May Update

Bonjour!

I have been slowly learning French and looking into classes. My friend Kelley knows of a free French class on Sunday mornings that we are going to attend in a few weeks.

Everyone keeps asking me "What are you going to do in France?" Isn't it funny how Americans think you always have to be "doing" something? Why can't we just BE and enjoy life?

I plan on traveling as much as possible, enjoying the city of Marseille (Kelley talked us into moving there), eating wonderful foods and drinking wine, and just enjoying myself! I won't have a work visa, so I won't be able to work while there. I do plan on having my Hypnosis Mp3 website up and running before then to make some residual income while abroad.

Everyone keeps saying they are going to come visit, which is great, but we may have to start charging a bit of rent! :) We are not even sure how big of an apartment we will have, so it is really hard to plan to have company so early. We would love to see friends and family while there, even if Chris does have to work.

Oreo still doesn't know our plans, but he is wondering why there are stickers on everything (French language stickers). We are going to start researching what we need to do for him to go with us. As far as we know, we only have to get him either a tattoo or an implant and update his rabies vaccine.

Everybody wants Chris

Chris has been awarded every major fellowship/grant that he applied for this year! He now has the summer grant to work on his dissertation, which is great news!

He was approved for the Fulbright, which means we would have been going to France either way! Unfortunately, he is unable to take it since he said Yes to the Chateaubriand fellowship. Plus, he was given Fordham's year-long study fellowship as well. He had to turn this one down too for the same reason.

I'm very proud of my intelligent hubby! He's worked hard for this, and even though he is unable to accept all of the fellowships/grants, he can at least write it all on his resume (which will be very helpful in the future).

Next, we need to...
*Get my passport updated
*Get our visas
*Find housing abroad (we may look into Axe on Provence as well as Marseille)

The Date is Set

Chris turned in his acceptance packet to the French Embassy, so it is official...we are moving to France on October 1, 2008!

The Details Arrived (Les détails sont arrivés)

Chris received his information pack (which was only an extended letter from the French Embassy) detailing the invasion, I mean fellowship.


We are going to move to Marseille in early October 2008 and live there for 9 months. They gave us a list of websites to check for housing, told him his stipend (which unfortunately doesn't give extra money to spouses), and he does get his round trip air fare paid.


Now that we have some details, we can get started on our To Do list here. First we have to speak to our landlord. Our lease is up at the end of May, and we have to see if we can (A) go on a month to month until the end of September, or (B) find someone to sublet. I would prefer option A since imagining someone sleeping in our bed and using our stuff kind of creeps me out (although that is what we will be doing in France).


I got the French Rosetta Stone program, and bought the book "French in 10 minutes a day". Every day I spend some time learning the language. I can now say cat, dog, horse, man, woman, boy, girl, car, and my favorites, "get up" and "little eggs" (both of which I said this morning when dragging Chris out of bed for breakfast). Oreo is not quite sure what to think of the French words being thrown around, but he will have to get to use to it if he's going with us.


Speaking of language, today while riding in a cab home, I was called a "gringa Americana" by the driver because I didn't speak Spanish. Terrible when you can't even speak the native tongue to your cab driver. I wonder if I will miss that when we leave the Bronx?