunch. How does that happen?! Very strange...

Our tardiness was not a big deal though, we arrived just before the rain started. I really like meals at the beau-famille (in-laws) because we always have a bunch of little appetizers. We started with a glass of Champagne with little toasts that had chevre and bacon on it that were grilled in the oven. Along with that there were some banana peppers stuffed with some sort of cream cheese like filling and of course saucisson. Not just any saucisson either, my favorite; St. Agaune. It's soooooo good. It seems to have a lower fat content and the meat is tender and a bit salty and somhow even juicy. Can dried sausage be juicy? Probably only if it's really fattening.

She also had what looks like a layer cake but is in fact (I found out after I was eating) cow tongue with layers of foie gras. It's a specialty of the city where they live. Don't cringe, I know it sounds awful, but it's actually wonderful. She also made some gelatin to go with it and cut up a few figs. All two million calories were fantastic. Lunch was a lamb stew with carrots, potatoes, beets and peas with a great bottle of red wine. I think I could talk with his Mom more this visit. My French is getting a little bit better each time I think. Her English is really good though, so she can always save me when I don't know what's going on. I'm also a bit limited on topics I can talk about because I don't have a wide variety of words to choose from. I wanted to ask her about work and a few things but didn't know the words. Maybe next time.

We hung out most of the day and then came home and tried to get things done for the wedding. Everyone clap your hands in appreciation of Cyr's first dance lesson!! I think I fell in love all over again...he's a natural waltzer people.

I love the waltz. It's a dance that always makes me think that maybe I was a princess given away at birth to protect me from the evil doers of my land. To be raised by a nice family to maybe one day be brought back to rule in my castle and have the stable of horses I so deserve. I also don't really look like my parents which has always aided this fantasy. But I do act like them. Guess you can't get away from the DNA too much. Plus I wouldn't give them up for anything, not even a castle. But if they threw in a stable of horses...well it would be tempting...naw. Not really.

Difficult French

2008-10-04T11:17:00.003-05:00

Currently I am trying to type but I have a very strong urge to blow my nose. Which by the way, won't blow when I blow it. I just end up forcing air to the top of my throat, then my ears threaten to pop. Of course there is that odd running thing every now and then so you have to keep a tissue near so you don't drip on yourself and offend the people around you.

Cyr took me to the pharmacy and I got some kind of spray and some pills to take. These are serious pills too! Four times a day then one at night for four days. Maybe tomorrow I won't be the irritating mouth breathing person you can actually hear.

Inhallllle....exhaaale.

Ewe...that's me.

I also discovered something interesting about the French language. It's virtually impossible to speak French as a non-native speaker (ok, complete beginner) when you have a stopped up nose. It's like my mouth can't form the words because the pressure is off or something. I have suddenly forgotten how to form the words. Example: We went to lunch and I wanted a hot mint tea. You would have thought I was trying to order a 5 course meal. I could not get it out, I had to say it I think three times before the waiter got it. Cyr was so patient, he just smiled and let me talk loud and spray spittle on the waiter. I think the waiter thought it was amusing. He had that raised eyebrow (both of them) look and a smile. Like I was a three-year-old trying to do a magic trick. For a person who really doesn't like three-year-olds.

Cyr didn't try to order for me because he knew I was already irritated at the lady who sat us and offered "Shall I bring you a menu in English?" said in French very quietly to Cyr. My poorly tied scarf must have given me away as being non-French. Cyr declined, saying; "No thank you, she understands." (in French of course) Then the lady says; "I'll bring you one anyway."

What....Did.....You....Say?

Granted, maybe I'm a bit touchy because someone filled both of my nostrils with cement glue last night, but I was offended. Seriously lady, guess you people don't get the "no means no" thing here eh? When she came back with the menus I gave her the one eye brow raised look and Cyr reaches out and takes the English menu. Ha...how sweet is that?! Low and behold I was even able to find my agneau (lamb) without a problem.

Of course she was not our waiter, that was the guy mentioned above. Darn it...I would have felt much better getting a little spittle on her and forcing her to hear my stuffy nosed French. Oh well, maybe next time. Even if I feel fine. :-)

Computer Germs

2008-10-01T04:26:00.004-05:00

Oh man!! So my computer was acting a bit funny, not letting me get to some sites, redirecting me when I did searches to sales or porn sites. This bug is super smart. It also blocks access to any anti-virus pages, so you can't get to NOD32, Norton, Symantec or anything out there that can help. Then my little guy went into a coma. Just a frozen screen with no movement. I would have to force her off by holding the power button and then the screen would go black and a noise similar to static would be heard as she painfully powered down.

Lucky for me (right now) my computer completely freaked out two days before I was to move to France. I went to Micro Center and bought new memory and a new hard drive because I thought it was fried then. When I got to France and ran some add-ware program it went back to normal so my memory and hard drive have been sitting in the closet up until now. Plus, computer items are WAY more expensive here, so I now have a better set up for much less than I would have had to spend here.

A second lucky thing; Cyr is a brain and can actually replace these items, get my computer up and running and is going to somehow get the files off my old hard drive. The only pain in the butt is that all my docs and things I am going to need for the wedding including budget, guest list, addresses and old pictures are now sitting on my sick hard drive here on the table. I can feel the files looking at me, wanting to be part of my day, almost pleading to be placed back in their natural habitat on my little Dell here. I hope my hero Cyr can save them!!

So watch out people! I have no idea how I got this. But it's bad news...I'm not opening any attachments until my anti-virus, anti-spam and anti-whatever else is out there is fixed.

Good news - we booked our photographer for the wedding!! His name is Luc and he is great. I can't find his link right now...but I will update this post later and include it so you can check him out. I think he is fantastic, he really takes very unique pictures. Plus we actually saved money with him because the one we were going to use was referred to us by the Chateau (reception site)and they really mark up the prices. Woohoo! No mark up for us, we will just pay the already a bit high regular price thank you!

Chuck Norris to the rescue

2008-09-29T01:43:00.000-05:00

Ok...so I must have gotten into something, because my computer is acting all kinds of crazy. It won't let me search on certain things or rather when I click to be connected to a link from Google I get redirected to a porn site. Uh! It's a grose one too! Every time I accidentally see it I feel the need to go take a shower. Ewe...

So since my wonderful Cyr is now home he is going to attempt to fix it for me. I even installed a new Antivirus and after I ran a scan it said I had nothing wrong. Cyr said he think's he knows what is causing the problem. Some IP thingy directing me to blah, blah...then I lost track of what he was saying because I think I saw a bird outside. Anyway, should be all fixed up tomorrow.

So today I leave you with a little entertainment I recieved in an email. I have not thought much of good old Chuck Norris since I don't have "Walker Texas Ranger" playing on the WB (or wherever it plays now) when I surf by. When I first read this I didn't laugh at first, then it grew on me the more I read. Like a litterary fungus...

Why Chuck Norris should be feared;

-The Great Wall of China was originally created to keep Chuck Norris out. It failed miserably.

-There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris allows to live.

-The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.

-Chuck Norris originally appeared in the "Street Fighter II" video game, but was removed by Beta Testers because every button caused him to do a roundhouse kick. When asked bout this "glitch," Norris replied, "That's no glitch."

-There are no weapons of mass destruction. Just Chuck Norris.

-Chuck Norris CAN believe it's not butter.

-If tapped, a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick could power the country of Australia for 44 minutes.

-Chuck Norris once roundhouse kicked someone so hard that his foot broke the speed of light, went back in time, and killed Amelia Earhart while she was flying over the Pacific Ocean.

-Chuck Norris recently had the idea to sell his urine as a canned beverage. We know this beverage as Red Bull.

-If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can't see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death.

-Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

-The quickest way to a man's heart is with Chuck Norris's fist.

-What was going through the minds of Chuck Norris's victims before they died? His shoe.

-Chuck Norris has an unbeatable poker face, concealed beneath an even more unbeatable poker beard.

-Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

-Chuck Norris has counted to infinity. Twice.

-In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Chuck Norris could use to kill you, including the room itself.

-Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.

-Chuck Norris Isn't funny, stop laughing.

-Chuck Norris has already been to Mars; that's why there are no signs of life there.

-Chuck Norris doesn't own a stove, toaster oven or a microwave... Because revenge is a dish that's best served cold.

-Since 1940, the year Chuck Norris was born, roundhouse kick related deaths have increased 13,000 percent.

-Chuck Norris can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.

-Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.

Chinese Translations and Menu Offerings

2008-09-25T07:46:00.005-05:00

Cyr is in China this week and sent me a few photos of the signs he has in his hotel room. One of my favorites is this sign by the bathtub:

In case it's hard to read...it says;

Our honorific guests:
For your safey and preventy the wed and slippery floor. Please put the bath curtain into the bathrub when you are washing for avoiding the water spatter out of the bathrub.
At the same. We prepare the nail-clipper for you in the house-keeping.
Thanks for your cooperating.

I also like this one he took of the laundry bag.

It says;

To serve you whole heartdly makes you feel convenient and happy during travel.

Nothing like being served "heartdly". Being the agreeable eater he is he also told me he tried a dish that looked very much like snails that had forked tails. Well, turned out it was duck tongue. Seriously, how many duck tongues would it take to make one meal?! There was also donkey served I believe in the same meal. Such a lucky fella to have all these fun things thrown after him!

He sent me some pictures of menus but they are hard to read so I will just tell you what some of my favorites were;

Steamed Mouse-Shaped Fish (Maybe a children's favorite? Also known as the "Mickey Fish"?)
Crispy Freid Loach (Please don't let that be a typo with the "L")
Sauteed Chicken Feet (no thanks, I like my feet fried)
Jew's Ear with Chrysanthemum (I just can't say anything about this one...)
Flavored Crispy Elbow (after the previous entry I am not sure I want to know what kind of elbow.)
Sauteed Crispy Stomach with Pickled Peppers (Peter Piper's favorite I'm sure, but again...the stomach of what?)
Spicy Ox Spinal Cord (Whew, I just hate the dull flavored spinal cord)
Chicken Stomach with Chili Pot (if this is like Amsterdam "Pot" I might need it to eat the "Chicken Stomach")
Sauteed Duck Lips in Maggie Sauce (So that's why I have never seen a duck's lips! They are all in China being served for dinner! With Maggie apparently...)

I don't think he actually tried any of the above. But in case you are offered, I hear the duck tongue is nothing to spit at. Ha...actually he said it was pretty chewy...

Rozoy Continued...

2008-09-24T11:48:00.006-05:00

I have now recovered from my lunch with Mr and Mrs Belly and am ready to post the other pictures from the weekend. Of course today I did meet my friend Irina and her new husband for lunch to talk about how the quest for a carte de sejour is going for them. She is Russian and he is French and they are going through the same process that Cyr and I will go through in November with getting a work permit and a residence card. More on that fun stuff later....

This is the garden she has. It is in a sort of valley I guess you could say. Above the garden floor to the right is a very old church and then further to the back there is a wall remaining from a castle that was there in the 1600's I think. Check out the tree looking thing on the left side of the photo.

Everyone was finding jobs to do, I decided to pull weeds. Once I was done with my wall I asked about the odd tree that looked to have been taken over by ivy. H told me that it was actually a very old water pump that was taken over by plant life. "Oh! Do you want me to try to cut it away?" I asked hopefully. She agreed and my treasure hunt began!! I clipped away and found brick, then on one side I found a pump. It took hours just to uncover one side. After two days of work, this is what was underneath!!

It was amazing! If we could have stayed another day I would have tried to figure out how to reach the top part. Do you remember the really big and tall brown muppet that had the HUGE mouth and would dance during The Muppet Show? I felt like I was cutting his hair. I actually talked to it while I was clipping away. I think it helped. H was so excited too, she said since we cut through the large roots that she was hoping the top part would die and be easier to remove after a few weeks. I don't know about that, the thing looked like an animal ready to spring back to life and devour the pump again, but maybe not.

This is the view from where we were burning some of the brush we cleared. That is the church up top. I just kept getting carried away with the thoughts of a castle being up there next to the church. You can see H and B very small at the bottom of the photo.

So it was a really fun weekend. I typically don't do much gardening other than killing the small plants I buy or people try to give me. Really, unless you hate a plant specifically, don't give it to me. I will kill it. I won't mean to, but it will happen. Plants and Susan are like Lenny and small mice. It's completely unintentional, but it happens. That is why I stick to fresh cut flowers. I know from the moment I pick them out they are going to die. Plus no one expects me to be able to make them live longer than a week so that I look less like the Jeffrey Dahmer of horticulture and more the like the Florence Nightingale of flowers trying to help her patients live as long as possible.

Long French Lunch...

2008-09-23T08:53:00.004-05:00

Oh my goodness...I love my neighbors!

I went walking today with my friend/neighbor Lillian, she is a retired chemist and her husband is a retired pharmacist. While walking I told her I was out of my asthma medicine so she walked with me to the pharmacy down the street, told them what I needed, and they had it ready for me when I returned with my money a few minutes later! Voila!! C'est facile non?

Once I returned to chez moi (my house) I bumped into Belly, my neighbor that lives above me. Yes, that is his name, his last name actually. He is so cute, he and his wife have lived here for like 30 years. They told me they have been married for 60 years this year. WOW! That is so cool. I will have to live to 96 to be married that long. I better start eating more fish and veggies right now. So anyway, as I told you in my previous post; I have a lot of apples from the garden of H (I think I told you this) so I offered some to Belly and told him I would bring him some. I packed up a bag and walked up the flight of stairs to drop them off, but of course you can't just drop something off here, you must come in for a drink! (Have any of you seen Bienvenue Chex Les Ch'ti? It's just like that, no kidding!) So...I came in and met Madame Belly and had a bourbon. A Kentucky Bourbon at that! Then of course they asked me to stay for lunch, being the gracious guest I am I didn't want to be rude...so I accepted. We had stuffed tomatoes, eggplant and round zucchini (yes, somehow they have round zucchini) it was fantastic. And yes, I had one of all three of the things. Plus of course it is France, so we MUST have a red wine with lunch. Bien sur!

Once the meal was complete there was (of course) a cheese plate. Mmmm...five different kinds. Surely you know that you can't just end a meal right? NO!! You must have a digestive, an after dinner drink! So out comes the "Swiss liquor that is like vodka but is not vodka". That is as close a description as I could decipher/translate from them. Anyway...it did wonders for my sinuses. Seriously, I can totally breath right now. Though I can't actually feel my nose, I can breathe.

I was supposed to post the rest of the pictures from my weekend trip, but seriously folks, I have to go take a nap. It's only 4pm here and I have had a Friday nights worth of drinks. I love the 3 hour lunch though. There is a possibility I might wake up in an hour with a hangover so I think I will post the other pictures tomorrow. :-)

Vive la France!!

Rozoy Rocks...

2008-09-22T11:19:00.006-05:00

So there was no sex trade to sell me off to so feel free to breath the sigh of relief I am sure you have been holding. I'm back and safe and sound! Turns out I didn't even have the right story with the other two guesses either. H, who owns the house and garden now, inherited them from her Grandmother. Her Great Aunt (Grandmother's sister) still lives in the town. She came over and had lunch with us both days. They said she was 97!! She walked over from her house without a cane and seemed to be all together. Man, what a lady...I tried to speak with her a little, she was so sweet and very easy to understand. I think the older generations here are much easier to understand, they speak slow and seem to really enunciate their words.

Here is the house...

It was built in the 18th century. Crazy eh? So about the time the Declaration of Independence was declaring my country a country; they were putting up wall paper. H said that much of the house was built using older materials taken from older houses, so the wood used for the stairs and some of the floors dates back to the early 1700's and maybe 1600's. Nutty. It's just so strange to wrap your mind around the time.

