Tessellations

Reflections on Bicycle Commuting: Bike to Work Week 2011 in Victoria

2011-07-16T17:09:00.000-07:00

During Bike to Work Week 2011 in Victoria, three of the five work days I biked about 12 km from our home in Gordon Head to my office in the Queen’s Printer building just south of the BC Legislature. I did it for the physical challenge rather than out of any “green” motivation. I haven’t really biked since we moved to Victoria, and I just wanted to see if I could do it.

One of the beautiful views off the Galloping Goose Trail in Victoria.

I had to work through a lot of firsts that week: first time on the Galloping Goose Trail, not knowing where I was going; first time cycling in city traffic, trying to judge how aggressively to ride. The first day was exciting and scary; the second day was better in terms of knowing where I was going but hard physically. By the evening of the second day, I had determined that I would work at home the following day so did not bike in. (It was a bit of a relief to make that decision, and I was heartened the next morning to see that it was raining! I had said I wouldn’t ride in the rain.) By the third day of riding, I finally felt comfortable on the trail and in the streets. I took it easier than the first two days even though it meant that more people passed me on the trail. (I have a deeply buried competitive streak that threatens to surface every once in a while.) I was much less sweaty when I got to work that last morning, and I enjoyed the ride a lot more.

I certainly had my share of mini-adventures on the trail. The first day I almost ended up in a four-bike, one-pedestrian pileup due to the aggressive riding of one of the cyclists. As I rode away, I heard the pedestrian cursing at the cyclist -- and no wonder!

That same day I forgot to check over my shoulder before riding around a pedestrian and in doing so almost ran another cyclist off the trail. Oh, boy! The second day I missed a sign that split the pedestrians and cyclists, and I ended up riding on the pedestrian side of the trail to the disgust of both pedestrians and cyclists alike. No wonder the seasoned riders hate Bike to Work Week!

As lovely as they look, I can do without the wooden plank bridges. They're really hard on the butt!

The Galloping Goose Trail, the middle of my ride, is really lovely, with views of lakes and trees, shaded trails, wooden plank bridges and picturesque tunnels. Some areas of the trail really remind me of our experiences in France, especially the tunnels. (Except in France, most of them would stink due to the odd habit of French men peeing in every tunnel they encounter!)

This is such a cool tunnel, with amazing murals all over the walls!

It’s the beginning and end of the ride that are the hardest for me. McKenzie Avenue is very busy, and it has big trucks and some wicked hills! Plus everyone drives like a bat out of hell travelling westward, encouraged by the long sweep of downhill slopes on the road. On the other end of my ride, Government Street isn’t so busy, but on the way home I have to make a left turn in a busy and confusing intersection, and navigating the blue bridge makes my heart pound every time.

I learned a few lessons that week. First of all, I can do it, and it makes me feel good! Biking to work is worth it for the moral superiority you feel as you walk into your office all sweaty, huffing and puffing, bike helmet in hand. On the other hand, biking to work is hard work! I won’t become a cycling convert because I’m just not properly prepared. I don’t have the panniers, the cycling shoes or the toe clips; I don’t have the Gortex jacket and pants or the flashing lights. I miss my early morning workouts at the rec centre too much to give them up. Even though Bike to Work Week didn’t make a hard core bicycle commuter out of me, I’m glad I did it that week, and I’ll probably do it again.

Check out my Bike to Work Week set of photos on Flickr.

Memories of 2010

2011-01-03T15:18:00.000-08:00

2010 was a busy year for us in many different ways. Cameron and Meghan settled in very nicely to life in Victoria, and both of them worked hard at school. Mark and I have been very busy at our jobs, for various reasons. In February Mark was asked to take on a new job in Nanaimo and so has a 1.5 hour (each way) commute to work every day. Luckily he enjoys driving! As for me, a project at work, the creation of a new grade 10 math distance education course, became much more work than anyone could imagine! For the last six months I've been immersed in it, working evenings and weekends, but thankfully it's almost at an end.

For 10 months ending in June 2010 we played host to Beri, our exchange student from Stuttgart, Germany. She's the niece of a friend and colleague of my brother (got that?). Beri accompanied us to Seattle for a few days last Christmas and went skiing with Mark and the kids at Mt. Washington in April, where the snow was so high that it covered the windows of the second floor of the condo building that we were staying in (I've never seen so much snow!) I think Beri enjoyed herself, and she was able to graduate with a Canadian high school diploma. Her parents and brother came to visit and were able to see her attend the graduation ceremony at the end of May. Beri's sister also stayed with us for a month, and we often saw Tessa, another German exchange student who became a friend of Beri's. We had quite a full house for the first half of the year!

In August I decided to get serious about losing some of the weight that has been gradually creeping on since our stay in France, and I've been working out almost every day at the recreation centre that is a short walk from our house. I've lost 13 pounds so far, and my back is feeling much better.

Other happenings of note:

A short holiday to Seattle in July with friends Wendy, Ray, and family
An equally short trip to Rocky Mountain House in August to visit my mom and other family members, with a lightning-fast side trip to Sherwood Park to see Sheila and family
The sad passing of Mark's father in September and our quick trip to Manitoba to be with the family
A 10-day holiday to Florida in November, spurred on by my desire to see the Harry Potter Islands of Adventure installation at Universal Studios while I still have kids to drag along!

I encouraged (read: badgered) everyone to write their own summary of 2010, so here they are:

Meghan

Hey everybody! I can't believe it's already 2011; last year passed so quickly.

School has gone great since we moved here. Grade 7 was lots of fun and grade 8 is also going really well. I joined leadership in grade 7 and I'm in it again this year with lots of my friends. We organize lots of school activities and help out with their operation. I've also joined the volleyball team.

Soccer is going well. Last year I was on the Silver team; this year I've gone to the Gold team. We went up island to Parksville for an overnight trip about a month ago and it was lots of fun. We haven't been winning a lot of games this season since many good players went to Metro, but winning's not everything, right?

So I'm halfway through Grade 8. About 9 more months until high school! I'm excited but also a little nervous. I'll be going to Reynolds, the same school as Cameron. It's about double the size of Cedar Hill (the school I go to now), so that will be a big change.

I had a great Christmas and New Year's, and I hope you did, too. Wishing everyone the best of luck in 2011!

Cameron

So 2010 wasn't that big of a year for me. It was my second year of high school, which I'm enjoying. I'm still in Flex and French Immersion and things are going well. In Grade 10 so far I've had an easy first semester with Science, French and my two electives, Foods and Drama. I'm not looking forward to the next few weeks, as I have just three left before exams (and my first provincial). I don't think it'll be too bad though, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the year.

I hope everybody has a great 2011!

Mark

On the work front, 2010 was a time of change for me. I changed responsibilities from the forest worker safety program to a program looking after finance and assets/infrastructure in the Coast Region, based out of Nanaimo. More recently, government announced another change for the natural resources sector and so we are going through a merging of sorts with other ministries. Quite exciting times ahead! I do have a commute and I’ve found that radio/audio CDs and just driving fill the time nicely – I actually quite enjoy it!

On the vacation front, we enjoyed a short holiday travelling to Rocky Mountain House over the summer and a relaxing 10 day break to Orlando in November. We had a great time visiting the theme parks and just being in the warm weather of Florida in November. We enjoyed several rounds of “butter beer” at Harry Potter’s at universal studios. I have to say that my favourite activity was a 3 hour kayak trip in a mangrove lagoon where we all had single kayaks, navigated through narrow channels and saw lots of wildlife (including a manatee!)

And finally, on the home front, we were saddened in September when my father passed away. He had been suffering from dementia/Alzheimer’s disease for the last few years. Our family travelled to Winnipeg for the funeral and although the reason for getting together was very sad, it was nice the whole family met.

In the garden, we are busy converting the edging around our house from soil (and weeds) to decorative rock. One thing I’ve found about Victoria is that the plants and lawn just keep on growing and it’s a full time job (well, weekend job, anyway) just keeping up.

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We had a lot of good times in 2010, and we're looking forward to more in 2011. We hope the same for you and your family!

Chris, Mark, Cameron and Meghan

Happy Birthday, Meghan!

2010-01-23T16:25:00.001-08:00

My Meghan is 13 today! Happy Birthday, Baby!

Leg warmers are back!

At the Marriott in Seattle

In Starbucks (maybe the original?) in Seattle

Meghan in her soccer uniform with Zoe

Deer stories

2010-01-23T15:45:00.000-08:00

Deer abound in Victoria, and we often have them in our backyard. They've decimated one of the little deciduous trees there by eating not only the leaves, but also the newer branches. Because of the deer, we'll never be able to grow much of a backyard garden.

Mark and I witnessed a strange accident on Mackenzie Avenue a few months ago. While driving in Victoria, you always have to keep your eyes peeled for deer on the road, but one afternoon a young buck appeared out of nowhere, heading directly across four lanes of traffic. He hurled himself into the side of a small red car, hitting the back driver's side window with his head. All we saw after that was the deer flipping end over end over the top of the car and coming to a sudden halt on its back on the road. Within seconds, he got up, shook his head, and trotted off the rest of the way across the road to come to a stop on the lawn of a house on the north side of Mackenzie. I was so sure that the little guy was dead, but he was a tough one! The little red car pulled over to the side of the road and the occupants got out gingerly, shaking broken glass from themselves. As human/animal collisions go, I think everyone got off lucky!

One of the deer in our backyard. Notice the tipped-over chair from the latest windstorm.

Yesterday when I got home from work, I saw two little deer (probably last year's babies) bedding in the yard. Cameron said that they had been there for at least a couple of hours. I took some pictures of one of them from inside the house because I didn't want to scare them away. My new camera with its 18x zoom really did a good job -- especially through the window -- but I also caught part of our patio umbrella in the close shot.

This little one kept looking right at me through the window, and not long after I took these pictures, she and her friend (sister?) decided it was time to move on out of the yard.

Backyard surprises

2009-07-11T21:51:00.000-07:00

Victoria continues to surprise me.

Like yesterday when I walked into the house. I just happened to glance up at the plant that grows at the front of the overhanging porch roof -- and discovered that purple flowers had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. For the last two months, the plant has been covered with yellow flowers which eventually dried up and faded away into the greenery. But now -- there are purple flowers!

When I looked carefully, I saw that another type of vine had been planted at the base of the first plant, and it was the new vine's turn to flower. Very clever gardening, if you ask me!

Another surprise: about three weeks ago, I took a closer look at the ancient and strange looking bush planted in a square in our patio. It looked familiar... and then I took a sprig and rubbed it between my fingers. It's rosemary! I've never had fresh herbs growing outside. For the last two weeks we've had roast chicken with rosemary for Sunday dinner -- delicious!

The climate here is so different from anywhere I've ever lived. The greenery is lush and extremely varied, and our yard seems to have one of every kind of thing that is able to grow around here. Just when I think that things will stop growing, another kind of flower blooms in our garden.

The people who owned this house in years past went crazy with perennial plants. There must be at least 50 different kinds of flowering plants in our yard, and I can only identify three or four. We have at least two different kinds of poppies in four different colours, three kinds of flowering vines (no idea what types), a large overgrown grape vine and a huge fig tree.

We've never been much for gardening, but we're being forced to pay attention to our yard this summer. It's going to take us a long time to get it all figured out!

Shooting a math video at the beach

2009-07-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we shot a video at the beach for the Math 8 course that I am overseeing at work. It was a beautiful morning to be there! The sun was shining and there was a bit of a breeze, so the temperature was just perfect.

The video is about integer multiplication, and I wanted to make it a stop-motion video because I think it will appeal to kids in grade 8. I think it will also be a fun video because it stars kids -- specifically my kids -- Cameron and Meghan.

Sean looks through the camera to see if all of the numbers are visible.

A few weeks ago we scouted out the location by checking out all the sets of stairs that lead to the beach off Dallas Road in Victoria. We thought we needed at least 21 stairs going straight up and down (it turns out that we didn't need that many) that were not shaded by bushes -- and given all the plant growth around here, bushes are hard to avoid!

But we did find a great set just off Douglas St. south of the Terry Fox Mile Zero memorial. So yesterday morning, the kids and I drove down, parked by Beacon Hill Park, and trudged down the stairs to the beach to meet up with my co-workers Sean and Caitlin.

The kids soon found out how boring it can be to film something. It's all in the preparation -- and as soon as we started stapling the numbers to the stairs, we realized that we weren't going to be able to see them all in the camera. After ripping off all the numbers, redoing a few of the equations, and some bleeding on my part after putting a staple through my thumb, we had a new set of numbers in place, and we were ready to shoot.

Redoing the numbers

By this time we'd lost the kids, but luckily they were just sitting over on the next set of rocks waiting patiently for us.

We ended up having an audience while we were shooting the video -- a man who was sitting at the top of the stairs when we first arrived, and who stuck around to watch the fun but moved over to sit on the rocks, and another man who came a bit later with his two grandsons to play at the beach. And how could I forget the minks! During the shooting, two little, thin, black furry creatures appeared from behind a pile of rocks where Cameron was sitting. They were very cute, and not very afraid of people.

Two of our audience members: one doesn't seem to be paying attention; the other one might be Martin; and the minks are nowhere to be seen.

We found out the name of one of the grandsons, because I mistakenly called it a marten (close, same family, but not quite right), and one of the kids yelled, "Hey, my name's Martin!"

Anyway, Cameron, Meghan, Sean and Caitlin all did an awesome job! Once we were set up, it took less than an hour and we were done. Sean had a great idea for the ending -- the kids are going to spin around and disappear! I can hardly wait to see the end product -- I'm so excited about all these videos we've been doing for Math 8. I think we'll try to release some of them on YouTube, so if we do, I'll post a link to them here in my blog.

Making a home in Victoria

2009-03-06T09:47:00.000-08:00

I think we're finally getting settled here, although I still have moments of "unreality". I've had several of those over the past 18 months -- times when I could hardly believe what we're doing: selling our house of 17 years and putting our furniture into storage to live like gypsies for a year; moving to France for an extended stay with no other plans than to travel extensively and soak it all in; and then moving to a city with my family, something that we had planned would happen eventually, but is still a shock to us country bumpkins.

Meghan relaxing with the cats. I'm pleased to say that we've finally got the boxes unpacked.

Victoria is still new enough to us that it seems like part of the adventure, yet we all know deep down that this is where we'll be settling for a while. But I still get those moments of unrealness, like when I was walking in the main hallway of our house last week, suddenly wondering, "Where am I? What place is this? What am I doing here?"; and then I give my head a shake and I'm back in the present again. I think I feel sometimes that I'm living a dream, and when I wake up I'll be back in my bed in our old house in Burns Lake again. I guess spending that much time in one place really burns itself into your whole psyche.

We've already had a few visitors - my mom, my sister Pat, and this weekend, Mark's mom and brother Steve. Here my mom and Mark stare out into the stormy-looking clouds.

This is really a post of family news, so I'll update you on each of us:

Mark

Mark's job here is Director of Forest Worker Safety. At this level, he's really close to government, so he deals with Assistant Deputy Ministers, Deputy Ministers and the Chief Forester for the province quite regularly. After just over six months on the job, I think he's getting into the groove, but it's still very different from being in a small community like Burns Lake. Sometimes I think it's a little too close to the action!

Mark's also going to Toast Masters to improve his public speaking skills. His group meets before work on Friday mornings, and Mark is so dedicated that he gets out of bed about 5:30 a.m. to catch the bus and get there on time. The only Fridays that he doesn't make it is when he's off to meetings in Vancouver, which seems to be happening a lot these past few weeks.

Chris

I'm really enjoying my new job as an Education Project Manager at Open School BC. I'm in charge of developing a grade 8 math course for distance education, so I get to do all sorts of things that I love: organize things; do math; talk to people; do research; work on the computer; and keep things on schedule and on budget. I'm very busy right now -- it can be a little overwhelming at times. Currently I'm reviewing several fifty-page documents, editing and suggesting changes before forwarding them on to other people.

I now work for the provincial government like Mark does, so I'm getting used to all of the government lingo and procedures. It's a huge organization -- approximately 30,000 people work for the government of BC, and sometimes you can get so caught up in processes that you hardly have time for your work.

When I'm not working I'm still trying to keep up with my French studies. I've enrolled in a French diploma program at the University of Victoria. When I tested for the program I scored at the "high intermediate" level, so I was pretty proud of myself and thought that the year in France perhaps wasn't a total waste! : ) I go to class two nights a week, but sometimes after a full day at work it's really hard to drag myself there. I always enjoy it, though, and I'm really glad when I made the effort. I'm trying really hard to speak French as much as possible in class, and I think that I'm finally losing my fear of sounding silly.

Mark and Chris

We've really made a commitment to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions this year, and one of the things that we're doing more is riding the bus. We really only use the van one or two days a week to buy groceries and other big stuff. Both Mark and I were able to get a permanent bus pass through our work, and it's great to be able to hop on and off the bus when you want. We have great bus service almost right at our doorstep and it takes us both directly to work. A side benefit of this is that we can now ride the bus together to work in the mornings -- one of those activities in our new life that still feels strange and different to me! : )

In between work and our extracurricular activities, we're trying to get the inside of the house painted and some yard work done. Mark is much better about this than I am -- even though we both have to start working a little harder!

Our fitness routines have been suffering a little as we try to find some balance in our new lives, but both Mark and I have signed up for a 10 km walk (me) or run (Mark) at the end of April. Mark has to train for running, but I just have to train my feet to not get blisters! That's always the worst part about long hikes for me.

Cameron

Cameron is in grade 8 this year and just had his 14th birthday -- there's no going back on that teenager thing now! I mentioned before that he shot past me in height about a year ago, and he's now very tall and lean. He's doing very well at school although his teachers think that he's too quiet -- but that might just be because the rest of his class is very loud! I encouraged him to join the concert band this year in order to keep busy with some extracurricular activities, so he's playing percussion. Cameron went with the band to an overnight camp in the fall, and they're now preparing for a four-day trip to Whistler in May. It should be fun -- by the time they registered, the only choice they had was a four-star hotel. I'm sure all those 14-year-old boys will really make the most of the facilities!

