Non-Routine Routines

Ello.

Recently, I’ve fallen into some non-routine routines. What I mean is…

1.      I have been applying to jobs like a mad woman- since I have an inability to “legitimately” work here in South Africa at the moment, I have been applying for every freelance job I can find. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t need to work, because I have a wonderful soccer-playing husband. However, for my sanity’s sake, I need a project to keep me busy. My fixation on getting a job now has me up at 3 am, sending out my resume, writing samples, and knocking on virtual doors. No luck thus far…

2.      Blogging has been on the back burner. This has been the case since my family came out, and I can’t seem to get back in the groove. I attribute this to non-routine routine #1.

3.      Sleep has been intermittent and inadequate. This is also due to non-routine routine #1.

4.      Photo documentation of my life has been non-existent. This isn’t because I’m lazy, but rather that it simply slips my mind. Real routines have fallen by the wayside.

5.      Get ready for this one… I haven’t been helping cook dinner every night. Gasp! (I know). Skyping the fam often takes place during prime dinner preparation time, so I end up tidying up the kitchen after we’ve polished off the nighttime eats.

6.      Although I don’t always cook dinner, I have become the official salad maker in the house.

7.      I’ve been working out… whenever I want and doing whatever I want. This means Zumba-ing, walking, and doing body-resistance stuff.

I’m finding it very strange not to have some sort of plan or direction for the next phase in my life. For the past 10 years (give or take) I’ve had future plan, knowledge of what I want to accomplish next. There are no projects to be completed, no papers to be written, no deadlines to be met, or professors to answer to. So for now, I am an unemployed, post-grad newlywed…

Anyone looking for a freelance writer??

Organizing My Life

Hello friends! It has become clear to me that my recent posts concerning my laid-back, carefree honeymoon are no reflection of my life at present. It seems now that I am back home, I have so many things creeping up on me.

Here is a current list of major things I have to do in the next month-ish:

-meet with our wedding photographer to give him honeymoon pics and music for our DVD so that we can get our pictures already!!

-start writing a new resume

-(hopefully) start applying for some sort of job, preferably freelance writing

-get a haircut (ok, I don’t have to, but I sooo want to)

-start looking for a place to live

And most importantly…

GET A FLIPPIN’ VISA!

I’ve just begun the process to get my temporary relative’s visa here in SA, and let me tell you, it’s not easy. If you are interested in moving to another country in the future, I suggest you get researching  ASAP, start collecting documentation, and find a good immigration agency to help you with the process. It’s a beast.

In other news, it appears that my overindulgence in wine, sugar, gluten, and all other yumminess has wreaked havoc on my body. So, on top of all of the visa and other organizational nonsense, I have also been feeling like absolute shi-poo-poo. This week, I have determined to be extremely strict with my eating (this is quite uncommon) and consume only meats (mostly poultry, fish, and eggs), veggies, quinoa, and yogurt. Yep. That’s it for a week. It’s only Wednesday and all I want is to bite into a juicy chunk of grapefruit. Gah. I suppose it’s the price you pay if you completely ignore your food allergies for a week…

Also, I’ve been trying to get back to the exercise grind. I admit, not having to fit into a wedding dress cuts my motivation in half. Although, I will say that it is the first time in my life that I’m working out for the sole purpose of being healthy. Looking good is now just a fringe benefit ;). So, it’s been lovely just working out when I want to and how I want to without worrying about whether or not a certain muscle group got worked hard enough.

Well, I think that pretty much sums up what’s going on this side of the ocean. Tata for now!

It's Been a Blur- Part 5

Hi folks! In this last post about our honeymoon, I will be squeezing three days into one post, so get ready…

Days 6, 7, and 8:

During the week, in our exploration of our hood, we came across a beautiful little church, and decided we’d go for mass on Sunday. So, bright and early, we woke up, got ready, and headed out to church. When we arrived, we found out that that day, 3 babies were being baptized.

