January 24, 2006 - We're In!

So, it's been a while. We got our stuff. How did we have all that in our Paris apartment? of course the movers use about 10 sheets of wrapping paper per coffee cup so that tends to add volume. I'll spare the details of inserting our stuff into the house.

Now, our goal is getting into the rythm of our new life. Bringing the kids to school - IN A CAR, grocery shopping IN A CAR, going down the street to get money, milk, the paper - IN A CAR. Living in Paris is really different because of the lack of using the car...(among lots of other things). As we were stuck in traffic the other day (admiring the perfectly manicured landscaping on the interchange with Palm trees, petunias and lots of green grass!), Antoine says, "It's a good thing Papa is here to build the metro." I had to explain that when the metro starts alleviating the traffic - our time will be up here. So traffic jams are part of our Dubai experience and taking the metro is not!

We have a gardener. We kind of don't have a choice in the matter. Rahim showed up one day, explained to me in gesture that he is a gardener and that for 200 dirhams he could take care of our yard. I thought it was worth it for him to give it a good weeding, cut the grass, get rid of the dead tree and get it ready for me to plant some flowers and enjoy gardening. Turns out, the price is for the month (and i negotiated it down - how embarassing). So now he comes every day. I buy flowers - he plants them. He's funny. Today he came with a leather, fake fur-lined aviator cap with ear flaps and everything. He wore it the whole time. The first day came, he had one of those red and white checkered scarfs on his head. This is the thing with headgear here: people fool with them ALL THE TIME. Everytime I looked out the window to see what he was doing, he had it in a different configuration on his head, across his shoulders, around his neck, back around his head. That would aggravate the Pee out of me. I have to say the aviator ear flaps come with strings that let you tie them up if you're feeling a little too warm.