So I am sitting here... the last person in the office. Not because I was working the latest, but because Ash is on her way down to pick me up. Anyway... I have a second, so I thought I'd write down some nuggets.
Furniture. I played this game a couple months ago, when we had to liquidate our house in Durham (which will be officially transferred to the new owner in two days!). This time, however, we're trying to buy the furniture and buy it for as little money as possible. (As I've mentioned, this place is off-the-wall expensive.) Anyway, we've had a fair amount of success thus far. They have this website here called www.glocals.com, which is sort of a English-speaking Geneva version of Craig's list that's not as popular. The nice thing is that it is the English speakers who are usually the most transient and, therefore, the most likely to be selling their furniture. Anyway, we ended up getting and incredible deal from this Finnish girl named Merja - a bookshelf, an entertainment unit, a TV, a kitchen table with chairs, and a coat rack for 330 Swiss Francs, or $275. I think we're going to try and call dibs on her carpets, plants and wall art too. Ash mentioned that it was a shame Merja was leaving because she would have liked to have gotten to know her. I agreed, noting that it would be awesome because every time I saw her, I could say, "Finnish her!"
Starbucks. So we walk into Starbucks the other day. Yes, in a land of Nestle, there is still room - and a market - for Starbucks. Initially, I had reservations... but as I reflected on the (already!) hours I had spent waiting for my cafe au laits in restaurants, I figured the Starbucks in-and-out American vibe would be a good thing. So we walked in and I immediately felt comfortable. I figured I'd roll up to the counter and get my tall iced coffee with room for cream - as always. The problem was that I didn't know which language to speak. The menu was an odd combination of French and English. I felt stupid speaking only in English, but at the same time... I felt stupid saying, Je voudrais du tall iced coffee, svp. So I go up to place my order and I freeze. Finally I spit out "iced coffee," and am immediately embarrassed because I assume I should have actually ordered an iced café, which the woman soon suggests in substitution. It then becomes even more complicated because people just call espresso "café" around here... and if I actually wanted an iced café, it would actually be an iced latte. I just wanted an iced coffee, dammit, but to get that, I'd have to order an iced Americano. So... just to avoid any further confrontation, I just take the iced latte and deal with it. I've been back once since then, and I let my colleague do the ordering and he ordered in English... which probably would have been my best option too.
Okey dokey. C'est tout.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
Getting used to life in km/hr
Tim and I arrived in France almost 2 weeks ago, and it has been a whirlwind ride....although I'm not sure how fast we were actually going b/c they measure everything here in km/hr. When we first got here we were "living" in a 1 star hotel ironically called the Hotel Stars. We checked in, saw our dingy room with no air conditioning and enough space for all our bags minus us and the dogs, and decided we should probably take our housing search pretty seriously.
The search ended up being incredibly slow and painstaking. The problem was that, although the systems in France are very much like those in the US, there are these tiny little differences in the way things are done that get in the way. Even buying lunch meat in the grocery proved difficult - the lady asked me how many slices I wanted, which baffled me since I am used to ordering 1/2 lb. How many slices are in 1/2 lb? How should I know? So if lunch meat is difficult, getting an apartment, setting up a bank account, getting cell phones, and finding a car had us running around for about a week, hemorrhaging money, before we even accomplished anything.
We first tried to get a cell phone, at which point the Orange people told us we needed an address to sign up for a plan. Then we got incredibly lost driving out to look at a car in Switzerland, took 2 hours to get there, found a car we wanted, and then found out that we needed an address in Switz to get a Swiss license to get insurance to buy the car. Back to square one. Then we started looking for apartments.com type websites that would ease our housing search so that we could get a car and a phone. No such luck. There is nothing around here that offers a consolidated listing of housing for rent - instead you have to go from real estate agency to real estate agency, asking them what they have. Tim and I joked that it was a little like going trick or treating - you go from door to door, and you never know what you're going to get, a giant candy bar or a toothbrush. We ran into our fair share of toothbrushes.
It didn't help that the French conception of work and customer service seems a little different that what we are used to in the US. Not only are all the businesses only open from 9-5, Monday through Fri (ok, that's fine), but they also all close down from noon to 2 (for lunch I suppose), and half of the people we wanted to talk to were on vacation (August in Europe) or had just returned from vacation and had a lot of catching up to do (again August in Europe) and there was no one to cover for them (just plain Europe I suppose?), so we had to wait. Beyond the fact that no one really seems to work much here, the wait for everything seemed longer than in the States. You want to set up a bank account? Why don't you come back for an appointment in 3 days. You want car insurance? Great. First we will need your insurance history from your previous insurance companies for the entire time that you have been driving.
