We celebrated all night long back in November, but now this big day and I was babysitting and the cable was out. I managed to watch the inaugural speech in 2 minute shifts while the boys were distracted, but I don't know anything about the rest of what happened. I hear Bush was escorted to a helicopter by our new president and that some folks were excited to see that.
It seems a little unreal, probably because I'm isolated from all of the circumstance. I suppose also because I hardly believed I'd ever see the day when W would actually go away. Seemed like a nightmare that wouldn't end. He's been our president since I was really old enough to even notice politics.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
And then there were two....
Amber left us this morning to move back to London. She is in fact stepping off her train in the UK as I type this. She arrived here 2 months ago and has since been quite a bit part of Myriam's and my life since then it seems like we've all been friends forever.She is another one I met in my french class, a fellow jeune fille au pair in Brussels, but unlike my story she managed to find what was possibly the single worst family in this city. It never ceased to amuse/horrify me to compare our two lives. She worked 12-13 hours a day while I worked 3, she took care of 4 kids while I have 2, she was left alone frequently for entire weekends with some or all of the kids while her host parents went on holiday while Valerie is horrified if I'm left to deal with the boys for more than 3 and a half hours. The list goes on culminating in my 3 christmas dinners while Amber was sent to eat spaghetti with 11 (count 'em 11) kids and manage to get them all in bed while her host parents and extended family ate a 5 course meal without her. Almost so tragic as to be impossible.
So, while I'll miss her, I'm glad she got out sooner rather than later.
Here is the photo of Amber on the train going to Antwerp just before her birthday dinner. She's warming her shoes on the window vent. Poor thing, born in South African weather, was struggling with the cold. Myriam joked that this was her final descent into hobo. All three of us have made an art of looking about as homeless as possible; wearing several layers of clothing under our coats along with mismatched gloves and hats along with an astonishingly large sack each of all the necessities like tissues, cookies, maps, umbrellas, sometimes a change of clothes, you get the gist. It is surprising people never stopped us to to give alms.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Opples and Bononos
Tonight I couldn't help but eavesdrop. I handed the boys over to Valerie tonight as usual and she took them to the bath. But tonight was more amusing than usual. Sound travels up the stairwell pretty clearly in the house. It was a pretty quiet bath, they're usually splashing around and making the bath toys do nose dives off the spigot with a resounding ker-splosh but not tonight. Tonight I heard Matthieu leading all three of them, Thomas, Valerie and himself, in a rather self-amused rendition of "I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas" (for those of you who don't know this timeless classic, it follows the structure of the title/first line swapping out the vowels of the main characters- specifically apples and bananas- with a-e-i-o-u in their respective verses)
Anyway, this tickled me not because he was getting it all wrong and simply repeating his favorite line involving 'Os' but because I'd been singing this song for the majority of the bus ride/walk home from school both to amuse the kids and to keep my mind off of the bitter cold weather we've been having lately. This public display of silliness resulting in vague looks of interest from the boys and a mixture of appreciation and apprehension from our fellow bus-riders.
I suppose it's probably not such a big deal to most of you, but it's the first really amusing story worth telling about how I'm beginning to fit in around here as a part of the boys' family.
Anyway, this tickled me not because he was getting it all wrong and simply repeating his favorite line involving 'Os' but because I'd been singing this song for the majority of the bus ride/walk home from school both to amuse the kids and to keep my mind off of the bitter cold weather we've been having lately. This public display of silliness resulting in vague looks of interest from the boys and a mixture of appreciation and apprehension from our fellow bus-riders.
I suppose it's probably not such a big deal to most of you, but it's the first really amusing story worth telling about how I'm beginning to fit in around here as a part of the boys' family.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
The Accidental Fur Coat Caper
I went to a thrift shop the other day with Amber, she's quite a clothes horse but has a tight budget so it's a good thing she gets a kick out of second hand clothes. Plus she wants to be a professional fashion stylist so she can make the goofiest looking outfit look really cool.
Anyway, I wasn't planning to buy anything but I saw these coats on one of the racks that I couldn't pass up. You see, we're going to a themed New Year's Eve party at a club here in London. It is one that Gudrun's friend Amani picked out, the theme is 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" and these coats happen to be enormous fur coats. Some of them fur, the other clearly fake and I thought it would be fun to show up to the party in a bit of costume (but one I can play off if no one else at the party has any interest in costuming it up! haha). Well there was one tiger patterned one that I liked, but I still have a really awesome leopard coat at home in the states, so I figured I didn't need another outrageous coat like that so I settled on a simple brown one that was certainly in my price range at 12 euros. The tiger one was 15 and the real furs were 50-70 euro range.
