Paris Part II

For Dan, our time in Paris was a series of bizarre and gross accidents. The first night I arrived, we got a restaurant recommendation from our hosts for dinner. The communication was rough. The French people don't seem to have great English, just enough to get by. The waiter had a difficult time understanding us, and we didn't quite understand the procedure. Finally we had literally pointed out what we'd like to eat without any idea what most of it was.

Dan was daring though, he saw escargot on the menu and jumped for it. Yep, snails. I get weirded out by shellfish, so I had no intention of trying escargot. When the food arrived, Dan was two utensils he was unfamiliar with. One was a poker, presumably for pulling the little guys out of their twisty homes, and the other was probably a holder-gripper-dealie. Dan, trying to fit in and be proper, tentatively attempted to grasp the snail. It immediately went flying out, bonked off the plate, and bounced down his dressy button-up. I stifled inappropriately loud laughter while he grabbed it. There was butter and pesto from the sauce all down his shirt. He pulled his napkin up awkwardly high to hide the obvious stains.

But that was just the first day. The second day we had another lovely dinner without any sacrifice of a shirt. As we walked home we got a gorgeous view of the Eiffel Tower. At the top of every hour, the whole tower lights up and the lights sparkle. It's so gorgeous. We stood gazing at the sparkle, and shared a romantic kiss. In the middle of this lovely moment, Dan looks down and proclaims "I'm standing in shit!" He had stepped in a fresh pile of dog poo. From then on his shoes stayed outside the apartment.

Yeah there's more! The NEXT day, we were on our way to do a little bit more sight-seeing. First we got some lunch, then we started walking along a path. We were feeling good because there were flowers all over, and our meal went really well (communication is improving, so is our French!). Then suddenly I hear a plop and Dan is looking stunned. He's searching himself, and he finds bird poop all down his leg. He wiped it off with leaves, and we continued on our way.

Despite the messy mishaps, Paris was lovely and we had a great time. I wish I could live in that city for a year and learn French. The ambiance is just amazing. Our next trip will be around Sweden with my parents in May, then to Norway in July with Dan's parents!

Paris Part I

I write to you all from Paris! Dan had a conference here, so he flew out on Thursday then I followed on Saturday. We are just spending a long weekend. Luckily the weather has amazing: high 70's and sun. We were even a little too warm, wishing we had brought shorts and sandals.

For this trip we decided to use airbnb.com (air bed and breakfast) again. We used it in Rome as well and had a great experience. The deal is that you're usually staying in someone's apartment. It's cheaper, and you get to meet a local person, get their advice on what to do, and just generally have something more personal and local than a big hotel. We've enjoyed it this time as much as Rome, cementing the fact that we LOVE using the website.

Yesterday we had a very relaxing day. Since both Dan and I have been to Paris before, we feel no obligation to climb the Eiffel Tower, visit the Louvre, or take a bus tour. So when our airbnb hosts invited us to a picnic with their friends in the Louvre gardens, we were quick to say yes! They helped us pick out delicious pates, some fresh baguettes, the best cheeses, and of course some wine. We lounged in the sun most of the day. After that, we met Dan's life-long friend Tim, having a drink and mulling around with him and his girlfriend. It was a perfect day, with lots of outdoor time and good food.

Speaking of food... The dinners we've had here have been delicious. For a reasonable price of 20-30€ per person, you can have a three-course dinner including dessert. Everything we've had has been so good and so well presented. For example, last night I had shrimp, spinach, and a cheese fondue on a savory puff pastry for the first course. The second course was a salmon fillet in an almond butter sauce with potatoes. For dessert, a berry sorbet with vanilla-bean whipped cream. I of course had absolutely NO idea what I was ordering, but whatever came out was good!

I'll write more soon on the language barrier, and of course a funny story...

On the Road in Sweden

I am utterly exhausted. My knees ache, and I even skipped Swedish class. Not only have I taken up running (again), but yesterday Dan and I rented a large moving van in order to pick up 3 loads of furniture in preparation for our move.

Why pick up furniture ahead of time? Well, in March Dan and I found the ideal couch from a lovely Slovakian couple so we sprang for it. When we realized we'd have to (expensively) rent a van in order to move it, we decided to find as much great used furniture as we could and pick it up all in one day. That day was yesterday.

I was definitely nervous about driving in Sweden. I had driven a bit before for a babysitting job, but it was in a normal car in a very small quiet neighborhood. Now I had to drive to Bjärred, Lomma, and Malmö. There are huge roundabouts here, with multiple lanes many "exits" that I tend to lose track of as we go: "Third exit? How many have we passed?!" (Don't worry, you can always go around again!)

