Two Nights and a Day in Paris: Part 1

I've been procrastinating this blog post for a lot of reasons.  First, even though we were only in Paris a day and a half, we took about five billion pictures.  Kind of overwhelming to think about sifting through those.  Plus, I like them all, so how to choose which ones to post?  Second, we are living in Eastern Europe and have had plenty of new adventures to take our time.  And laundry.  And homework.  And Russian study.  And, well, you get the idea.  Still, our time in Paris was magical and I don't want to forget a single part.  And I've caught the flu, so I suddenly find myself with some downtime in bed.  So here goes.

Somehow we squeezed all of us and our stuff and Grandma into Grandma & Grandpa's truck the morning of February 6, 2017.  We have a saying in our house, "How many can you fit in a car?  Always one more!"  And the same seems to hold true for bags, and adults, and cats too.  It was tough saying good-bye after spending so much time with family.  We were so grateful for their generous hospitality in putting up with us so long.  There were lots of hugs and they probably would have lasted a lot longer, except it was cold and we had a flight to catch, so eventually we made ourselves wave a final good-bye and walk away.

Then we had to consider the logistics of navigating through the airport with all of our suitcases (filled with everything we'd need to survive our first few months in Kyiv, including such essentials as Chocolate Chex cereal and gluten free macaroni and cheese--seriously, you can't put a price on such things!).  Somehow we managed and got everything checked in.

The 10-hour flight was long, but nothing compared with the 36-hour traveling ordeal we faced when flying home from Chiang Mai.  Still, Weasley was unimpressed, and even sedated he complained a lot.  And escaped.  More than once.  Seriously, this cat would have impressed Houdini with his skills (the flight attendants, however, were not impressed).  Our seats were split so Funny Guy, My Man, and I were together and Young Man and Darling Daughter were together (with Weasley).  More than once, when I was on the verge of almost nodding off during yet another movie, I'd notice a commotion and see passengers looking down and around.  And I'd sigh and realize he'd gotten out again.  Then I'd have to try to catch Young Man or Darling Daughter's eye so they could go find him.  "Make sure the zipper is tight closed!" we'd hiss across the aisle.  "It is!" they would promise.  Needless to say, that carrier gets one star from us on Amazon!

Funny Guy missed most of the excitement, sleeping almost the whole way.  The best part of that was that when we arrived to our hotel (all 10 large suitcases, 5 rolling carry-ons, 5 backpacks, and the 5 of us somehow smashed into a minivan for the trip from the airport), he was ready to party.  Perfect timing!  The rest of us were ready to sleep.  We compromised.  He gave the rest of us an hour to rest while he read before I caved and took him swimming.  Sidenote: Our apartment from airbnb was wonderful.  An old house just a block from the river and Notre Dame Cathedral with this beautiful pool in the basement, two bedrooms, and a kitchen!  We couldn't have asked for better. But I digress . . .

Funny Guy was dying to go swimming, so we snuck down there while Darling Daughter, Weasley, and My Man slept.  Young Man thought about swimming too but decided he wasn't done dreaming.

And with such medieval surroundings, who could blame him?  I think I caught some winks somewhere in there, but mostly I was too excited to care too much about sleep anyway.  After a couple hours, Funny Guy and I set out to explore the neighborhood and track down some groceries.

My phone was dead, so I didn't get any pictures.*  That's a pity because walking around Paris was enchanting.  We found that we were less than a block from the Cathedral of Notre Dame!  So beautiful.  The winding alleys and cafes were bustling and wonderful.  The little shops we found were fantastic but a little overwhelming.

I had a cheese sales lady take pity on me and recommend a type of cheese that "even Americans can appreciate."  She also set me up with fresh butter and eggs.

The shop next door was overflowing with beautiful vegetables and fruits, of course you couldn't choose anything yourself and since I don't speak any French, there was a lot of pointing and pantomime.

