It was premeditated...

What's better than breakfast in bed?



I'll tell you. When your husband lets you sleep in, even though he's wide awake at 7:15am on a Saturday. Instead of waking you up, he goes for a long walk and on his way home stops by the boulangerie for a fresh baguette and then picks you what has to be the very first flower of spring.

While this in itself is incredibly thoughtful and romantic, there's more.



I mentioned earlier this week in one of my frequent discourses about food and how much I like eating that my absolute favorite breakfast is fresh baguette with butter and raspberry jam. Then I moved on to another subject (probably food-related).

Yesterday as we were grocery shopping Jonathan put a jar of raspberry jam in the cart. I didn't think anything of it...until this morning when I stumbled crazy-haired into the living room and saw the baguette, butter and jam.

So this was premeditated thoughtfulness and romance. My favorite kind.

When the words not come...

J: You know, if we had a vacuuming machine for this rug...

Kari interrupts snickering

J:...a vacuumer?

Kari still snickering

J: A vacuum! That's what it's called!

Ah, the joys of using multiple languages in your day-to-day. Being multilingual may mean that you can speak more languages, but it also means you're likely to lose key parts of your native language!

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of our life.


A cross-stitch Kendra made for me and flowers to plant in the garden from our neighbors, Emilie and Celine

In a story completely unrelated to vacuuming... thank you for the birthday wishes! I had un grande latte in a comfy chair at Starbucks. I had two pieces of caramel-covered chocolate cake (thanks, Stauffers!) I read a beautiful letter. I wore a beautiful necklace from Macedonia. And I'm going to get a hot stone massage.

Who knew being 28 was so much fun? ;)

Life lessons...

What I learned in my year as 27-year old:

- Don't microwave UHT milk boxes. Sparks will fly.

- Sleep masks, although ridiculous looking, are a wonderful invention.

- The word for hacking back trees in spring is pollarding.

- The minty flavor of carraway seeds goes well with hot sauce in vegetable soup.

- I feel more like me with really short hair.

- A sincere, comprehensive apology has the same effect on me as a love letter.

- New favorite European city to visit: Prague

- Plum cobbler with ice cream.

- Holding my tongue and letting the subject drop for a bit is a greater tool of persuasion than an avalanche of arguments.

- Late 20s begin at 28. (Don't argue with the birthday girl... or at least see above.)

Bring on the wisdom for next year!

What's cookin'?

Kari, the rock collector

Patience, patience.

Before you can answer "What's cookin'?" you must first answer as to what's being harvested, what's being grown, what's being planted... and in our case, what's being cleared, turned over, unrooted, un-rocked and prepared for spring.


Left to right: Kari, Emilie, trash pile

For about three years now, Jonathan and I have discussed big plans for the trash pit yard behind our apartment building. More recently we've discussed these plans with our equally ambitious next door neighbors. While we were in Budapest, the dreams came true.


I did abondon the task of rock collecting for something more fun: playing with a pair of hedge clippers and a garden fork. I am going to be so sore.

Well, the dreams got a good start at least. Emilie spent two whole days cutting and clearing and it already looked SO much better and less like an overgrown junkyard. Today she and I worked for a few hours, making the most of a gorgeous sunny day. And while I learned the French words for gardening tools and terms, Emilie learned that I don't really know even any of these words in English. By the end of the afternoon you could at least walk across most of the yard without getting thorned to death by les ronces (brambles).


Taking a break to evaluate the terrain

The plan: a couple tomato plants, green beans, thyme, rosemary, basil, lavender and a spot for a table and chairs. One part of our plan is already completed:


Le compost hole

All three parts...

Part 1: We have heat! We have hot water!

As you may recall, we arrived home to a frrrrozen apartment on Tuesday night. First thing on Wednesday, Jonathan woke up and called the gas company and the heating maintenance company. (I was still in bed, marvelling at the fact that I could see my breath.) I used to think the greatest sound to wake up to was Jonathan doing dishes, but waking up to hear him make phone calls in French to get me some heat is pretty high on the list.

Apparently someone from the gas company came to shut off our neighbor’s gas meter and in the process accidentally killed ours too. The maintenance guy (who was kind enough not to even bill us) is the one who discovered the problem. In the process he also discovered that we keep our apartment at 17°C (63°F) during the day when we’re here and 14°C (57°F) at night. He asked if that was intentional or if we needed help changing the settings. ☺

By noon on Wednesday we were back up to a toasty 17°C chez les Masson.

We now interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this important announcement: Le Blab is hosting a Kiva give-away this week! Just leave a comment here to be entered to win a $25 loan. If you win, you get to choose the Kiva entrepreneur to whom you want the loan to go. Now, back to our program.