Cameron's heading off to high school next year; he's looking forward to it, and I'm feeling anxious about it! We're quite excited that he applied for and was accepted into one of the school's special programs where he will be challenged academically and provided with opportunities for leadership training and volunteer work. It's the only program in Victoria where students are invited to apply to become pages at the BC Legislature. Cameron will also carry on with French Immersion; I gave him the choice after this year, and I'm very pleased that he's made the decision to continue.

Meghan

Meghan is also getting tall: if I'm slouching, she can stare me straight in the eye. Unfortunately, she's also now graduated to wearing women's sized clothes; clothing four "adults" sometimes puts a strain on the family budget! Meg just turned 12 (in January), is in grade 6 at the same middle school as Cameron, and she's really enjoying school. She plays flute in the concert band, and since they weren't moving fast enough for her, she's also started to play my old clarinet at home. She has several friends whose houses she's already visited and is doing very well academically. She's a natural writer -- and I'm her mother so I can say, "gifted". : ) Sometimes I read something that she's written and it almost makes me cry, it's that good.

Meghan loves to play soccer, and it's very big in Victoria, so she would have been playing throughout the winter if we had known to register her in the fall when we moved here. However, she has lots of options to play in the spring and summer, and we live right across from one of the big soccer parks, so I think she'll be in the thick of it soon.

One thing that makes us all happy is that the kids can walk or bike to school this year, and either way it takes them less than 20 minutes. Since Mark and I have to leave for work earlier than they leave for school, they get ready on their own. I think it's really made them more independent and has been very good for them.

This was a really long update; I hope you lasted 'til the end! Drop us a line and let us know what you're doing:

christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com (take out the spaces when you email).

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T11:53:00.000-08:00

We're just enjoying our first Christmas in Victoria. In an unlikely series of weather events, it turned out to be a white Christmas, something we didn't have in Strasbourg last year. However, I don't think the snow will last long -- it rained last night, and today the sun is shining brightly.

Last year we had a tight budget, so we set a 10€ limit for each present. This year we thought we would carry on the tradition, so we were to spend a maximum of $15 on each person. Most of us ended up going over the budget by a bit, but on the whole we were good about sticking to the limit.

We also had fun doing our Christmas Eve presentations for each other. Last night we learned about Christmas traditions in Finland, Germany, France, and other countries, listened to streaming Christmas music from the internet (after I finally found the sub-woofer for our computer speakers in the filing cabinet), enjoyed some of Meghan's flute selections, and talked about our best Christmas memories.

This Christmas and last are very different, yet they're also alike in many ways. Last year we spent Christmas in a foreign land; this year, even though we're back in Canada, we're spending Christmas in a new city, still a "foreign land" to us. Last year it was just the four of us in our little apartment in Strasbourg; this year, since we still live a great distance from our extended families, it's just the four of us again, but this time in our new house. But as always when we have a family celebration, we treasure the fact that our little family is a very close-knit one, sharing adventures that will mellow into memories that will last us a lifetime.

Whether you're celebrating alone or with loved ones, in the middle of an adventure or relaxing at home, we wish you a Merry Christmas, and the very best for 2009!

Victoria, the land of ice and snow

2008-12-21T17:13:00.000-08:00

The weather has finally prompted me to do what no other experience in the last few months has managed to -- make a blog posting. The normal temperatures for Victoria are 7C for the high and 2C for the low. During the last week we've had temperatures down to about -10C at night and still below freezing during the day. The temperature has felt much colder on some days due to the wind, which blows quite regularly here.

Not only is it cold, but we're in the grip of a major winter event in Victoria: snow and ice that actually stays on the ground. Now don't get me wrong -- we're not surprised, shocked or appalled. Our many winters in Burns Lake, and before that, Yellowknife, have prepared us well for the white stuff that we have been experiencing. But I must admit that we're not driving our van right now, since we only have summer tires on it. This is a direct result of many years in the north which led us to buy separate sets of summer and winter tires -- and who's going to put winter tires on a vehicle in Victoria!

People who were born in Victoria all have a secret gleam in their eye when you ask them about the weather. Snow (that stays) is such an unusual event in Victoria that they all seem to really enjoy it. However, if you speak to anyone who has moved to Victoria from virtually anywhere else in Canada, they're seriously ticked off about the weather! The worst part for them at this time of year is heading back to where they came from (e.g., Edmonton, Saskatoon, etc.) for the annual Christmas visit. Not only are they heading into cold weather, but they're leaving the cold Victoria weather behind! This time they can't even brag about how warm it is here in the winter.

Surprisingly, the cats are really enjoying the snow: they go outside quite regularly during the day and get crazy in it (especially Aurora). Meghan is also thrilled. The one bad thing about Victoria for Meghan was the idea that there might be no snow in the winter. Perhaps in an effort to win her over and make her feel welcome, the city has provided a blanket of white for her to enjoy, and Meghan is making the most of it. She has been going outside at least twice a day to play in the snow and only comes in when her feet start freezing. Considering she only has rubber boots (another sign of our unpreparedness, having discarded the old winter boots when we left Burns Lake) she does quite well.

The Penthouse Suite

2008-12-01T21:22:00.000-08:00

We spent the month of September in a condo just north of Beacon Hill Park. It was a nicely kept place, and well-decorated. It also gave us one more life experience -- I think it will be the only time in our lives that we will be able to say that we lived in a penthouse suite!

The best part about living at the condo was being right across from the park, but staying downtown on Douglas Street was a close second. We were just up the street from the Royal BC Museum, so we bought memberships and spent a few Saturday afternoons there, seeing the exhibits and watching IMAX films. Weekend mornings were a lot of fun for Mark and me. We would get up fairly early and go for a walk through Beacon Hill Park and down to the rocks at the ocean.

After checking to see which cruise ships were in, we would circle back through downtown to pick up a coffee for Mark. When we got back to the condo, the kids were sometimes just getting up.

Another advantage to living downtown was being able to walk to work. When I started working at the Queen's Printer building in the middle of September, I only had to walk five minutes to work, which meant that I was also able to come home for lunch if I wanted. Mark's office was a little farther, but he still only had a 15-minute walk. We were able to park the van for long stretches of time (one time nearly two weeks!) and feel good about lessening our "carbon footprint".

For most of the time that we were in the condo, we were waiting to take possession of our new house. That happened on September 27, but since we had paid for the condo for the month of October as well, we took some extra days to make the transition over to the house.

By the time we moved into our house, we had lived in two other areas of Victoria. That, combined with driving all over Victoria in search of a house to buy, meant that we have a good understanding of the geography of the area -- a good introduction to a new city!

Our new (old) house in Victoria

2008-09-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to say that we are well on our way to being homeowners in Victoria. We have purchased a house in the Lambrick Park area (actually in the municipality of Saanich), and we will be able to move in on September 27.

While we looked at many different types of houses, we found that the well-maintained "character" houses appealed to us the most. Some of these houses can be 80 to 100 years old; ours just happens to be a little older than that! It was built in 1900 (making it 108 years old this year), and several people told us that it was probably one of the original farmhouses in the area.

It's set back from the street on a plot of land known as a "panhandle", which is basically the back part of a long lot. One of the homeowners living on this large lot would have subdivided it, making two smaller ones. The records that we have for our lot seem to show that this was done around 1972.

The house looks small from the outside but is quite roomy inside. There are four bedrooms: two up -- the kids' rooms -- and two down, so guests, come on over! and two bathrooms, one of which is an ensuite off the master bedroom (yay!) The house has a fairly large living room/dining room combination, a shaded sun room off the back and a concrete patio. Those are the good things!

Things we have to or want to remedy: some galvanized metal piping downstairs, which must be replaced with copper or plastic; a gigantic fig tree in the back whose fruit must be cleaned off the ground regularly for fear of attracting wasps, and whose roots will eventually crack the concrete pad under the sun room; a minor damp spot in the main bathroom shower; a sagging floor in one of the bedrooms; lilac-coloured paint in the master bedroom (not to our taste); and the little matter of the small/cramped kitchen. (This last one might take a while to fix!)

Future project: kitchen remodel

The sun room is nice, but it's actually quite shaded due to the large fig tree just outside to the right of the picture. I think this picture must have been taken a few years ago!

The lilac-coloured paint has to go!

Our own bathroom!

Disclaimer: The photos of the house are not mine (they are the ones that were available on the realtor's web site).

How are things going for you? Did you or your kids go back to school this week? Drop us a line! christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

Buying a house in Victoria

2008-08-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

I have been feeling guilty lately due to my lack of blog postings, but my excuse is that we have been heavily involved in the business of getting settled in Victoria. The kids and I have been house-hunting, Mark is adjusting to his new job (and the idea of actually having to go to work each day after having almost a year off!), we have registered the kids for school, and I have also been trying to locate temporary rental accommodation for us for September.

Our biggest chore, of course, has been to find a house to buy. Although we had researched housing over the internet while still in Strasbourg and knew in theory how much houses cost in Victoria, it still makes me a little dizzy to think that we will be spending about a half million dollars -- yes, that's right -- on a house. That is the price of a slightly nicer than average -- not spectacular -- house with four bedrooms and two bathrooms in a decent area of the city.

The houses in Victoria that we've seen come in three flavours: character, 1970s and modern. (Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on houses, so the commentary here is based simply on our very limited exposure to the housing market in the last few weeks.) The character houses were built anywhere from 1900 to the 1950s. Many of the earlier ones do have a lot of character, with bedrooms built into attics, coved ceilings, fireplaces and hardwood floors. A tip-off that you will be walking into a 1970s special lies in the real estate agent's listing advertisement: "House has been lovingly maintained by original owner". Translated into real terms, this means that the house was repainted last month in the original colours in preparation for selling, but no thought has been given in the previous 35 years to any other updating. These houses feature dark imitation wood paneling on the walls, and lots of carpet -- some shag, some with different colours in each room. The few "modern" houses that we have seen have been very ordinary: three-bedroom, two-bathroom ranchers (all on one level) with carpet throughout. One house that we viewed was so uniformly beige that everything blended together. By the end of the viewing, it was hard to tell where the floors ended and the walls began!

When hunting for a house, one's priorities soon become very clear. We had a very short list by the time we had seen our first few houses: a nice yard (for Meghan and the cats); two bathrooms and at least three bedrooms (after sharing a bedroom in France, the kids each want their own); and some separation of private areas in the house between the adults and the children (very important when you have teens or pre-teens!)

Perhaps other people have been luckier in finding their "dream home", but many of the houses that we have seen have some limitations. One house was beautiful but situated on a busy street; the road noise bothered us, and we thought it might be dangerous for the cats, who don't have any "street smarts". Another house had a beautiful yard that backed onto a park, but all of the bedrooms, including a very odd-shaped 6' x 13' room, were upstairs, and one large room downstairs was used as a formal living room; the layout resulted in wasted space and a lack of privacy for us. We got as far as thinking about making an offer on another house, but it would have required extensive renovations to put in a proper bathroom and two bedrooms downstairs.

It seemed like it was going to take some time to find just the right house, but we only have a few days left at the suite that we're currently renting, which turns into a women's residence during the university school year. And so, after seriously misjudging our timing and our ability to find a house, I booked a furnished downtown condo for the months of September and October. Two days later we made an offer to purchase a house, only to find out that the owners want to leave by the end of September! Now we are scrambling to remove the conditions on the offer -- arranging for a house inspection and the mortgage -- and we are crossing our fingers that the nice woman at the condo rental agency will be able to find another renter for October!

If all goes well with our offer to purchase the house, I will be able to share more details about it in the next few days. I'll keep you posted!

Stolen Identity!

2008-08-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

Last week while on my daily grocery shopping trip to the mall just across Tillicum Road, I had my credit card refused -- not just once, but twice. Curious, but not really bothered by it, I pulled out my only other credit card and paid for the groceries. (Isn't our society wonderful? We have multiple ways to rack up consumer debt almost instantaneously!)

When I phoned the credit card company the next morning, I was in for a shock. After identifying myself through the answers to several personal questions, I was asked if I had been in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, or India on Thursday. Having traveled a lot in France and Germany as late as the end of June (those might have been harder questions), I could readily and emphatically answer, "No!"

I then had a very interesting chat with the customer service agent who told me that someone had tried to charge $1300 worth of clothing on my credit card in a store in Saudi Arabia. That transaction had been blocked, but then the person tried to charge $800 at the same store (probably thinking that the credit limit had been exceeded). That transaction was blocked, too. Then the next day, someone else tried to use the card somewhere in India for electronic goods.

When I asked how this could have been done, he said the most common way is for thieves to install their own card reader at a store, and then come back later and pick it up -- now with all the digital information about people's credit cards recorded on them. They then produce phony cards and use the internet to sell the cards to willing buyers. I don't know how much a person would pay for a stolen credit card, but in my case, the buyers -- more than one, because I'm assuming that very few people are in Saudi Arabia one day and India the next -- got a really bad deal -- not even a flash pair of new jeans!

Wondering whether this had been done while we were still in Europe or after we had returned to Canada, I asked about the timing. Do these thieves wait for weeks or months before creating the phony cards, or do they do it right away? Unfortunately, my customer service guy was no help with that. Sometimes it happens quickly, but he told me that one thief had waited more than 10 months. So while it could have happened during our stay in Europe, I suspect that it occurred back here in Canada. While in Europe we used our Canadian credit card very rarely, preferring instead to pay out of our French bank account. These French cards are not credit cards; they're more like debit cards, and you need to have a PIN number for them, which makes it more complicated for thieves.

This all leaves me wondering just who these people are who can so brazenly use what they know is a stolen credit card. I might have a bit of sympathy if they tried to use it for groceries or health care, but expensive clothing and electronics -- give me a break!

The upside to this story is that it leaves me with more confidence in the credit card company's ability to recognize when a credit card number has been stolen. Before we left for France last year, I phoned the company to let them know that we would be living there and traveling throughout Europe, and they made a note in our file. In all that time, we never had a transaction refused. The other thing that the customer service guy reminded me is to always verify the transactions that have been posted to your account. That usually isn't an issue for me, because I check my account online at least every few days. He also reminded me that you have 30 days to report a suspicious transaction, or you may be liable for it. Luckily, it didn't even get that far.

In the end, that account was closed, and in four business days I was able to pick up a new card from the bank down the street. My whole identity wasn't stolen -- just a little piece of it, and for a very brief time -- but it feels good to get the whole me back.

Arrival in Victoria!

2008-07-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

We've actually been in the Greater Victoria area for a few days, enjoying our temporary rental suite and exploring the city. On Wednesday Mark started his new job as Director of Forest Worker Safety, while the kids and I have been researching available houses on the internet and driving around Saanich to get a feel for the neighbourhoods. Perhaps it was the European experience, but the kids have turned out to be excellent navigators!

Our trip from Strasbourg to Victoria was circuitous but relatively trouble-free, except for the six lost pieces of luggage! (which caused us to almost miss our plane in Toronto and delayed our departure to Manitoba for a day). We stayed in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, with my mom for a few days on each end of our trip and took two days each way to drive to Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, to visit with Mark's parents. On the way to Victoria we stopped in Vernon, BC, to visit with our friends Wendy and Ray, whose kids are attending Family French Camp.

I've always enjoyed the scenery while driving through the Rocky Mountains -- a favourite family winter weekend outing when I was very young was to drive five hours to sit in the hot pool at Radium Hot Springs, so I know the road fairly well.

However, for the last 17 years we have driven north on Highway 93 towards Jasper to go home to Burns Lake. This time, we chose a more southern route, heading west toward Field and Golden.

Although it felt somewhat like the old trip with my mom and dad, this time it had a special significance -- I'm now the mom, and we were heading with our kids toward Victoria and our new life in Canada.

It's amazing how fast one acclimates back to one's home country. I think it had something to do with the fact that we were so busy traveling and visiting when we first got back to Canada -- our usual summer holiday activities. It was almost as if the whole past year had never happened! The change from the cobblestones, French, and Euros to asphalt, English, and Canadian dollars took only a matter of hours. Although I am nostalgic for France and Europe, I can't say that we stayed there long enough for it to permeate into my being. I was getting quite a bit easier with the French language by the time we left, but it was still a relief to come back to an English-speaking world.

Yesterday as the kids and I were getting our new library cards, I reflected back to the same experience in Strasbourg at the beginning of our stay: we all went as a family, and Mark did all the talking because his French is much better than mine (and those of you who know me will understand how difficult it is for me to let Mark do all the talking!) In contrast, yesterday was a breeze. But what a joy it is to have our French experience and be able to share it with other people! Our new librarian was very interested to hear how the library system worked at the Bibliotheque Municipale de Strasbourg, like the fact that we were charged different rates for a library card depending on how many and what type of items we wanted to borrow.

From library cards to looking at schools and going to (and looking for) work, we are now settling down to real life in Victoria. It's a small but beautiful city, and there will be many opportunities for us and the kids to pursue over the next few years. We're looking forward to it!

How's your summer going? Email us: christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

Check out our photos on flickr

Eating out (or not)

2008-06-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

We haven't been out to very many restaurants in Strasbourg or on our trips throughout Europe this year. Eating out in Europe is generally very expensive, but our eating at home is not really a backlash against the high prices. Even in Canada, we don't go out to restaurants very much, for a few reasons. First, and probably most importantly, both Mark and I really like to cook, so we share the cooking duties almost equally.

We have our family favourites from what I like to call "international fusion cuisine", and we also like to try out new recipes. The other reason for not going out is that it is difficult to find a restaurant that all of us (read: the children) like. When we're away from home and forced to eat in a restaurant, we finally found that the best strategy is to order a selection of dishes that we think everyone will like, and then share them around.

The challenge has often been to decipher the menu. I do fairly well with menus in French, but I have to really work with the German (luckily there's always Mark -- don't go to Germany without him!) He's very good with both languages, but even he can be fooled, like the time he ended up with veal kidneys in a nice mustard sauce!

