Looking back (and forward!)

It's hard to believe that it is the eve of our first return to the United States since we moved here 5 months ago. In some ways it seems like we have been here FOREVER...and in others it seems like just yesterday.

It's funny - as a parent, you don't notice the change in your children as much as people that see them much less often.  Obviously, seeing them daily makes it difficult to notice the subtle changes in how they mature. It's the same way with our adjustment here in France - while it doesn't seem like much changes from day to day, we've made leaps and bounds since we arrived in August.  We went from a completely empty house to what feels like home - home enough to have welcomed our first house guest last month!  Audrey has not only started at school (after WEEKS of hoops to jump through) but she is thriving there.  What has also amazed me is her language aptitude. While we lived in the US, she understood French well but never utter a word of it.  Now, she speaks in complete sentences to Jean in French.  Incredibly, in the same breath, she'll look at me and change back into English.  I have noticed that she speaks exclusively to Thomas now in French.  Poor little guy now hears "Touche pas, Thomas !" screamed at him constantly instead of "Don't touch this!".

As for me, things are coming along.  I feel more comfortable with my French now and I have ventured out of my comfort zone more and more.  While my immigration papers are taking longer than expected, things are coming along.  I am also starting to think more seriously about my work options here which has me very excited to be able to take what I am most passionate about and weave it into our new life here.

That said, I am looking forward to our trip home.  It'll be a second Christmas for the kids and its nice to try and extend the holidays a bit.  I don't think that I have any huge cravings for anything in the US.  While I would hesitate to admit my former love of Dunkin Donuts iced coffees, I think the affair has ended (yes, I had Jean bring me one the morning he and Audrey came to visit me in the hospital after Thomas was born!). For now, I am looking forward to the kids to play with their cousins and to have the Christmas I remember as a child.  Hopefully those lovely thoughts will keep me going through the 15+ hour journey home with an infant and a toddler.  Oh, and just in time for a huge snowstorm in the Midwest.  Perfect!  Anyway, Merry Christmas all and wish us safe travels! 

Oh, and a little montage of photos from our first 5 months here in France...

           

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I know...my space in between posts is getting longer and longer.  I've had a couple people ask about my next entry and truthfully it has been in the works for a while.  With Christmas right around the corner, we've been a little busier than normal.  I promise that a New Year's resolution will be to write more often!

For anyone who knows much about Strasbourg, it's a pretty cool place to be in the Christmas season. The Christmas Market or Christkindelsmärik have been around since 1570 and is a pretty serious tradition here. Here you can buy all your Christmas goodies and then some. For me though, walking around under all the lights with a cup of mulled wine and browsing the various stalls is an experience that can't be missed. Luckily my little sister Stefanie was here for the first weekend of it and I hope she enjoyed it as much as we did.

This year seems like it will mark the beginning of an era - partly because of the huge move we have just made but also because Audrey is now almost 3 and she'll start to remember traditions being set. Jean and I had a discussion about Santa since we wanted to make sure we were on the same page.  She was too young last year so we had to decide if we'd tell her about the jolly fellow or not this time around.  I wasn't crazy about his introduction since I have somewhat painful memories of finding out he wasn't real (long story...).  However, I was convinced otherwise and it looks he'll be making a visit to Alsace this year. It's a strange power that parents have in this sense - you can make your kids behave incredibly well for the month preceding his arrival with the threat of him calling the whole thing off.  At the same time, you have the ability to have your babies believe in the magic of Santa and see their eyes sparkle when his name is mentioned. I don't think I ever realized how it would be to be on the other side of the whole Santa thing.  I have to say - it's pretty darn cool.

Speaking of cool - it's downright cold here!  I don't think there's been a day in the past week that's been much over freezing.  Audrey has relished this wintertime wonderland (for a week straight she insisted on wearing her snow pants while in the house). Meanwhile little Thomas (who has had a couple nasty colds) and I have done more hanging out indoors. The picture to right pretty much sums it up kids' hangouts.

Here's a couple extra pictures from our first Christmas in Alsace.  Enjoy!

