Achoum!

That's how you sneeze in French.

France has gotten H1N1 fever, just like the rest of the world. However, behind the front-page stories of locals who have flown the way of the swine and the ad campaigns reminding you to wash your hands, there is a longstanding concern for another problem: the dreaded courant d'air.

The English translation is a 'draft', as in a current of air. Just as American culture has its old wives' tales, the French culture has theirs. (Such as eating hot bread causes liver problems - not the bottle of wine you drink with it, by chance?)

Every expat in France remembers the first time they heard of this chilling phenomenon called the courant d'air. Maybe they opened a window in a stuffy room or opened a door for a breeze - Non!! People shout as they wrap their scarves tightly and one brave soul stands directly in the path of the dreaded courant d'air to close the offending window or door. Don't you know people get sick from the courant d'air?


Close that window, silly American!

Some of Jonathan's professors have joked about it in class, and patients routinely bring it up as a possible theory behind their illness. I've encountered it at the office - even in summer - when only one window could be opened at a time.

So although I'm not convinced that this cold I've got is a result of the dreaded French courant d'air, I do plan on treating it in bi-culturally: with bowls of chicken soup and a warm scarf around my neck.

PS - If there are any French readers, I'd love to know which American old wives' tales you find interesting!

What's your unusual score?

UPDATE: Well, apparently the highest-scoring readers are our good friends MK Butler. Seems we like our friends to be weird unusually like us! So I will save the prize I had planned for another competition since they live here and it wouldn't really be anything special for them. Keep your blog eyes peeled for another contest soon!

I've recently become aware of how... let's say 'unusual' we are. (Quit laughing, Julie.) So I decided to work up this little questionnaire to see how many of you are also 'unusual'.



How it works
Give yourself one point for each thing you have in common with us. The person with the highest score (this ain't golf, people) gets a prize by mail!

• Don't have a car, so use public transportation or walk.
  


• Keep the thermostat at 61°F when we're home to save centimes.


• Completing 11th year of post-high school education.
(Well, not both of us! Only one of us is weird unusual like this.)


• Haven't been to the US in almost two years, but anything over a year counts.


• Friday night is homemade pizza night - absolutely no exceptions.


• Don't have a dryer.


• Total coffee snobs, but our favorite brand is a generic.


• Have lived in the same country six years, but still have to reapply to stay each year.


• Grocery shopping is limited by how much we can carry home.


• Composted about 5 gallons per week in summer.
(For the record, coffee grounds did not make up the majority.)


• And the kicker... don't have cellphones!

Any high scorers out there? Leave a comment so we can figure out who gets the prize for Most Unusually Like the Massons.

Anyone not have any matches? Maybe we'll consider a condolence prize too ;)

Such a supportive, attentive wife...

K: Hmm... that's weird.

J: What?

K: I just googled 'immuno-lymphatic system + osteopathy' just to see if our blog would come up in the search results, but it didn't find any listings of 'immuno-lymphatic' at all.

J: Why were you looking for that?

K: Because it's your mémoire topic and I thought it would be cool if searches for it found our blog.

J: That's not my mémoire topic.

(Kari, stunned.)

K: It's not??

J: No. It's called the immune AND lymphatic system, not immuno-lymphatic. That's not even a word.

K: How long have I been calling it the wrong thing?

J: I have no idea...

Brrr-iffic...

It's really, really cold here.

We went from record highs in October to record lows in about 48 hours. Bonjour, winter coat!



Fortunately, I saw the frosty weather predictions in time to pluck the last 100 or so green tomatoes from the Grandgarden. According to my in-depth internet research, it seems the best way to store them is to wrap each one in paper and then just wait.

Kind of. The article actually said to wrap them in newsprint (don't have any) and store in a dark place (haven't got one). So the green tomatoes have been carefully wrapped in scratch paper from the office, tucked into my basket from Beth and are parked by the window.

That's the best I can do. Hopefully it's the thought that counts and they'll ripen anyway.



In the meantime, we're trying to keep warm. I haven't tried wrapping myself in scratch paper yet, but am wearing tights under jeans, two shirts, a sweatshirt and a scarf. I've been drinking hot coffee and wassail. Oh, and we're taking periodic exercise breaks (sit-ups, jumpingjacks) to get our frozen blood flowing again.



