Smells like Tapas!

We have just returned from a week in Barcelona! The first day started a little rough with lunch at a restaurant where they didn't speak any english, and our Catalan is very rusty! I ended up ordering the Russian Salad, the waiter told me it was green (or so I thought, again, the Catalan is not so good) and something I thought was supposed to be a steak. As a public service for anyone planning on traveling to Barcelona soon, I'll give you all the translation to Russian Salad so you don't have to look it up in your travel dictionary: Mayonayse Salad. Under all the white stuff are some potatoes, carrots, hard boiled eggs and I think 2 or 3 green beans. But this is not a potato salad. When you call something potato salad, potatoes are the primary ingredient. Not the case with a Russian Salad. I don't care if you're talking about potato salad, egg salad, macaroni salad, ambrosia salad or any other kind of "salad" you find behind the deli counter at Stop and Shop, this amount of mayo puts america to shame. As I looked around the restaurant, I could tell this was a wildly popular dish and is offered at many restaurants around the city. My steak turned out to be some kind of mystery meat sausage. Aside from that, most other meals ranged from good to fabulous. One night we had an incredible tasting menu that mixed spanish tapas with japanese sushi. And I tried my first pair of frog's legs. They were fine but I don't need to have them again. The owner of that restaurant then asked if we could go downstairs to see his pet frogs (not to be confused with the ones in the kitchen). He so seldom has children customers that he wanted to show them off (the frogs to the kids not the other way around). Turns out he has 2 nice frogs and one mean one that he likes to poke with a stick. We also had an amazing dessert that was called Dracula. It was a type of parfait with frothy Coke on the top and if you dug down deep you were rewarded with strawberry flavored pop rocks. You heard it folks, Coke and Pop Rocks, it's a wonder we're still alive. Aside from the food, I would have to say the most amazing thing was the Casa Batllo by Gaudi, it's so fantastical, the girls really enjoyed it too. The weather was also warm enough that we got to spend an afternoon at the beach, the girls put their feet in the water and I got a 5 euro foot massage from one of the Chinese ladies roaming the beach, it wasn't too bad either. Sadly, I think that will be one of the last times we will see the open water in quite a while. We came back to Paris on friday, one day after they closed all the airports here because of another strike. Speaking of which, things are not as bad here as they seem on the news. At this point there is one more strike day scheduled and then hopefully we'll be done with this and we can just wait for the next opportunity the French feel like complaining about something.

EuroDisney or Bust!

Hello. It's me, Lili, as you can tell from the font, seeing as no one else writes like this. Aunt Jody, has just left, they were a lot of fun( I'll see if i can post some pics.). Now, Bobby Nancy and Mike are here, but I'm going in between all that, to disney. That's right, for my birthday, we succeeded in going to euro disney, we said we would do it, and we did it, boy was that fun. I'll try to list everything I went on, though I may not get everything. Let's see.... Big Thunder Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, Peter Pan, Pinochio, Haunted Mansion, Teacups, Alice's Curious Labyrinth, Star Tours, uuummm, there were these Dumbo like rocket ships. That's all I can think of. I obviously put Big Thunder Mountain first because it was my favorite, but there were also parades, and shows. More than usual, because they were doing a "Halloween Special" as Noa said. That was a lot of fun, and I can't express it in type, so I'll have to skype with those of you who have it, and call those of you who don't. It was amazing. I only have a couple minutes to write, because I have to cook my potatoes. I also wanted to say, I was just looking through some pictures of me with everyone, and I'll admit, I teared up a little. I will write more on Saturday ( or will try), but I just wanted to beat my mom to talking about Disneyland, even if it's only a little bit. I'll talk more about it now, if you like(I would). Well... there was Sleeping Beauty's castle, not Cinderella's, but at the top, there were stained glass windows telling the story of Sleeping Beauty. Downstairs, there was a glass blower, it was so pretty, and amazing watching him make a little rose. I'm gonna take 5 more minutes to write, so I'll make it snappy. Way below, in the dungeon, in fact, there was a sleeping dragon. My dad said he was going to go down, and told us to help him if he got in trouble. So far, we hadn't seen the dragon move, so we thought nothing would happen. But as soon as dad went down, the dragon lifted his head, opened his lowing red eyes, and growled. Dad came running up, and then the dragon took one last look around, and went back to sleep. We stayed from 9:30 am (the park doesn't even open till 10 am) to 6:00 pm, when the park closes. We each got to pick one thing from the shops. Noa got a Mike Wosowski (from Monsters i.n.c.) stuffed animal, and a notebook with him on it. I got a rockin' black sweatshirt, with a skull on it. Thats all!! Oh, one more thing, for those of you who don't know, to get to my class's blog, go to adaptationeabjm.scholablog.net and the "motte de passe" is pomme. I have to make potatoes!!!