      

Tourism 101

It's hard to believe we've been here for almost 4 months.  In a way it seems like much longer and in others it feels like we just arrived. I feel like I have just started to get my bearings around the town which has been helpful in making me feel at home. However, over the last week, I have taken one massive step in my acclimation to life in France.

One week ago, we welcomed our very first house guest - my little sister Stefanie.  Having her here has caused an huge transformation for me since I have now gone from tourist to tour guide. We've shown her some of the best Alsace has to offer - medieval towns, scenic villages in the heart of wine country, castles, cathedrals and even a tour of a sauerkraut factory (yah, that last one wasn't as glamorous as I thought).

I also figured a trip to France for her wouldn't be complete without a stop in Paris.  So earlier this week Stef and I spent a couple days in the city of lights. I was a bit worried since it would just be her and myself and I'd be the one who'd have to navigate the city.  I am proud to say that we didn't get lost once and saw an incredible amount of sights in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

In the course of 36 hours, we:

climbed the Eiffel Tower
checked out the gargoyles of Notre Dame
visted Sacre Coeur and wandered around the streets of Montmatre
enjoyed a scenic boat ride of the Seine river
took and evening stroll down the Champs-Elysees
saw the famous Christmas window displays in Galeries Layfayette
took in the incredible art at the Orsay museum.

Phewww...needless to say we were both pretty exhausted by the time we got home.  I walked away with an incredible confidence boost to have been able to lead someone around in a country that I now call home.  It seems as if this was a fairy pivotal point in my stay here, and one that I will remember for quite a while.

So, any takers for house guest number 2??

Waking up in the dark

So, this blog title can have a couple of meanings.

I could be talking about how the recent time change has us waking up in complete darkness. Nope...not the topic I'll be discussing.

I could also be talking about how our kids are not the greatest of sleepers, a somewhat taboo topic for most parents since its sort of a badge of honor to have children that sleep all night..  Yes- truth be told they both have us "waking up in the dark" more often than we'd like to admit  Again, not the topic to be discussed.

Here's the real story.  As most all of you know, the U.S. presidential elections just took place.  It was a bit anticlimactic to email my vote in weeks before the election, this being my first time to vote with an absentee ballot. Nevertheless, I did feel fairly connected to the presidential race as the internet and cable TV often make you forget that you are not in the United States.  True, I was able to dodge all the annoying aspects that come along with elections including the negative campaigning, relentless television ads and the phone calls, etc. (although I got to hear all about that on Facebook, especially from friends and family in my home state of Ohio!)





We got an invitation in the mail to attend a presidential election breakfast alongside fellow Americans and others who have connections to the U.S. There they would stream the actual polling results as they come in. I was totally psyched until I saw the time of the event - starting at 6am!  Okay, perhaps not totally ideal considering we'll have two kids in tow but still much cooler than just waking up and seeing the result on the news.  Although I mentioned they are not the greatest sleepers, they both are fond of that 4am-7:30am stretch (go figure, right?) .




Both Jean and I really wanted to find out the result at the breakfast event so we had to make sure to avoid any possible information leak as we prepared that morning.  Before going to bed, we put our phones on airplane mode to eliminate the possibility of receiving texts or accidentally seeing it on the internet or Facebook.  When we got in the car in morning, we made sure we had a CD on to make sure we didn't hear any information on the election results on our way to the breakfast.  Just before 8am (I mean who really got there at 6am anyway!) we drive up to the Hilton hotel where the breakfast is taking place.  Mission accomplished - we were able to essentially wake up in the dark with no idea of who had won the election.

The next memories are ones I don't think I will ever forget.  Walking down the carpeted halls of the Strasbourg Hilton, I hear the bellowing voice of Obama.  I've got my youngest in my arms, my toddler holding Jean's hand right beside me.  I don't even have to listen to the words to distinguish between a victory and concession speech - it was evident in the tone of his voice. We make our way to the room to see a good two hundred people sitting, their eyes glued to the massive projection screen at the front of the room. We are just in time to catch the last 5 minutes of the speech being broadcast live from his campaign center in Chicago. Somehow I feel that I was even more moved since it was an incredible sense of connection watching this from thousands of miles away.  Although I know the kids didn't get the importance of that moment, I think it speaks to our ability to be able to keep them connected to both cultures - witnessing the live victory speech of our newly re-elected president while munching on a perfectly flaky pain au chocolat.  The best of both worlds!

