school meeting

went to the big monthly high school parent meeting in the school auditorium. i hadn’t been to one this year and felt i was being negligent. turns out i was one of only 2 parents in the international program. the “directrice” has been at the school a long time. (in fact, i know a woman in her eighties from my college alum group in paris, and she said that HER daughter had this woman as a teacher...) the directrice has a powerful presence. she began speaking and one of the moms in charge of the parent group was whispering to another mom. the directrice stopped speaking abruptly, turned to face her and stared. a power stare. the mom stopped whispering and giggled. it was very funny. like we were kids in class... 

 our conversation group organizer is originally from lebanon and she prepared us a delicious lebanese lunch. middle eastern stuff like hummus, eggplant salad, special cheese and other salads. we also had that wonderful soft fresh pita bread.

indian visa office

went to submit our application for indian visa. we thought the airfare was a good price, but by the time we bought them they were more expensive, and after converting it to dollars it wasn’t so cheap. then we found out that the visas themselves are around $200 each. (i know it’s all going to add up). 

for the visa, interestingly, anyone of chinese descent has to fill out an extra form with more photos and will get only a 3 month visa instead of a 6 month visa. so that is me AND jj. even though i am sort of a fake chinese person and jj even less than fake. but of course, there is a history of issues between the countries. 

there was a line at the visa office door. they were checking that people had everything they needed. i was successful in having everything i needed – having had good training from the french bureaucracy. i got a number and sat down to wait. there were several desks open taking applications. there was a number display and when the next number was called, i was amused to note that the tone that it made was a sound of a sitar! “twang!”

teacher "speed dating"

went to the teacher/parent meeting tonight.  the parents call it “speed dating” because you are allocated 5 mins one on one with each teacher with whom your child successfully makes an appointment.  of course, the meetings always go for longer than 5 minutes so you have a line of parents in the hall waiting.  all in all, though, it seems to work.  all parents get a few minutes.  and, in spite of the short time, it was informative.   jj struggles in “advanced” math and her grades are below average.   the teacher says that she is doing fine, it’s just that there are some kids who just “get it” immediately and she has to keep up to speed to get through the materiel.  p thinks  it was just lazy to say she is doing fine.  the teachers don’t have the energy or the time or the desire to give special help to any student.  this is the difference between the french and the american system.  it doesn’t really matter to the teacher.  as i have said before, their job is to get through the material.

european winter

this title is not referring to the fall of the euro – rather – it’s 8:30 in the morning and it’s just starting to get light. it’s tough to get up. but can’t complain about the temperature. has been very mild. was probably in the 50’s yesterday.

into the new year. we have pretty much decided that we will be moving back to boston at the end of the school year. we were so torn when we first arrived in paris whether we would return or not. the school insisted that its students could waltz into any US college. but a four year commitment seemed so long. we could end up staying forever but we are not good committers.

this time last year we had only been here 6 months and going back in 6 more months just seemed to soon. so we decided to stay another year. so here we are, a year later, and looking down the slope to a very near july. i do think it’s the right decision, but we’re not committing.

introduction to wine tasting

today we went to the wine tasting course that i gave p for xmas. it was in french, so it was good practice for me. i was pleased that i mostly understood, though i definitely missed some things. the teacher was a middle aged lady and there were around 20 of us along a long table in the cellar of the wine museum which was an old church and monastery – right on the banks of the seine. she spoke of the 4 or 5 senses used for experiencing a wine, from the color of the wine, the taste (of course), all the way to the “sound of a cork popping”. she talked about how to hold a wine glass and then we did the swirling, sniffing and tasting with the slurping in of air or “aerating”. we tasted 5 wines – 2 whites and 3 reds and it was very good and interesting. i loved p’s comments about the class afterwards. his impression was that the teacher felt that she was training us to go to high cultural events. it was all about the traditional french class system, finesse, culture. she made snide jokes about how nicholas sarkozy (the french president) went to dinner with the queen of england and “clutched” his wine class – totally incorrectly and implied his lack of culture. she told us how yes, it’s fun to pop the champagne cork and we love that “sound” of the wine cork coming out, but in fact, to be truly cultured, you should make as little noise as possible. it was all about society. funny.

