In which we attend a birthday party

Yesterday, around 1:00, Sapphire's friend Blanche rang our buzzer. When I answered, she asked whether Sapphire, Ezio, and Cherry could come to a birthday party for her cousin that afternoon. We had planned to go into Paris with my mom that afternoon, so I wasn't sure whether they would want to or not, so I asked Blanche to wait a minute while I checked with Sapphire. Sapphire definitely wanted to go, and Cherry thought that maybe she would like to go (Blanche's sister is in Cherry's class at school) as long as I went with her. Ezio definitely did not want to go, but my mom said she would spend some time with him. Sapphire let Blanche know that we would be coming.

The party was scheduled to go from 3:00 until 5:00 (actually until 6:00, as it turned out, but I either misheard or mistranslated what Blanche told me). That meant that we had about 2 hours to eat lunch, buy something to cook for dinner, and pick out some sort of gift. Lunch was easy, as it basically involved reheating the previous night's leftovers, and dinner was planned, though we didn't have the ingredients on hand yet. The gift was more of a problem. Blanche's extended family all lives together in her apartment, and while I knew that she is 9, her little sister is 3, and her older sister is 15 or 16, I had no idea whether the cousin having the birthday was a boy or a girl, or what age s/he was. We went to the Auchan, and settled on a box of colored pencils, and a notebook of drawing paper as a suitable gift. We figured that at least that was a relatively flexible gift, as far as age and gender went, and I was guessing that the birthday child was probably not older than Sapphire and Blanche or the younger 2 would never have been invited.

We got home, and my mom helped Sapphire wrap the gift while I put the groceries away. Sapphire changed into a dress, and we walked next door to Blanche's apartment building for the party. Blanche's older sister let us in, and we were surrounding by running preschoolers and adolescents. It was fairly obvious why Blanche had wanted Sapphire to come; they were the only kids between 5 and 15 who were there. The kids all danced to very loud music, and I tried to figure out who the birthday child was. Finally, I asked Blanche, and discovered that it was twins! Oops. That was not a possibility that I had planned for!

Sapphire and Blanche had a lot of fun running around and dancing. Cherry wasn't sure what to think. Mostly she sat on my lap and watched what was going on. I finally had the opportunity to ask where Blanche's family is from. Answer: Ivory Coast. She may actually have been born there. I'm not exactly sure. Around 5:00 we left because I needed to make dinner, and because I was feeling slightly guilty about abandoning mom.

In which Cherry locks herself in

On Tuesday we went to the Town Hall (Hôtel de Ville) to pay for lunches for the month of September. Cherry wasn't feeling well, but I thought that the fresh air would be good for her, so I stuck her on my back, and off we went. Once we got there, my mom waited outside the building with Sapphire and Ezio while Cherry and I went up the stairs to the schools department. We waited in line for a few minutes and paid the bill.

Then, Cherry decided that she needed to use the restroom. We headed in to the bathroom, and she decided that she wanted to use a stall by herself, and I could use one by myself. Since the bathroom didn't seem likely to get a whole lot of use (it's basically an office building), I told her that was fine, and she headed in. Of course, once she was in the bathroom, she turned the lock, because that's what one does in a public restroom stall. (An important note: while American bathroom stalls generally have doors that stop about a foot above the floor, and have plenty of space above them as well, European stalls have doors that go from the floor to the door-frame.) After a few minutes she told me that she couldn't figure out how to flush the potty, so I suggested that she open the door so that I could help her. You can probably see where this is going. She couldn't figure out how to unlock the door. I asked her to turn it as far as she could one direction, then the other. The door remained locked. Next, I looked at the lock to see how easy it would be to open. It needed a screwdriver or something like that. I tried the end of one of my keys, but that didn't work at all.

So I told Cherry to stay where she was (in retrospect, that was foolish. Where would she have gone? Into the toilet?), while I went back to the schools office to ask for help. They weren't sure how to get the door open either, but 3 of them rushed off in different directions to try to figure things out. A fourth came into the bathroom with me, and after looking at the door for a minute suggested that I pull it closed as hard as I could, and then ask Cherry to turn the lock again. The lock snicked back, and a sobbing Cherry tumbled out. We thanked the people who had helped us, and headed back outside to meet everyone else.

In which Mom arrives and we have a rather annoying train trip

We've been looking forward to having visitors while in Paris, since Paris has many more interesting things to offer than Kansas does. Think Louvre, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, and Versailles versus corn, wheat, cows, and men in purple T-shirts. (Yeah, yeah, I shouldn't diss Kansas. I know. I like Kansas, but perhaps not as a tourist destination.)