I passed longingly by the bakery with all it's delicious smells and vowed to sneak back later without our little celiac man to grab a fresh croissant.  He caught my longing glance and said, "Mom, if you eat any of that, then you are a traitor."  Well, so be it, I wasn't going to leave Paris without eating a Parisian pastry.  Sorry kid.  I'm not the one with celiac disease!  Still, the blow was softened when we discovered that macaroons are gluten free.  So the next day I used up all our left-over euros on macaroons for My Man and the kids and a beautiful melt-in-your mouth heavenly croissant.  I didn't even try a macaroon, just to make it fair.  I think Funny Guy figured it was an okay trade.

*These shop pictures are not mine but representative of what we saw; still it was all better in real life!  In fact all of Paris was better in real life (and yet we took a million pictures and I can't bear to delete any of them, even the 873rd picture of the Eiffel Tower . . .)!

I'd packed some food as well, so when we returned I fixed a simple dinner to lure everyone awake from their naps, then we set out for the Eiffel Tower.  The walk was enchanting, past bakeries, beautiful old buildings, cafes, chocolate shops, and more.

My favorite part of Paris ended up actually not being anything in Paris at all.  It was the reaction of Young Man and Darling Daughter to the Eiffel Tower.  As we approached, I saw these kids, who are seemingly unfazed by anything--jaded by too many awesome travel opportunities and growing up in Asia--these kids who put up with our trips and respond to my near-constant exclamations of "Isn't this amazing?!?!" with "Sure, mom," I saw these kids literally stunned speechless, jaws hanging open as they stared, drinking it in.

Young Man, who had reminded us that no, actually, visiting Paris was not on his bucket list, but he would go along with it for our sake, stared up at the massive, beautiful structure, and said, "Wow, this is way more impressive than I thought it would be."

Darling Daughter glowed with excitement.  Funny Guy decided it was worth the excruciating walk after all.  I was in love.  With Paris.  With the Eiffel Tower lit at night.  With this moment with my family.  With our lifestyle that makes it possible.

I'd planned to have everyone walk up the stairs to the viewing platform, but unfortunately, my research didn't uncover the fact that the stairs close much earlier than the elevators.  We considered taking the elevators but the lines were long and it was cold.  Darling Daughter was sure that her life would not be complete without a trip up, however, so we vowed to return the next day for a new perspective.  By then, Funny Guy couldn't walk another step, so My Man and Young Man gallantly offered to take him back on the bus.  Darling Daughter was enchanted with the city, so we opted to walk home along the river for some more views of the sites.

We got more pictures that don't do the evening justice, saw so many beautiful sites, and ended up at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, beautifully lit for the evening.  It was perfect.  An evening with my daughter that I will always treasure.

We slept in a little after a jetlaggy (aka restless) sleep, enjoyed breakfast, then set out to see the Cathedral up close.  It was amazing.  Absolutely huge and wonderful and beautiful.  Pictures really don't do it justice, though of course we shot a bunch trying.

The day was cold and we underestimated it a bit.  I was freezing all day (I think everyone was) but amazingly no one really complained--there was too much to see!

After the cathedral, we walked down the island to get onto our hop-on, hop-off bus to see the rest of the city.  It had an audio guide and was a great way to see everything without subjecting Funny Guy to any more cruel and unusual punishment (aka "walking").

We stopped for a few minutes at the Arch de Triumphe, the beautiful memorial that honors all those who fought for France in the French Revoloution and Napoleonic Wars (as well as housing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for World War I).  Although we didn't opt for the trip to the top, it was a powerful monument.

That was not the end of our adventures in Paris, not even close!  By then it wasn't even noon.  But the rest (including climbing the stairs of the Eiffel Tower, exploring the Louvre, and our Cruise along the Seine) will have to wait for another blog post.  Let me just say that up to this point, things had been going even better than we could have hoped, with happy kids, happy parents, and a great itinerary, pretty much everything I could have hoped for.

Settling into Life in Paradise (January)

We arrived to Chiang Mai on a rare rainy day (it generally doesn't start raining until April) in January. That didn't stop Funny Guy from begging to check out the pool (surprisingly cold during the cool season!!). Our neighborhood is absolutely beautiful and so is the pool.

