An American in Provence

Friday night, I cleared out the old wooden bookshelves in our medium bedroom, put them in the hallway, stacked with stuff to get rid of, and placed the two covered bookshelves, originally in the small bedroom (aka the future nursery) in the medium bedroom. 

She's a rebel and she'll never never be any good...

After months of waiting, she is finally here...

My mom bought me this baby bib crosstitch kit for my birthday. It arrived as a pattern printed with disappearing ink on the bib, along with chart and floss. It took me a few days to do. I haven't washed it yet to remove the ink, but will do so soon. It is perfect for our little frog. However, I don't think it will be getting much actual use as a baby bib.

A girl!

Adélaïde- nice Germanic name, except laide means an ugly girl.

I stopped by H&M after work to check out their maternity section. Not that I actually need any maternity clothes yet, but I wanted to see what they had. Besides some pants with elastic waistlines, it seems like most maternity shirts are simply "bigger than what you would normally wear". Anyway, couldn't resist a set of six onesies ( or "bodies" as they are called in French). I love dad, I love mum, I love mum& dad, mum&dad, plain white, plain black. No idea for what age of they baby they are supposed to fit.

I think Phase 1 is officially over, and that I am now safely in Phase 2. Phase 1 being of course "get away from me, or I'll throw up on you!" And Phase 2 being of course "get away from me, or I'll eat you!"

The best thing about being pregnant is that you can blame pretty much anything on it.

I couldn't help it, after doing so many crosstitches for other people, I finally did one for me, with a green and white Irish theme. My childhood bedroom had a large black iron four-poster bed, with a canopy. I had fake ivy winding up the posts, with lace enclosing three sides, green and white sheets, and pillows, cushions, and curtains with an ivy-and-lace theme. I loved it. 

We are moving back to the United States!!!

Our vacuum recently decided to permanently retire. We can't complain too much, Alain's parents gave it to us for free when we set up household eight years ago.

Here is a picture of my office. It is on the sixth floor (Americans: seventh) of a building with nine (Americans: ten) floors. It is on one of main streets of Marseille, not far from the center of town and the beaches. The desk was recently installed, and I am very pleased with it. Before, I had one large table and one computer workstation, a small unstable desk just large enough for the computer screen and I couldn't put my legs under it because of a shelf, I guess to put a printer on.

Happy Father's Day to the best dad in the world, and all other dads too.

Saturday morning, Alain and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 7 am and drove to Toulon for our niece's first communion. She goes to a Catholic school, even though they aren't particularly Catholic, and I guess Saturday was the semi-annual mass baptism/ first communion. Alain is her godfather. It was a bit difficult choosing a present as we were told 'no jewelry' (from the school) plus 'no christian stuff' (from his sister). Hum.

Got home from my week in Paris late last night and saw my husband standing there, waiting for me at the train station.
Today is our seventh wedding anniversary,and I am so glad to be married to him.

After months, no make that years, of reading motorcycle reviews, searching the internet, and talking at me about it, Alain finally decided that he wanted his next motorcycle to be a Yamaha FZ8.

He found a used on advertised on Leboncoin, and we went to see it two weeks ago. It is the 2011 version, bought in July 2012. It has 13,000 km on it, and the guy was selling it for 6000€. Original price- 8900€.

Alain decided to take it, so I went and got a bank check for the amount and Alain called his sister, our insurance agent. She said no problem to insure it, just needed the registration ("carte gris" in French). Except the seller couldn't find it. Apparently, he is separating from his partner, needs to sell the motorcycle for the money, and left it at his parent's house, and couldn't find the registration.

We can't buy it without the registration, as it would then be impossible for us to register it under Alain's name. We weren't sure if he really couldn't find it or else someone had offered him more and that this was his excuse.

Anyway, I guess he really couldn't find it because he went and got a replacement registration card.

We set up the sale for Saturday morning, yesterday. We drove west from Marseille towards Toulon, and met up with the seller. Alain signed the paperwork and we handed over the check. We then drove off, he on the motorcycle, me in the car.

Except then it started pouring rain. He had brought his rain gear with, so we pulled over at a rest stop and he changed. The rear tire needs to be replaced, completely bald, so Alain was afraid of having an accident in the rain. We drove slowly all the way to his parent's house, crossing Marseille.

In the afternoon, we went to a Yamaha dealer in Salon-de-Provence, and ordered handlebars for the passenger, a new tire, and a central kickstand. The 10,000 km revision also needs to be done. So next Saturday, Alain has to take it back to the dealer at 9:30 a.m., for a total of 900€, plus the insurance of 1300€, this thing is starting to add up.

Anyway, the new one should keep him happy for a few years at least.

If he starts talking about buying a more powerful motorcycle, he is going to get kicked in the shins.

So now we have two motorcycles, the Yamaha and his Kawasaki ER6N. He will eventually sell the Kawasaki, but will be sad to see it go. It has almost 60,000 km on it, so I doubt we will get much for it. Le Sigh.

So after finishing up at my previous workplace on March 1st, I spent two weeks doing what I love best- sleeping in, watching The Vampire Diaries and Prison Break, naps, chocolate, shopping, and generally relaxing with a tiny bit of organizing and cleaning thrown in. As I had cleaned out my office, I had about ten boxes full of legal texts, exams, and just STUFF that accumulates in a workspace over five years- bottles of hand lotion, business cards, perfume samples, tea bags, and all the rest. Bit by bit, I had lugged everything home from work over a period of several weeks, but then just threw it in a corner, too exhausted to sort everything out.
Now I get to, yay! bring it bit by bit to the new office.

I started my new job this past Monday, and it is a huge change.
Old commute- leave at seven, walk to the car, drive about 30 minutes to Aix, park in parking garage, walk about five minutes to work. Coming home, leave work sometime after 6, drive at least 40 minutes (on a good day, an hour or even two hours if the taxis are on strike), search for a not quite legal parking spot, and hope there is no ticket awaiting in the morning. Total time- 40/60 minutes. Total cost- about 120€ per month, not counting wear on the car.

New commute- leave at about 8 or later, walk five minutes to tramway stop, take tram 4 stops, switch to subway, take subway three stops, walk about five minutes to office. Total time- about 30 minutes each way. Total cost - 20 euros per month (actually 40€, but employer is obligated to pay half of public transport use in France)

There is a gym in the office building, which I am thinking of joining (50€ per month).

Next week, I am headed up to Paris, to meet everyone since I will be working for/with both the Paris & Marseille teams.

All in all, I am hoping this new position gives me some room to grow while not being so exhausted all the time.

What to say? What to say?

Don't want to say too much, but I recently quit my current position in Aix-en-Provence and will be starting with another firm, doing the same thing, in Marseille in a few months time, once my current notice period is over (3 months in France!).

There are many things I will miss about working in Aix, the 90+ minutes per day of commute not being one of them.

I have been here five years and it is time for a change.