My mom was scheduled to arrive in Paris this morning, and was a bit worried about whether or not she could handle the trip from the airport to our apartment by herself, particularly as it was the first time she had traveled internationally by herself. Of course, I agreed to take the train out to meet her. Yesterday, I called to let her know that it might actually be Blaise who met her, since Cherry was sick, and I didn't want to drag her out to the airport and Blaise was less than thrilled about dealing with a sick kid. So the plan was that if Cherry was sick, Blaise would meet my mom at the airport, and if she wasn't sick anymore, I would take her.

Then Blaise woke me up at 4:30 to ask if I could take his temperature. (No, I don't know why he couldn't take his own temperature. Maybe temperature taking requires ovaries?) So now he was sick, and of course Cherry still had a fever. The obvious solution would have been for me to just go alone, but he was even less equipped to deal with her than he normally would have been. So I loaded her in the Ergo, and set off for the RER station.

We bought tickets, and I arrived at the platform just in time to see the E line train that I wanted pull away. The next train wasn't for another 15 minutes, so I headed back to the A platform, since the A line trains run more frequently. The normally 15 minute ride to Chatelet took almost half an hour because we spent so much time standing still. Then we boarded the express train to the airport. Basically that means that although the train goes through all the stops between the center of Paris and the airport, it doesn't stop at any of them. Except that our train stopped at all of them. For a really long time. Enough time for throngs of people to get on and off. At least they could have if the driver hadn't made announcements asking us not to open the doors at each stop.

We finally arrived at the airport a good 40 minutes after I had planned to get there, and hurried off to meet Mom. I was concerned that we were late enough that she might have wandered off in search of us. Fortunately she was waiting just where we'd agreed to meet her, so that part at least went smoothly.

On the way home, we had to switch to a different B-line train halfway to Paris because they were having electrical problems along the line. (That's probably why the trip to the airport took so long too, but my French was not nearly good enough to understand garbled loudspeaker French.) We got back and were mobbed by Sapphire and Ezio, who had stayed home with Blaise.

In which Cherry leaves a "gift" for the people on the Metro

Sapphire and Ezio were sick with what may have been the flu this week (I think it probably was. Blaise claims that I'm just buying into the hype. I haven't asked what his alternative diagnoses are. Also, he was gone for the worst of it, so I'm not sure he can talk.), so they stayed home from school Thursday and Friday. By this morning, however, Sapphire was completely fever free, and Ezio was feeling much better, though he was still running a bit of a fever.

We were in desperate need of a trip to the library, and since Ezio was still a bit ill, I decided that I would take Sapphire, who needed to get out of the house, and Cherry, who would keep Blaise from getting any work done otherwise, with me. The trip into the city was fairly uneventful. We had to stand on the RER going in, because we ended up smack in the middle of the train, due to our arrival on the platform just as the train was pulling in to the station. (Normally we go to one end or the other, but that would have meant waiting for the next train, which is a sizable wait on weekends.) We transfered to the Metro, got off at our regular stop and walked to the library.

We dropped off our books, and went back to the children's room to get new ones. (One of these days I'm going to keep my vow to check out a few grown up books too. I've got to get over thinking about how far I've got to carry them.) Ezio wanted Asterix comics (in English), so we picked up a couple of those, as well as a couple of Geronimo Stilton books for him. Cherry once again selected 5 Christmas books, though I was able to dissuade her from picking two different versions of The Night Before Christmas. Sapphire got the next two books in the Anne of Green Gables series, and then explained to the librarian that the reason she likes them so much is that she's basically just like Anne. She has an amazing imagination, and she never stops talking, all of which is of course true. I'm not sure how she'd do with 3 sets of twins though.

I signed the kids up for the Halloween party next Saturday afternoon while the librarian checked out our books, loaded them into the backpack, and headed out. Cherry made it about halfway back to the Metro station (it's about a half mile all told) before she started whining that she couldn't walk any more. I really didn't want to, since my back hurt and I was carrying books, but I picked her up, and noticed that she felt a bit warm. Surely it was my imagination, and even if it wasn't, we had to get home, so down into the Metro we went.

The first ride went without incident. We discovered on arriving at the Gare St. Lazare that we'd just missed a train running in our direction, and that we would need to wait about 15 minutes for the next one. Fortunately, it's the end of the line, and so the trains get there and just sit for 10+ minutes, which meant that we could go and grab seats instead of standing on the platform and waiting for the train to arrive. By this point, I was forced to admit that Cherry was probably actually sick, so I started trying to figure out what hurt. Her ear, evidently, and her butt. What about her stomach? Her denial of stomach pain was interrupted by its contents flying out of her mouth. We cleaned up as best we could, wrapped things well, and stuffed them into the backpack (separately from the books of course). Cherry slept the rest of the way home. Fortunately the train wasn't particularly crowded, and so there wasn't any issue with her keeping her seat. I pity the poor soul who sits in it accidentally however. There's only so much you can do with a couple of windbreakers.