So we left the shop and this was during the cold snap we were having so as we were walking to the bus I draped the coat over the shoulders of my usual raincoat to keep a little warmer and after a minute or two I started to suspect this coat because it was really warm and completely draft free. Anyone who has owned a faux-fur coat knows that they're warm, but still ventilate like cotton. So while we were in the bus Amber helped me look for any markings in the lining to indicate what this coat was but there were none so we tried to find a place where the lining was worn out or tearing. We found a small spot but still couldn't get a good view of the underside of the "material." (I'm still in a bit of denial, so I haven't searched too hard. People who eat steak probably still don't want to visit the slaughter house, kind of thing)
Long story short, I kept the coat and wore it to the party and was glad of it too, I was the only one not freezing on our way back to the hotel after the party. It has come to be known as 'the animal' and it is hanging in the spare room here at the moment because there isn't enough room to hang it in my own wardrobe.
Anyway, I wasn't planning to buy anything but I saw these coats on one of the racks that I couldn't pass up. You see, we're going to a themed New Year's Eve party at a club here in London. It is one that Gudrun's friend Amani picked out, the theme is 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" and these coats happen to be enormous fur coats. Some of them fur, the other clearly fake and I thought it would be fun to show up to the party in a bit of costume (but one I can play off if no one else at the party has any interest in costuming it up! haha). Well there was one tiger patterned one that I liked, but I still have a really awesome leopard coat at home in the states, so I figured I didn't need another outrageous coat like that so I settled on a simple brown one that was certainly in my price range at 12 euros. The tiger one was 15 and the real furs were 50-70 euro range.
So we left the shop and this was during the cold snap we were having so as we were walking to the bus I draped the coat over the shoulders of my usual raincoat to keep a little warmer and after a minute or two I started to suspect this coat because it was really warm and completely draft free. Anyone who has owned a faux-fur coat knows that they're warm, but still ventilate like cotton. So while we were in the bus Amber helped me look for any markings in the lining to indicate what this coat was but there were none so we tried to find a place where the lining was worn out or tearing. We found a small spot but still couldn't get a good view of the underside of the "material." (I'm still in a bit of denial, so I haven't searched too hard. People who eat steak probably still don't want to visit the slaughter house, kind of thing)
Long story short, I kept the coat and wore it to the party and was glad of it too, I was the only one not freezing on our way back to the hotel after the party. It has come to be known as 'the animal' and it is hanging in the spare room here at the moment because there isn't enough room to hang it in my own wardrobe.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Christmas Dinner
I had a great meal with the family tonight. The Grandparents came to town to celebrate before my host family leaves for Sri Lanka for holiday.
FX prepared 3 courses for us, quite a rich meal by anyone's standards. We had Foie Gras for starters with fig jam on bread, then oysters 2 ways: raw and cooked with curry seasoning, last we had stuffed quail wrapped in bacon. Each course was paired with its own wine which FX picked out himself. The family played a game of guess that wine with each course and FX brought out a book which should have been titled the wine bible, because I can't imagine a more complete explanation of soil, weather, regions, grape species etc.
FX prepared 3 courses for us, quite a rich meal by anyone's standards. We had Foie Gras for starters with fig jam on bread, then oysters 2 ways: raw and cooked with curry seasoning, last we had stuffed quail wrapped in bacon. Each course was paired with its own wine which FX picked out himself. The family played a game of guess that wine with each course and FX brought out a book which should have been titled the wine bible, because I can't imagine a more complete explanation of soil, weather, regions, grape species etc.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
I see the Moon
I see the Moon,
The Moon sees me.
The Moon sees somebody I want to see.
So god bless the Moon,
and god bless me,
and god bless the somebody I want to see.
The Moon sees me.
The Moon sees somebody I want to see.
So god bless the Moon,
and god bless me,
and god bless the somebody I want to see.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Down by the Liffeyside
I took a long weekend in Dublin from Friday to Monday. I left Brussels on Thursday night with Myriam and we spent the night in the Charleroi airport. Our flight left first thing on Friday morning so the earliest shuttle would have been too late to get us there on time. We found a lovely corner away from the doors so we were relatively draft free. Luckily, we were staying in 'the friendly airport.'
