Things I miss about working at AXP NYC

1.  Paycheck

2.  Bottomless supply of mechanical pencils and post-its

3. "Salt water Taffys by the Printer" emails from coworkers coming back from vacations

4.  Unlimited supply of ice cubes in the pantry 

5.  View of the frozen Hudson River from my window

6. Vats of Germ Busters by the pantry (a misguided 6-sigma effort?)

Halloween in NY

To the Merlet girls, Halloween just would not be Halloween if we were not in NY. The year we had moved to London, on Halloween morning Hana got all decked out in her princess dress, which she insisted to wearing out to lunch - but then within 10 minutes of being out, she looked at me all puzzled and asked, "why are there nobody else doing Halloween?"

The French apparently got into Halloween a few years ago, but have now all but abandoned the notion and labeled it "too commercial" and "too American". This is a shame - I personally love Halloween and it must be so much fun for kids - to get to run around in some fancy dress, knock on stranger's doors and get lots and lots of candy in return  - well, I am all for it. I met an American mom here last year who was like, my kids don't know what it is and as long as they don't ask for it, I'm not telling them about it because who needs more sugar. I was like, well, I don't think we will be good friends - just such irreconciliable differences in perspectives and cultural reference points, you know?

Anyway, so this year again we schlepped the kids back to the US - thankfully no airport strikes greeted us this year and our trip to NY was uneventful. Because Halloween fell on a Friday this year, most towns organized activities the weekend before - so the morning after we landed we headed over to Short Hills, where my jetlagged kids got to participate in a Taekwondo Halloween party (what will these commerce-savvy TKD masters think of next!). Then we trick-or-treated through some of the stores and then headed over to the town's YMCA where the girls insisted on going through a haunted house (it was really well done! Manolee was genuinely scared and I think Hana was too at some points). 

Of course the day of Halloween, we were at it again - my good friend C held a really cool Halloween party at her house, complete with Halloween-themed decorations and snacks - see pics:

Then all the trick-or-treating - - the weather was good, not too cold, and the kids had a blast. Most houses were very well decorated, with skeletons half buried in the ground, huge spiders climbing trees, coffins scattered about the front yard... The kids ran to each and every door - some people who were not home left buckets of candy outside, one house even left a basket full of quarters outside - but most people who were home came out with huge buckets full of candy and greeted the kids, commented on the costumes, and in general were so nice - how can you not love Halloween!

Meanwhile, PeeWee fell in love with the skeleton at C's house and was putting it in all kinds of places, at the dinner table, in the passenger seat of the car, etc etc, and in general was getting such a kick out of it - see below an example: 
See how Manolee is looking at the skeleton above? Well, wouldn't you know - that night, an hour or so after the kids passed out, we heard a kid screaming - I did not recognize the voice and thought it was one of my friends' kids - well, it turnd out it was Manolee screaming at the top of her lungs - she was pointing at Hana (sleeping through all the commotion) and saying that there was a skeleton next to her big sister! It was her first nightmare ever - the poor thing.... 

Despite the nightmare, a great Halloween for the kids overall. Halloween is the best! 

Why Not Just Leave it at "Au Revoir"?

A while back I wrote about how you HAVE to say 'bonjour' and 'au revoir' when you go anywhere and meet anyone with a pulse. Otherwise you are just a rude uncouth foreigner, unversed in the sophisticated French ways. What I have since learned is that it is never just an 'au revoir' to qualify for a full farewell - the French add all sorts of greetings at the end, depending on the time of the day.

If you are saying goodbye anytime before 12, it should be 'bonne journee' OR 'bonne fin de matinee'.

If you are bidding adieu some time after 12, it is 'bon apres-midi'.

If it is past, say 4, it becomes 'bonne soiree', or 'bonne fin de la journee'.

It is just exhausting to keep up to return these said greetings properly. I always struggle, is it BON or BONNE - of course, it depends on the time of the day!

Also what gets me is, when I go pick up the kids around 4:30 and I say 'bonjour' to the moms like a good adaptable foreigner, some respond with a 'bonsoir' - so I'm still not sure what the cut-off time is when the 'jour' turns into 'soir'... why so complicated!? 

Hana the Class Rep

Hana goes to tennis after school on Tuesdays and in her absence, I look through her homework notebook to see what she needs to do when she gets home. The above is a note I found, left by Hana for me to find in her absence. She was elected the class rep! She was very proud, as you can imagine, and I was even prouder, as you can imagine. She said later that almost everyone raised their hands to be elected but she had garnered the most votes. That is my girl! I'm not sure what her responsibilities are, but isn't that just great?

Rennes Roosters

Wow! Rennes made the New York Times!