There is even a tiny little café that serves hot chocolate (luke warm, but I guess that is plenty hot enough in Thailand!). Perfect for after a day of rainy swimming!

Our house is beautiful with hardwood floors throughout, beautiful landscaping, and a nice open floorplan. We don't have a dishwasher, but we do have a washer & dryer (none of which are normal commodities here).

Our first attempt at going to church didn't work as well as we'd hoped. We thought we hired a taxi driver, but he didn't show up. Finally we tried to just hail one from the road, but they don't stop out where we live so we started walking toward a busier street (more than a mile away). Amazingly a nice lady stopped and offered us all a ride. She didn't speak any English but was super nice and My Man got to use his mad skills and talk to her all the way to church. Once there, we found that although there are a couple other English speaking families, it will be a very different experience from church in Korea where we had a huge English branch. This is a small Thai branch with a good effort at translating. (I teach Primary with a missionary who translates for me into Thai; Sacrament meeting is translated by missionaries into English and we can listen with headphones; etc. We sing songs in Thai and English at the same time, whichever we happen to speak.)

Luckily church is downtown and we didn't have too much trouble getting a ride back home on a red songtaew (truck with bench seats along the sides in the back). Our neighborhood has lots of coconut trees (which Ana loves to collect and try to crack open) and a little fish pond where we sometimes go feed the ginormous catfish. It's a bit far from the center of town, and we have only found one other family with a few kids (Sam's age and younger), but it is definitely beautiful.

The kids started right into school Monday. Since we didn't have a car yet, I got to ride the van into school with them. It picks up kids from another family in our neighborhood, then some older kids in another neighborhood on the way in to school. The school is wonderful. It's a small Christian school (the oldest international school in Chiang Mai). The teachers seem great, there are several sports and after-school activities, and the campus is nice. The kids all thought it was great and transitioned easily to their new classes. 

Young Man started right into football (soccer) and Darling Daughter started track & field (she found out she loves the high jump!). Young Man's first game was that week! I really wanted to go and support him (and needed to pick him up anyway) but had a tricky time getting transportation worked out. Finally I got a driver who would come out to pick us up. The problem was he didn't know where the field was, and neither did I. I had a map and we finally got to where he thought it was, but no one was there. By then we were more than half an hour late, so I knew that couldn't be the right field. I talked him into trying one more time and eventually we did find it. I didn't realize that it was the only game of the season that would be at such an obscure location (usually the games are at international schools!) or that except for the tournament at the end of the season, parents don't generally attend the games. But we were glad to finally make it there to support Young Man. And the girls' teams played first so we were able to watch the whole game.

He even got to play goalie for awhile when the team's regular goalie got hurt. He did great even though he hasn't ever played goalie before.

I thought it would be easier getting home than getting to the field, but again we couldn't seem to find a taxi. It was getting late and everyone was hungry, so I ordered some unidentifiable rice noodle soup and everyone loved it. And eventually, we all made it home. Who knew going to a soccer game could be such an adventure.

The consulate community is great about setting up activities to help you get out and explore and get to know each other, and they had one set up for our first week in town. It was a trip down south to a ceramics factory, followed by lunch and a quick visit to a temple there. It was great. We got to see them making and painting the vases (all by hand!). There was a great section of "seconds" (imperfect pieces) that we browsed and I splurged and got a beautiful little tea set for under $5.

The next day, the kids had a short day of school. Darling Daughter had track & field practice so I picked up the boys from school and took them with me downtown Chiang Mai. Sometime on our way out here, my laptop screen got broken and I needed to get it replaced. We'd heard the best place was at the top of the moat (the main downtown Chiang Mai is a giant square surrounded by a moat of water).

Since there are tons of temples (wats) in that area, I thought we'd walk from the school over to the computer place, stopping to enjoy some of the wats along the way, then go back to pick up Darling Daughter after her practice. It turned out to be a much longer walk than I'd realized (from off the map on the top right side to the top left corner of the moat) but the boys were good sports and really enjoyed exploring the different temples. Especially when I promised we could take a tuk tuk back to the school afterward. We only saw four (out of more than 300!), but the ones we saw were great.  We stopped at a little hole in the wall restaurant near one of them and had the best Thai food we've ever had (still hoping to go back!).