Eventually everything seems to have worked itself out. We have a temporary apartment, meaning we are not confined to a prison cell-like space with the dogs while we wait for something permanent. We have slick new cell phones, and a cool new car - a 2004 blue Alfa Romeo 147 - and a bank account and car insurance and a brand new, gorgeous apartment waiting for us. Once there, we will be able to see Mont Blanc from our bedroom and terrace on clear days. We move in on the 3rd, although the power cannot be turned on until the 5th. Who would expect people to be able to do something on only a week's notice?
In the meantime, while everything is closed on the weekends, Tim and I have taken some trips. We went to the Swiss Alps last Saturday and hiked with the dogs to the top of a pass. The views of the valley below were nothing short of spectacular, and we passed by mountain streams and surreal-blue glaciers on our way up. Then last Sun we hiked to the top of some peaks in our new neighborhood, at the end of which we found a fantastic view of Geneva, the lake, and the surrounding French and Swiss countryside.
This weekend we drove down to a small village on the Mediterranean called Saintes Maries de la Mer. I have to admit I was a little disappointed with this place at first. It didn't have the dramatic cliffs and sparkling blue water of the other parts of the Riviera that I had seem, but it did have the crowds. It reminded me a little of a nudist version of the Jersey shore with lots of rv trailers lining the long, flat, trash-strewn beaches....and old, fat people in the buff. Once I got over my disappointment though we did have a nice time. We played with the dogs in the ocean and ate at a nice outdoor cafe for a dinner of crepes and moules and frites. We also explored Avignon on the way back home, which is a beautiful city - missed the pont though.
So that's where we are right now. Hope all is well with all our friends and family who are reading this.
The search ended up being incredibly slow and painstaking. The problem was that, although the systems in France are very much like those in the US, there are these tiny little differences in the way things are done that get in the way. Even buying lunch meat in the grocery proved difficult - the lady asked me how many slices I wanted, which baffled me since I am used to ordering 1/2 lb. How many slices are in 1/2 lb? How should I know? So if lunch meat is difficult, getting an apartment, setting up a bank account, getting cell phones, and finding a car had us running around for about a week, hemorrhaging money, before we even accomplished anything.
We first tried to get a cell phone, at which point the Orange people told us we needed an address to sign up for a plan. Then we got incredibly lost driving out to look at a car in Switzerland, took 2 hours to get there, found a car we wanted, and then found out that we needed an address in Switz to get a Swiss license to get insurance to buy the car. Back to square one. Then we started looking for apartments.com type websites that would ease our housing search so that we could get a car and a phone. No such luck. There is nothing around here that offers a consolidated listing of housing for rent - instead you have to go from real estate agency to real estate agency, asking them what they have. Tim and I joked that it was a little like going trick or treating - you go from door to door, and you never know what you're going to get, a giant candy bar or a toothbrush. We ran into our fair share of toothbrushes.
It didn't help that the French conception of work and customer service seems a little different that what we are used to in the US. Not only are all the businesses only open from 9-5, Monday through Fri (ok, that's fine), but they also all close down from noon to 2 (for lunch I suppose), and half of the people we wanted to talk to were on vacation (August in Europe) or had just returned from vacation and had a lot of catching up to do (again August in Europe) and there was no one to cover for them (just plain Europe I suppose?), so we had to wait. Beyond the fact that no one really seems to work much here, the wait for everything seemed longer than in the States. You want to set up a bank account? Why don't you come back for an appointment in 3 days. You want car insurance? Great. First we will need your insurance history from your previous insurance companies for the entire time that you have been driving.
Eventually everything seems to have worked itself out. We have a temporary apartment, meaning we are not confined to a prison cell-like space with the dogs while we wait for something permanent. We have slick new cell phones, and a cool new car - a 2004 blue Alfa Romeo 147 - and a bank account and car insurance and a brand new, gorgeous apartment waiting for us. Once there, we will be able to see Mont Blanc from our bedroom and terrace on clear days. We move in on the 3rd, although the power cannot be turned on until the 5th. Who would expect people to be able to do something on only a week's notice?
In the meantime, while everything is closed on the weekends, Tim and I have taken some trips. We went to the Swiss Alps last Saturday and hiked with the dogs to the top of a pass. The views of the valley below were nothing short of spectacular, and we passed by mountain streams and surreal-blue glaciers on our way up. Then last Sun we hiked to the top of some peaks in our new neighborhood, at the end of which we found a fantastic view of Geneva, the lake, and the surrounding French and Swiss countryside.
