The other Bergmans (from September 30)

We just spent the weekend in Paris. Sunday was a party to celebrate Axel's great uncle Rolf's birthday (80) and his and his wife Claire's 50ieth anniversary. It was wonderful to finally meet this branch of the family tree since I realized that I have inexplicably been absent at all of their gatherings. In fact, a relative from Victoria (actually she is the sister in-law of Claire...I think her name was Liz?) who was there reminded us that 13 years ago, I skipped out on a dinner with the family in Vancouver (sushi dinner...she has a great memory!) because we had just started dating and we both figured it would be weird to have me there. Liz said that her daughter brought her brand-new boyfriend at the dinner and now they are still together. It was pretty funny thinking about the early days.

Rolf was Axel's grandfather's youngest brother. This family was originally from Sweden (in fact, Axel's grandfather never gave up his swedish citizenship) and ended up in France, but all of the kids ended up everywhere. Axel's great aunt, Alix, spent a year in New York and actually speaks english with a NYC accent. So Rolf went to Canada to work, and he met Claire, who was from Belgium but was sent by her dad along with the rest of her family to Montreal during the war. They eventually made their way back to France. Claire's family also moved around a lot. I had a great conversation with Frances, another in-law of Claire's, who just moved to Victoria from Kingston, about French paperwork. Oh yes, it plagues everyone! That will be for a future blog, when we can look back and laugh...no laughing yet.

What was really cool were that the mannerisms and physical characteristics I would normally only vaguely associate with Axel's dad were displayed all over the room. His 3rd cousin, Nicolas, has the exact same hair as Axel (in fact, Nicolas' mother thought for about a second that Axel was Nicolas). The same hairline and crazy wings that offshoot from the ears. The nose and mouth is definitely Bergman. Stephane and Axel have similar movements when they are thinking (which I didn't realize until now). But my favourite discovery was the "arms crossed and lean to one side" look that most of the Bergmans have. It was so weird to see them all standing at a doorway talking to each other in the pose. It really made me smile and realize how genetics really do play a role passed our eye colour.

We stayed at Stephane's again. And this time, the endless stairs didn't seem so bad. I think I just got used to all of the stairs from our place. Totally surprised myself. Stephane showed us the newest look for Decleor, the brand that he is revamping as the newest International marketing director. I started using their products last xmas when he gave me some to try and they have changed my skin. I didn't really start seriously until April when I bought a couple more products after going for one of their facials. Even Axel has noticed a difference. Anyway, Stephane has the job of re-inventing the brand. It was cool to see the concept and how he came up with it. I'll keep you all in the loop of when the new look comes out. I had no idea how complicated it is to come up with a new idea. What is invigorating is feeling Steph's excitement when he talked about it. He has finally found a place where he can just go nuts with his vision. I love it!

The day before, I spent the day with Melissa and Tony, who were in Paris for a few days after a wedding in Ireland. We went to a great vegetarian restaurant in the Marais district. This area is the gay area and has the best stores for men. So Tony had his own shopping day! The difference between girls shopping and boys shopping is actually pretty significant. I couldn't pinpoint it until that day when Tony was looking for a jacket. It reminded me of Axel's long search for a suit for our wedding. Boys don't do this much so they don't know the inventory, what is really out there, how much is too much, when it's a good deal, etc. Hence shopping with boys is always a frenzied and stressful task. And usually it ends up either fruitless or the only thing bought is the first thing they saw and mostly liked. When girls go shopping, it's calm and peaceful, yet we always end up with something. What I realized when I was there was that I really haven't hung out in Paris enough. We have always gone to see family and maybe check out a museum. So because Axel was learning about satelite imaging all day Saturday, I had a great afternoon all to myself in the city. I took a book and walked along the Champs d'Elysees, read a little in the Tuileries, hung out outside the louvre checking out the eiffel tower from afar, and finishing it off with a walk down Rivoli street which is good for shopping. Nope, bought nothing.

I left Axel in Paris while so he could check out rockets. He can elaborate because, well, the only thing I really know about rockets is that I can spell rockets. I really have to go to one of his lectures just to understand a little space lingo.

I'm going to try and catch up on the rest of our activities soon!! Hard when we have a varying and intermittent connection so don't give up on us!

A plus.

from moi

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to send a message from me too. We're ok. Thanks so much for your concerns. It was a long, hard week but it's over and we're just moving on. I think what has made it easier is that we don't know too many people in this city and essentially just had each other for company, so is became much less dramatic.