Part 2: We have a fridge! We have a freezer!

Tuesday night it appeared that our fridge and freezer were dead. The soft, squishy foods were a good indicator of that. I decided that this problem could wait until the heat and hot water were fixed, so did not open the freezer door again until Wednesday afternoon.

And when I did, most of the foods were frozen! I suddenly remembered (or was it my parents emailed to tell me?) that “when the temperature drops outside the refrigerator, it affects its ability to run.” So once we got the heat back on, the fridge and freezer were resurrected!


Part 3: We have work! We have clinic duty!

That's right. We're back in the swing of things here in Lyon. I'm working on the May/June magazine issues and two new audio learning guides in English. Jonathan is working on patients with somatic disfunctions, insomnia and chest congestion. C'est la vie!

And a good morning to you too...

The jackhammer outside our building is actually what woke me up. My very next thought: I can see my breath in our bedroom.

Let me go back to the beginning. Yesterday we left my parents’ house in Budapest to come home to Lyon, usually a six-hour trip door-to-door. We left their house at 9:30am. Our flight wasn’t until 1 pm, but because of all the beautiful snow that had fallen overnight, our taxi came early to be sure we made it on time. Plenty of time had we! Our 1 pm flight was delayed almost three hours. (Thanks for the sandwich and applesauce, Mom!)

We arrived in Munich to discover that – surprise! – we were not the only travellers whose plans had been hit by a snowball. When our turn came to talk to a very efficient woman in customer service we learned that our original flight had been delayed, but we’d still missed it. The afternoon flight was cancelled. We’d be on the 9pm flight to Lyon. Please enjoy these 20 euros vouchers at one of the fine dining establishments of the Munich airport.

With about four hours to kill, we explored. The Lufthansa wing of the Munich airport is our favorite (free international newspapers, self-service coffee and tea, lots of stores…) and we discovered (six times) that walking the length of the wing in one direction takes 17 minutes. We estimate it’s about ¾ mile each way.

At 9pm it was announced that our flight would be delayed another hour.

We arrived in Lyon at 11:30pm, seven hours later than planned. By the time we took the (night’s very last) shuttle into town, public transportation was no longer running. So we found a taxi and he wrapped up the trip for us.

Or was the adventure really over?

We turned the corner to see that the façade of our entire building had been covered in metal framework and netting. Apparently our 1904 building has been shedding some chunks of its cement décor and it’s been falling onto the sidewalk below. (Yikes!) So while we were gone they started work to fix it – which apparently requires jackhammers.

(As I type this, there’s a man in blue coveralls working about three feet away outside our window. I’m not sure if it’s polite to turn and wave good morning or if I should scramble to pick up the clothes strewn all over the floor as we’re in mid-unpack?)

That was an interesting distraction until we realized that our heat wasn’t working. At all. And no hot water either. (Do the math and figure our how long it’s been since we had showers.)

It was almost 1 am, so nothing to do about it until morning. We bundled up and fell into bed.

But not before I opened the fridge to put away a few food items and realized that it was not working either. I hesitantly opened the freezer and poked at a lump of pizza dough…squishy. Which means our fridge and freezer died in our absence.

The silver lining: at least the frigid apartment kept things from spoiling!

Jonathan woke up early (as in before jackhammer o'clock) and called the gas company and the heating maintenance company. They're coming to check it out today. I'm taking the day off to unpack, salvage what we can from the freezer, shop for a new fridge, get some groceries and maybe make friends with the men in blue coveralls.

Wish me luck...and sanity.

One town: 16 museums and galleries...

The town of Szentendre is known for its many museums and galleries. Ask us how many we saw. Keeping in line with our very cultured history...not a one. We opted for the tour de shopping and eating instead!

Vive l'amour...

Happy Valentine's day to those of you who are sharing it with your other half, who woke up in awe that God created this person for you.

Happy Valentine's day to those of you who are lonely, who wish you had someone to love and be loved by. (You do.)

Happy Valentine's day to those of you who are in an exciting new relationship, who are not sure where it will go but enjoying every moment.

Happy Valentine's day to those of you who are celebrating it like we are:
Going to the outlet mall and Burger King with your in-laws. (Was it Glenn who told me that 'vallentyn' is Hungarian for 'father-in-law'?)

Vive romance, and Happy Valentine's Day, Kari!

- Jonathan

Fotó a nap...

That's Hungarian for 'photo of the day'. This is what I saw when I walked downstairs first thing this morning. Mom and Jonathan were checking out the view from the living room. Not sure what they were looking at, but I thought it made a pretty funny picture!



