3 weeks to go!

We are on the three week countdown: three weeks until we blow this popsicle stand and head back to the good ole US of A!  The boys and I fly out first, for five weeks or so with my parents, and then the husband joins us (after Ramadan, natch, so as to fully enjoy the mandated shortened work days) for another five weeks or so at his parents' house.

We've got a full summer agenda, with road trips and visits to far flung friends and swimming lessons and who knows what all, but before we swing into good time mode, we need to get through these next few weeks.  And full weeks they are!

First up on the agenda are the PTO elections.  Against my better judgment, I am running for Chairperson, largely to try to prevent the current (absentee, ineffectual, generally lackluster) President (we changed the name of the position when we revamped the Constitution this past month) from continuing his reign of nothingness.  I would have run for something else if any of the other involved parents I know would do a good job had stepped up, but none did, at least not for the position of Chairperson (they actually did step up for the rest of the leadership positions, thankfully!), so here we are.  I sent out an email to all my parent and teacher contacts and basically tried to guilt them into coming to vote, so we'll see how it goes.  Right now I am stressing about the appropriate outfit to wear to an election in a conservative country where men usually lead and the women wear designer clothes under their abayas--funnily enough, I don't seem to have anything that combines the right notes of luxury with capable but non-threatening yet Western femininity!  I will see what I can come up with!

Next, there is the packing, of course.  This time around. we are taking quite a few things we still want but no longer need here to be stored at my parents' house.  So we need to pack all that into a few suitcases, along with empty duffles to be filled with all sorts of necessities for the trip back.  My list so far includes Tazo passion herbal tea (I love this stuff), black and white school shoes for the boys, birthday supplies for two themed parties, travel size toiletries (not a thing here, for some reason), beef jerky (just the essentials, right?), and teacher gifts (also not a thing here), numerous birthday gifts for the boys and their friends, and who knows what else!  The list grows every day, but it all has to fit into 6 suitcases for the flight back, so there my planning is self-limiting!  The husband needs some new white shirts and dress shoes in the worst way, so his luggage allowance back will probably be filled as well.

Then we have the bus to organize for next year.  This coming school year our school will have two campuses, the main campus and a smaller campus for the first three grade levels, which means several families, like mine, will have children at both campuses, so I need to make arrangements with our bus company to address these changes.  This is complicated by the fact that our school still has not decided when the two campuses will start and end their school days, so first I need to encourage them to get that straightened out in a timely manner (i.e. before the school year ends) so all parents can make plans for the fall.  I'm having a hard time impressing the school with the urgency of these decisions, but we'll shoulder through and get it all worked out before I leave, no matter what!

What else?

We have had some changes at church, so the young women's president will be released soon, since her husband has just been put in as Bishop.  So there will be some more changes with that, I'm sure, but we're not exactly sure when those changes will take place or what they will be, so really all I have to do there is watch and wait.  The youth program here basically shuts down for the summer, since almost everyone leaves, so they could wait and make changes after we all get back, but we shall have to see.  In the meantime, I think we are going to get as much planned and prepped as possible for whomever takes over, so there is a bit of work to do there before I go.

And finally there are some medical issues to contend with, as always.  I went to see a ton of doctors before we moved here but haven't been to see anyone since, except for my ill-fated trip to the ER.  But now it looks like I need to have all sorts of things tested, so I am wading back into the medical system with great trepidation.  Luckily, the doctors from the husband's as yet unfinished hospital are now seeing patients at various places around the city, so I am going to go see some of them, which puts my mind more at ease about the whole process.  I will be getting a battery of tests done this week (hopefully) and then following up with various doctors once I have the results.  Tra la la, I love blood draws!

Whew!  Good thing all of this has to be done before I leave!  At least I know it will all last only three weeks!  And finally, just for kicks and giggles, some random pictures the husband has been taking of our eyes.  I'm not sure why he is doing it, but the results are cracking me up!

E looks like he is about to go cross-eyed!  The
 husband got REALLY close for these shots!

J is not smiling here, clearly, but his eyes are the clearest of all of us!

Why yes, those bags under my eyes and all the spots of my
face are all natural!  But of course!

I took this one and the husband said, after we were all done "Wow,
you are really close to my face!  Did I get that close?"
Yes indeed you did, honey!

On ice?