What I realized quickly is that my french is far better than I gave myself credit for, especially in times of stress! I managed to answer all of the questions from the doctor, listen to her admin's extremely vague directions on how to get to the clinic behind the hospital in a different city (Schlitingheim or something like that...different city but in reality it would be like going from arbutus to granville street) to visit a doctor on the 3rd floor (which is really the 4th), go to the other doctor who turned out couldn't understand why the first doctor kept sending patients to her since she was an addiction specialist (when I gave her my letter from the first doctor, her first question was "You don't take heroin do you?" and my first question to her was "Is heroin the same word in english?"...she told me that she has had so many patients from the first doctor who she had to send elsewhere...and yes, she has called the doctor to explain the mix-up many times but the admin seems to not understand), find the other part of the clinic where I could find another doctor who could help me, explain the mix-up to the clerk and let her know that I am Canadian so would need to pay up-front, tell everyone who wanted to know why the hell we were in Strasbourg in the first place just to appease their curiosity of having a foreigner in their clinic, re-explain everything to the third doctor, understand the explanation of how to take the crazy labour-inducing pill the next day and when to come back, find the lab to get my blood drawn in the hospital in front of the clinic, and figure out how to get back home. Yes, I know it was one long sentence, but I wanted you to feel how I did during this long crazy day! Actually, it was only 3 hours but it felt like forever. Thank goodness Axel came with me when I had to go back because after the excrutiating pain, the last thing I wanted to do was translate expletives from english to french at how badly it hurt!

One thing that was extremely frustrating was how no one could believe that I was married but don't have Bergman as my last name. For a country like France which is so progressive in so many areas that everywhere else is still stuck in the 50s, you would think that this kind of thing would be more common! You wouldn't believe how many times I was asked what my maiden name was and when I said it was Cruz they assumed I didn't understand so I would explain that Bergman is my partner's name but I still use Cruz. They would roll their eyes or do the familiar "oh god, she really doesn't understand what I'm asking her" lip purse, and then re-ask the question. And then I would say that I kept my last name because it was easier. And EVERY person would tell me that in France, it is automatic to use your husband's name. So I would then say what if they wanted to use the wife's name to which they stopped harrassing. I don't want you to think that I don't like the name Bergman. It's a great name. But having Cruz my whole life and then just switching now just makes it confusing for me. The bank has refused to let me keep my name though. And my resident card also has Bergman as my last name, despite having no documents with Bergman attached to my name. It's kind of a game for me right now. How many times can I say my last name is Cruz and then have Bergman put on the file.

OK...now Strasbourg needs to be explored and because Axel is spaced out, I must do the duty. Since this medical pause, we have already checked out the european parliament, cronenberg breweries, jupiter and 3 of its moons, as well as settled in. More to come so stay tuned!

:)

Sad News...

It seems my inexperience and excitement got the better of me from my last posting.  Sadly Rani had to endure a miscarriage last week when she found out that the foetus was no longer growing and had to be removed.  The doctors informed us that this is fairly common at the early stages of pregnancy.  What made it a little more difficult for us is that in France they give you a special pill called Méthergin (Novartis product) which causes a rush of hormones simulating labour.  Normally, the effects are felt a little over 48 hours later where you go into the clinic where they give you a second pill to help with the final phase.  In Rani’s case, she went into contractions early and had the miscarriage on her own not needing the second pill.  Apparently this is a more healthier thing to happen, the logic being the less pills the better, but Rani had to perform her miscarriage at home with me not really knowing how to help her.  When we eventually did make it to the clinic though, the doctors thoroughly checked Rani out and gave her a clean bill of health, but indicated that she would have to endure contractions for a week or so.  Rani is now doing much better physically, and life is slowly coming back to as normal as it can be in Strasbourg.  The positive outcome is that Rani sorted it out earlier rather than later, and that we subsequently found out that this is a relatively common occurrence for many women who later go on to conceive.  We’re not sure what the causes might have been, but there are a number of factors like strange foods, moving to a foreign country, or Rani’s body wasn’t ready. For my part, I’m sure to be more cautious in the future about these things, and not get too excited too soon. 

Things I will miss most from Canada

I actually wrote this at the end of September but I figure I will edit this and post since I have spent a month in not-sunny Vancouver and have regained perspective.

1. Cheaper and better gluten-free products

This has got to be one of the major drawbacks of being in Strasbourg. It's crazy expensive. For example, I just spent 3.20 euros on 5 slices of bread. And not even big slices.

edit: Prices are actually pretty similar but you just get more bread for your money.

2. Cheaper anything

Example One: Cloth bags for grocery shopping. In Canada, maybe the most you would spend is $5 for something super nice. Here, the cheapest I have found is 5.60 EUROS and it was crap. And they sell crappy thicker plastic bags (like the Ikea bags which are uber awkward) for up to 15 euros!

edit: OK, I spent $8.95 for some pretty swank shopping bags when I went back to Vancouver. But you can also spend 99 cents for something similar.

Example Two: A Brita water filter. In Canada you might pay $15 for one. And it may or may not include filters. Here it's about 30 euros and each filter is about 6 euros!

edit: I looked for the specific filter in Vancouver and we don't have it. dang.

Example Three: Cheap chinatown bowls. This was my source for anything breakable I needed in the kitchen in Vancouver, Hamilton, Montreal, Toronto. At most I would pay $1 for a bowl, but usually it would run me about 50 cents. Well, for the exact same 50 cent and 1 dollar bowls, Strasbourg is selling them at rockbottom prices of 5 and 10 euros!!!! I almost had a heart attack.

I could go on but I'm trying to let these things go. Damn zoom for going bankrupt. I could've started a consumer products run going back and forth and selling to expats.

edit: now that I have been back, I realize there are a lot of things that are cheaper in France. And the food in France is way better quality so maybe this is what we pay for.

3. Dog-poo free sidewalks. I won't elaborate. Just know I think I have mastered the "look 30 feet ahead, scan, and walk safely according to memorized poomine map" walk.

