Paris...20+ years later

Jeanette and I first visited Paris over 20 years ago when we were in our early 20s, a time when we travelled on a very limited budget, about $30 a day. Due to budget constraints and high entry fees, our visit to the “City of Lights” meant that we skipped many a museum and abstained from an ascent of the Eiffel Tower. We enjoyed our visit, but got out of town in order to to save money--baguettes, cheese and jam trumped the Louvre. 

When considering where to travel during our latest break, Paris came to mind. So off we went, only this time with money! And what a wonderful week we had. Lots of walking, great croissants, fantastic red wine and a few too many plates of cheese and double espressos. We visited the numerous gardens on offer, explored neighborhoods we neglected the first time, went on a great walking tour with a local Parisian and took a wine-tasting course. All in all, a nice little break.

The funny thing is, we still didn’t pay to get into any museums or catch the lift up the tower. I guess our (read: Paul’s) frugal side stays with us (read: him), and heck, it left more money for that last plate of Chevre, Blue and Brie. Oh yeah, and that final glass of wine!

Please follow the link for a few pictures. 


Paris photos 

The Next Light, Please

We have had quite a few encounters with the police lately while driving. It seems that they are on every corner--well, they are on every corner--and pulling people over. And we are no exception. Turn a corner, make eye contact with the policeman and out comes the "pozhalusta stick" (the "please stick"). We call it this because they wave a nice bright red stick to get you to please pull over; they have no cars so they can't chase you down, a fact we have used to our advantage.

We have seen the pozhalusta stick waved in our direction more times than we care to remember over the last week, and tonight we rounded the corner and were again waved down. Yet again, we thought. But this time, the policeman opened the rear passenger door stuck his head in and in his clearest Russian (even Paul understood) said, "To the next light, please." We obliged, of course. While we had little time to chat too much, he seemed nice enough and we're glad he's patrolling our neighborhood.

We're Still Here

Nothing much to report, but wanted to let everyone know that we are alive and well in Tashkent. It's that time of year when we are totally focused on the big push to the end of the year. Jeanette goes to Brussels next week for training (everyone together, "Poor Jeanette."), then we have Spring Break the next. When we return, we have10 weeks until the last day of school. Time flies!

Paul is still busy coaching basketball and Jeanette is having fun supervising Student Council. Paul just took his 5th graders on an overnight retreat to kick off the Exhibition, an 8-week culminating project for the PYP. Should be fun. Jeanette's 2nd graders continue to keep her on her toes, so she's looking forward to her trip to Brussels.

Hope everyone is doing well. Until next time!

Next Stop, Mall of the Emirates

Well, I (Paul) just returned from Dubai (or "To Buy") where I attended a fantastic IB workshop on science and social studies. This was my second trip to the Mega-Mall of the U.A.E. and this time my colleague and I decided to do one of the only non-shopping tourism activities in the city, Dune-Bashing/Camel Riding/Sand Surfing:

Some guy picks you up in a large SUV and drives on highways for about 50 minutes. An opening in the fence along the highway appears, and driver makes sharp right-hand turn through the gap. Without warning (no "Hey, your tour is about to begin!") he accelerates and begins bouncing, twisting and turning over the dunes. Passengers also bounce, twist and turn. After 10 minutes, the driver abruptly stops and announces, "OK, time for pictures." 5 minutes pass, back into SUV for 10 more minutes of bashing. Then a short drive to the company's "camp" where they keep their camels which you can ride. We did. And not surprisingly it was the tourist cliche that you now picture. After disembarking and regaining feeling to our bottoms, we were invited to sand surf which involves strapping on a snowboard and scooting yourself down a 50 foot dune. Not very thrilling, but it was good for leaving you with two shoes full of sand. Driver takes you back into the city where he drops you off at a mall, of course.

New Pad

Well, we are on the move, but this time just across town. While our first place was adequate, we decided that we would look around for more comfortable digs. After looking at approximately 12 places with a slew of real estate agents (more below), we found what we hope will be our home for as long as we live in Tashkent.