Although we haven't dined out in the evening much, we have gone out for a few lunches, which has usually been a result of our time management (or lack thereof!) When we've had visitors, our days have gone something like this:

Plan to wake up and get going early for a day trip
Get up relatively late (just the rest of us -- Mark always gets up early!)
Have breakfast between 10 and 11 a.m.
Take a long time to get everyone out the door (sometimes due to eight or ten people trying to use the toilet one last time!)
Debate about postponing the departure because it's almost lunch time
Leave anyway
Have everyone get hungry almost right away

At this point, there's two options -- find a boulangerie (bakery), patisserie (pastry store) or épicerie (small grocery store), grab some pastries or other snacks and carry on, or find a café. Most of the time we like to grab something and carry on, but sometimes -- when it's too cold, too hot, or day five of non-stop sightseeing -- it's better to sit and relax in a café.

It's coming to an end...

This will be my last blog posting from France. I'm sad because I feel that I have many stories still left to tell, ones that are better told "on location". I may still write about France, but to me it won't have the same authentic feel as it does when I sip on a glass of Alsatian Riesling and listen to the sound of the cathedral bells tolling outside the balcony window.

But all good things must come to an end, and we're heeding my mother's advice by leaving the party while we're still having fun. Thanks to you all for sharing this great adventure with us! However sad we feel about our adventure coming to an end, it is balanced against our excitement about moving back to BC and the opportunities this will provide for us and the kids. (Stay tuned -- more on this later).

What are your summer plans? Email us at christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

See our pictures on flickr

Greek Vacation

2008-06-06T11:49:00.000-07:00

Last week at this time we were winging our way home from Greece. We spent most of our week there slathering on the sunscreen and trying to keep cool. When we planned our trip a few months back, I checked the high temperatures for May and found that it should be a balmy 25 C. Reality proved to be quite different, with central Greece suffering from a mini heatwave; one day -- unfortunately the one that Cameron and Mark went into Athens -- was as high as 40 C.

One of the hot days, spent on the concrete and at the Acropolis in Athens.

We were not ready for the hot weather, but we were also quite unprepared for the Greek language. Although we had tried to memorize the Greek alphabet and a few key phrases before we left, it seemed just too foreign and out of context. I remembered a few words like please/you're welcome (parakaló or παρακαλώ in Greek) and thank you (efharistó, or ευχαριστώ in Greek) from my trip to Greece many years ago with my friend Kelly, but that seemed to be the limit of what I could take in. Perhaps we've finally hit language overload, with French, German and bits of Italian floating in our heads, but I think the biggest problem with our learning Greek is that many of the letters look entirely different from ours, and some even read "backwards". For example, the symbol that looks like a "p" (ρ) actually makes an "r" sound, and the pi symbol (π) that looks somewhat like an "r" makes a "p" sound.

Deciphering the signs at the bus stops was a lesson in Greek pronunciation!

After our initial worries, though, we didn't have any problems at all because many signs in Greece are also posted in English, and quite a few people there also speak at least some English. We learned a lot about pronunciation from riding the tram, where the signs for each station alternated from Greek to English.

Our apartment in Voula, a suburb of Athens, was very spacious and modern, and -- a first for us -- it included air conditioning. In addition, it boasted several wild cats wandering through the backyard along with three resident turtles. This furnished apartment was one of many that we have rented over the internet, a practice that we'll continue should we ever come back to Europe. We have always enjoyed our stays in typical neighbourhoods of the area rather than a tourist hotel and have often found ourselves chatting with the owner and/or neighbours. When I spoke with Kosta, whose mother-in-law owns the apartment, he said that Greece is very expensive compared to other European countries, and salaries are quite low. People do okay there, he said, because family members help each other out, but most people don't have a lot of money. Many people have to take out loans to go on holidays with their families.

For tourists it seems to be a different story. Unlike some other places in Europe, prices in Greece seemed very reasonable, and no distinction was made between "tourist prices" and local prices. The worst case of this that we saw was in Venice, where a vaporetto ride for locals is 1 €, but for tourists is 6 €. (And for us, multiply that by 4 -- ouch!)

On the way to Aegina

On a French or German train, a small bottle of Coke costs around 2,80 €, but on a Greek ferry, that same bottle costs 0,80 €. Before boarding the ferry, I bought three large pastries for 5 € at the Piraeus metro station, but the same food at the train station in Strasbourg would have cost almost 10 €.

The only unfortunate aspect of our stay in the apartment was that it seemed to be quite far away from the things that we wanted to do; the upside of this was that we really learned how to use the public transportation system! When we first arrived we took an airport express bus to get to our apartment; we used the lengthy tram system to get into Athens; we used the tram and then the metro to get to the ferry at Piraeus; and we used a local bus to go to Lake Vouliagmenis.

Riding the tram

It's a bit of a panic to use the bus/tram system in Greece, because the bus or tram doesn't stop unless a rider signals a stop or someone waiting to get on flags it down. For people who don't speak Greek or know where they're going, this can be a problem! On the buses we always made sure to ask the driver if it was the right bus and then checked with him part way through the ride to ensure that he remembered us and our stop! We were treated very hospitably by all of the bus drivers, but especially by the driver who took us to Lake Vouliagmenis even though we didn't have tickets (we didn't know that you couldn't pay on the bus).

Despite the hot weather, we had a great time. Our outings included a few mornings at the beach, a trip into Athens to see some of the famous ruins, a ferry boat ride to Aegina, the island closest to Athens, and a lovely day spent at Lake Vouliagmenis, a mineral salt water lake kept at a constant 25 C (even in winter) by underground hot springs.

Lake Vouliagmenis

The day that we went, it was so hot that the water felt very cool and inviting, and we spent most of the day while not in the water just relaxing at our table in the shade of a large umbrella. As this was the day before we left on our return to Strasbourg, it was a lovely finale to our "vacation". The trip to Greece was an unanticipated expense, especially at this stage of our stay in Europe, but we all agreed that it was well worth it.

See our pictures on Flickr. (I'm slowly catching up with pictures that haven't been posted for weeks due to a very bad internet connection.)

Update: I've just come back from watching the kids perform at their end-of-year concert. It was so great to hear them play with the "band"! I've posted three (very short) videos on YouTube, and you can see them on the kids' blog: http://viewegkids.blogspot.com/2008/06/performing.html

Email us! Do you have any summer holiday plans? christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

Our neighbourhood in Strasbourg

2008-05-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

We're in between "gigs" right now. Yesterday saw the departure of our latest group of guests, Mark's sister Barbara and nieces Natasha and Erica; and Friday we leave for Greece. Hopefully we can use the next few days to clean up some school work and learn the Greek alphabet!

In the meantime, I'm already getting a little nostalgic for Strasbourg, and we're still living here! I think this has been precipitated by the baby steps that we're taking towards moving back to Canada. Mark has been talking to people at work, we're planning our schedule to visit Mark's parents in Manitoba, and we're registering the kids at a science camp in Rocky Mountain House in mid-July.

With the end in mind, I've started looking at our pictures in a new light: as souvenirs, rather than as markers of our day-to-day lives. I still feel the need to capture some particular images of our lives here, so I'm making a list. However, I've got a collection started, and below are a few of the memories that I want to keep: images from our Strasbourg "neighbourhood".

The Ill River

The Ill River, a tributary of the Rhine, splits and flows around the centre of the city of Strasbourg. This was the view from one foot bridge to another near the Place République at the beginning of March. I was so amazed that the leaves were out on the trees already.

The Paris Store: Hypermarché Asiatique

The Paris Store is the best Asian foods store in Strasbourg, and it's right across the street from our apartment. You can buy some really crazy stuff here, and it's cheap! (in a good way).

Place de la Cathèdrale

Located about a 10-minute walk from our apartment, the Cathèdrale Nôtre Dame is the number one tourist attraction in Strasbourg. The Office de Tourisme is located in the place, so the cathedral was one of the first sights we saw, although it was a few months before we explored the interior and climbed the 328 steps to the viewing platform.

Evening view from the apartment

Strasbourg is a happening place, with new construction and reconstruction projects happening everywhere. We've been told that Alsace is a rich area with special deals negotiated with the French government; we feel safe here, partly due to a large police presence.

Fishing on the Ill River

According to one of Mark's German cousins, the French consider fishing any time and anywhere to be one of their God-given rights (the French have a lot of these). According to us, this just doesn't look like real fishing!

Parc du Fossé des Remparts

We spend a lot of time at this park, whose entrance is about a kilometre away from the apartment. Mark and I both use it as a jogging/walking trail; one lap is just over 2 km. We have watched the wildlife in the park -- ducks, coots and nutria -- over the seasons, and admired the carefully tended family garden plots.

Petite France

Petite France, also a 10-minute walk from our apartment, must be tourist destination #2 in Strasbourg. This collection of ancient half-timbered buildings, some dating back to the 1500s, embodies the spirit of Alsace.
Photographer's Note: the young model pictured here against the ancient building is Chris's mom.

We've got the best of both worlds right now: still in France, but happily anticipating our return to Canada. I'll be keeping my camera ready to capture the bits and pieces of our lives here before we leave.

Email us! christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

Read the kids' blog: http://www.viewegkids.blogspot.com/

See our Flickr pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

Hiking to châteaux

2008-05-09T02:51:00.000-07:00

One of Meghan's wishes this year was that we could hike to a castle, one that wasn't restored so she could wander around and explore it at will. So far we have visited three castles, and two have fit her requirements.

Heidelberger Schloss

Our first castle trip was back in November when we visited the Heidelberger Schloss. Technically it's not a hike, but we did have to walk about 2 km from the train station to reach it. It's a huge, amazing complex, but it wasn't quite up to Meghan's standards as it has been partially reconstructed. We also had to pay an entrance fee (another bad sign), and visitors are not allowed into any of the inner rooms except for the few that have been converted to other uses, like the apotheke (pharmacy) museum and a commercial wine shop.

Huge wine vats in the cellar at Heidelberger Schloss

We struggled a little with the cold that day -- it was our first taste of European winter, and we weren't ready for it. Walking through the freezing and drafty stone buildings, it was easy to get a sense of how cold they must have been back in the days when castles were actually people's homes.

In contrast, the other two chateaux have been more to Meghan's (and our) liking. In contrast to the first, we hiked to the other two in spring when the weather was warmer, and it may have made a difference to how we felt about them. At the end of March we went on a hike to Chateau D'Andlau, just outside of Barr, when our friends from Burns Lake were visiting.

Château D'Andlau

In front of an old stone fireplace at Château D'Andlau

The château, which looks very imposing from a distance, is mostly a ruin that you can explore from the inside out. All of the wooden pieces of the château have long since rotted, leaving only the stonework behind, but you could see where the huge fireplaces were, and it was fun speculating where all of the rooms would have been.

The third castle, Château de Wasenbourg, has been the best so far, even in Meghan's opinion. The château was quite a pleasant surprise for us as we had not done a lot of preparation for the trip. Because we had not yet traveled north of Strasbourg, one Saturday in April we got an Alsace train pass for the family (a deal at 26 €) and headed out to Niederbronn-les-Bains, a village that we read about in the Michelin book that my sister Barb left us. One line in the book told of a château which was an hour hike from the town, so we decided to try to find it without any maps or other planning. After some uncertainty about the initial directions, we found the sign that showed we were on the right path. The hiking around the Alsace region in France is amazingly well laid out, with symbols such as red triangles or blue circles indicating the path to follow, and times to landmarks given in minutes and hours -- but you have to step lively to arrive at your destination in the given time! Luckily our château was no exception, and the signs indicated that our hike was 1 hour 15 minutes in duration.

This hike was more of a climb than any we had done so far, but ultimately it was worth it. Coming over the rise at the top of the hill, the first thing we saw was a huge monument created back in Roman times that was built into the stone. It was only when we were right beside it that our attention shifted to the château itself; and according to Meghan, this one was even more fun to explore than Château D'Andlau.

The kids peer over the edge at Château de Wasenbourg

At Château de Wasenbourg, we could sit by the windows at built-in stone seats, and Meghan was able to walk completely around the top part of the château.

How many other people have sat in these ancient stone seats, staring thoughtfully out the window?

We spent about an hour exploring the area; the only thing spurring us back to Niederbronn-les-Bains was our hunger (unfortunately this was one of the few times when we didn't bring enough snacks.) On our way back down, we all agreed that, without even planning it, this turned out to be one of our most successful château hikes!

We hope to see at least one more château before we leave, but we'll have to plan our time carefully. With visits from family and our upcoming trip to Greece, there's not as much time left as we'd like to have before our return to Canada. And we still have so many things left to do!...

Have you done any hiking lately? We'd love to hear about it! christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

See our family pictures on Flickr.

Check out the kids' blog.

Day at Lake Constance

2008-05-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

My mom has been visiting us in Strasbourg for almost two weeks now, and we wanted to show her a little of Germany while she's here. So far she's seen quite a bit; her flight from Calgary landed in Frankfurt, and she's been back several times since then. We wanted to see the Black Forest, so it was an easy decision to make a day trip by train to Lake Constance.

The train ticket is a good deal -- 27 € for up to five people to travel for a day in the Baden-Württemberg area of Germany, which stretches from almost Mannheim in the north to the Swiss border in the south, and from the French border on the west to just past the city of Ulm in the east. Unfortunately we had to tack on the extra cost of a return ticket from Strasbourg to Kehl, the German border town just over the Rhine River from here, which raised the cost an extra 18 €. However, it's still a cheap way to travel!

The train trip was interesting, but most scenic in the middle when we wound our way through the mountains of the Black Forest. In many ways it reminded us of the scenery in northern BC, but in Europe the forests seem a bit more sterile when you see how carefully they log the trees and remember that very few wild creatures exist in these forests now.

Konstanz, Germany

We didn't spend much time in Konstanz, the German city at the end of our train trip. When we first arrived it was a little chilly, and after a brief trip to the tourist information centre, we made a beeline for a restaurant. When I say "beeline", I'm talking about a bee that can't actually remember where the hive is, because we did our usual zig-zagging from this café to that sandwich bar, rejecting them for the usual reasons: the kids won't eat that; it's too expensive; they only serve sandwiches.... We finally found a nice little café that served exactly the right type of food for the right price, and we had such German delicacies as pea soup with wieners, fried potatoes with vegetables and cheese sauce, and käsespäeztle, (noodles with cheese).

While we were eating we discussed alternatives for the day. This was one of the few times that we didn't have a goal in mind before we left: we had no map, no idea what attractions were in Konstanz, and no plan other than to ride the train through the Black Forest. In the end we decided that we would like to go for a boat trip on the lake, so after lunch we walked back towards the train station and lake shore. As we were looking around the boat docks, a passenger ferry rolled in which was headed to Meersburg on the other side of the lake, so we hopped on. (Of course all of this was due to Mark's good German and fine detective skills!) The brief ferry ride -- only 30 minutes -- was a lot of fun. We ordered a yummy apple strudel and ice cream treats, and the kids had a good time exploring the deck of the boat. Lake Constance is quite spectacular, and part of the charm for me was knowing that I was riding the waves in sight of three different European countries -- Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Meersburg, Germany

Meersburg is a cheerful-looking tourist town built into a hill, so we did a lot of climbing up steep stairs and streets. The kids found a playground half way up the stairs and stopped to play for a while. When we finally made the summit, we were treated to a wonderful view down Lake Constance towards Austria.

View looking east down Lake Constance from Meersburg, Germany

Unfortunately, we couldn't stop for long; we only had about 90 minutes before we had to get back on the ferry in order to make the train back to Strasbourg. On the way down we picked up some pastries and drinks in a tiny grocery store which we promptly wolfed down as soon as we got on the train. After our 2 1/2 hour return train trip, we arrived back home in Strasbourg just before 9 p.m., pleasantly tired from our day of travel and sightseeing.

Email us! christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

Buying groceries and other shopping in Strasbourg

2008-04-20T05:30:00.001-07:00

Since we came to France almost eight months ago, we haven't really "shopped", and it's been a liberating experience. We have never really bought things just for the sake of having them, and we are not collecting things here for the simple reason that we either have to leave them here or take/ship them back to Canada with us when we go. Both options are expensive. So when the kids ask, "Can we get this?" or when I wonder if we should buy something, the easy answer is, "No", and the reasoning is always the same. Like I said, liberating!

Nevertheless, the temptation to spend money is everywhere, and the possibilities for parting with your money are endless: from the petite Mom and Pop épicerie (grocery store) or shoe store to the huge mall of the type that you see in North America; and from the strange mechanized Casino grocery to the typically European marchés (open street markets).

You can buy eggs, bread and milk on your way home from the train at this automated épicerie (grocery store).

Daily market at the cathedral square in Freiburg, Germany.

One day of the week that you can hold on to your money (if you stay out of the tourist areas) is Sunday. Most stores in Strasbourg are closed on this day, and families use the opportunity to visit the parks or aller lèche-vitrine (an odd-sounding phrase for going window shopping). During the week many businesses still hold on to the custom of closing between 12 and 2 p.m. each day, something that has frustrated us on many occasions when we have forgotten. Conversely, when you're really hungry and want to spend your money you find that many restaurants are only open for déjeuner (lunch) from 12 to 2 p.m., making a late-afternoon meal very hard to find, especially in the smaller communities.

While we can avoid buying "things", we still have to eat, and thus we can't avoid grocery shopping, a chore that we do every one to three days. We can't really buy a week's worth of anything here, partly because we have a tiny fridge in the apartment, and partly because we either have to use the tram or good old foot power to get the groceries home. Luckily we live only a 300 m walk from Place des Halles, a mall in the centre of Strasbourg, and located there is Galleries Gourmandes, a full-service grocery store.

The kids avoid grocery shopping with us whenever possible.

Although the major grocery stores look much like their North American counterparts, there are some obvious differences. For example, in Galleries Gourmandes, the cheese, chocolate and wine sections are huge.

And not only is wine plentiful, it can also be cheap. It's possible to buy a bottle for 0,92 € (about $1.50). Now, I'm not saying it's good wine... just very affordable. : )

About 1/3 of the cheese section at Galleries Gourmandes -- the self-serve part.