4. Free service numbers. This still shocks us. If you need any service of any kind (eg. Electicity company, France Telecom, internet, GOVERNMENT lines), you have to PAY per minute!!! It's crazy! They charge from 0.15 to 0.50 euros per minute. I still can't get over this. Coincidentally, our internet service provider provides a free service phone number but you can NEVER reach a person. Ever. Actually, I should expand this to all services. Nothing is ever straightforward.

edit: I won't elaborate...see rant from earlier posts

5. Asian restaurants. I still can't believe there are no real asian chefs in this country. I refuse to believe that! NEVER take a good pad thai for granted! We still haven't found one japanese restaurant here. Actually, I saw one but it was boarded up. I'm guessing it's because they charged 40 euros for one piece of sushi and people caught on.

edit: I stand by this 150%. Nothing beats Vancouver asian cuisine.

6. Websites that work. What I mean by this, is websites for things like the train, or the plane or the bus that actually tell you what you want to know, allow you to make reservations, and assume that you want the most direct and cheapest route possible. The best example is SNCF, the national French rail system. When we booked our tickets via the web from Marseille to Strasbourg, what they DIDN'T do is 1) make sure we don't have to switch train stations in Paris and 2) tell us there is a direct train from Marseille to Strasbourg!?! Live and learn.

edit: these websites are even more annoying when you are in Vancouver.

7. Web-savvy people. And I will include people like our parents in this. Because people still don't get the email concept here, they will use their child's email address rather than getting their own. Or they will give you the wrong email address many times until you realize that the "." is in the wrong spot. Or they just never check it even though you tell them you are going to email them.

8. Customer service.....

I can only come up with 7 so far. I am in the midst of writing a similar list for Strasbourg but I figure I will do that when I re-discover them (like pain au chocolats which I re-met an hour ago...yum).

A slaughterhouse, a palace, a tower and an irish pub

Yesterday was the first Sunday of the month, which means, in all of France, free museum and gallery day!  For those who are in the midst of planning a holiday to France, take advantage of this.  You'll save a ton of money and if you get bored, you can leave without feeling ripped off!

We met up with some ISU students at the Musee Historique.  This was formally a slaughterhouse.  It really looks like a big barn but I'm pretty sure they spent a bit of time cleaning it.  They gave us free headsets which magically turned on whenev

er you walked by certain hotspots.  Except they weren't quite matched up to the exhibit you were at.  It was pretty funny watching all of us get a little surprise in the headset and then run around the area trying to find the corresponding archive.  We learned a TON there.  First of all, Johann Gutenberg, the father of moveable type and the printing press, lived here for 10 years and developed his inventions right in the city.  His hometown in Germany, Mainz, and Strasbourg celebrate his life every year on...actually I can't remember the date...I think it was in June.  So here are some interesting facts that came out of his inventions.  Strasbourg became the book capital of the world and all of the printers studied here and moved on.  In fact the first printer in Paris was Alsatian.  Being a book worm, I really got all warm and fuzzy when I realized I was living in the first book capital of the world!!!  Also, the first EVER newspaper was from here!  And with that, the publisher created the first author copyright law to prevent people from stealing his news!  We also learned how Strasbourg was a "free city" which meant they could mint their own coins and had no real ties to anyone royal to rule them.  And then Louis the 14th decided he wanted to be ruler of Strasbourg so he proclaimed it and that was that.  It seemed that there was actually very little resistance to the French takeover.  

We took a museum break and headed to Flam!,  a tarte flambe place.  It's all you can eat if you so choose, but I really don't understand how anyone can eat more than one of those!  I got the legere, or light one which was the only one without bacon.  And light it was not!  I think it was because they used a light cheese?  I mention this stop because I figure when people come to visit, this will be one of the places we eat.  Cheap too.

After lunch we went to Palais du Rohan, a former palais, with shiny rooms like Versailles, but in Strasbourg.  It now houses the Archeology museum of Strasbourg (which is essentially the death through the ages museum) in the basement, a vast collection of renaissance paintings which include Rafael and Botticelli on the top floor, and left its opulence intact on the main floor.  Oh and a huge ceramics collection of Paul Hannog.  For the ceramic buffs (i.e. Aly), this is probably an important name.  For the rest of us, an interesting story.  It turns out the Hannog family made the most well-reputed ceramics all over France.  But a family friend of Louis the king allowed another family in the town of Sevres, to win the rights to be the ONLY ceramics maker in France!  Talk about monopoly!!  It's interesting how this has become somewhat of a norm, with Dijon being the only place allowed to call their mustard Dijon, Champagne, same thing, Roquefort, etc etc.  So the consequence was that the Hannog family was left penniless from losing their livelihood.  Oh yeah, there was also a HUGE astronomical clock just hanging out there.  When I get a chance, I'll add the pics to this posting.  

We then realized that it was 3h30 and the Cathedral tower was still open AND free!!!  So we scurried over there and climbed 332 steps to get to 142 m to the top.  Man was that hard.  But worth it.  Interesting tidbit.  In 1521, just a few years after it was finished, the cathedral became protestant under the Reformation.  And then when Louis asked for Strasbourg in 1681, it became Catholic.  It was originally built as a Roman temple, and then destroyed by fire.  Then rebuilt in 1284 (with the tower finished in 1439).  