Flashback: In which we arrive in Paris (Part 2)

For the first part, go to flashback: in which we arrive in Paris.

We landed safely in Paris, and discovered, much to our surprise that we didn't need to ride a bus from the plane to the terminal building. Instead we were able to actually walk from the plane directly into the building. Off we went to passport control, where we got in line and watched the people with European Union passports go flying past. We were behind a large group of Africans (tourists or immigrants, I'm not sure which) and the passport people were taking forever to screen their passports. Eventually we reached the official, who checked our passports and let us through.

The next step was to find our luggage carrousel and wait. And wait and wait. At last one of our bags came through, and shortly afterward the "no more bags" sign started flashing. So we were short one large bag, one carseat, and two boosters. Well, there was nothing to do for it but go stand in the line for people who were missing luggage. After all, we had been on 3 flights on 2 airlines involving 4 airports and 3 countries. It was hardly shocking that something would have been misplaced. Once we had cleared about half of the waiting line, the light on top of the carrousel began to flash again, and we rushed over to check what might be coming off. Our carseat and booster seats showed up and we pulled them off, but though we waited for another 10 minutes our second bag never showed up. Back to the line, which was somewhat shorter at this point. Blaise filled out the paperwork while I attempted to entertain the kids, something I don't do particularly well when tired.

Then we loaded up our luggage cart (free, at least in the international terminals, in Paris) and headed out the door to the train station. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that this time the train station entrance was basically right where we were. (Last time we had to walk a really, really long way to get to the trains.) We dragged our stuff down the escalators. I took Cherry and the bag. Blaise took the carseat. Sapphire and Ezio each carried their own booster seat. And of course we all had carry ons. We took the train to the Gard du Nord, and transfered to the Metro. On the way we noticed a bakery shop, and stopped to grab some pains aux chocolats.

We took the metro a few stops, then unloaded. I needed to take Cherry with me to go pay the second half of the rent for the apartment we were living in for our first few days in France, and to pick up the key and the passcode to the building. Blaise and the big kids stayed in the train station with all of our luggage, because it turned out that we needed to get a different train from the same station to get to our apartment. That way we didn't have to worry about dragging the luggage the 3 blocks to the rental office.

Cherry and I found the office successfully, though not without a few mishaps, and I dutifully put my money into the lockbox and removed my key. We then headed back out to the Metro station, where I had to buy a ticket (actually, I bought 10 of them because it's cheaper that way) in order to get back into the train station. By the time I got back, Sapphire and Ezio were both panicking about how long I'd been gone, and convinced that I'd gotten lost somehow. We grabbed our luggage and dragged it to the platform for our departing train. By now we were approaching rush hour, and the trains were beginning to get crowded. Somehow, Cherry and I, with the big duffle bag, managed to get on a different train than Blaise and the big kids and the rest of the luggage. To make matters worse, Blaise wasn't completely sure where to get off, and I had told him we only needed to ride a couple of stops. (It was more like 10.) Cherry and I got off at the proper stop, and tried to stay right where we were, hoping that at least they would be able to see us when the next train pulled in. Fortunately, they were on it, and saw us, and promptly gave me a 3 person scolding for providing Blaise with incomplete information and getting on a different train. (Honestly, given the amount of luggage we had, I'm not sure we could all have managed to get on the same train.)

We hoisted our luggage up the steps, and began the miserable trek to the apartment. By the time we'd gone halfway we'd stopped to rest at least thrice, and were beginning to wish that the airline had managed to lose all of the luggage. We found the building at last, and discovered upon entry that in order to get to our apartment we would have to drag our luggage up an incredibly steep and very narrow set of stairs to a tiny platform that was made smaller by the child's potty sitting on it. I went up alone and opened the door. Then everyone else followed, one at a time, so that if someone fell down the stairs at least they wouldn't knock over all of the people around them.

Once we had settled in a bit, and Blaise had gotten the wireless router running, I headed out to the supermarket and picked up something for dinner. Afterwards, we visited a playground around the corner for a bit, then headed home and to bed.

In which Cherry gets to do a "mixing hingy"

Sapphire and Ezio stayed home sick from school today (and will be home again tomorrow; they both had fevers at bedtime), but Cherry went to maternelle this morning. When I pick her up after school she always tells me what they did in gymnastiques (PE class) but refuses to tell me anything else until some point later in the day. Generally gymnastiques is crawling through tunnels or walking on benches or dancing or something like that. Today, she reported with some dismay that they didn't have gymnastiques, which struck me as odd, because they normally have gymnastiques every day. That, along with singing time, story time, and recess are the constants for her class.