More cheese counter -- cheese cut to your specifications and service with a smile.

In contrast, chewing gum is horribly expensive, as is anything North American. You can get Old El Paso salsa, for example, but you pay about 4 € (over $6) for a small jar. For a while we paid almost 4 € for a block of four instant Asian-style noodles, before discovering that a block of six cost about 0,50 € at the Asian foods store right across from our apartment.

While baking (and the supplies to bake with) are easy to find in North America, it's almost impossible here. I have begun to suspect that most French people don't make their own desserts. And why would they, with the choice available in thousands of patisseries and grocery stores in the city? I think that's why flour is only available in 1 kg bags, and rolled oats in 500 g boxes, and why it's impossible to locate baking powder! We have solved this problem by simply not baking anymore... sigh... and getting our dessert-fix at the patisserie like everyone else does.

Being unable to bake North American style has been a ... ahem... very sad experience for us.

Let us know what you're cooking tonight! christinateskey @ yahoo . ca or mvieweg @ gmail . com

Click on the link to see our photos

Read the kids' blog

Visitors!

2008-04-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

The last three weeks have been a whirlwind of activity for us (and thus the lack of fresh blog postings). Our apartment has been a multinational gathering place as we have entertained visitors from both Canada and Germany.

The first to arrive was my sister Pat, one day ahead of her daughter, Blaire, who both flew to the Frankfurt airport and then took the train to Strasbourg. Pat's arrival was somewhat uneventful, but the day that she got here we were left wondering if Blaire would even make it. When Pat phoned Darla, another of her daughters, to say that she had arrived safely, Darla informed her that Blaire hadn't been so lucky with her trip. Blaire had actually missed her flight due to a tragic motor vehicle accident on Deerfoot Trail in Calgary, which caused all traffic to be halted for three hours. Luckily, though, she was able to get on another flight that left early in the evening, and she showed up at the Strasbourg train station the next afternoon, almost before we knew that she was in the country.

We spent a few chilly days over Easter weekend walking around Strasbourg with Pat and Blaire, investigating some old churches and traipsing through Petite France to see the ancient buildings. On Easter Monday we headed off to Paris to meet our friends from Burns Lake and left Pat and Blaire with intentions to go on a hike around Barr, just south of Strasbourg. However, the weather and a mix-up in bus and train schedules foiled their plans. If you ask them about their day, they'll both get wild looks in their eyes and mutter something about the freezing cold, an internet café, overeating, and an illegal Turkish gambling ring!

Our plans worked out a little more smoothly, and after meeting up with Ray, Wendy, Nikki and Brooklyn at their hotel, we had a good, if also very cold, day in Paris. We waited in line for about two hours before finally getting in to see the Eiffel Tower. It's quite an amazing structure, and the view from the top is spectacular. Had I been alone, though, I probably wouldn't have taken the time or paid the money to go up (just as we didn't when my friend Kelly and I were in Paris all those years ago!) However, it seems to be one of those rites of passage that you must go through as a tourist to Paris -- especially when you're with kids. Although we had had plans to walk the Champs Elysées, it was late in the afternoon after our visit to the Eiffel Tower, and we had to head to the train station to catch the TGV back to Strasbourg.

We spent the rest of the visit in Strasbourg, interspersed with trips to Germany and Switzerland. Highlights of the visit with our Burns Lake friends included an overnight trip to Freiburg, Germany; a trip to Europa Park, an amusement park in Rust, Germany, where Ray and Mark waited in a special lineup for the front seats on the ultimate thrill ride, the Silver Star, a roller coaster with speeds up to 127 km/h; a hike through vineyards and forest to an ancient castle; and a day trip to Basel, Switzerland, where we had a nice, if expensive, lunch and crossed the Rhine River on a reaction ferry. In Strasbourg we climbed the cathedral stairs to the viewing platform 100m high; wandered around the Place Cathédrale; took the Ill River tour; and visited a few of the city's parks. Pat and Blaire went their own way at times, with Blaire staying in Paris for a few days to visit with friends, while Pat was able to meet us in Freiburg on our second day there. Pat and Wendy also managed to get in some shopping when the rest of us weren't looking!

At the end of the visit we were sad to say goodbye to our family and friends -- Meghan especially enjoyed having the company of her best friend, Brooklyn. However, we only had a few days grace before we entertained some of Mark's relatives from Germany. Fritz (who is Mark's father's cousin), his wife Annemarie, his son Arno and Carmen, Arno's wife, along with their two children Jan and Amelie, came to Strasbourg by train for a short afternoon visit last Saturday. Annemarie brought us a very nice book about Offenburg, and we all had some French tartes and coffee. We had a nice chat with them (cheers to Arno and Carmen for their good English!) and then walked them back to the train station just before supper time. This departure, unlike the ones of our Canadian guests, wasn't so much a "good-bye" as a "see you soon", as we had already made plans for another gathering of family in Offenburg later in April.

After all of the visitors, it took us a few days to get back into our usual activities, but now we have settled into our routine of home schooling and exploring Strasbourg and the surrounding area. The kids were somewhat refreshed by the break and are now working hard to try to finish their studies early. We are looking forward to breaks in our schedule with visits from my mom and Mark's brother Steven and his wife, Chris, a trip to Greece, and a possible trip back to Berlin for Mark. Sadly, we already have the smallest feelings that our adventure is coming to an end, but we are determined to make the most of our last three months and the warm weather that we know is just around the corner!

Email us: christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

See our family photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

Interesting Uses of English in France

2008-03-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

One thing I've discovered since coming to a country where I have only a slight grip on the language is that many people don't like to go outside of bounds of their linguistic competence. You see this reflected in the types of vacations that are advertised by travel agents in Strasbourg -- to L'ile de Réunion, Algérie, Tunisie, Senegal, Québec, etc. What these places all have in common is that people speak French there. I can understand wanting to travel to a place where the language isn't a barrier, though -- it's a big investment, and most people want to feel comfortable on their vacation.

Within the country, the French also try to keep a tight grip on their language, not often allowing foreign words in. Sometimes, however, words sneak in and become part of the language, whether they're welcome or not. Thus you have people wishing you "Bon Weekend!" on Friday, or you might go "faire le shopping" to buy your groceries or some new clothes (although it can still be called "faire les courses"). At some boulangeries (bakeries) you can buy a "sandwich americaine", conveniently stuffed with greasy pommes frites (French fries, to us.) At the patisserie (pastry shop) you can buy "les brownies", a dessert that must have made it into France so fast that they didn't have time to change the name to something more French.

What always makes me smile, though, is when the words in the other language don't quite make sense in the given context. Occasionally, proprietors will throw a word or two of another language into their shop names, possibly wanting to seem forward-thinking, hip or adventurous. Of course I can't really comment on the use of German or any other language, but the English ones usually catch my attention. Here are a few examples:

We came across this sign in Nice, where there are so many British tourists that the residents actually do speak more English than a lot of other places in France. With this store, however, I got the feeling that they just brainstormed a bunch of words that evoke a warm seaside vacation and threw them in a hat. Then they picked as many as they could and jammed them onto their sign.

I can understand why this business didn't make it (it's been closed since we moved here). I think this is an instance of people trying to be creative with a foreign language even though they may not understand all of the meanings of a word. I don't think this means that you can get actual rabbit pizza here -- although it wouldn't surprise me, since you can buy whole rabbit (lapin) at the grocery store. I'm sure they just meant that they make the pizzas fast, but as an anglophone and a person who doesn't make it a habit to consume rabbit regularly, the two concepts just don't belong together.

The word "sexy" is always guaranteed to catch people's attention. But a price? I don't really get it. (I know, I know, I fell for it. It caught my attention.)

They don't really mean that it's free, do they? I'll bet they're just teasing to get us monolingual English speakers in the door so they can make their sales pitch! (In French, of course!)

This one they got wrong, and right, in a punny sort of way. It's not the sort of general store we know from North American history, where you could buy everything from candy to farm implements. Instead this store sells military-looking clothing and accessories.

There are an extraordinary number of businesses in Strasbourg that offer to help you find work; we have at least three on our block alone. Many of them have English-sounding names, including the now politically incorrect (in North America, anyway) Manpower. In France, where every noun has a gender, the idea of neutering the language to avoid giving a name a masculine or feminine slant would be laughable.

And finally, I'm not sure that I would buy a package tour from a company that sells "norest" voyages. I think these are the ones with the lumpy beds, flashing neon lights outside your curtainless window, and the band in the bar below your room belting out endless renditions of La Bamba.

Email us! christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

Check out the kids' blog: http://www.viewegkids.blogspot.com/

Sneak a peek at our pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

The Saga of the Carte de Séjour

2008-03-12T10:03:00.000-07:00

We got a letter in the mail late in February that sent shivers down my spine. It told us to present ourselves to the préfecture to renew our temporary residency permits. The real trouble was that they had sent the letter the day that our permits had expired, and now it was two days later. We were officially illegal aliens!

To understand how we had become such desperate fugitives from the law, we must return to last autumn, specifically mid-September, 2007. As required, we had presented ourselves at the préfecture within two months of arriving in France. The préfecture is a huge office where all sorts of mind-numbing bureaucratic processes -- like getting a driver's licence, or applying for a passport or residency permit -- take place. This is the place where you take a ticket to get in line to speak to someone where they direct you to take another ticket to speak to someone else. And heaven help you if you've taken the wrong type of ticket! When we spoke to the first person we got a list of about 15 documents (plus two copies of each) that we had to provide. These include some of the 72 (or so) pages of documents that we prepared when we applied for the long-stay visa back in Canada (which they graciously warn you to bring with you), but also some new ones that we never needed we knew. It was also at this time that we were informed we had to go see a doctor, but we managed to put it out of our heads because seeing a doctor in France was about the last thing we wanted to do!

The saga continued as we arrived home from Germany in late November, when we found two letters waiting in our mailbox. The first was a note from the Ministry of Foreigners telling us that we owed 275€ each (about $800 CAD total). The second was a letter that directed us to what looked like two separate medical appointments on the same day. Because we had been trapped in Germany during the train strike, we had missed the appointments (oh, darn!) The letter that said we owed money was interesting, mostly due to the manner in which we were to pay. (This took a very long time to decipher, because we really couldn't believe it!) At the bottom of the letter was a representation of five stamps each worth 55€. We were both supposed to buy the five stamps (available at certain stores), and then lick them and paste them to the bottom of the letter, which was then to be returned to the préfecture. This is just about the oddest way I have ever seen to pay for something!

Not seeing any other choice, we gritted our teeth, bit the bullet, (add whatever other metaphor you can come up with for doing something you don't really want to do) and took ourselves off to the first medical appointment, where we were directed to strip from the waist up, jammed against a very chilly plate, and then escorted out the door with our freshly exposed chest x-rays in hand. This was a bit of a shock for both of us, considering we had no idea what kind of office we were in when we first arrived! By contrast, the actual doctor's appointment was a breeze (when they were finally able to reschedule us for mid-January, after we'd missed the first appointment). We had a pleasant chat with a nice gentleman who spoke very good English and told us that many people who try to come to France have tuberculosis, which must be treated before they can receive a residency permit. When we left the office, he told us that we could just wait for another letter from the préfecture before we had to do anything more about our residency status.

So on this warm February day, not at all used to being illegal aliens, we hied ourselves off to the préfecture, leaving the kids standing in our dust at the tram station where we had all been waiting to go for a family outing. (Mark had met us at the tram station and just happened to check the mail before he left the apartment). When we arrived at the préfecture, we were disappointed to find out that the tax man had finally caught up with us. The only thing standing between us and our permanent residency cards was the little matter of the 550€. Although we had known about the fee for months, we had always hoped to avoid paying it through some tangle of bureaucracy. But pay for it we did, our only consolation being that we didn't have to lick the stamps. In return, we received our shiny new permanent Cartes de Séjour (good until September 12, 2008, tourist use only). And so ended our two-day brush on the seamier side of life, most of which we sailed through quite comfortably and unknowingly.

We love your emails! christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

Our pics on Flickr

Cameron and Meghan's blog

Visiting in Goxwiller

2008-03-07T05:18:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we made a trip to Goxwiller to see our friends Rachel and Eric. We first met them and their two girls on a shuttle bus at the Paris airport last August while transferring to our Strasbourg-bound plane. Rachel spotted the Canadian flag luggage tag hanging from my backpack and asked us where we were from. We had a lively discussion with them (in English) and found out that they had just come back from a fairly long holiday in Canada -- Manitoba, no less! (Mark's family lives there). During the conversation Rachel gave me a business card that advertised their gîte (vacation rental home), and asked us to call them, which we promised to do. We contacted them a few times in November and December, but with all the travel that we were doing, it was hard to plan a visit. Finally, on a warm winter weekend in February, it all came together.
We couldn't get good train connections to Goxwiller and back on a Sunday, so instead we took the train to Gertwiller and then walked over. The weather was absolutely gorgeous; the sun was beating down from a cloudless blue sky, and it felt at least 20 C -- so hot that Mark and I were down to our T-shirts by the middle of the journey. We had a leisurely two-kilometre walk on mostly paved paths and narrow back roads through the now-dormant grapevines. On our way we met numerous families, couples and groups out for a stroll, and we called out a friendly "Bonjour!" to every one.

At Rachel and Eric's house we were treated to Gewurztraminer, a sweeter wine which is produced in this region and is often offered as an aperitif; kugelhopf (an Alsatian sweet bread); and pain d'épice (gingerbread). The kids graciously accepted a drink of syrop de pêche-litchi (fruit syrup) mixed with water, a very common offering for children in France.

The kids stayed for part of the visiting, then left to explore the fields behind the village and look for the pet rabbit. As the adults talked, we found to our surprise that Rachel and Eric had been visiting friends in Portage La Prairie in August and had even been out to Delta Beach, a well-known recreation area north of Portage. Since we had also been visiting with Mark's parents in Portage at the same time, including a trip to Delta Beach, we speculated that we had possibly passed each other on the street or path without knowing! Times like this remind us what a small world we live in.

On our way back to the tiny train station in Goxwiller (really just a covered bench), Rachel and Eric showed us a baker's house that had been built in the 17th century. It has been restored as part of a community project which entailed learning about the old construction techniques. Members of the community gather there once a month to cook a traditional meal in the baker's oven and take part in cultural activities.

With the combination of the beautiful weather and the opportunity to visit with Rachel and Eric again, we all had a wonderful afternoon. Meghan especially enjoyed the trip because it allowed her to get out in the country again, something she has been missing since we left our house on the lake. I felt very privileged to be sitting in the back yard of friends in the middle of Alsace on a sunny winter day, taking part in a conversation that slipped back and forth between English and French. We hope to see them again soon, and we might take Eric up on his offer to drive us to some of the nearby sights that are difficult to get to on foot. Eric says he enjoys driving in Rome (where the drivers are crazy!), so it should be an exciting ride!

Other places of interest:

Cameron and Meghan's blog

Flickr pictures

Email us! christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

Using the toilet

2008-02-27T08:51:00.000-08:00

Self-cleaning automatic toilet stall in Colmar

Sometimes finding a toilet is no easy matter in Europe. And they don't say "bathroom" here, the euphemism we have adopted in North America. In France, the bathroom (salle de bain) is actually the room with the bathtub in it. If you're in a private home, the bathroom may or may not also house the toilet. In our apartment, we're lucky enough to have both a salle de bain and a salle d'eau (water room, when translated to English). I guess this is the French euphemism for "room with the toilet". In many public areas in Europe, you have to spot the sign for WC (stands for Water Closet), the almost international symbol for "toilet" that must have moved east from Great Britain.

The cost to use a public toilet varies from free, which is unusual, to the most expensive one we used at the Berlin Zoo bahnhof (train station) at 1.10 € (about $1.65). In some places men can choose to use the pissoir for a cheaper price. (I call discrimination!) We have found free public toilets at the Coliseum in Rome, in some of the parks and tourist areas in Strasbourg, and in Barr, home of the famous (to us, anyway) wine festival. In mid-range on the toilet expense scale are the "on your honour" toilets and the turnstile-type toilet areas, which generally cost between 0.50 and 0.80 € ($0.75 - $1.20). The coin-operated turnstiles don't give back change, so if you have to go badly enough and the attendant isn't there, you could lose some money. Sometimes this service is contracted out, and we have noticed a company called McClean (the expensive one in Berlin) at other places. (If you click on the link, watch the website load the first time - it's cute!)

If you want to be really rude, you can use an "on your honour" public toilet for free as well. Basically, these are public toilets that have on-site caretakers, and these toilet rooms are always sparkling clean. When you walk in, there is often an anteroom or foyer where the caretaker hangs out, and you will see a saucer with a few coins in it sitting conspicuously on a counter. The caretaker, most likely a woman, will greet you as you go in, and watch (or listen) carefully to see (or hear) that you drop a coin, usually in the range of 0.20 to 0.50 €, in the saucer on your way out. When she hears the familiar clink in the saucer, you are merrily wished on your way. Being the polite person that I am, I would never want to test the waters by leaving without paying, but I imagine that instead of a friendly good-bye, you might be treated to an evil glare.

We were treated to an example of this when we stopped at a Belgian WC in a service station on our last trip to Europe. Mark and Cameron went into the men's room together, and Mark dropped a coin into the dish on his way in, but the very unfriendly-looking woman who managed the WC didn't see him do it. On his way out, when he "forgot" to leave a coin, she followed, berating him all the way. If she had been speaking French, he might have tried to talk with her, but since she was speaking Flemish (we think), he didn't stand a chance. We just played dumb tourists and walked out, feeling badly that she thought we were trying to cheat her. We learned a lesson from this, though: always pay on your way out.

Send us an email! christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

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Learning to speak French

2008-02-22T02:02:00.000-08:00

I'm not a natural linguist, and because of this, learning to speak French is one of the hardest things I've ever done. Some lucky people can go out, mingle with the locals for a night or two, and pick up enough of the language to apply for a job as a waiter the following week. Then there's me, on the other end of the language learning scale: I have to see it, hear it and say it several times before I remember how to use it in conversation.