Today's itsy-bitsy lesson:
5 Hungarian words you didn't know you knew

coach
From 'kocsi', a horse-drawn wagon with springs above the axles. Named after the village of Kocs in which this type of vehicle was invented.

itsy-bitsy
From 'ici-pici', meaning tiny.

paprika
From 'paprika', a spice made out of ground hot or mild red peppers.

saber
From the Hungarian word 'szablya' for sword. The word made its way into English through French (sabre, sable) and German (Säbel). The Hungarian verb 'szabni' means to slice or to tailor.

soap
Supposedly a Hungarian invention, its name in many languages was derived from the Hungarian 'szappan': soap, Seife, savon, jabon, etc.

Also invented in Hungary: the ballpoint pen, Rubik’s cube, buttons and... underwear!

Snow and bathing suits...

The Széchenyi Bath

30°F weather. Gentle snow falling. Icy sludge covering the streets.

Most people would choose to sit around a cozy fire and drink hot chocolate. Not us. We suited up…bathing suit-ed up! That’s right. Amidst the snowflakes, the four of us were running around a Budapest city park in our wet bathing suits.


Ceiling at the entrance

The Széchenyi Bath (or Széchenyi-gyógyfürdő if you want to sound like a Hungarian) is the largest medicinal bath in Europe. Its water is supplied by two thermal springs, the deepest and warmest thermal wells in Budapest, which were discovered in 1879. The baths were built in 1913.


Hall at the entrance

Enough with the history lesson. What’s it really like to soak in thermal baths with the locals? Well, there are a lot of Speedos (Dad and Jonathan were way over-dressed). But once I got used to that, I could enjoy the 15 or so pools, ranging from large hot tubs to pools that looked like church baptisteries, whirlpools to long rectangular pools for swimming laps. We decided to dive in.

We each had a small towel and slip-on shoes. (Two of us did not bring flip-flops, so we cruised around looking all sorts of cool in our fluffy bedroom slippers.) Each pool had storage cubbies for your towels and such, so you could soak and then get out and move your stuff to the next one. In all, we visited three or four pools and two saunas.


Our changing cabin

Use charades to talk with cabin attendants who usher us to our assigned changing rooms. Change into bathing suits. Head to pools, a.k.a. Speedo Land.

Pool 1
Mini-description: Semi-circle indoor pool designed to seat 25 people. There were about 24 Hungarians already soaking when we got in. It was warmish, but we left fairly quickly in search of hotter waters.
Temperature: 34ºC/93ºF
Score: 4

Hesitantly walk through the door leading to the outdoor pools…and outdoor weather!



Pool 2
Mini-description: Massively huge, lavish-looking circular outdoor pool with a whirlpool in the center. Fountains spewed water into the pool and one side had bubbling jets coming up from under your feet. Ambiance was amazing – snow falling on your head as you swim around in circles in the whirpool or lean into jet bubbles strong enough to hold you up like an invisible arm. But we were all still cold, which affects the score below.
Temperature: 34ºC/93ºF
Score: 7.5

Walk as quickly as is safe on the icy paving stones and haul it indoors.

Sauna 1
Mini-description: Long narrow room with wooden benches and tile floors, gorgeously hot. Jonathan claims he hasn’t been this happy since last August. Just outside the door is a cold dipping pool chilled to 27ºC/80.6ºF for people braver (crazier?) than we.
Temperature: Sauna-rific
Score: 9

Decide to brave the elements again. Walk/run to the pool at the other end of the complex. Oh. Brr.



Pool 3
Mini-description: The one in all the brochures. A huge fountain of Venus pours hot water into a large round pool, like a waterfall massage on your shoulders, while old men sit on submerged chairs and play chess.
Temperature: 38ºC/100.4ºF
Score: 10!





Sufficiently prune-fingered and steam-treated, run back indoors.

Sauna 2
Mini-description: Stadium seating wooden benches on three sides of a square room. All facing the clock that reminds you not to over-bake. Kari discovers saunas are her new happy place.
Temperature: Heavenly
Score: 9

Make our way back to changing cabins. Dress suitably for winter and walk outside into the snow.

Did someone say free?

I read this book earlier this month and it has had a tremendous impact on me, and by extension us. When I saw that the audiobook is being offered free this month, I wanted to let y'all know.

Award-winning journalist David Batstone reveals the story of a new generation of 21st century abolitionists and their heroic campaign to put an end to human bondage. In his accessible and inspiring book, Batstone carefully weaves the narratives of activists and those in bondage in a way that not only raises awareness of the modern-day slave trade, but also serves as a call to action.

Download it for FREE here.

