ao & derek in paris: 2008

Monday, December 22, 2008

Off to Lille!

Well, Ariel and I are off to visit my family in Lille for the holidays. Chances are, we won't do any posting while we're over there, but we promise we'll take pictures and put those up whenever we get back.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this photo of Ariel enjoying the present we got for my cousin Ingrid's daughter Louise.

Wait, what's that, Ariel? You want to keep koala for yourself?

Okay, then, it might be Louise's present. Ariel's taking such a liking to the little guy, he might just have to stay here with us. Or at least, she's going to get as many hugs out of him that she can before having to be the bigger person and give him to the baby.

Have a merry Christmas!

A pain in the neck

My wife's neck is hurting. Like but bad. For a few days now. I don't like this. I don't like her to be hurting. And I get the distinct impression she doesn't much care for it either. I'm hoping that going to Lille for a few days starting tomorrow might do some good - if only because she won't be craning over a sink washing dishes or over an ironing board ironing or looking down at her computer while sitting on the bed or sofa. In the meantime, though, does anyone have any suggestions other than taking Tylenol for what one can do to help get rid of neck pains?

Saturday, December 20, 2008

And eight tiny reindeer...

My Aunt M sent me this link, and I just love it - so here you go. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Photos from Paris, 27-Nov-2008 to 15-Dec-2008

Thanksgiving soup, lovely Paris, & a whole lot of twinkly lights!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Listening to Christmas music, and making turtles (dark chocolate, caramel, & toasted almonds). Pretty yummy. (I had to try one or two or three to make sure they were okay, didn't I? I'm not at allll sugar twitchy now. Not a bit.)

Anyway, I'm listening to this online station called "Xmas in Frisko", described as, "SomaFM's wacky and eclectic holiday mix. Not for the easily offended." Currently playing : Weird Al Yankovic's "The Night Santa Went Crazy". Wild. My favorite song so far has been "Christmas at Hogwarts", by Harry & the Potters. The sound and video don't quite sync up, but you can listen here.

Friday, December 12, 2008

How many archivists does it take to clean a toilet?

God I wish that were the start of a bad joke. But I honestly don't think the bathroom at the Archives Nationales has been cleaned once since I've started working there, and it's getting pretty damn nasty.

Who knew scholars could be such foul people? Maybe they just want to get a sense of what pre-sewer France smelled like - you know, like a historical reenactment. Only disgusting.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Fakin' Bacon

For dinner tonight we went across the street to the local (by which I mean only) diner, called "Breakfast in America."
Being "in America," we decided we needed to get the most American food we could think of, something we can't get anywhere else in France. And, since this is Ariel and Derek we're talking about, you should already know what that something is: bacon. Ariel had a BLT and I ordered a Bacon Cheeseburger.

Midway through the meal, Ariel stopped eating, at which point we had the following very brief conversation:

Derek: How does the bacon taste?

Ariel (looking betrayed and sounding disappointed): It tastes......French.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Derek vs. the EDF

Well, it's settled: I'm an idiot.

Now I know that some of you may be saying to yourselves, "Pish posh, Derek - we've known you're an idiot for a while now. Don't act like it's only just now settled." Well, first of all, since I'm an idiot I didn't catch on to that fact as quickly as most of you did. And secondly, who says "pish posh" anymore? Dork.

"So," you might respond, brushing aside my wimpy retort, "how did you finally figure out that you're an idiot?" I'll tell you:

On Monday morning, Ariel and I were slowly getting ready for our day when suddenly the electricity went out in our apartment. At first we thought the whole building had lost power, but then Ariel noticed that the lights in the hall were on. I went out to see if someone knew what was happening and came across the building's gardienne, who quickly shed some light on the situation (pun unabashedly intended). Someone from the electricity company EDF had come and turned off the power to our apartment.

Why on earth did they do that?! Well, it turns out that it's because...you guessed it - I'm an idiot. Back in October when we moved into this apartment, I spoke with our landlord about setting up the electricity bill. I was under the (mistaken) impression that because she had my bank account information and told me she was going to call EDF to take her name off the bill, she was also going to then put my name on it. She was under the (much more logical) impression that she was simply going to take her name off, and it was my own responsibility to put my name on the bill. And thus did our electricity bill not get paid for two months, resulting in the aforementioned disconnection of power.

Fortunately, I was able to call EDF immediately, set up an account, and schedule someone to reconnect our power. Unfortunately, the earliest someone could come was the next day sometime between noon and 2:00 p.m. Fortunately, Lee and Pegs were nice enough to let their stupid brother and his patient, embarrassed wife stay at their place for the night. Unfortunately, the next day was particularly cold when we went back to our apartment to wait for the EDF guy. It even started snowing, which on the one hand was beautiful and exciting (at least to a guy from Louisiana and a woman from North Carolina), and on the other hand reminded us how badly we needed the electricty back on so we could heat up our freezing apartment.