A few weeks ago, J came home all aflutter, thrusting a coloring page into my hands, and shouting, "We can win tickets to Disney on Ice!"

Now, it's important to know the following things: we're not really a Disney family--until recently we hadn't seen any Disney movies, and even now, we still haven't seen very many.  We've never been to any version of Disneyland or Disneyworld.  We have no stuffed Disney characters lying around.  And, of course, we've never even talked about Disney on Ice until now.

Apparently, the boys' school was part of a bunch of schools who were offered free tickets to raffle off.  The boys each got to color two pages to enter into a drawing for one set of four tickets per grade level.  Now E could not have cared less about all this; he actually has a deep-seated antipathy for all things Frozen borne out of overkill at school.  J, on the other hand, has a class filled with girls, some of whom are figure skaters, and all of whom were super excited about all things ice and Disney, hence his own excitement.  He dutifully and carefully colored in his sheets, convinced that the quality of his coloring would matter, no matter how much I tried to tell him it wouldn't.  Tellingly, we had to find pictures online so he could figure out what Ariel and Aladdin were supposed to look like--I told you we were Disney newbies!  E also scribbled in his sheet, so J would have more chances he said...such a good brother!

So then we began our weeklong attempt to manage expectations.  We explained that there were lots of people entering the contest, that winning had everything to do with luck and nothing to do with coloring, and that we had never even wanted to see Disney on Ice before this week.  We also negotiated.  J was by now completely convinced he HAD to see the show, so we investigated getting tickets.  Turns out Disney on Ice is really expensive!  The cheapest seats were $44 a pop!  We talked about maybe just J and I going and his having to try to earn the privilege with lots of table setting and clearing and other chores.  And, we got ourselves ready for the inevitable disappointment that was about to ensue.

The day of the raffle arrived and right after school I got this message from J's teacher:

Hi Lil,

J just won the Disney on Ice tickets and I WISH I HAD IT ON VIDEO.  His reaction was incredible, I'm still laughing.  Complete shock and excitement, it was the best :)

Have a great weekend!

K

And when J got off the bus, he proudly showed me the tickets with a huge smile on his face.  He said he had almost fallen down with shock when he heard his name and had to be helped up by two classmates!  Apparently, one sage little boy in his class had told him "if you think about it, it will go away from you; if you don't think about it, it will come to you," and he had dutifully been following this seven year old guru's advice and not thinking about the drawing at all, so he was even more shocked by the outcome!  So much for all our talks and negotiations--I fear this will set a dangerous precedent!

All of which is preamble to how we ended up at Disney on Ice: Princesses and Heroes two nights ago at the mammoth Qatar National Convention Center.  After a long hike from the parking garage (sooo far), we found the appropriate hall and our seats, which would have cost us $75 each if we had bought them.  We bypassed all the Disney paraphernalia outside; thankfully the boys really weren't all that interested in such things, because all of that was very, very pricey.  We had gotten there quite early, to account for traffic and the hike in, so the boys played on the iPads a bit before we started but mainly they were just interested in the lights and the ice, even while it was static.  E asked me to take a picture of the ice before the show began, "so we will always remember it."

Two of a kind

As many of you know, given that most of you are related to me, I have two sons.  On the surface, you'd be hard pressed to find two more different children.  J is thin and more or less average height (perhaps he will be tall and lanky in the future?) with blonde hair and blue eyes (he's our recessive recessive).  J likes to sing and dance and draw people and animals and lately mermaids and buildings.  J likes to obey the rules.  He likes to make people pleased with him.  He gets anxious when people are not pleased, and he can be a bit risk averse and a lot unhappy with change.  J takes a while to warm up to people and sometimes needs help navigating social situations, but he is a very enthusiastic friend when he makes up his mind to be.  J looks like his dad as a child but acts like me as a child (minus the art) so he is very verbal and emotional and authoritative.

E, on the other hand, is very tall and sturdy (I think he will always be both) with brown hair and very brown eyes (so dark we couldn't tell his eyes were any color at all for months).  E likes to run and  ride bikes and fight with swords and boogie to his own beat (but not to sing very much) and draw robots and monsters and explosions and what he used to call "Big E's," hilarious self portraits with HUGE heads.  E does not feel constrained by rules or guilt or what people think of him.  He is afraid of being alone and often refuses to tell people what he wants and will shut down when pressed to speak.  He can be very, very stubborn in the face of correction but extremely empathetic when others are struggling.  E is everyone's friend instantly and will play with anyone who moves.  E looks more like me as a child than anyone else in our family but acts like the husband as a child, complete with incredibly funny facial expressions that crack everyone up.

