So quiet here....?

[Islandflyer]

So, I moved again from Bordeaux to Paris this Tuesday. I still have some work to do at the national library, for probably 6-7 months. Then, if everything goes right, I will definitely leave Paris, go back to Bordeaux and prepare my thesis defense. I have to admit that I miss home a lot these days: I am always hungry for food that I can't find in France, I want to watch TV shows that are not broadcast here... but most of all, I want to see my family!
Anyway, I know it's only a matter of time before my PhD is finish (yeah!!), so I don't give up! I can't wait to do something else, like having a real job and getting paid for it!!

Hmmm, let's see, Karine, you're living in France and can't find food that you like! In France? Isn't this the food capital of the world? (not to mention wine) HaHa! Very strange.....
Can't help you with that one!

With YouTube, I would think you could find most anything anywhere. Maybe not. Missing family I understand, though. I gather you haven't been able to go home often over the past few years. That would be tough. Do you go home at Christmas time? Or do some of your family visit? I know it's tough if you can't meet up during the holidays.

Best of luck with the thesis!

Ed

[Karine]

Hmmm, let's see, Karine, you're living in France and can't find food that you like! In France? Isn't this the food capital of the world? (not to mention wine) HaHa! Very strange.....
Can't help you with that one!

With YouTube, I would think you could find most anything anywhere. Maybe not. Missing family I understand, though. I gather you haven't been able to go home often over the past few years. That would be tough. Do you go home at Christmas time? Or do some of your family visit? I know it's tough if you can't meet up during the holidays.

Best of luck with the thesis!

Ed

It's not really about food that I like, but more about food that is similar to what I eat in Canada
I eat well here, but I challenge you to find a place that sells banana bread (I'm dying for it)! I don't have any cooking tool that I could use to bake my own, so I have to wait until I come back home.
Another example: bagels! I know only one place in Bordeaux where I could buy a sandwich made of a bagel (it's a restaurant). In Paris, I find bagels in grocery stores, but it costs 4 euros for a bag of 4 bagels (5,50 $CAN / 5,40 $US). In Montréal, I would pay 8 $CAN for a dozen of bagels. With my student budget, I just can't afford eating that.

The thing is if I do find what I want, it's often to expensive for me. There are 2 things that I buy even if they cost a lot: peanut butter (imported from the UK) and maple syrup (imported from Canada). At least I find these products in the "International" section of the grocery store. For special occasions, I sometimes buy a bottle (1L) of cranberry juice (2,50 euros: 3,40 $CAN).
My meals are pretty similar to what I used to eat at home (meat, fish, pizza, pasta, vegetables, etc.) and I'm not obsessed with canadian food, but there are things that I like and that I just can't find or buy.

The last time I went back to Montréal was in September 2010. Sometimes it's tough, but with Skype it helps a lot. This is a great invention! For example, in December 2009, my mother was working on New Year's Eve and my sister was alone at home so we did a small online party: eating and laughing in front of the computer, singing out loud to Christmas music; it was pretty fun!
It's hard to be alone at Christmas, but I just have to think about people who are really alone, without family or friends, maybe sleeping outside in the cold and I realize that I'm lucky. I live in a warm and comfortable place, I can turn my computer on to talk to people I love, I am healthy, etc. I should absolutely not complain because I have everything I need (well, except for banana bread )

[Islandflyer]

It's not really about food that I like, but more about food that is similar to what I eat in Canada
I eat well here, but I challenge you to find a place that sells banana bread (I'm dying for it)! I don't have any cooking tool that I could use to bake my own, so I have to wait until I come back home.
Another example: bagels! I know only one place in Bordeaux where I could buy a sandwich made of a bagel (it's a restaurant). In Paris, I find bagels in grocery stores, but it costs 4 euros for a bag of 4 bagels (5,50 $CAN / 5,40 $US). In Montréal, I would pay 8 $CAN for a dozen of bagels. With my student budget, I just can't afford eating that.