Christmas in October

For those of you that have been following this blog since we arrived in France, you may remember a post about my decision to limit the amount of toys we have.  It all stemmed from seeing the kids very much content with almost no toys at all while we were waiting for our things to arrive from Boston.  When they finally arrived, I decided to only unpack a portion of it and leave the rest packed up in the garage.  My plan was to try out a rotating schedule so the kids get to play with "new" toys and I avoid my house looking like a complete zoo.

Our first rotation - seemingly successful!  Audrey waited anxiously right next to the box for a good 30 minutes while we gathered up the current toys getting ready to pack them up.  What ensued was a pretty adorable scene - both kiddos reaching into a box of old toys with an excitement as if it was Christmas.

It was strangely fitting that outside our window it was snowing!  Yes- snowflakes at the end of October.  Definitely a rarity in Strasbourg at this time of year.  Oh well, I guess it was needed as the perfect backdrop for our Christmas in October...      

A REAL faux pas

So my French isn't horrible...I have to admit.  Considering I spoke absolutely nothing when Jean and I met, I'm pretty impressed with myself for having picked it up without any formal classes.  I am fairly confident that after a couple years here I'll be able to call myself fluent.  That said, I know that I have many mistakes to make along the way (such as the one you are about to read).


Recently Audrey started to get attached to a lovey (a "doudou" in French).  It's a soft little piece of fabric that looks like a zebra.  Although I have never been big on these sorts of things, it helped us with her bedtime routine during a rough transition period when first moved here.

I thought it would be nice to give it a cute little nickname to avoid calling it "that zebra fabric thingy" so I came up with the name "zee-zee" since it is a zebra after all.  Audrey seemed to agree to the naming of it so "zee-zee" it was.  A couple weeks after its naming, Jean walked by her door as I was putting her to bed and I mentioned zee-zee's name.  He must have done a double take because I saw him walking backwards saying "WHAT did you just call that??"  Well it tuns out that zi-zi (same pronunciation as zee-zee) is how parents call a penis when talking to little kids.  It would be the equivalent of a "pee-pee" or a "wee-wee", I suppose.  I've tried to take the name back but it seems to be too late. Fantastic - I can just imagine having guests over and Audrey running around the house frantically looking for her zi-zi.  Sigh...lesson learned I suppose.
 

Toddling around town

When people would ask where in France we'd be moving, we'd tell them Strasbourg.  Most people would give me a pretty blank look so I'd add "northeastern France, near the German border".  Usually that was enough to let people have a general idea of where we'd be living.  Here's a map just in case anyone wanted to know for sure...

Truth be told, we are not actually in Strasbourg.  We are living in a village called La Wantzenau some 20 minutes north of Strasbourg where Jean grew up.  Since arriving, I've had to go into the city a number of times and its amazing how different the scenery changes in those 12km.  Strasbourg is a wonderful city - old buildings, beautiful architecture and an incredible amount of history.  But it's a stark contrast from the somewhat quiet, suburban feel of La Wantzenau.  

I decided to explore the city on perhaps the last warm day of the year, just myself and Audrey - a sort of mom and daughter morning out.  We unfortunately haven't had enough of those since Thomas was born. I think Audrey was most excited about the train ride there so I played that up quite a bit to get her psyched about this little adventure (which worked marvelously!).

I knew I had to intersperse in enough fun things for her to not make this outing a complete disaster.  So after arriving downtown we took a short walk to find a little morning snack.  I don't know a 2 year old who wouldn't behave knowing that a brioche au chocolat was coming their way.  

  

Somehow getting lost in the winding city streets wasn't as appealing to her as it was to me.  We made our way to the cathedral - a Strasbourg landmark and the second most visited cathedral in all of France (Notre Dame of Paris being first).  Jean tells me it's worth noting that at 142 metres (466 feet), it was the world's tallest building from 1647 to 1874. Today, if Wikepedia is correct, it is the sixth-tallest church in the world and the highest still-standing structure built entirely in the Middle Ages.  It has an unmistakable look with its single tower; the second tower was never built. Somehow its unmistakable charm grabbed Audrey's attention and she remained mesmerized as we spent a good 20 minutes inside.