We ended up at the Irish Times, a pub close to our house which was playing the Hurling final.  This was the craziest sport I have ever seen!  You should check it out.  It's crazy.  They have paddles that look like beaver tails and they have to balance the ball (like the egg-spoon race in elementary school) while running to the goal and score.  It's like a mixture of soccer, rugby, lacrosse and crazy people.  Amon, one of the ISU students, is a hurling player (I'm guessing a really good one because he arrived late due to having to play in a hurling game back in Ireland) so this is why we ended up doing this.  

On a completely different topic, we are now the official space nerd halfway house.  There are a few students who did the ISU summer program and are desperately looking for a place to live.  And because we have a couch, we are now helping them out with saving a bit of hostel money while they look for a home for October.  We have Zauher until Wednesday, and Mickael is coming Tuesday until Saturday.  Who knows who else we might end up with!!  

Why Alsace is one of the best parts of France to live in

I was looking up doctors who speak english in Alsace and came across a great little website for people who are moving to this area.  It actually covers all of France but has a section for Alsace-Lorraine.  

I accidentally pressed "public holidays" instead of "social security" and discovered that Alsace and Moselle (another nearby region) has not one, but TWO extra holidays more than the rest of France!  Good Friday and 2nd Christmas Day (i.e. Boxing Day) are the bonus days!  I wonder why these regions are the only ones?  I'm sure I can wiki this.  

Another tidbit.  The European parliament must translate every document in 26 different languages!  Are there really that many languages in Europe?  I will look this up too.  

Oh, just realized Axel posted something.  Keep reading!

ISU-Week 1

Phew I finally some down time so I can post something. It's been an incredibly busy week, but we have yet to even talk about space! Monday started off with the graduating ceremony of the 2008 students where they made us all spontaneously say something intelligent about ourselves in front of this crowd. I mentioned that I was from Vancouver and I got a bunch of cheers...yes we're everywhere. Some interesting items about or class, we're currently about 33 ish students, all guys except for three lonely girls who currently enjoy a lot of attention. Our class will be complete at the end of October when a bunch of SSPers join us for module 2 so our total is really about 50ish. There are currently 20 different nationalities, and most of us are engineers or physicists. I think there's one doctor, one economist and me..not sure where I fit in. In terms of age, this class is a couple of years older than in the past at an average of 27, but there's a bit of dicotomy between the young bucks with a bunch of degrees at under 25, and the 30+ croud. So I'm right in there with the old boys..but I can still run faste than any of them..except maybe the soccer player from trinidad and tobago, but he's too laid back to really care :-)
Day 2 and three were a series of introductory lectures on economics (I now know what "marginal returns" are) and basic concepts of law. We also had a lecture on why we would want to go to space by Dr. Torienko who as one of the soviet union's senior engineers was sending space crafts to the moon during the sixties, built the Mir station and has been involved in pretty much every large international space project from the eighties and 90...so we all chuckled when he suggested that he had a little experience. So here's in interesting tid bit: did you know that the link between CO2 emissions and global warning was made by a canadian woman who analysed data from a venus space craft launched in the 70s. Turns out the planet was 100degrees hotter than what was predicted and she figured out it was due to the high concentration of CO2 in Venuse's atmosphere. Our series of lectures ended with the head of tourism Strasbourg giving us a lecture about Alsace..super cool! wanna go to Colmar and Mulhouse now..but I'm not totally sold on the heap of sausages required for "une choucroutte alsacienne."
The last two days were spent team building. The highlight was the boat cruise around the main island of Strasbourg and a treasure hunt centered around Place de la Cathedrale. Here's a cool concept, a few years ago the city decided to create a time capsule made of a stainless steel box not to be openned until the year 3790!! I was hoping to pry it open so I can slip in a note for my grand gran...grand children. We then had a reception at the Strasbourg city hall where we were hosted by the deputy mair of Strasbourg, who also happens to be the deputy mair of Illkirch and the Scientific director of CERN..how random, but this guy must be busy. They served us whine cheese and macaroons in the ball room. Apparently we're the only school who gets this kind of treatment..not even he ENA dudes down the street get an audience at the maire's house (probaby because they want his job). So now we're all ready to go and team trained so we all want to hug each other. I'm thinking that the pace is going to pick up starting Monday, so we're R&Ring this weekend maybe check out some museums on Sunday.
Just to finish the internet/phone line saga, turns out that our provider is still setting up our data line and won't be ready for an other week!...geesh, I think we'll have a house warming internet party when we finally do get this thing going...

Another interesting new factoid

In Canada, when you aren't home to receive a package, Canada post leaves a little postcard with the post office address it has left it for you to pick it up.  Simple because they are usually only a few blocks from your house, have reasonable hours of operation, and if lucky, is in a good shopping area so you can kill two birds with one stone.  

In France, it's starts off similar.  But instead of picking it up at the closest post office, you pick it up at designated business spots indicated.  For example, one of Axel's classmates had to pick up his internet box at a hair salon.  There are restaurants, grocery stores, corner stores which also take your package in for you to pick up!  I love it.  While post offices in Canada are generally in 7/11s, stationary stores, or shopper's drug marts, the hair salon takes the cake for coolest place to pick up your box that finally came.

