Paris in April

We left our home in Martinique on an overnight flight on a an Air France Boeing 777-300ER. For us, Martinique is the center, and Paris and mainland France is a distant overseas territory for us to explore and discover.

The morning light is diffuse and the spring colors are cool and the red-roofs look rustic and beautifully aged, arranged in an ancient density.

 

The Louvre, as seen from the roof of the Musee d’Orsay. The Musee d’Orsay was created as a museum to bridge the periods of antiquity and modernity, captured and displayed by the magnificent Louvre and the Centre George Pompidou.

 

 

The Ile de la Cite.

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Sailing boats in the Jardin de Luxembourg, just beside the French Senate offices.

The spectacular Saint Chapelle church, the private church built for the Royal family, defines beautiful ornamentation.

Versailles, where the enormous grounds and gardens go on for kilometers. Worth renting bikes or bringing a bottle of wine and a picnic.

From the Eiffel Tower at dusk.

The neighborhood patisserie.

Staying Connected during a year abroad, What’s easier, less easy than expected

One aspect of being here that’s been easier than expected is staying connected and having good communications with Seattle and friends in the US as well as with family and friends here. We have fast internet, unlimited phone calls to/from US for $3/month on Skype, a Seattle phone number that rings here, online banking, easy withdrawals from our US bank at ATMs here. Skype is very good much of the time, pretty reliable during off-peak hours, with video now very commonly available on laptops, as an added dimension that’s really nice. For business purposes, Skype is still prone to unreliability, dropped calls and poor sound quality are common at peak hours, so alternatives and backups are needed. Cell phone calls are reasonable to US (about $.10/minute for very clear cell connections) which is a good additional communications backup.

Really, it feels like I can be most anywhere, and still be close to all I care about. The possibility that you can live where you want to live, and work where the work is seems increasingly realistic.

While on the phone last night troubleshooting a computer problem, the tech asked me what that chirping noise was in the background, so I told those were the usual night sounds of insects here in Martinique. He asked me how I got permission to come here, and I told him that I just made the plans and told my colleagues what was happening; permission didn’t really enter into the conversation. I think we have a private more permission that we believe.

What’s been more difficult than expected has been:

• finding a place to rent
• realizing we needed to furnish our own place as we couldn’t find a furnished place within our budget; needing to buy a fridge and washing machine.
• accepting that what we can afford to rent is far less nice than what we can afford for a vacation.
• confronting the high cost of living. It’s the dollar that feels like fake money, not the unfamiliar looking euros. Since we arrived, the Dollar has luckily grown stronger against the still expensive euro.
• adapting to a smaller home than accustomed.
• navigating the institutions here, the way of doing things is so different, yet most locals assume we know that this is of course how things are done. we’ve been able to feel like fools pretty often and easily. People tend to be unaware of how many ritualized rules they follow which are local, assuming them to be global.
• of course you have to wait in 3 lines for half an hour each to maybe be able to return something you bought.
• of course you can only return an item at the specific store you bought it at, even if you’re at another location of the same store.
• of course you have to go in person to have the water turned on
• of course every kid will eat blue cheese and little tinned hotdogs in oily liquid.
• of course boys and girls at public school use the same bathrooms without doors on the stalls
• of course there is no toilet paper or soap in most public bathrooms, when they exist
• change is stressful and can be hard on kids, especially when they don’t feel they can control or change the situation.

These kinds of difficulties have helped us learn how to thrive and respond positively to unmet expectations and thwarted intentions, and to rise above these to succeed.

More that’s been easier than expected

• finding excellent food.
• incredibly helpful teachers, extended family loaning us beds, furniture, closets, dishes
• buying a car, thanks to a contact here who sells cars.
• encouraging the kids to go swimming and play outdoors
• coping with the hot sun midday. We’ve quickly adapted to making the most of early and late hours of sun, staying out of sun from 10:30-4 is easy and natural.
• being accepted and welcomed by neighbors and peers.
• dealing with a fender-bender. I was rear-ended while in traffic, and the offender just calmly got out, admitted his mistake in a friendly way, gave me his insurance information, and the claim was painless and matter of fact. No bristling or justification required.
• adapting to the changes. At first this seems daunting, but before long, new routines become normal, and the aspects of discovery and learning that are daily experiences become less like surprises and more like how life should be all the time.

Using the Velib bike rental program in Paris, a review

In April 2009, I spent 10 days in Paris with family, and my wife and I tried out the Velib program (official site in English, in French) and loved it. Overall, it’s an excellent, speedy, fun, inexpensive, and very fun way to tour Paris and for point-to-point travel, 24 hours a day. If you’re not completely new to riding a bike and have some experience riding in a city, Velib will take you between most any 2 places in Paris faster and more pleasantly than the metro or even taxis (assuming conservatively travel of distances of 10K/6 miles or less). For me, it took easily about ½ as long as the Metro for most trips, ½-3/4s the time of a cab ride depending on the time of day. Many roads have bike/bus lanes that are wide and traffic is often slow and easy to navigate. Some of the faster arterials and throughways are worth avoiding when they have no bike lanes. Compared with cities in the US, auto drivers Paris are maybe a bit less cyclist-friendly in their driving habits (about the same as in San Francisco or Washington DC, — not as friendly as Seattle).

There are a number of tips, caveats and issues with the program that are worth knowing beforehand.