I stayed on the 3rd floor with my Brit friend Karen, there were 6 of us and there were multiple beds in the upper room so we decided to camp out together. Every time my feet would walk down the stairs (barefoot because I am completely aware of my propensity to slide down stairs on my arse when I try to walk down them with socks) I would wonder how many other feet had touched them. They were beautiful. I tried to capture the warmth that the stairs held, but I don't think the pictures do them justice of course. I don't know why I was so captured by the stairs. I loved how smooth they were from the wear of over 200 years of use. If you look at the pictures you might be able to see that in many places the nails showed through and were worn as smooth as the wood that surrounded them. Sometimes I would see a scar in the wood and make up a story of how I thought I was made. Maybe a young girl was trying to carry a tray of food up to third floor for her sick uncle and dropped it. When the tray hit the soft wood on the second floor it scared the wood it's still there today.

The house had a great back yard with a bridge made out of concrete and cave built into the side of the house that kids could play in. When H was a child she and her sister drew buffalo cave drawings on the raw rock and mud walls. You could still see two of them. I would have done the same...

I can't seem to upload anymore photos so I will have to post others tomorrow...I will make sure to include the cave as the first one!

We worked in the garden that she has on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. It's about two blocks from the main house. The garden is a lot that backs up to an old church and what used to be a castle with three towers. It is nestled in at the bottom of a slop that the church sits on and where the castle used to be and is in the shape of an L. There were tons of apple trees that were just bursting with fruit. As I type this I am wondering what all I can cook with all the apples I have. I have a few ideas, one of the girls there AS, she is an amazing cook and we had apple tart, apple cake, chicken with apples and even red cabbage and apples made by Karen!

We worked really hard in the garden and ate fantastic food all weekend. It made me wish to live in a simpler time, where people worried about keeping their land and storing enough food to survive the winter, not failing economies and wars in other countries. I know it must have been very hard, but they all had focus. Even if the focus was just to get a crop in. Ah, I have been reading too much Diana Gabaldon and her Outlander series. But if you have read the books, I did feel a bit like Claire working in her garden while Jamie (Cyriaque) was off hunting...although Jamie didn't hunt in China (where Cyr currently is) and Claire didn't have a hot shower to go back to. Now that I think about it, 2008 has been one the best years of my life. I think I'll stay...

A weekend trip!!

2008-09-18T16:02:00.006-05:00

I received a really nice surprise when I read my emails yesterday. You might recall that I went to my first cocktail party in France about a week ago (sorry...not sure how to link to that dur...) and made some new friends. Well...one of the girls invited me to spend the weekend in Rozoy with a few of the other girls! "H" has a Great Aunt in Rozoy and every year she makes a trip with friends to the property to help clear the garden of weeds. Either that or she inherited the land from the Great Aunt and wants to clear it for herself. Or I could be on my way to being sold into the sex trade. Only time will tell, check in Monday I guess.

The good news is that I know the other girls that are going and I really like them all. As I type this I have my camera battery charging and am thinking of what to pack. I was told to bring sheets and boots. No problem!! I have both of those! Not sure the "boots" are what she meant though, my work boots are brown cowboy boots. I'm sure they look just like hers, or her Great Aunt's. Oh well, as a continuation of the previous post I guess I am just determined to bring my own style to France. "Tex goes a-gardening" might be the next post you read.

I think it's about 2.5 hours away from Lille. I am going to dinner with one of the girls tonight and staying at her place. Tomorrow the group will pick us up at 9am and we will head off to have a quick weekend in the countryside. I'm looking forward to this for a few reasons; 1) I get to see a new part of France, 2) I get to spend time outdoors AND getting exercise, 3) new friends, yeah! Of course I could end up feeling completely awkward, be allergic to everything, have an asthma attack, get eaten by strange French bugs, get a horribly ugly sunburn/tan line and look like a freak at my wedding and generally have a completely awful time while feeling like an outcast. But let's not think of that. Let's focus on those first 3 good things.

1999 Called....

2008-09-18T16:02:00.005-05:00

...and they want their baggy pants and man undies back!

These cool cats were on the train this past weekend from Paris to Lille. I cropped their faces to protect the innocent and avoid a lawsuit. I love people that can walk around in something completely different than the rest of the world and not be self conscious. I don't think I could pull this look off. Maybe because I never really understood this look. The "check out how big I can wear my pants are and please also notice my underwear, they are clean" look. I don't get it, I thought men would want to show how big and manly they are. Not that they can't find pants that fit. To me it mostly says "these are my big brothers pants and someday I hope to be able to fit in them!"

NO, I don't think everyone should dress the way I do. I think that would be boring. So if any of you out there are actual wearers-of-baggy-pants-that-show-underwear, you keep sporting your style my friend. Keep the world colorful, wear some fun undies for us. I like the plaid idea...hey, maybe it's growing on me now that I think about it.

Truth be told I am probably in one of these guys' blogs wearing a brightly colored shirt. I stand alone in Lille and wear my bright colors (occasionally) while others wear their black, grays and browns. I too like to be a little different.

As I finish this post I find myself less disliking the clothes and more admiring their attitude. I should be less self conscious about what I choose to wear. Why is it that I don't dress how I did in the US? Seriously, not once have I donned a baseball cap, shorts and tennies and left the house. The times when I do wear a bright shirt I wear black boots so calm it down a bit. I wear black shoes 80% of the time just like the rest of Lille. I guess I don't want to feel like I'm sticking out in the crowd. Ewe, I sound like a lemming. Oh man, I hope everyone doesn't jump off a bridge...

Tomorrow I am wearing color. And I'm not wearing black shoes. I'm a rebel.

A few things German

2008-09-17T13:24:00.010-05:00

It's a little after the fact...but here is a short blog about my trip to Munich last week.

I arrived on Monday and my friends picked me up at the airport. From there we went to pick up their little cousin S who is one of the most beautiful children I have ever seen. I think she is 6 years old and has the face of an angel. Once we picked her up from school we did what all good people do while looking after a small child, we went to a beer garden. There we grabbed our huge mugs, washed them in the fountain located by the rack of glasses (my friend promises they are already clean but people just like to wash them off, plus it makes the glass colder for the beer) and take them to be filled with the hoppy goodness that is German lager.

Once our beers have been poured we then saunter over to buy a huge pretzel and two fish on a stick. They still have the heads on them and though I did feel like the pink one was watching me pick away at his insides, they were actually very tasty. The saltyness of the fish and pretzels went perfect with the cold brew. Check it out...
Bordering the beer garden was a fence that had some deer in it. Here is one of the pretzel loving animals. I believed she posed especially nice for this photo and managed to let us all know what she thought of the damn fence. "But thanks for the pretzel." I'm sure she would add.
Once finished with our beers we headed to the city center after dropping S off at her mother's house. One of the first things I saw was this angular fortress-like building. It didn't fit the surroundings, it was strong looking and not inviting. The first word I thought of was "defensive".

Then I saw the doors as we approached.

It's a synagogue my friend told me. Actually it's the Ohel Jakob Synagogue
located where another Jewish place of worship stood but was destroyed in 1938 by the Nazis. It was really a site. So strong. It didn't shout it's message, but instead seemed to quietly and without doubt say, "This is a safe place for all who enter." It was simple, yet very moving. Some people had left prayers between the stones as if it was the Western Wall (the Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem where many Jews go to mourn the destruction of the first Holy Temple and offer prayers written on paper placed in the cracks of the stones. The symbols on the door represent the 10 commandments I read. Cyr got some much better photos, but of course...they are on his computer or in his camera and not within my reach at the moment.

So alas I leave you with the thought of the Ohel Jakob Synagog. A place that is new but represents something very old. A belief that countless numbers of people died for and that some are still persecuted for today. I hope this building will live up to it's appearance and be a safe and protecting place for those that remember, along with being a reminder of things that should never happen again. To anyone.

Braderie Review

2008-09-16T03:56:00.008-05:00

First, before I tell you about the Braderie I would like to say "miss you" to my blog friend "Le Tigre" out there. I go to Munich for a week and you have taken your blog off line! Email me when you can, or post...we newbies have to stick together.