After living in what Jeanette called "a bachelor pad" (not that there's anything wrong with that!), we thought we would seek out more modern furniture, a bigger kitchen with more storage, a better location and toilets that worked at least half the time (TMI?). Jeanette's wonderful teaching assistant (full-time, for any teachers in the crowd) hooked us up with a real estate agent, gave him our budget and needs. After a few days, we set out on our search.

The most interesting thing you notice right away is that every place you see comes attached with at least 3 real estate agents, the landlord, the landlord's representative, a middle-man and some unidentified guy who stands around talking on his phone and smoking a cheap cigarette. If you think we kid, there were 9 people present when we signed the contract for our new place.

After looking at some of the good, the bad and the ugly that Tashkent has to offer, we settled on a Soviet-style high-rise apartment. Two big bedrooms, "modern" kitchen with dinette area, family room, and a huge formal living room area that we will only use for get-togethers. Pictures are posted below.

While we love the space, one of the best features is the location. We are less than 100 yards from Bon! Cafe, our local coffee/bakery hangout. And right above Bon! is Semo de Roma, one of the Italian joints we frequent far too often. A mini-market, pharmacy and the Mirabod bazar are all right outside our door, so we are never far from a bottle of Sarbast beer, bananas or laundry detergent.

Our hip new kitchen and dining area

We actually love the colors

Family room

Formal living and dining room

Master bedroom

Bathroom--exciting, eh?

Family room and entry way

"Do you live in a 3rd world country?" or 50 pounds of cheese

We are back from winter break. Surprisingly enough it only took us 20 minutes to get through passport control and customs at the Tashkent Airport, not the normal 2-3 hours. This seems to be some sort of record among our colleagues. We’ll see what happens next time.

One thing that people do while they are away from Tashkent is to stock up on things that are unavailable here or are expensive, like good red wine, cheese or certain products from the drug store. Like others, Jeanette and I bought a few items while we were in Maryland over break, enough to fill an extra suitcase for the return trip. On one of our purchasing trips to CVS (local drug store), we placed so many bottles of contact lens solution, packets of Emergency, multi-vitamins and ibuprofen on the counter that the clerk asked Jeanette, “What, do you live in a 3^rd world country or something?” We both chuckled, realizing that we do live in a pretty unusual place, even if we would not call it 3^rd world.

We arrived in Tashkent early Saturday morning, and had a get-together with colleagues to share stories. Like us, the elementary principal and her family did some shopping. One day they went to Wal-Mart to purchase some cheese, cheddar cheese specifically. As they stood in line, the clerk proceeded to scan their items. And after scanning 50 pounds of cheese, turned to them and said, “Ya’ll sure do like cheese, don’t ya’!” Indeed they do, and with 6 people in their family, they ended up with more than 50 pounds in their 11 bags. Needless to say, they did not get through the airport in 20 minutes.

UN Day, Halloween and an exploding blender

We just had UN day at our school, a fantastic weekend event where families set up in classrooms to tell others about their home countries. It was amazing to see how many countries were represented. I even got to speak some Czech!

I think we have mentioned that we are much more socially active here and that continues. We went to a Halloween party, something Jeanette and I have NEVER done before. Jeanette went as a pack of plain M&Ms and I went as M&Ms with nuts. Funny, right? Totally Jeanette's idea. We spent the night drinking, eating and playing Guitar Hero. It turns out that we both are pretty good at it.

We bought our first piece of furniture, a kitchen storage unit. After putting it into place and reorganizing, I (Paul) decided to make dinner. Plugged the blender into our voltage regulator, flipped the switch and heard a pop. Looked at the regulator and saw that I had plugged it into the 220, not the 110. Undeterred, I moved the plug and flipped the switch again. This time we got fireworks and smoke. I think it was an omen telling us that we should continue to eat out.