No credit card required. Just create an account in 15 seconds, then download the audiobook in the format of your choice.

Just because it's awesome...

Coming to you live from Budapest!

We're here visiting my parents during the so-called 'ski break'. While I could update with photos of the beautiful city on da' Nube or write something about the cultural differences (did you know that in Hungary you don't bake with a pinch of something, but with a sparkle of it?), I thought this video would be more interesting:



Yup. That's my mom doing a headstand.

Awesome.

Les dames who lunch...

Attempt at a group long-arm shot that scored a 2.5: poor Ngan kept getting cut off!

My first year in Lyon I was told that Pignol was a must-eat experience. Four years later, I can confirm that it most definitely is. Ngan, Kendra and I decided it was time for us to have an outing for just the ladies, les dames.

It took about .015 seconds for us to decide that it should involve food. Another .03 seconds later, pastries were nominated and ratified. Ngan suggested Pignol (pronounced peen-yole) at Place Bellecour so we met up and it was wonderful - both the food and the time together.


Pignol’s amazing pastries


Ladies having lunch at Pignol


Quiche Lorraine and a salad


Attempt at a group long-arm shot that scored a 3.5: almost the three of us, plus a woman walking by


I love this shot.


In the end we decided a group shot was a lot to aim for. Here’s one of Kendra (and baby!) and Ngan.


My pear tart with caramel around the edges – unbelievable. I’m going to be dreaming about this tart for a long time.


Kendra et moi


Kendra’s orange tart


Meringue cookies – just for you, Mrs. Darling!


Ngan’s chocolate bit of heaven…


…with macaroons on the sides. Isn’t it gorgeous?

Next time, we're going here.

I missed my début!

I did a little Googling to see if one of the documentaries I did a voice-over for last fall is available on DVD yet. It's not, but apparently it did air on France 5 last week.

I missed my own début!

The documentary is called Les Mines de l'Enfer (the mines of hell) and so far it's been rated 4 out of 5 stars by people who watched it. I've never actually seen the finished product from the voice-overs and was pretty excited about this one because the topic was on exploited coltan miners in the Congo. One of the voices I did was for this woman shown in the picture. (For the record, I did voices in English, not French.)

Here's the description of the documentary from the France 5, which is kind of like the Discovery Channel. Or should I say Le Discovery Channel?

Présent dans nos téléphones portables, nos ordinateurs ou nos GPS, le coltan est un métal que l'on extrait des riches sous-sols de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC). De la province du Katanga au Nord-Kivu, l'auteur-réalisateur Olivier Baudry de Vaux est parti, en août 2008, à la rencontre de ces mineurs congolais qui risquent leur vie pour un salaire de misère, alors que sévit autour d'eux la guerre civile et que s'organise le pillage des ressources.

I'll let you know once I track it down on DVD. (Did I hear someone say Christmas stocking stuffer? )

Learn French in one post...

It's not a gimmick. It's not a trick. I can teach you French in one blog post. Maybe you won't be fluent, but you will have significantly more French ability than before reading this post. The best part: you'll learn French by speaking English.

That's right.

I did a little research and came up with... (drumroll, please)...



Kari's 100 favorite French words already used in English!

Odds are you already use some of them (such as the ones in bold) and but maybe didn't realize they are French in origin. Take a look and let me know how many you already use or know.

à la mode
à la carte
adieu
aperitif
après-ski
armoire
art nouveau
attaché
au jus
au naturel
au pair
ballet
belle
boudoir
brunette
café
café au lait
carte blanche
c’est lavie!
chaise longue
chic
chignon
cliché
coiffure
concierge
connoisseur
coup d’état
couture
crème brulée
crème de la crème
crudité
cul-de-sac
décolletage
déja vu
dénouement
derrière
divertissement
du jour
éclair
encore
entrée
entrepreneur
faux pas
femme fatale
film noir
fiancé
fleur-de-lis
forte
gaffe
grand prix
haute couture
hors d’oeuvre
ingénue
je-ne-sais-quoi
joie de vivre
laissez-faire
macramé
mardi Gras
marquee
mirepoix
mise en scène
montage
motif
mousse
naïve
nom de plume
nouveau riche
ooh la la
papier-mâché
passé
peignoir
petite
plat du jour
pièce de résistance
poseur
potpourri
première
rapport
rendez-vous
repertoire
RSVP (répondez s’il vous plaît)
restaurateur
résumé
risqué
rôle
roux
sabotage
sans
sauté
savoir-faire
soirée
sommelier
soupe du jour
touché
trompe l’oeil
tour de force
venue
vinaigrette
vive
voilà!

World's easiest French lesson, non?