Yeah...that spell sort of wore off as we left the cathedral and she became a normal 2 year old again.  Luckily I was able to entice her a bit with some window shopping.

Then the pièce de résistance!  A merry-go-round that I had been telling her about all morning.  Somehow it the sight of it shook her out of that getting-tired-of-walking mood.  Yes, it was the perfect way to end the mom and me morning (well at least for her, for me it was the nap that ensued when we arrived home!).

  

One final picture before we headed back on the train...

Although I enjoyed the morning in Strasbourg, it was nice to leave the hustle and bustle of the big city and head back to the burbs.  We'll be back for sure though if Audrey has her way, it'll be a train ride/brioche au chocolat/merry-go-ride event without all that boring in between stuff.   

A table!

So how did I do?  There was some good, some bad and some ugly!  Overall, I'll claim that the food went over well.  No serious hiccups except we had no bread for the soup and the cheese.  Turns out, we skipped over the cheese anyway because the chunks of salmon were... well  very large!  Now for the "ugly" part.. It is now obvious to me that toddlers and long French lunches (4 hours total!) should not mix.  2.5 year old Audrey had a serious meltdown and skipped pretty much the whole meal - oh yeah.  Thomas on the other hand was quite the trooper.  The little "gourmand" sat in his chair for close to an hour gulping down morsels of salmon, lentils, carrots, cantaloupe and some spice bread.  Hmmm, no wonder why he slept for over two hours afterwards.

So I want to say "Mission accomplished".  Lunch seemed to be a success.  I still have a lot to learn about entertaining but hopefully that will come with time.  There is both a science and an art to it but its a challenge I look forward to taking on again.  We have about a dozen of Jean's friends (and their children) coming over for dinner on Saturday for an american menu.  It'll start with mint juleps and end with chocolate chip cookies along with some homemade mac 'n cheese and fried chicken somewhere in the middle.  Hopefully mini finger sandwiches of PB & J and BLT's as appetizers won't scare people off (although they may wonder why all our sandwiches have acronyms!).

Back to yesterdays lunch - I realized as we sat down to eat that I forgot to snap a picture of the food for the blog.  Luckily, that's was exactly when Audrey had her meltdown so all eyes were on her as I whipped out my iPhone to take a shot.  Horrible, I know but a blogger's gotta do what a blogger's gotta do.      

Stepping up to the plate

It's been exactly 2 months since we left our home in Boston and crossed the Atlantic.  Just today we emptied the very last box.  We've come a long way from living out of the 6 suitcases we brought with us.  Although things are now somewhat comfortable in our new house it isn't really guest ready.  None of the artwork that we brought has been hung and there were a whole bunch of "we'll get to it later" sort of things.  Later has turned into now - well Wednesday to be more precise.

Why Wednesday? It's my mother in law's birthday and I have offered to host a small lunch at our place.  Although it's not a huge gathering, it's definitely a time to really pull it together.  I thought that offering to host would really force us to finish some those final touches to get the place really looking nice.  After a while, you get sort of comfortable with the stack of books sitting in the corner that need to be put away or moving the growing pile of toys in the living room back into the playroom.  Besides, I am looking forward to have those finishing touches done because it'll feel a little more like home.  So bring on the guests!

It will be Jean's mother along with her brother and his wife (so Jean's aunt and uncle).  No, not a huge crowd but there still is a little pressure. Not only is it impressing the mother in law but its also impressing extended family, in front of the mother in law.  That raises the stakes just a bit.  Wait - did I mention that I offered to cook everything too?   Yup, that's right.  So now the house needs to be in order and a full menu cooked.  In France entertaining is taken seriously.  You don't just throw something together.  This "lunch" will likely be a 3 to 4 hour event.  And trust me, these are ladies that can cook.  I have been to multiple dinners that they have thrown with 7+ courses, fine china and impeccable place settings (with like a million forks and spoons all over the place!)  While I'm not planning (or expected) to do anything like that, I need to give this my best effort.