employment office

went to the employment office today. i figured i should follow all the procedures as part of the system. this included having contact with the official agency that would register me as a certain type of employee. apparently, that agency was the employment office. i view it all as part of the “french experience”. if nothing else, it’s practice for my french. i had a meeting with a lady, who wrote up my status. “networking”, since that is how people in the “film industry” find work. it was very official. i liked the french word she used for researching work: “prospecter”. to prospect. they use that word in real estate in the US. it means looking for clients. i wonder if this is a real french word or an english import. 

also went to the doctor with jj. we need to find out what shots we need for india. the dr is cheap here in france, as we have insurance. it costs 25 euros each. the only problem is that we have to see her to figure out what shots we need, then take her prescription to the pharmacy to get it and then come BACK and pay another 25 euros each to get the shot in our arms.

visiting ma with jj

jj and i head back to new hampshire to visit my mom. jj wanted to come back and see her and since she had a few extra days at the end of vacation, we figured it was the best time to come – rather than taking days off from school. we felt that she should come visit soon, in case... we will head back new years day. sad that we will not spend new years together with p.

jj and friend in paris

jj got to spend a whole day with her friend, running around paris. then i cooked dinner for everyone.

my birthday

we got back to paris at 6pm today. came back to the apartment where jj’s friend was waiting for us. her parents and brother have moved to a hotel for the last 2 nights. we went over to their hotel with a bottle of champagne and had it in their lovely lobby. it was great to see them. we then all headed to dinner. we had booked a table at “le violin d’ingres” which is the fancy restaurant owned by christian constant. you may remember that we really like his “cafe constant” which has very good food at very good prices. “le violin d’ingres” had a michelin star – though it lost it this year... so tonight we were going to try the real stuff. i was very excited. it was much more expensive than i realized – i had accidently misread the website of ANOTHER restaurant called by the same name. the food was very good. the ingredients were fancy. the ambiance was white table cloth and fancy. BUT if you take into account the price of things, his little bistro is a much better value. excellent food without ridiculous prices. of course, there are no dishes with fois gras or truffles in them. ( and then on top of that our friends treated us! whoa!)

back in paris, briefly

back in paris. only until saturday when we go to carcassonne. jj’s friend from boston moved to india when we moved to paris. they are coming to use our apartment when we are away. we get to see them for the day on saturday.

visiting ma

i had wanted to come back and visit my mother around now. the flights are much cheaper outside of the christmas/new year weeks. i found a good flight and booked it for december 6.

meanwhile, the week before i came out, my mom, who had moved into a facility in september, fell down and broke her hip. she had an operation to get a new hip, and had a stroke or 2... so i’m very glad to be visiting her. mostly, i hung out with her. tried to feed her when food came, but she was having problems swallowing. she couldn’t really talk much. she would start a sentence and it sounded almost intelligible, but then it would slide into mumbles. my sister says she doesn’t remember well, so that after i leave, she will forget. but that doesn’t matter. i feel that just being there with her, and her seeing me there at that moment, is the important thing. life is in the moment.

party season - cocktail party, wrap party

party season - cocktail party, wrap party – (pub’d)

jj is in heavy testing week. “compos” they call it. they have no classes. they just go in for an exam and then they are home studying for the next one. but we have two parties to go to.

so we left jj home, studying, on her own. we only felt a little guilty...

the first party was a cocktail party near the madeleine. one of the conversation moms was throwing the party in her apartment that looked out over paris with a wall of windows in a posh part of town. nice group of people, nice champagne.

the second party, was luckily in the same neighborhood. i was very excited to be invited to this, the wrap party for the new feature film that this studio just finished. wrap parties are usually really fun. we arrived unfashionably on time at 8. there were enough people there. it was in a club which was one mirrored room. there was champagne too, of course. that’s another thing i love about france. there’s always champagne. i didn’t know too many people at the studio. but funny, some friends, who i knew in computer graphics eons ago, showed up too. it’s a small world of course, of computer graphics, and since this studio has been around for 20 years, it shouldn’t have been too big a surprise. otherwise, i only knew a few people and not too well. so we ended up leaving by 10, when, of course, the fashionable people were just arriving. didn’t matter, since i didn’t know them either. oh well, we’re showing our age...

