Update on bank account/ trip to UK

I had 9 dates with this sweet boy in London.  Story below after the financial news




As of today we've been in France for six weeks.  (Except for Scott, who only gets a five week pin since he's in the US this week.)  I've had a few questions about the status of our bank account from amused friends and more importantly, from our ever-tolerant landlady.

We sent in the requested documents as soon as we could get them.  They included proof that our social security #s ARE our social security #s, proof that our landlady owned the house we are renting, proof we were living in the house, and proof that we paid US taxes.

My brother Mike sent me an article that explained that this is not actually France's fault.  The US is trying to crack down on money hidden from taxes overseas, and somehow they have managed to make sure French banks get massive fines if they accidentally get involved in such an account.

The other Fulbright scholar in Lille, who has been here since Christmas, told Scott that after waiting months to receive a bank card, he and his wife messed up their pin numbers when trying to use their debit card.  They had a little trouble communicating their problem and watched in horror while the bank teller took their precious debit card, grabbed a scissors, and chopped it up into petite pieces.

Anyway, long story long, Scott checked back in with our banker, "Madame D" before he left for the states and received an auto-message that she was on vacation for a week.  Sigh.  So, after another very polite plea from our landlady, I wrote Madame D. this week, and she replied "I need a justification of the insurance of your rental house."

Now, the nice thing is, I actually have this!  In France, if you rent, you must take out insurance to cover fire risks etc of the house, because the owner's insurance won't cover it.  After having only one door slammed in my face (OK it was more of a "non, ce n'est pas possible" than a shut door) I was able to obtain buy a policy a few weeks ago, so I have sent a copy of same to Mme. D. on Wednesday.   I anxiously await her reply.  Meanwhile I have a rendez-vous with our landlady this weekend, at a time and place I will not disclose, to hand her yet another thick envelope.


London Trip

I had hoped to carefully document here our trip to London but I mostly have pictures of Amelia asleep and Bobby's infected toe.  We had one day of fun on Sunday and saw Westminster, Big Ben and the rode the London Eye.

That night, Amelia came down with a horrible case of strep.  She did not eat or drink (except a few sips of water and some advil I forced down her) or SPEAK for 3 full days.  Once we were back in France I figured out how to google pediatrician (On google.fr you have to do it in French and i was trying "clinic" and other" doc n the box" synonyms).  Anyway, within hours of her first antibiotic dose (or "dog poo" as she describes it) she was asking for soup!

Thank you to Alexander Fleming, and to the nice, non-English speaking doctor's office who did not hang up on me, and gave me a same day appointment. And to the nice doctor who brought us into her office without waiting, mixed the instant strep test herself, in front of me, and took my cash payment and gave me change from her purse!  And yelled at me very sweetly en francais, reminding me that Amelia was not allowed to refuse advil, I was her mother and I would make her take it.

I had been very, very stressed about finding an office that would take our insurance and was so glad I didn't bother.  The cost was 37 euro ...about 40 dollars.  The antibiotic and advil were a total of 8 euro more.  (I will do a blog entry soon on "Almost everything is WAY cheaper here")

Anyway back to London.  We were staying in a nice family hotel right across from a mall with a pharmacy, and several great family restaurants.  Bobby and I ate out three meals a day and read Horrible Histories aloud to each other.  He had a fine time since I allowed him screen time ALL DAY LONG for 2 1/2 days.  We all were very sad to miss the Tower  of London tour and our theatre tix to the Railway Children.  (Note to self, don't book ahead next time!)

Look where our London bus was headed!





Our happy time near Big Ben  and on the London Eye before streptoccal bacteria raised their ugly tails (or whatever they have)

Loisirs (Leisure time activities)

While it's fun to post all the pictures of our adventures in history, culture and food, another aspect of living away from your regular home, especially if you aren't the one with the Fulbright,  is a VAST amount of leisure time.  Right now, the kids and I have a rainy Saturday before we head to London tonight on Eurostar.  The cheap tickets were for the 8:30 PM train but we miraculously (hour  time change) arrive at 9:04.

Scott is on his way to Richmond, but missed his plane because the airport workers at Charles de Gaulle were having a slowdown.  They would stamp a passport and then read a magazine for a while, then stamp another passport.  He missed the plane by 5 minutes and texted that it is really stressful to miss a plane so slowly.  His replacement plane was delayed for mechanical reasons so he will head home via Chicago and probably a hotel there.

Back to leisure time: We let the kids decide what they wanted to pack for France, and rolled our eyes when Amelia packed 23 (smallish) stuffed animals leaving only 4 at home.  ( She said those four didn't want to come.) Now I am feeling like the kids  couldn't live without those 23 "stuffies"  They play with them every day for hours.  They (the stuffies) are currently campaigning for Stuffy President, and the candidates have posters, platforms and polls.  They get loud and silly and even violent so I sometimes wish they stayed in VA. The Stuffies that is.

