Recent News

It's been quite awhile since I've posted anything. Michael pulled up our blog on his iPad and let the kids look through our posts. They really enjoyed seeing the pictures and reading what we wrote back then.

Since we last posted, Jonathon and Christian have served missions and we have another addition to our family.  Peter William joined our family on March 7. We've really enjoyed having another baby in our family and the kids have loved having him here. Each of the kids (and adult kids) have been so helpful when I need him fed, held, or looked after. Peter is now eight months old and eating solids. He's learning how to crawl and is getting around.

This is Peter a few days old:

This is Peter at eight months:

We also recently moved (June 16) into a bigger house to accommodate family coming to visit, including returning college kids. We went from having a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house to a 5 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath. The new house also has twice the garage and a full basement, 1/3 of which is finished. It has been much easier to keep the house clean because we have more storage space and the size of the rooms makes it feel less cluttered.

We plan on posting more in the near future, so see you soon!

My Grandpa’s Shoe Shine Box

I’ve been thinking about my Grandpa Santangelo lately.  He was the only grandparent that I knew, though he did remarry after my mother’s mother passed away, I was about a year old when she died.  My father’s parents passed away before I could meet them, they lived in Puerto Rico.  Grandpa Santangelo was a strong man, a mechanic and construction worker in New York City, and he also served in the Aleutian Islands while in the Army.  He had a no-nonsense type of personality, and was a hard worker, but you could also joke with him.  He was also the stake patriarch when he lived in Staten Island, NY and for a long time when he lived in my current stake, East Brunswick, NJ.

I inherited my Grandpa Santangelo’s shoe shine box after he passed away in 1999, I keep it in my bedroom and I still use it to this day for my shoes.  He built it himself out of wood, with a hinged door that leads to a compartment where you can store brushes, creams, and cloths, and a metal footrest attached to the top, just like the ones you see at the shoe shine stands at NY Penn Station or in airports.  I don’t know how long ago he built it, but this shoe shine box must be at least 50 years old.  Still works great, though it’s starting to show some signs of wear and tear.

My kids have all seen me use my grandpa’s shoe shine box, and most of them have sneaked into my room to play with the contents inside.  The younger ones especially are fascinated with it, as they open it up to explore all of the wonderful things that are sure to make a mess when they fall into the wrong hands.  Any time I pull out the shoe shine box, my kids gather round to watch as I bring my otherwise dull and dirty shoes to a brilliant, almost new shine.  I also use that opportunity to tell them a little bit about my grandpa, as I proudly share that he built my shoe shine box himself and that the shoe shine box is older than me and to see how well made it is, sturdy and reliable, just like my grandpa was.

So I think about my grandpa virtually every day because I always see his shoe shine box in my room.  I was also thinking about him because I went to the temple yesterday and he was my escort the first time I went to the temple, which was about 3 weeks before I left for my mission in October 1991.  I remember not understanding a lot of what was happening at the temple, but I remember how I felt after the temple session was over. An intense wave of emotion came over me, unlike anything I’d ever felt before.  The feeling was so strong, I was brought to almost uncontrollable tears.  Because of how I felt, I knew what I had just done was important and good and right and that Heavenly Father was aware of me and approved.  I can’t deny what I felt; it would not be genuine of me to ignore it.  I know the Holy Spirit was testifying to me of the truthfulness of temple work.  I had never experienced that type of witness before and my grandpa was right there to put an arm around me as we walked into the celestial room of the Washington D.C. temple.

I was thinking about that experience because while at the temple yesterday, I made arrangements with the temple recorder to schedule Jonathon, my oldest son, for his own first trip to the temple, in preparation for his leaving for his mission in October 2015.  About 24 years, to the day, from when I left for my mission.

The temple is the ultimate symbol of our Heavenly Father’s plan for us, where we, His family, are taught the purpose of our life on the earth, where we came from and what we can ultimately attain.  The temple also ties us to our earthly families, as we have experiences there, together. Our hearts are turned to one another as we yearn to be there, we perform sacred ordinances on behalf of those that have passed before us and we look forward to a time where we can all rejoice together in the presence of our Heavenly Father.  This was reiterated to me again today, as I reflected on my experiences with my grandpa in the temple and considered what my future experience with my son will be like in a couple of weeks.  I am grateful for family ties, and the light and knowledge that I have as a member of the church that we can all be linked in an eternal way.

