"Business Trip"

Two blog posts today... holy smokes!  L posted earlier today about her adventures, and I figured I was overdue for an update as well.  We're actually in separate cities right now, as I'm attending a meeting in Chantilly this week.  The week leading up to this was definitely eventful, so here is a recap:

1. I purchased appliances (woohoo!) that will be delivered on Saturday morning.  We get the keys to our apartment on Friday, though my guess is that we'll stay in the hotel through the weekend.  Once appliances are installed, we can measure out the leftover space for a small countertop and take a trip to the local Ikea (incidentally, there are two Ikea stores within 10 miles of our apartment - they are ubiquitous here).  Our rental car gets returned at the end of the weekend, so we're trying to fit in all of our large errands before we become completely dependent on the trains and busses.

2.  Adventures without GPS: on Tuesday, the GPS unit that came with my rental car stopped charging, and once the battery ran out, that was it.  This area is full of crazy hills, crazy highways, and towns that were built centuries ago, so needless to say there is no grid system.  The rental agency had no more GPS units available so I was left to my own devices to pick the family up at the airport on Thursday morning.  I managed to make it to the airport with only minor detours, but took a wrong turn on the way home and added an extra 30 minutes to the trip.  (Sorry, honey!)

3. Family is here!  As L wrote earlier today, we're finally all in the same country.  The little one is slowly adjusting to the time difference, but as you can imagine, there is no reasoning with a toddler who has a perfectly valid reason for not going to sleep.  The second night, the little one was up from midnight to 6am.  We finally got smart and set him up with the ipad in between us on the bed, so we could at least snooze while he watched yo gabba gabba and played with some toddler apps.  He's going to sleep about an hour earlier each night, so we should be back on schedule by the end of the week.

4. Business trip!  Yesterday afternoon I left town for a series of meetings, which means L is flying solo with the little one and the animals.  She has a WAY harder job than I do, and I am so amazed by her ability to be an incredible mom in a new country, with no support system and little knowledge of the language.  In short, my wife rocks :o)  While she is holding down the fort in Bures, I am in Chantilly, about an hour north, for a series of meetings with our scientific advisory board.  It's lots of brain work, and the hours are long, but the setting is just incredible.  We're staying at a ridiculously nice chateau, eating like royalty, and, after 11 hours of meetings today, enjoying the salt water pool and squash courts (I told you L's job was way harder than mine).  When I return to my room at night, my sheets are turned down and there is a handwritten note on my bed informing me of the weather for the next morning.  Once I use my key card to enter my room, I put my key card in a slot on the wall, which automatically controls all the lights in my room.  The menu over the past 24 hours has included filet mignon, smoked herring, caviar, duck, scallops, escargots, so much cheese, chocolate, amazing bread, and of course, great wine.  From a food standpoint, I seriously don't think there's a better country in the world than France.

On a more serious note, I love my job so far, and these meetings have been an incredible opportunity to connect with some of the scientific leaders in our field.  My brain is being stretched every day, and my french is getting more and more fluent.  Our team is pretty international, with at least 5 countries of origin among 15 of us.  Our advisory board also hails from all over Europe and the USA.  I feel incredibly fortunate to have been given this opportunity and am so thankful that L was on board for this crazy adventure. 

Next up: moving into our apartment, getting our medical visits arranged so we can obtain our Cartes de Séjour (residence permits), finding a midwife, and setting up phone and internet service.  Slowly but surely, we're organizing our new life here.  More updates to follow!

- E