Incidentally, our box finally came!  However our landline still isn't working. Axel is dealing with this right now.  If we get the landline by October, I'll be impressed.

A little americana

A friend just sent this.  If you haven't seen this Daily Show segment, it's worth a watch.  And makes you realize how important it is to emphasize that you are Canadian here.

I met some of Axel's class last night at an impromptu donair dinner.  It was there that I learned that although the class has people from all over the world on paper, in reality it is filled with Canadians and Americans with dual citizenship.  For example, Axel is not a Canadian in class but French.  There's another "French" guy who is really from the pacific northwest but married a french woman and has been living in Toulouse for a few years.  Apparently a "brit" from the states is here too.  A few people were implying that it was a way to fill the class with north americans.  I just thought it was hilarious that on their class list, the person Axel and I assumed was like him (someone with a french passport but obviously from N. America), named Kevin Smith, was actually from Lyon!  So in the end, we realize we can't assume anything when we see a name. 

Which brings me to our current morning chats...what to name the blueberry?  Thanks to all who have given us suggestions.  I am not sure if Baguette would be accepted as a name in France (maybe in Canada?).  It's original, that's for sure.  The space nerds last night LOVED Dartanian Vader so I'm keeping that one in the back pocket for as long as I can.  And if my wish comes true of having twins and a dog, naming just takes a whole new part of the brain I'm not quite ready for.  I actually thought this part of procreation was going to be the fun and easy part.  But now that it's actually happening, I realize that I can't really just pick a name because it makes us laugh.  Or that we will assume the kid will be able to change it eventually.  I remember growing up and deciding I really wanted to be named Cindy or Candy or Petunia or Penelope.  Just because my name was something they never could pronounce in the roll call.  So still a thinker.

Have a great weekend.   

Remnants of the war...maybe

This morning I was startled by an air raid horn!!  It was exactly like in the movies.  And it was loud.  I think it was loud enough so that the entire city could hear it.  It lasted about 2 minutes and then nothing.  Then an hour later, it went off again.  Exactly the same.  I looked in the courtyard to see if people were running for their lives wearing helmets to some secret below-ground shelter but no one moved.  Just acted like this crazy sound was normal.  So I'm not sure if it is normal.  I'll get back to you in a week.

WWI and II are still referenced in many places in Strasbourg.  A few of the buildings that were ravaged by the war have been rebuilt exactly as previously, however the rooftop gun windows were kept in these same buildings.  There are streets named after important dates in these wars, one of which is la rue du 22 novembre (after WWI 1918 event where the insurgency to bring a communist soviet government was stopped).  Because this region has always been a grey area in terms of being french or german, it will be interesting to learn about its history how it has changed or not.  Jean-Marie mentioned that Alsace has an advantage over the rest of France in terms of health care.  90% of your healthcare is covered, while the rest of France is only 70% covered.  Unless of course you have a job, in which case 100% is covered.  Another great reason to live in this place!

So much to learn about this city.  The first thing though is to find out about the crazy horn!

...ax just got home and he acted like the air raid horn was normal.  Apparently this happens once a month all over this country.  Thanks for letting me know!!  I should befriend someone with access to a bomb shelter, though, just in case.

The symbolism of being in Strasbourg

The regional mascot of Strasbourg and Alsace in general, is the stork.  There are stork statues everywhere.  You can get stork postcards.  Stork stuffed animals.  All things stork can begotten in this city.  The birds themselves have become an endangered species but if you are lucky, you can spot them nesting in the trees and chimneys. 

The birds are also mascots of new babies.  In Alsace, it is tradition that if your child wanted a new sibling, they would leave a cube of sugar on their windowsill and a stork would come and take it and bring back a baby in its place.  

Well, coincidentally, this is the perfect time in our lives to bring on the stork.  I assumed we were keeping it on the downlow and only telling our families for now...until I saw that in Axel's first blog entry, he spilled the beans.  And he also told everyone in his new class. Because there was actually someone in the class who knows a really good friend of mine in Montreal (so cool how small the world is), I figured that today was the day we told everyone else in case they heard through the grapevine.  

It's still pretty early to really plan for anything but some details in case you are curious:

1)  I am currently 11.5 weeks along.  This means that it is the size of a piece of large california roll.

2)  The approximate due date is March 22.  However, being lunar-centric and knowing the historical trends of when babies actually decide to come out, the full moon of March is most likely when it will happen...which is March 11th, coincidentally Axel's dad's birthday.

3)  We found out about the little alien when it was technically the size of a blueberry.  Hence the name Blueberry Bergman.  Or blue for short.  Hopefully this will not stick.  I was hoping for Dartanian Vader (it's french so it should be ok'ed by everyone) but I have a feeling I will get vetoed.  So any name suggestions are welcome.  Anytime.  I think we need help.

4)  I am not so secretly hoping that I will give birth to triplets : twins and a dog.  I think it would be cool to get it all over with in one shot, and have a little puppy that resembles the other two just so people know they are from the same family.

5)  Not sick.  Not anything actually.  Just incubating an alien that has taken over my body.