thanksgiving day

i cleaned the apartment top to bottom.

i have always admired my friend, marie m. who seemed to be the ideal hostess. she would welcome her dinner guests and serve them drinks, chat and then disappear for only a moment before dinner was presented at the table. it seemed so effortless. i have tried to emulate her in preparations but have not yet arrived at her success. nevertheless, i try. i prepared the potatoes yesterday. today i bought a lot of green beans at the thursday morning market, prepped them and pre-sauteed them in batches. all i had to do later was to cook them for another 10 minutes. i made gravy from chicken stock that i had saved in the freezer.

then all i had left to do was to pick up the turkey at 6pm. i went to the metro at 5:45 as i boarded the subway, there was an announcement that there was a short delay because of a “suspicious package” in the stop between me and the turkey. “...and thank you for your patience and understanding in our effort to keep us all safe”. i waited 5 minutes then joined the other rats jumping ship and headed upstairs to get a velib bike. i arrived at the butcher in 10 minutes (mostly along bike paths), and hoped that the metro problem would be resolved for my trip home. i couldn’t imagine trying to fit an 8 pound cooked bird in the front basket of a bike. the butcher put the turkey into a big, deep plastic tray and wrapped it with big saran wrap in several layers and gave me a bottle of a mixture of juices and drippings and oil. the metro was still out of commission and i had guests coming in ½ an hour! so i had to do what i had to do. the platter fit width wise but not lengthwise in the bike basket, so i wedged it in halfway. i laughed all the way home, just imagining the sight of me! got there safely. thanks again to the velib bike system!

luckily jj had gotten home in time to welcome anyone arriving early, and the first guest was already there. he had brought some really nice champagne – tattingers. the rest of his family came and they brought a papaya salad and apple pie. the other family brought delicious stuffing and homemade cranberry sauce. these were the 2 families who now take care of maynard the dog for a few days a week. maynard’s other families. jj exclaimed how our parties used to be made up of her friends and their families and NOW they are maynard’s friends! how true!

the tattinger champagne was very delicious. something really perfect about it – crisp taste, sharp bubbliness, perfect flavor balance. the rotisserie turkey was delicious! moist, tender and crispy skin. everything was delicious. the thanksgiving combination was great. the company was good and in all, a very enjoyable evening.

brigade des stupefiants

went to a lecture sponsored by the school. it was led by a police officer from the brigade des stupefiants. this is the "narcotic squad" but literally translates as the brigade of drugs. i think it should actually be called the “brigade AGAINST drugs”. to me the name sounds like a “stupified brigade”. anyway, it was quite informative. pot is really cheap. dealers hang out at the metro station. a kid can save money from his/her lunch allowance and buy pot really cheap. it’s cheaper than cigarettes. he talked about the new drugs and the various dangers – lack of control of ingredients, as always, being one of them. he talked about alcohol. he said that in france, alcohol is illegal for under 18’s because it is unhealthy for children’s bodies. one parent asked if a child is exposed to alcohol in the safety of the home, wasn’t that ok? he said there should be zero tolerance and by presenting it in the family setting, in celebrations etc, it was just giving it a positive message. he said “if you think that you are teaching your child the different grape varieties and types of wine, you are wrong. kids are incapable of tasting these subtleties”. this being france, i was shocked that he was so definitively against wine. but of course, he HAS to be. he’s a policeman with the brigade des stupefiants.

film biz cafe; last work day; pre-thanksgiving

i had wanted to introduce 2 moms, who were both working on documentaries. i heard of other parents at the school who were involved in the film business, so i decided to organize a coffee. i called it the “anglophone film biz” cafe. it was fabulous – very interesting people. everyone got along great, made connections. film people are fun.