SO! The Braderie (which happened the first weekend of September) was great! I really do think that the estimated 2 million visitors came to the event. There was everything you could imagine...new things, old things, crazy things, fantastic local food vendors, and beer. Fantastic beer sold on the street in plastic cups so that you didn't break anything and could walk around while sipping. Here is our grand place with a few tents. It seemed that all the streets downtown were lined with vendors. There were miles of them...not exaggerating!

Here is my first picture that I thought was funny. People were crowded around this table and I just had to know why. What was such a great deal? Ah, yes. Converse...the crack cocaine of the French casual shoe world. They are friggin crazy expensive here. They thought this was a good price, I had to take a photo.

Back home Target sells them for $20-$30 a pair. As you can see, these are 70 euro, which converts to about $105 a pair. I should stock up on my next trip.

An then there are the moules, known as mussels in the US. The food item of the Braderie weekend is moules and frites. That is steamed mussels with a bowl of French fries on the side. Mmmmm...fantastic!! Many of the restaurants take the shells and pile them outside the restaurant to show how many they sell. There is a competition amongst the owners. Not sure who won, but this picture was taken on Sunday morning, they still had the rest of the day ahead of them!

Known fact: France is not exactly customer oriented.
Example: Our friend Crystal wanted just an order of fries. They would not sell them to her. She HAD to order moules with her fries. Think of this...they could have charged her more, she was willing to pay. There were three of us, after she had her conversation (she is French so she could tell them what she thought) we left and found a place that would attempt the very difficult task of separating the fries from the moules.

Here is some kind of pita with some kind of meat in it that I ate. I always have them put the samurai sauce on anything that I can. It's like a mayo based spicy reddish sauce. The first time I ordered it the man told me "It very spicy!" Cyr said; "she's from Texas, she can handle it." Oh yes, I can handle it. Really frites are just a vehicle that enables me to consume the samurai sauce.

Notice the little red fork? They love these, you get them with fries when you order from the baraque a frite (french fry sales guy on wheels, like a French mobile taco stand). So cultured, you don't get your hands dirty! Well, I do of course, but that's me...

I didn't find my bicycle, but I did find some cute gifts for folks and two great scarves that were 2 euro a piece. The weather was great Saturday but on Sunday it rained off an on. It didn't seem to bother many though, people were out in force again. One thing I love about the French is that they don't seem to get bothered much by the crowds. This picture was taken Saturday at what seemed like the busiest time. The streets were packed. Sometimes at certain areas you had to take baby steps and make it through a narrow passage until it thinned out. But not once did I hear someone yell "mooooove people!" in French. We all just packed in and ambled along. There was shoving, but not shouting or frustration. I guess everyone here is used to standing in lines and living with a million folks around them.

It was a great weekend. I hope next year we get TWO sunny days to enjoy it. Not all the streets are so crowded either. The best ones, with all the used junk, are in the back of the city and the sides. Easily walkable from the grand place and sure to have many hidden treasures. And of course great food and beer...

Hurricane Ike

2008-09-15T05:59:00.002-05:00

As most of you have read, I am a Houstonian transplant here in Lille, France. Most of my family in friends live in Houston and are now either weathering the aftermath of Ike without electricity or have scampered off to other cities to avoid the hassle.

From the looks of the pictures I have seen in the news and the internet, Galveston was just devastated. It sounds like my family is alright though. My Mom went to San Antonio and is staying with friends. I hope she stays there for the rest of the week at least. Word is my little pink house has survived without any obvious damage. Everything I read says that roads are blocked with trees, electricity is out in most of the city, gas is scarce, ice is rare and some fo the stores are price gouging and selling bags of potato chips for $10. Bastards...

Dad, Sandy and my half brother Ralph weathered the storm at their house that is about 30 minutes north of Houston. They lost electricity on Saturday and have been told it could be 3 or 4 weeks before it is turned on. Everyone clap your hands for propane grills and my step-mothers propensity to pack her freezer for a two month shut in! Sandy's son is coming down all the way from Minnesota with a generator that they can use to power the garage apartment. And yes, they are smart enough to ventilate it so they don't all die from carbon monoxide poisoning. So far one child has died because his parents put the generator in the garage.

I hope everyone I know and love is safe. So far everyone I have emailed with or spoken too has just missed the worst. Two houses on my Dad's street were badly damaged with trees coming through the roves. I'm so glad his house is ok, with his healing broken arm and other things I don't know how he could have handled it! Thank goodness Ralph is there to help out. He is such a great guy. I have tons of photos and plan to blog everyday this week to tell you all about the fun things I did last week, but I don't feel right boasting about my good times today when so many are having to worry about their lives right now back home in Texas.

My prayers are with you all in the affected areas. I especially hope the Torres family in Groves (Port Neches) is ok, I think you guys were in a pretty hard hit area.

Hugs from Lille...

Word of the Day

2008-09-10T16:20:00.004-05:00

Asfahrt.

Just say it. Please? You have to. Say it out loud!! Asfahrt. If you are not smilling right now then something could be wrong. That is the most fun word! I see it all the time in Munich. It means "exit".

Things are good here but if I were the bride I would have freaked out a few times already. The people she ordered the appetisers from for the vin d'honour took her order, she confirmed Monday, then they called her cell Monday afternoon and told her they could not do it because they had another party. WHAT?? They confirmed her two weeks ago and that morning! But problem solved with another place and a fantastic family. Her sisters are making the food now and I bet it will be fantastic.

Well, I am going to asfahrt this post and head to get some rest for tomorrow. Hehe...

Oh...I tried on a traditional Bavarian dress today, with the pushed up boobs and everything! I looked like I should be bringing very large beers to people. Promise to post the picture next week.

Gutentag!! (??)

2008-09-09T07:54:00.002-05:00

The Braderi was amazing!! I have a bunch of great pictures that I am going to post when I return. But...no new bicycle though...darn it!!

I´m in Munich right now on a short vacation. Some friends of ours are getting married here on Saturday and the bride invited me up early so I could help her out and see the city a bit. So far it has really been a great time, though I do wish Cyr was here. He is at home in Lille being responsible and working.

I will try to post a bit this week if I get a chance, but I might just wait until I return on Monday. Right now I am taking a break and waiting for my friend in an internet cafe. I have already gotten some really cool shots of a beer garden we went to. They had wild life. I mean what else does one need? We had beer, pretzel, grilled fish (with heads still on of course) and deer! Love it...

Braderie Weekend in Lille!!

2008-09-05T13:25:00.002-05:00

This weekend is the famous Braderie in Lille!!

I'm going to look for a new bike to purchase. One that is old, with character. Then I will buy a HUGE lock so no one will steal her. I bet I see my old bike there...grrr...

Here is a blurb about the Braderie:

The flea market’s origins remain a bit of a mystery. In the Middle Ages, servants obtained the right to sell their masters’ old possessions once a year. This custom soon combined with Lille’s fair, where the town’s inhabitants, as well as foreigners, could freely sell their goods.

Moreover, in the 15th century, two poultry merchants had the great idea to “provide meat” for the fair-goers. They obtained the right to sell their products to the passers-by and the buyers who were already numerous at that time. Braden, Flemish for roast, may be the term that gave the flea market its name.

Of course, in French, “brader” also means “to sell at a low price” and it is well known that you can sell and buy anything at the Lille flea market: antiques, clothes, jewellery, decorative objects, etc!

Transformed into one gigantic pedestrian zone, the city offers treasure hunters and visitors alike a vast number of stalls and buying opportunities in a friendly atmosphere governed by the rhythm of the swarming crowd. Ever since the Middle Ages, the tradition has lived on, and today, the Lille flea market remains the most awaited event of the fall season.

I'll post about my fantastic findings on Monday!

My First Cocktail Party in France

2008-09-02T06:57:00.003-05:00

I think I forgot to mention, but Cyr and I went to a cocktail party last Saturday. After spending time over my morning coffee thinking about which black dress to wear I decided to ask Cyr what the invite said the dress-code was. I figured it would be a bit dressy (as France is a dressy country to me), basically what in the US we call "After Five" dress.

