French quarantine 2.0, day 2

8,233 steps 

We gave away 5 bags of clothes and miscellaneous items and threw away another few bags of stuff that was too old/broken to salvage. We're almost all the way unpacked except for a few small piles of clothing. 

School starts tomorrow. I like how France is doing this lockdown: schools open and restaurants/bars/nightclubs/churches/nonessential shopping closed. Basically adult indoor leisure activities can't happen. Which is terrible for the businesses supporting the activities, but good in terms of reducing covid transmission. I do wish more stores were open; I don't know if there's a high risk of covid transmission from shopping versus the obviously dangerous things like bars & restaurants. 

Yet again, we met up with tons of friends, spending the late afternoon together at the park. I think we've socialized more in the past 48 hours than in the previous 3 months in the US. 

I'm on the hunt for scaffolding with a platform that goes at least 2.5-3 m high (for a ceiling that is 4.5 m). I also REALLY want a SDS max hammer drill. *Cough cough* Christmas present. The drill is expensive but will be necessary for the huge renovations we'll be doing, like chiseling out tunnels for electricity & plumbing in plaster and drilling anchor holes through rock walls.

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French quarantine 2.0, day 1

We made it! 

We got into our apartment at 9 pm last night. 

52.5 hours of traveling
19.5 hours of layovers
13.5 hours of flying
5 airports
4 flights
1 overnight stay
6 backpacks
6 carry-ons
2 large suitcases
1 violin

I actually wrote this post twice already, hit “post”, and then it got munched into oblivion by Facebook. And I’m so tired I can’t exactly remember what I wrote, except there was something about our apartment needing the KonMari method. 

Oh yeah, we already ran into tons of people we know despite being here less than 25 hours. Our kids played with friends for several hours. Thankfully the parks are not closed during lockdown 2.0, and it definitely feels a lot more relaxed than the first lockdown. 

Dinner was paella with extra seafood, pain au chocolat, and yogurt.

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Airport purgatory...day 3...Paris & Lyon

Only 6 more hours to go! 

I was a Mean Mama and made all the kids sleep after they ate dinner and watched a movie. They were all looking rather glazed over by that point. Everyone except me got several hours of sleep. I had a short nap and just couldn't get back to sleep after that. 

We spent all morning in the Paris airport, flew to Lyon, and will spend all afternoon & early evening in Lyon. We bought sandwiches--the only meal we'll eat all day, since the grocery stores will be closed once we arrive in Nice. 

Just heard from Inga, as she took her first bite of sandwich, "Oh, c'est hyper bon, Papa! C'est la bonne baguette française." 

Oh, we had a hilarious moment going through security in Paris. I've been tucking all sorts of odds and ends into our suitcases, knowing we'll be gone for 20 months and we have a huge renovation project ahead of us. In one of the suitcases I had a miniature pry bar, about 5" long and perfect for pulling nails. 

Of course it got flagged when it went through the X-ray machine. The security officer had to unpack my entire suitcase to find it...by the end there were piles of underwear and bras all over the table. He finally found the mysterious object and asked what it was. 

"A pry bar for pulling out nails." 

Another security officer leaned over, puzzled. She asked, "But you're not planning on pulling out nails in the airplane?" 

"No--I'm renovating my apartment!" 

They let me take the pry bar through. 

The kids kept cracking up about pulling nails in the airplane. Comments

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Airport purgatory, day 2...

Accidental purple ombre. Wearing the same clothes for 3 days in a row = high fashion. Also our flight is almost empty. We have the entire back third of the aircraft to ourselves.

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Airport purgatory...day 1...hotel

We indeed missed the flight. We had to pay $525 to change our tickets from Paris-Nice. Eric is still on the phone trying to get final confirmation on this change. Ugh. 

Tonight we're holed up in an airport hotel in Dallas. We only got 1 meal voucher each for a 24-hour delay. So tonight we had to buy our own dinner (Indian delivery). It was delicious but way too expensive with all of the delivery fees. Oh well.

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Airport purgatory...day 1...ugh

We got off to an early start. Yay! 