I studied French in a desultory manner for the first four months, but by Christmas time I finally settled into a structure that includes a variety of experiences.

They are: (links provided if you want to learn some French)

Reading kids' books (short chapter books for kids about 8 - 9 years old are great)
Listening to French language teaching podcasts (I know, the guy's Irish, but he has some great conversations with Amèlie, a native French speaker)
Practicing French over the internet with free language teaching tools
Listening to French TV and news podcasts on the internet
Interacting with people "on the street"
Going to school for two-week sessions
Establishing a "French hour" at home each day
Copying down important words and phrases on flash cards and reviewing them regularly

I have certainly confused people with my feeble attempts at French. Before I went to school the second time, I registered over the internet but hadn't heard back from them for a while. Foolishly, I decided to go in person to the school to see what was up. The only phrase I memorized for the occasion was, "I registered for the course on Monday - is it ok?" Armed with this snippet of conversation, I boldly went to the office on the first floor of the school... only to find out that the office had moved to the third floor, after I was reduced to saying, "École Français?" In the third floor office, I received a blank look from the woman at the desk after spouting my prepared statement. Finally the light dawned for her when I said, "La classe lundi?" (The class on Monday?) and gave her my name. (After I had been in class for a week I learned that I had been telling the office people that I had videotaped (enregistre), not that I had registered for the class.) The nice woman at the office flipped through a stack of registration papers the size of a small mountain before she came to mine.

She picked up the phone, and I understood that she was sending me down to "a colleague", which turned out to be an interview with the director of the school. The director asked me some questions, which I answered in very bad, halting French, asked me some other questions which I didn't understand at all, and then reverted to English (which, unlike my French, was pretty darn good.) She told me in no uncertain terms that my French was very bad. She told me that I would never learn French properly if I didn't stay at school longer, that two weeks here and there was not enough. When she was finished with me, I left wondering why she felt obligated to tell me all those things. Was this punishment for telling everyone in the building that I had videotaped? Had word traveled that fast? I left the school thinking, "This is not a good French day." Looking back, I'm still not sure why she had that little conversation with me. The class was already scheduled, I was registered, and we were good to go. Perhaps she thought to encourage me to register for more sessions -- but if that's the case, she needs a little more work on her selling pitch!

Although apprehensive, all was good again when I went to my class on the following Monday. There I was in the middle of the pack -- far better at grammar than some, but about average in terms of comprehension and speaking. We picked up where I had left off in October, and it was a very good experience. Taking a French class in France certainly forces you to listen to your classmates very carefully, as they speak French with various accents, including German, Italian, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese (that was just the last class!) I was very happy to find that my oral comprehension had improved immensely. Whereas the first time I understood about half of what the instructor said, this time my comprehension was almost perfect. I remember coming home one day and proudly telling Mark, "I understood everything the instructor said today except for two sentences!"

It has occurred to me several times in the past few months that people think I am either somewhat deaf or just not very smart. This actually makes me feel pretty good, because it represents a huge leap for me in my acquisition of the French language. That's because when we first came here and people spoke French to me, I would immediately break down and mumble with chagrin, "Sorry, I don't speak French." Now, however, I give it a try.

"Pardon?" I say, in an effort to buy some time to either formulate the answer in my head or get them to repeat what they said. I find it works much better than hesitating before you speak. When I went to make the appointment to get my hair done, and they asked me whether I would like the morning or the afternoon, it wasn't the French language that was the issue. I was just busy thinking what time would work best for the family. I finally decided that it didn't really matter and said, "Matin" (morning), but by that time I'd been pegged. The guy pencilled me in to the book, then turned to me (I was standing right in front of him) and yelled, "Dix heures!" (10 o'clock) while flashing his 10 fingers at me. I'm still wondering if he thinks I'm a little deaf or just not very smart. : )

Before we came to France -- back in the homeland -- when people asked me if I spoke French, I would say, "Un petit peu" (a little bit). It wasn't until we arrived in France that I realized how little that bit really was! After almost six months here, I usually have good French days; I understand most of what they tell me at the library; I can tell the courier guy that I will come downstairs and sign for a parcel; I can go grocery shopping and cash in my points; and I can go to a restaurant and order wine and green beans. Now when someone asks me if I speak French, I say with confidence, "Un peu"!

Contact us: christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

What colour is your house?

2008-02-17T07:58:00.000-08:00

Scaffolding went up around our building about two weeks ago, but we've only seen the workers for a few odd days. It's a bit disconcerting to live in an apartment with no curtains on the street-side windows and men repairing stucco outside on the fourth floor at 8:30 a.m. It reminds me of the time we built the addition on the house at Tchesinkut Lake. Sleeping on a mattress in the middle of the living room, we often had to scramble to get dressed at 7:00 a.m. when Fred Carpenter, the carpenter, and several of his eight sons cheerfully arrived to start their day. But I digress.... For as long as we've known it, our Strasbourg apartment has been a washed-out orange colour, but apparently it's destined to be bright yellow.

Europeans aren't as reticent as we North Americans about painting buildings with bright hues. And just like a little kid, I'm always thrilled by the jeweled colours of the houses that we have seen as we have travelled around Europe, especially France and Germany. Last week I was in building-picture-taking heaven when we visited Colmar, a small city south of Strasbourg about 30 minutes by train.

Mark had gone to the train station the day before intending to buy tickets for St. Dié, a village in the Vosges mountains. However, no one at the train station really knew St. Dié, and everyone there agreed that Colmar was a very good place to visit, so Mark caved in to his insecurities about St. Dié (does it have two train stations or one? and what if we end up getting dumped off the train in the middle of nowhere?) and came home with tickets for Colmar. (But we're still going to do St. Dié!)

Initially somewhat disappointed, we were happily surprised with Colmar and its tourist experience. The Alsatian half-timbered houses that we see in Petite France in Strasbourg are numerous in Colmar, and even more brightly coloured. Most of their important buildings are signed in French, German, and English, which always makes it more meaningful (literally!) for us. (Even though our French is getting better, it's amazing what little nuances -- and sometimes big meanings! -- you miss when you're reading something that's not in your first language). And in Colmar, unlike most of the other trilingual signage we have seen, the English and German sections were equally as long as the French, signifying that we were getting the full story and not just a brief summary.

At the beginning of our visit, Mark chuckled when he got off the train because he'd overheard a German couple talk about Colmar's wonderful water tower. At the end of the visit, and on our way back to catch the train home, we made a slight detour and found out that the water tower is indeed impressive. The Germans probably knew about it because the tower was built in 1870 during a time that Germany had annexed Alsace. Although old, it was in use as late as 1984. Now I think it just sits there and looks impressive, but not to the kids who, after three hours of wandering around, were tired and just wanted to get back home.

On the way back home we snagged our own compartment in the train, which made for a very relaxing trip back. I had to shake myself out of picture-taking mode, so I tried not to look out the window at all of the colourful houses flashing by.

Even though the trip to Colmar provided some good examples of Alsatian design, I don't think I'll stop taking pictures of the buildings here. After almost six months of living in Strasbourg, I still marvel at the architecture and decoration of the old buildings, which causes me to pause and snap pictures on almost every walk. My family gets tired of waiting for me, but they always appreciate the "slide show" when we get back home.

More pictures at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

Read the kids' blog: http://www.viewegkids.blogspot.com/

Contact us: christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

La jour de la Saint-Valentin

2008-02-14T05:10:00.000-08:00

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Mark made a detour this morning after getting our traditional breakfast baguette, and he arrived home with roses. The French love flowers at any time, but he said that the flower shop was doing a booming business even at 9 a.m. He thoughtfully arranged them in one of the apartment's Alsatian pottery jugs, which made for a pretty picture.

Although I haven't seen much evidence of stores gearing up for St. Valentine's Day, it may be because I haven't been doing a lot of shopping lately. I did snap a picture of a wonderful shop window in Colmar, however, when we visited there last week (please ignore the nasty glare on the picture!). Colmar has some beautiful buildings about which I will post later.

I hope you have a great day with your loved ones!

Lessons from Homeschooling

2008-02-12T12:08:00.000-08:00

We've struggled this year with exactly how to "run" our home school. When we left Canada, I had a vision of all these wonderful projects that we could do together. The kids would be engaged and interested, pushing the learning agenda themselves, sometimes working so late that I would have to demand they put their school work away and go to bed. As usual, though, reality is different from the vision.

Even regular school can be boring at times -- heck, regular school is probably boring a lot of the time for many kids. But at least there you can hang out with your friends and maybe even get into a little trouble once in a while. The lack of interesting things to do is more than made up for by the lack of interesting people to be with. In many cases, the actual work is secondary. Contrast that with home schooling; there's you, the work, and your mother, also known as "the teacher". If you're lucky, "the teacher" has figured out a way to combine the courses so you can work with your brother or sister, who you are currently mad at because he/she has just ___________ your _____________ . (fill in the blanks with your own pet peeve)

We've run the gamut from almost no structure -- when Mark and I would leave the hotel room in search of an apartment and say to the kids on the way out, "Work on your math!" -- to a fairly strict schedule that has the kids finished by 2 p.m. each school day (theoretically).

Amidst all the traveling that we did between September and November, we managed to sneak in a bit of school work. We made it a point to not take any school books with us when we traveled. By the middle of November, however, we began to realize that we needed a bit more regular structure. We started by trying to let the kids schedule their own time. I would lay out 20 one-hour assignments that the kids needed to do each week, and they would organize their schedules to get them done. As time went on, however, we had to lay out more and more "rules", mostly around the use of our two laptop computers:

1. School work and the adults' work gets priority for the computers.
2. The computers can only be used for school work between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.
3. Adults get computer time during the even-numbered hours; kids get the odd-numbered hours.
4. If work isn't completed by Saturday night, school starts Sunday morning at 9 a.m. and continues without breaks (except for a 10-minute break in every hour) until the work is done.
5. And so on...

Far from allowing the kids more freedom, it actually ended up imposing more restrictions on all of us. Looking back, I see that I was decidedly optimistic but crazy to think that it would work.

Eventually we got down to the nitty-gritty: how much work needs to be completed by the end of the year, and how much time we have left to do it. The kids scheduled their 20 one-hour blocks of work (between the hours of 9 .m. and 2 p.m.) in a way that suited them.

Some (ok, most!) days we don't get started by 9 a.m. Then we work after 2 p.m. The goal is to get finished early enough in the afternoon that we have time to go out and explore the city, or do other fun things.

What is interesting to me is the process that we have been through. That order and structure was imposed on them was actually the kids' choice. However, it suits me, too. It has been much better to have a set schedule so that the kids know they will be finished at a certain time each day.

We have had our good days -- like the bridge building project that both the kids took on -- when the home schooling approaches my vision, but it has been a lot of hard work for all of us. We are trying to ensure that the kids achieve the learning outcomes for their grades and have the necessary skills to do well in their next school year. It is an experience that we'll never forget. Through home schooling the kids have produced a blog, painted beautiful watercolours, learned goal-setting and developed some amazing computer skills, among many other things.

As wonderful an opportunity as a year of home schooling can be, I think we'll all breathe a sigh of relief when things are back to normal next year and the kids head off to a "real" school.

How's the winter going for you? write us: christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

See our pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

See the kids' beautiful watercolours and read some of their writing: http://www.viewegkids.blogspot.com/

Musée Alsacien and Musée Historique

2008-02-08T11:18:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday (free museum day in France) we made it to two museums; or Mark and I did, as we allowed the kids to "escape" after the first one. The Alsatian Museum is contained within three adjoining historic houses along the Ill River in Strasbourg, and the artifacts are spread throughout many rooms. Mark and I were lagging behind, snapping pics and really delving into the history of Alsace, when Meghan said to me, "You know, I'm interested in this to a point." Her point being, of course, that we were taking far too long and had moved far past her point of interest. After that, the kids went ahead of us and had fun exploring the museum on their own as we all followed the arrows through the maze of rooms.

After leaving the Alsatian Museum, Mark and I decided to take a brief look at the nearby Musée Historique, which details the history of the city of Strasbourg. We thought it would be just a quick visit, mostly because I was hungry (it was lunch time), and partly because we had sent the kids home ahead of us. Two hours later, having rushed through the last two hundred years of history, and ravenous (well, me anyway!), we stumbled out into the crisp winter afternoon sunlight. I was very impressed with the museum and felt that we couldn't just rush through it. Not only was the admission free that day, but we were also given free (English!) audio guides and a place to safely lock our coats during the visit, little perks that encouraged us to stay longer than we had intended. True to French form, though, getting in wasn't totally straightforward: after receiving our free entrance tickets, we were each handed a token which had to be deposited in a turnstyle around the corner to allow us into the museum. Why let one system suffice when two or more can be created to do the same thing? : )

On the way home we bought petit pain chocolat, beignets choco (like jelly doughnuts, but stuffed with chocolate creme), rum and raisin macaroons, and bretzel salé, the salted dough pretzels that are popular here. Although starving, I managed to keep it down to one bretzel salé, which I happily munched as we walked home in the sun.

We really enjoyed both of the museums and have plans to go back to the Musée Historique, either with guests or on our own. Perhaps it's good that my stomach ruled the afternoon, because at least part of the museum will be fresh for us.

Contact us: christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

Lots more pics at Flickr pictures

Freiburg for Riverdance

2008-02-04T09:50:00.000-08:00

We made another trip last week, this time to Freiburg, Germany, and it felt good to be back on the road. We really enjoy train travel, and we haven't really done any since we returned from Italy. (And no, the 11-minute trip to Kehl to buy the train tickets doesn't count!)

When we booked the tickets, we asked about a Bahn card, which entitles you to discounts on all of your German train tickets. We're still not sure if they're only available to German citizens or anyone with a European address. The ticket man, who has come to know our story fairly well, asked if we had a Strasbourg address when we told him where we are living. We were able to get the card, but we think it might be due to the special relationship that Strasbourg has with Germany, Strasbourg being so close the border.

The train trip was short and fairly uneventful. It was the first time that we have used second-class tickets, although not the first time we've been in a second class car, as some trains only have second class. It was not necessarily our choice to travel first class at the beginning of the trip (but it's kinda nice!); however, our Eurail passes could only be purchased for first class. It didn't make much of a difference to us financially when we purchased the Eurail passes last June, as both Mark and I were still working. However, now that we're relying on our savings to buy our tickets, we can only justify first class if it's not much more expensive than second. Most European trains are fairly comfortable, so it doesn't really make sense to splurge for first class, especially on the short runs.

We did splurge, however, on the hotel, and I was in for a surprise when we got there. I discovered that I don't really like expensive, sanitized, western-style hotels anymore. The environment in the room is very sterile, and you don't get any sense of the culture. Sitting in that hotel in Freiburg, Germany, I could have been in any city in Canada or the US, except for the fact that I couldn't understand the TV channels (ok , so I could understand BBC World News!) Prior to this we have rented private furnished apartments, and even though I have often resented hoofing it through an unknown city looking for the apartment after a long train ride, the exercise really does give you an idea of the layout and culture of the place. Contrast that to our arrival in Freiburg , where we got off the train, looked out at the city and spotted our hotel, which was a two-minute walk from the train station. By the time we got to the hotel room, I felt disoriented. Luckily Mark and Cameron took off back to the train station, where they located a transit map, figured out how to get to the arena for the concert that night, and bought us tram/train tickets.

The Riverdance performance was pretty amazing. We've seen it on DVD before, so the element of surprise was gone, but it is absolutely awesome to hear the Irish step dancing in person. The arena just thunders with the impeccably timed sound of the many performing feet. I have a thing for loud rhythmic sounds, so the Celtic drumming also gives me a thrill (must be the Irish in me). At the end of the concert, we missed the train by about 10 minutes, and rather than waiting in the cold and dark station for the next one (about 45 minutes), we took a cab back to the hotel. It's lucky that we have Mark's German to fall back on - and lucky that he remembered the phone number to call - as I'm not sure we would have managed that one in English!

Mark and I got up early the next morning and left the kids in the hotel so that we could go out and explore the city centre. Freiburg has an amazing cathedral, one to rival Strasbourg's. Mark read that you have to climb 328 steps to reach the platform - surprisingly, almost the exact number of steps to Strasbourg's cathedral platform. We chose not to climb it but to save that little trek to do with kids some other time (by this time we'd already decided that we would come back). Another interesting feature of Freiburg is the gutters filled with running water. Legend has it that if you accidentally step into a gutter you will marry someone from Freiburg. Since I'm already married and the kids are far too young to wait around in Europe for marriage, we kept everyone well away from them! (This was not hard since the kids were lollygagging back at the hotel).

The trams are also amazing, another feature that Freiburg has in common with Strasbourg. They are narrower than Strasbourg's, and have a funkier look. Most are painted wild colours (no two the same). In order to ride the train to the concert the evening before, we had purchased 24-hour tickets, so after we gathered up the kids and checked out of the hotel, we hopped the tram and did a complete circuit of the city on two different tram lines. Admittedly, once you get out of the city centre, the view becomes a little more modern, plain and less interesting, but it was still fun to watch the city go by and relax at the same time.

After doing a bit of shopping in the underground boutiques at the train station (Meghan is still struggling to find things on which to spend her Christmas money), we hopped the train back to Strasbourg. Although brief, we all enjoyed it and are looking forward to our return later in the spring.

Contact us: mvieweg @ gmail.com or christinateskey @ yahoo.ca

See the pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t

Feel free to leave comments on the blog! If you've tried before and are wondering why it didn't show up, it's because I have comment moderation turned on. This means that your comment comes to me for approval before it gets posted on the blog. The only reason I've done this is to keep spammers from making nasty comments or leaving less-than-desirable links in the comments. Don't let it stop you!