Apparently Rennes is renown around the world for its roosters! Who knew! Leave it to the venerable NYT to uncover and disseminate this all-important information. According to the Times, "the black and white-streaked Coucou of Rennes (a breed of chicken)" is endangered and only France being recognized as a gastronomic heaven by the Unesco will save it from sure extinction.

OK so the Coucou of Rennes was only a tiny part of this article, but still - it is big news to me!

"Emptying Attics" - a French Pastime

It's called the "Vide-Grenier" - literally, "Empty-Attic". It's when whole neighborhoods find stuff they no longer want around the house and then lay out the wares to sell - at dirt cheap prices. Kinda like a yard sale, except it's on a much grander scale because it combines the outputs of the attics of whole neighborhoods at a time. Vide-greniers are so popular that there is even a handbook, by each regional area or department, that lists the dates and the kinds of things being sold (some are exclusively for baby-related things, some are for antiques, etc). I've seen many posters and signs since coming to France, announcing such and such street holding vide-greniers, and we even went to one in Geveze last year (we scored a much coveted stuffed Pikachu for 50 centimes!), but this is the first time we actually decided to participate. It is usually crazy teeming with people.

The night before I encouraged the girls to go through their room and come up with things they no longer play with and no longer want. They had a grand time making a big mess. The loot bag, of things to be sold, was tiny - few English books, assorted Happy Meal toys, ratty hair bands - you get the drift. I went through their things a second time and suggested things they could try to sell, like the dozen naked Barbies (awww no! I like that Barbie! I like this Barbie too! Oh but that is a special Barbie!), stuffed animals (oh no maman! I want to sleep with that tonight!),  necklaces that never see the daylight (aww but so-and-so gave it to me!) - I soon discovered that I have two rat-packs. After much urging and begging to no avail, I instilled a notion that if they get rid of toys they never  play with anymore, we would make room for new toys that they really want! This seemed to work somewhat and we were able to fill three big shopping bags with stuff to try to sell.

The next morning, we set up with two of our friends - and hawked our wares to passers-by. Manolee insisted on dressing up as a butterfly salesgirl (don't you love it that when you are that young, you have no self-consciousness that inhibits such desires...). The girls were really excited at first, especially when setting out prices for the goods, but soon got bored when nobody seemed to really show interest. Oh there were lots of people looking alright, but I think people are not used to seeing high prices for old Happy Meal toys. I quickly realized that we were being too greedy and made a big sign saying "SALE" and slashed all prices to either 1 euro or 2 euros. But then one of Hana's friends asked me why I was selling dirty things - oy vey, I had forgotten that SALE in French means "dirty" - that sign quickly came down.

By mid afternoon, our goods were moving - though at 1 euro each, the revenues were not much to be impressed about. I also brought out some canneles that I had baked for some friends the night before and those went for 50 centimes each.  I made Hana do all transactions, so she got to do some math throughout the day.

Our net takings for the day was some 33 euros (which Hana pocketed - good thing Manolee is still pretty oblivious to anything related to money), plus 7 euros for the canneles. After splitting the cost of the "space" with the friends (3.50 euros each), we had made a net profit!

I think the girls got a taste for making money, but also a taste of what it is like to man a retail store - often a prolonged periods of no customers (boring!) then appealing to seemingly interested customers (smile!) then pocketing the money (ka-ching!). I tried to explain that 33 euros is not 100% profit, since there was the labor costs (the three of us sitting out there from 10 to 4pm) and the cost of goods sold. But Hana was all glazed-eyes through all this capital markets explanations.... but did say that she will look carefully through her room to gather things to sell the next time! 

Back in Rennes

Coming back from the US is always hard... especially when the weather in Brittany does not cooperate - the minute we crossed into Brittany driving from Paris it started to pour - no kidding. Of course, I miss my friends back home already... they have been so good to us this summer, especially the two who are now New Jerseyans, you know who you are. I still can picture the two of my very best friends, just a few weeks back, holding a towel around Hana helping her change out of her bathing suit - such good fortune to have such good friends who take such good care of my kids! Thank you, M and C!

My mom came back with us this time, and she brought a friend too so I don't feel so stressed about having to entertain her or anything like that. She is going back to Paris shortly, she says she will be staying at some Korean Buddhist temple for free - not sure what that is all about, hopefully not a scam or anything like that.

I suppose since this marks the beginning of my second year in France, I should start to think about doing something other than, well, hang out. It's amazing that a whole year has gone by. When I was hard at work in NY and London, I would often find myself coming home and suppressing all urges to ask PeeWee, "so what did you DO today" - How have you made yourself productive, useful, exactly? I mean, what is there really to do around the house? Well, plenty, it turns out. I've loved my year "off", but I wonder if another year like that is sustainable, both financially and mentally.

OK back to real life in Rennes...