Well. I just looked up the translation for "Les Hautains", the complex in St. Genis that we call our new home. According to babelfish (babelfish.altavista.com) it means "the haughty ones." Hmmm....I just thought we were "movin' on up"?
Moving went well. We took over a load of stuff on Friday for our first overnight, including B's crib. Then Saturday we had three helpers show up, and J, a recent arrival from the U, also helped. We were able to get everything in all the cars and moved in one trip. Here's a picture of K all happy in her new living room :).
What a relief it is to have our own space! We were able to get our American Sleep Number bed set up almost immediately. Shazam, Gomer! We're back from our stint with military-style cots from IKEA. Thanks, RJ, for helping me get that bed packed! It's already paid for the expense and effort of getting it here. To celebrate, K and I got a babysitter and went out for dinner at the nearest Turkish kebab restaurant. And then watched "The Simpson's Movie" on DVD (I think now K is permanently turned off to the Simpson's...).
At the same time, however, "buyer's remorse" set in almost immediately for me. I'm reminded of a study that fellow student S said was done on impulse buyers versus the more cautious researching-type buyers (which both K and I are). The study found that the latter is typically less happy with their purchases because they've already figured out all the pluses and minuses of what they bought and what they didn't buy; i.e., they know too much.
So as expected, living in a high-rise has its downsides, not the least of which is parking. But we'll learn to deal with it all! :)
The other downside, which is rather large albeit temporary, is the lack of internet! Could you do without? :) We have no way of checking email or our Skype messages at home, nor can we call internationally. We have to mooch our Internet off of others ("will work for Internet access!" "Brother can you spare a Megabit/second?"). Right now I'm burning precious work time at CERN blogging! I guess that makes me a not-so-haughty-techno-have-not.
So get this: I want to research the different Internet options (I should probably just impulse-buy one!). Here in France, the ISPs have their web sites, of course. But I don't have internet at home, I would have to call them on the phone. No problem: just talk to one of our counselors, click here ("cliquez ici"), the web site says. When you "cliquez ici", a little window pops up and says...what? No, not a phone number to call. It has a form field for you to fill in your number for them to call you! - and a time: Would you like them to call you now? Or 1 minute from now? or 5 minutes from now?
...So what's wrong with this picture? Hey: if I had internet to "cliquez ici" with and tell you to call me in 5 minutes, I WOULDN'T NEED TO CALL YOU!! (sigh).
One fellow student said that France Telecomm broke her. Now when her phone service drops in mid-international-call, she just figures, "Oh, well, maybe it'll be back in 10 minutes. Or maybe not." She's learned the French shoulder-shrug. To her FT now defines the benchmark by which all other bureaucratic incompetence is measured, as in "that's just so France Telecomm". So I guess we'll try something else, and let you know if it's at all better...
They usually bundle phone and TV with the Internet. Currently the apartment comes furnished with a TV. I used it to watch the Superbowl! But more of that in my next blog entry...
Take care!
-PKBD
1 comment:
Yay! You are there in your own little place, finally!! Through you, many of us have seen many apt. photos/videos and prayed about this together. And at last, there you are :) God's nest for your family. Am sure that you will adjust to the "down side" issues, although I DO hope you can get the internet/phone issue figured out fairly soon. Thanks so much for the update. Hugs to you all, Naomi
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