It's Official!

It's official - we live in France!

Our trip back to Chicago was longer than anticipated.  I arrived in Chicago on December 14 and Mark came the following day.  Unfortunately our meeting with the French Consulate got pushed back from the 15th to the 27th so we weren't able to spend Christmas with Brian and Joan in France or go to Palermo for New Year's Eve.  There's always next year, though, and it was great to be able to spend the holidays with our families in Chicago and go out with our friends again before the big move.

The visa meeting wasn't quite what I expected.  I thought we were going to have to sit down with someone and get interviewed, but all we did was hand our paperwork to a woman behind a counter, pay for our visas, and electronically get fingerprinted.  That was it, and it only took about 5 minutes.  The next day, while we were out in the burbs, Mark got a message from the Consulate saying that his passport was only valid for one more year, but it needs to be valid for 15 months.  So we had to drive back to the city on Wednesday to get Mark a new passport.  Luckily, Chicago has an expedited passport office.  However, I thought it was going to take another week for us to get our visas.  When Mark dropped his new passport off at the Consulate on Thursday morning, they told him to come back that afternoon for our visas.  After the stress of those past few days, it was great news to know that we would get back to France on the 2nd.  (Mark stopped getting paid on the 3rd if he was still in the States).

We flew into Barcelona via Pakistan International Airlines.  That alone was it's own experience.  The airline was very nice, plus it was a new plane.  We had our own tv screen with several American movies and tv series, although we spent the majority of the flight sleeping.  The food was fine... airplane food.  And the staff was really nice.  Yes, there were a lot of Pakistani's on the flight, and there were several passport check points, but all in all, it was totally worth it for a direct flight to Barcelona.  Brian picked us up in Barcelona (which was slightly stressful since my cell phone wasn't working and we just had to hope Brian could find us), but we did get to spend Sunday night at Brian and Joan's in Perpignan.

Finally, Mark and I made it to Aix on Monday afternoon and moved into our new apartment.  We did some shopping the following Saturday to get the last few essentials for our place; including an oven!!!  Yes, it's an oven that sits on the countertop, but it works.  On top of our excitement for having our own place (finally), Mark is thrilled that our Slingbox works (thanks Charlie!).  Now we can watch American television and not just CNN International.

I've spent most of my time walking through town to get my bearings.  I've visted the market practically every day and really enjoy cooking with such fresh ingredients.  Our first week here I bought fresh cod from the seafood market, and boy was it good.  Jill got me an amazing Provencal cookbook for Christmas that provided me with the wonderful cod recipe.  The best part was that Mark actually ate fish and liked it.

Mark and I walked through the outskirts of town our first Sunday in Aix.  It was pretty quiet since most places are closed on Sundays, but then we noticed a large crowd near the Rotund.  Apparently there was a big parade for La Feter l'Epiphanie which commemorates the end of the holidays.  The parade consisted of peopled dressed in traditional Provencal clothing and playing traditional music on flutes and drums.  Once the people reached la Rotund, several of them performed a dance while the crowd gathered around.  There were even three camels!  It was quite interesting and unexpected.  Afterwards, Mark and I walked through the antique shops set up along the Cours Mirabeau.  It seems to me like there is always something happening along that street, which is wonderful because it always tends to surprise me!

The next night was our 2-year anniversary.  I surprised Mark with a gigantic steak dinner.  We were both pretty excited that I found such a big steak in France, but our super market is great.  So was the steak.  I was able to bring some Chicago Steak Seasoning back from the States, so that definitely added to the deliciousness of our meal.  We may not have a grill, but I'm learning to improvise on a lot of things in the kitchen and bought a grill pan to use over the stove.

