xc and the 2 week recap - sort of

I have been too busy to blog lately. Well, busy/lazy. It's apero season and we've been out almost every night. Work has been quite hectic too.

I got G a really cool and practical gift for his birthday and I'm envious. Now he doesn't have to wait for the bus (oh, wait, that never happens!) to go to work or walk the 20 minutes from the train station to work (which, most often that not, happens!). We took turns riding it from the store to the apartment and it was just sweet to see him all excited to try it out. Although my heart skipped a beat whenever a car would pass him on the street...

I also had (finally!!) my medical exam which is mandatory before getting my residence card. Apparently the French government wants to make sure that foreigners don't bring in the plague. I also had to take a civics seminar to "learn" more about how the government works, what our rights are, etc. I was surprised that I actually liked the seminars. They were very interesting and I met different people from all over the world. It was like I was back in school again, except this time I was the cool girl. If the people from the prefecture do their jobs right, I should be getting the card in about a month. But so far, they have never been good in keeping dates.

Last Saturday, we went to visit Vernon and Giverny and Claude Monet's house there. We wanted to rent bikes but they were ridiculously expensive that we ended up just walking from Vernon to Giverny (5 kms) which wasn't bad at all. We passed by the hike path, saw lots of flowers and beautiful gardens and it was assez sympa as the French would say. Spent the whole day under the sun. G obviously ended up pink as a shrimp and I didn't even darken up a shade. I'll try to blog about that trip when I'm not too busy/lazy anymore.

Tomorrow we will drive up to Britanny to visit the in-laws and spend some time on the beach. It doesn't compare to our beaches back home but well, beggars can't be choosers. It's also the Fete de la Musique this weekend and there are a lot of concerts scheduled in Paris. But the beach is the beach, and besides, there will be concerts in St. Malo as well. My bag is packed, camera almost charged. I can't wait to get out of this city.

This has been one hell of a long week.

I can't believe tomorrow is still a work day. Gah!
And now, a break, for some quality time with the husband.



peace, love & anti-burnout pills,
xc