Let's go fly a kite

Homemade Kite from a friend

Photo from Paris

When we were in Paris, getting American citizenship for Fatima, we saw this mannequin in the window.

I'm pretty sure the whole ensemble costs 3x my rent. I'm sure just the broach is 800 euros! Second because it just isn't my style. So, I don't think I would buy anything off this mannequin, what about you ?

Live the Language : Paris

I stumbled across this video on Pinterest, my new obsession. I hope to post other videos or images particulary in regards to French vocab soon.

The story in the video is similar to my Parisian adventure back in 2008.  Enjoy!



I did meet my husband during my study abroad experience but not how the girl meetsthe boy. The school looks familiar and it might actually be L'Institut Catholique where I studied, because it wasn't that far away from Jardin du Luxembourg.
 

Pregnancy : Paperwork

12.12.12 was a good day, it was the day I discovered I was pregnant and so my adventure began.

First, after confirming my pregnancy with a blood test, I found out that I would have to declare my pregnancy to my health insurance and the CAF. The declaration would need to be sent before my 14th week of pregnancy. Interesting fact : In France, a baby is not considered an official pregnancy until the woman is 14 weeks pregnant. Because of the risk of miscarriage and I guess the woman has 14 weeks to decide if she wants to keep her future baby (which in itself is another post - sidenote I am totally against abortion). The CAF also gives you a stipend of 900 euros at the 7 month mark just for having a baby, like an incentive.  This incentive helped us stock up on all those diapers, wipes and other baby necessities.

I sent my papers sometime in January to the RSI, my health insurance provider. Sidenote : RSI is for those who are independant workers. But they ended up losing the paperwork I sent, apparently there was a specific place I was supposed to send it and I had to end up sending it again this time to the right address. Finally I was declared and was able to receive full healthcare benefits at 6 months!

Also, I bought this book, French Mama's Pregnant in France which really helped make my pregnancy adventure easier. Because the book is in French and English and there is a quiz and vocab section at the end of each chapter, which helped to make doctor's visits and what to expect easier.

French vocab :

formulaire déclaration de la grossesse : pregnancy declaration forms.

assurance maladie : health insurance  - the most common form of insurance

CAF (caisse d'allocations familiale) : family allowance fund

enciente - pregnant

J'attends un bébé - I am expecting a baby

prise de sang - blood test

My Accomplishments

The other day, my mom asked me if I was amazed by all the stuff I have done in my life so far and if I thought I would be where I am today at 26 years old.

And thinking about this I am amazed, by all that I have accomplished so much and hope to accomplish more in the years to come.

Already at 26 :
I have a Bachelor's in Music (Summa Cum Laude ! )and a Masters in Culturel Communication and Finance (all my classes were in French)
Speak English, French, and debutant in Turkish and Islamic Arabic
Living in a foreign country (even though I always knew I would be living here), with a foreign husband (our common language is French!) and a baby
Have my own business which had a slow kick off but is starting to pick up
Housewife and stay-at-home, work-from-home mother - still working on this

Started work at 15 at a Dairy Queen
Volunteer for different structures in my area when I was younger
A musician, an artist, and a writer

Plus, many more that I can't think of at the moment because it is late and my brain is drained from a long day.
Are you amazed at the things that you have accomplished so far in your life ??

 

Back in the Blogging Saddle.

I know, I know, it has literally been ages, since I last wrote. And I know I always say I have been busy, but I really have been busy.

For those of you who know me in real life, you know why and for those of you who don't, I had a baby in August and I have had my hands full since then.

Fatima Tul Zehra was born on August 16, 2013 and for privacy reasons I prefer not to post pictures of her on my blog.

I will be posting here and there in the upcoming weeks about my pregnancy experience in France (the paperwork to fill out, the appointments, buying baby clothes, the room etc etc), my delivery experience and how life has treated me since then. Also, I am going to post pictures of some of the fun stuff we've done since I last wrote.

Until next time,
 

Picture of the Week : Rodin Museum

The Rodin Museum is a nice museum to take a stroll and see important pieces of work of Auguste Rodin like The Thinker  and  The Gates of Hell.
It is also in the"Midnight in Paris" film, you can see the trailer below and I highly recommend to see the film.

Musée Rodin - Rodin Museum

 

Picture of the Week USA Style : Paris, Kentucky

While I was home my family and I decided to take a trip to see Paris, Kentucky and compare it's site to that of Paris, France. You can be the judge on which Eiffel Tower is better !

Paris, Kentucky

Paris, France

Picture of the Week : The Circus has come to town

The weather has been really great here between 70's and 80's so Yilmaz and I have gone to the big park a number of times for a picnic or tea time. But, lately we have gone to the small park next to our apartment to drink our afternoon/evening tea. One day we noticed a bunch of red vans and sure enough it was the circus !

