A Good Week...

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

This has been quite a good week, I must say. First off, I will begin my 7th week of my Strayer College studies and I am pleased to say I have been doing very well at this point. I recently did my first Strayer Midterm Exam for my course and I really aced it with 50 out of 50 correct (A.K.A. 100%). Three or four days of going over my materials seem to have paid off. Needless to say, the results were pleasing to me and my parents.

On Friday (5/14/10), my family and I had our first European movie theater outing. It was an English language theater where foreign films with English (like from the U.S.) are viewed in their original audio rendition, complete with full subtitling in French. The film we all chose to see that day was the recently released Iron Man 2, and I'll tell you, it was quite a fun experience. It was well acted, there were nice lighthearted moments, the action scenes were well done, the story was engaging, and the music score just rocked. All in all, I felt it was pretty much on par with the first film. We expect to see more films there in the future, and the next one that we plan to see soon is the new Robin Hood film by Ridley Scott.

Following the film, Kian and I had our first dinner at a sidewalk cafe. The food was enjoyable for the most part  and the place itself was nice. I expect more ventures to sidewalk cafes in the future.

On a separate note, we had our 3rd visit to the American Library in Paris on Saturday and we all got a number of new books to explore. The visits seem to get better with each one the more we explore the library.

By Niall

Pajama Day Ascension

By Cass

Friday, May 14, 2010

It’s not just another gray day in Paris, but one in a four-day-weekend string across the Ascension holiday.  There is a baffling assortment of national holidays here that, luckily, my team reminds me of to make sure I don’t show up at work wondering where everyone is. 

Instead of Ascension, I celebrated Pajama Day yesterday by sleeping in ‘til an unheard of 10 a.m., and remaining in my pj’s until relegating them to the hamper this morning just as they were about to ascend all by themselves.  Sid discovered that we inexplicably have additional channels in English, so it was a marathon movie day, from the wildly raucous indy film “Radio Rock” to the somber “Rachel Getting Married.” Movies, popcorn and wine without moving from my recliner.  Glorious!

Having regained consciousness this morning, I helped Sid e-pay bills in the U.S. and go get groceries. After lunch, we took the guys to see Ironman 2 at our neighborhood movie house, the Majestic Passy (pas-SEE).  The movie was awesome!  As good as the first Ironman.  The theater was…different.  After waiting in line in the lobby, they led us up three flights of stairs into a room that, in real estate parlance, was “cozy.”  My sister’s basement family room is more spacious.  French movie crowds are also more restrained. We were stifling whoops and “yeah babies” after noticing the occasional appreciative chortles.  How anyone sat still with a soundtrack featuring AC/DC is beyond me. 

Instead of hitting McDonald’s in a classic American dinner-and-movie play, we took Kian and Niall to Aero, a nearby bistro.  We sat outside under the awning and its welcome heaters as the rain poured around us.  The guys tried croque monsieurs: sophisticated grilled ham-and-cheese-sandwiches that I discovered last summer when my friend and colleague Holly Coghill’s girls ordered them when visiting here.  The cheese is on the OUTside.  Yum!

All in all, it was a great day to celebrate Kian’s and Niall’s successful mid-term success. They both have “A” averages in this first class with Strayer University online.  Perhaps my pajamas aren’t the only thing to ascend around here. 

Grey Days And Ascension Holiday

Good Evening Everyone,

Cassie spent today in jammies in front of the TV relaxing which is a good thing on any day as she seldom stops to smell the roses being usually on the runaway train that's her job.  We saw our new friends Claudia, Fred, and David last weekend and have been invited to a small village shindig somewhere near Cluny on August 15th or thereabouts where Cassie and I will play a set or maybe 2 and also do a set with Fred who's keen to play with us.  Should be fun.  More on that later.

The days have been grey here and hovering in the high 40s with rain and it seems almost like winter returned although we still need to remember that we're at a different latitude than we were in Lynchburg.  I've been watching the politics in Lynchburg recently and the way things are going there I don't think we'll ever live there again.  Who knows what will happen.

Kian and Niall continue to do well with Strayer and this weekend we plan on going to see the new Iron Man movie.

Work continues on my new music and that's it for today.

Hope everyone is alright there.  So far not much interest in the house but we'll see.  I suspect there's someone out there who would love it.

