Competition de Snowboard

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I drove up to Chamrousse to see if we could watch any of the Snowboarding festival.  I was skiing up there on Thursday (side note: hard to beat skiing with a friend who has an extra ski pass) and we saw this massive snow park that they had set up.  I looked it up online -and found some rather sketchy info, with very little details - but it was a beutiful day to be outside, the kids finished their homework in the morning, and Susan was at a retreat all day - so we figured we’d give it a shot.

We drove up - and found out that we were allowed to hike up the hill to the snowpark.  Sounded easy enough - walking uphill in soft, slushy snow apparently can wear down small children.  But when we got there it was quite impressive. There were dozens of competitors - in what seemed like it was more of a ‘friendly festival’ than a real competition.  Tonnes of people sitting around, music pumping out (pretty sure my kids heard more english language gansta-rap over an hour or so yesterday than they have cummulatively thus far in their lives. Also pretty sure if it was an english-language environment -you wouldn’t get away with playing those lyrics in a public setting….)

We sat in the sun watching these guys - who came in teams of four - and some of them were quite amazing.  It was +10 up there, and the sky was crystal clear - so it was a pretty nice day just to sit and watch.

Tis True.

For those who have not yet heard..we do have some very exciting news…We are in fact expecting. Yes - that’s not some tricky code for something else…Susan is pregnant

The little one is due mid-September (this would be a good time to NOT remind Susan about 35 degree days in July and Aug here)

We told the kids last weekend and they are pretty excited.

Lots of questions - from where is the baby going to sleep (hmm…good point actually), to names.

Matea suggested Hope Joy  if it’s a girl  - and in an unrelated conversation Micah suggested Zach Pope  if it’s a boy.  Zach - after his stuffed animal - which is named after cousin Joy’s dog - and when I said “what?” he just replied: “Pope! You know - like in Rome” mmmmkay.

Strange that it looks like we’ll have two kids born at the same hospital in Grenoble - and two in the same hospital in Edmonton. 

Spring

Let me just say this upfront…if you are a person who is inclined to get bitter at the good fortune of others, and you currently have over 1m of snow on your grass….maybe just move along.

There is an incredible amount of daffodils that grow in our yard (OK -technically not “our” yard - and no, not even our landlord-next-door’s yard -but hey…we’re all friends here)

They have been blooming non stop for a few weeks now - in fact today I noticed that as soon as you get a couple hundred meters down from our village - (where it’s fairly consistantly warmer) the daffodils are pretty much done - and the crocuses are as well.

There is a massive Magnolia tree in our yard (ok - again, not really “our” yard - but at least this time the Ribo’s - so kind of our yard) that has had huge blossoms on it for a bit over a week now that look like they have plenty of latent color  just waiting to bust out.  The magnolias - and most other flowering trees - are completely in full bloom down in Grenoble.  In fact the other day waiting for the bus there was an almost overwhelming scent of fruit tree blossoms in the air.

It’s supposed to be sunny and up to 20 by Thursday -  so things should really start growing now.

See - there is hope for the future - those of you who thought perhaps you were caught in the next ice age.

I thought we already had that.

So today  we have done the last step - en principle  -to get our carte de sejour. That’s right - we may actually get a visa.  We are one step closer to not being illegal immigrants! What a thought. 

The last step was just to pay for them.  For some reason the kids have 1-year renewable visas that were issued in Vancouver - so they’ve been fine since before we got here.  I will get a ‘researcher/scientist’ visa - and Susan get’s a ‘spouse of a researcher’ visa. Both apparently are a type of work visa - and will be good for 1 year at a time.  So by the time we get our one year visa - we’ll only have a few months until we need to start the renewal process.  Honestly - it’s been pretty much a complete gong show.  No one seems to know if I’m a student with a small stipend, or a really-poorly paid employee who takes classes. Is it a work visa or a student visa? Do I get social security with the temporary one - or wait for the real one.  Do I go to the Marie, or the Prefecture?  Is Susan’s a work visa or not? Do the kids need an additional document?  Are we entitled to this benefit or not?  Can anyone even tell me who to talk to or where to get an answer? 

I can’t even start to explain the number of trips to different offices that I’ve been to since last August. It’s taken so long that we’ve missed out on all kinds of benefits, have been without health coverage, and a bunch of other stuff.

But I digress….

Today - was the last step.  I had to pay €340 for each.  In order to do so - I needed to get some timbres fiscaux.  Some type of ‘financial stamps’ that are a kind of government money order.  So I had to find a Tresor Publique  and wait in line to buy them, so that I could bring them to our Marie, for them to send by mail to the prefecture in Grenoble, for them to release the cartes that are ready to our Marie, who will tell us to come and pick them up.   So ignore the 8x back and froth - and you’re still left with les timbres fiscaux.  It’s a small paper document issued by the government, to create a secure and portable way of transferring wealth from one place to another. Yeah - pretty much the exact thing that currency is.  So I went and paid with my bank card, to get these stamps, to bring to the Marie, to go to the prefecture, so they can turn them back into the currency from whence they came.

The French administration  may be tonnes of redundant paperwork -  and highly frustrating - but man is it ever slow!

I just don't get it

Sometimes - scratch that….. often, things happen here that I just don’t get.  That’s just what happens when you live in a culture other than the one in which you were raised. I get that. However - it seems with our kids in school - this happens a lot.

Perhaps it’s because they still don’t really get what’s going on - plus we don’t really get what’s going on - yet we depend on them for info…it’s kind of the blind leading the blind.

Over the vacation, Jonah had a note in his yellow notebook (where all parent - teacher communication happens) that was one of those things.

I understand the words that were written - but I have no idea what’s going on.

It went something like this:

“The kids went to an art exhibition where they were invited to artistically take part. For this, they decorated a cheese box on the theme of an apple.  For the first day back, have your child bring a cheese box with them.  However, it must be a cheese box that has a sense of meaning to them.”

uh. ok.