Well, let me back up. Yesterday, American Airlines contacted us, asking if we'd be willing to switch our first flight to Dallas slightly later in the day. Sure, why not? We'd still have 1 1/2 hours layover in Dallas before heading to Paris. We got the house totally ready, packed up the car, and got to the airport with lots of time to spare. 

OF COURSE, what did we learn soon after checking in? Our flight to Dallas was delayed by several hours, and we will miss the connecting flight to Paris. American only runs one flight per day to France, total, so we will have to stay overnight in Dallas at a hotel. 

But...then we also have to change our tickets from Paris to Nice. (Remember how American refused to help us get to Nice, even though we had booked tickets from them? So we had to buy new tickets via Air France?) Our tickets clearly say that there is no fee to change the tickets for similar or higher-priced tickets. But...when we tried to change them to the day after, we are being charged anywhere between $525 and $1,200 to change them. 

This makes our THIRD set of tickets we've been forced to buy to get to Nice. 

I get it--airlines are in upheaval due to the pandemic. But this is ridiculous. I broke down and started crying when I was talking to the gate agent. All he could say is "There's nothing we can do." And yeah, I feel bad for being the obnoxious customer but I just can't handle having to buy tickets so many times over.  

Also, we are missing this flight and bearing the costs of rebooking because we were doing American Airlines a favor by agreeing to change our first flight, even though we didn't need to or weren't obliged to. We helped American, and they did nothing in return. 

And we also have to get our exemption certificates from the French consulate changed every time we adjust our itinerary. 

So for now, we're in airport purgatory until late Friday night at the earliest.

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Airport purgatory...day 1...hotel

We indeed missed the flight. We had to pay $525 to change our tickets from Paris-Nice. Eric is still on the phone trying to get final confirmation on this change. Ugh. 

Tonight we're holed up in an airport hotel in Dallas. We only got 1 meal voucher each for a 24-hour delay. So tonight we had to buy our own dinner (Indian delivery). It was delicious but way too expensive with all of the delivery fees. Oh well.

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American ??? day 97

13,937 steps 

I think I started cleaning and packing too early this year! We've been more or less done for a few days now. Closets are all empty, pictures are off the walls, and we're just waiting to leave. I'm glad we haven't felt rushed or stressed. 

We had a final walk-through with our new renter to show him all of the mechanics: thermostats, furnace filters, water shutoffs, etc. 

I passed along my sourdough starter to a friend. I also dehydrated some starter to bring back with me. This starter began in France last year, traveled across the Atlantic and nearly burst its bottle, and now is going back home. 

We took our covid tests this morning and got our special exemption papers back from the French consulate in the afternoon. 

Tomorrow we'll put the car in the garage and disconnect the battery. 

It's really happening!

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American ??? day 96

Not a lot to report on...a little bit of cleaning (showers/tubs/toilets) and a family movie afternoon (Enola Holmes). Zari REALLY liked it. 

Inga trying to look creepy

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American ??? day 95

12,614 steps 

We had a family work day at our two rental properties. We raked leaves, sanded and repainted porch posts, and took care of weeds. We rewarded the kids with 2 episodes of "Adam Ruins Everything." Today's episodes were about Death and Hollywood. 

We also deep-cleaned the attic. I told the kids, "No one goes up there now! No getting any toys out." 

The other night Ivy was trying to sleep and Dio and Zari were making too much noise. She left this note for them. I love the creative spelling. It's very logical, unlike the English language.

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American ??? day 94:

Yesterday, the phone rang. "Hello, this is American Airlines calling to let you know that all flights to Nice have been canceled until December 9." 

"Uh, excuse me?" (We are supposed to leave in 5 days...our house is packed, bags are ready, and the new renter is moving in the day we leave.) 

Thus started hours on the phone trying to figure out how we could actually get to France. Toulouse? Nope, only 2 seats open. Lyon? No, only 3 seats available. 

"We can fly you to London." 

"And then what?" 

"You'd be responsible for getting yourself to Nice." 

(I look up ticket prices from London to Nice...no direct flights, no flights the day we arrive, and $$$.) 

"I'm sorry, that will not work. We bought tickets months ago. Aren't you supposed to ensure that you'll get us to our destination? After all, there are still flights going to Nice, just not with your airline." 

"Sorry, we will get you to Nice but it will have to be on December 9." 

