I’ve been back in France for almost 3 weeks now. The sun is shining and the weather is heating up. I spend my days in Lyon, or in the country house near Ardeche, watching my daughter run through the grass with Flute the golden retriever beside her. It would be perfect if Julien were here...
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The end is the beginning is the end
I’m packing to go back to Paris to pack. Our Roma stint is coming to an end; here I am on my knees, packing again. The sky changes drastically from day to day. Yesterday I was downtown in shorts and a sandals, and today it’s raining and gray. There seems to be no consistency to...
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Pronto
I feel really silly thinking back on all the bitching I did when I was packing stuff to take with me to Qatar. Because now, with a child in tow, it’s much, much harder. So much harder that I’ve had a headache for the past couple of days. Again, the malle, our big blue trunk,...
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To recap
We returned from South Africa to an apartment whose entire floor surface was littered with all the crap Julien and I had accumulated for the past two years. After a week of head-scratching, we managed to fit everything into 3 trunks to be shipped, 4 luggages to check in for the flight back to Paris,...
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I’ll be away for awhile
Because in Qatar, it takes the same amount of time to switch phone and internet lines to a new flat as is does to apply for a new line and internet access. And as I remember, it took us 3 weeks to get connected. So this means internet cafes and Arabic keyboards. Again. Meanwhile, lots...
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Spring and by Summer Fall
Certain things have changed in Aix. When we passed by the residence we used to live in a few days ago, a whole bus depot had been constructed just at the entrance of the gate – the grass and hills and flowers had been replaced by buses and lines of people. I used to walk...
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Getting there
By the time my plane rolled down Doha International Airport’s runway, I had been asked 19 times if I were Filipino. 19 times, just at the Bahrain and Qatar airports. 19 times I answered Yes, and the follow-up questions were: 1: “Have you come straight from Manila?”, 2: “Ah, what’s your job in Doha?”, and...
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Eclipse
There is a total lunar eclipse scheduled tonight, and it is reported to last for 73 minutes. If you are in Europe, Africa and Western Asia you should be able to see the entire event. I could see the full moon from my window earlier, as we were getting ready to land in Bahrain. I...
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Not very effective
Jesus, the apartment is a mess. This is because I am the world’s worst packer. Now that the cartons have been delivered, my method is to empty closets and cabinets and dump them on the living room floor… then watch a movie. The other method I have is to pull all the books off the...
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Bring me a day full of honest work and a roof that never leaks and I’ll be satisfied
When we learned that we’d be moving, we couldn’t go online to get any information about the country, because at that time we didn’t have internet access (and as a result almost lost our minds). We had to satisfy our curiosity with the only book in our home that mentioned Qatar: a crummy Altas Illustré...
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2007 will be a Very New Year
In the very near future, I won’t be living in Paris – or anywhere in France – anymore. I will be in Qatar, joining him, finally. I’m scratching my head, wondering whether Qatari immigration will let Bruno the Plant pass through. Also, I’m having a hard time deciding what to bring and what to put...
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Paris a-go-go
Already in Paris, and I have spent an enormous amount of time shivering in phone booths, calling to complain, whine, beg, shout and fight for the right for internet access! (I have not won the war. Yet.) I have also spent an insane number of hours sitting in McDonalds La Defense, trying to access their...
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