Axel has had a lot of trouble keeping anything fun from any of our friends.  In fact, when we got married last Leap Day, we decided not to tell anyone until after since it was only immediate family, however he "secretly" told a few people which resulted in everyone I worked with finding out in a very echoey loud but claustrophobic auditorium, not through me.  Anyway, I figured that if we were away from people we knew, the information would have less chance of getting leaked.  The blog, however, was our security breach!  

Internet and almost a landline

We met our neighbours last night.  They needed three eggs.  We needed internet.  So we traded.  It was awesome.  We got to see the apartment next door which is similarly set up but with one washroom downstairs rather than ours upstairs and another toilet downstairs.  They are super nice and had no problems giving us the password to the wifi.  

And then today I received a text message from France Telecom telling my that our landline is activated.  But it's not.  Or else the line isn't working.  We can't have everything I guess...but having the landline work would be a nice bonus.

Yesterday we found Vitana, a "bio" (health food) store which is just next to the cathedral which has a whole section for gluten-free stuff.  Axel went nuts and we managed to overfill our granny cart with all kinds of celiac-friendly carbs.   It's pretty expensive so I will have to check out the serpent vert, the big bio store, to compare prices.  However, Vitana is a lot closer, and there is a really good bakery next door and a chocolate store I like to look at on the way.  That morning I also found out that the route we were taking to get to the centre of town was way longer than if we crossed the bridge right at our house.  This is interesting because now I can get to the centre of town in 10 minutes sauntering rather than 15 minutes with my butt in gear.  Axel went for a run and it took him 15 minutes to go around the entire parameter of downtown.  Mind you, he's running and not dealing with people as he's on the water rather than in the heart of the city, but that might give you an idea of how big/small the Strasbourg area really is.  

Mt Saint Odile!

After two weeks of being in France I finally got a chance to get out on the open road..enfin! And as Rani guessed I looked for the closest hill and went for it. Turns out that the Strasbourg area is flat as a pancake so it's only after over 50km of cross winds and about six towns (some of which have some awesome cobble stone action) that I finally got to the foot of Mt St Odile. The best part about cycling around here is that there are bike paths not only within the city but also between towns so with a little planning you can do the entire ride with limited interaction with cars..awesome (Vancouver planners take note).
Anyway, Mt Saint Odile is 9km version of Seymore where the road is a little windyer and a little narrower, but there are just as many roadies ..so I knew I was in the right place. Of course once at the top, instead of a ski hill there's a chateau that's been there for hundreds of year, and a natural spring that as it turns out is a major pigrimage site..feeling more holy already. But not as holy as the guy who was filling his car with bottled water to sell in the town below :-)

On the way home I was starting to run short on gas..didn't plan on a five hour ride (as usual), and of course it's Sunday s everything is closed..dang! Luckily as I was noodling my way home I rode right into some kind of weird festival where there was barely anybody in the town but had these amazing floats all made with real flowers..insane! So I joined the parade, and with my snazy EV outfit people thought I was part of it..although I'm starting to notice that people here do like to cheer for cyclist..(tres cool). I finally found a gummy bear stand, which got me the necessary sugar to get me home.

till next ride

ax

Strasbourg part two (from Rani)

Hi everyone!
First of all. We just found out our landline will begin to work onSeptember 2nd theoretically. Sorry for the pre-emptive message as I have heard from several people that the number doesn't work yet.
Secondly, I realized after I sent the first message that it might have sounded like we were stressed. In reality, we spent our first day wandering the streets of downtown Strasbourg filled with enthusiasm.  Yes, we might have been tired and hungry as we couldn't find all of the health food stores I had carefully researched in Vancouver for some celiac-friendly cuisine and we had just moved across the county with two baskets full of provence spices, new sheets and towels from Ikea and clean laundry (which we will never take for granted again…more on that later), but Ax and I both have tendencies of nomadic life so thefirst real day in Strasbourg was really awesome. 

We realized that the apartment that Axel's mom, Catherine, had discovered for us is so well-located. We are a few hundred metres from the tram that takes Axel to school (although I think he will be taking his bike more than taking the tram), a few steps from the nearest bakery, co-operative (sells local products like produce and wine AND honey), and the little grocery store (this is something I have to take a picture for the Filipinos on this list. It's called a Sari Sari store!!! We haven't gone in yet so I am wondering if it is owned by Filipinos! To those not Filipino, Sari Sari stores are all over the Philippines are your local corner store that has a little bit of everything). There's a pharmacy about 50 metres away. Called the pharmacie of the virgins.  Hee hee. We also just discovered that the famous Choucruterie(sauerkraut factory) is 3 doors from us! It is now only a restaurant and theatre for small plays with sauerkraut topics so Axel and I will have to go there at some point and give you guys the goods on how good the chocrut really is. Last night we took a tour by boat of the city and found out that sauerkraut is really from China! I wonder how it became the dish of Germany and this region.