Happy mom with her beautiful baby

It looked like the Lion King

How do we end up being a part of these once-in-a-blue-moon events? First, the ordination at Notre Dame, then the gay parade, and now a Christening (which out of these three is not like the others…). Although we couldn’t understand the language, the service was beautiful.

The entrance to the church

Angel holding the holy water

Stained glass was exquisite

After church, we went for a Sunday afternoon picnic in the gardens beneath the Eiffel Tower. Talk about perfection.

Ready to eat

Our lunch-time view

Gluten coma

The lunch responsible for said coma: ham, baguette, Camembert cheese, sparkling wine, nutella, carrots, and apples.

This little rabbit was hopping around scaring people off of their blankets. So cute.

We spent about 3 hours just lounging around the gardens, watching people, sleeping, eating, and watching people. It was such a relaxing and interesting afternoon.

In the evening, we headed to the neighborhood over, Anvers, to see the Sacre Coeur. Truthfully, neither Miguel nor I were really sure exactly what the Sacre Coeur was. All we knew was that, almost every day, we saw this gorgeous structure in the distance.

Magnifique!

When we arrived, we trekked our way to the top of the hill where we had the privilege of watching this guy do freestyle soccer. Of course, Miguel was loving it.

Finally, we reached the doors of the building. Inside, everything was silent. I mean, absolutely silent. There were people playing music outside, selling beer, partying, and otherwise piddling about. But it was almost as if there were a barrier between that and the inside of this magnificent church. It was breath-taking, and by far mine and Miguel’s favorite experience of the entire trip.

"For 25 years, here day and night, somebody has been praying to the Lord."

For dinner, we made a rather impulsive and irresponsible decision… We went to McDonald’s.

Big Mac, Coke, fries, frappe, and lots of ketchup

Chowin' down on that gluten

 I can’t remember the last time I had a Big Mac, but all I can say is, it was de-flippin’-licious. And it made me feel like crap. As my mom says, “You play, you pay.”

On Monday, our last full day in France, we spent our time shopping (not like we hadn’t already shopped enough).

Then, for lunch, we headed back to the Montparnasse area of some very well-priced Indian fare. This was my favorite meal of the trip. I got tandoori chicken, salad, basmati rice, veggie curry, naan, and ice cream, all for 10 euros (virtually unheard of). And it was good. Real good.

I wanted to wrap myself up in this blanket of fluffy, yet flat goodness.

Miguel's cucumber yogurt thing

Then we went back to our temporary home, packed up and got some much-needed rest.

For our last night in Paris, we went back to our favorite dinner spot—along the Seine—and ate simple food and waved at passing tour boats as the sun went down (at 10:30 PM).

Typical: cheese, red wine, olives, nutella, carrots, bananas, salami, and the biggest hunk of Pave bread you've ever seen

My personal bottle opener

Notre Dame in the distance

Table for two

Gorgeous sunset

After our dinner, we sat on the banks just enjoying each others’ company. What a beautiful night.

Tuesday was spent just getting our stuff together, walking around the neighborhood, sending post cards, and making the hour trip to the airport.

Here’s the next day and a half in a nutshell: our flight from Paris to Frankfurt was majorly delayed, we missed our connecting flight, Lufthansa put us up in the Sheraton for the night, we got to sleep in, we wondered around the airport, and then FINALLY made it back home a day later than we’d planned.

Our time in France was so amazing thanks to the fact that I am married to the most wonderful man on the planet. Without a doubt, I want to go back as soon as possible. I love the lifestyle, I love the “c’est la vie” mentality, I love the culture, I love the food, I love the architecture, and I love the landscape. The bottom line is: j’adore Paris.

But now, it’s back to the real world…

It's Been a Blur- Part 4

Hi friends! Are you ready for more honeymoon tales? In case you’re wondering why there are about a million pictures on each post, it’s mostly for my family to see, but I hope you are enjoying them as well!

Now, drum roll please, Days 5 of my Parisian honeymoon!