And then I got pneumonia. Well, I got the flu first, thought I was getting better, and then it turned to pneumonia. The next few weeks were spent with me in bed, wishing we were out enjoying the most beautiful weather of the year in the most beautiful tourist location in the world! Instead, I was sick in bed, we were trying to work out logistics like getting a car, figuring out where to shop, homework, and so on, and My Man and the kids did their best to carry on without me. I don't recommend it: pneumonia in general, and pneumonia when you are settling into life in a new country in particular.

Near the beginning of my bout of pneumonia, our first shipment arrived! I had mixed feelings when I looked out and saw the truck. It was fantastic to get our stuff so we could settle in and feel at home, but the pile of boxes was completely overwhelming with how sick I was. It took a long time to unpack and organize and make our house feel like a home. Thankfully, My Man is very patient, because variations on this view greeted him every time he came home from work for at least a week!

I think the kids' favorite part of my being sick was when My Man would take them out for dinner and they got to ride in a tuk tuk (basically a motorcycle rickshaw). It is definitely their favorite way to travel.

Before we moved to Chiang Mai, My Man heard about a paragliding launch just a few minutes out of town. He was super excited to get back into flying since Virginia had been such a disappointment in that respect. Unfortunately, Chiang Mai isn't going to be a good place for flying either. Apparently, the launch has been abandoned because winds aren't good enough. Still, we decided to check it out.

I was still sick with pneumonia but we were all sick of being stuck inside and I figured the change of scenery might be nice. It was. The launch was really pretty. We enjoyed the sunshine and nice views, and the kids enjoyed chasing lizards and bugs. It's actually a great launch and if My Man can find anyone else to fly with it would be a convenient place.

So life in Paradise is already going full-swing, if off to a somewhat rocky start. You know things are going to be OK though, when you go in to tuck your little one into bed and find this.

Bid List Surprise

When we met with our CDO (Career Development Officer, the one mainly responsible for deciding our fate for our first post) last week, she asked if we had any other considerations for her.  My Man leaned back in his chair and declared, "Well, I'm just holding out for that Russian post that's going to pop up at the last minute."  In fact, throughout this whole excruciating exciting process, he's been saying stuff like, "You know, it probably doesn't matter.  I just have a feeling that there's going to be a Russian spot that opens up." 

Well today was the deadline for turning in our bid list, marked high, medium, and low.  Last night My Man came home grinning.  Guess what got added to the bid list at the last minute?  Let me give you a hint.  It's the opposite of tropical, and it's in a part of the world that rhymes with "Iberia."  (OK, it's not actually in Siberia, but it's on the edge and wimpy Americans like to claim it anyway to get bonus sympathy points when they have to live there.)  It's one of those posts where they have to bribe people to go because it's so far from ANYTHING and chances are you've never heard of it. I mean, it's the only place in the world where Siberian tigers still live, if that tells you something.

That said, I am from Gold Beach.  It's not like I need a lot of big-city excitement to be happy.  In fact, the more we researched this little outpost of diplomacy, the more intrigued I became.  It really is a beautiful little city.  And it hits most of our quality of life priorities: good air quality, good outdoor recreational opportunities, survivable climate (kind of) . . . The only thing it's really lacking is affordable airfare to other places and great schools (there are options, but we'd have to do some serious research into this if we go).

But we didn't give it too much thought (if obsessing about it until past midnight counts as not "too much" thought).  Afterall, the posting is available NOW and we still didn't have My Man's Russian test results back.  He didn't feel like he did very well on the test and if he didn't ace it, we wouldn't be ready in time to be considered for this post.  So we sent off our bid list, and didn't think too much more about it.

Then this morning, My Man got his test results back.  He aced his test (Way to go Honey!!!). . . . This could be our home as early as March!  Yikes.  I better start brushing up my Russian skills, just in case.