The thing is if I do find what I want, it's often to expensive for me. There are 2 things that I buy even if they cost a lot: peanut butter (imported from the UK) and maple syrup (imported from Canada). At least I find these products in the "International" section of the grocery store. For special occasions, I sometimes buy a bottle (1L) of cranberry juice (2,50 euros: 3,40 $CAN).
My meals are pretty similar to what I used to eat at home (meat, fish, pizza, pasta, vegetables, etc.) and I'm not obsessed with canadian food, but there are things that I like and that I just can't find or buy.

The last time I went back to Montréal was in September 2010. Sometimes it's tough, but with Skype it helps a lot. This is a great invention! For example, in December 2009, my mother was working on New Year's Eve and my sister was alone at home so we did a small online party: eating and laughing in front of the computer, singing out loud to Christmas music; it was pretty fun!
It's hard to be alone at Christmas, but I just have to think about people who are really alone, without family or friends, maybe sleeping outside in the cold and I realize that I'm lucky. I live in a warm and comfortable place, I can turn my computer on to talk to people I love, I am healthy, etc. I should absolutely not complain because I have everything I need (well, except for banana bread )[/quote]

No banana bread in France, huh? It must be a North American thing. Does sound like food is expensive there. I really like blueberry bagels, and can usually get them for around $2.50 US a bag (6), with a store card. Similar to Canada, as our currencies are more or less equivalent these days.

Don't know if Amazon has free shipping over $25 (19 euros?) in France, but if they do, order that much banana bread from them! They seem to have everything now, so maybe they have that too.

Skype is pretty cool, esp. since it's free! I have a friend who Skypes with her dog when away from home (not sure how she trained the dog to do this, but who knows? )

Hang in there, Karine. The bananas won't wait, but the bread probably will.

So is Sarah popular in France? Since Paris is supposed to be such a romantic place, it seems like her music would fit right in.

Ed

[Karine]

No banana bread in France, huh? It must be a North American thing. Does sound like food is expensive there. I really like blueberry bagels, and can usually get them for around $2.50 US a bag (6), with a store card. Similar to Canada, as our currencies are more or less equivalent these days.

Don't know if Amazon has free shipping over $25 (19 euros?) in France, but if they do, order that much banana bread from them! They seem to have everything now, so maybe they have that too.

Skype is pretty cool, esp. since it's free! I have a friend who Skypes with her dog when away from home (not sure how she trained the dog to do this, but who knows? )

Hang in there, Karine. The bananas won't wait, but the bread probably will.

So is Sarah popular in France? Since Paris is supposed to be such a romantic place, it seems like her music would fit right in.

Ed

I don't know if Sarah is popular here. I have only one French friend who listens to her music, but I saw her records in big music stores (FNAC). I know that Sarah did a concert in Paris during the Afterglow tour, but I'm pretty sure that she didn't come back to play in Europe since this era.
It would be easier for her to travel with her band nowadays, because she doesn't use the big screens with all the visual effects anymore. Did you see the Afterglow Live DVD? She had that big stage scenery, with a tree and two huge screens behind her. With a more sober and simple "mise en scène", she could play in any concert theatre in Paris. Many Canadians come and play here, in small venues (Sarah Slean was in concert a few days ago at Le Zèbre, Tegan and Sara played at Le Trianon in June).

[CarolCiola]

Quiet café...! we should schedule to chat again some day huh?

[Karine]

Quiet café...! we should schedule to chat again some day huh?

It's really quiet, but school begins next week in Canada, so I'm busy with preparing classes. I received a phone call from a school, to replace a teacher who will miss the first weeks of September. It's a high school, so I'll be teaching to teenagers! > Yes, these are my scared eyes! I'm used to work with adult students, so it'll be different.
Suddenly, I'm very busy: it was unexpected, I had the confirmation last week, and I have to prepare the programs for three different levels of students.
It begins on Wednesday, and my university classes begin on Wed too. All at the same time!!