"It's black tie." He says. Completely serious.
Huh?
Wha...really?
"Are people wearing tuxedos and formals?!" I ask.
"No" says Cyr; "I am wearing a suit. The girls just wear nice dresses."

Well what do you know, it's like a 1970's adult dress up party!! I felt the urge to go look for some AquaNet and a Jackie O type dress. I settled on a black satiny number and added pearls as an homage to Jackie. My mother would have been so proud! The translation of "black tie" wasn't what it is back home (thank goodness). No one wore a tux, just a sort of dressy after 5 really. Cyr has all the pictures and is in Scotland until Friday morning, but I will post a few if I remember.

The party was actually pretty fun. The people were very nice. We arrived and found our way through a maze of hallways with the aid of a friend who had to come down to get us. Once there, it turned out to be a small apartment with Champagne and Mojitos flowing. The later in the evening it got, the more they flowed. The funny thing was that when the only bottle of rum left was Bacardi, everyone agreed that there would be no more Mojitos, "Because all we have is Bacardi." They say matter-of-factly. Then everyone sighs and nods their heads in agreement. Apparently everyone is aware that Bacardi white label is crap. Well it ain't no Caribbean rum that's for sure. But people...you are mixing it with mint, sugar and lemon-lime! How much can you really taste I think to myself. Maybe it's how much you feel the next morning, not how much you taste the night of. Ahh..me thinks I understand now.

I love that there were people from all over the world there. I talked with people from Estonia, Hungary, Benin, Italy, Sweden, different areas of France and a Brit! Cyr met a group of them on the train he takes to work in the morning. They all speak English too which is nice. I did practice my French though. There was probably about 15 or so people there throughout the evening. At one point there was dancing in a little space by the stereo. If you know me you will know that I did in fact participate in this cultural ritual where the women all dance together. At times this primitive behavior bothers me, but after an aperitif of Champagne and a Mojito (with good rum I might add) I had a hard time finding fault with it. I mean hey, I wanted to dance.

I ended up making some new friends and am going to have dinner with one this week while Cyr is out of town. The best thing was that on Sunday I wasn't too bad off. But I tell you, one more Mojito with the white label Bacardi and it would have been a pretty uncomfortable Sunday I bet. Cheers to limiting the Mojitos!! Or is that Mojitoes?

Pictures of my other bikes...

2008-09-01T14:03:00.006-05:00

...that have not been stolen.

I had a request to show you my other bikes and since I love my girls I wanted to share, but alas I can not find a picture of Lana in her element!! So alas she is pictured below pouting in our storage unit. Here is Blue Bell, she's a Fuji, this picture was taken after the last Houston-Austin MS150 I did in 2007. It's with a bandanna that has my friend's mother's name on it. Doris, now my friend too, has MS and I wrote her name on the red bandanna so she could ride with me in spirit. She helped me get through the 162 miles I logged on the way to Austin.

Lana is a Turner 5-Spot. I used to live in Sedona, AZ where the single track is AMAZING. I don't get to ride her enough any more but I can't bare to part with her. She was the first bike I spent some real money on and had her built from the frame up. I don't deserve a bike as good as Lana, but she makes me look good! I joke that I should have named her Tina because I am so rough on her, but I thought that was just mean. She has sexy pink hubs and matching headset so I settled on Lana. Lana really misses Sedona, and her best friend Bonnie. (Bonnie is a person, not another bike.)

And her is a picture of our key to the storage unit. I love that France still uses these old looking keys. They sure do take up a lot of room though. I wanted to post the picture because you never see keys like this in Houston any more!!

Oh - and my date! We had a great time today. We walked for an hour! Lillian showed me the Hippodrome just down the road. I thought it was a sports arena, but it's a horse track! We walked around the track a little too. It was so pretty. I plan to walk back and take pictures later this week. She said they have races on Monday evenings and you can sit in the stands and just watch for no fee. Wow, I have been to the races in Houston, but I remember having to buy a ticket for a few bucks to get in. Who knows...maybe my new friend is actually a handicapper! The exciting new friendship will only be revealed in later blogs. Stay tuned to find out if indeed I become an apprentice to France's best horse race master handicapper...

Interesting Facts, Interesting Evening

2008-08-29T10:37:00.004-05:00

So last night Cyr and I did the picnic thing, which turned out to be pretty cool. We showed up bringing fruit and others brought quiches, cheeses and other assorted goodies. We ate our fill then rode our bikes along with the group to the movie theater. We saw a British film called "Be Happy". I really liked it. Not much of a story, just the theme that one chooses to be happy or not. I completely agree with this. When life happens and things occur, you choose how you react. You can be angry, aloof or slightly entertained all by the same happening. Read on...

Before I get to my theory of Conscious Optimism (as I have just named it) I would like to post an observation about French movies and movie theaters. The first is the need for the French to retitle something in French, even if it isn't necessary. It's as if they have to change the title to sort of make it their own by saying; "We do not sink zat ewe can make a good title, so wee do zis for you. D'accord?" Take for instance a few titles they have changed;

"Knight Rider" - "K2000" Please don't Hassel the Hoff...
"Happy-Go-Lucky" - "Be Happy" notice the new title is in English?
"The Departed" - "Les Infiltres" Translated: "The Infiltrators"
"The Dukes of Hazzard" - "Sherif fait moi peur!" Translated: "Sherif, I dare you to scare me!" This one is my personal favorite as "The Dukes" are the people, their last name being "Duke" and "Hazzard" is the county where they live...so it should be the same no?

Another thing I find interesting is that at the end of the movie they don't turn the lights on. The whole audience sits there and watches the credits. This I don't actually mind and sometimes it's fun to see if my favorite gaffer or grip was on the shoot, but sometimes I need to run to the ladies room and it's all dark. Maybe this is a good thing though, this way all those folks who worked their butts off for George Clooney and other celebs can be recognized. Just an observation...something different.

So at the end of the evening, after we have given everyone kisses goodnight, I hear Cyr say; "Hey, I don't see your bike." Yes...you are correct...someone stole my BRAND NEW BICYCLE!! It was only the third time I had ridden it! I didn't even get to take a picture of it! It was locked up and someone just came along with some clippers and snapped the lock in two. I have to say though, I was super duper glad it was just my city bike and not my road or mountain bike. I would be all kinds of torn up if Blue Bell or Lana went missing. An APB would have been put out to all points! And since APB probably doesn't translate it would have been a rough evening.

Since it was 11:00pm when we made the discovery we were able to walk to the tram station and take the tram home. The sad thing was that they cut the lock, took my bike, but left Cyr's there. Poor guy, he has such a battered bike the thieves didn't even want it. I was a little offended for him. Funny thing was, I was never really upset or mad about it. I'm following the example of Poppy in the movie (who by the way, gets her bike stolen too) and not going to let it tarnish my optimism. I can choose to be pissed off and angry, but instead I am choosing to believe that the person that stole my Black Beauty really needed it. I think that this thief, who is a good person forced to do a bad thing, will ride Beauty to pick up medicine from a pharmacy far-far away, that he could never have gotten to on foot, to pick up a cure for his extremely sick child who would parish without it. So in fact, it is a good thing my bike is gone. It is serving a higher purpose.

Of course I would be hunting the bastard down if he had stolen one of my other bikes. One can only be so optimistic you know...

I have a date!

2008-08-28T10:18:00.003-05:00

With the cutest little French lady you have ever seen. I met Lillian today as I was walking out of our apartment to buy some fruit. We started chatting and it turned out she was going to the same market. We walked together and discovered that she and her husband were from the same town as Cyr, they retired here to Lille and that she liked to walk. The conversation went like this:

"Do you like to marche (walk)?"
"Oh, oui! J'aime bien marcher." (Oh yes, I like to walk) I say.
She then tells me "There are lots of places to walk to in Lille."
"Really?" I say.
"Ba oui!" she says. (I love "Ba oui", it's like saying "heck yeah". Or at least that is how I like to translate it.)

So now I have a walking date with my new friend for Monday!