Overnight Guest

2008-01-19T05:54:00.000-08:00

This past week we had a somewhat unexpected visitor: Mark's brother Steve, who works for the Certified Management Accountants of Canada. He was in India for meetings, and when he found out that Strasbourg is only 87 miles from Frankfurt (one of his stopovers) he made arrangements to visit us. This entailed a flurry of emails back and forth between Mark and Steve. At one point Mark worriedly asked me to interpret one of Steve's messages, thinking that we had the date wrong and that Steve would arrive in Strasbourg in 15 minutes instead of the 24 hours we thought we had! It turns out that Steve tracks the plane from the moment it leaves the previous departure point so that he knows if his flight will leave on time. We'd never heard of that before, and it gave us a bit of a start! You might understand by now that we had a bit of cleaning to do. : )

After Steve arrived we had a very convivial afternoon and evening together. In the afternoon we condensed the whole tour of Strasbourg down to Petite France and the Notre Dame cathedral with a side of Place Kléber and Place de l'Homme de Fer on the way home. In the evening we had our traditional raclette and then watched with amazement as Steve managed to stay up until 10:30 p.m., despite the change in time zones and his only getting 4 hours of sleep on the plane the night before.

In the morning I had to rush off to French language school, but Mark and the kids had another short visit with Steve before escorting him back to the train station for his 10:49 a.m. departure to Frankfurt. All in all, it was a great visit, partly due to the fact that it was so unexpected, but mostly due to the fact that Steve is such a super guy (you can correct me on any of this if you like, Steve, as I can always edit my posts.) : )

Send a message and let us know how you're doing! Email works better than a bottle, and is less polluting:

mvieweg @ gmail.com
christinateskey @ yahoo.ca

Read the kids blog:

http://viewegkids.blogspot.com/

See our pictures on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

Here's a short clip of an ambulance going by on our busy street:

Musée d'Arts Moderne et Contemporain

2008-01-13T10:09:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday we visited Strasbourg’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. In an effort by the French government to get more people out to museums, one can visit them for free on the first Sunday of each month. (I have read that they will be running a trial with 14 museums to include more free days).

It’s probably a good thing that we didn’t read about the museum in the Michellin Guide before we went, because I’m not sure I would have gone if I had! As it was, we gave ourselves about two hours, which is our maximum tolerance for standing around quietly staring at other people’s interpretations of “Sunset” or “Infinity” – and that’s just the adults. : ) We planned to be there right for the 10 a.m. opening in order to escape the hordes of people that we were sure would show up. However, owing to our usual inability to get everyone out the door in a timely manner (Mark says it’s like herding cats), we arrived at the museum about 30 minutes after opening. We had a bit of trouble getting in – we weren’t sure how the door worked, and there was no one around so we didn’t really know where to go. Once we got in through the cool circular entranceway, however, were treated to our free tickets and an almost empty museum through which to roam.

The museum holds both temporary and permanent items. We saw a photography exhibit; theatre, travel and newspaper posters from 1890-1910; paintings by Gustave Doré, who was born in Strasbourg; and many strange contemporary art installations including some dirty dish towels hanging from a rack, and an almost full-sized but completely empty house. Here are our favourites:

Cameron: a large installation of fluorescent lights tacked up on scrap plywood and two-by-fours that spans three rooms in the museum.

Mark: A copy of Rodin’s The Thinker. When we visited France two years ago, Mark was disappointed not to be able to go to Calais where he thought The Thinker was housed. (I find out now that it's at the Musée Rodin in Paris). He’s had a yen to see it ever since he read a book about Rodin’s life many years ago. It might not be the real thing, but it was neat to see anyway!

Meghan: A large contemporary painting.

Chris: It’s a toss-up between the stained-glass window panels and the tiled walls. Both of them appeal to the geometer in me.

We spent just over two hours at the museum and went home in time for lunch. It was a good morning. Part of the charm was that it was free, but we were all happily surprised by the interesting variety of art that we saw.

Drop us a line! We love to hear from you.

christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

See our pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T04:34:00.000-08:00

We had an amazing New Year's Eve! We were up until 1:30 a.m. listening to and watching all of the crazy French people light their fireworks and fire crackers in the street. (They were still at it when we finally crashed, but I was tired enough to sleep through it.) We also saw a few ambulances and "Protection Civile" vehicles scream by with their sirens on. I think the hospitals must have been busy - one of those night shifts that no one wants to work.

We wish you all the best in 2008, wherever you may be.

See our pictures on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

Check here for a short clip at the Christmas market in Place Cathédrale:

Email us:
christinateskey @ yahoo.ca
mvieweg @ gmail.com

Italy: Venice and Rome

2007-12-23T08:07:00.000-08:00

We left for Venice early a few Tuesdays ago, first hopping a train from Strasbourg to Basel, Switzerland. We were unsure of the border crossing into Switzerland, as our train schedule noted a 10-minute walk from the French train station to the Swiss one. It turned out to be a non-issue -- we had a one-minute walk past an empty border/customs booth, and then went straight on to our train. While in the station I had a sudden urge to eat and drink (only because we couldn't buy anything - like that weird urge you get to use the toilet when there are none around). The Swiss are serious about their currency and not accepting the Euro, and I wasn't about to change my Euros to Swiss Franks just for a snack. Luckily our layover was only an hour!

We then boarded a Swiss train for the remainder of our nine-hour journey to Venice. For a train that was making such a long journey, it was not as comfortable as many of the French or German trains that we've been on. However, it wasn't crowded at all, and that made a real difference to us as we were able to move freely about the car during the long trip. For a long portion of the trip we sat beside a man from the Kitchener-Waterloo area whose daughter plays for the Lugano (Switzerland) women's hockey team. He was one of a group of businessmen who brought MacDonald's to Europe and was darned proud of it. We had packed a gourmet deli lunch and I offered him some of our food at various times, but he told us he was waiting until he got into Milan to get a Big Mac and some fries. To each his own...

We arrived in Venice about 6 p.m. and found to our shock that a vaporetto (water bus) ride would cost us 24€. There was really no help for it, though; we were tired and it was dark, and our apartment was almost three kilometres from the train station. After a 40-minute vaporetto ride and two attempts to find the correct opening into the maze of Venice's streets, Mark asked a young man (who turned out to work at the nearby naval academy) how to get to the church near our apartment. Not only did he give us directions, but he also went out of his way to walk us there : ). We were met at the door of the apartment by the upstairs neighbour, a very nice older lady who showed us around and explained everything in rapid Italian. We just kept nodding and saying, "Si, si!"

Venice is a beautiful city with a maze of narrow streets and canals. We spent two days there, mostly just wandering around. We visited the Piazza San Marco and the Basilica, and I made the mistake of buying bird seed to feed the pigeons. (It was what I've always imagined Daphne DuMaurier's The Birds to be like, before they got really mean - they were on my head, crawling up my legs, sliding down my arms - yuck!) We splurged for a day of vaporetto tickets and visited the island of Murano where they make the beautiful glass ornaments. We learned to navigate our way through Italian grocery stores, and we also learned that Italian pastries, with their heavy feel and texture, are no match for French pastries! We watched with interest the deliveries being made to the stores and restaurants, first by boat, and then by hand-carts. Since no vehicles are allowed in the city (nor could they even drive through the narrow streets), everything is done on foot. Garbage disposal was another mysterious thing - we just left our garbage in a small, closed bag outside the apartment in the street every day, and it disappeared by the time we got home. We never did figure out the sewer system, but it must be interesting. Our bathroom backed onto a canal, and every so often after you'd flushed you would see a standing boatman go by at eye level with the window.

On the Friday we headed off to Rome on a fast Italian train. Now that was luxury! - probably the nicest train we've been on. It was good that we had a nice few hours on the train, because I got a rude shock when we got to Rome. It was crowded, dirty, noisy and scary with all the traffic. To come from Venice, where there are no vehicles, to Rome, where there are (seemingly) millions of cars and almost no pedestrian crossings, is some sort of huge culture shock! We learned very quickly that in Rome, you make your own pedestrian crossings. The method: edge out into the street, waiting for a small break in traffic. When you see a break (no matter how small), confidently stride out into the road, maintaining intense eye contact with the nearest drivers who are threatening to run you over. Don't hesitate, or they will all drive around you. Once you've reached the other side of the road, breathe a huge sigh of relief, then get ready for the next one.

After several such crossings, we found the apartment rental agency, and then our apartment. This one had a great view of the Basilica Santa Croce in Gerusalemme right across the street. (The same street where several drivers seemed to think that red lights mean "slow down, see if any pedestrians are in front of you, and if not, then just go".)

We had a bit of a family melt-down while in Rome. I think it was just too many days of traveling and walking around strange cities all day. It started raining the day that we visited the Coliseum, and by the time we got back to the apartment we were very cold, wet and tired. It took us an evening in the warm apartment to shake it off, but by the next morning we were back at it, visiting the Vatican Museum. It certainly is an awe-inspiring place. I was amazed by the number of tourists who were there - I can't imagine how crowded it would be in the summer. The lineup to get in was three blocks long, but at least it went quickly; it only took us about 20 minutes to get in. We took in several of the historical sites in Rome, mostly by wandering around, our usual method. We also rode the metro a bit and were quite impressed with it. We bought the reasonably-priced day tickets at four Euros each, because they allow you to jump on and off the metro without having to worry about paying each time. The kids really enjoy using the metro and are really getting to be experts at manoeuvring through different systems now that they have had a few for practice!

Coming back to Strasbourg proved to be a challenge as we had booked a night train and then had to find a way to keep ourselves busy for the day. In the end it turned out to be more of a challenge to our budget than anything else. We had to check our bags at the train station (34€), went to a "time machine" presentation (64€), and accidentally ended up in a very nice but expensive restaurant having ice cream and coffee (we won't discuss the bill on that one.) We took the night train to give the kids the experience, which they really enjoyed, but we decided it definitely wasn't worth the money! Not only that, but we were really tired the next morning after being awakened at 5:30 a.m. in order to get off the train at 6:20 in Bern, Switzerland. (At least the kids slept well!) We had a couple of quick train changes and the required but eerily silent border crossing at Basel, and we were back in Strasbourg just after 9 a.m. For the rest of the day we mostly sat around and stared at each other in exhausted befuddlement. We gave a small thought to trying to make one more day trip to Stuttgart before our Eurail pass ran out but nixed it pretty fast when we thought about how tired we were.

And so ends the crazy traveling. We will still travel, but much less now that we have to pay out of our budget for our train or plane tickets. We really enjoyed our forays throughout France, Germany and Italy but recognize that it's a lot of travelling to do in a short time. Any further travel we do will have to be more carefully planned out and arranged in advance to take advantage of better rates. But for now, we get to slow down, relax, and enjoy what Strasbourg has to offer.

Check out the rest of our photos on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

Email us (we'd love to hear from you!)

christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

Visitors from Canada

2007-12-12T04:01:00.000-08:00

Last Monday we walked my sister Barb and her husband Pat to the train station to see them off to Paris. They had just spent four days with us in Strasbourg and were heading to Paris for a few days before returning to Canada.

We had a great visit with them, finally doing some of the touristy Strasbourg things that we had saved up for visitors. We toured two churches, including Strasbourg’s famous Cathédrale Notre Dame, where we trudged up the 332 steps to the platform with its amazing view of the city. We were first in line, and we really felt the pressure on the way up until we let a few people go ahead of us – with the narrow circular staircase, there was only room for one at a time.

We went to Kehl, Germany, by train (only 11 minutes), but it was a cold and blustery day, so it wasn’t as enjoyable as it could have been. We left Barb and Pat and the kids in separate department stores and then Mark and I walked further up the street to see if we could find some German wine.

We also took the Ill river tour, and the kids and Mark had fun furtively switching everyone’s pre-recorded audio guide from English to Italian in mid-explanation. After a few months of staring down at the tourists in the boats, it was fun to be the ones that everyone was staring at. We tried waving at a few people but just got some weird looks… except for the “boys” under the bridge near our apartment, who all waved at us from their beds as we glided by their makeshift community.

We took the train south to Barr (the village with the wine festival) and hiked up the mountain again but took a different path on the way down. We had a wonderful view of Barr from a different angle and even spotted a few castles. Barb’s boots had a bit of a heel, so I teased her about hiking in her stilettos – something we had watched another woman do on our first trip up.

During the visit we christened our party grill, or raclette. We had had such a fun supper in Birkenwerder with Horst, Eva and Matthias that we decided to buy our own raclette. When we first heated it up and put oil on the grill, we thought we might have to feed the people from the fire department as well – it made so much smoke. It’s a good thing that the grill creates a lot of heat, because we had to warm the apartment back up after leaving the balcony windows open for so long! After things settled down, we had a very memorable meal with different meats, vegetables, cheeses and of course, wine.

I will remember their visit as the one with bretzels and wine. On more than one occasion we left the apartment late, and bretzels served as lunch. Then there was the wine – all over Strasbourg, people are selling glüwein (vin chaud or mulled wine) from stands in the Christmas markets. Every time we passed the market at the train station (and we were there a lot!), we tried another variety. Every time we went to the grocery store, we bought a few more different kinds of wine to try with supper. It certainly expanded my knowledge of the wines of the area!

So we waved them out of the train station, with their seats backward to the motion of the train (I’ll have to ask Barb how that went for her!) and then went home to relax for half a day before packing for our Italy trip. We haven’t heard from them yet but are optimistically assuming that they didn’t get lost on the Paris metro…

Thanks so much to Barb and Pat for coming all this way just to visit (I'm sure that's what it was!) and for all the treats that you bought us. Now that we're back home to our apartment and email, I've heard from Barb that they got home safely.

Stuck again!

2007-11-14T09:17:00.000-08:00

We are now in Rostock, and we’re being held hostage by another train strike! Last time it was southern France, and this time it’s northern Germany. This time, however, we’re not paying princely sums of money to stay at an apartment or hotel. We’re very lucky to be staying with Mark’s second cousin Matthias, who is an orthodontist and has a practice in the nearby city of Bad Doberan.

We arrived in Berlin last Thursday afternoon after a very relaxing train ride from Strasbourg. It took us a while to figure out the S-Bahn (Berlin’s above-ground tram system) but we finally made it to Birkenwerder, a suburb of Berlin, where Mark’s relatives, Horst and Eva, live. On Friday, Matthias (who is Horst’s son) came from Rostock and we had a very nice supper. It reminded me of a fondue, except the cooking apparatus is different: a grill on top for cooking a bit of meat, and then small individual square pans that you stick in the middle for making a gratin. You load up your little pan with small slices of the grilled meat or seafood, vegetables and/or potatoes, then put a slice of cheese on top and stick it in the middle section to broil. The kids had fun making their own dishes, and the adults enjoyed the conversation over the two hours it took for everyone to finish eating. The Germans have a word for this kind of meal – komunikativ – and we spent some time trying to find an equivalent word in English (but never succeeded).

We arrived in Germany at a very busy time. November 9 is a very important day in Germany, both in good and bad ways. It is the anniversary of three major events: the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989; Crystal Night, when the Jews were burned out of their synagogues and shops before WWII; and the revolution in 1918. November 11, so important to us in Canada as Remembrance Day, is not recognized in Germany. Instead, this November 11 we had a roast goose in honour of St. Martin’s Day.

On Saturday we took the tram back into Berlin and walked down to Checkpoint Charlie, the place where people crossed from the American sector of Berlin to the one under East German control before the wall came down. We had intended to go to the museum but decided not to after reading an impressive display about the Berlin Wall along the street. Saturday night saw us hobnobbing with people in the German entertainment industry, as we were invited to an outdoor party at Dirk and Daniella’s (Dirk is Matthias’s brother). Of course we didn’t know we were hobnobbing because we didn’t know anyone there, but we had some very interesting conversations! There were lots of kids there, and even Cameron and Meghan had fun. At the party one of the parents asked me when our kids would start a third language (kids in Germany start English in fourth grade, then another language of their choice at about age 14). It made me a little sad for the state of language learning in Canada, where many kids don’t ever learn even a second language.

On Sunday Matthias drove us from Birkenwerder to Rostock. During the trip (some of it while traveling 165 km/hr), Matthias told us about the day the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. He was a student at university in Rostock at the time, and when he heard the news that people would be allowed into West Berlin on that day, he took the train into Berlin. As the weekend wore on, more announcements were made that the wall would be open for a longer time. By the time the weekend was over, the wall was down, and he was the most tired he had ever been, because he, along with many other East German citizens, had spent the weekend celebrating. It gave me shivers listening to his story, knowing that he had personally lived through an event that will be forever written into world history.

Rostock has been fun and a real break for the kids. Since we arrived on Sunday, we’ve been to an English class at a German school with Gina and Tess, the two girls from downstairs; we went bowling with Gina; and the kids have been watching movies (in English!) and playing with Matthias’s PlayStation. They both recently bought themselves inline skates and have been practicing skating around Rostock. They inform us that the cobblestones that line many of the sidewalks here are very difficult to navigate! When we had the choice today to try to make a run for home before the train strike starts, or wait a few days in Rostock until it is over, they both voted to stay.

We don’t have a regular internet connection, so we went for the first time in a week to an internet café yesterday to read our email and check our bank accounts. I was thrilled to see an email from the editor of Frommers.com, who wants to use one of my Flickr photos – the Strasbourg train station – on their website. I’ll be very excited to look at the site to see where the photo ends up!

So now we’re stuck in Rostock until Friday, when Matthias will drive us back to Birkenwerder. The train strike is supposed to be over on Saturday at 2 a.m., so hopefully by Sunday enough trains will be back on the rails that we can get back to Strasbourg. We hear there’s also another train strike happening in France, so we’re not holding our breath at this point!

No new pics on Flickr right now as I can’t download any off the camera until we get home again, but here’s the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

Update 19 Nov 07: We made it home to Strasbourg at 3:00 p.m. Sunday after a relaxing seven hours on the train. German strikes appear to be more organized than French ones! Check out the link above for new Flickr photos.

Email us at christinateskey @ yahoo.ca

Paris

2007-11-06T13:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we finally made it to Paris. Not through Paris on the plane, or in a Paris train station during a strike, but really to Paris.