Tonight, after dinner, she decided it was time to tell me about her school. I'll attempt to report as I was told, though I'll translate into English instead of Cherry-speak. (If you want Cherry speak, just replace all the th's, sh's, and s's with h; the l's with y, the v's with d, and the r's with w [or just drop them altogether, Boston style (Sapphire is Cahmen, for example)].)

Cherry: Mommy, I want to tell you about what we did in school today. I got to do a mixing thingy.
Me: What kind of a mixing thingy? Did you make a cake? (They're celebrating October birthdays at school tomorrow, and having a harvest "feast".)
Cherry: No. A mixing thingy, you know, with flour and stuff.
Me: What kind of stuff?
Cherry: Flour, and cream, and baking powder, and hmm.
Me: Did you put in sugar?
Cherry: And oil. And we each got to eat an apple. We got to pick them off the tray.
Me: You each got to eat a whole apple?
Cherry: Yes. It was about this big (holds thumb and forefinger so close that they are practically touching).
Me: (Thinking that that was an awfully small apple) So, they were pieces of apple then?
Cherry: Yes. We each got one. And we put the rest in the mixing thingy. And we put in eggs too.
Me: Did everyone get to take a turn mixing?
Cherry: And we all got to put something in. I got to put in, umm, the sugar. Some of the kids didn't want to mix though.
Me: What did you do with it when you were all done mixing?
Cherry: Sylvine (the teacher) put it in a black pan with 2 sides.
Me: Did she bake it?
Cherry: NO! I told you it was a mixing thingy. Besides, you need a real oven to bake things. Not a toy oven. (Duh Mom, how dumb can you be?)

In which Rebekah deals with the sickies

In France, H1N1 flu was originally given the name Grippe Mexicaine rather than swine flu. I suspect that this is because the French government was less concerned about annoying the Mexican government than the US government was. In any case, it's called grippe, type H1N1 here now, and though it doesn't seem to be as prevalent here as in the States (at least based on Facebook status updates), the incidences are definitely ramping up.

Sapphire and Ezio were both sick all day yesterday with the holy triumvirate of flu symptoms: headache, fever, and hacking cough. Sapphire added a sore throat to her symptoms, and Ezio added a stomach ache to his list, and we spent basically all day inside. This is complicated for a couple of reasons.

The first is that we don't have all that much space, or all that much stuff to do in the house. American DVD's won't play on a French DVD player (different coding rules) and so we didn't bother to bring any of our movies with us. We have cable, but it's very limited (only about 8 channels) and there is nothing for kids on past about 10 o'clock. And we brought a limited number of toys with us, primarily Legos, because of space constraints. To add to the lack of stuff to do, we haven't been to the library in 3+ weeks (that was one of the things we were going to do yesterday), and so the kids have read their books a gazillion times already.

The second is that I typically only shop for one day's groceries at a time here in France. We live only a 5 minute walk from the hypermarché, and I have to carry (or pull) home everything I buy. So there typically isn't a whole lot of excess food in the house. I didn't feel comfortable dragging the kids to the store if they're sick, nor did I feel comfortable leaving them home alone (Blaise is at a conference in Nancy this week) while I went to the store. While it is relatively close, it's still generally a 45 minute trip in total. So we were stuck with what was in the house, along with what I could pick up at the local boulangerie (generally about a 6 minute round trip), since I felt comfortable leaving Sapphire and Ezio alone for that long. (I also left them alone while Cherry and I ran to the pharmacie for more ibuprofen yesterday. Again, a 6 or 7 minute trip.)

This morning, Sapphire and Ezio were still sick, but Cherry was fine. Since she was bored out of her mind all day yesterday, I decided that I would leave Sapphire and Ezio at home while I dropped her off at school. Hopefully she will be less bored today since she gets that 3 hours of interaction and activity. I also discovered that administering liquid ibuprofen is more difficult than I had previously realized. When I was trying to give Ezio a dose earlier today, I inadvertently shot the dose into his nostril instead of his mouth. Oops.

In which Blaise goes to a conference and Rebekah night weans Cherry

Officially Blaise's position here in France is through the University of Nancy, though we are living just outside Paris. Occasionally that means that he has to go to Nancy for conferences or workshops of some kind. This week he's spending 3 days (from Tuesday evening through lunch on Friday) in Nancy, talking about the history and philosophy of mathematics with a bunch of other historians and philosophers of mathematics.

I decided that since he's gone, it would be a good time to night wean Cherry, who is really absurdly old to still think she needs to nurse 3 times a night. With Sapphire this was very easy. In fact, she reminded me in the middle of the night that she wasn't supposed to get mama milk until morning. With Ezio it was awful. He screamed and hit me for 2 hours before he finally gave up and went back to sleep. Personality wise, Cherry is closer to Ezio than she is to Sapphire, and so I'd been putting off the business of night weaning for as long as I could. I simply wasn't up for 2 hours of screaming, especially in an apartment.