In Richmond, we all read at the breakfast table, adna lot of the rest of the day.  After about a month of breakfasts here reading the back of french cereal boxes we were finally able get the International NY Times, which  is delivered 6 days a week before 7 am!   We also subscribed to the Washington Post and RTD on line, and I read them all to some extent every day.  Bobby loves the links in the WP to videos (like best superbowl commercials etc) and he's reading up on politics a lot.  It may replace sports for him, until November at least.  I have learned to limit the links, as they have lead to some adult humor sites.

The kids still have "screentime"around sunset, and I've been more lax about it over this never-ending school break.  They do minecraft and other online games.  Movies are harder, as copyright laws don't allow us to use Amazon Prime.  We can watch the movies we already own, and can use netflix, but all on small screens.  (We make the kids use headphones in our small living area)

I would love to see a real movie but have not found a sitter yet.   American movies are just subtitled so it would be a delight.  Family and kid movies are dubbed over :(  Here is one I might sneak off to with Amelia:

Our life-saver is Henrico County library e-book loans.  Every day I thank them (and our fellow taxpayers) for this amazing gift.  I can search for ("Newberry prize winners" for example) borrow and download a book through overdrive/kindle.  The book will immediately appear on all three of our e-readers.  (We have a Kindle paperwhite, 5 year old IPAD and a Kindle Fire.)  Bobby, Amelia and I can all read the same book at the same time at our own pace!  And they return themselves!!!  There is a waitlist for popular books but heck, we have 7 months, so I am fine with that. And it is automatically borrowed when it becomes available. You can borrow up to 28 books and wait for 24 more.  They have a very good selection.  I can't say enough about how much it adds to our quality of life.

Tourism update:  Last weekend we visited the beautiful city of Ghent.  Climbing the stairs of a very large, very old castle:

Saw this on the castle tour.  Do you know what it is and what the bag is for?

A few more pictures:
A rampart in the castle in Ghent, 



a snack AMELIA had one afternoon.Yes that is a slab o' cheese.


Dessert  from one of the nearby bakeries (the orange is passionfruit mousse)


It's nice to be near Belgium on Valentine's day.  Look what my honey left me:



OK off to put the stuffies in time out.  They were yelling  "crap" but Bobby claims that they were talking about crepes.   Hmm, the castle in Ghent might be have just the place for them!

Merveillieux!

I am staring into the face of FIFTEEN days without school.  Winter break starts on Monday and  this Friday is a teacher workday!  Not bad if you can head off for a ski break, but Scott has to work and travel and skiing here is a little too complicated for me to handle alone.  

The kids started an after-school program (fencing) yesterday and were gone from 8 until 5:30.  I picked up them expecting them to be starving.  They were, but they were cheerful about it.  I explained that the french don't snack, which is why they eat things like snails for dinner.

I also expected that at least one of them would not like fencing, but they both enjoyed it.  The instructor spoke French but they had a pal in class who interpreted for them.  I love being reminded of the adaptability and resilience of kids, and surprised that I continue to I underestimate them.  They continue to enjoy school, especially lunch.  The only homework they have is a little bit of french, and last week they memorized a poem in French.

While they were gone I spent a long lonesome rainy day  online planning what to do during the break.  And snacking.   Scott will be traveling the second week of break so I made plans to take the kids to London for a few days. The Eurostar will get us there in an hour and a half,  and we will stay at a hotel near where I lived in 2001.  I am very excited to show the kids the Tower of London tour and other fun things.  I am much more confident about handling London avec enfants than the Alps.

France separates the country into 3 zones and each zone has a different set of weeks off for both winter and spring break.  Since everyone around here is off at the same time, the city and smart business folk create things for people to do with their kids.  The first week there will be an indoor park set up with bouncy houses and ziplines and climbing walls.  The second week they have something called Lille Neige, which is an indoor winterland with a toboggan hill and skating rink.  I am also thinking of doing a day trip to Disneyworld Paris, just because it's there, or rather, an hour or so from here on the TGV.

Speaking of neige, we have not had a flake. We have had only a few frosty nights, and none in the 10 day forecast.  I think it's milder than usual as the normal low is 33 for January and February.  The highs have been about 50.

Stop talking about the weather and give you some more food pictures?  Here is a sweet  favor Amelia received at a birthday party this weekend


And here is a Amelia  with a local dessert called Marveilleux...marvelous!  It's meringues with whipped cream in the middle and outside and then dusted with chocolate.




And finally, here is our Sunday supper of bread and cheese and spreads, and salad and fruit.  Bon Appetit!