We had an early start, getting up at 6 a.m. for a 7:15 a.m. train. (Remarkably, we left the apartment a minute before our deadline - a first in our family! I guess that's the difference between taking the train and driving yourself!) On the train, Mark and I had to sit in one half of a club car (two sets of seats facing each other), while the kids sat together a few rows back. We've had good luck up to this point with our TGV train reservations, usually being able to get a club car as a family. However, this time the train was very full, and we had to take what we could get.

It was a slightly uncomfortable trip as we sat across the club car with a mother and son who didn't seem inclined to talk. Usually if people take an interest in us (especially our English), we chat with them about who we are and what we're doing, but this pair just didn't seem interested. It's not surprising, because most French people try hard to give everyone their own space. This might not be a French thing, but possibly a fact of life where many people are forced to live together in a small space. By ignoring other people in the tram, train, or bus, you have the illusion of privacy.

As the train rolled through the outskirts of Paris, Mark and I discussed how little we thought the city would impact us. I commented that no matter what else Paris is, it's just another city - a big collection of buildings and people. As we were entertained on the Paris metro by an enterprising duo with a trumpet and saxophone, I started to change my view, to think that maybe there is something special about Paris. And then we got to the Louvre. I just wasn't prepared for how the sheer immenseness and beauty of it took my breath away - and we weren't even inside the museum yet!

The first thing we did was to track down the Mona Lisa. We got lost a few times and went around in a circle once, but we (and about 100 other people) finally found her. It's a wonderful painting, but I think a bit overrated now. Her image is everywhere, and it almost seems anticlimactic to actually see the painting. You can't even get very close to the painting anymore, and if you want to see it without 20 people in front, you have to queue up with the 100 other people there to shuffle between a set of ropes. I had thought that photography wasn't allowed in the museum, but I was shocked to see many people pull out their digital cameras and take a picture, flash and all. I cringed for them, as I thought for sure they would be wrestled to the ground by a group of security guards. However, when that didn't happen, I reluctantly took out my camera and snapped a shot of Mona (because you can't go to the Louvre and not get a picture of Mona!) I was so unenthusiastic about getting a picture that both kids took the camera and got their own shots. I think we ended up with two semi-recognizable pics out of the 10 shots that we took.

Once we got Mona over with, we spent a bit more time looking at paintings on the way to the Roman and Greek statues. We had gone to the Louvre with a mission in mind - to combine the kids' Fine Arts and Social Studies classes with a comparison/contrast essay on Greek and Roman art. Although Meghan is in grade 5 this year, our teacher had suggested that both of the kids do grade 7 Social Studies, which covers ancient civilizations. It's a great idea, allowing the kids to work together on projects and study something that is more relevant to them this year. We'll be able to do some incredible field trips!

Around lunch time we exited the Louvre and headed out to look for something to eat. We found a little stand between the Louvre and the Tuileries gardens and grabbed some petit pain fromage (Cameron loved them) and a sandwich poulet for Mark and me. We camped out on the grass with several other people and some very brave pigeons and sparrows and ate our lunch in the sun. We could see the Eiffel Tower in the background and debated about whether to return to the Louvre for the afternoon or strike out for some other attraction. In the end the Louvre won out, partly because we had already sprung for the tickets for the day, and partly because we didn't know how far we would have to walk to see anything else.

For some reason both Mark and I were a little disheartened by the morning in the Louvre, and so we returned with heavy steps. However, the afternoon turned out to be a more enriching experience for all of us. The kids were absorbed with finding and taking pictures of the statues that they would use for their reports, and we got to see some really interesting parts of the Louvre like the dungeons of the original building, a chateau built by Charles V. Although we hadn't planned it, we also spent some time looking at the Egyptian and Mesopotamian rooms.

About 5:30 p.m., exhausted and hungry, we gave up and went to find some supper. We headed back to the train station on the metro and looked at the menus of a few restaurants before deciding that we didn't really want to spend 50€ on a meal that might not work for all of us. We ended up buying some groceries and eating supper while camped out at the train station. (I did regret our decision to not eat in a restaurant after biting into my third baguette/bun/pastry of the day. I could have killed for some hot food!)

After a three-hour train ride and an eight-minute walk from the train station, we were home at the apartment in Strasbourg again. I was so tired that I don't even know when the kids and Mark got to sleep, because I beat them all to bed!

See more of our pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

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National Train Strike: Nice to Strasbourg

2007-10-27T04:26:00.000-07:00

Last week at this time we were starting our journey back to Strasbourg from Nice with some trepidation. Already we were starting out a day later due to Thursday's national train strike. When Mark and I went to the train station in Nice the evening of the strike, we found out that our train for the next day had been canceled. We were told that it would be better to travel on Saturday than Friday, the first day after the strike, so we rebooked our tickets for Saturday and made arrangements to stay one more night at the rental apartment.

We left Nice for Marseille at 8:30 Saturday morning, optimistic about getting back home to Strasbourg about 7:30 p.m. After spending almost three hours on a TER (regional train), we arrived at the Marseille station, which was very cold, windy and unfriendly. We hurried in to the salle d'attente (waiting room), which was packed, and looked on the electronic board for our next train. A minute or two of panicky searching confirmed our fears: our train had been canceled. Mark gamely went to the information counter to check. Within minutes he came rushing over and said, "We have to leave now! Track I, to Lyon." While I composted (validated) the tickets, Mark and the kids ran full-tilt down the track with our baggage. So many things could have gone wrong: Track "I" in French sounds like "E"; the train was due to leave right away but was a few minutes late; and there were actually two TGVs sitting on the same track but bound for different places. Luckily Mark had the presence of mind to ask for the train to Lyon and was directed further down the track.

The trip from Marseille to Lyon was the best part of the day; it just went downhill from there. In Lyon, we waited in a long line to get tickets to Strasbourg. Our train wouldn't leave until 17:48, which meant almost four hours of waiting, but at least we would get home around 9:30 p.m. We waited impatiently to see our train show up on the electronic board, and when it didn't, we were a little upset but not surprised. Mark and I headed back to the ticket office, and that was when it got a little weird. The woman behind the counter didn't even issue us new tickets, but wrote on the back of our old one. We were to take the 17:00 train to Paris Lyon station, get on the Paris metro, transfer to Paris L'est station and take a TGV to Strasbourg. It sounded good in theory, but the timing only gave us 30 minutes to get from one station to the other. With a 20-minute metro ride, we were pretty sure we weren't going to make it. However, it was our best bet at the moment, so we boarded the TGV for Paris just before 5:00 p.m. It was an uncomfortable feeling because we didn't actually have reservations, something that's required on every TGV, and we got kicked out of our first choice of seats by a family. We had only been in our seats for a few minutes when we heard an announcement: passengers for Strasbourg were invited to leave this train and take another train to the Massy station. Luckily I was with several people who understand French much better than I do, or I would have missed the announcement.

After waiting on Track C for the new train, the track was changed at the last minute. By this time we were just rolling with the punches. We had started to identify other passengers who were in the same boat as us (to stick with a travel metaphor!) We all boarded the Paris Massy train, again without reservations or tickets, but by this time we didn't care anymore. Then came the lowest part of the travel day: while on our way to Paris Massy, it started to get dark, and both Mark and I became very anxious about what we would face when we got to the next station. We didn't know if we would be dropped off in the middle of nowhere, or even whether or not our next train would be running. Given our track record that day, we thought not, but we were so out of control of the situation that we had no way to plan our next move.

When we arrived at Paris Massy, we followed our friends off the train, out of the station into the dark, and finally to another TGV station nearby. When we got there, we found out that the train to Strasbourg had been canceled. No surprise there. Now we were 22 people and two large dogs, stuck in an outpost railway station at 8:30 p.m. with nowhere to go. You would think that this would be a low point, but at least I felt that there was security in numbers. Luckily the ticket counter was still open, and a few of the more vocal members of the group negotiated (argued) with the ticket people to find us some place to sleep and new tickets to Strasbourg the next day.

I'm sure it took some coordination of the part of SNCF, but we were taken care of from that point on. They stopped a TGV train for us, and we got off at the Paris Montparnasse station. We left our luggage at the information counter and were marched out of the station and down the street to a restaurant. We were provided with 25€ each to have supper, which was quite generous. Meghan and I didn't quite make it, because we were much more tired than hungry, so we left without eating and made our way back to the train station. We were directed to Track 6, where a TGV train was parked overnight. I had thought to get some extra sleep but was quite spooked by Meghan and I being the only ones on the train. I had visions of the train taking off with only us on it. Also in the back of my mind was the question that Meghan posed to me as we got on the train the first time: "Mom, can rats get on the train? I just saw a couple of them."

After a few cell phone calls to Mark and Cameron to find out how fast they could get back from the restaurant, people started straggling back. We spent the night trying to get comfortable and never really succeeding. At 5:40 a.m. an SNCF employee rousted us and directed us to the waiting room, but we were already off and running. Our large group navigated through the ticket validation gates and labyrinth tunnels of the Paris metro system, and boarded the metro for the Paris L'est station. Our last hurdle before leaving for Strasbourg came when the young woman with the two large dogs was denied boarding the train because only one of the dogs had a muzzle. We heard her burst into tears, and several members of the group, who by now had bonded in a way that only adversity can do, rushed to her defense. We were relieved when we heard that she was able to board, but had to sit in a compartment by herself with the dogs.

The rest of the trip was rather mundane. Meghan and I snoozed, and we were home in the apartment before 10 a.m., as we live only a seven-minute walk from the train station. We were exhausted and amazed that we had survived the trip home. Unfortunately, the trip home overshadowed our trip to Nice, the two of which will be forever linked in our minds.

For more on our trip to Nice, see our Flickr photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

Email us at
christinateskey @ yahoo.ca

La Fête des Vendages in Barr

2007-10-14T03:42:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we attended La Fête des Vendages in Barr, a 45-minute train ride from Strasbourg. I found out about the festival earlier in the week from my instructors at the French language school. Not only did I pick up quite a bit of French during the two weeks, but we also had impromptu lessons about the local food and wine. This comes in handy for festivals this time of year, which include a lot of wine! (Maybe all French festivals do).

In preparation for Saturday’s trip to Barr, we went to the train station on Thursday to get tickets and scout out the tracks. Luckily we have Meghan, because she entitled us to a Carte Enfant+ which gives us discounts on some train fares, including a whopping 50% discount on travel in the Alsace region. Cameron, to his delight (but not ours), is considered an adult at 12 for the purposes of train travel.

It was a good thing that we went to the train station early, because we were very confused by the schedule. Barr is a very small station on the way to somewhere else, and it wasn't listed on the screen. The other thing we didn't know is that they don't post the track numbers for the trains until about 20 minutes before the train is about to depart. It turned out that we had to take the "Selestat via Molsheim" train - how do you get Barr out of that?? We felt a little silly going to the information booth twice to ask which train to take, but we finally figured it out. It's helpful to know that if your train says it's departing at 9:30, it's the only train leaving at that time (at least in Strasbourg), even if your actual destination is not listed. We felt much better when we got out to the track, where all of the small station stops were listed, including Barr. Before we left, we memorized the names of the two stations ahead of Barr, and on the train, we kept a close eye on the stations, as none of them are announced.

When we got to Barr, we did a couple of smart things. First, when it finally dawned on us that many French fêtes consist of wandering through stalls of things to buy (marchés), which our kids hate, we went to the candy stall and let them each pick out a bag of candy (read: bribed them). It's amazing how that will perk a kid up! 12€ later and we were good to go until lunch (ok, so some of that candy was Mark's and mine). The other smart thing we did that day was go for a hike in the hills above the town. We had a wonderful view of the village and surrounding area; we got to see grape vines up close (and even steal a few of the sweetest grapes I've ever had); and the kids got to clamber up and down a rock wall that guided us most of the way up the steep hill. The combination of the beautiful weather, the excitement of a train trip, and the different activities we undertook made for a great day for all of us.

A lesson we took from this day is that no matter how mature our kids are, they're still kids, and they like to play. While Mark and I enjoy walking around the city looking at buildings, or looking at all of the strange and wonderful items available for sale at a marché, our kids get a little bored by this. When we're out for the day or on our travels, we have to remember to make time for kids' play. It makes it easier for all of us.

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christinateskey @ yahoo.ca

view our pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

We hope to hear from you! How are things going in your part of the world?

Chimney woes

2007-10-10T02:36:00.000-07:00

After the events of the last few weeks, Mark has a new title: The Pigeonator.

When we first moved into the apartment, we heard a flapping noise in the chimney, and we thought, "Oh, great, we have pigeons living in the chimney." After a while, it became apparent that they weren't living in there so much as trapped... (Don't ask.) After three weeks of alternating flapping noises and silence, we managed to phone the apartment owner, who arranged for someone to come over and depigeonize the chimney. I wasn't at the apartment at the time (I was attending my first day of French language school) but Mark was disgusted that it was just a guy with a broom and a pail. After the guy removed two dead pigeons with his high-tech equipment, Mark said, "I could have done that!"

So this week, Mark had a chance to prove himself. After hearing more flapping and cooing in the chimney, he went in to investigate. He removed the cover from the hole in the back of the chimney and used the handy cane to drag out... two more dead pigeons. But he really outdid himself yesterday. While the kids and I were gone getting Cameron's first French haircut, Mark launched himself into action. He took the printer box, cut a hole in one side toward the end, and covered it with some clear plastic. Then he cut another hole in the other end to match the one at the back of the chimney. He also cut two flat pieces of cardboard, one for the back of the chimney and one for the box. When it was ready, he removed the cover at the back of the chimney, put the box against it and waited... but not for long. The light shining through the clear plastic attracted the pigeon, who, according to Mark, "...was pretty assertive about getting out of the chimney and investigating the light." After that it was a simple matter of putting cardboard over the hole in the box and the back of the chimney and moving the pigeon - still in the box - out onto the balcony. Mark reported that it took a while for the pigeon to come out of the box. He followed the pigeon's progress from the box to the balcony railing to the roof of the apartment building next door. I was surprised that it could still fly.

So how long can a pigeon survive in a chimney with no water? At least four days, we figure. And now when we hear the familiar flapping and cooing, we know who to call - The Pigeonator!

Getting settled

2007-09-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

Written on Sunday, September 23, 2007, but not posted due to lack of internet at home, something we won’t enjoy here until October 5 [note during editing: we actually got our internet on September 27!]; more about French bureaucracy later. My apologies for such a long post, but since we’ve left the hotel I have had to save it all up until we get to an internet café or the library.

The last ten days have been a whirlwind of administrivia as we try to get settled into our new digs. We have applied for residency cards, moved into the apartment, worked on getting the gas, electricity and internet, and enrolled the kids in music lessons. Along with these are the usual daily chores of doing the grocery shopping, schooling the kids and taking our "get to know Strasbourg" walks.

Applying for residency cards: a lesson in bureaucracy

On Wednesday and Thursday last week Mark and I went to the prefecture to get our residency cards. On Wednesday, we took a number (52 when they were on 22) and waited to be given a list of the documents we need to get our cards. On Thursday when we came back, we took a number and waited to show them that we had the correct documents. Then we were given another number and waited for another person who processed our documents. After an hour or so, we walked away with temporary cards that say that we have applied for the permanent cards. Both Mark and I need to apply to our home provinces for an original birth record that states our parents’ names. Très importante, the woman says…

Moving into the apartment

We moved into the apartment in stages over last Friday and Saturday. On Friday morning when we went to the rental agency to make the last cash payment for our two-month rental deposit, we were told that the gas had been cut off in the apartment. While the kids were still at the hotel, Mark and I made a run down to the apartment to try to get the gas reconnected before we moved in the next day. (Each one-way trip from the hotel to the apartment involves about 1.5 km of walking and a 10-minute tram ride). But the gas man could not cometh… Tuesday, they said, which would mean four days without cooking. (And in the end, after much anxiety, many phone calls on the cell phone, and a search for a missing key that involved the caretaker who would be away until next Sunday, we found out that the gas hadn’t really been cut off after all…) Friday afternoon we made another trip back to the apartment with the kids and a load of luggage.

On Saturday Mark and I made an early trip with more luggage, then went back to the hotel to pick up the last load of kids and bags. As happy as we were to finally be in our own place, we were not happy that the woman who had been hired to clean the apartment on Friday had done nothing – no vacuuming, no dusting, no scrubbing of floors or windows, no cleaning of bathrooms… so you can guess what we did on Saturday and Sunday. My hat is off to Mark who spent about four hours on Saturday afternoon cleaning the fridge and scrubbing a year’s worth of grease off the kitchen floor and walls.

It’s quite a nice apartment, but as time goes by we find that we’re still dealing with a few small problems: a toilet that doesn’t flush properly, a washing machine that has to be cranked through its cycles by hand, and last, but certainly not least, a pigeon living (stuck?) in the chimney. We haven’t heard it so much the last few days, so we’re thinking this might spell the end for the pigeon (good thing no one got really attached to it.) The really good news is that someone is coming first thing Monday morning to clean out the chimney.

Enrolling in music lessons

We are now the proud owners of an electric guitar (a copy of a Telecaster) and a keyboard, both purchased after the first music lessons – Cameron on guitar and Meghan on piano. It’s the first time the kids have really had to interact with people in French, and they both did really well, but I’m not sure how much actual music they learned. For Meghan especially, most of the learning was about trying to convert to the French system of calling the notes do, re, mi, etc., instead of c, d, e. It’s a 10-minute walk to the music school, which we will do for the next four Wednesdays. French kids don’t go to school on Wednesdays (but they do go Saturday mornings), so most extracurricular activities happen on that day. At this particular music school the music lessons run in cycles of four weeks – three weeks of individual lessons and then an ensemble – and we only enrolled the kids for one session, thinking that we will be traveling to Italy and Greece by the time the second session gets under way.

The life of nomads

Cameron asked me the other day if I knew how long we’ve been living out of a suitcase.

"A week," I answered, thinking that he meant since we moved into the apartment.

