It's all over but the signin'...and the movin'...and the livin'...

K: My biggest project/pursuit since we moved here is now complete! I am SO happy! P and I got on the speaker phone with Elias this evening and any lingering doubts/concerns were eliminated. He was a kind, humorous person on the phone, admitting that even he didn't understand parts of the boilerplate lease (in French) he had sent us by email. St. Genis is a town that P had casually remarked he'd like to live in, and now, we'll be living there!

Another family from our church also lives in the same complex (Les Hautins) and because it's so close to CERN, P can walk, bike or bus there, saving us the additional costs of purchasing a second vehicle and insuring it. This landlord, as an added bonus, decided to only charge us one month's worth as a deposit (we've encountered mostly landlords that ask for two month's worth of rent). And this landlord has amended the lease to say he'll return our deposit with interest! This is unheard of in France, and we're very grateful for his generosity. It will be an apartment ready to live in, unlike all the others we had seen, since it is furnished.

God is so good! Thanks for your prayers during this last stretch. This is, by far, the best Christmas present God could give us this Christmas season, as far as I'm concerned. It feels like we'll have a place to return to when we come back in January!

P: Who'da thunk it? The string theorist was a regular...Nikklos (that's the problem with Greek names - hard to find a "Joe" - they're all bigger than life, like Aristotle, Agamemnon, Zeus...).

So the story is that we did finally hear back from the string theorist landlord, "E.". E. said: "I agree to rent my apartment to you." Still we held back from celebrating. Because the next thing he asked for was one month's rent as a "caution" (what in the states is called a security deposit - and far better than the 2-3 months that most landlords ask for) - so that he wouldn't keep showing the apartment to other people. Wahahahahahait just a New York minute, buddy! Show me contract, eh? Pas de contrat, pas de monnaie, comprenez vous? (Okay, no, so I didn't actually cop the attitude, but y'know, gotta spice it up for the masses :)

So after a tense 24 hours or so...he did! Sent his boilerplate contract, en francais, to translate and review. So for a couple hours today, since the contract was sent in "jpg" format (no character recognition software), I painstakingly retyped 3-4 pages of contract into Microsoft Word (which can put in all the accent marks the French use), and then cut and pasted into Google translator, correcting as I went. And even after that, as you can well guess, there were questions, and poorly translated sections to be understood. (Note to self: "bailleur=lessor", "locataire=lessee". Those'll come in handy for everyday conversation...)

(As an aside, a couple odd coincidences, if you put stock in that kind of thing: E. is one month older than me - I'm feeling my late bloomer status! - and his birthday is one day after Benjamin's).

Because we're starting to get pressed for time to finalize our housing for when we come back, and because email was taking too long, we asked E. if we could call by phone and hammer out contract details. Fortunately, he was available today! And the short of the story is (too late, you say?) that we got all our questions answered, we had a pleasant conversation, the guy is a regular...Nikklos...and we're completely go for renting his place, starting the 1st of February! He was even willing to give us whatever interest the "caution" earns while we rent - not that you can get much in the way of interest in the banks around here for that much money - about a % or so. So, Aesop's conclusion? Don't believe everything people tell you about string theorists - or Greeks - that's what I say. :)

So after we got off the phone, then it was time to celebrate! Which we did by putting on some swing music and doing up a lindy-hop for old times sake, thanking Jesus and the Father in between breaths.

And thank all of you, too for all the hard labor you put into this, praying on our behalf. It paid off! :)

Merry Christmas!

-PKBD