I hope to pass my grandpa’s shoe shine box on to one of my children some day, and that it will be used well.  Maybe my children will tell stories about me, and I hope that I will leave some type of positive impression.  More importantly, I hope to pass on a legacy of personal integrity, faithful church service, and temple attendance, and that they will feel inspired to keep going back there to participate in that sacred and holy work.

The Amazins

My brother John bought us tickets to the Mets game as a Christmas present for July 31, 2015, so he, Scott and I made the trek to Citi Field in Queens on a Friday night.  It was typical Mets, as the pitching was great (Matt Harvey pitched 7 2/3 innings of 1-run ball) but the bats were dormant for most of the night.  The Mets completed a trade earlier in the day for a big bat, Yoenis Cespedes, from the Tigers, we went to the park very hopeful that things could change (and they have, as of this writing.  The Mets are starting to win a lot).

I kept a running commentary on things through the night, via text to Mandy and included here below, starting around 7 pm.  My texts are on the left, Mandy's answers to the right:

-Waiting in line for a beef brisket sandwich.

-In our seats. 

-Wait g for the Dark Knight to throw the first pitch

-*waiting

-The sun is directly in our eyes. Good thing we all have shades 

-Irish "rock" band playing pre game show, complete with violin and accordion. 

-Mets taking the field

-$10.50 for this??? (there's supposed to be a photo of my measly beef brisket sandwich, but I couldn't figure out how to get it from my phone to the blog.) 

-2 outs in the top of the first, Scott is on his second meal already

-Wilmer Flores with a diving stop at second base and the crowd practically gives him a standing ovation

-3 up, 3 down and the Mets are coming to bat

-Base hit to center by Granderson!

-Scott is yelling at Bryce Harper, since we're on the right field side. We hope he makes an error so we can make fun of him

-Strike 'em out (Tejada) throw 'em out double play, 2 out and nobody on. Typical Mets

-Murphy strikes out looking. Sheesh 

-A guy just made the observation that the Meta have 4 guys whose best position is third base playing the infield. Plus the left fielder, who is also a third baseman and David Wight in the dugout.  

-2 more strikeouts for Harvey, 3 up, 3 down, with the Mets coming up in the home second. 

-The stadium is about 70% full tonight. 

-Juan Uribe at bat for the Mets, Scott observes that he looks like he's eaten a few too many tomatillos. Plus his face looks like he's about 50. 

-Uribe walks on 4 pitches

-d'Arnaud up for the first time in what feels like forever. 

-And he flies out to left. 

-Flores grounds out to third. Uribe to second 

-Juan Lagares comes to the plate tonthe girliest music I've ever heard, and he flies out to left. Top of he third and no score. 

-*the third

-The sun is finally setting and John removes his hand from shading his eyes for the first time tonight. 

-One more observation on Uribe. He waddles like a duck. 

-Lady in the stands almost gets hit in the head by a foul ball. But she successfully protects her beer. 

-Uribe jumps 3 inches in the air to snag a line drive at third. 

-Harvey has 4 strikeouts in third inning, but he's throwing a lot of pitches. 

-Another strikeout, and another 1,2,3 inning for Harvey. Mets coming up on the third 

-Sounds like you're having a good time. 

-Ya think?

-Cool music for Campbell coming to bat, too bad he's only hitting .181

-Maybe he needs uncool music

-I'm going to suggest that to the Mets front office. 

-The Shake Shack line still hasn't moved since we got here. There's nothing that tastes that good that is worth waiting that long in a line. 

-They say the average wait in the like at Shake Shack is over 30 minutes. I'd rather go to five guys. 

-John declares the chipotle butter for his corn bread unacceptable. 

-Five guys have the best hamburgers. I just wish they sold shakes too.

-To complete an unhealthy meal. 

-Go all the way with a shake. 

-Everything in moderation 

                                                     -I moderate my shake intake just fine. 

-Granderson flies out to the deepest part of the ballpark. Still no score in the top of the fourth. 

Harvey with 39 pitches going in to the fourth. 

-John just mentioned out loud that Harvey is pitching a no-hitter. He just jinxed him.  

-We just remembered that the Mets scored 15 runs in Harvey's last game. That means they won't score any more runs for him the rest of the season. 

-Granderson with a sliding catch, another 1,2,3 inning for Harvey. 

-Ballpark about 80% full now

-Uribe walks. That counts as a Mets rally. 

-d'Arnaud walks. 