He then informed me that we have not unpacked our clothes since July 14 – well over two months! We’re getting a bit desperate to unpack and truly settle in, but we still have to clean out the closets and cupboards and firm up the bedroom arrangements. Currently Mark and I have the master bedroom, but we’re thinking of switching with the kids for the smaller room so that they can have a bit more space to spread out. We were trying to find a way to give them a bit of privacy, perhaps with a screen or other type of room divider. However, after going over our budget a few days ago, we’ve decided that maybe the kids will have to make do with ignoring each other!

At the end of our initiation period in the apartment, we have decided that, on the whole, things are going very well. We are very happy with the apartment and its location near the centre of the city; Strasbourg is a beautiful and safe city in which to live; and we are looking forward to the prospect of traveling to Italy, Greece, Germany and Great Britain. Today was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, and as Mark and I took a stroll around Petite France, I could feel happiness welling up inside. Who can ask for more? : )

Five neat things about Strasbourg

2007-09-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

(in no particular order; some are particular to Strasbourg, and others are more generally European)

The bike lanes

We are definitely getting bikes when we get settled into our apartment. It almost seems that bicyclists have more rights than pedestrians, with 2/3 of the sidewalk generally reserved for those on bikes.

Even as a pedestrian, you have to shoulder-check (as Mark says). You may think you have the right-of-way, but you always have to keep an eye out for cars nosing into the pedestrian lanes while making turns. We have become very Strasbourgois in our strolling; no one waits for the “homme vert” (green man on the lights) to cross the street. You just check both ways and go, whether it is homme vert or homme rouge.

The toilets

For the most part, toilets get their own rooms (la toilette or WC). Everything else is in another room (la salle de bain). This make sense, but I find myself going into la salle de bain and locking the door before I realize that the toilet is not there.

The architecture

Except for some big, blocky apartment buildings in Esplanade that were put up in the 1970s, most of the buildings here have amazing character. I find myself wanting to take a picture every time we walk down a new street, because it’s all so different from what we’re used to seeing.

The wonderful little shops – pattiserie, boulangerie, etc.

Although there are grocery stores that have almost everything – we have been shoppng at ATAC and MarchéU while staying at the hotel – there are still little shops everywhere that specialize in one or two things. This goes for almost everything from pastries, wine and flowers, to electronics. The idea of the megastore has definitely not arrived here yet (and that’s a good thing, in my opinion).

We ran into this while looking for an apartment. There is not one single agency that has information about all of the furnished apartments available in Strasbourg. This is not unlike Canada, but here each agency may only have five or ten properties (apartments or houses) that they look after. There must be 60 – 80 agencies in Strasbourg. We had no idea what we were up against when we started looking for a furnished apartment.

The cathedral

It’s absolutely magnificent (and none of my pictures do it justice). It’s so big, and the square in the centre of Strasbourg where it is located is so small, that it’s impossible to take a picture of it unless you’re far away and up high. We haven’t taken the tour yet, but it’s on our list of things to do once we get settled into the apartment.

For more of our pictures, see our Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

Email us: christinateskey @ yahoo.ca

Keep in touch! We'd love to hear how you're doing.

Epic Journey to Germany

2007-09-09T11:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, so what we really did was hopped the D-line tram to the Aristide Briand station, walked half a block, squeezed on to the #21 bus with about 60 other people, and then sweated through the 10-minute ride across the Rhine River to the town of Kehl, Germany.

A few people have recommended Kehl to us as a place to go shopping and relax. We had a nice day walking through the pedestrian mall, checking out all of the stores. The prices in Kehl are very reasonable, and it seems to have more of a selection of the types of stores that we patronize in Canada than does Strasbourg. Both Meghan and I got warmer coats, as the weather in Strasbourg has been decidedly cool for the last few days (although yesterday was very warm and sunny).

It’s amazing how the Rhine River absolutely divides the two countries; although Strasbourg seems mostly French but faintly German with its street names and gastronomic influences, Kehl is all German. The only French we saw or heard was at the café, where the menu was in French and German, and the waiter spoke French (albeit very badly – poor Mark wasn’t sure what language the waiter was speaking and so kept switching back and forth between French and German!)

Finding an apartment

2007-09-05T02:22:00.001-07:00

I've been reluctant to post for the last week or so because of our anxiety and frustration in finding a furnished apartment. I wanted to wait until I could say, "We've found an apartment!", but I also want to report the realities of our trip, not just the good parts.

Last Wednesday we lucked into finding a three-bedroom furnished apartment near our hotel, which is in a very nice area close to the European Parliament. We were able to view the apartment that day, and although it is a bit older, we decided it would suit us. The kids were especially impressed because it comes with a cat. The main drawback is that the apartment is far from the tram, which can be an issue when you're on foot. It also has a tiny kitchen, even smaller than the one we had in Burns Lake.

The next day we looked at another apartment closer to the city centre. The building is located on a busy street and the area is not as friendly as the one where the first apartment is located. However, the inside of the apartment is much newer and nicer looking than the first. This one only has two bedrooms, but it has a very spacious living room area.

We decided we would take the first apartment and phoned to let the woman know on Friday. At this point we found out that she is only the caretaker, and she had to phone the owners.

We have been in the grips of anxiety ever since, waiting for her to call back. Mark phoned on Monday, to hear her say "one or two more days" before she would let us know. Compounding the frustration was the knowledge that our room rate was escalating due to the sitting of the European Parliament, which convenes for three days once or twice a month. When Parliament sits, the room rates go up and hotels are full. In addition, the staff at the front desk of the hotel were never sure if we could get another night since our original seven-day reservation ran out.

Today things are looking up. We befriended Rawad, a young Lebanese-Canadian man who works at the hotel front desk (and is also a Masters dental student), and he has taken on our challenge of finding accommodation. Last evening when we told him we were moving to a different hotel because it was becoming too expensive, he encouraged us to speak to the manager and strike a deal. We did, and then the manager also tried to help us find an apartment by phoning around to a few places. We also made an appointment to see Bernadette, who showed us the second apartment. Luckily it is still available, and we could move in on September 15 if we want. She speaks excellent English, and she would be able to help us get our electricity and gas connected.

If this doesn't work out, we are also considering renting an unfurnished apartment and furnishing it ourselves. This is a scary thought, considering the maze of bureaucracy that surrounds every business dealing in France, but we would do it if we had to. There is a wide selection of unfurnished apartments here, and in the end, no matter how difficult, it's all part of the adventure!

Arrival in Strasbourg!

2007-08-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

We finally made it into Strasbourg about 4 p.m. yesterday afternoon. My first impressions of the city and its surroundings were positive but blurry, mostly from sleep deprivation, but also from watching the taxi meter click by. After our 1 - 2 hours of sleep on the plane the night before, we weren't interested in taking buses and trams to get into the city, so we took the easy way out and grabbed a cab. Forty Euros later the four of us and our 12 bags were dropped off at our hotel, a little shell-shocked at the price but relieved to be somewhere with beds again.

Last night we forced ourselves to stay up until 9 p.m. so we could get used to the new time zone as quickly as possible. We walked around our neighbourhood and bought some groceries to bring back to the hotel. We bought the obligatory baguette along with cheese and wine and had ourselves a nice picnic feast before turning in. Both Mark and I woke up about 4 a.m., but our fears about not being able to get back to sleep turned into amazement when we woke up again at 10:30 a.m. This is not something I'm likely to see again (Mark sleeping in so late), so I had to note it for the record!

Today we went to the main square downtown with the intention of starting to look for an apartment or house, but our timing was thrown off by our sleeping in. We did manage to buy two cell phones and get a list of real estate agents from the Office de Tourisme, but that was as far as we got. Meghan was drooping badly and it was getting late in the afternoon, so we headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow Mark and I may head out by ourselves to look at places to stay; now that we have to cell phones we feel a little more comfortable leaving the kids at the hotel while we go out.

I'm feeling very excited and optimistic about staying in Strasbourg, despite my lack of language abilities. I've decided that I need to go to a language school sooner than I initially planned, because my lack of French is driving me crazy. The rest of the family is coping quite well, and I'm feeling lost 75% of the time... not a good feeling for me when I'm so used to being on top of things and in control. One of the reasons we took this trip was to push ourselves out of our comfort zones, and I managed to do that quite easily as far as my French is concerned!

What little we have seen of the city so far is beautiful, with many historic buildings and mature trees. Our priorities for tomorrow are warring with each other: we really need to find a house or apartment, but the tram is free for one more day, so we would like to ride it as much as possible. We may just have to combine business with pleasure and ride the tram while on the lookout for a place to stay.

I'll sign off for now - it's getting late and I don't want to mess with my sleep cycle any more than traveling eight time zones forward already has!

email us at christinateskey @ yahoo.ca

see our photos online at www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t

Au revoir!

Chris

Visit in Rocky Mountain House

2007-08-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

For the past few weeks the kids and I have been staying at my mother's house. The kids went to Science Camp the first week, and now they're in swimming lessons this week.

It has been an adventure (or should I say, a zoo) staying at mom's this time because we have our two cats with us. But it doesn't stop there: my mom has a cat, and we're also looking after my sister's cat. (Are you counting? Does that make four cats?) My sister has graciously agreed to look after our two cats until we come back from France next summer, but since her cat is quite territorial, we felt it was best that they all meet on neutral ground (i.e., my mom's house). To add to all this confusion, my mom has been looking after Tess, a Boston Terrier puppy, on and off for the past few weeks. And then there's Neely, my niece's dog (also a Boston Terrier), who also comes to visit once in a while...

Considering the mix of people and animals, we're all getting along quite nicely!

Our house (for now)

2007-07-06T13:09:00.000-07:00

We'll be moving away from Burns Lake in stages over the next few weeks. The kids, cats and I are leaving next Saturday for Alberta. Mark is working until July 31, and then he will join us. We thought we should take a video of the house before we leave, since it is our first (and only!) one. We ended up with two short videos due to camera battery limitations!

Here's Part 1: Main floor and upstairs

Part 2: Downstairs

When I was downstairs, I said "disaster area" three times! You can tell it was unscripted. YouTube also managed to grab the one area of the video that is black - where I discovered that someone turned out the light over the woodstove area. Oh well.

It's coming together...

2007-05-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've posted anything, but we have been waiting for several pieces to fall into place before we could tell everyone...

We're going to France for a year!!

(See the tiny sign in front of our house? It says, "House for Sale".)

We have been thinking about this trip and planning for over a year, and finally it's becoming a reality. Here is the chronology of our progress to date:

February 26: We traveled to Vancouver to meet with the French Consulate and apply for long stay visas, which we need if we're spending more than three months in France. The applications totaled more than 70 pages, and 48 of them had to be filled out by hand. While there Mark and I were told that we needed to get leaves of absence from our jobs, which doesn't follow the normal procedure.

March 26: Mark told his boss in Prince George about our plans and asked for a leave of absence. Because the plan is to not come back to Burns Lake, and all leaves of absence over six months have to be approved by the Deputy Minister, Mark's request was sent off to Victoria.

Late March: We had the kitchen floor redone (went from laminate to ceramic tiles) and had the main floor bathroom tub surround fixed. The carpenter was good but in a hurry and left lots of the finishing details for us which took us (i.e., Mark) countless hours to complete.

Late March - early April: I asked for and was granted a one-year leave of absence. When I got the letter, I faxed it to the French Consulate, indicating that Mark had also asked for a leave of absence but didn't have the paperwork completed yet.

April 18: Our visas arrived by courier - exciting day!

April 20: We purchased our airline tickets from Calgary to Strasbourg, France, leaving Sunday, August 26.

Late April: We changed our minds about trying to find a permanent place to stay in Strasbourg before we leave. Instead we have booked a hotel for the last week of August and will take the time to look around in person. If we don't find a place that we can move into right away, we will secure something for October and then travel to Italy and Greece for the month of September.

Early May: Mark was granted a general leave of absence and received word from the Assistant Deputy Minister that they will try to find him a position on his return.

I faxed off applications for the kids to enroll for next year in E-Bus (short for electronic busing) Academy, an online school from Vanderhoof, BC (just down the road towards Prince George from us.)

We have been madly cleaning up the house in preparation for its sale. It's amazing how good it feels to get rid of years worth of junk - we should have done it a long time ago! We will try to sell the house privately first, and even though we haven't put up a "For Sale" sign yet, we have already had several inquiries.

May 10: We put up two (very small) "House for Sale" signs, one on our lawn and one on the highway (thanks to Cameron who slogged through the ditch in water over his boots). This earned us two more phone inquiries, but we have only shown the house once so far.

May 17: I sent our information out to two home sale web sites: bchomesforsale.com and hiway16.com. Unfortunately, our listings won't be up in time for the long weekend, but then doesn't everyone go camping anyway? : )

At this point, selling the house is our next big hurdle... or maybe it's cleaning out the kids' bedrooms... I'm not sure which will be harder. Both will happen eventually!

Our 2006

2007-01-03T21:26:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

2006 was a busy year for us, and the following is a brief summary of our adventures.

Since January 2003 I have been concentrating my efforts on completing a Master of Educational Technology (MET) degree from UBC. In 2006 I finished four of the 10 courses, including ETEC 590, the graduating project, for which we had to present a portfolio of our learning during the program. I am looking forward to graduating in May after my last course!

I had intended to take a full leave from my job for a year but ended up teaching half-time for a few months. I was very excited to teach “Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers”, a course in the teacher assistant program, as well as filling in for a few courses in my other job in the Applied Business Technology program. When I was finished teaching at the college at the beginning of February, I put my name on the sub list for the school district to find out what it is like back in the K-12 system. The result? I survived, but by the end of the school year, I was saying to the booking person, “I can't work Mondays or Fridays... no, I don't really want to go back to that class... no, sorry, I can't work next week... and, oh, the week after that looks bad, too...” : )

This school year started off with my working two evenings during the week. However, one of my co-workers is now on maternity leave, and I am covering for her, which means that I will be working straight days until June. It's good for us in that we won't have to worry about the evenings anymore, but I will really miss my mornings at home to be able to work on the last course for my degree.

Mark spent the past year becoming more familiar with his role as District Manager for the Nadina Forest District. He started last year with a controversy about snowmobiling in a protected area near Smithers and worked his way through many Mountain Pine Beetle issues. We missed him several times throughout the year as his work took him to Vancouver and Prince George, with many day trips to Houston, Smithers and Vanderhoof. (Some of the Vancouver trips are to do work for the Legislative Policy Committee – doesn't that sound like fun! - I always tease him about it). Mark was also very busy cutting down trees in our yard this summer. Between him and a professional tree faller from Vanderhoof, who we hired to cut down the trees by our electrical lines, we now have 17 fewer (dead) pine trees in our yard. It really changed the landscape, and it has taken me a while to get used to it.

Cameron and Meghan are doing well in school. Cameron is now in grade 6 and Meghan in grade 4, both still in French Immersion. We really weren't sure how this year would shape up until almost the first day of school. Meghan's class (a 3/4 split) went back and forth between the primary and elementary school, until they at last decided to move them up to the elementary school. Cameron's class was without a teacher until the last minute, when they hired a woman who was a very good teacher but didn't speak much French. Luckily, this year their class has Cynthia, a 20-year-old French Monitor from Quebec. To complicate matters, the teacher's husband got transferred within a few weeks of school starting, and the class had a sub for the last six weeks before Christmas. Many of us think that Cynthia held the class together during that time; she'll have many interesting experiences to take back to Quebec with her at the end of the year!

The kids are still doing their regular lessons; however, Cameron switched from piano to guitar this year. Meghan still loves the piano and practices playing it almost every time she walks by. They had been doing Tae Kwon Do in the fall until someone accidentally pulled the fire alarm and got them kicked out of their gym! We expect that it will start up again as soon as the teacher finds another place to hold the lessons. For many winters the kids have taken cross-country ski lessons, but we decided to skip them this year. Meghan especially is too young for the group that she is in (her skill level is good but stamina is lacking), a result of being a dedicated ski lesson family, registering our children for lessons almost every year! We have made the commitment to go skiing as often as we can, regardless, and we want to have the kids try downhill skiing this year. Cameron is also anxious to go snowboarding again, but I'm thinking that Mark and I will go back to downhill skiing. I may have permanently wrecked something when we took our last set of snowboarding lessons!

When we weren't going to school or work, we had a few short but fun holidays. We travelled to Portage La Prairie, MB, during our two-week Spring Break in April and stopped to visit with my family in Alberta, and Mel and Gord Clark and family (kids, cats and dogs!) in Vanguard, SK, on the way. We had a good visit with Mark's mom and dad, and were able to record some audio conversations about their families and times past. Not satisfied with just one visit, Mark travelled to Portage again in June to help his brother Eric with some house projects. In late July we went to Rocky Mountain House, AB, to visit with my mom and enroll the kids in swimming lessons. As we have done in the past, the kids and I went earlier than Mark; a few days later, Mark took the train from Burns Lake to Jasper (with an overnight in Prince George) where he and I met and spent a night before driving back to Rocky. After Rocky we went to Edmonton and met with Mark's sister Barbara, her husband Tom, and three of their four kids. We had a good time with them at the Waterpark in West Edmonton Mall and the Telus Science Centre. Although we didn't have to go anywhere, it was a treat to visit with Bob, Sheila, kids and dog in August, when they actually came to Burns Lake! At Christmas we decided to do something non-traditional, so we booked a room for two nights at Esther's Inn (“tropical oasis”) in Prince George and went swimming and shopping. It was actually quite relaxing as we did our small amount of shopping in the early mornings before the crowds came out.

That's it for our news. As we head into 2007, we are looking forward to exciting new adventures in Burns Lake and beyond. We wish everyone the best for the new year!

Chris, Mark, Cameron and Meghan

For those of you reading this on the internet, click on the following link to see our family photos: www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

Check out our website at http://www.lakescom.net/~teskview/index.html

Naming my blog

2006-12-16T22:38:00.000-08:00

My first task was to name my blog. I could have spent hours thinking about this! But instead I went to my dictionary. Tessellated means, "composed of or decorated with small blocks of variously coloured material arranged in a pattern or mosaic". This quite appeals to me, because I want to write about the many colourful and varied pieces that make up the lives of me and the people in my family.