Wednesday, January 12 was a slight breakthrough for me.  I joined a group called International Friends in Provence (IFIP), an Anglophone group in Aix, and decided to attend the coffee morning scheduled for that day.  I went to the cafe, not really knowing anyone in the group or who to look for.  I just sat outside and hoped I would spot a group of people gathering together.  No such luck.  Eventually I spotted a woman who was looking around the cafe and had a very American-like resemblance.  An easy way to spot an American is by their shoes.  Most French will wear flats or Sketchers as "comfy" shoes, but Americans will wear your basic gym shoe.  She was wearing black, somewhat baggy clothes and white gym shoes.  I was able to stop her before she left and turned out I was right.  She was American and a part of IFIP.  AvisAnne and I took a table inside, and as it turns out she had met Mark during the Thanksgiving dinner he had been invited to for another Anglo-group I am joining.  She was very friendly and informative, and I'm excited to get more involved with these groups.  Mainly it was just nice to meet someone new.  Eventually we were joined by another two women, one French and one American.  The American, Valerie, lives in Florida but also has an apartment in Aix and another in Paris.  Valerie was also looking into joining the group, and she and I ended up walking around together after coffee.  She showed me her gorgeous apartment on the Cours Mirabeau and then took me to the bookstore in town with native-English books and DVD's called Book in Bar.  We had both planned to participate in IFIP's book club the following week, so we reserved copies of The Elegance of the Hedgehog (since they didn't have any copies in stock).  I was able to pick up my copy the day before the club meeting, and amazingly read this very intense, very philosophical book within a day and a half.  I met some more women at the meeting, all very nice, but of course all older than I am.  Still, I really enjoyed myself and their company.  The following day Valerie and I met for coffee.  Although she is 65 I must admit that I enjoy her company the most.  She was a former French teacher and now organizes a workshop each year for other French teachers.  Valerie has been so helpful and inspiring, offering up ideas on what I can do to practice my language skills, activities to keep me occupied, and even job ideas that could help me prepare for my teaching career once Mark and I move back to the States.  It's just a shame that she isn't in Aix year round, but perhaps I could go visit her in Paris! ;-)  The most interesting thing Valerie and I have done is visit an AquaGym class.  She took me to this gym facility (not in Aix), and we tried out the class.  I was so surprised at how well I understood everything, and it was a great workout, but I think I'll just join a gym in town.  As for the other women in IFIP, many of them have husband's who work either for ITER or Europocar.  I didn't get much of a chance to talk to them about what they do, but one of the women, Barbara, met Mark back in November, and she's the one who told me about all of these groups.  It was great to finally meet her, and she's been keeping me abreast of events for the Anglo American Group of Provence (AAGP), the other group I'm joining.  A lot of these events are coming up in the next few weeks, so it will be wonderful to be involved more.  I'm even hosting the IFIP book club meeting in February and possibly a Tastevin (wine tasting) for AAGP in March!

Since my days mostly consist of going to the market and trying new dishes, I feel that I should always have a small portion of the blog dedicated to my culinary adventures as well.  I previously mentioned the cod I made, which was fabulous, but nowhere near the phenomenal swordfish I made our second week in Aix.  Kudos once again to the fresh fish market.  The woman who sold me the swordfish even gave me tips on how best to cook the fish.  With those tips and Bobby Flay's recipe for Grilled Caponata, I was set.  To my delight, it was another success with Mark as well.  On a side note: Mark and I have come to the odd realization that in French grocery stores chicken is very expensive while pork is ridiculously cheap.  I bought 4 chicken breasts for about 7 euros and 6 pork chops for 3 euros.  Guess I need to work on my pork recipes.

Last weekend we visited Marseille as an extended way to celebrate our anniversary.  Details for that adventure will be given in my next blog.  Then, last Sunday we invited some of Mark's coworkers over to watch the Bears vs. Seahawks game and dinner.  Roberto is originally from Mexico and has lived in France for serveral years now.  He was pretty familiar with American football, so we didn't need to provide him with much explanation.  Gregory, on the other hand, is French.  He's a rugby fan, so he understood the basic concept of the points system, but we still had to explain a lot about the game.  Luckily he came before the game started and Mark gave him an overview to prevent too many questions during the game.  Now that I have watched soccer and rugby matches on television, I can see why Europeans can't get into football... there are so many commercials!  We are used to it as Americans, but I began to realize how disruptive these commercials really are when it comes to the action of the game.  That plus the fact that the plays stop so often (and it was a really long, slow game).  But Roberto and Gregory still had fun and enjoyed the game.  I guess we should've invited them over again this past Sunday... maybe the Bears would have had another victory.  C'est la vie.