Early on, I dressed them in similar clothes in different sizes, but, pretty quickly, they got to be the same size, so now I just buy two of everything and they wear their clothes interchangeably, more often than not matching, because it's easier for me to keep track of them that way.  Because of this, people are always asking me if they are twins.  Now, if strangers ask me, I can forgive that--they could easily be very fraternal twins if you had nothing else but their outfits to go on.  But people who know us and know them relatively well also ask me if they are twins periodically and I have to wonder how anyone who has been around us can ask that.  They look like they came from completely different gene pools; they act about as differently as two boys can.  Really?

In not so short, they are very different people.  And yet....J lost his first two teeth this year, finally, after two years of feeling behind the curve.  E also lost his first two teeth this year as well, in Pre-K.  J learned to ride his bike just recently...and E learned how last week, in about 8 minutes.  They are both extremely affectionate, still unconsciously holding my hands when we walk, wanting to sit on my lap, under my arm, practically in my skin if I will let them, writing notes or drawing pictures for me almost every day at school or at home.  Some days they are so very much the same developmentally it is uncanny.  Most of the time, that's fine, but occasionally it's hard on E when people expect him to be a 7 year old like his brother and he is not and hard on J when E gets along with J's friends better than he does.  Sometimes their similarities are hard on all of us when they want the same things, the same people, the same treatment and the world doesn't want them to be quite that similar.  Right now, however different or the same they are, they both love to spend almost all their time together, which I appreciate and encourage, and they see themselves as very much the same, which helps to strengthen their brother bond, and what more can I ask for them, really??

Both evidence a love for all things sweet, particularly the
idea of those pink fondant pigs in the background!

You can't see it, but E is playing in the mud here while J
watches admiringly...but does NOT get in the mud himself.

At a birthday party for one of J's friends, E was the life of the party, as usual.

A shared patriotic project!

Tailor-made

As I think I mentioned, a while ago, I threw my second swap party here.  This one was even more successful than the last, although we did have a lopsided ratio of those who were going to those who were staying.

Anywho, in preparation for that party, I went through my clothes and came up with lots of duplicates, no-longer-fits, and get-rid-of-its, but I also came upon a half a dozen pieces that I had never worn or stopped wearing because they really needed to be altered.  I always have a pile of clothes like these, clothes that seem fine the first time I put them on but then I realize are just too large in the waist (often) or too long (also happens fairly frequently). Sometimes, when I am at my parents' house, my mother is kind enough to hem things for me, but I usually don't bring these clothes places with me, so there they sit, collecting dust and mothballs until I give them away.  It's a horrible system, and a habit I am trying hard to break, so this time around, I decided to take these clothes to the tailor and see what he (it's always a he here) could do.

My friend had recommended a shop not too far from my house, so I headed over there one day and tried them out.  I wasn't sure how this was all going to go; men here are pretty much loathe to touch a woman, so I couldn't imagine how they would be able to measure what they needed to measure, nor was I even sure there was a changing room in the place but I decided to push forward and see what happened.

In the end, the process went relatively smoothly, if a bit comically.  I showed up with my bag of clothes and the man in front motioned me to a tiny little room made out of wood panelling I had missed before.  I went inside and found mirrors on three sides of the room...only fabric was hanging across one mirror, for reasons that escape me.  I put on each of my items, then went back out into the shop and explained what I wanted done.  The tailor took a few measurements without actually touching me at all, which is quite the feat, and then wrote down a few incomprehensible scribbles (I think he is Sri Lankan) and pinned a paper to each item as I went and changed into the next.  I had the waist of three pairs of capris taken in, one maxi dress hemmed, another maxi dress made into a knee-length dress (the hem on that one was hopelessly uneven after I washed it), and a chiffon border added to a third dress that was too short (I already had the chiffon trim from a 90% going-out-business sale I ran into in Cleveland one day).  He asked me in his very broken English when I needed everything and I told him there was no rush, so he suggested two weeks, which was fine with me.