"But we have to leave in 5 days. We literally will have nowhere to live! Plus there's no guarantee that you'll actually start offering flights on December 9, right?" 

Ticketing agent (said in polite phone operator speak): "Not my problem." 

The best American Airlines could do: get us to Paris and leave us there. So yes, yesterday we had to buy six new tickets from Paris to Nice, despite having already bought tickets to Nice. We are almost $1000 poorer. Thank you, American Airlines.

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American ??? day 92

11,528 steps 

France recently changed its rules for travelers entering the country. We have to have COVID-19 PCR tests within 72 hours or less of our departure. 

However, there are no testing sites in our area that give results in under 72 hours. Right now turnaround time is estimated at 3-5 days. Plus, testing sites aren't generally open on the weekend, which is when we'd need to test if we wanted to be within the 72-hour window. We can't even get tested in our own county because they are too overwhelmed with demand! 

So then, if we get tested but don't have results, we have to contact the consulate in Chicago and get emergency "laissez-passer" exemption papers that will let us get on the airplane. But we can't do this until we have already gotten tested! So this means we get tested on Monday, contact the consulate and fill out lots of papers, and hope we get our exemption papers back before we leave on Wednesday morning. 

Way too complicated. 

Today was a deep-cleaning day. We washed insides and outsides of all of the kitchen cupboards. Then we washed down walls and baseboards in the staircases and upstairs hallway. For our fun breaks, we watched episodes of "Adam Ruins Everything." 

Inga, Ivy, and Dio made these "no reading" signs and posted them in the library. However, Zari BROKE THE RULES and read anyway. (Look at how sad and bare our walls are with our "wall of shame" pictures taken down.)

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American ??? I'm not even sure how many days at this point...

We're heading back to France in just over a week. Yes, we're going right back into lockdown, just like last time. Yes, France's covid rates are exploding, just like last time. And just like last time, I expect France to quickly get things under control while the US just turns into a big mess. Or a messier mess. 

I was teaching workshops in Pennsylvania when Zari turned 14 (on Halloween!). We had a party when I got back. Just a very informal gathering of our neighbors 2 doors down and one of Zari's school friends. We had summer-like weather, very rare for November, and enjoyed a bonfire, Smores, and birthday cake. 

Oh, the cake was fun. In Zari's words, "Desperate times call for desperate cakes." So we made a covid cake. We = moi with some help from Zari! Zari designed a crown for the cake because, as she said, "It needs a crown because it's the coronavirus? Get it?"

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American ??? day 77

2,801 steps 

Somehow I never made it outside today. It was cold and drizzly, so I didn't miss out. Ivy put on one of Eric's dress shirts and took selfies. She was going for the "beach" look. 

I took in the waist of two pairs of jeans. It's so nice to finally have jeans that fit. No more gapping or sagging! I also sewed on several more souvenir patches onto my Breech Without Borders apron. I'm trying to get one from every place I teach. I also finished editing and uploading a video on twin home birth by Dr. Stuart Fischbein. 

Zari wore her Rapunzel costume to school and got lots of compliments. One of her friends kept brushing and stroking her hair and commenting on how soft it was.

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American ??? day 76

7,271 steps 

I'm feeling a bit burdened by all of the things I'm trying to get done and keep track of: writing IRB applications for a few different projects, keeping track of clinical outcome data from providers who have taken our breech trainings, editing/encoding videos, translating documents and videos and overseeing other translations, scheduling and teaching breech workshops, keeping our online courses running, hosting live sessions, doing all of the bookkeeping/payroll/reimbursements, creating graphics and flyers, posting regular content, updating the website, responding to emails and phone calls, writing grant applications...this is all pretty typical of what I do every day. 

I love doing it. But sometimes I feel like it's too much. And keep in mind, I've been doing most of this unpaid, with the exception of getting paid to teach a few workshops over the past few weeks. 

Honestly I'm not complaining. Sometimes it helps to just say how I'm feeling and move on. 

I braved the cold and the rain and painted our French doors until my fingers and toes went numb. I'll do more tomorrow. Inga and Ivy spent much of their day making a "snack" for Zari and Dio. They shelled every sunflower seed! They also built a reading bed for Zari. 