You may be wondering why on earth Blaise's absence would be a good time to night wean. Well, the answer is really quite simple. We have only 2 bedrooms, and all 3 kids are typically in the same bedroom. You can probably imagine how Cherry screaming for 2 hours a mere 18 inches from Sapphire's head would turn out. With Blaise gone, I was able to move the big kids into our bed temporarily, and I slept in their bed with Cherry. I figured that if she woke up and screamed I would at least be able to shut the doors between the two rooms (and hope the people in the apartments above and below us were sound sleepers) and I would be less tempted to give in to the shrieking.

Unfortunately, Cherry (uncharacteristically) took a nap yesterday afternoon, and so it wasn't until nearly 10 pm that she finally fell asleep. I followed soon after in anticipation of losing much sleep to screaming. Sapphire woke me at 4 because she needed a drink, and I was surprised to realize that Cherry hadn't woken at all yet. She finally woke for the first time around 4:30, and whimpered about needing mama milk for 10 minutes before falling asleep with her head on my shoulder. She was up for the day around 6:30, at which point she got her coveted mama milk.

Sapphire and Ezio were also up around 6:30, complaining of headaches and sore throats, coughing, and running fevers. I'm guessing they have flu, though we'll see what the next 24 hours brings. In any case, they won't be going to school tomorrow (no school today because it's Wednesday). Fortunately, there is no school next week or much of the following week because of the Toussaint (All Saint's Day) holidays, so a likely worst case scenario is that they'll miss two days of school.

In which Rebekah makes meringues

A couple of weeks ago we decided that we would decrease the amount of sweet stuff we bought, and instead we would, once a week, either buy a fancy dessert at the bakery or I would make something special. Two weeks ago I made pear clafoutis. Last weekend I made an apple tart (which was really not all that good. I should have gone with my instincts and made apple pie, midwestern or not.) The recipe called for 6 egg yolks, which meant of course that I was left with 6 egg whites.

The obvious thing to do with large numbers of leftover egg whites is to make meringues. Obvious, that is, so long as you have a massive stand mixer and cookie sheets and piping equipment. I, on the other hand, didn't have a stand mixer (or even a hand mixer) or cookie sheets or piping equipment. I also didn't have cream of tartar, nor could I find any at the Auchan. But I did have six leftover egg whites in the fridge, and a whisk.

After lunch yesterday, Cherry and I sat down on the kitchen floor and proceeded to try to make meringues. First, we dumped the egg whites into the bowl, and we took turns whisking them. I'd whisk until my arm got sore, and then Cherry would take a turn while I recovered. 15 minutes later, we had something that looked like it could pass for (very) soft peaks. At any rate, the whisk marks in the egg white were taking a while to disappear.

The next step was to begin to add the sugar, a little bit at a time, and continue to whisk until we got something that looked like stiff peaks. Since I was using medium egg whites instead of the large ones called for in all of the recipes, there was a bit of guesswork involved in figuring out how much sugar to use. I guessed that 6 medium whites was probably the equivalent of 4.5 to 5 large whites, and accordingly measured out a generous 3/4 cup of sugar. Since I didn't want plain meringues, I added some cinnamon to the sugar.

Cherry and I redivided the work load as follows: She used a tablespoon measure to carefully dump cinnamon sugar into the egg whites when I asked her to. And I whisked. And whisked. And whisked. It took about 5 minutes to add all the cinnamon sugar, and a further 5 minutes of additional whisking to get something that could even vaguely be construed as stiff peaks. By that point my arm was starting to feel like it was going to fall off, and I was concerned that I would begin to look lopsided due to all the excess muscle development on one side of my body. I was also beginning to sweat, so I changed into a T-shirt and shorts. After 5 more minutes, I decided that it was never going to get any stiffer, and that I might as well bake and see what happened.

Now, the second problem. I don't have any cookie sheets in this apartment. I've been baking cookies as bars, but part of the appeal of meringues is the crispy outside, which makes baking them as bars pretty unappealing. I decide that I can just plop spoonfuls inside the baking dishes, and that should work. I fill the first baking pan with plops of meringue, and slip it into the oven, setting the timer for 40 minutes. The second pan, filled with more plops is left on the counter. (The oven isn't big enough to have two pans of cookies baking at the same time.)