I gave him an extra day and then showed up to pick up my clothes, only for him to realize he wasn't done.  He promised me they would be ready that same night, but I didn't want him to do a sloppy job which trying to rush, so I said I would be back in two days.  Have I mentioned that time is relative here and deadlines are really, really fluid?  So, anyway, I came back in two days and my clothes were ready, but I was in a rush, so I didn't try everything on until later that day when I got home.

The verdict?  All the capris fit perfectly in the waist, though one pair, it turns out, still isn't all that flattering, so I put it in the giveaway pile.  I'm pretty sure it came from a thrift store somewhere, so it's fine.  The hemmed dress now falls at just the right length, and I love LOVE the knee length dress so much now.  And the chiffon trim makes the other dress both more modest and less conservative. My only disappointment is that the trim had some seams, and he managed to leave one of the seams  right in front, when rotating the trim just a bit would have been much more aesthetically pleasing.  But, overall, I'm pleased.  And all of that cost me about $20, which seems pretty reasonable.  I think next I will let him tackle my array of maxi skirts that all seem to have been made for Amazonians!

Recommendations, anyone?

Help: I need some new things to read online!  I've got actual books galore I'm reading, thinking about reading, and definitely going to read soon, but I need something new to read while surfing the web.  I decided this week I had outgrown most of my old faves, because my kids are no longer littles or my life has diverged in ways that make the blogs or websites I used to peruse pretty much irrelevant to my daily life now.  And while I can spend many long hours on travel sites and blogs prepping my next trip, I can't do that ALL the time.

So, what do you recommend, my small but loyal band of readers?  Something consistently entertaining or thought-provoking or informative or just plain awesome??  Lay it on me, please!

The usual Doha mess

Typical Doha issue:

As you may recall, in the beginning of the school year, we started our own private bus to take the children to school.  Once we got things going, I went to the security stations who guard the entrance into a big private area where our school happens to be located and explained that the bus would be coming, and we made a special sign to remind them of this fact, which I showed to the guards.  I also left my name and number so they could call me if they had any questions.  And everything went smoothly.

Fast forward until now: two weeks ago, a new, huge, labyrinthian road construction project was unveiled along the road to school.  Luckily, the majority of the construction was taking place at the roundabout just beyond the school turn-off, so we thought we were okay.  (We should have known better--if I could show you the map of how this supposed improvement project looks, you would have to laugh!)  However, as more and more people realized that this roundabout construction was really inconvenient, they began to try to cut through our little enclosed area, which sent the security guards and the powers that be into an absolute tizzy.  So, the guards started cracking down, only allowing folks through who had the proper ID tags.  But we were assured by the school that as long as we told them we were trying to get to our school, we would be allowed to pass.

And for one week, our bus went right on doing what it had always done, traveling the same route it has been traveling for months, until last week, when the afternoon security guards (not the morning ones, just the afternoon shift, of course, because consistency is not ever a problem here) decided they really didn't want to let the bus in to pick up the kids after school any more.  Our bus driver (who is from Sri Lanka) called me in a tizzy of his own trying to explain what was happening and asking me to solve the problem.

So, first, I printed out new signs with the school's logo and the hospital's logo to put in the bus windows, since perhaps the old signs were bothering them for some reason.  Next, I contacted the school to see if they had some idea for a solution and was told that there were now going to be vehicle tags available for family drivers or alternate vehicles like ours...but they weren't ready quite yet.  So in the meantime, I contacted a friend of mine who had tried to recreate such a tag temporarily while he was waiting for his (just in case--though of course I don't condone forgery!).  Finally, I decided to go visit the guards personally, with my own ID tag, and talk to the new guards all over again (at least the afternoon shift).  Which I did.  And they were very apologetic, of course, and extremely worried because no one ever gets out of the car to come and talk to these men personally, let alone a woman, and they assured me the bus would always be allowed through.  Just to be sure, I spoke to one of the powerful secretaries at school who just that day had been stopped and questioned at the gate because she was driving her husband's car, even though she still had the proper vehicle tag with her and she was so incensed that our bus was being stopped that she promised to take "immediate action" which was so unusual to hear I almost didn't understand what she was saying!  Apparently, I caught her on a day when she was feeling decisive!