Zari and Dio's middle school had a "beach day" theme. Zari wore sunglasses and one of Eric's flowery shirts. I kept thinking it was Eric whenever I saw her come into a room! 

This evening we went to a Halloween drive-through sponsored by our local 4-H. This is so culturally American--everyone driving in their great big cars. We had the smallest car and probably the biggest family. We got science activity bags and candy (of course) and saw a variety of farm animals.

And a random video of Ivy

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American ??? day 75

7,435 steps 

I just got off ANOTHER video conference call. 3 in the past 2 nights. I'm brimming with ideas for our big grant application. 

We made Zari's Rapunzel costume with 3 thrifted items of clothing, a spool of ribbon, cotton cord, a frying pan spray-painted black, and Eric's motorcycle boots. I think it works! It is less historically accurate and more a modern twist on "Tangled." 

Zari really got into the photo shoot. 

Ivy discovered that squirrels had done some extra carving on her pumpkin. She was NOT HAPPY. Now our pumpkins are inside our house away from marauding squirrels and groundhogs.

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American ??? day 74

I ran errands and fixed things today: scraped and sanded the back sides of our 4 French doors, bought furnace filters for our own house and our two apartment buildings, repaired a few storm windows on one of our apartment buildings, spray painted a thrift store sautée pan so it looks like cast iron...that sort of thing. We also baked triple chocolate almond cookies (chocolate cookies with dark chocolate chips and raw cacao nibs). 

Inga played in a soccer tournament this afternoon and scored 3 of the 4 goals. She was so excited to come home and tell us about it. But first she had to trick us by pretending to cry and be all disappointed that she had "lost." 

Ivy requested "spaghetti and eyeballs" for dinner. It's a recipe we saw in a Halloween cookbook. So here are the results from, in order, Zari, Ivy, and me. The red bell pepper is supposed to be a tongue, while the meatballs and olives are the eyes. I also made summer squash fritters with feta cheese. 

I just finished doing two back-to-back live sessions for Breech Without Borders, so I'm going to snuggle in bed with a book until I fall asleep.

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American ??? day 73

11,985 steps 

Our volunteer cherry tomato plant is still bearing fruit and putting out new blossoms as if it's mid-summer. Ivy harvested some and set a fancy table with a sign "When work is done!" Yes, she needs to work on her spelling 🙂 

Ivy and Inga carved pumpkins today. Inga's is Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon. Ivy's is a puking pumpkin, but we left the "puke" out for the night as squirrels would treat it like a banquet.

Zari is supposed to come to school on Monday dressed as a Disney character. She wanted to be Rapunzel from Tangled since she already has the long, blond hair. We brought home several items from the thrift store, and I think we can make her a decent outfit. She's adamant about having a frying pan as part of her costume. 

"Do you think this would be considered a weapon at my school?" she asked me. 

"It's no more a weapon than a heavy book," I said.

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American ??? day 70

It's fall break this week for the kids. Our first two days have been cloudy and rainy. I hope to get the kids outside more once the rain stops. I have some painting that needs to get done this week. 

 Inga and Ivy watched some beginning gymnastics videos and how they're trying to learn front and back walkovers. I'm the spotter so I spend a lot of time catching them and heaving them back up again. 

 Zari has read several books in the past few days...Dio disappears and probably spends too much time on the computer whenever I'm not around to kick him off. Ah well, that's life. 

 Some random pictures and videos from this last week. Zari helped make this amazing dish of marinated chicken with a roasted garlic-jalapeno-lime-cilantro-olive oil dressing and homemade guacamole with roasted onions. So fresh and delicious! It's from Rick Bayless's cookbook Mexican Everyday.

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American ??? day 65

8,336 steps

Whew! I've been super busy with all sorts of projects. Some yet-to-be-announced ones that will add all sorts of work onto my already-busy schedule but that might help give us additional financial stability in the long-term. (We are living on 1/2 of one salary right now, since Eric renegotiated his contract to a permanent half-time position and this week was the first time I got paid since mid-March, thanks to covid-19.) 

But anyway, that's all still in the works. Nothing finalized yet. 

A few photos that I found and forgot to post earlier.

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