After 40 minutes, we take the first pan out of the oven, and put it on the counter to cool. The cookies are nicely puffed and brown. The second pan goes into the oven, and the timer is reset. After I read a couple of books to Cherry, I go back into the kitchen to see how things are going, and discover that the meringues cooling on the counter are now looking rather sticky, and they've lost much of their volume. Perhaps I should have left them in the oven for longer? I add 20 minutes to the time for the meringues still in the oven, and decide that I will leave them in (with the oven turned off of course) while we walk to the school to pick up Sapphire and Ezio.

I pull the second batch out when we get home. They hold up somewhat better, but they aren't great. Clearly, making meringues without my heavy equipment is more difficult than I expected.

In which we take advantage of what Fontenay has to offer

One of the things that is very different about living here is that we receive many mailings about all the events that are happening in the area. Every 2 weeks we get a magazine about the happenings in Fontenay-sous-Bois. Every month we get a magazine about the happenings in the Val-de-Marne (our département). And every other month we get a magazine about the happenings in the entire Ile de France (Paris region, fairly broadly construed). Also, there are billboards located all over town with information about the planned happenings.

During the second half of October, there is a food festival in Fontenay, with classes, exhibits on things like apples and soups, opportunities to exchange recipes, and a market of regional foods. Of course, most of the happenings are in French and so difficult for us to make much of, but a market is a market, and food is food.

Saturday morning we set off for the market, which was located on the opposite side of town, about 2 km away. (The population of Fontenay is about 40,000. The area of Fontenay is about 4 square km.) Thirty minutes later, after going several blocks out of our way (we followed the signs, which were evidently designed for drivers), we arrived at the market. And we discovered that there really wasn't much of anything that we were interested in buying. We did pick up a couple of interesting looking jars of jam (melon [cantaloupe] and plum).

When it was time to leave, Cherry decided that she wasn't going to walk. And I decided that I wasn't going to carry her. I've been very bad lately about giving in to whining, and so I've been trying to be much better about holding firm when I've said no, and also about being slower to say no so that I don't have to reconsider so often. Also, I've been finding that carrying Cherry in my arms for long distances is causing flare ups of lower back pain. (The Ergo doesn't have that problem, since she's on my back and well balanced, but I didn't have the Ergo with me.) So we watched her scream for 10 minutes. Eventually she decided to walk, though she didn't stop whimpering the entire way home.

Sunday we thought about doing something in the city, but time slipped away. We ended up heading over to the parc des epivans for an hour or so before it closed. Amazingly, Blaise joined us for the trip to the playground, which almost never happens. Sapphire and Ezio played on the tire swing (which evidently doesn't make them feel like they're going to puke) and Cherry climbed and slid. She also convinced Blaise to go on the teeter-totter with her, which was pretty funny looking. After a while, the big kids asked if we could go exploring in the wooded part of the park, so we all headed back there. Blaise and I talked while we watched the big kids check out all the pathways, and Cherry gamely try to keep up with them. Shortly before 6, the park manager came through and shooed us all out so he could shut up the park. By that time we were pretty cold and tired anyway, so we left happily.

In which Sapphire and Ezio go on a field trip

It's going to be a short post today, because I'm doing my first English lesson in 20 minutes, so I"ve got about 10 minutes to blog. Please excuse the typos.

When we were in the States, Sapphire and Ezio would occasionally bring home notes about field trips that they were going on, generally at least a week ahead of time, and then they would bring home reminders at least 2 more times before they actually went on the trip. The French on the other hand, do not handle it so.

When I picked Sapphire and Ezio up from school on Tuesday, they gleefully informed me that their class, and one of teh other classes from their school, had walked to a nearby international market for a tour, and that they had had the opportunity to eat dates (big raisins, according to Ezio) and a couple of other things. Thursday, (yesterday) I picked them up and discovered that they, along with much of the rest of the school, had walked to a nearby movie theatre for a screening of Peter and the Wolf (Pierre et le loup) done by marionettes. Today they have a field trip to a nearby stadium (I"m guessing that they'll take a bus, since it's about a mile and a half each way) for a sports outing. The only reason I know about this one ahead of time is that they needed to be sent in their track suits so that they would be able to participate.

Flashback: In which we arrive in Paris

Since we've had fairly dull couple of weeks here (somebody has been under the weather virtually every time we could have done something as a family), I thought that I would take the opportunity to blog about our trip to Paris.

Our flight to Paris left on a Sunday, but our trip from Manhattan began on Saturday afternoon. We had spent the morning frantically running around, packing last minute things and preparing our minivan to be stored over the year that we are going to be gone. Carrying boxes into the garage. Doing last minute cleaning. Around 1:00 we were essentially finished, and my dad ran out and picked up burgers and fries to eat for lunch.

Then we loaded all of our stuff into my parents' Taurus and my sister's Taurus, since they had agreed to drive us to Kansas City. Blaise, Cherry, and I rode with my dad, and Sapphire, Ezio, and my mom rode with Abby. We had made reservations at a hotel out by the airport with a pool, and so they dropped us off there. Then Blaise worked a bit while I took the kids down to the pool.