In the end, though, we got the power back on, and after a day of wearing 3 layers of sweaters, multiple scarves, and our thickest coats inside, the place is now pretty cozy again. Ariel has decided that despite the fact that she doesn't speak the language, she will now be in charge of overseeing our bill payments. Clearly I'm not up to the task.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

F#%king Party

It's 3:30 in the morning, and our neighbors are having a party. And we weren't invited. I don't mind that, really. I just wish we could sleep. But you see, our neighbors apparently like really, really, really loud music with a driving bass and drum beat. And then there are the occasional belligerent, drunk Frenchmen who have suddenly decided it's their God-given right to wake up anyone and everyone within a 500 foot radius with their incoherent yelling and bottle smashing. To top it all off, I just went to the window to try to see where all the noise was coming from, and what did I see? I single, ginormous rat slowly making it's way across the place down below our apartment. Ugh. I'm tired.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Cheery Evening

We're much better now. We feel fine. We just went for a walk.

To be more precise, we walked down the Boulevard St. Germain, then crossed over to the Jardin des Tuileries, then down the Champs Elysées, turned off on Avenue Montaigne to head toward the Eiffel Tower, and then finally came back home. A nice 4 1/2 hour walk (with a long stop for hot chocolate and pie). We have pictures to prove it.

It was a very nice and refreshing outing, if i do say so myself. And apparently as Christmas approaches, the Champs Elysee turns into something not unlike a state fair, with merry-go-rounds and games for kids, as well as arts, crafts, stuffed animals, and food stands (though we're still in France, so the food is crepes and gauffres in some stands and oysters and champagne in at least one other). So that was pretty awesome.

In short, when feeling homesick, go outside and remind yourself why you're not home. It helps.

Other noteworthy facts and/or moments from our walk:

- The French either really enjoy irony or are completely tone-deaf when it comes to symbols of amity. Just next to Place de la Concorde - where the guillotine was set up during the French Revolution - are a series of sculptures called "Welcoming Hands" that depict what can only be described as collections of dismembered arms gathered into small piles.

- In France (or at least on the Champs Elysées), Santa Claus's sleigh is pulled by a single white pony. And the pony clearly doesn't like its job.

- As I was taking pictures of the Christmas lights on the Champs Elysées, a random French women tickled me under my underarm.

Now we're going to have some homemade soup with a baguette. Holy crap Ariel makes the best soups.

Mopey Day

We're feeling a little down today. Don't exactly know why. We think we have a solution, though: walk around the city. I'm thinking we head west toward the 7th and/or 8th Arrondissements, that way we'll be near the Eiffel Tower or the Champs Elysées (depending on our route) by the time it gets dark, so we can see the Christmas lights. Christmas lights cheer everyone up!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

A demi-Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

I hope you're all having a great day today. Personally, mine's been a bit weird. It started off strange, since Ariel and I woke up later than usual - I forgot to set my alarm, and so we arose to the sound of many-a-church bell ringing at precisely 7:39 a.m. either from the nearby church or the seminary school next door. Then, after a too-long, too-lazy morning, I was briskly walking to the archives through 37 degree Paris when I stumbled upon the sight of six grown met in bright red wetsuits walking along the Pont Archeveche near Notre Dame. Well, needless to say, I had to stop and take a picture.

Of course, it gets better. As I started to cross the street for a closer look, the red men started jumping off the bridge and into the Seine. Do I have photos of this act of lunacy, you ask? Oh yes, I do.

Now, some of you may think that watching six human tomatoes leaping thirty feet into freezing cold water might be enough oddity for one day, but I'm not done yet. I mean, I haven't even gotten to Thanksgiving lunch yet.

I didn't really think about it at the time, but I now believe that subconsciously I was craving some semblance of a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Unfortunately, I was in the Marais, which is not exactly a bastion of Americana. In the end, I probably got the closest thing to a Thanksgiving meal available: a schwerma sandwich. Wait, wait - hear me out. It was a pita "roll" with an eggplant, tomato, and onion "stuffing," the titular schwerma - a combination of turkey and lamb, the menu claimed - and topped with a white "gravy." Okay, it was more of a tzatziki sauce, and there's no way that the pita could be confused for a roll, and there were no bread crumbs in sight that would make the vegetables into a legitimate stuffing, but it's the best I could do.

The archives were pretty much the most normal thing about the day: both elevators connecting the basement (where all the documents are kept) to the reading room upstairs were broken yet again - this is the third time in less than 2 weeks - which meant that if you had not requested your documents yesterday, you weren't going to get any for the rest of the week. Fortunately, I had, so I set to work until the archives closed at 4:45 p.m. Why do they close at 4:45, you may ask? I have no idea.

Finally, on the way back home, I walked through not one, but two movies being filmed on the walk between the archives and our apartment.

Now, I'm back in our cozy apartment with Ariel, getting ready to celebrate just about the only holiday France has not yet tried to adopt. On the menu tonight: lentil soup with turkey and a pumpkin-ginger dessert risotto. Again, not exactly the most traditional of Thanksgiving meals, but we work with what we can. I tried to get an autumnal pastry from our local baker, but the closest thing I could find was a mocha colored cake called "noir desir." Pilgrim-y, it is not. Plus, on my way up the stairs, I dropped the box it was in and sorta smushed it. Now it looks like a cross between a work of abstract art and a five-year-old's drawing of a puppy.