Bienvenue!

Greetings, dear reader, and welcome to my little corner of the internet. I hope you find this blog to be entertaining and informative; I'll certainly try to keep it so.

So; let's see..... what's been going on since we arrived on Tuesday (my god, it's only been 2 days? It feels like a week!)?

Fun with Immigration, part 1
After we arrived home Tuesday, Stéphane called the Prefecture to see if they were open, so we could start processing my paperwork to get my green card. (Side note to those interested: because we were married before we arrived, a visa wasn't necessary. While that's the good news, the bad news is we have 90 days to get something it writing that I am immigrating, so the sooner we get going the better.) Much to his surprise, he was told they were open. After double checking our paperwork and waiting for new sister-in-law Corinne to arrive, we walked downtown (about a 10 minute walk). Of course we were told they were really closed, thank you very much. Luckily, we were able to talk to an agent to verify that we've got what we need so I believe we will try again Friday afternoon.

Workin' for a Livin'
So Stéphane went back to work yesterday and came home half-dead. Bless him, between jet lag and nonstop meetings I believe I'd have been half-dead too. Good news is that he got an excellent schedule this year: full days Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, no work Wednesday and only working 8am until 10am Friday. Don't be jealous just yet: the days he's there all day are killers; he starts at 8am and teaches until 5pm with a two hour break for lunch, and working with mentally challenged kids is tedious and exhausting. Tensions are high today with students returning to school and the new law banning head scarves takes effect. As you may be aware, two French journalists were kidnapped in Iraq and their captors are threatening to kill them if the law stands; this is a complicated issue and I'll try to expand on that in another entry.

Adventures in Housekeeping
Until I improve my french and am able to work, my new job title is Domestic Goddess. I managed to get everything unpacked yesterday (read: taken out of suitcases) but am limited to where I can put stuff until we buy some furniture. For now we're looking to purchase a bureau for my clothes and a small desk for my computer. In the meantime, I've been busy doing laundry. This is no small feat, as one wash cycle takes approximately two hours (followed by an hour and a half in the dryer). The cool thing is that the washers and dryers are self-contained: the washer drains into the sink and the dryer keeps the water in a container to be dumped when it's done. This means they can be moved around, and the dryer in the bedroom will be an extra source for heat in the winter (yay!).

What's in a name?
Yeah, most of you know my real name isn't ViVi........ This was a nickname given to me when my American friend in France discovered that my new initials would be "V.V." so I thought it'd be a good nom de plume for the internet. And besides, I kinda like it!

Well, I believe that's all the news that's fit to be news. More tidbits as they arise!