The main reason for discovering all of these nearby bonuses was for the dreaded laundry run. We don't have a washing machine in our place nor in our building and the old "laverie" just closed down last year which used to be across the street. Our building manager told us that the closest one was still pretty far so we prepared ourselves for the trek. We got ourselves another old lady rolling cart so we each had one filled with laundry and set off. We needed to get a document sent by the bank to us signed by the nearest Post Office to confirm that we live where we live, so we decided to go there first. It was only open until noon (we got there at 3) so we had to abandon that piece of administration for another day. The post office is about 500 meters away but in the direction of Petite France, the most picturesque part of Strasbourg filled with tourists from all over, german pubs and lots of cute little squares commemorating various important people ofStrasbourg. I thought it was weird that one of the most german part of Strasbourg was called Petite France, but then from the boat tour we found out that the reason for the ironic name is because there was a venereal disease epidemic and the Alsatians assumed it was the French's fault, hence the isolation to Petite France…. Anyway, back to laundry. We decided to cross over to the Laundromat via Petite France so we rolled our dirty clothes through the crowds of tourists and realized it probably wasn't the best timing, considering that this weekend is the last for the holidays before school starts and all areas of picturesque Strasbourg was filled with people milking their freedom from school and work as enthusiastically as possible. We were told later that the craziness dies down in October so we might stilluse this path to get our clothes clean since it was really pretty.  Anyway, after wandering around the "Grand Rue" which is more like thesize of a Gastown Alley over Granville Street, we found the Laundromat/laverie behind construction. Coincidentally, the bank was also behind construction so it took us a while to find that too. 

When we got there, there were only 3 machines that didn't have a sign saying out of order. There were actually 6 machines that didn't have a sign, but 3 of them were obviously out of order (one had no door, and two looked like they were dropped from the 5th floor). And then we realized we had no change. We needed 2 x 2 euro coins for each washer and 1 euro for 10 minutes of drying. And they only took single coins so all of my 10 cent coins were useless. So while Axel went to find a place for change, I separated and loaded the clothes into 2 machines. Axel came back with a drink which he needed to purchase to get change, 2 x 2 euros and left to get more. So I did one load and got the other one ready. He came back and we loaded the other machine, added soap, and realized that it was broken. So Axel, whom we all know as a diligent problem solver, tried to get the machine working, since we only brought enough soap for two loads. And all our soap was in the machine that was broken. Axel figured that all he needed was a wrench so he left for home to get a wrench and more soap. Meanwhile, the other machine was taken by a local Strasbourgeoisee who we ended up befriending later. Twenty minutes later, Ax returned with a wrench and more soap, but by then, three more people came in to use the machines. So we put our first load in the dryer and Axel attempted to fix the washer….which stayed broken. So we waited until the loads ahead of us were done before we did ours. I decided to try and find a health food store on the street that I had on my list as existing (it does not exist anymore), but ended up finding another Laundromat about 6 blocks away. So we have an alternative location.  It was really busy though and it's in a student area so I have a feeling it's worse than ours. When I returned, Axel and the woman who was doing laundry started talking and she ended up being a great source of info. It turns out, she comes from quite a ways to do laundry, so we should consider ourselves lucky being walking distance. And school is starting so come EARLY in the morning. AND she told us the best healthfood store is in the other university district and is huge and everyone goes there. It was on my list but I figured it was too far and wasn't on our grocery route but I will have to check it out after talking to her. In the end, we learned a few things: 1) Bring change. And keep the change you have. Because we also got stuck with no change getting on the tram which doesn't take bills so we had to just get on it and hoped no one checked on us. 2) Get there early.  3) Bring extra soap.  4) It's not as far as we thought it would be, so doing one load at a time will not be so bad.  5) Bring a good book or music otherwise you'll end up playing a coin version of bocce with Axel and lose all of our money under the soap machine.

Yesterday we also hit the marché (street market) so got lots of vegetables and fruit (and local cheese…yum), the monoprix for a broom, and did a boat tour in the evening topped off with the lighting of the cathedral (totally totally cool. Too bad the cathedral lighting stops at the end of summer!). Catherine wanted us to make sure we did some touristy things before real life began, so we had to make sure we did the boat tour. It was so good that both of us decided we would have to go a couple of times to get all of the info down. It was made even more exciting when a screaming match broke out between a group of young people having a good time and talking it up and laughing loudly and a few irate tourists who couldn't hear their headsets from the noise. It was pretty funny.

Today is Sunday and Axel has gotten our bikes put together. So I am assuming that you all know what Axel is doing today. He woke up and opened up all of the maps to find the closest mountain.

For those who haven't heard from me personally, I apologize. Thanks to Jean-Marie, I found out I can get free wi-fi at the McDonald's, butI just haven't gotten myself to the point where I can buy anything from that place just yet. One of the best sources of croissants is just next door so given the choice, I ended up just using my iPOD touch to download some emails and respond to any that were urgent.  I'm going to the internet café today so I will make sure to respond to  everyone!!

A la prochaine! Rani
PS. If anyone is interested in a really great book on French societyand culture, pick up "60 million French can't be wrong". Written bytwo Canadians Barlow and Benoit, and given to us by Catherine, itreally helps understand the nuances of French culture. I'm halfwaythrough.