When we arrived the first priority was caffeine, so we went to one of Myriam's favorite coffee shops near Trinity campus. Then we took a quick walking tour of campus when Myriam happened to remember that there were lockers in the art building on campus. Turns out we were able to check out luggage in the cloak room for free all day which made it sooo much easier to travel. We walked around for a few more hours checking out parks and walking along the riverside for a while. We found the most wicked playgroud ever. The apparatus they had there looked really fun so we peeled off the coats and ran around trying out all the equipment, well Myriam tried it out, I laughed and gasped for air as I pushed her faster, faster, faster! haha It was the kind of playground any kid would love, and rightfully so, I think Myriam was near death/serious injury more than once during our brief visit.
We texted our couchsurfing host a little before noon to let him know we were there and we went to meet Myriam's old flatmate Rachel for lunch. I was tired so I was drifting in and out of their conversation (mostly out) but she was really nice and I liked her more by the end of the weekend--more on that later though. She got us into see the Book of Kells, which was interesting, but the really amazing part was the library of ancient books stored at Trinity. The smell alone was worth the whole trip to Dublin. Stack after stack of books older than the oldest buildings in the US. It was staggering.
We picked up our luggage after that and walked to our host, Fergus', house which was just down the street from Christ Church. We hung out for a while and had a few beers, Fergus made us a delicious veggie curry for dinner and Myriam and I turned in early after our long day.
On Saturday we were thinking of going to the National Gallery, but by the time we got there it was time to meet Myriam's old teammate Neil. They were on the Trinity University trampoline team.
That evening we met up with Claire, another of Myriam's old flatmates. I'd been hearing about her for a couple days now so I was quite curious to meet her. We went over to her boyfriend's house for part 2 of their house warming party (which had commenced about 6 months previous). There were a handful of their other frinds there as well so it was a proper party there. They had a fire going and a bunch of little snackish finger foods and a few beers, but not many. We planned to stay only for a few hours and then goo out to a pub or two, but after we had a few beers and cozied up to the fireplace, it was hard to imagine leaving for a cold walk to an expensive pub. So plans got scratched and we ended up staying the night in the guestroom. Clair's brother showed up for a visit after work around 2am and the guitar was brought out, they sang a half a'dozen old Irish tunes. Her brother (Keiran, I believe was his name) was quite a good musician and when he was finished the others asked Mriam and I to sing some American songs. I felt like a deer in headlights. I don't know any "American songs" not like these Irish songs, and anyway if I could find any they were probably Irish to begin with. haha We ended up staying the night in their guestroom and sleeping in until about noon.
Sunday we showered in the afternoon back at Fergus' place and then headed out again. We got some lunch at an overpriced (but quaint) coffee shop, wandered around a bit down by the banks of the Liffey. We made a pit stop at a bead shop Myriam remembered seeing back in the day, I considered picking up a few supplies to make Kelly a necklace but decided without my tools here (they're still back in the states) it would be an expensive endeavor to get set up again for jewlerey making. After that we sought out the Jameson Distillery. It's not in use anymore, and the production has been moved outside of the city, but the original building still existss as a sort of museum. The tour was less than exciting but Myriam and I were selected from our tour group to be whiskey testers at the end of our tour. So we got 3 shots of whiskey, or I should say we got one shot of Jameson, one shot of Jack Daniels and one shot of scotch which they didn't name. I think they only revealed the name of Jack Daniels because, tasted in the same sitting as the other two, JD tastes near toxic. I quite preferred the scotch though. Haha!
Our last dinner in Dublin was with Rachel again. We took a bus out into the suburbs to meet her at her flat. She'd made some amazing Shepard's Pie for us and this time I was awake enough to participate in conversation even though we were still a bit tipsy from the whiskey when we arrived.
After dinner we headed back again to Fergus' house and stopped along the way at a night shop to pick up a bottle of Jameson to share with our hosts. We had a fun evening of learning new card games with a few of Fergus' friends and his brother and then good bye at the end of the evening because we were leaving quite early on Monday to catch our flight.