This weekend we drove down to a small village on the Mediterranean called Saintes Maries de la Mer. I have to admit I was a little disappointed with this place at first. It didn't have the dramatic cliffs and sparkling blue water of the other parts of the Riviera that I had seem, but it did have the crowds. It reminded me a little of a nudist version of the Jersey shore with lots of rv trailers lining the long, flat, trash-strewn beaches....and old, fat people in the buff. Once I got over my disappointment though we did have a nice time. We played with the dogs in the ocean and ate at a nice outdoor cafe for a dinner of crepes and moules and frites. We also explored Avignon on the way back home, which is a beautiful city - missed the pont though.
So that's where we are right now. Hope all is well with all our friends and family who are reading this.
Friday, August 24, 2007
A couple cool/annoying things about the grocery
All the little price tags that mark food are digital - at least at the Carrefour down the street from our current apartment. Pretty sweet. I imagine it saves them tons of time/paper. Another not so cool thing is that you have to have your produce weighed and marked while you're in the produce section... so if you show up at the cash register without having done that they send you back to the produce section. Mon dieu!
The apartment. Things are moving along at the moment. It looks as if we'll be moving in on September 3rd, with the power actually being turned on on September 5th. That's a pain in the butt, but it's nice to know that at least we're on schedule to have a place. We also got a nice surprise today... it turns out we don't have to put any money down to rent the place. Initially, they were going to make us put aside a *whole year* of rent as a guarantee that we'd pay; this was because we only have one modest income at the moment. However, it turned out that we'll be renting directly from the owner of the place, and he seems to trust us. This ends up being a HUGE deal... because we would have had to put up something like $25k to as a guarantee. Talk about ridiculous; we could have put a down payment on a house for that amount of money and earned interest on the investment.
Phones. We got cell phones with a plan... finally. We had been using a pay-as-you-go service that was charging an arm and a leg. Now, we'll have something a little more affordable that we can use to call anywhere in Europe or North America. Skype will still be our preferred method of communication, as we only have 3 hours of talk time per month... but it's nice to have the flexibility.
Work. I'm going to try and start work next Wednesday and then take off a couple of days when we are able to actually move into our place. From what I understand there's a ton of stuff for me to do, so I'm sure they'll be happy to get me in a little earlier.
Ok. That's it for now. I think we're going to go see Ratatouille tonight and we need to eat beforehand. Hope all is well.
The apartment. Things are moving along at the moment. It looks as if we'll be moving in on September 3rd, with the power actually being turned on on September 5th. That's a pain in the butt, but it's nice to know that at least we're on schedule to have a place. We also got a nice surprise today... it turns out we don't have to put any money down to rent the place. Initially, they were going to make us put aside a *whole year* of rent as a guarantee that we'd pay; this was because we only have one modest income at the moment. However, it turned out that we'll be renting directly from the owner of the place, and he seems to trust us. This ends up being a HUGE deal... because we would have had to put up something like $25k to as a guarantee. Talk about ridiculous; we could have put a down payment on a house for that amount of money and earned interest on the investment.
Phones. We got cell phones with a plan... finally. We had been using a pay-as-you-go service that was charging an arm and a leg. Now, we'll have something a little more affordable that we can use to call anywhere in Europe or North America. Skype will still be our preferred method of communication, as we only have 3 hours of talk time per month... but it's nice to have the flexibility.
Work. I'm going to try and start work next Wednesday and then take off a couple of days when we are able to actually move into our place. From what I understand there's a ton of stuff for me to do, so I'm sure they'll be happy to get me in a little earlier.
Ok. That's it for now. I think we're going to go see Ratatouille tonight and we need to eat beforehand. Hope all is well.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
It's for friends and family
I've always been a little suspicious of blogs... and whether it seems a little self-absorbed to think that other people would read your random rants and thoughts. I say "random rants and thoughts" knowing that - ultimately - that's what this blog will end up being for Ashley and me. With that said, I've had several other friends who have done this blogging thing with some success, and - at the very least - it will help us document the time we spend in France over the next year or two.
So... as some of you know, I enjoy using keywords to sum up my thoughts and stimulate the writing, so I'll go ahead and do that now.