Love to all everywhere,

Sid

My Third Blog

It has now been over three months since we first came to Paris, and things are never boring. A few weeks ago we stumbled across a frozen food store called the Picard (I'm sure I spelled it right) where we found frozen waffles and pancakes which we've been having (and enjoying) for a while now. over a couple weeks ago, we visited a family from Brazil living here on another side of Paris who are friends of Mom's. My brother and I played video games and had lunch with their son, David (he had a Playstation 3 and we brought our handhelds- my Nintendo DS and Niall's PS Portable - I think). Last week we went over to their house again and things were much more exciting than last time in my opinion (the lunch and the game playing). Mom even went back over to the US in Virginia to visit our friends and pick up some things we missed from home that we can't get here in Paris - Gram-crackers, floss, allergy medicine (the kind I take, but cannot get up here), and a few other things. My time on Strayer has been going pretty well too, for I just scored an 83.3% on my midterm exam. Things have still been going well for me and the rest of us and I hope they continue to go well for us in the future.

By Kian

A couple more developments...

By this point, Kian and I have reached our 5th week in our Strayer College sessions, and I am pleased to say they are going successfully well for us. This week, we both have our first Mid-Term exams with Strayer. There will be more on that when they are done.

This morning, Mom just returned from a week long venture back to Lynchburg and she brought a little of it back with her. By that I mean Mom brought back stuff we can't get here in Paris, like floss on handles, graham crackers, desert mixes (cake & brownie) that we loved getting back in the U.S.

One more thing; our last (to my knowledge) shipment of things from the States arrived earlier this afternoon with Dad's shelf, Mom & Dad's dresser, and my dresser, which I have now set up and started to use. It is just a little more of home with us now.

Best regards,

Niall Hagan

Back to blogging...

Sunday (4/19/09), my brother and I made our first potential friend here in Europe. His name is David and he is the son of one of Mom's colleagues from work. We met when our families had a sort of get-together at the other's residence, complete with good food (a selection of which included stuff we had not tried before), engaging discussions, and music.

The ride to their neighborhood was something, for we had to use 3 different metro lines to get there, and then get a ride from David's parents themselves. Speaking of them, they themselves were very nice people, and they lived in a very idyllic street with a home that was just fancy to the max in my opinion.

Kian and I had a great time with David since he had many of the common interests that my brother and I had. We both showed him a game on our portable game systems (I have a P.S.P. and Kian has an N.D.S.). He enjoyed both of them and showed us a game on his PS3, which I found to be a very entertaining experience. The both of us then told him about the videogames and VG systems we have at our apartment (we have N64, PS2, & GC), and how our PS2 games which we would bring during over during our next visit were compatible with his PS3 system. David was excited about it and he told us that he was looking forward to our next visit just as we are. We also have plans for us to get together at our apartment for some gaming fun as soon as we get our TV sets for our aforementioned systems.

Needless to say, it was a great Sunday afternoon for us.

Best regards,

Niall Hagan

Winter In May

Mornin Pilgrims,

Yesterday it never went above 50 F here and I had to turn the heat back on as the twins were complaining that they were cold.  Since last weekend it's been gray and cloudy with intermittent rain and wind.  Cassie's home today and she canceled her Provence trip as she just has too much to do.  The rest of our personal shipment arrives today and we're all the way in after that.

Both Kian and Niall are carrying very high averages in their Strayer University classes and we are all well pleased with the choice which frankly I was apprehensive about not having any experience with colleges online although we've read many articles extolling the virtues of online study.   Cassie and I are just glad that it's working and that it's looking like Kian will finally make it through college math which is GREAT!

In the next couple of weeks we make our first European trip to London on the Eurostar through the "chunnel" which scares our French buddy Veronique but hey, we're intrepid.  At least there should be no volcanic ash down there.

Grocery shopping yesterday was a madhouse after the holiday weekend and I got elbowed aside by a number of little old ladies who beat me to the bananas.  I ended up buying the "organic" brand that was just as good but more expensive.  Gotta love this place.  Cassie brought back goodies from the states in her big suitcase which is what a lot of ex-pats do when they return home from time to time.  She also had a great and restful visit with Vivian and Bob and got some good sun while she was there too.  She looked at me coming in the door and said, "what happened to the Spring?"   

Mid terms this week for the twins.  Time to try the market again today to see if I can get everything without being trampled.

Love to all everywhere!

Sid