When we came back with our fruit she invited me up to see her place. Quite lovely! She's has the same apartment on the same floor as we do just one building over. It has a little different makeup but the floor plan is the same. She also showed me pictures of her kids and grandchildren. I would have invited her over to see ours but I was doing laundry which means I have things hanging all over the house. Guess I will be cleaning up this weekend for my new friend Lillian's visit Monday morning. We agreed that she would ring me Monday and we would go for a walk and I can practice my French. I hope she isn't an early bird. What if she rings at like 8:30?! She is quite progressive though, she gave me her email address! She probably has a Facebook account too.

Well wouldn't you know it; I was a little grumpy this morning, now I'm all chipper again and looking forward to Monday. Just to be safe I think I will send her an email suggesting 10am. That sounds like a good walk time. Tonight Cyr and I are going to take our bikes and meet some people he knows for a picnic and a movie. We are bringing the fruit I just purchased. I think I might have to declare this "Susan-meets-new-friends Day" because I have not met any of the folks we are going out with tonight either. I hope I like them as much as I like Lillian!

Busy or Not Busy?

2008-08-26T10:52:00.003-05:00

Well we had a great weekend. Cyriaque's friend from London, Alex and Kate, are just great. We showed them around Lille and then went to Brugges for a day. It's so close, it's the easiest place to show folks once they have been around Lille. Although you could spend a few days in Lille and it would not be a problem there is so much to see. The only problem is that France is closed on Sunday, but Belgium is open! Not all, but most of the shops in Belgium are open Sunday so you can walk around and see things, go into museums and things of that nature. We actually just walked along the canals and ate and drank all day. It was quite lovely really...

Yesterday Cyr thought he was going to have to go to Libya but the trip was canceled so we were able to spend the afternoon together at the house. Last night I remembered that I really needed to get the hotel information together to send out to all the people that are invited to the wedding. So although all day I didn't do much, I started working around 8pm and was up until midnight. Then when I went to bed my mind would not turn off and all I could do was lie there and think about all the other things I need to get done this week. It so odd, sometimes I feel like I have too much to do, then a few hours later I will feel like I can't wait to be able to work because I don't have enough to do. What is that? How can I have to completely opposing thoughts within hours of each other? I think I am in denial about how much I have to do actually. The big thing is that I want to try to have my invitations in the mail on September 1st. I have them all stuffed and ready to go in the US, I just need to make an insert with hotel info/directions and things.

I'm just not feeling very entertaining the last few days. I have lost my wit somewhere. I'm just not feeling at all witty or funny and nothing interesting is happening right now. I'm sure it will pass. I have been wanting to post, but everything I think of just sounds so boring. I just typed this up because I wanted you all to know I'm still alive over here.

Oh - I did find the beginners workbook to the series I have that is Intermediate French. I'm doing to do a few lessons a day and try to really learn the basics. I jumped in so fast I missed some of the simple things. But I can now talk in the past tense! Woohoo!

Here is a picture of my best friend in Lille; Olga. She moved back to Canada. Damn it...

I miss you Olga!!

Visitors!

2008-08-22T10:45:00.003-05:00

We have friends in town today until Monday. Cyr's friend Alex and his wife Kate are here for the weekend. They live in London and are so much fun. We are planning to hang out in Lille and maybe make a side trip to Bruges.

I'm gathering pictures though and should have some good posts next week. I think I spent all this week cleaning up and getting ready for our guests today. I like to pretend I keep a clean house when folks come over. Hehe...it's actually pretty neat, but when visitors come I like to have everything in place. Very un-Susan-like of me I know. I must be nesting...NO...not because of anything, just because.

I did just read a really good book. I started and finished it in one day. It's by Paulo Coelho who wrote one of my favorite books; The Alchemist. It's called Veronica Decides to Die. I love it, I recommend it to anyone who likes to read. I think I might have to add it my list of favorites. Others include Blink by Malcom Gladwell, The Alchemist (already mentioned) and as a guilty pleasure The Outlander series. I just finished the last one and feel that I have lost a group of friends!! I love books, feel free to suggest any you feel I should read. Without a work permit I finally have time to read...

Interesting Facts about France

2008-08-19T13:55:00.006-05:00

France does many, many things very well. They have the best food, wine and being close to Belgium some of the best beer I have ever had. I even love some of their movies (will get into this at another date). One thing I think rather interesting though, is that they have HUGE microphones for anyone who is on a game show or interview session.

I know, sounds crazy. But it's true!! You watch any game show and they all have on these over the ear, wrap around the head microphones. It's like they have not gotten the notice about the small black one that clips to ones lapel. Seriously folks, are you using this as a fashion devise? They mostly look like this:

I don't know why I find this so amusing, but I do. The land of large microphones...this is where I live. Has anyone else noticed this interesting fact? Come on Le Tigre and Leesa...I know you have...

Back to France

2008-08-17T10:59:00.002-05:00

Well, I made it back safely to Lille. The flight was good, at least this time my tv wasn't broken like on the way over. It was also pretty smooth, but I couldn't sleep much and when I finally arrived home I was pretty tired. I ended up cheating on the whole jet lag thing and took a nap. I know everyone says "don't nap, make yourself stay up and then go to bed at the proper time so your body can adjust." Well, I also went to bed at 10pm and slept all night so I guess the nap didn't affect me much!

The trip was a little more fun this time because I was carrying my wedding dress in a HUGE white garment bag. Everyone kept saying "oh, are you getting married?!" and I got to tell them "Yes" and usually a little about my story. It was really fun and kind of exciting. I was a bit jealous though, my dress rode in first class while I was back in coach. Granted, it was in the closet, but I bet we both had about as much room! Actually Air France seems to do pretty well these days. I had a window seat for the first time, I typically ride in the aisle, and it was pretty comfy. I like being able to lean against the window and try to sleep. I used to fly almost every week for work and always had the window but with the international flight I typically take the aisle.

I called Cyr to let him know I was almost to the train station and he responded with "what car?" When I got onto the platform I looked up and saw a grinning bald man running toward me. I was in the last car, he said he saw the big white bag and knew it was me. We ran to each other and hugged and kissed. It is France after all, everyone kisses in public here. It was so sweet, I was so happy and relieved to see him, I immediately felt at home again.

Saturday we went and bought me a city bike. Cyr has one, but I just have my mountain and road bike. I can't really ride those around town. I guess I could ride my mountain bike, but it's a really nice one and too expensive to risk loosing. It's a custom Turner 5-spot, I used to live in Sedona, AZ and ride all the time. I'll post a picture next time, but I got the cutest little black and silver city bike with a basket and a bell!! We also bought a bike rack so we can take our other bikes places. I'm so excited about this, I really miss riding and can't wait to get some long ones in over the next few weeks. We installed the bike rack in the parking lot so we could take the bike home. Once we got the bike on the rack we realised that there was a strong possibility that it might hit the lights or the roof. The way the bike is shaped it sits really high in the rack and the ceilings are pretty low. No F-150's in this place for sure. So...Cyr drove the car and I followed him thought the garage. We finally found and exit and he paid and drove under the gate. I tried to follow and I feel something stop me and crash into my chest and arms. The gate got me! The wind was a little knocked out of me, but I ducked and was able to get under it. I then followed Cyr up the exit ramp still shocked that I was attacked by the gate. He pulled over so we could load the bike and asked if I was alright. I was, I think I mostly bruised my pride, but my body was fine. We loaded up and went home.

Then we did the most fun thing...we both road our bikes into town. We road to the movie theater to check times and saw a movie, I don't even know what it was because although it was a Hollywood film that was played in English, the subtitles and title of the movie were in French. Jason Statham was in it, they robbed a bank. I love a bald hero-villain!! When we came out we then road around and found a place to eat, locked up our bikes, ate and had fantastic beers with dinner then road home in the dark!! My bike has a light on the front of it but the paths are so well lit you don't really need one, but I think it helps. It was so fun! I didn't even feel bad about eating desert because the ride home is uphill, and I forgot to be self-conscious about the fact that I'm sure someone said "hey - isn't that the girl in the white shirt that was hit by the parking gate?" There was after all a line behind us... When we got home we both decided that we would have to do that more often. We are only about 10 minutes from downtown, just enough to have an enjoyable ride but too long to walk. We typically take the tram or car, but now I think we will take the bikes when we can. What a great first weekend back.