And then, a few days later, I was told I could go to school to get a new vehicle tag for the bus, taken out in my name, which meant they needed a copy of my Qatar ID as well as the driver's Qatar ID (nothing happens here without this identification, and even then only sometimes), which meant I needed to wait an hour at the school to get his ID, but I persevered and emerged triumphantly with said vehicle tag AND yet another promise that if we had any trouble at all, it would be resolved rapidly.

And all of this only took me two whole weeks, which is, in fact, lightening speed for fixing problems here...which yes, makes one miss the good old days of only waiting a few hours at the DMV or having to wait 24 hours for an appointment with a manager or taking a whole day to register for college classes.  These are days (weeks, months) when American bureaucracy seems positively spry!

The summer approaches

One of the hallmarks of expat life is change, specifically the changes that come with moving and being moved around.  As June arrives, so too does the (sometimes) mass exodus of expats moving on to (not necessarily) greener pastures.  This year, we are not one of the leaving but we are among the left, and it's a strange place to be.  In our church congregation, there are at least 11 families moving on, including some of our very best friends here.  In J's school class, his best friend since he arrived, the miracle girl E who made it okay for him to be here at all, is moving to Saudi Arabia.  In E's class, his best friend, the one he talks about every day both before and after school, may be leaving as well, though whether it's just for a new school or a new country, we don't know yet, and regardless he is going to miss one of those little boys from church (and from down the street!) something awful.  In addition, many of their teachers are leaving, as their contracts end and the uncertainty at the school continues.  At the library where I volunteer, several of the women I know well are also leaving and spreading their duties out among the rest of us who are staying.

In short, all around us, people are talking about leaving, packing, selling, collecting, giving away, and saying goodbye.  It's quite odd, really, going to final meetings, going away brunches, farewell parties, and the like, and at times, to be completely honest, it's more than a little sad.  I mean, I know it's hard for the leaving; I was just one of them, not even two years ago and then not even two years before that.  There are so many ways to go: Denial, Delusion, Depression, Distance--there are at least four D's, probably more, and I have done them all in my last two moves!  But this time, I'm not moving; I'm staying, and it's more than just a few people I know moving away, and I'm more than a little ambivalent about staying here right at the moment, so it's different (a new D).

If you know where to look, there are lots and lots of resources out there in the Interwebs to help expats repatriate successfully, articles on leaving, arriving, and re-acclimatizing with verve and good humor and a healthy number of reality checks.  But there really isn't a whole, whole lot on what to do when you are not repatriating (yet?) but are instead just staying in place and bidding everyone a fond farewell.  You kind of have to make it up as you go along.  So here's what I'm deciding to do:

1.  Be very, very happy for my new friends' good fortunes (though I may cry just a teeny, weeny little bit when some of them leave--boo!).
2.  Focus on my own upcoming trip back to the motherland (Distraction, another helpful D!).
3.  Remind myself of all the good reasons why we are staying (rapidly shrinking debt--check; opportunities to do and learn all sorts of new things--check; the chance to live abroad that we thought we would never have at this stage of the game--check!).
4.  Binge watch all the episodes of The Gilmore Girls to cheer myself up--no one is ever sad for very long in Stars Hollow, my friends.
5.  Chocolate.  Or baked goods.  Perhaps both.  Don't judge me!

What's that, you ask?  Just a random picture of a cheese quesadilla
with a smily face made out of chocolate chips and peanut butter,
of course.  Why not?

Paris Day 4 (and our travel day home)

Our last day in Paris was all for the kids (or it was supposed to be).  We went a little bit further afield to Parc de la Villette to visit the Cite des Sciences & de l'Industrie, a huge science museum with a separate children's museum (the Cite des Enfants) inside.  You sign up for a specific time slot at the children's museum and you have to pick your age group, either 2-7 years old or 5-12 years old.  These divisions totally mystified me, so I picked 5-12 so the boys could be together and J wouldn't be bored and they did have fun with exhibits on making television programs, learning how fast they could run, manipulating waterworks, programming a robot, and learning about ant colonies, but I think they would have had more fun in the younger exhibit--oh well!  The rest of the museum was great, too, with a planetarium, a fun exhibit on taking risks (perfect for one of our little reluctant risk takers), and much of the exhibit was in English as well as French, which was a nice change.    We spent many, many hours there; time just sort of slipped away from us because we were so engaged.  Unfortunately, after we left, we went to find this legendary playground that was also at the park and along the way we saw signs for a giant new slide that that had just opened up, so the boys were all jazzed to find the playground, BUT, when we finally did, it turned out the new slide was monitored and only available to kids over eight years old...and two little boys were absolutely crushed!  That's one of my only complaints about Paris, actually, the playgrounds are just a tad too regimented for us!  We talked the boys down, played a while, and then made our way back home.

