Thursday, January 22, 2009

Going up in my appartment...



For those of you who didn't know - probably most of you - I am a big fan of Robert Doisneau (pronounced Dwas-no). He is a French photographer who took some great photos of every-day French scence in the early to mid 20th century. While walking around Paris last weekend, I came across this little beauty of his. It stuck a chord with me. In case you are wondering, the big arch is the northern side of the Eiffel Tower looking towards Trocadero across the Seine River. You can read into it what you want...

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Alexander and His Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day

Remember the song lyric, "Mamma said there'd be days like this..."? It's vaguely in my memory too, mainly as the background music to a Pepto-Bismol commercial. Go ahead and insert that tune into the tape deck as you read this post...

I'm not sure I know where to begin or even where things began to go south - but they did, quickly. Sometime after lunch Adam informed me that he had just had a meeting confirming the fact that a hold had been placed on all company hiring and an instituted company shutdown. But even worse was the news that all yearly raises would be withheld and possibly the annual bonus included in our salaries.

While gnawing on these little tasty bits, the rollercoaster really began to descend on the track:

I just left the parking lot on my way home from work. And to give you some background, I had been planning for some time to change the worn rear tires on my car - more practically, this Saturday morning. As I entered the first roundabout, I felt my rear wheels go and in a matter of a few seconds I was sliding into the curb, right front corner first. I immediately knew I was in trouble when I saw that not only had my tire gone flat but the rim was smashed and rendered unusable. I pulled up a little further, getting out of the way of traffic. Somewhat in shock, I stood around making some phone calls trying to decide the next plan of action. The decision was to go ahead a put the spare on, and hope that I hadn't messed up any of the critical steering pieces. Entering Project Tire Change. I will admit that I had never before changed a tire, and I sat around reverse engineering the process by looking at all the tools in the spare tire kit. Well, at this point it is dark, I have no light other than my cell phone , I'm laid out in the dirt and mud in my best clothes trying to find the ball joints to mount the tiny tire jack (which looked like it could maybe raise my bicycle wheel if it wasn't windy). After attempting unsuccussfully for around an hour, with my cell phone dying, I gave up hope and fell to the breaking point, nearly to tears. I walked to the roadside and just stood. The second car to pass immediately pulled over and a short, vivacious Franco-Algerian jumped out of the car yelling at me. I, however, didn't care in the slightest what tone he was using, just as long as he was going to help. From his poor French with a thick Algerian accent, I learned that what I was doing was all wrong, and the process is actually easier than I thought. When he found out I was American, his tone immediately changed praising Americans and the new President "Oobbamma". I pushed all political ideals and commentary aside and agreed with anything and everything he said. Afterwards, he left and I was back up and running again with Adam arriving on-site to follow me as I limped the 10 miles back to my appartment. But sadly, the day still had some fight left in it.

I arrived back at my place, set my bag down, and open my mailbox. Of course, there was a ticket inside from the French government showing a 135€ ($180) fine for going 6 kph (in a 50 kph) over the speed limit (taken from radar station). That's fricken, 3.7 mph over the speed limit and I get blown away with that kind of fine! Who's in charge of this bureaucratic nightmare? People drive as if there are no rules here and I get hit with that?!? Oh and a side note, if I had been going less than one mph slower, there would have been no fine - just like the car in front and behind me. Kick the football again Charlie Brown!

And if it wasn't enough, picking up my bag to march angrily inside, my bag handle decided it had enough too and promptly broke. Around that time, I received a text message from my service provider telling me that the monthly credit I had purchased a mere 5 days before had expired. "Why does the world hate me?" As if that wasn't enough for one week or month, my bike tire decide to fall apart before my ride.

"Mamma said there'd be days like this. There'd be days like this my mamma said..."