-Ball 4 to Lagares and the bases are loaded for Campbell, who is now a .180 hitter. 

-Now here's some excitement

-But we have a snoozer for a hitter up at bat

-Naturally 

-The Mets only have snoozers 

-2-2 to Campbell

-The pitch

-Low, ball 3

-I may have to turn on the fan. 

-3-2, 2 outs, the runners are in motion...

-The suspense...

-And he strikes out looking

-Sheesh 

-Didn't you know it!!

-Heart rending

-But expected. 

-But at least now there's the kiss cam

-Scott is ready for his next meal, but after he boos Bryce Harper some more. 

-Another K for Harvey

-9 pitch inning for Harvey, 15 up and 15 down, Mets coming up in the bottom of the fifth

-Harvey has 57 pitches through 5 innings 

-A couple in our row just got to the game. It's the bottom of the fifth, why even bother?

-Maybe they were eating in one of the restaurants

-Single by Tejada, double by Murphy, second and third with 2 outs and grandpa Uribe coming up

-And the Nats make a pitching change

-Ground out to second and the Mets do not score 

-Scott comes back with soft serve in a helmet and a pretzel

-And the t shirt rocket lady just shot one over our heads. I didn't think they had that much fire power

-Bottom of the order coming up for the Nats

-0-2 on the fist batter

-7th K for Harvey, 16 up, 16 down

-1-2 to the next batter

-Now 2-2

-Base hit by somebody batting .209 and the bid for the no-no is done for the night. 

-Strike out on a bunt attempt, 8 Ks for Harvey

-Base hit to right, first and third for the Nats with 2 outs

-0-2 pitch and...

-Foul ball

-High, ball 1

-Harvey in the wind up

-And grounder to third, force out at second. 0 runs, 2 hits and no errors, after 6 it's the Mets 1 and the Nats 0

-Make that bottom of the 6th

-20% battery left, let's hope they don't go to extra innings

-I don't think the Mets have had 1 hard hit ball all night. 

-Side retired in the 6th, Mets still up 1-0

-Double by the lead off man for the Nats, Bryce Harper to the plate

-And Harper grounds out to third. 1 out

-And another Cecil the lion joke by Scott

-About the 50th one tonight

-Long drive to right by the Zimmerman, but reeled in by Granderson. 2 outs

-Fly ball to the wall, but Lagares runs it down. Mets coming up in the bottom of the 7th. 

-T shirt lady shoots one RIGHT TO ME, but a.) John reaches over and gets in my way and b.) I'm texting you about the game, so I had my phone in my hand and I DROP IT. What a knucklehead I am. 

-We're in the first row of the upper deck, so it falls all the way down to some lucky guy at the field level. Shucks. 

-Mets out 1,2,3 in the bottom of the 7th, during which Scott berates me for texting during game and muffing the free t shirt. 

-I'm still mad about missing it. 

-Harvey strikes out the first batter of the 8th, he's still throwing 97 mph

-Fly ball to left, 2 outs 

-Home plate umpire call HBP on the next batter, Terry Collins challenges. The replay looks like it hit the ground first, but the umpires call it inconclusive, so the batter stays at first. Still 2 outs

-8% left. Harvey looks to be getting a little tired. 

-Infield hit, first and second for the Nats 

-Game is getting a little nerve racking

-2-2 pitch on Escobar, one of the Nats' best hitters

-Single to center, Nats score, game is now tied at 1

-Greeeeeat 

-No bueno

-If the Nats score again, we should just leave

-2-2 on Jason Werth. With 2 outs 

-10 pitch at bat for Werth. Agonizing

-13th pitch of the at bat

-Questionable pitch for a called strike 3, but we'll take it. Mets up in the bottom of the 8th with score still tied at 1

-Single to center by Tejada to start off the inning. Murphy up

-There's still a chance they could win. Nail biter...

-Murphy grounds to short, force out at second. 1 out

-The Mets only play nail biters

(That was the last text from my phone, I took Scott's after that)

-My phone died, using Scott's 

-Uribe strikes out. 2 outs 

-0-2 to d'Arnaud

-Strike out, Nats coming up in the 9th

-Line at the Shake Shack is finally gone. 

-Harper leading off the 9th

-If Harper jacks one, we're leaving

-2-2 pitch to Harper

-Are you trying to kill Scott's phone too?

-And he pops up to left. 1 out

-He has 50%. We're good to at least the 14th or 15th inning. 