[Karine]

My replacement is over, and being a substitute teacher for a few weeks wasn't always easy. Some kids were fantastic, others were like "We will be relieved from you soon...". Wow, so nice! Ah well, they are teenagers and even if most of the time, they were good kids, sometimes, they were trying to impress others and be very "cool".
Anyway, it was a nice experience for me, but a very exhausting one (full-time job at high school + two university courses). Now, I'm back to a light schedule, which will give me time to send resumes again.

I hope everything is going well for you!

[Quincy]

Hi everybody,

I trust that you’re all fit and well?

I can see that it’s very quite on the board these days. I know that I’ve been one of the culprits in not logging in, but to be fair I have been in and out of hospital for the last 9 months or so. However, I can now say, with confidence, that everything is now as good as it will ever be. I can finally see everything clearly, no headaches, no squinting or covering one eye to focus. It’s great!
I’ve now retired, so I’ve plenty of time on my hands, and, I’ve been given the all clear to start flying again.
I took a gamble several weeks ago and booked a holiday in the Canaries, which I’me looking forward to. I then saw that Sarah is performing live in the US around about the same time. I could have made one of the early shows, but when I looked, I couldn’t buy tickets because they won’t sell outside of the US! I just don’t seem to catch a break with these live shows! I don’t know if these performances are “ An intimate evening with...”, or, if they’re with the full band?
So, are there any new albums coming out from Sarah? I remember probably 2 years ago now, that she was supposed to be writing some new material, I’m assuming for a new album, but that seems to have died a death. Anybody heard?
Hope to hear from you all soon.

Q

[Karine]

Hi Quincy! It's nice to hear back from you!
I hope you enjoy your vacations, and congratulations for this new "retirement" life that begins for you. I heard it takes a bit of time to adjust to it, but I'm sure you'll be fine. I'm glad to know you're feeling better too

I'm also seeing the doctor regularly these days. In May, I finally found a family doctor who could take me as his patient (hurray for not being on the regional waiting list anymore!), and he suspected I might have high blood pressure. I had to do a 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in July, and the results were bad. I have severe hypertension (my average was 178/102, but I've been at 200/120 a few times during the day). I was surprised, but not surprised at the same time because it runs in my family.
My dad's brother had a heart attack (and died) when he was in his 30s, and my dad's sister also had a heart attack around the same age. That's also my age (I'm 35). I was not surprised with the diagnosis, but I wasn't expecting such high results.

I started a treatment a few weeks ago, and even if it's impossible for me to feel a difference it terms of "blood pressure", I definitely see a difference with my headaches. I was having headaches every week, and I thought there were caused by stress. I wasn't worried about that at all. Since I started my treatment (one nifedipine pill every morning), I haven't had a single headache (except on the first three days, when my body was adjusting to the drug). My body responds well to the treatment, because last time I saw the doctor, my blood pressure was much lower.

Now, the doctor is trying to see if it's caused by something else and if other problems have to be treaten (maybe I have high cholesterol levels, for example), so I have a few more tests to do. I keep my fingers crossed that I "just" have problems with my blood vessels, and nothing else.

I was a bit bummed when the diagnosis was confirmed, but as my boyfriend said, I didn't suffer from a heart attack, like my uncle and my aunt, before I received a treatment. I'm more careful with the food I'm eating, and I'm starting sport again next week, so I hope these changes will have positive effects on my health.

[CarolCiola]

Hi there,

People don't post here for a while, everybody is going with life and I bet all is going well.

As Karine, I am doing a treatment for my migraine too, taking medicines for blood pressure. I do not have any problems with pressure, but this kind of medicine is a treatment option. It's getting a little better.

I'm on a new job around 3 months from now, same field + working with test automation. I've been self studying this area last year and now got the chance to work with this. The last company was wearing out me (is this expession correct?) and did not give me any promotion or even valorization during 5 years, so it was better anyway. Received all my funds and priviledges by being fired, and 3 days later the new company called me offering the new job!

I bought part of my parent's house (we live in a 3 house piece place), so until the end of this year I'll be living by myself (kind of, as we are in the same place yet hahah), but things will be diferent, for sure. Plus, I will have an entire room to play drums, so excited about it!

Wish the forum were more active again, send more news!