Monday morning came too fast and we decided with the weather being a bit damp a a lot cold, we'd better take a bit of whiskey to bolster our spirits. So there it is folks, we left for the airport and not much to tell after that.
When we arrived the first priority was caffeine, so we went to one of Myriam's favorite coffee shops near Trinity campus. Then we took a quick walking tour of campus when Myriam happened to remember that there were lockers in the art building on campus. Turns out we were able to check out luggage in the cloak room for free all day which made it sooo much easier to travel. We walked around for a few more hours checking out parks and walking along the riverside for a while. We found the most wicked playgroud ever. The apparatus they had there looked really fun so we peeled off the coats and ran around trying out all the equipment, well Myriam tried it out, I laughed and gasped for air as I pushed her faster, faster, faster! haha It was the kind of playground any kid would love, and rightfully so, I think Myriam was near death/serious injury more than once during our brief visit.
We texted our couchsurfing host a little before noon to let him know we were there and we went to meet Myriam's old flatmate Rachel for lunch. I was tired so I was drifting in and out of their conversation (mostly out) but she was really nice and I liked her more by the end of the weekend--more on that later though. She got us into see the Book of Kells, which was interesting, but the really amazing part was the library of ancient books stored at Trinity. The smell alone was worth the whole trip to Dublin. Stack after stack of books older than the oldest buildings in the US. It was staggering.
We picked up our luggage after that and walked to our host, Fergus', house which was just down the street from Christ Church. We hung out for a while and had a few beers, Fergus made us a delicious veggie curry for dinner and Myriam and I turned in early after our long day.
On Saturday we were thinking of going to the National Gallery, but by the time we got there it was time to meet Myriam's old teammate Neil. They were on the Trinity University trampoline team.
That evening we met up with Claire, another of Myriam's old flatmates. I'd been hearing about her for a couple days now so I was quite curious to meet her. We went over to her boyfriend's house for part 2 of their house warming party (which had commenced about 6 months previous). There were a handful of their other frinds there as well so it was a proper party there. They had a fire going and a bunch of little snackish finger foods and a few beers, but not many. We planned to stay only for a few hours and then goo out to a pub or two, but after we had a few beers and cozied up to the fireplace, it was hard to imagine leaving for a cold walk to an expensive pub. So plans got scratched and we ended up staying the night in the guestroom. Clair's brother showed up for a visit after work around 2am and the guitar was brought out, they sang a half a'dozen old Irish tunes. Her brother (Keiran, I believe was his name) was quite a good musician and when he was finished the others asked Mriam and I to sing some American songs. I felt like a deer in headlights. I don't know any "American songs" not like these Irish songs, and anyway if I could find any they were probably Irish to begin with. haha We ended up staying the night in their guestroom and sleeping in until about noon.
Sunday we showered in the afternoon back at Fergus' place and then headed out again. We got some lunch at an overpriced (but quaint) coffee shop, wandered around a bit down by the banks of the Liffey. We made a pit stop at a bead shop Myriam remembered seeing back in the day, I considered picking up a few supplies to make Kelly a necklace but decided without my tools here (they're still back in the states) it would be an expensive endeavor to get set up again for jewlerey making. After that we sought out the Jameson Distillery. It's not in use anymore, and the production has been moved outside of the city, but the original building still existss as a sort of museum. The tour was less than exciting but Myriam and I were selected from our tour group to be whiskey testers at the end of our tour. So we got 3 shots of whiskey, or I should say we got one shot of Jameson, one shot of Jack Daniels and one shot of scotch which they didn't name. I think they only revealed the name of Jack Daniels because, tasted in the same sitting as the other two, JD tastes near toxic. I quite preferred the scotch though. Haha!
Our last dinner in Dublin was with Rachel again. We took a bus out into the suburbs to meet her at her flat. She'd made some amazing Shepard's Pie for us and this time I was awake enough to participate in conversation even though we were still a bit tipsy from the whiskey when we arrived.
After dinner we headed back again to Fergus' house and stopped along the way at a night shop to pick up a bottle of Jameson to share with our hosts. We had a fun evening of learning new card games with a few of Fergus' friends and his brother and then good bye at the end of the evening because we were leaving quite early on Monday to catch our flight.
Monday morning came too fast and we decided with the weather being a bit damp a a lot cold, we'd better take a bit of whiskey to bolster our spirits. So there it is folks, we left for the airport and not much to tell after that.
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