Programming a robot to build a house.

J on TV! 

Inside the ant colony!

Risky balance beam!

Some of our French culinary discoveries: roast chicken flavored Pringles
(I thought they were DISGUSTING) and apple Schweppes
(yummy, but lemon was even better).

It is a French museum, after all--no idea what this is for!

Now, this display I quite liked, actually!

After we left the museum, we took the long way home, getting off the metro early to walk along the Seine and then find a brasserie for dinner for a quintessential Parisian meal for our last dinner.   There was lots of food, and we loved it all!

I had pork filets with a mysterious gravy and mashed potatoes that E ate.

E had a croque monsieur, many fries, and all my potatoes.

Paris Day 3

On Thursday, we headed to the Eiffel Tower the slow way.  We took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe and spent a little time admiring the view and then we walked down Ave d'Lena to the base of the Eiffel Tower.  The boys enjoyed the leisurely walk, getting little glimpses of the tower through the trees as we went along.  They were appropriately awed when we finally emerged across the river from the tower (though I think they were just as excited about the fact that there were not one but TWO carousels on the grounds).  We rode one of the carousels while we waited for our time to ride the airport up to the second level.  The trips to the top had sold out about two seconds after our planned day to visit had come up, so we hoped we could get tickets once we got upstairs, but no such luck, much to J's chagrin.  We had to have a little attitude adjustment with the help of some gelato to manage our disappointment, but he eventually rallied and we had our packed lunches way up on top of the world with great views spread out before us.  And then we walked all the way down, with J counting all 669 stairs (we counted stairs, not steps, by the way), which made all the people behind us either pleasantly amused or really ticked off--mostly amused, thankfully!

J is happier than he seems, really!

Can we get one shot in which both boys look good?

Nope, I guess not!

Really, this is getting ridiculous! 

Maybe we should just leave them out of the pictures entirely?

Paris Day 2

We rallied on our second day in Paris.  We started very early at the Musee d'Orsay and the kids lasted through several hours of us oohing and aahing over impressionists and sculpture.  They really liked the oddest things: a sculpture of a crocodile, a random house painted by Van Gogh (because it was one Charlie and Lola they said), some stained glass.  Near the end, the boys and I sat sketching outside the Cezannes while the husband finished the downstairs (J and I worked on perfecting drawing grapes; E drew robots).  During our sketching session, E had worn down several of our colored pencils, much to J's chagrin, so we stopped by a shop on our way to the Rodin gardens and bought an Eiffel Tower shaped pencil sharpener--my only Paris souvenir!

The Rodin museum is under construction, so we spent our time in the gardens (more sketching with J while E roamed with the husband).  This was the only thing the husband had on his list to must-sees for Paris; he's a lifelong Rodin fan and has seen all the other major exhibits in the US, including the museum in Philadelphia, so we let him take as long as he wanted here.  After Rodin, we headed to l'Orangerie to see the water lilies, which were impressive, though more for us than for the boys, I think.  The art collection downstairs was also great, by the way, and we picked up a fabulous Paris kids' book from their well-curated collection in the gift shop.  We bought very minimal souvenirs the whole trip, actually.  J got some postcards, a figurine with all the significant buildings in Barcelona, and a robot set (from our last day in Paris); E got a Gaudi gecko and an FCB Barcelona stuffed animal (and nothing in Paris because he blew his money on this last thing, but he loved it so much, it was worth it to him); I got a Desigual skirt in Barcelona, my Eiffel tower pencil sharpener, this book for the boys in Paris, and one Sagrada Familia photo book J and I selected after careful consideration of all of them; and the husband got FCB Barcelona and Paris St. Germain jerseys and took more than 2500 pictures of everything.  Traveling carry-on only means you take home mostly memories, which is fine with us!

Imitating Balzac.

Our first Eiffel tower sighting!

Here we are talking about the light and the colors.