Salut from Strasbourg (Rani's first e-mail)

Salut!
We have finally gotten to Strasbourg and moved in. When we arrived in France, we stayed at Stephane's (Axel's cousin who you may all notice in pictures over the years. He has managed to coordinate meeting up at least once a year wherever we are!). Stephane lives in Paris in this awesome apt right next to the metro and surrounded by street parking which is free all of August. He lives on the 5th floor with no elevator so it definitely kicked my ass going up and down everyday. Unfortunately Steph was in Indonesia so we were on our own for the 3 days we were in Paris. We had to go to Strasbourg for a day to drop off our crazy luggage that Don brought for us a month previously which we picked up from Axel's family in Antony, a suburb just outside of Paris. Axel's cousin Camille, fed our hungry souls while we picked up our stuff. 

The trip to Strasbourg was painful…over 500 km eachway. And we would have stayed the night except we had no sheets forthe bed or towels. And we had to feed Stephane's cat. So we drove back after hauling our bags, our bikes and everything we now own, up 3 long flights of stairs to our new abode. The next day, Aug 18th, we went to the South of France from Aug 18 – 26 to hang out with Axel'sg randfather, sister and nieces. It was a great trip filled with swimming, playing spit with Sonya, talking books with Nadia, and chilling out with Papous and Anne. We went to Les Baux de Provence for a day and were blown away with this exhibit we saw. It's in a cathedral carved out from a cave and they have a show with van Gogh's paintings projected on the walls and columns and music in the 

background. I'm not doing it justice in any way by describing it this way. Just know that we will make sure we will go every year we can as it changes.

We arrived in Strasbourg late on the 26th, so all we could do in Strasbourg was eat ice cream and orient ourselves in the neighbourhood. We found the local grocery store, various Indian, thai and Chinese restaurants, and the pretty incredible cathedral that Strasbourg is known for. Oh yeah, and the standard sausage and saurkraut cafes which I am sure we will be frequenting.

The next day (yesterday), we got our game on and got to work to find the closest bakery, veggies and fruit store before 9 am. We saw an old woman with her rolling cart so decided to follow her since all old women with carts are going to the market. But I think we scared her and she ended up escaping from our stalking efforts.

By the end of the day, we got my long-term resident card which I need for everything in France, our bank accounts, internet at home which will arrive in 3 weeks, as well as bonus finds like the market (where we got our own rolling cart (25 euros, which is actually cheap, some veggies for ratatouille and some fruits for dirt cheap (total 10euros)), the crossroads for the trams which was handy to know, the mall for some air conditioning time, a good place to photocopy, an internet café, and the best part: a Chinese grocery store!!!! That was such a find since we decided we needed rice for dinner and were dragging our heels about having to buy rice in the MarcheU which we knew was expensive. We got tofu, soya sauce with no wheat, currypaste, coconut milk for cheap, and a source for rice cookers. All in all, a good day.

What is great about this city is the close proximity for everything.We did all of this on foot and managed to do almost everything on our list. This afternoon is Ikea where we need to supplement our place with some kitchen utensils (we currently have 1 fork, 6 spoons, no knives, and 1 crepe pan). Tomorrow will be Axel's paperwork day: an appointment at 9:10 am at the university to get registered and his student card, and then his social security card and medical insurance started in France. We also need to get the electricity to come under our name. Interestingly, in order to do anything utility-related in France, you need to know the name of the last tenant and/or the name of the last person who had the phone line or cable hooked up. It's the only way the companies can figure out where you live in the buildings since many buildings, like ours, has no apartment number!?! Yeah, that's right, no number. We just live in the building, the backpart of the courtyard, 3 long flights of stairs up and the 3rd door on the left. We met our building manager who was the nicest woman and she tested all of the buzzers until she got ours to figure out which was our buzzer. I just don't get why they don't just number the doors. But maybe this is just North American mentality!?! I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg.

When you call us, it's free for us. All incoming calls in Europe are free. So call often!! I think with VOIP, it's free to call France,but I'm not sure if it's just for landlines. The landline isn't working yet. Not sure when it will happen but I'm hoping it's soon since we started paying for it. Once we get internet (hopefully sooner than 3 weeks from now), we will have VOIP too so we can call Canada and the US for free.
If you are in France, you should call us. Strasbourg is 2h20 minutes away from Paris via train, and isn't expensive. And we have a very nice couch to sleep on. We'll post pics and Ax is determined to start a blog so I'll send you those details when I have them.
I'm only on the internet intermittently until we get our own so if I don't respond, don't be mad!! We miss you all.
Love Ran

Introduction

Yeah!! I can finally sit down and get this Blog going. When Rani and I left Vancouver we had a lot of requests to keep in touch and share some of the weird intricacies that come with moving to France. So here's our very own family blog. 2008/2009 is going to be an eventful year for us. Rani is starting some new and exciting work projects and she's cooking us up a little wee one (we call bleu) that we haven't really come to grasp yet...yes we will be parents in very soon..yikes! Meanwhile, I'll be going back to school to learn about a field in which I have absoulutely no knowledge about..Space. Turns out I figured out where the big dipper really is only a few months ago, so I have a long way to go. Of course in all this there will have to be some ride logs..I mean how can one be in France and not go for some epic rides. So please visit often but keep your expectations low as the updates may be quite intermittent, you should be getting e-mail updates from the blog unless you don't want them, and e-mail us often as we miss you all very much.