Friday, December 31, 2010

On the eve of the new year...

0 : the number of boxes I have packed so far
26 : the number of empty beer bottles left over from our 'goodbye' party last night
7 : the number of half-full wine bottles waiting for a second chance
185,000,004 : the number of things I feel that I need to do before leaving
5 : the number of days left before our flight

Five days left and our apartment still looks the same, other than the four open (and empty) suitcases waiting patiently on the floor. At this point the butterflies in my stomach feel a lot more like panic and I have got to say that writing this blog isnt making it any better! I guess that on the eve of the new year, arguably one of the most momentous years of my life, one thing that is certain is that I am a procrastinator through and through. In my mind, I felt that although we had short notice to move to Fontainebleau, we had a lot of time and events to get through first - Christmas shopping, Christmas eve, Christmas day, a Chanukah party with my oldest and dearest girlfriends (!), P's 30th birthday, new years eve, new years day (very important in my big fat Greek family), and finally our flight on January 5th. But in a blink, they were over and here I am staring at my computer with giant empty tupperware boxes, vaccum-seal bags and suitcases thinking don't I have more time left?!

To make this post a bit more enjoyable and less about my isane fear and procrastinating ways, I will attach some photos of me and P's new apartment in Fontainebleau that our landlady sent via email. All 450 square feet of it!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Step 2: Tie up loose ends

I'm happy to report that the #1 thing on my to-do list (find a tenant for our apartment) and the #2 thing (find a new home for our two cats) have been completed!! I don't know how it happened, but I managed to find a seemingly together, trustworthy, and tidy renter who will happily mother our cats for the year that we are gone! This is a HUGE relief and now that the deal is done and the damage deposit is in my hand I am feeling so much better about everything! Now, the focus of my attention is: what the heck am I going to do in a tiny little french town in the middle of a forest? The cheese and the bread and the wine immediately spring to mind, but aside from becoming an overweight (and diabetic?) alcoholic, I am trying to figure out ways to make this year as productive as possible. The obvious answer would be to work, find gainful employment, perfect my french. But truth be told, I'm happy with my less than par language skills, and I am very familiar with the attitude that some french people generally have with foreigners who botch their language. The problem with the first part, is that my french visa actually forbids me from working in France! It appears that the easiest (and fastest!) route into the country on such short notice, is to get a "long-term-stay-wife of a student-with-a-EU-passport" visa, that essentially allows me to be a wife in France and nothing else. Luckily, I am a graduate student with a hefty thesis to complete, and the bizarre fact that I can't actually work even if I wanted to is, as it turns out, a huge relief. I can actually focus on finishing it, and doing it well without worrying that I am missing out on some fabulous job opportunity. Hopefully next time I write I will have a substantial list of new ideas.. for now, as long as wine and cheese are are on there somewhere, I'm sure it'll be a good year.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Vancouver to Fontainebleau

Step 1: Pack up your entire life

6 days ago, we got the word that P was accepted into a very fabulous MBA program in Fontainebleau, France. This was the news we had been waiting for and after celebrating and revelling in the news for 6 days now.. reality has set in. Im looking around our small but stuffed-to-capacity apartment and I dont know how it will be humanly possible to fit all of our belongings into boxes, or worse - suitcases! P's insane dvd collection, dishes, books, camping gear, wedding gifts we haven't even opened yet (3 years in!). It's about as overwhelming as figuring out what to bring to our tiny new french home.

To be completely honest, of this particular school's two campuses (Fontainebleau and Singapore) I was really crossing my fingers for Singapore. Sunny, warm Singy with it's great shopping, satay to die for, merlion obsession, hawker stalls, and crazy politics. I was looking forward to wearing flip flops in January, weekend trips to Malaysia, hikes in Bukit Timah, all you can eat gulab jamun at Woodlands Ganga, rollerblading in east coast park, strolls in Clarke Quay, good nightlife, cheap fares on Air Asia, and (I'll say it again) satay. Instead, I'm staring blankly at the Google Earth map of Fontainebleau, a tiny spot of civilization surrounded almost entirely by a forest. The temperature is hovering around zero degrees, and the weather forecast calls for snow. And there's no sign of gulab jamun anywhere.

                                                            Just in case you thought I was exagerating about the forest part.

To be fair, I know that there is little in the world that beats french wine and cheese, and I will admit to having fantasties about riding my bike to the local boulangerie at dawn to pick up a fresh and steamy baguette... I think I just need to get used to the idea. And figure out exactly what it is that I will be doing in Fontainebleau every day while P is studying away. Me and my non-existant french (courtesy of the Vancouver School Board), limited to the names of fruits and vegetables, days of the week, parts of the body, and a handful of unconjugated verbs. 

Scarf. Check.
Mittens. Check.
Deeeeep breath.