That evening, after our long day of lots of museums and lots of walking, we got take away pizza on our street and let the kids play in the playground by our apartment.  Like most kids' attractions in Paris, this playground was heavily regulated: children were allowed to be in it for one hour at a time, and parents had to wait for them outside the gates.  There were three adults inside to keep an eye on the kids and organize impromptu games, but our boys mainly had fun climbing up the complicated and challenging structures that led to the high slides.  E eventually made friends with a slightly older girl who spoke a little English and wanted to practice on him, so she kept track of both boys and let them know when it was time to finish or when the adults were saying something to them.  They had a great time while I watched from outside the fence, which was only slightly disconcerting!  That evening the husband went out to try to take sunset pictures of the Eiffel tower; he wasn't quite successful, but he had an adventure.  The boys and I enjoyed the lovely quiet of our apartment and went to bed, which was less adventurous but equally rewarding!

Paris Day 1 (and our travel day)

We left Barcelona at 12:35pm, so we headed to the airport that morning for our flight to Paris.  The Barcelona airport, at least the new terminal, is lovely, with lots of great shopping and stores I could spend a long time wandering around.  Which is a good thing, because they also do not post the gates for individual flights more than a half hour before the flight actually takes off, so there's no sitting around waiting at the gate for you; you MUST enjoy the beautiful shopping!  We got on the plane early because of the kids, so we got settled and ready for our short flight to Paris.

It's a math game--we both learn a lot when we play it!

Once in Paris, we got our travel passes and train tickets and made our way to the train station for the 40 minute ride downtown.  Our Airbnb host had given us fairly good directions to her house, so it didn't take us too long to find it, which was good.  We also realized that our apartment was right next to both a mall and a playground, as well as off of a cute pedestrianized street with lots of restaurants and food vendors, which was nice to see.

After we met our host, got the run down on the apartment (my mother was concerned that I would have a hard time with the stove, but it was very similar to mine in Qatar, thank goodness, though the washer/dryer combo as another story entirely) and took a little break, we headed out for dinner and to buy groceries for breakfast and lunch the next day.  We went to be early that day so we were ready to head out the next morning.

Now for my one big confession: we did not buy the Paris Museum pass and that as a mistake.  First, originally I was thinking that since we weren't going to very many museums and the boys were free for all of them, it didn't make sense to get this pass.  This was sound thinking but I neglected to realize two important points: one, many more places in Paris than the museums are included in the pass and EVERYWHERE charges an entrance fee (ok, not Notre Dame, but everywhere else), and, two, more valuable than all that is the fact that the pass gets you "priority access" everywhere, meaning you skip the lines, or at least your lines are much, much shorter.  In the end, we should have gotten it for our first two days.  But, we didn't.  So when we arrived at the Musee d'Orsay that morning, the lines were insanely long, Disneyland long (because the Louvre was closed).  We decided to head to the playground in the Jardin des Tuileries next door and reassess our plan for the day.  In the end, all was not lost: we played at the playground and rode the carousel and then walked back up the Seine to Saint Chapelle (short-ish line) and the Conciergerie (no line).  The boys liked both places, though the stained glass in Saint Chapelle wasn't as compelling to them as the stained glass in the Sagrada Familia.  The prison, however, was a big hit, as was its very well-stocked bookstore with tons of kids' books about prisons and castles and dragons and such.

In front of one of many "love lock" bridges!

After that, we headed to Notre Dame, which was also a hit, though more with the husband than the boys.  The line to go up to the towers was soooo long, so we skipped it in favor of going to get something to eat.  It was by now after 3pm and our brought-from-home stores were depleted, so we walked into the Latin Quarter to find some food.  Unfortunately, lunch in Paris is from 1-3pm and usually the restaurants are completely wiped out at that point since they make everything fresh, as several places told us.  Luckily, at one such place, one of the last diners told us she would call the restaurant where she worked, right around the corner, to see if they had anything left.  Which is how we ended up dining at a vegan place in Paris!  We had these huge plates mounded with raw and cooked vegetables and various combinations of cooked grains (brown rice, quinoa, lentils, etc), some gilled salmon, a pan-fried tofu concoction of some kind, some quiche, and cheesecake and pudding for dessert.  Everything came with this amazing sauce to pour over it, and everything tasted really good, considering how bizarre it all was.  E ended up devouring the raw grated beets and all the quiche, I really like the cooked veggies, J was happy with the salmon, and the husband was hungry enough to clean his plate.  Odd, but good!