50th Post

2008-08-14T11:09:00.002-05:00

Wow...I saw on my dashboard that this is my 50th post. I guess a lot has happened in the last 5 months or so. Right now I'm rushing to get packed and to the airport. I'm headed back to my new home in Lille. I have been so busy here though I feel like I have not been able to complete everything, but I have to get back and get to work on things in Lille too.

I was able to spend some good time with my Dad and step Mom Sandy. Dad has not been feeling too well and so I was also able to go with him to some doctors appointment and be my pushy self and ask all the questions I wanted to the doctors. Although Dad and Sandy seem to ask what I want to know, it was nice to be there. It's times like this that I wish I could be here and help more.

I also was able to solve the frustrating issue of wedding invitations. Le Tigre, you would be proud!! I ended up being so frustrated I decided to make my own. My good friend Milton suggested Arnies Wholesale and I was able to buy invitation kits with invites, envelopes, response cards, response envelopes all for about 1/4 the price of the already made and just ran them through my printer. I have been up till 2am the last 2 nights getting the US ones done so Mom just has to put labels on them and drop them in the mail. And you know what...I really like them! I picked out ecru cards with a simple straight boarder. I printed a French one, English one, put holes in the top and ran a ribbon through it so they are tied back to back. Not bad!

I think it's really hitting me that I actually live in France. I have my family here, and for the first time I feel like they actually need me and I could be helping them and I'm not here. I hate that. I love Lille and I want to make my life there (for now) with Cyr but at the same time I...for the first time ever...think I'm sad to leave Houston.

I'll miss you Mom. I'll miss helping you out Dad and Sandy. I know things won't be that easy for a while, but I'll be back when I can and if anything goes wrong I can always hop a flight home. Love to all my friends that I didn't get to see too. So many people I wanted to spend time with that I didn't. I guess since I'm getting married it just seems a little different to leave. The next time I return to Houston I will be Susan M, no longer Susan W. Huh, just a little upside down I guess. Ha...never thought of that...

Love you Texas, see you soon France!!

A Texas Weekend

2008-08-10T23:39:00.004-05:00

Well, the weekend has come to an end, but it's been a good one. I leave this Thursday and had a crazy amount of things to get done over the last week, and I think I accomplished most of them. I saw my Dad last week and will see him again tomorrow, and then Saturday I saw my brother. Ralph is my half brother and is 15 years older than me. Actually, I think that is about the same age difference that Cyr has with his younger brother C (I don't put his name here because I have not asked him if that is ok and I wouldn't want to offend him). Cyr and his brother are very close and get along great. Ralph and I get along great, we just don't see each other often enough. We never lived in the same house growing up, and with the age difference our lives were just pretty different. But Saturday we made the effort, went out and had a great time.

It was really fun! We went to eat Mexican food then went country western dancing. He loves to dance and is a really good two stepper. I love to dance too and am pretty good as well. I'll dance to anything; two-step, polka, waltz, whatever! It's great going with Ralph because we always have someone to dance with. Just to answer some of those thoughts people have...NO, we do not line dance in Texas. Why people think line dancing is actual dancing is beyond me, I just think it's so funny! Last summer when Cyr and I went to visit his mother and brother we saw a group of people wearing t-shirts with American flags on them that were line dancing to country music outside of a restaurant. It was the evenings entertainment. It was pretty funny actually, apparently they traveled and did this dance thing! I think Cyr's mom took some pictures, I should ask her to email them to me so I can post them. Right now I'm trying to study a little French so I can send her an email in French without looking like an idiot. She is really nice though, I'm sure it wouldn't be a big deal if I messed it all up. I'll probably email Cyr to check it first though, just in case...

Weathering the Storm

2008-08-07T09:10:00.003-05:00

Well the hurricane, or tropical storm as it turned out to be, was a complete dud. There was a little rain, but that was about it. All the news stations were extremely excited about this potential threat and canceled all the programming and would show different newbie meteorologists around town who would give reports. Most went like this:

This is (whoever) reporting from north Houston and as you can see...it's raining. I want you to look at the water gathering here so you can get an idea of how much is coming down. (Camera then focuses on a water puddle no more than half an inch deep.) As you can see, there is water gathering here, it's even running through the streets into the storm gutters. Back to you guys in the station.

Since the whole Catrina/Rita thing no one wants to be caught underestimating any sort of disaster I guess. Most businesses were closed, many of them closed the day before to let people get their homes prepared for the storm. The signs on the freeway blinked "Storm forming in Gulf, fill your gas tanks". It was all very exciting for a while! Having been through a few big storms I'm glad it fell apart and turned out to be only a light rain, but I wish the media would have stopped trying to sensationalize the day of not-so-bad effects.

Today I'm going to try to find wedding invitations. I found some that I love, but when they told me they would be $700 for 100 of them I had to laugh. People...really...it's paper. What a racket this wedding thing is! Everything is crazy expensive. So I'm off to find some acceptable invitations today (if such a thing does in fact exist). Is it tacky to send an evite?

Showers, Wedding and Tropical Storm

2008-08-04T21:39:00.003-05:00

I had my first wedding shower!! I know these things are totally dorky, that they are typically only fun for the bride, but hey, I'm the bride! It was mostly family there, but my Mom and cousins who threw the shower know some friends of mine so a few friends were invited as well. It was so interesting to see all these people mix together.

So in case you don't know, I have a very eclectic group of friends and family. Many people may say this, but I'm actually serious. Many of my friends are not friends with each other, and many of my family members don't really talk to each other. Time goes by and you build your life around a few people and before you know it, you have not spoken to someone in three years. It happens. You don't mean it to, but it happens. Maybe this is why I was so touched that all these people from different parts of my life showed up.

I had childhood friends like Brandy, my high school representative Missy, college was Amanda then came present day with Lori and Shari. Family was represented from not only my mother's side, but from cousins on my Dad's side like Pam and Cheryl. Friends I have known my whole life like Courtney and Susan B. Most of these people don't know each other, some of them came alone, not knowing who would be there. But they were there. They came to this strange place to sit around and talk to people they don't know because they care about me. Or at least that is what I like to think. It doesn't sound like much, but maybe if you take in the whole thing it really was. They did this little thing for me, just for me. It wasn't convenient, it wasn't a promise of fun, just a promise that it would mean something to me. And it did. Thank you all that came. Sorry to all that my family didn't know to invite. There will be other times for you to sacrifice and show your love to me! Just kidding...I hope...

I can't help but reflect on family and friends right now. To think of all the things that I know I have been upset about in the past and to I know that most of those things are trivial. Maybe someone made a bad decision in the past, but today, right now, if they are here for me, how can I fault them? Maybe some things can not be forgiven, but maybe some can. As I have all these sentimental thoughts of how I love all my family and friends, I am watching the news off an on.

"Welcome Home Susan!" screams every channel. There is a hurricane set to hit Houston tomorrow morning and all you hear about on tv or radio is about Hurricane Edouard. Nice spelling eh? Must be some weather guy's relative. The channel we are watching now is running an "Eye on the Gulf" all night. How exciting. Yeah, I pick a week to come home, and it's a good one eh? Well at least I got to know again that feeling of walking into a store and having all the water and batteries gone. The comradery of those walking the aisles with glances that say; "Hey man, I'm with you. I ain't leaving town. We can't take this storm. I'm on your team." So here I sit with my Mom, a few gallons of water in the other room, a few snacks just in case. Hoping that my little pink house doesn't blow away. I may not be able to blog tomorrow as we might loose power, but hey, at least when I can, it will probably be a good one. With the temperature right now at about 100-102 F (37-38) it's going to be a fun time if we loose electricity. No AC, don't mess with me...