Lili(an) Belle in PARIS!

Metro Moment

Riding home on the metro friday, I had a little metro moment that I wanted to share with you all. It was the middle of the day and so not particularly crowded but every time we came to a stop at a new station there was some yelling and whooping coming from one of the other cars. Normally, the Paris metro is a very somber place. You know you are in the presence of a tourist if you see someone smiling on the metro, it just isn't done. Unless of course, it's very late at night and you are with a partner with whom you can nuzzle and whisper to, press up to very snugly, and generally do all kinds of things that would require the privacy of a residence or at the very least, the back seat of an automobile, anywhere in the United States. But I digress. So, there is this silliness going on at every stop as we're going along and then all of a sudden there is clicking on the loud speaker. This kind of clicking happens when someone is about to talk to give the passengers a message and it doesn't happen very often. But there was no message, there was music. I was trying to figure out what it was over the shrieking of the wheels against the rails when I finally realized it was the theme to The Love Boat. And then there was happiness. People were smiling in the metro. And it was funny. Soon the music stopped and it was time for me to get off. When I left the train, the source of the whooping was revealed. At every stop, there were some young kids jumping out of their car and mooning all of the other passengers as they entered and exited and they had their friends cheering them on. And that was funny too.

Birthday wishes, goose and fishes

Hello. As mom has said in the past blog, our entries are slowing because of school. "What's that Smell?" is also getting some competition... wait for it... waaait for it........ The SCHOOL BLOG! Thats right, my teacher decided to put up a blog on which all the students can write. I informed her I was already an expert blogger, but now I am working for not 1, but 2 blogs. I will tell you a little bit of each thing(or will try to) that has happened since the last blog. First, I am so, so, so, so angry at my mom for leaving out my birthday on the blog, but I guess as dad said, it wasn't a really important day for her, it meant a lot to dad, but for mom, it was like," Ow. My stomach, somethings in it, oh its Lili" (ha, ha). My birthday was a very happy day(despite the fact that in school we had to do some hard geography), but after school, I was greeted by mom, who was carrying a huge bouquet of flowers. At home, Noa really wanted me to see my cake, but I refused, I wanted it to be a surprise. I'm not going to explain everything, but I will put a pic of me on my b-day. Moving on. On Sunday, we went to Versailles, another thing that my dear, dear observant mother forgot to mention. It was beautiful, with the musical fountains, I loved it, and I think Noa did, too, though she claimed she didn't. We saw Marie Antoinette's village, it was very pretty. There were fish in a river in M.A's village, and that swan/goose is trying to peck the food out of their mouths. I don't want the blog to be to long, so I'm going to skip ahead, I actually might skip back, but... whatever. I'm going to skip back for a moment, rewind. We are at the scene of my b-day. I GOT AN IPAD! A 100$ GIFT CARD(to itunes) AND A BOOT SHOPPING TRIP, WITH A MOCHA FRAPACHINO INCLUDED!!!! Now, rewind even more, Aunt Jody has just arrived. Ayton is so cute, he says hot dog, challah (though he pronounces it "hawa"), and some other things, but I think the thing he says the most is "more". Now, we fast forward to today. I am thinking about the party I'm going to have on Sat. with my friends. Right now, I might have to vacuum (hey, even if mom's neck doesn't hurt, she can't completely stop enjoying the luxury of having me do household work). So until next blog!!