On Saturday, we continued our sightseeing. Our first stop was the Orsay museum, which, in my opinion, trumped the Louvre by far. I loved how close together everything was. It felt as though something incredible was waiting for you around every corner.

Apparently you are not supposed to take pictures in there, but we didn’t realize it until halfway through the museum. I always appreciate my own ignorance in these situations.

This was my favorite painting

Water Lilies- Claude Monet

Next up was Notre Dame. The plan was to climb the towers and go inside the church, but upon exiting the metro, our ears were greeted by angelic singing. As we ventured close to the church, we couldn’t help but notice the thousands of people crowded around and two giant LCD screens in front. It appeared that we had come on the day of the national ordination.

You can see the screen in the lower right corner

 It was a very inspirational moment to be in a crowd of thousands of people, all silent as the priest spoke and sang, only offering up applause as a priest would be blessed and ordained.

This guy was feeding the little birds straight out of his hands.

After about a half an hour of watching the spectacle, we realized this thing was going to last much longer than the typical 1 hour, so we ambled next door to Saint Chapelle.

The gate out front

It was on this occasion that I was so thankful for my smart husband and his precious Paris Pass (the PPP as I like to call it). Now, don’t get me wrong—the Saint Chapelle is a gorgeous church with the most detailed and artistic stained glass windows you’ll ever see. But we spent about 20 minutes inside admiring the place and then left. Meanwhile, we estimated the time to get through the line outside to be between 3 and 4 hours. Wait 4 hours to be in a church for 20 minutes? No thank you.

Following our church tours, we hopped on the metro, then on the train toward the Luxembourg Gardens. We planned to eat lunch there, and while searching for a supermarket, we stumbled upon this beast of a building:

The French Pantheon

It just so happened that the Pantheon was covered under our PPP (really, I wasn’t surprised). Inside, I found myself to be quite overwhelmed with its size. This place was huge!

The coolest part of the Pantheon was the crypts, which housed the remains of people like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire. Again, I got a little star struck with history. Amazing.

Voltaire's crypt

Rousseau's crypt

After getting sufficiently disoriented and rather lost in the crypts, we finally found our way out. Kind of scary to be lost in crypts if you ask me… Then we hit up the Jardin de Luxembourg for some eats.

Potato chips, apple, orange, baguette, Coke, marinated carrots, and Nutella (our food staple)

  I wish we had been able to spend more time there, but we had to rush to a wine tasting at 3 PM. Unfortunately, when we got into the area, the “wine tasting place” was nowhere to be found. Gah.

So we began the trek back home, and on our way, we came across this entertaining scene:

  I should inform you of the irony of this situation. This is the third time where I’ve been traveling in another country and happened upon a huge gay parade. I find it hilarious.

Finally, we made it back to our place, cleaned up, and headed back out for dinner, as was our routine. Since the plan was to go to the Montparnasse tower, we grabbed dinner out that way at this great little Lebanese restaurant. This was Miguel’s favorite meal of the trip.

Miguel had the shwarma mixte.

  I ordered an appetizer sampler. And since the appetizers were pre-selected and our waiter spoke zero English, I’m not exactly sure what I consumed that night. I wasn’t the least disappointed.

I think there may have been falafel, hummus, pickled okra, and samoosa? I'm not even sure if the Lebanese make samoosas...

Mountain of fattoush.

With bellies full of fattoush and whatever else, we trotted off to Montparnasse.

View of Paris, 56 floors up

 

We spent much of the evening wandering the 14^th arrondissement, satisfying our sweet tooth along the way.

Pistachio and vanilla. Mine was better...

Then, around 11:30, seeing as we still weren’t tired (I’m not sure how this was possible), we took a late-night stroll down the Champs-Elysees. What a lovely way to end the night. And trust me, by this time, we were incredibly tired. I was very grateful for our PPP, but was also grateful that it was only good for 2 days. Sheesh.