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14 November, 2000
First the pictures: - Miscellaneous shots of Cannes - Antibes, a town just north of here - Cassis, the southern town we loved and almost moved to - Grasse and St. Tropez, just a couple of shots Wow! Lots of news. Mad Cow Disease is called Vache Folle here, and beef consumption is down 40% nationwide. It's hard to go to the store and look at beef and not just turn away. Biggest news: we gave up on finding a place to live in the next few weeks, and we've taken a lovely apartment in downtown Cannes for the next four months. It became clear that we weren't going to be able to make a decision that we could feel good about, regarding where to live, in the amount of time we had. Since we've been making friends here, and know our way around pretty well, it was appealing to stay here for a bit longer. Who knows, despite everything we've said about the traffic and the air pollution, we may end up living here permanently. A friend said we'd die in Cannes, but we try not to look at it that way. Our new apartment is on the fifth floor, and has floor to ceiling windows around two sides. It is an old building next to the harbor downtown. It will be great for us because it is accessible to everything. It's been difficult to be social because going anywhere from our current apartment isn't very convenient, especially if you just want to take a ten minute trip outside to get a cup of coffee and some fresh air. I (Gia) am really enjoying both my classes and exchanging tongues with my friend Yves. I plan to continue through March. We are both greatly improved in our French and although the French would say that we "speak French like a Spanish cow", we can understand and be understood. It makes things much easier. We have been watching CNN constantly following the election coverage in the U.S. It's amazing to watch, and it has really changed our perspective to see the coverage from a foreign country. People here definitely favor Gore. They regard him as a person friendly to France, and they regard Bush as someone who is basically self-interested and isolationist. As far as our residence papers, we have everything we need and plan to go to Nice in a couple of days. We don't anticipate any problems, and should be legal residents by December. We will still not be able to work here legally for about six months, because we need separate papers for that. The work papers, although not technically difficult to get, apparently take a long time to be processed. It is a shame for me (Andrew) because it looks as though my work will be greatly in demand here. A couple of weeks ago we went out to dinner with Fred, his wife Atsumi, and their daughter Leina. We went to a restaurant called La Grange, with a Texas theme, and had a great fondue. The dinner took about four hours overall, and was really a high point for us so far. During the dinner, the restaurant featured a piano player, and various diners took turn singing songs with him. Leina, who's about five, walked around and talked to other people eating. It was a really friendly and informal atmosphere, and striking for the feeling of friendship among the different parties. At some point, I (Andrew) started singing along with one of the songs, as were other people. It's difficult to recount this, so bear with me... The proprietor decided that I should sing a song for everyone, and everybody started requesting that "The Americain" start to sing. I don't know any French songs, and the American songs I know are a bit obscure, and I didn't want to sing. However, the French were determined to hear me. I flatly refused, and (and this is not an exaggeration) for more than half an hour people pulled on my arms, chanted "Androu, Androu, Androu" over and over, and generally tried very very hard to get me to sing. It was touching and stressful at the same time, and eventually I could only get them to stop by promising to sing in a week when I come back. I won't go back any time soon, but when our guitar arrives in December, I will fulfill my promise to go in and sing some songs. It took me a full day to feel normal after that. Fred said "You have to get used to this. You live on an Alien Planet now!" That reminds me of our belongings. After two and a half months, we were finally scheduled to receive our stuff this week. However, since we're moving in two weeks to a fifth floor apartment with no elevator and narrow stairs, we decided to ask the movers to wait two weeks and deliver to our new address. It will make things much easier for us. We also had tea with some friends of a friend of a friend in Boulder, Jacques and Cathy LeFebvre. They invited us to their house in Nice. This is one of THOSE stories. We were supposed to arrive at 5:30, so we left our house at about 4:40. It should be less than a half an hour to Nice, and we wanted to have a few extra minutes in case we got lost. Also, we didn't have much gas in the car, and we had no available money to buy more. Two and half hours later after becoming comprehensively lost three times, and calling the LeFebvres to say we were sorry we weren't coming, they came and got us and showed us to their house. It was really nice, but we were so tired and frustrated by that point that it was hard to have a normal conversation. Frequently, with our French friends, I (Andrew) have had a sense that they are so nice and straightforward that I feel more strange than ever, and I feel quite uncomfortable. One of my major challenges in living here will be to accept that I can just be myself and make friends with people. The French we know seem to be much more relaxed and communicative than what we are used to. That's all for now...