So, on the menu we have:

Sweet potato and butternut squash soup

Brolied salmon on a bed of Puy lentils

Braised leeks in a mustard sauce

Orange glazed carrots with shallots

Lemon scented linguini

That's not including the appetizers though I was thinking of melon wrapped in prosciutto and maybe some marinated olives.  And Jean can take care of the wines - sooooo not ready to take that one on.  When Jean's aunt asked what she could bring, I proposed she take care of the dessert.  No need to completely kill myself, right?

Fingers crossed that everything turns out all right AND the kids behave.  Pics and more updates to follow... 

Wish us luck!

A change in language

Since giving birth to Audrey, I feel that I have sought out the company of other mothers.  This is partly because these were the people that I felt myself surrounded by in my daily life after she was born.  But at the same time, they were the people that I also actively sought out because of that new shared connection.   Now as a mother to two small children living abroad, I am also finding myself drawn to other moms in my same situation - adjusting to a new life in a foreign country while raising little ones.

However my conversations with these moms are markedly different from the ones I had with other mothers in the US.  Usually the first question asked is "What brings you here?" which is subsequently followed by "How long are you here for?"  (Strangely this reminds me of a conversation two inmates might have upon first meeting).  So far, I have seen two distinct camps - those women who are married to French men and those who are the wives of Americans who have relocated their families for work.  Obviously, their answers are quite different.  For those who are here for their partners' jobs, the question about how long they will be staying is Strasbourg is usually answered by a number - usually ranging from 2 to 5 years.  For the others, it's the answer is much less definitive and often times they aren't even sure themselves!

Despite this clear divide in reasons for being in France, I have noted that our similarities seem stronger than our differences.  Everyone I've met so far has made a real attempt at fitting into life here - getting around town, learning the language and enjoying all the city has to offer.  Perhaps it is because Strasbourg is  pretty cool place to be and no matter what your reason for being here, most are able to just sit back and enjoy the scenery, culture and great food.  And our strongest similarity?  We are all mothers who NEED to navigate this new setting because of our little ones.  I have found that my conversations with these moms are now different from those I had with other mamas in Boston.  So far, I haven't heard any mention of sleep cycles or tantrums.  Instead it's all about our transitions here - which neighborhoods we now live in, driving concerns and just getting around.    In fact, there isn't a ton of conversation about the kids.  It's almost as if our transition is essential in ensuring the happiness and safety of our children.  It's a sort of hierarchy where our needs must be filled to be able to take care of those of the little ones. 

It is an interesting realization for me.  For once in the last 2.5 years, my conversations are more about me and less about my children.  I'm sure that things will gradually shift but for now I am enjoying the fact that my needs are intertwined with those of my children and that it's about our happiness.

Oh, and what kind of mother would I be if I didn't show off those kiddos...

You had me at "bonjour"

Okay - so I vowed when starting this blog it wouldn't be overloaded with posts about how things are so much better here in France.  Nor would it be a bunch of complaining about how much I miss things about the  US. I'd like to think it'll be a fairly balanced view of both cultures noting differences between the two.  However, this week France scored a win in my book.  It's all a matter of manners.

I was walking to the post office yesterday which is about a 10 minute walk.  A couple minutes into the walk, I pass a young girl who looked to be about 12 or so coming home for lunch from school.  As we pass, she makes eye contact with me and says "bonjour". I return the greeting and smile back.  As I continue on the short walk, I pass another girl, just about the same age.  She does exactly the same - looks me right me right in the eye as I pass here and gives me a sincere "bonjour".  I am pretty blown away.  Although I know that greetings are much more formal in France, the fact that two young adolescents showed such respect is pretty cool.  And it's not like their parents were standing right next to them.  If they had walked right past me without saying anything, no one one have known.  But there is something with the way they have been raised and cultural expectations that has made this an automatic reaction for them.

If anything, I'm used that uncomfortable feeling of not knowing if you should make eye contact or not as you pass someone.  You sort of wait until the very last minute trying to see what the other person will do. Even if eye contact is made, rarely is anything said. It's a much different feeling.  Of course, part of this is that we are living in a smallish town where the pace is a bit slower than in a larger city.  Nevertheless, I am grateful that this is a custom that my kids will see on a daily basis here.
     