The next morning after breakfast we headed down to the shuttle and rode to the airport. Check in went smoothly, and we were thrilled to discover that our luggage could be checked all the way through to Paris (we were using two different airlines, so we were expecting to have to recheck it in Chicago) and that they didn't charge us for any of it. We wandered around the airport for a while, then cleared security and boarded the plane. We landed in Chicago without incident (except that Cherry decided that flying was terrifying and that she absolutely must hold both of my hands at all times).

Since we had a long (5 hour) lay over, and our next flight left from the international terminal (nothing to do, or buy) we looked around until we found a restaurant selling Chicago style hot dogs for lunch, then took our time heading over to the international terminal. Once there, we had to reclear security (of course) and we stopped at a small kiosk just inside security to pick up a few snacks for the plane and for the wait. We roamed the halls of the terminal. We explored a small safety exhibit set up by the Chicago childrens museum. Blaise and the big kids played their DS's. I followed Cherry up and down and up and down. Finally, we headed over to the gate and waited to board.

On the plane we discovered that we had four seats together, and a fifth across the aisle. There were 2 ways to handle this. The first was to sit Sapphire on the other side of the aisle. She didn't like that idea at all, and to be honest, neither did we. The second was to put Blaise over there, but he's quite a large guy, and we suspected that whoever was sitting next to him wouldn't like that very much. Fortunately, the man with the window seat was willing to go for option number 3, which was to take the 4th seat in our group, thereby leaving two seats together for Blaise and Sapphire. Cherry fell asleep almost immediately, and Ezio waited impatiently to be able to play his DS.

Eight hours later we landed in Dublin, where I discovered that Sapphire had stayed awake all night watching Bolt 3 times, and then fallen asleep while the plane was taxiing. We disembarked, then cleared passport control (I got my passport stamped!) and waited for our next flight. We got caught trying to take water through security (I'd forgotten that we'd filled our water bottle) and were given the choice of drinking it or tossing it. I drained the bottle and they let us through.

Our third flight took us to Paris, though I think everyone except Ezio slept through the whole thing. He played Lego StarWars. The flight attendant woke us up and made us sit properly for the landing.

To be continued. . .

In which Rebekah discusses her weekend

Thursday afternoon, Cherry and I headed over to the parc des epivans after lunch, with the idea that Cherry could spend some excess energy on the slides and swings. We got there ok, but when it was time to leave, Cherry starting complaining that her ear was hurting. She felt warm, so I carried her home, and stuck her in the Ergo to bring her to school to pick up Sapphire and Ezio. By the time we got home she was complaining a lot, and she felt quite hot, so I gave her ibuprofen and decided to see how she was feeling the next morning.

Friday she was very definitely sick, so I called the school to let them know (it was easier than I had feared, fortunately) and we hung around the house all day. Around lunchtime I went to the store and finally found a thermometer that didn't cost 50 euros, and picked up some things for lunch and dinner. I also determined that since she wasn't acting terribly sick when she was dosed, we could probably wait to see a doctor unless she took a turn for the worse.

Saturday and Sunday she still ran a fever, and so we stayed pretty close to home. Sapphire helped me make a pear clafouti on Saturday afternoon, and we pretty much did nothing at all on Sunday. Monday, Cherry woke up without a fever, and I kept her home one more day just to make sure. She is, happily, back at school today.

In which Rebekah deals with French bureaucracy

One of the important pieces of documentation that we need to have during our stay in France is a Carte de Séjour (residence permit), and obtaining one is somewhat of a hassle. We began the process at the end of July, heading over to the sous-prefecture with all of our paperwork, only to be told to return in 2 weeks. We did so, and after sitting in the waiting room for a couple of hours, we were called back, and presented all of our paperwork (birth certificates, marriage license, passports, employment contract, proof of residency, etc) and were given receipts which indicated to anyone who was interested that we had in fact begun the process of applying for our permits. We were also told that we needed medical exams, and that we would be receiving a letter in the mail telling us when and where to show up. In the unlikely event that letter failed to show up, we were given a small slip of paper with a phone number on it.