-1 out walk to Zimmerman.

-Mets pitcher is getting wild. 

-Harvey is out of the game, btw

-John just took a 75 cent swig of water (the bottle cost $7!

-Another walk, 1st and 2nd with 1 out

-And Tyler Clippard is out, Jeurys Familia in to pitch 

-Murphy moves to third and Kelly Johnson comes in to play first. Grandpa Uribe comes out of the game. 

-Familia strikes outs some guy in the Nats, 2 outs

-*on the Nats

-Next guy flies out to left, Mets coming up in the bottom of the 9th with the score tied at 1

-Flores up to lead off the 9th

-And he grounds out to short 

-Girly song Lagares coming up 

-Foul pop up to first. 2 outs

-I think we're going to extra innings 

-Campbell hits a soft liner to short. Nats coming up to bat in the 10th

-I'm putting my phone on the armoire. 

-Tired of me?

-No, Christian came and gave me his electronics. I'm following his example. It's hard to tell him to do something, but not do it yourself. 

-I'm losing steam anyway, the Mets are making me tired. 

-Bottom of the 10th, still tied at 1

-Are you sure it's because you didn't get enough sleep last night even though I did the driving?

-No, it's because my fingers are tired. I feel fine. 

-Yuck. I'm going to skype with my mom. I know it's technology...but it is her birthday. Her 70th. 

-Actually just my thumbs. 

-Tell her happy birthday from me. 

-Yet another pop up to Werth in left

-And the Mets go weakly in the 10th

-Most exciting play of the night. Bryce Harper gets thrown out of the game for arguing balls and strikes. Nice..

-Hahaha!

-And Murphy comes out to the Celtic music. Linda would be impressed.  

-Bottom of the 11th btw

-Murphy hits a long fly out to the wall in straight away center. Couldn't be a little to the left? Or right?

-Little nugget from Scott - did you know that 6 out of 7 dwarfs are not Happy?

-Another fly out to straight away center. To the top of the 12th

-Looks like the couple that got here in the 5th might get to see 9 innings after all

-At least there won't be traffic going home, right?

-Btw, The stadium is not 80% full any more

-I figured if I'm on skype I could keep my phone too. 

-You have my permission. 

-There's wifi here at the stadium

-I told Scott's joke to mom, Heather, and Brian. Great joke! Big laugh!

-Well there's a first time for everything. 

-Bottom 12, still tied at 1

-We need to entertain ourselves now

-Flores home run in the bottom of the 12th!  Put it in the books!  Mets win!!!

                                                            
                                                           -Yay! So it was worth staying..

Blogging from Boulogne

My first ever visit to France was a 4 day business trip where I spent about 3.5 total hours in Paris (all at the airport), 10 hours in Boulogne-Billancourt (located about 30 km outside of Paris, and where my company’s global headquarters reside) and the rest of the time at Chateauform in Rochefort-en-Yvelines.  Chateauform is a converted palace (that’s what chateau means) that now serves as a hotel/conference center/college campus student center/mancave.  Here’s a picture:

Chateauform is replete with TV screens, video games, foosball tables and large quantities of all types of food and beverage everywhere.  More on all of these things later.

The trip began with a 5:30 pm flight on Monday, May 18 from New York’s JFK airport, which is never a good thing because of where we live in NJ.  JFK is a nightmare to drive to and from, especially since I’m returning home at 8 pm on a Friday night and will have to navigate through obscene amounts of traffic.  As I’m writing this, my business trip is finished and I’m on the return flight dreading that drive home, but thank goodness my company springs for a car service.  We chose JFK because this flight to/from this airport was the only way I could ensure that I wouldn’t land at 3 am on a Saturday.

No issues getting to the airport or onto the flight to Paris, though I did bristle at the price of a candy bar at the airport (5 bucks!).  I didn’t feel bad saying “never mind” to the cashier.

My ticket was business class, which obviously provides way more comfortable accommodations than economy.  You can recline your seat to be almost flat as a bed, you get a meal with multiple appetizers, a main course and dessert, unlimited bread, unlimited drinks, a pillow, a blanket, socks and slippers, and a travel kit with a number of other goodies to make your trip as cozy as possible.  Very nice when you land at 8 am local time at your destination and basically have to go right to the office from the plane after flying through the night.  I can’t imagine having to do that after flying economy.