today was also the last day of work. it was supposed to be 3 months and it turned out to be 5 weeks. we finished our part of the short film and the other commercials didn’t come in. they said they hope to have more work in january.

i had been thinking of hosting thanksgiving for some american “orphans” over here in paris. was trying to decide whether to do it on thanksgiving day itself , a school night, since we have no days off here, or the friday or the saturday. we then got an invitation to dinner from one of p’s colleagues for the saturday. i was still hemming and hawing when the school-mom-fun group announced a potluck for the friday and it was to take place in an apartment on the exclusive ile st louis (one of the 2 islands in the very center of paris). i couldn’t pass that one up! so we were left with the thursday. the other new american families were already talking about thanksgiving together, so i offered to do it at our apt. a friend told me that the butcher could rotisserie the turkey. sounded perfect and much easier. all i’d have to do then was a few side courses.

there would be 11 people, but only 5 adults eating meat and 5 kids. the web recommended 1 pound of turkey per person. i converted that to kilos and went to order it. i had grown to appreciate the butcher near our old apartment 2 metro stops away. i went there to order the turkey. the lady asked how many people would there be. it was so complicated with the vegetarian and the kids counting more like a half person. i just told her the weight i wanted. her eyes widened. she did not write down the number in the order book. she just wrote “une belle” – meaning “a beauty”. you know how “everything’s bigger in america”. i figured that the french were not used to the american “plenty”. apparently, the size i requested was off the charts and they would get the biggest one they could find. i gave her a deposit and walked out the door and was at the stairs of the metro when i realized that i had made a mistake. instead of using the correct conversion of pounds to kilos, i had used the formula for converting miles to kilometers and ordered way too much turkey. not that it wasn’t a typical size for an american turkey, but it was way too much for us. i ran back in to correct it and she nodded a knowing nod uttering the typical parisian “ bah, oui...”

potluck cocktails with teachers

pot luck cocktail with teachers tonight, hosted by jj’s friend’s mom and dad. they have a gorgeous apartment at trocadero. it was good meeting more parents. these are all parents of students in the international baccalaureate program (as opposed to french bac) so a more international crowd. i enjoyed meeting the teachers too. funny to hear your child’s descriptions and judgements of teachers and then to actually meet them.  her french teacher is a very cute, enthusiastic man who sported a guitar on his back when he was leaving. i guess it's normal that kids complain and you hear just the bad things.  only afterwards when i said, "he seems very nice", would she admit, "oh, yes, he's very nice.  it's just that he's a hard grader."  i also met a biology teacher who’s name sounded familiar. so i told him that i was the mom of jj who had him as a teacher and that she really loved biology. he said “yes, it shows”. then i found out later that i got it wrong, that she didn’t have him for a teacher!  i laughed!  general confusion between teachers and parents.

wine delivery

i had gone to a wine tasting last year, hosted by a mom at the school who is in the business. her family owns a vineyard in bordeaux and she works for a wine merchant. i bought some from her after the wine tasting, and we continue to buy some bordeaux from her. she stopped by this morning to deliver some more. i love the idea of buying wine from a school mom!

more doggy-time-share

met kim o at cosmos cafe and left maynard with her. she and her family will look after him for a few days. they are doggy-time-share-alternate-family2.

invited to dinner

chez lopez for dinner.

armistice day

jj went to a sleepover last night at a friend’s house. she has the day off today for armistice day, it’s a national holiday, but the studio keeps working. the film has a looming deadline, so they just need all the days they can get. it’s fine with me. i want to work. i get paid by the day. jj had a violin lesson. she is becoming more and more independent.

today is 11/11/11.  it just reminds me about 2 years ago, on 09/09/09.  i was with a bunch of realtors driving around looking at houses and i mentioned this date.  someone said, yes, there are only a few more of those type days in the near future.  the realtor who was driving, who was a very, very successful realtor said slowly,  "hmm, yess, i guess there is, (pause), 10/10/10 (pause) and then 11/11/11 (pause) and then 12/12/12."  i giggled to myself about the  slow thought process, but then, i guess not everyone is a geek like me who LIKES numbers...