 We have only seen llamas, ponies and horses for the moment. I am pretty sure they have hid the tigers and lions, I mean I wouldn't want to run into one of those in the middle of the street ! haha !

We aren't sure if we are going to go, I saw the circus when I was little and Yilmaz doesn't seem that interested except to try to feed the horses through the fence.

Have you gone to a circus in France ?

Snow in June ?!?

One day when I was walking to the market, I stumble upon what looks like snow literally in the street.

 I had to take a few looks before I realized they were flowers not snow. But how cool is that ?

Luxembourg

A few weekends ago, my husband and I visited some family in Metz, France. One thing is if you think there are a lot of Turks in Paris, there are 10 times more in Metz.
While we were there we decided to take a quick tour of Luxembourg, the country, with some cousins.

The Mayor's office

Looks like Bastille

Hopefully next time we go it will be sunny and we will have more time to go around and explore the museums.
 

Money Drop

Another one of my husband's and mine's favorite tv show "Money Drop" on tf1. Again the french are obsessed with using English, I swear English is going to becoming a second national language soon, like Spanish is in the States. So basically the show is you start off with 250K euros in cash and you have to answer a question. Usually there are 4 choices and you have a minute to put all the money on the right answer. and well you guessed it, if it is wrong then bye bye money !

so do you think you could win ?

Désolée mes Amis!

I know, I know, I have abandonned my blog for a while. I have had ideas of things to write, but I never opened the blogger page and wrote them down. I am so busy, I sometimes get so lost  that I just zone out and lose track of time. So I promise to have at least one post a week from now on.

Also, if someone would like to write a post about a French experience please do not hesiate to contact me.

 

Flash Mob Gare du Nord

I am so mad that I missed this!


This was the introduction for the festival "Orchestres en Fête". Maybe next year I will try to go to this!

French Debt Calculations

An article that I found today in the Direct Matin just in time for the holidays.

A qui la France doit-elle rembourser sa dette? To whom does France have to repay her debt?

Now, I really didn't read the article! I was more intrigued by the picture that showed how to best represent the 1,700 billon euros of French debt.

Translation : 
in bills - 34 billon bills of 50 euros

in distance - 373 times around the earth basically 4,760,00 km of billets laid next to each other

in surface - 3 times the surface of Paris basically 362 k2

in pounds - 5000 elephants basically 30,600 tons of bills

I am pretty sure if I translated and represented the US debt, it would be like 3-4 times each one of these.

How do you feel about these numbers?

Do you know what this is ?

I bought two of these at a market in Versailles.

Pulled Over

Don't worry, I was not pulled over, I don't even own a car but neither did this guy !

I wish I had a photo to prove that it was true, but I got nothing. So picture this, a guy around 20 on a 4-wheeler trying to pop a wheelie, while the motorcycle cops arepulling him over. This pop-a wheelie is a trend on our street, the dirt bikes go flying up in down day and night. I can never figure out why they do this. Does this really attract and impress  girls ?

Anyway back to the story, I wish I was withing hearing distance to hear how this guy explain to the police what he was doing. Because I am pretty sure they thought the guy was load of crap (excuse my language) !

After about 20 minutes and checking papers, the police decided to search his "car". They were probably looking for drugs, our area doesn't have the best reputation. Obviously they didn't have much luck, I mean where are you going to hide drugs on a four-wheeler?

They told him to go home and walk the bike back on the sidewalk.

Yeah the kid went 500 yards, made sure the police were gone and went right back to doing what he wasn't supposed to. What an idiot !

Suggestions are welcome !

As you can see by the lack of blog posts these past few months, I have been crazy busy. I work Mondays-Fridays.  Then the weekend is dedicated to spending time with my husband and cleaning the mess in our house that was created during the week.

But no need to fret, I am going to publish when I can. And if you are want to hear about something specific do not hesitate to say something !

Diploma Exam

Last week, I defended my thesis and my "Rondo à la Flûte" festival from May in front of a very difficult jury and need I remind you it was all en français. Preparing for the presentation that needed to be convincing and studying for an article that was to be drawn out of a hat was hard toaccomplish especially when French isn't my first language.


The dossier turned out to be 90 pages in French, all wrote by me but corrected by a nice friend. The presentation in front of the jury went great, except they asked questions about French copyright law. I tried to hold back saying, "I don't know", and say something like "it seems to me that ..." but the answer "je ne sais pas" just kept coming out. I thought for sure they were going to tell me that I failed.

But I passed! I got a 10/20 - don't freak out that doesn't mean a 50%. It means average, there were quite a number of other people in my class who got around the same grade and also there were students who didn't pass about 30% out of the 20 or so that took the exam.

I am really proud of myself and cannot wait to tell anyone that I have a Masters in French.

Hope that you check out my new posts about my exciting projects to come!