Lili(an) Belle in PARIS!

Did you miss us?

As you all predicted, the blog entries are slowing down now that school is really underway. Lili is making a lot of progress and over the weekend she was shocked to learn that she actually understood what a little girl next to her has said while we were out. She has a lot of homework but she is motivated to get it done and is looking forward to really being able to break the french code! Noa claims she still doesn't understand anything. Says she has no idea what is going on in class but doesn't complain about going to school. She loves her english class (as do all the native english speakers), her teacher is a little whacky (which is a nice change of pace from the very strict french model). Both of the girls have many friends, which is really helping them keep a float. Ethan is working a lot trying to get his students enrolled in classes and settled with their host families. There have been some minor issues to deal with but Ethan explained to his students, in plain english, that he will not be the director with the easy going reputation but he will be the director that has no problem sending kids home, fast. We can only hope that once they get busy with school, they will have less time for whining (and wine-ing!). I am still working on the apartment furnishings and getting used to life in the big city...without my big car, big house and big washing machine (did I mention we have no dryer?, not that I'm complaining...). Jody, Kourosh and Ayton we here for a visit last week. I have obviously totally forgotten what it's like to have a toddler. I carefully explained to the girls that they needed to put all their small toys away, however, I neglected to move the open bag of nails, 2 screw drivers and hammer that were just sitting in the corner of the living room. Dog food was also an issue. As were all of our glasses and plates that sit on a low shelf due to the fact that I still have no cupboards in the kitchen. Eating out was also somewhat trying because most restaurants don't have high chairs. Despite all that, we had a great time with them. I'll leave you with that and save the purchasing of a phone plan ordeal til the next time!

School News

HI! I'm sorry it's been so long, so much has been happening, especially with school! I like my teacher, she's nice, and so are my English teacher, gym teacher, and art teacher. We had our first homework yesterday. For French we had to read something and understand the meaning, and memorize how to spell something(in French, of course). For English, we did spelling. So far, school is pretty easy, even if mostly everything is in French. The only thing I really hate, is the fact that every Thursday, we have to go to the swimming pool, most likely for swimming lessons. Other than that, it's pretty OK. Mom told you that we got roller blades, they're so much fun! We got bad news about the table we were going to order, it's not coming till December! Well, we weren't going to wait the long, so today we had to go looking for one. Surprisingly(more or less, cause we were desperate), we found one! It's glass, and it's black. I really like it! The only other news is that Aunt Jody, Kourosh, and Ayton are coming in one week(YAY), and so is my birthday! Wish me luck at school!

Lili(an) Belle in PARIS!

The Return of The Father

Sounds serious, doesn't it? Ethan has finally rejoined us in Paris. The last 2 weeks have not been easy without him. If it was only me and the kids, things would have been fine but with my injured neck, 2 children and a badly behaving canine, things were not running smoothly. Poor Lili was like Cinderella, "Lili, could you load the dish washer? Lili, could you take Chloe out? Lili, could you hang the laundry? Lili, could you cook diner? Lili, could you go get Mommy a petit bottle of wine to wash down the pain killers? Life improved greatly after meeting some new friends and a session with my new osteopath. But everyone is very excited that daddy is finally home! Daddy is also very happy to be home, although he had to bid farewell to his new friends in Bordeaux, all of whom own eatery establishments, but were very welcoming to the lonely foreigner. The girls sort of started school on friday. Noa had a half day and Lili had a whopping 2 hours! But they both seemed to enjoy it, liked their teachers and everything was translated. I think that is just for the first day but I didn't mention that to them, why rain on their parade? Today we upgraded from scooters and got roller blades (with helmets and pads) and they seemed to like that. Also, sorry there haven't been any pictures lately but the little camera is not functioning properly and I have to go get it fixed. This week should be interesting, I'll keep you posted!