Of course you know where this is leading. It's now the beginning of October, and we have not yet gotten this letter in the mail. Our receipts expire in just under a month at this point, and we're beginning to be a bit worried. So, yesterday I decided that although I can think of many things I'd rather do (scrubbing toilets and cleaning up vomit come to mind), it was necessary that I try to contact the medical people. The following ensued:

9:30 -- I call the number on the paper, let the phone ring for 5 minutes, and hang up.
10:30 -- I call again. After 25 rings, someone picks up. I explain that we need medical examinations for our carte de séjour, spell my name for him, etc. He tells me that I need to talk to someone else, and forwards the call. It rings at the new number for several minutes, then cuts off.
11:45 -- I repeat the phone call, but no-one answers.
1:30 -- I call back, and get the same guy as before. This time he gives me the phone number he's transferring me to before he completes the transfer, and I dutifully write it down. After several rings, a woman answers, and asks for all of my information. At some point she decides getting it from me is too frustrating, and tells me to call back when I have a clue.
3:00 -- I decide I have a clue. I call back, and manage to get somewhere with her. Unfortunately, somewhere is that I'm still talking to the wrong person, and that I should call a different number tomorrow (now today) at 11:00.

So, I'm currently biding my time until 11, when I will be able to call the 3rd number in my attempt to deal with the medical exam. With any luck, the person I talk to will speak English, but I'm afraid based on past experience the chances of that are extremely slim. In any case, I'm hoping that this will be the last person that I need to talk to. Otherwise tomorrow's blog post may be a list of all the useless phone calls I made today!

In which Sapphire and Ezio experience life with French schoolchildren

The ultimate goal of the CLIN class in French schools is to prepare the students to succeed in a regular French public school classroom. In general, the students are able to attend French classrooms full time by their second year in French schools. Of course, we won't be here for their second year in French schools, but they'd be able to if we were.

The students are moved gradually from being in CLIN full time to being in a regular classroom, beginning with short periods of time each day. Yesterday, Sapphire and Ezio and the six other students that started the school year with them (there have been 4 more students that have joined them more recently) spent one hour in regular classes for math.

Sapphire goes to a 4th grade class (CM1-classe moyen [middle] first year) in Henri Wallon B, which is a separate elementary school (has its own building, principal, etc) within the same complex. I asked her how it went, and she said there were a few things she didn't understand, but mostly it went pretty well. Then I asked how many students there were in her class, and she said she didn't know, but all of them were in groups of 4 or 5. So I asked how many groups there were, thinking I could at least get an estimate, and she said, "I don't know. I had to concentrate. Don't you know that the teacher was speaking French?"

Ezio is going to a 1st grade class (CP-classe primaire) in Henri Wallon A, which is the same elementary school that the CLIN class is in. He also said that it went well, though there were a few things he didn't understand, though not, evidently, because he didn't understand the math. He wanted me to be very clear on that. Evidently he has somewhere between 16 and 20 kids in his class. I'm not sure whether he counted, or whether he has a good eye for estimates, or whether he just pulled the number out of thin air, and there are actually 50 kids in his class.

In which we go shopping for gym clothes

First, I apologize if you were looking for a post yesterday and didn't see it. I've been fighting a nasty cold (yes, I'm quite sure it isn't swine flu) for the last couple of days, and I didn't get much of anything done.

Monday, Sapphire and Ezio came home from school with notes in their planners saying that they needed to bring track suits and shoes for school on Thursday. Since Sapphire had neither a track suit nor running shoes, and Ezio didn't have a track suit, our Wednesday plans were made for us.

Wednesday morning, Cherry woke up at the lovely hour of 5 a.m, and my day began. (She would later tell Blaise that I had forced her to get up in the middle of the night even though she had pleaded with me to let her stay in bed. Stinker.) We headed into Paris after lunch to the Decathlon, which is a sporting goods store. I would say it was French, but evidently they have them in the UK as well, and maybe some other places. I had heard from friends that it was a good place to find reasonably priced sports clothing and equipment, and after checking their online store had decided that prices looked reasonable.

We emerged from the metro, expecting to have to walk a few blocks to the store, and discovered the entrance staring at us just across the street. We headed up the elevator and found the children's clothing, then began the process of searching for something acceptable. Ezio found 3 track suits that he liked, but which weren't available in his size. Sapphire found 2, but they weren't available in her size. They tried them in in a larger size, but it was obvious that they would spend the whole time falling down if we went that route. Finally, I managed to find a girl's tracksuit (purple, with grey pants) in a size 10, and a boy's tracksuit (navy) in a size 6, that were deemed acceptable. They tried them on (in different dressing rooms at opposite ends of the dressing area), and both were judged an acceptable fit.

From there, it was downstairs to look at shoes. Although the men's and women's shoe aisles were clearly labeled, the children's shoes were not, and for a time I thought our options might be limited to what was available on the end caps. Eventually we found the children's shoes, and found a pair of Reeboks that Sapphire liked, were available in her size, and fit my budget since they were on clearance. (Trying them on was a bit of a trick since they were attached to each other with a very short tie.)

We checked out, grabbing a bottle of water for Cherry, who was tired, not feeling well, and jealous because she wasn't getting a track suit, and headed back to the metro.