(Disclaimer: None of these pictures are mine.  I shamelessly stole borrowed them from Google images.  If we end up going here, maybe I can update with pictures of my own . . . )

Oakwood Apartments

Since I should be organizing taxes instead of indulging my whims to blog, I'll make this short.  I've been asked lots of questions about what life at Oakwood is like.  Was it worth it to stay here?  Did we finally get a three-bedroom apartment?  Are the pictures on the walls as hideous as reputed? 

Oakwood living room/dining room/kitchen

So here's the deal.  Staying at Oakwood is awesome.  Really.  Sure, we don't have a house, don't really have our own yard, and the art on the walls leaves much to be desired, but it's completely worth it.  When we moved in, we were able to dump our suitcases in the living room, run to the convenience store about 50 feet away, and buy all the essentials for dinner and breakfast to tide us over until our real shopping trip the next day.  Fifteen minutes later, I was in the kitchen cooking pasta and brownies (paleo friends, don't judge . . . first nights in new places after flying across the country do not have any food rules or standards in this house!).  By bedtime a couple hours later, we were mostly unpacked and settled in.  Sure the kitchen accessories are dull and somewhat lacking, and all the bedding and towels are a sterile white, but talk about easy!


kids' room

And easy doesn't stop there.  There are shuttles to the metro stop, shuttles to FSI, shuttles to shopping (on Saturday afternoons), a shuttle that will take you anywhere within 5 miles every weeknight (6 to 10pm), a gym (replete with sauna and locker room), a business center with free computer use and printing, a latte/hot chocolate machine in the lobby, rooms to reserve for group get-togethers, kids activities most days of the week, a free Sunday brunch, and more, not to mention plenty of ready-made friends for your kids and a bus-stop for each of the Falls Church public schools (which seem to be fantastic).  There's also a pool (currently closed for winter), two tennis courts, and basketball hoops.  Oakwood Falls Church is also within easy walking distance of the Eden Center (home to the best, and reputedly most authentic, Vietnamese cuisine in the area), BJ's (similar to Costco), and even a Barnes & Noble and Ross Dress for Less.  Oh, and did I mention the weekly maid service?  And about the wall art--we were lucky enough to get different pictures on each wall--a friend of ours has three of the same picture throughout their apartment!  Still, Oakwood could definitely do better and purchase their art here in future!

Ry is stoked to have the studio room to himself.  Kind of.  We agreed it will
also be the game/play room.  The bed folds up to make a large open room.

So, while the apartment complex doesn't have the charm of many of the colonial neighborhoods around here, we are very happy with our choice to stay here, especially since we don't know how long we'll be here.  And now that we've moved into a three-bedroom apartment, we have plenty of room for visitors if you want to come see the many sights here in our country's capital!

The Bid List . . .

"Where are you heading next?" is probably the question I hear most often these days.  The answer?  Only God knows!  We did, however, finally get our bid list (the list of almost a hundred places where the State Department could send us next).  Here's what one of My Man's colleagues said about it:

The list is confidential, so I can't write the exact places on the list, but a simple thought experiment will give you an idea. Imagine a list of all the countries in the world.  Now cross off every country that you have ever dreamed of visiting, especially for a honeymoon or dream vacation. Next cross off the countries that you think are interesting because of significant historical events or have been on the news because of significant political or economic events happened there recently. Now cross off the countries that you think would be nice places to live. Now circle the names of countries that you have not heard of or that you aren't quite sure where they are . . . . The countries that you circled in your imagination are probably on the bid list.  (http://blog.denniehoopingarner.com)

It's not really that bad, but I have to admit it was a bit of a shock when we saw the list.  Not a single Russian speaking post!  And the list is arranged by city name, not country, so at first glance I only recognized a small handful of the names.  As My Man marked each spot on our giant world map, he made comments like, "Wow, wouldn't it be awesome to go there?!" or "How incredible would that be?!" and my stomach got tighter and tighter and I felt like I might faint or throw up.  I admit I may have had a major minor breakdown at some point in the days following.  But thanks to some really awesome Foreign Service spouses with fantastic attitudes and advice, and some pretty intensive research into every single entry on the list, and a husband who is really truly excited about this whole process (and amazingly patient with me), I recovered and actually started to get pretty excited myself.  So now we are gearing ourselves up for learning a new language, maybe Spanish or Thai or Chinese.  Or maybe we'll go to one of the handful of English-speaking posts available.  Maybe we'll go to an exotic jungle city or maybe a Caribbean island.  We could go someplace exotic or we could go to a Mexican border town.  We really have no idea.  But every single place on the list has some really cool things about it and would be a great place to live.