Business class, however, is a few steps below first class, which on this airline (AirFrance) meant oversized, cushiony leather seats that are larger than anything I’d ever seen on an airplane, plus who knows what other amenities.  We have a recliner at home that my wife and I can almost sit on side by side; those seats in first class looked bigger to me.  My business class round trip ticket cost over $7,000, the first class ticket must have been double.  Wow.

The flight to France was pleasant except for the fact that it’s clear within about a millisecond that I don’t speak any French, yet all of the flight attendants insisted on addressing me in French each and every time they spoke to me.  I was turned off forever to the French language in the 6^th grade when I found out that my name would be “Michel” (pronounced like the female Michelle in English). So I never devoted any effort to learn any words or phrases except for the words that everyone knows, like merci or bon jour.  The flight attendants almost seemed put off that they had to revert to English (maybe that was just my perception).  I have the say the flight attendants on my return flight are very friendly, maybe because we’re heading back to the U.S.

Once at Charles de Gaulle airport at 8:30 am on Tuesday morning, it took a bit for me to navigate my way to the customs area.  I had to take a tram that had multiple stops, but I didn’t know which one got me to the airport exit.  I simply followed people off at the second tram stop, hoping we were all going to the same place. I ultimately found my way to the correct exit.  After about 15 minutes of more searching, due to spotty cellular data service so I couldn’t access my e-mail with the phone number for my driver, I found the guy who would take me to my hotel, a Courtyard Marriott in Boulogne.

My first meeting at the headquarter offices wasn’t until noon, so I decided to freshen up a bit at the hotel.  This became problematic because I couldn’t figure out how to turn on any of the lights in my room.  Not one of the 6 light switches seemed to do anything, including the bathroom, which I wound up using in the dark with the door open.  A bit frustrated, and on a hunch, I googled “How to turn on the lights in a French hotel room” (the Wi-Fi worked great) and immediately found a 1 minute how-to video on YouTube.  France is very socially and environmentally conscious, so conservation is a common practice.  Case in point is the 2 button flushing system on all of the toilets that I came across, 1 of the buttons being for “lighter” jobs that can function just fine with less water, and the other button for “weightier” matters where a full flush is required.

As you walk into the hotel room, there is a slot on the wall where you insert your room key (of course I didn’t see it at first because the lights weren’t on!).  With the room key in place, power to the light switches is activated.  This is to prevent people from wasting electricity by leaving the lights on while not in the room.  Pretty responsible, I suppose.  I’m just glad that I arrived at 10:15 in the morning and not in the middle of the night.

Another interesting item about the hotel room was the lack of a shower curtain in the bathroom.  There was only a pane of glass that extended about half the length of the tub, from the top of the tub up to the ceiling.  I didn’t seem to get any water on the bathroom floor while showering, so the French might have something with the no shower curtain thing.  I remember a British guy that lived in the U.S. on an expatriate assignment tell me that while he loved the States, he felt we were incredibly backwards in the design of our bathrooms.  I may have to concede to the Europeans on that one.

Another difference in bathroom design is the public men’s rooms at the hotels and in our company offices.  There are 2 main differences; there are no urinals and the toilets are not in stalls, they’re in full, individual rooms with a real door and floor to ceiling walls.  Very nice for privacy, and again, I believe an improvement on the U.S. version. At my last company, somebody used to hang long strips of toilet paper over the seams of the stalls in the men’s rooms, presumably to guard against anyone sneaking a peak while they were in there.  I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want to see is some guy doing his business on a toilet, but maybe that’s just me.

Also, I almost flooded the bathroom, because I decided to shave and I couldn’t figure out how to unstop the sink.  The water filled to the top and almost spilled over before I located a lever that was “hidden” behind the base of the faucet.

After my little hotel room adventure, I took a cab to the office, which wound up being only about a mile away and 15€ (about $17).  So after my meetings ended around 6 pm, I decided to walk back to the hotel (I won’t bore anyone that’s not already bored with the content of any of the business conducted during any meetings on this trip).  It did start to rain about halfway back; thankfully I had a small umbrella that I always keep in my work bag for such occasions.  I felt smart.

Spotty cellular service was a common theme throughout the trip.  I didn’t pay attention while the taxi drove me to the offices, so I Google mapped a walking route back.  Not only did the French street names spoken from the app sound unrecognizable to me because the proper pronunciation doesn’t seem intuitive (unlike Spanish or even Japanese), but I lost connection to the network at least 4 times.  So I found myself walking in the wrong direction and in circles.  Another challenge was the lack of street signs on a street post at every corner.  Many times the street name was posted on the side of a building, which I didn’t realize until about 25 minutes into my journey.  In all, it took me an hour to walk about a mile.

