Tuesday, April 18, 2006

I'm back -- did you miss me? I know, I know, you didn't even know I was gone. Anyway, I had a Saturday off, so S. and I went to la Bourgogne (Burgundy). I absolutely loved it...it's my new favorite part of France. Brittany is also pretty cool, but Burgundy has mountains and you just know I love those. It also has Christmas tree farms, so I really was able to have a little piece of home, if only for a while. We stayed in our first French bed-and-breakfasts, and they were sooooo wonderful. It's going to be hard to go back to camping. I will blog more about our mini-vacation later on, and if I'm feeling especially adventurous I'll try to include photos of our trip.

In other news, I wish I could give you a positive update about my trip to the prefecture, but I can't. In fact, I'm not going to give you any news at all about this particular topic...I'm sure you can fill in the blanks. I cannot think of any other situation in which people have been less helpful despite my best efforts at being patient and polite. Normally I am not a violent person, but if I'd had a rolled-up newspaper in my hands, I would have been sorely tempted to whack certain people on the top of the head with it.

On a more positive note I would like to thank the U.S. postal service for managing to get two massive "M" bags full of books to my French address in an extremely timely manner. It says on their website that it can take around 6 months to deliver "M" bags of printed material, but mine got here in two! When I was snowed in at home (my 'real' home) in February, I discovered boxes of old books in my parents' basement so I did a quick sort-and-ship. Our local post office didn't have the correct bags but lent me some other canvas ones of the same size...the only problem was that they didn't have the strap that closed the bag. So, we rigged up a real hillbilly affair with rope; it definitely looked like something the Clampetts would do. And it still arrived! Thank you, thank you, thank you, dear post office workers. Now, on this end, I've been to the post office three times (1st time -- the bags weren't there yet and my notice was filled in incorrectly. 2nd -- my notice was filled in correctly, but they were at a different post office. 3rd -- the post office closed at 5:00 and I got there at 5:03 after teaching my class next door) and still haven't been able to pick up the bags, but I'm optimistic that one day it will happen.

Finally, I would like to say a thank you to Kim from A Frog Hopped Into Our Lives; I was inspired by your post and added a site meter to this blog. I'm really a kind of nosy person, I guess. Anyway, it's thanks to you that I even know about this add-on, so I hope you don't mind me copying you!

3 comments:

Kim/Thomas said...

well you have rainbows and french camp:)

I love your stories, and yes I did notice you were gone, I kept checking every day to see a new post:)

It's great to get comments, it makes you more motivated to do it more:)

my little pickle was in full force, blogging everyday, and then the comments stopped, and so he just is not motivated, I'll have to twist his arm, maybe make some comments myself, its so good for him to write!
k

Betty Carlson said...

There's all sorts of fun stuff for blogging available -- I was able to get a weather meter on my site, that's pretty cool. I have a stat counter too but not the same type of meter as Kim's.

Blogger is pretty low-tech, though. I hope they will make some improvements.

Ksam said...

I have site meter too, watch out, it can be addicting!! And if you ever come back to Brittany, let me know!