Up for debate: considering our apartment is teeny-tiny, but has very high ceilings, what it the best way to heat it? It's well-insulated. We have gas heat (radiators) and also portable electric heaters. Thoughts? Advice? Thanks!

Wait for it...

Remember the big public transportation strikes last month?

As compensation for the inconvenience, the Lyon public transportation system is offering free rides to all passengers on October 17th!



Oh, BTW - They've just announced a strike for October 17th as well. They are estimating that the public transportation network will be operating at 85%.


I admit 85% isn't bad for a strike day, but it's still a strike day! I'm pretty sure that cancels out any good intentions, folks.

And does anyone else find it funny that this announcement features three people WALKING. At least it's truthful advertising...

Isn't he cool?

10 reasons Samuel Allen Masson is the coolest baby

1. His initials spell his name.

2. He was born in Madrid, Spain - the first expat baby in the fam. Olé!

3. He arrived in casual, unhurried manner. He's already assimilated into the local culture. (So when's the next siesta?)

4. He made us laugh even before he was born.

5. He's an answer to his mom's prayers.

6. His name means 'God heard.'

7. He's Renae's little brother, so some of her coolness will rub off by proxy. As will ours, seeing as we're his nearest family members. On second thought, better not rub too much of our coolness off or we may wind up being the nerdy ones in the family.


8. He totally looks like mini-Julie. Anyone who thinks he looks more like Jesse can register their opinion by voting here.

9 and 10. He's our nephew! (And yes - that counts twice.)

Photo du jour...

I love reflections. This is the Chamber of Commerce reflected in the Monoprix/H&M building at Cordeliers in Lyon.

How embarassing...

Weighing on my mind lately has been the challenge of moving our worldly treasures back to the US. When we moved to France, we brought our stuff over in about 10 trunks and suitcases. This was back in the good ol' days of two pieces of checked baggage per person at 70 lbs each. Between Jonathan's first trip over, our trip after our wedding, our trip after another family wedding... we brought over about 700 lbs of stuff without paying for extra baggage or shipping.

But times have changed and airlines now allow only one checked bag per person at 50 lbs. So we basically need to reduce down to 1/7 of what we brought + our since-accumulated French, Hungarian and Spanish treasures. (And yes, Julie. The wooden box lid I found by the trash bin in Madrid will definitely be going with me.)

So yeah, I've been mentally sorting and evaluating what absolutely must go (cross-stitch by Kendra, painting by Christie, Polish coffee cup, trays and sign by Chris, painting by Britt, table from Hanalee, my red boots...) and what can stay here.

I've looked into shipping by air freight via airlines and got nothin' in the way of useful info. (If anyone knows anything about this - please help!) Thanks to Google, I found an expat website in Shanghai that suggested just shipping things by mail at the lowest possible rate.

I went to the La Poste website, found the handy dandy postage calculator, entered in France as the departure point, USA as the destination and went as high as the weight option would let me: 29 kilos (that's 63 lbs). For reference, an extra checked bag on a flight can be up to 50 lbs and costs $220. So I was hoping for something significantly cheaper.

I held my breath and clicked 'calculer'.


€25.20

No way. That's only $37 for 63 lbs of treasures. Sure, it takes two months to get there - who cares?!

The price seemed too good to be true. So I saved the search and headed to the La Poste office a.s.a.p. to confirm this fantastic news. And I immediately started shifting things from the 'stays here' to the 'must go' column in my head.

My number was called and I walked up the counter and explained that I had a lot of boxes to ship to the US, but first wanted to verify the price I'd seen online. Tap, tap, tap... the woman entered the information into her computer:

€134

Hmm... that's a lot more than €25.20. So we tried again. And again. She was very helpful. On the fourth try she had me list off exactly how I had filled out the form online: France, USA, ecomonic international rate, no tracking, 2900 grams...

Red flag.

We both realized it as soon as I said it out loud. I had left off a zero at the end when converting kilos to grams. How embarassing! €25.20 was the rate for 2.9 kilos, not 29 kilos. So it was in fact $37 for about 7lbs, not 30lbs. Bummer.

The search for an affordable shipping method continues... (And Kari learned another very important math lesson.)

Touristing for a day...

Today we explored a beautiful French city called Lyon. We decided to play tourist in our own city. (Brilliant idea. You should try it sometime.) I had been keeping my eyes open for special events this weekend and we decided on the annual open house at the Hôtel de Ville.