A couple of observations during this return walk to the hotel:

-A lot of people ride electric scooters and motorcycles, both 2 and 3-wheeled.  There are dedicated parking spaces on the streets for motorcycles, like the parking spots for bicycles in the Netherlands or the city bike parking spaces we have in NYC

-I definitely felt like the out-of-shape American.  Lots of people walking on the streets and not really anybody looked heavy to me.  Even my French co-workers all appeared to be in terrific shape.  More on being out of shape later

-Many people were smoking cigarettes, so while people looked in shape, perhaps their overall health was not so good.  I was also surprised at the number of people from my company that smoke, I don’t really see a lot of smokers at our offices in the U.S.

-On the sides of the street, many places had a slightly raised curb area, on top of which cars could park and then a higher sidewalk where people walk

-The only evidence I saw of a U.S.-based restaurant was a KFC

-Finally, there were quite a number of naked statues, male and female, everywhere.  There was a painting of naked statues in my hotel room, statues in a park that I passed and then again all over the outside grounds at the chateau where I spent the majority of the time.  All done in the same spirit of Michelangelo’s “David” statue.  Sheesh.

While on my way back, my boss called me and said that if I was done for the evening, that I should just go straight to the chateau to meet up.  He had been there since Monday at some other meetings, my first meeting was scheduled there for Wednesday, and so I was going to spend Tuesday night at the Marriott, then head over on Wednesday morning.   It was about 6:15 pm when he called, and the chateau was about 40 minutes away, so I decided to go for it.  I needed to check out of my hotel, so that meant that the company paid for 2 nights at the Marriott, Monday night, which allowed me to check in at 10 am on Tuesday when I arrived, and then Tuesday night, where I checked out at 7:30 pm.  So a total of 1 hour in the hotel room, half of which was spent trying to figure out how to work the lights, cost 659€ (around $725).  I’m glad I’m not paying.

I didn’t have time to exchange any dollars for euros at the airport, and the cafeteria in our office building only accepted cash, so I just skipped lunch.  I was very hungry, and I figured that dinner would be over by the time I got to the chateau, since I would be arriving at around 8:30.  So I grabbed a sandwich at the hotel restaurant.  It was a quadruple-decker grilled chicken breast, hard-boiled egg, bacon, lettuce and tomato with mayo, a CEBLT, with a side of fries.  It was very good, but I only got halfway through it before I couldn’t eat anymore.

I arrived at the chateau to find that it really was a palace.  It was enormous. There is an uphill, curving drive that was maybe a mile long, you arrive at the top to a large pool, reminiscent of the Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C.  There are palatial columns all around, and many acres of greenery, including a full golf course.  The story goes that this palace was built by royalty 150 years ago, by a husband as a surprise gift for his wife.  He had it designed as a replica to another palace that was just outside of Paris, but 3x larger.  However, when the wife was presented with this gift upon completion, she rejected it because even though it was humongous and opulent, she didn’t like the fact that it was not unique.  So it remained unoccupied for many decades until it was converted into a hotel/conference center for businesses to hold meetings and events.

Around 8:35 pm, I found a group of about 15-20 work colleagues in the “lobby”, seated around a large table of various breads, cheeses, meats, and of course lots of liquor.  You know how the French revere their wine.  I figured they were wrapping up dinner, but it turns out, they hadn’t even started yet, they were waiting for me to arrive.  It is customary to eat dinner after 8 pm, and sometimes not until 9 pm.  I was actually ready to go to bed after having slept only about 3 hours on the plane ride the night before, and the time change was starting to get to me.  However, we all went into a dining area where we were served a 4-course meal until about 11 pm.  And we did that each of the 3 nights I stayed there, the last night we didn’t finish until after 11:30, where many people then went to do karaoke in one of the other rooms.  I called it a night when they started singing and dancing to “Dancing Queen”.

One of the things you notice is that the sun doesn’t set until around 9:30, so it’s still very light out until 10 pm or later.  My kids would never want to go to bed if that was the case where we live in NJ.

We did work from 8:30 am to 6:30 pm every day, but the nights were full of food and drink, which I understand is customary for French business meetings so that people can build relationships outside of the office.  This is very important to the French culture, so I had to play along.

