Four New Things - (almost) all French!

An addendum:

Well. That didn't take long. K and B are feeling much better after their trip to the doctor, so K's back to looking at ads again - and who can blame her? We've got to live somewhere - else, that is...eventually, anyway...and guess what? Many of the places we've seen are back on the market! Like that Gex place we said "No" to. Apparently the other two interested parties either said no also, or did not meet the criteria. Same price tho'...but that too perfect Ferney-Voltaire apartment? Still up for rent also, and with 100euro/mo. knocked off the top. The same thing that happened to the Segny house we were considering. So I guess some of these places don't go as fast as we thought. Not to mention new ads for a couple places in St. Genis...hope springs eternal.

Four new things

...that I got today, all in one day! December 7th has been a very good day - and not just because two of my "best men" have their birthday today - happy birthday, Rob and Pete!

1. French bank accounts. Yes, after talking for two days to Credit Agricole (CA) and Caisse d'Epargne (CdE), I settled on the latter. These French have gotten to me. I actually walked away from my CdE experience happy that I was only paying 6.54euro/month to have these checking/savings accounts open (check it: that's $10/month! No bank could stay open in the U.S. with that kind of fee - not for the vanilla bank services I'm getting, anyway).
2. A French car insurance policy! The French bank account was for the payment of French car insurance ("assurance de voiture"), among other things. I'm glad to say I was able to close the deal speaking all in French (if what I was speaking can be called that - just don't look too closely at those papers they made me sign!)
3. French cards!! Ooh la la. This is the big one. Been waiting long time for this one. No, not playing cards. These are cards that take the place of our visas - no, not our credit cards! The things that say you can stay in France for work purposes. So anyway, pictures are coming, hold your horses already. Check back soon.
4. A CAR (soon to be French-ified)!!! - which I can't drive yet! It has to have French plates first. And this is why the first three were important. Now that I have a French card, and car insurance, I can apply for special "green plates" through CERN that exempt me from customs and taxes for importing a car from Switzerland (a non-EU country). This will be the task for Monday. Pictures are also coming.

...so, do you think it's because I had a quiet time this morning?

Blatantly illegal activity

So get this: I can't drive the car yet because it doesn't have plates any more - the seller had to surrender his upon sale of the vehicle. But the seller, who is Indian (his name was Ayodhya, but then I changed it to Apaidhya), is leaving tomorrow to go to back to India for five weeks - meaning I had to get the car from him before it was legal to drive. So we cooked a scheme whereby he would ..... (redacted) .... and then I would .... (redacted) .... evaded capture by .... (redacted) .... moolah changing hands .... (redacted) .... and then to remove all trace, we .... (redacted) .... Hah! you should've seen the looks on their faces! Isn't that great? Don't tell anyone though. I wouldn't want to get in trouble. So now we have a car in our garage, safely ensconced and hidden from public view.

Work

-what's that? Oh, yeah. The reason why I moved out here. Well. Not a great week for getting anything done. Whatever work I managed to accomplish was in service of GREN (see previous posting), which finished today also (see? what a great day). Thank God, my piece seemed to work quite well, which I was gratified to see. I also spent one day on 2nd shift (4pm-midnite).

But no rest for the weary - CMS week is starting! Eager beavers that these HCAL folks are, they're jumping the gun and having meetings on Saturday, Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon. My adviser shows up here in Geneva on Sunday at noon. One of my graduate student compatriots from the U of Maryland has suggested a bunch of us play hooky tomorrow (Saturday) and go up to the Montreux Christmas market (click on the British flag). Bit of a drive - on the other side of Lac Leman. K and I saw Montreux when we drove the lake in summer 2006. Fabulous views of the Alps, great chance to do some Christmas shopping! Beats the heck out of Walmart and Target. We'll see if the weather holds tomorrow, though, been a bit on the rainy side lately.

Happy Adventing,

-PKBD