Important info: In French, the hôtel de ville is the town hall or city hall (not a hotel for guests and tourists).

We actually started the morning off like locals by going to the market for some pumpkin, apples, butternut squash and late summer green beans. But after toting the goods back home, we headed into town and got our touristing on.

Before I go any further, I'd like to ask for your input. We're down to our last year in Lyon and there are many, many things we haven't yet done. What would you recommend, either based on your time in Lyon or based on what you'd do if you could come to Lyon. Just let me know in the comments below. Merci d'avance!


The arched entrance to the Hôtel de Ville de Lyon


Fountain at the entrance


"Soothing, understated, simple... we'll have none of that!"


Details, details, details. This carved, painted design was on a set of doors I loved.


Looking into the inner courtyard. The rounded building in the background is the Opéra de Lyon.


Beautiful chandeliers in each room


Embroidered 'L' for Lyon on the curtains


Carved wooden doors. (I love the Lyon shield.)


Ornate door locks


View of place des Terraux, where I met Ngân and Kendra the other day for lunch at Best Bagels. (Yay for bagels I didn't have to make from scratch!)


I really wanted to run to the middle of the room and spin around in a twirly dress.


Ornate door handle


I call it the Bubble Chandelier


The mayor of Lyon's desk. (D/B: He uses an HP laptop!)


Lyon clock in the mayor's office. (I'm pretty sure my alarm clock is related to this ferocious beast.)


View from just outside the mayor's office towards the main street


Okay, so the view from his office is just a wee bit different from mine.


And the view looking into the courtyard


The Opéra de Lyon, just across the street, seen through the flags hanging outside the mayor's office. Maybe next time we go touristing, we'll go there!



PS - Remember to give me your input on what we should add to our 'to do in Lyon' list. Thanks!

Breaking news...

Eight minutes ago, President Barack Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." The announcement was made from the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, at 11am 'our time', which means most of America won't hear about this for a couple hours yet.

But when you do, I'd like to ask that you put aside your feelings about his politics and his actions (or non-actions). Today our President was given an international award for his efforts towards peace.

That's something we should all be proud of. And as someone who represents the US (good and bad) to each person she meets, I am very thankful for his efforts to bring people closer to peace.

Photo du jour...

The clocktower at Bellecour

Writing his mémoire...

Shhh... Jonathan's very hard at work and we don't want to disturb him. He's been quietly typing away for large chunks of time over the past few weeks. There's usually a lot of muttering under his breath, shuffling of papers, explosive bursts of typing, and then the occasional lunge for the coffee pot.



Every now and then he'll ask my opinion on something I'm totally not qualified to answer. "Kari, how would you translate, 'Possibly less is known of the lymphatics than any other division of the life-sustaining machinery of man'?"

Umm... First of all, I wouldn't.



But since he seems to really want my opinion, I chew on it a bit and then spit out my French version. Then he reads to me how he had translated it. Yeah. It's usually a lot better than my version. Mine may be prettier sounding in terms of sentence structure, but his is usually more accurate. And considering it's his mémoire, accuracy wins.

Speaking of mémoire, here's a freebie French lesson du jour: it means a dissertation. He's doing a literature review on the effects of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) on the immune and lymphatic system.



This is the first time in this five-year program that being a native English-speaker has come in handy. Most of the medical journals are published in English. So the research for the literature review is easier, but the required translations for a dissertation in French... not so easy.

The second time that being a native English-speaker will come in handy will be in a couple months when he has to take the program's required English class. I know what you're thinking: 'Piece of cake! He should ace that class.'

Yes, he should.

But I know him. And I know that if he takes an English class taught by a British professor, he will argue with the prof to no end on points of grammar, pronunciation and intonation. I can assure you that Jonathan speaks fluent English. But I will not be surprised if he makes higher grades in his classes taught in French than the one taught in his native language. :)

Oh well. C'est la vie!

As seen out window...

This is the view from our window just a few minutes ago. Our town has a big ol' weekend street market in the fall and spring. The market overflows from the main street up ours.

Great for people watching.

For example, we observed at 2pm that the Senegalese vendors had just arrived and were beginning to set up their stands. Did I mention the market started at 9am? Details, details. It's now 4pm and they are still unpacking their wares. (PS - The market ends at 7pm.)

We're going to go walk through the market in a bit. At the spring edition I scored a pair of espadrille sandals for 5 euros. Who knows what bargains await me down there!