Cross your fingers and hope it (Edouard) dies out. Ever since Rita it just seems that people freak out when the wind picks up, so I don't know if I should be worried or not. They are not evacuating, so I guess we are ok. The latest says that Houston should get the brunt of the storm about 7pm Tuesday night. So maybe I should cancel that dinner and drinks at 5:30 eh?

Good ol' Texas

2008-07-31T22:10:00.002-05:00

Well I made it back from Lille all the way to Houston. It was a long trip, but not too bad. Although I did have a Delta flight from Paris to Atlanta and the plane was not exactly new. Example: it had ashtrays in the arm rests. No kidding! The crazy thing was that it also had the little tv's in the back of the seats with a version of on demand movies and things. I say a "version" because they had the movies showing in intervals and you had to time when you started them. I only know this because I read this, I couldn't actually see the movies because the movie part on my little tv was broken. But back to my original thought; wow, they must have updated the seats with the tv's I guess because surely there was never a time when you could smoke on a flight and have your own tv.

I could however get the tv series. I skipped the Friends and Simpsons and watched CSI. It was a really good one, some guy was murdered and the killer made a miniature copy of the entire scene. Even used the vic's (like that use of the word "vic" as in "victim"? I know my stuff eh?) own blood inside the miniature of the room to duplicate the scene. I was involved and was glad it was a two parter because it ate the time. That is until I realized that they were not showing the second part. DAMN DELTA. I watched that stupid show 3 times hoping that maybe by some small miracle that the part II would show. Never happened. I think that might be because the small miracle was that my head did not explode due to the cabin pressure combined with a sinus infection.

When the lovely Delta plane landed (medium sized miracle) in Atlanta the first thing I did was find a place to buy antihistamines and Afrin. This purchase made the flight to Houston a little less painful. Flying west always seems so much easier. I don't sleep on the flight and by the time I get home it's time to go to bed so the next day I wake up and feel relatively normal. Today I had to drive around and do a few errands. I must say, after doing the little driving I have done in France, I am a brave and bad ass driver here now. Especially in my (I know it's cliche, but it does get good gas mileage) 4-runner. I probably won't get hurt, and I have insurance. Watch out all you crazy suburban drivers. I ain't scared...

More Interesting Facts and Packing Up

2008-07-29T12:07:00.004-05:00

Why is it that every time I plan to go home I seem to get sick right before I leave. I'm no where NEAR the sick I was the last time I went home, but I did wake up with a sore throat and have felt nauseous all day long. I'm also friggin hot. All these damn people talk about how friggin cold the north of France is and how I am going to hate it because it's so cold and the sun never comes out. Guess what folks, I'm sitting here melting with an oil slick on my face, the sun pounding it's way through my curtains and no air conditioning. Oh, and I'm going to miss Cyr's birthday and that makes me a little grumpy too. I love birthdays. Cyr hates them, is that a French thing? The good thing is that I get to have a wedding shower and see friends and family. Oh, there is also the slight possibility that being hot and sticky makes me grumpy.

I did want to blog about something I see here all the time. When I go grocery shopping I always see what I like to call the Strangely Focused Shopper. These people, the SFS's buy a whole bunch of one thing. Often I see men or women with no less than 10 baguettes in their arms. Why? Are they feeding an army? That bread will only last a few days you know, you can't store it like jelly. Or water, I always see people with shopping carts FILLED with water. Just water, nothing else. This happens EVERY time I go shopping. I'm not just talking about oh that one time I saw the guy with the shopping cart full of water. I mean I always see it, often more than once in an outing. I have also seen the soda pop cart. The last time I saw this it was a family with a shopping cart overflowing with coke, ginger ail and tonic water. They love tonic water here too, how interesting. I thought the French were supposed to drink wine all the time. What's up with all the water and soda? Are they meeting the people that have all the bread for dinner?

Another Wedding in France

2008-07-27T14:01:00.002-05:00

Congratulations Bertrand and Ari!!

Cyr and I went to a wedding yesterday. The groom is from Dunkerque, the bride is from Guanajuato, Mexico and they live in Houston, Texas. Very international!

Cyr was in Brazil and flew in yesterday. We knew we were going to be late but the groom told us to come anyway. We missed the ceremony but arrived at the early part of the meal. We actually arrived during course 2 of a 9 course evening! It was amazing...some kind of melon drink to begin with. Actually, I'm so uncultured, it was probably a cold soup but it was served with a straw so in my book that makes it a drink. Then foie gras, I know it's cruel, but it's so delicious and I didn't want to be rude so I ate it. Then a fish dish, a sorbet, a meat dish and I remember the dessert was a chocolate mousse between two pieces of chocolate. Like a little tower of mousse...mmm, but I forget the other dishes for some reason. I know there were 9 though if you include the coffee. They had menus on the table and I counted. AND between each course there was dancing. I will have to post some of the pictures tomorrow. At one point they did a carnival thing and Bertrand's cousin pulled me out of the floor and we all marched around and hopped about while yelling something. I have no idea, but after a few glasses of wine I was singing in French so it didn't really matter I guess. We didn't leave until 4am. Man, those French can party! Actually the Mexico wedding she had in Guanajuato last year went until 6am. We went but left at like 2am. They are so much fun, I think they should renew their vows every few years because they throw great parties!

Today has been spent sleeping in and lounging around the house. It's too hot outside to do much else really. It's been a great day just being relaxed and being together. Ahh, l'amour...

Damn VAT, Yeah Egypt!!

2008-07-25T14:30:00.004-05:00

So I loved my French school, and I am sooooo glad I took it. But it was pretty expensive. One of the ways I was able to talk myself into taking the class was that 150 euro of the price was a VAT tax which is like the national tax here. If you spend a certain about of money and are not a resident you can get the tax back. No problem right?

I go to the secretary at the French school and ask her for a receipt (all this is done in horrible French as they won't speak to you in English). She tells me they will mail me one. Of course it is not this easy, this is after I mime "should I call you next week" and "do I need to write a letter" and then I am able to translate the answer. Well class has ended, I get an envelope from them, and it's not a money receipt, it's a stupid letter saying I took a B1 level French class. UH!! I am so pissed! I want to yell SPEAK ENGLISH LADY!! But I know this is unreasonable, I should be speaking French. I know this, I am trying.

This really would not be such a big deal if I wasn't leaving next Wednesday to go back to the states for a family wedding shower and to pick up my dress for the wedding. I mean, I'm going to be in the airport, right there...and I probably won't be able to do it. 150 euro, that's like $500 American or something right now!! I could be making money on this deal! Well hell, maybe if I keep it a few months the dollar will raise even more and I can profit on this thing even more.

So yes, I will be in the US for a week starting next Wednesday. I plan to keep up my blog this time though. At least a few times a week. I'm having my last fitting for my dress and will pick that up. The wedding isn't until October and of course I am hoping that I will loose so much weight that I will have to find a seamstress here in Lille to take it in because my butt has shrunk to Jennifer Lopez size and firmness, but we will see. It could happen right? I think now I'm more Jennifer Hudson than Lopez, but Cyr seems to like it so I can't complain too much I guess. I love how he tells me "don't loose weight, I love your curves." As if this is really a concern eh? Seriously honey...no need to worry about that. Just show me a Leffe Brune, some L'Os a Moelle (not sure of the spelling) and Maroille and BAM! Curves are back babe...

My family has also planned a wedding shower for me which I think is kind of cool, but I don't live in the US so it might be weird. I'm excited to have the sherbet punch and to see the parts of my family that only come out of the woods for weddings and funerals, but it's not like I can get a toaster as a gift. I can't plug it in here guys, it won't work. So...I registered our honeymoon. Maybe this is tacky, but people keep asking me where I am registered and so now I have an answer. I researched a few places and decided on Travelersjoy.com I set up a site for Cyr and I and I think it's the most practical thing we can do. This way if people feel like they need to give us a gift they can, and it's something that we really want. We are going to Egypt and plan to stay two weeks. YEAH!! I can't wait!! Beach for the first week, desert for the second. Whoohoo!! I hope someone buys the upgrade to the Oberoi Resort....if anyone has any suggestions for Egypt feel free to email or post a comment. Thanks!