Thanks to Adam and Laura for comforting me that night with dinner and a movie.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Chapter 6 of my book: The Truth Behind a "Delicacy"

Boudin noir. Ever heard of it? Its a type of sausage and I had heard that it was a delicacy in these parts - especially aroundabout Paris. Now when one says "delicacy", immediately warning lights should be going off in your mind. "Delicacy" really is a positive adjective describing a semi-edible food made desireable by those with the economic means, and if it were really that tasty or desireable, would be on everone's dinner table. This sausage was one food that was still on my list of French things to try and the opportunity approached me today at lunch.

Normally there are associated risks with dining at the company cafeteria, so why I continue to approach the tight wire of "Strange Cafeteria Foods", I will never understand. But nonetheless, there really wasn't anything else intriguing on the menu today...Allez! I waited my turn and said, "Bonjour Monsieur, the 'boo-don' please." "You mean the 'booo-dahhhhhn," he responded almost painfully, making me wish the mis-placed sylables had never left my lips. He pushed aside the beef, digging into a dark tray below (at this point those warning lights felt more like flashing strobes than simply indicators) and pulled out something resembling a black bratwurst with onions on it.

I found the usual crew and sat down asking them what I had gotten myself into.
"Oooh, I don't really like those," someone responded.
"Great, here we go! By the way, what is this thing?" I ask.
"Oh, its just congeled pig's blood in sausage casing."
...
...
(Do any of those last 6 words sound appetizing in the slightest?)

We'll just fast forward past the meal and suffice it to say that I managed to finish 2/3 of it but had to turn my focus on other things as I ate. For those of you who are wondering, it tastes a little as I expected: organ meat-ish, crumbly-ish texture, but with a flavor that is pretty unique and lingers on the pallete - as such, I am immediately popping an American wintergreen Lifesaver after I hit "publish post" on the blog

They tell me however that they make a white boudin that is made with milk instead. Now there is something I could go for - probably even "does the body good" in the process...

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Happy Birthday = Bonne Anniversaire

Howdy Crew,

This is just a short video I had on my camera of my little birthday celebration with Adam and Laura at their place.

There's been a lot going on recently, so I should have more info shortly.

For the time being, join in with the sing-along...


cheers!

J

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Almost like I haven't left...

The mercury showed -11° Celcius today (12° F). They say its the coldest spell in 10 years...what's wrong with me? I went 4000 miles and still can't get away from the midwest weather...drat!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Random amalgam of interests...

Hello crew,

I do feel rather honored that people spend time reading and watching my feeble attempts at left-brained journalism...thanks friends from the United S of A...

Ok, so quick wrap of of Christmas break. For those of you who were unaware, I was able to sneak home on a last minute flight for Christmas to see my family. Proving that I haven't lost my thriftiness from my college days, I found flights leaving Paris Christmas morning and returning New Year's day. And for that kind of money, "direct" wasn't a word found in the itinerary. It was a long haul both ways. But within that week period spent back in Goshen, I had some great moments:

- Laughing to tears (and yes I snorted once or twice too) with my 'lil sis at the movie theatre
- Elephant gift exchange with the fam after 30 hours without sleep
- 5 meals of Mexican food
- "Quality time" with the brother-in-law
- All the rugby, English soccer, and My Name is Earl I could handle at Uncle and Aunt's house
- Chivalry gone wrong when I broke the car key and couldn't start the Tio Miguel's car - sorry Meg
- Can you say 60% off at Old Navy?
- An American Meijer run to remember - now I can cook for real!

In any event, it was great being back with family and friends, thank you all for accommodating me at the drop of hat.

Also, I wanted to include some random videos I took of my town. I haven't viewed these in a while so I'm hoping I'm not too embarassing.

This is a view of the town center back in early November:




This is what those French pastries look like that I rave about:


Cheers,

J

Monday, January 5, 2009

Conundrum

So here's my dilema:

My birthday is Janary 5th and I was born at 6:10 PM in the evening American Eastern time. Now if I were to actually celebrate my birthday at 6:10 PM American Eastern time, it would be 12:10 AM Paris time - that is 12:10 January 6th!

So do I celebrate the 5th or 6th? I think I should take the high road and do both!

See how this time change complicates more than just my phone calls...