It made me think about how I'd want Audrey and Thomas to interact with others as they get older.  In fact, this has been quite notable over the past couple months.  In France, a kiss on each cheek is customary for women as a greeting.  This goes for children as well.  So Audrey has been expected to give kisses to adults (family and good friends) which I could see really had her off guard at first. It's definitely nothing she would have done in the states. As a 2 year old, she can sometimes refuse to do things that she is asked and I have found myself  insisting that she begins to adhere to these cultural norms out of respect.  It's a fine balance - respecting her comfort with this new custom and the cultural expectation.  Over the past 7 weeks, I have noted that she's starting to pick up on the kiss - sometimes now doing it without the nudge we had to give before.  What keep me insisting is knowing that in 10 years, I want her to be that young girl greeting a woman on her way to the post office.

Okay France - you won me over on this one.  But make no mistake, I have a couple of complaints already.  Like finding a decent box of cereal.  Okay, I know this is the dietitian in me but the amount of refined carbohydrates is a typical breakfast meal is hard to swallow (literally!). But that's a whole other post altogether.

One final note - today WAS Audrey's first day at "school".  After 4 days of an adaptation regimen, she officially became the newest child at the garderie in La Wantzenau. Thanks to her dad who made a bunch of in-person visits to various agencies to move the very slow process along.  Luckily she's loving every minute of it.

Round one - American apple pie vs. Tarte aux pommes à l'Alsacienne

A couple people seemed interested in the cooking/recipes subject so I thought I'd talk a little about Alsatian cuisine.  Not the lightest of fare, I'll give them that.  The German influence is pretty evident - dozens of types of sausages (saucisses) and big on sauerkraut (choucroute).  In addition, there are a bunch of regional specialties that I will highlight later including spaetzle, flammkuchen and kugelhopf- all a mouthful to pronounce and each well-deserving their own dedicated blog post (which I promise to do).  For now though - the classic Alsatian apple tart.

The distinctions between American and French cooking are easily seen when comparing an American apple pie with an Alsatian apple tart.   When going the Alsatian route, the word "precision" comes to mind.  While the American apple pie is a heaping mound of apples, cinnamon and a little sugar, the Alsatian version  is sort of the Type A cousin, taking a more precise and orderly take on things.

Apples are meticulously arranged in a single row...

...and then a custard is prepared and poured over the apples...

And then baked until browned...

Interested in trying it out?? Here's the recipe from www.marmiton.fr (http://www.marmiton.org/recettes/recette_tarte-aux-pommes-a-l-alsacienne_11457.aspx)
Temps de préparation (Prep time) : 25 minutes
Temps de cuisson (Cooking time) : 30 minutes


Ingrédients (6 Portions) :

- 3 ou 4 pommes (selon la grosseur) (3 or 4 apples, depending on size)
- 1 pâte brisée (one unbaked premade crust - even the French cheat on this one!)
- 2 oeufs (2 eggs)
- 25 cl de crème fraîche (8.5 ounces light cream will work- not the exact same but real crème fraîche is hard to find in the US)
- 100 g de sucre en poudre (~1/2 cup granulated sugar)
- 1 sachet de sucre vanillé (2 tsp of vanilla infused sugar but can be replaced with 2 tsp sugar plus dash of vanilla extract)


Posez sur un fond de moule à tarte une pâte brisée que vous trouez avec une fourchette. (Place unbaked premade pie crust in a round baking dish and pierce the dough well with a fork)

Pelez et coupez les pommes en fines tranches que vous disposer sur le fond de tarte.
(Peel and cut the apple in thin slices and arrange them on the on the crust)

Dans un saladier, mélangez le sucre, la crème fraîche, les oeufs, le sucre vanillé; versez le tout sur les pommes.
(In a bowl, mix the sugar, cream, eggs and vanilla sugar; pour the mixture over the apples)

Enfournez au four préchauffé à 200°C (th 6-7), jusqu'à ce que la tarte prenne une belle couleur dorée.
(Put it into a preheated oven (390 degrees) until the tarte takes on a nice golden color - it'll be about 30 minutes)

Enjoy!