Catching Up

I put off posting an update last week, as I was hoping we'd be able to let everyone know when we'd be back in the US (this is near-entirely dependent on arrangements with my firm). We're still waiting on that answer -- at this point, it could be anywhere from the middle of May until the end of June. However it works out, we know that we're only going to have a few days between when we land in the US and when I'm back to work -- it's going to be an incredibly hectic move, but we're looking forward to getting back to 'real life' (these months in Paris, while amazing & wonderful, feel like a little bit like suspended reality). We'll try to keep everyone updated as soon as we have a better sense of what's happening.

We spent a really low-key Valentine's Day in Paris. The Six Nations rubgy tournament is in town, so we went out to watch the France-Scotland game. The place we'd intended to go was full-to-capacity, so we ended up back at The Moose, the same bar where we'd watched the Inauguration a few weeks ago. Matt tells me that Scotland never had a chance, although I really very little idea what was going on the whole time (I've done pretty well at learning how to watch a hockey game, so maybe rugby should be my next project?). Then we went out for pizza, the same thing we've done for each Valentine's Day we've celebrated together.

Valentine's Day doesn't seem to be nearly as big in Paris as it is in the US -- I actually had a hard time finding any Valentine's Day-themed greeting cards when I went to look. The restaurants didn't seem much more crowded than they do on any other Saturday night, and the price of flowers didn't shoot up (at least, based on their sidewalk display prices). It was kind of nice to have this much more relaxed experience -- just slightly better suited to our generally low-key, quiet preferences.

Matt had his spring break a couple of weeks ago, and last week was my turn. I had grand plans to get out and see some things that have caught my eye but not Matt's, but I ended up hanging around the apartment quite a bit, trying to get things arranged with the firm. I got a bit of getting-ahead schoolwork done, which takes a little bit of the pressure off as we move toward the end of the semester -- my final exams will happen in just five weeks! -- and also did some little projects around the house, including a fair bit of knitting.

Last weekend, we finally got to do something we've been looking foward to since before we even left the US -- attend the Salon International d'Agriculture. It would remind you of a state fair (minus the midway), except that the purpose is really much more exhibitional than competitive (there are just a few, already-award-winning examples of each breed of animal on display, plus tons of educational/promotional booths). The French still seem to have a conception of themselves as a very agricultural group of people -- toward that end, the event was huge and completely packed.

This is one of the exhibit halls -- there were six more just as big and just as crowded.

In addition to all the animal exhibits, there were two large halls full of displays from the different regions of France. I was incredibly excited to find that my all-time favorite beer ("the Dodo", which is produced on Reunion, where I spent an undergraduate semester) was on sale, as well as a few other of my old favorites (fried dumplings called samoussas; a kind of French take on curry). We also enjoyed wandering through the wonderful cheese, and meat, and wine, and chocolate, etc displays -- I think we might have to find time this weekend to go back and do some more shopping!