It was raining, but all of the pickups went smoothly. Dan navigated, I drove with minimal confusion, and we got to our locations safely. We picked up the sofa (lovely!), a coffee table, and bed frame, and lastly a huge table. For the table, we stayed at had a late-night "fika" (coffee break, usually with something sweet) and compared American and Swedish politics. Coincidentally the very friendly couple we were picking things up from had lived in the US for many years (the guy was a professional football player!) and it was fun to get the dual-perspective. They also threw in a free dresser and some vases!

On the way home though we finally got epically lost, as I am wont to do and which really we should've expected. We somehow went the OPPOSITE direction for about 25 km. It took us way too long to realize it. But there was no yelling or complaining and we got ourselves turned around.

We returned the truck 10 minutes late and with an extra 100km than we were supposed to have driven. For our offenses we were charged an extra 830 kronor (a little over $100). Then I bought a hot dog and they were out of ketchup. I was a little crabby on my bus ride home. I reminded myself that this is an investment: we are getting a "home," a place we can stay as long as we'd like, a place to finally have cats, and furniture that doesn't smell funny.

But when I got home I immediately perked up because Dan had rearranged the living room in order to set up our new couch. We now have the most populated living room with an awkward - but remarkably comfortable! - amount of seating. It'll be cramped living quarters for us until we move in May.

I can say that the experience was good. We met such nice people, and I again showed myself that I can do some unexpected things (tackle roundabouts with confidence!). Next up - maybe I'll learn to drive a manual car. Sweden, watch out!

All Around Malmö

I think it's safe to say that yesterday was quite the adventure for us.

My day started with Swedish class as each week day does. But this time I knew that I had to give a little report on a meeting I went to. To give you the background, a couple weeks ago I was voted "class representative" of my Swedish class. I did not run for this position; I didn't even want it. But I was voted in so I didn't say no, probably because it stoked my ego. The position means that you help out the new students in class every Monday; the students report to you if they can't attend; and you attend monthly course representation meetings. Now back to the original point: I had to report what went on in the meeting. I didn't plan ahead at all, I just spoke straight out, in Swedish of course. It went quite well - people only looked mildly confused.

I had to leave class a bit early because Dan and I had a full day running around Malmö. First we had an appointment at a homeless cat shelter. The bus dropped us off, and we had about a 20 minute walk in the typical Skåne wind, which quickly made both of us a little crabby. And the building we were going to, for whatever reason, didn't have an address so we just had to scope out the street and find it. We found a milk factory, a car factory, and weird old farm buildings. After knocking on some doors and stumbling across a doggy daycare, we found the cat home.

While there we met the 3 main volunteers who run Katthjälpen (literally The Cat Help, or maybe The Cat Helpers). They showed us two pairs of adult cats. They didn't have any kittens in the joint, and many of the cats had been there for years. Their conditions were good though; they had room to play, a small outdoor area, and large kennels that they slept in at night. As we left, Dan really liked one pair of kitties and I really liked another.

After that we went across town to a foster home affiliated with Katthjälpen. A sweet young lady met us at the bus stop (so considerate of her!) and then let us meet her adorable 1 year-old kitties, named Kodak and Kompis. Kompis was a real ham, playing and running and pouncing. He is a brown tabby with white feet and neck. His brother is a unique pattern, sort of tabby-tortoise combination. Kodak was much more shy but he introduced himself and even sat on Dan's lap for a few moments.

As you can probably guess, we fell in love with these cats. We made an offer to the agency to adopt them, but we're worried. They have to do a home visit before the adoption can be approved, and we won't move until May 2nd, so someone else could take them! Noo! So we're waiting to hear what they'll say. (To quell any questions, yes we realize the difficulty of moving kitties but we intend to keep them forever.)

The adventure continued! The foster mama was so sweet as to give us coffee then drive us all the way across Malmö to our next destination - a meeting with a family selling a table. Turns out this family had lived in the US for many years and they were happy to chat with us for a while. We bought the gorgeous huge solid oak table, then they walked with us and showed us where the train station was. Again, amazingly sweet people!

All in all it was a good day. With the purchase of the table, it feels as though the apartment details are coming together. It's been surprisingly time-consuming to search for furniture. You have to find a thing you like, then contact them (I do this in Swedish now, yay!), then set up a meeting, bargain, etc. So far we have bought (all used) a lovely couch, a bed frame, a coffee table, and of course the dining room table and chairs. We have tons of little things to get yet, and I'm sure it will take a while to get settled. Exactly one month until we move!