Beef, red beans and Edith Piaf

Hmm..this blog is becoming less and less about Strasbourg...this entry is all Kyoto..Japan. 

So tonight I got a rare insight of life with my mom when I'm not around.  Her pal took us out to eat beef.  In Kyoto this is a serious affair.  The beef is served raw on a bed of rice..like sushi, or slightly grilled, or in little balls all tastefully accomp

anied with delicate vegetables.  After a few be

ef dishes, we get to meet the cow that fed us...well th

e certificate that is.  Yup this place actual

ly buys an entire cow and they have the paperwork to prove it.  We learned the name, where it was born, how old was the lad, his licence number, what was his last meal and skin complexion.  This was proudly displayed with a certificate of authenticity at the center of ouor table.  Sorry bess, but you taste mighty fine!

Sadly it was time to go back to the conference centre, and back to work for our hos

t.  Our taxi driver, inspired with our french speaking, sneakily finds Edith Piaf tunes to whom my mom and her pal immediately start singing and whooing the taxi driver!  The guy was so drunk with infatuation that he missed the turn off..twice!

Fountains

If you have been to Aix, then you know it's the land of the fountain. Every block or two, a fountain has managed to be built, usually in a formidable manner right smack in the middle of a courtyard or road so as to be noticed and awed. What we learned when we moved here is that Aix had been riddled with the plague, so to bring in water, the Aixois politicians decided to not only build faucets all over the city, but beautiful fountains of all shapes and sizes. There is one fountain in the city that still has warm thermal water while the rest are cold. However, I discovered that the moss fountains which are in the middle of Cours Mirabeau, the main drag of Aix, are both supposed to have warm water too. So this forced me to go to the Tourism Office to solve this mystery. It turns out, after waiting in line for 15 minutes, wondering if I really needed to know, that the warm water will come in the winter. For the summer, they turn off the warm tap and bring in the cool water as to keep the hot city a little cooler.

Mystery solved. Now I can sleep.

New town, one-handed

So we've moved...yet again. This time, it's temporarily in Aix-en-Provence, the heart of provence where, oh yeah, thermal spas used to and still exist!!! We officially put our bags into the apt on Sep 7...at night...and then early morning Sep 8, I went into labour. So in essence, Aix and the new apt has been my reality only since coming home with Mila on the 15th.

So far, so awesome. Mila sleeps! Mila eats! Mila farts like a trucker! Which means exploring our new home has been actually pretty easy and fun to do. So far, we've become regulars at the everyday food market, finally found the Saturday market today (the best market in France, hands down, well, from what I know of this country), figured out where to print stuff for Axel (across the street...it's his regular hangout), found an ADEQUATE boulangerie for all things croissant (this will be another project I hope to partake in the coming months), and have figured out a way to nap whenever possible.




Even though this blog was originally about Alsace, we must move on. Still debating about the possible blog title change. Though Alsace was really the beginning of this adventure, so I don't really wanna lose it. So because it's really about French living, I will refrain from posting my new mama and papa trials and tribulations on here and focus on our new digs and all things that come with it. However, I will post a few things about birthing and having kids in france that I think will be interesting to those out of the country who read this blog, only because of the great healthcare debate/debacle happening in the good ol' US of A. It's been very interesting to see what our money and insurance gets us (and her).

So I hope to get back on the blog bandwagon sooner than later and give you all some insight to Aix, provence, and southern french administration (if you thought Strasbourg administration was an adventure...!)

for a little blog break...

...we just had pickles! At 6:08 am this morning (Sept 8, yes a month early). It's a girl. Mila (and maybe Mahara...still trying to figure out if this works ok in french), and 2.27 kg (5 lbs almost exactly). She came out after 24.5 hours of some pretty intense work and a lot of debate whether it would be possible for me to get her out because of the narrowness of the pelvis. Well, she made it out through the pelvis so now we know the weight limit of birthing for me. My water broke at 5:30 am on the 7th so we had no choice but to birth today.

Axel is pretty tired having to snooze on various chairs all day and night but he has started the real entry for this. Just thought I would let you all know that we're parents!