Everywhere you turned throughout the day, there was quiche and freshly made crepes and a dozen different cheeses and breads and fruits and desserts and jars of candy and all kinds of drinks:

The consumption was non-stop.  I really never saw so much food at a work event in my life, I can’t imagine how much it cost to put all of it together.  Ultimately, there were about 50 colleagues from all over the world that participated.

During breaks and before or after hours, there were game rooms where you could play video games, throw darts, play golf, do archery or participate in dozens of other activities.

One of the things I did was go on a bike ride with a German colleague I met, his name is Veysel. Very nice guy, invited anyone that wanted to join for ride at 7 am, before the meetings were to begin at 8:30.  I went with him on Thursday morning.  What I realized when I joined him was that he is an avid biker.  He showed up in full biking gear, with the biker pants, special shoes, his own helmet, gloves, and the whole nine yards.  I later found out that he bikes about 20 kilometers to and from work every day.  I should have known because even though he isn’t tall, his body build looks solid, akin to a finely engineered machine that the Germans are so well known for.  Dummy me also forgot that the palace is at the top of a hill, so as we set off down the road that let up to the castle, it hit me that I would have to get back up there at the end.  Duhhh!

We exited the palace grounds and did a loop through the surrounding neighborhood, it took about 25 minutes, but I could tell that I was holding Veysel back.  After the first loop, my thighs were screaming and I was spent, especially with the knowledge that I would now have to climb the hill, hopefully in time for our first meeting.  Veysel asked if I wanted to do another loop, I kindly declined, telling him that I didn’t want to hold him up anymore.  Plus, I didn’t want him to watch me agonize over that mile-long climb.  He took off for a second loop and I rested for about 5 minutes. Then a horrific thought came to me.  What if he does a second loop around the neighborhood and then beats me back to the castle!  I was almost in a panic as I “raced” back up, checking frequently over my shoulder to make sure he wasn’t on my tail. Raced is probably a kind term, it was half-pedaling/half-frantic walking the bike, terrified that I wasn’t going to make it back in time.  My pride was left somewhat intact as I stumbled back to the finish, put the bike back in the rack and quickly scooted to my room before Veysel could see me.

A couple of other things I observed about the interactions with my French colleagues.  Men are generally dominant and the women generally accept this.  I noticed it during a number of previous business meetings, where the men would sometimes make playful, “off-putting” comments about women in general, even about the women in the room, and the women would just laugh about it.  They would be comments like “needing a man to do a job correctly” or “that project was probably in trouble because a woman was handling it”, and the like.  Something you would NEVER get away with saying in the U.S., and if said often enough, could eventually lead to disciplinary action in the workplace.  And of course, not true.  The majority of the things I learned about the technical side of my career, I learned from women.  I was very surprised that this was just laughed at by the women in the room.  Perhaps because the men making the comments were in senior positions, and the woman were being respectful but still, way not OK.

Another practice is the opening of a wine bottle at dinner.  If men and women are seated together, the women are not supposed to drink until one of the men opens the bottle, takes a whiff and a small sip, and declares the wine acceptable.  I saw this happen without fail. On the last night, I was a little late getting to dinner, there were 7 or 8 round tables set up, and the only table with open spots had 5 other women already seated.  I sat down and they said that it was my job to open the wine.  I hadn’t eaten with any of them yet, so they didn’t know that I don’t drink, it was only after I said that I don’t know how to open a wine bottle that they agreed that they should just go ahead themselves.

Anyway, that’s about it.  I hope to go back to France for a visit again, where I’ll have time to do some sight-seeing.  The landscape was very green and pretty, it’s the first thing I noticed when we landed at the airport in Paris.  Reminiscent of landing at Newark Airport in NJ.  NOT!!

Nathaniel's Cakes

When Grandma Louise was here in February, I bought a cake decorating kit so that she could teach Nathaniel how to decorate a cake.  This is the cake that they made together:

For St. Patrick's Day, I invited the missionaries for dinner and Nathaniel insisted on making a shamrock cake.  

Then, for my birthday, Nathaniel made this cake for me - completely from scratch:

When a friend of his at school saw a picture of my cake, she asked him to make a cake for her birthday.  This is the cake he made for her.

Nathaniel says he doesn't want to be a chef when he grows up, but I think he could be a very successful baker/cake decorator!