French. It's pretty clear after a week in Europe that my English is not going to get the job done when it comes to living in France. Sure, my boss is American and my wife will speak to me in English... but pretty much everything else is done in French. You call the store, they answer in French. You go to the bank, they speak to you in French. You stand in a checkout line at the grocery store, and someone starts small talk with you in French. As a slight tangent, it's amazing that so many people seem to get by in the States without speaking English. I'm just starting to realize just how many obstacles they face on a daily basis. Anyway, I'm going to enroll in some classes once things get settled.
Two buttons. There are a whole bunch of idiosyncratic elements of French life. Here's just a handful of things I can remember off of the top of my head:
* They don't have paper or plastic at the grocery store. They sell thicker permanent bags for a couple euros that you're supposed to bring back each time you shop. That's great for the environment, but difficult when you rely on those bags to pick up after your dogs.
* They also charge one euro for a shopping cart... and you need the coin to secure it. Not having a single euro coin, I battled through the grocery today carrying a 25 pound bag of dog food, a baguette, a can of pringles and two chocolate croissants. It was brutal.
* Alot of the doors in France have door knobs that don't turn; they're just use the knob to open and close the door. If you want to unlatch the door, you have to turn the key until you hear a click and then you push.
* An inordinate amount of doors have handles that create the appearance that you need to pull, when, in reality, they expect you to push.
* They have two buttons on the toilet - one flush for each manner in which one would use the bathroom. I love this idea! It saves tons of water, only giving you a little rinse when that's all you need. Anyway, there are a ton more... I just need to think of them.
Alfa. We got a new car today. It's a beautiful Alfa Romeo 147 four-door hatchback. The lines of the Italian design are incredibly clean... and the interior makes it seem like a luxury car; the red lighting on the dash and stuff reminds me of an Audi. The cool thing is that it gets 40-plus miles per gallon and it fits into most any parallel parking spot. We compromised on the color a bit. It's a light blue, whereas I would have preferred black... but Ashley digs it. Anyway, here are some photos... while it's still clean. (I'm sure the dogs will have it covered in slobber and mud in no time.) http://duke.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9639&l=66825&id=581074255
Anyway, that's it for now. Ash has long been asleep, so I should probably get up there too.
So... as some of you know, I enjoy using keywords to sum up my thoughts and stimulate the writing, so I'll go ahead and do that now.
French. It's pretty clear after a week in Europe that my English is not going to get the job done when it comes to living in France. Sure, my boss is American and my wife will speak to me in English... but pretty much everything else is done in French. You call the store, they answer in French. You go to the bank, they speak to you in French. You stand in a checkout line at the grocery store, and someone starts small talk with you in French. As a slight tangent, it's amazing that so many people seem to get by in the States without speaking English. I'm just starting to realize just how many obstacles they face on a daily basis. Anyway, I'm going to enroll in some classes once things get settled.
Two buttons. There are a whole bunch of idiosyncratic elements of French life. Here's just a handful of things I can remember off of the top of my head:
* They don't have paper or plastic at the grocery store. They sell thicker permanent bags for a couple euros that you're supposed to bring back each time you shop. That's great for the environment, but difficult when you rely on those bags to pick up after your dogs.
* They also charge one euro for a shopping cart... and you need the coin to secure it. Not having a single euro coin, I battled through the grocery today carrying a 25 pound bag of dog food, a baguette, a can of pringles and two chocolate croissants. It was brutal.
* Alot of the doors in France have door knobs that don't turn; they're just use the knob to open and close the door. If you want to unlatch the door, you have to turn the key until you hear a click and then you push.
* An inordinate amount of doors have handles that create the appearance that you need to pull, when, in reality, they expect you to push.
* They have two buttons on the toilet - one flush for each manner in which one would use the bathroom. I love this idea! It saves tons of water, only giving you a little rinse when that's all you need. Anyway, there are a ton more... I just need to think of them.
Alfa. We got a new car today. It's a beautiful Alfa Romeo 147 four-door hatchback. The lines of the Italian design are incredibly clean... and the interior makes it seem like a luxury car; the red lighting on the dash and stuff reminds me of an Audi. The cool thing is that it gets 40-plus miles per gallon and it fits into most any parallel parking spot. We compromised on the color a bit. It's a light blue, whereas I would have preferred black... but Ashley digs it. Anyway, here are some photos... while it's still clean. (I'm sure the dogs will have it covered in slobber and mud in no time.) http://duke.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9639&l=66825&id=581074255
Anyway, that's it for now. Ash has long been asleep, so I should probably get up there too.
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