Although the State Department gets to make the final choice about where to send us during our first two posts, we do get to provide some input.  We can classify the posts into High, Medium, or Low priorities (meaning, we'd be excited to go to a High post, but reluctant to go to a Low post).  The only catch is that you can only put 25 percent of the posts as low and all of your Highs are equally ranked (even though there might be some that would be way more exciting than others). :-)  So the past several days have been spent busily researching everything from climate to schools to safety and more about each post, and last night we finally felt good about all our choices.  Hopefully now I can start sleeping again.

Only three more weeks until Flag Day, when we'll receive our first country assignment.  Stay tuned. . .

A Moving Life

Today, we're moving again.  We've been here in Falls Church, Virginia, exactly 13 days.  Just long enough to fight over rooms (the kids all wanted the walk-in closet as their "very own room"), put our giant world map up on the wall, figure out the strange moods of the dishwasher, and have four service calls (apparently our appliances were exhausted from all their work with the previous tenants and weren't excited about continuing on with us).

But today's move is only to the building next to ours, from our two-bedroom in building C to a three-bedroom apartment (yahoo!) in building B. It shouldn't be too bad as far as moves go since we still only have the stuff we brought with us in our suitcases, along with all the "essentials" we've accumulated from a few trips to BJ's (local Costco knock-off) and Target, although the 6 inches of snow that arrived yesterday will make it a little more tricky.

In our 13 days here, we've broken in our new shoes fairly painlessly.  We arrived on a Friday and enjoyed a homecooked meal in our new apartment that night (thanks to the small and ridiculously overpriced but convenient store on the apartment premises).

Sunday we went to church (twice, but that's another story) and met about a hundred other Foreign Service families in the area.

My Man started A-100 (the orientation class for new Foreign Service Officers) Monday, while I tackled the challenge of registering our three kids into three different schools and then stocking our pantry and fridge.

By Tuesday our kids were in school and by the time I picked them up at the bus stop that afternoon, they were already happily incorporated into the social bedlam of our transient community.  My Man and I had several Foreign Service events to attend and ended up having something pretty much every evening that week.  We almost bought a car, then decided to wait until we know where we're going next and what vehicle regulations we'll be facing.  So after a few days borrowing a car from a very generous friend, we got acquainted with the public transportation of Falls Church (very expensive taxis, free shuttles if you time it right, and the metro with a stop only a couple blocks away).

Wednesday, the kids had early dismissal from school and the weather was unseasonably warm, so we headed out to explore the nearest trail system and parks.  The kids were delighted by the squirrels, the trees, the wildness of it all.  Needless to say, it's been a great and relatively easy transition.

Yesterday was a snow day and so Young Man invited his new friends over to play games and eat pizza (yes, I'm not above bribing his friends into thinking ours is the cool house!).  It was so awesome to talk to these 11-year-old boys about their lives.  Between the four of them, they'd lived in more than 10 different countries and visited a bunch more.  I was impressed by all of them and couldn't ask for better friends for our son.  And the best part?  They welcomed him in from day one, including him in their group, making the transition easy because they've been there, that new kid coming in the middle of a year, and they know how it is, so they do their best to make it easier.

Sunset I enjoyed while walking home from the metro one evening.

So yes, our new life will be unsettled, it will be hard and uncomfortable, but I think the rewards will be one hundred percent worth it.  A moving life is just that, a moving life, a powerful life, one where you get to soak up new experiences, see new places, become new people.

Falls Church is simply beautiful.