1. There’s a 150 euro debit or authorization on your credit card that is a precondition for using the system. If you lose a bike or it’s stolen, you lose your 150 euros. Not likely to happen, but that’s not a trivial amount.
2. The 1-7 day ticket plan is great for visitors. Even for just a few hours in Paris, it’s worth it.
3. During the payment process, sometimes the paper subscription card gets stuck in the machine. On several occasions, it took an oddly long time to come out of the machine. One time, I needed to bang on the machine to have my card drop down. While this issue is definitely a time-wasting hassle, this isn’t a risk for losing money, because your card is protected by a 4 digit code that’s not on the card.
4. Pick a bike with a seat about the right height, or adjust seat before taking it out. A seat turned backwards means there’s something wrong with the bike. Often seats can be stuck and hard to adjust easily.
5. When you return the bike at any of the many, easily found bike stations, just park the bike into a stand, wait 5 seconds for the light to turn green, and you’re done.
6. The cost is free for 1^st 30 minutes of a ride, 1 euro for each 30 minutes afterwards. To spend as little money as possible, plan for 30 minute-1 hour rides. Imo, it’s cheap enough to just ride as you need.
7. Occasionally, often at key sites, a bike station will be full, meaning you can’t return your bike at the optimal location. Most stations have maps of nearest other stations, within a few blocks, so sometimes it can take a few extra minutes to do this.
8. We didn’t have more than a few drops of rain, so rain might be an issue. The metro or a cab is a perfect alternative in the rain, though the velib tires seemed like they’d do fine in light rain.
9. For groups of 4 or more, it may be difficult to always pick up and park bikes at the same locations.
10. Remember to be safe, and that on a bike, you’re on the road with cars and need to stay aware of traffic and obey traffic laws.

The Velib system is always open, 24 hours/day, so it’s perfect for late night rides, especially after the metro closes. The traffic is less then, and the bikes all have lights, and Paris is well lit by streetlights. For me, my favorite rides were those we took from 1am-3am, with Paris lit up, cafes and bars closing, in the cool spring night air.

Mi-Careme, as the cane is cut

Cut from 8 feet tall to the ground, the landscape transforms during the sugar cane harvest. Trees and houses, and undulating in the green hills are revealed after months hidden behind the cane. The broad palm leaves of coconut trees yellow. Grass is the color of straw.

Today is mi-Carême, the middle of the dry season late February-early May. The fields dry out except the few that are watered. We had 2 weeks without rain, but yesterday had a strong but brief, refreshing rain, which was then quickly forgotten. The sugar cane fields have grown sandy in color, with touches of green from leaves still vital. Where the cane has been cut, the ground is strewn with a layer of light straw. The rows where cane had grown are still pronounced. The cutting of the cane is beautiful and dramatic to see. Done in some places by hand, a few workers artfully cut the drying cane with swift swings of their long and razor sharp machetes. From what I’ve seen, in about half a day, 2 or 3 can clear an acre. Most (nearly all?) of the harvest is done by machine. The whole cane is cut to the ground, chopped and loaded, while the equipment moves briskly, at a fast walking pace. Later the cane is separated out from the lighter leaves. The cane is milled at distilleries, releasing cane juice. Cane juice is then fermented and distilled into inimitable Martinique rums. Locally produced raw sugar and fresh can juices, freshly crushed onsite at market stalls or roadside stands, are also treats to be enjoyed.

Days after the harvest, new shoots of cane leaves arise, new future brightly ready to grow, and within a couple weeks they are over a foot (30cm) tall. When cut by hand, new cane shoots emerge a bit more quickly and vigorously than where cut by machine.

The weather is slightly cooler in this season, and runs in the late afternoon are a delight. The 1000ft climb of 1^st gear switchbacks is hot, but the humidity feels noticeably lower and the breeze quite pleasant. I passed several cows, of the local Charolais creole race, stationed in the hills, where they lowed loudly, perhaps not yet milked. Heading back down, looking out to sea, low rogue cumulus clouds several miles out were lit by the lowering afternoon sun, firing a wide rainbow in the shape of a mound beneath the clouds. The colors blended slowly over a wide area. As I descended, running down the winding turns, the rainbow reached upwards in the sky, and the clouds drew nearer and seemingly higher. In the veranda of a house, a dozen people enjoyed a long lunch. In a small field of dry grass, 11 leggy sheep stood side by side in a row eating and stepping forward, as if by consensus. Down and across the road, a loosely dispersed flock of mismatched goats, beautifully colored in whites, browns, and blacks, milled about, their stomachs full.

Though dryer than usual, it’s not parched. Freshly turned earth is rich red, and milk-chocolate and dark-chocolate brown, and in the fields towards the mature green banana trees, last harvested a month ago. This makes a lush scene in the quieting evening light. The rain clouds pass without leaving a drop. At dawn the next morning, there is a brief soaking rain. We, and the animals and plants, are glad.

Love our Diesel Ford Fiesta

I adore the 2004 Fiesta that we bought used here in Martinique. BusinessWeek called the 2009 Ford Fiesta, “The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can’t Have.” It really is amazing that a car like even this 2004 model is unavailable in the US. Our 2004 version is the 5^th Generation of Fiestas. Reliable, very nice 1.4 liter Duratorq TDCi common-rail diesel engine gives good power, excellent torque, and of course low RPMs at higher speeds, which makes gas powered small cars seem simply whiny in comparison. Comfortably seats 5. In a pinch we had 9 ride by necessity during the strike, but this is fully not recommended.

 

Favorite Volcanos: Montagne Pelee Martinique, and Mt Rainier, WA USA

View from American Eagle flight 5021 in December.

2 Days later, arriving in Seattle.

These 2 active volcanoes command awareness throughout the surrounding landscape, have inspired myths for centuries, and create their own weather patterns.

Top Social Media Risks

#1 ppl, groups, companies cloak self-interest in claims to represent

#2 loudest most confident/arrogant voices heard over most wise; declarations favored over discussion

#3 limited, problematic editorial function. more access to participate not necessarily equitable

#4 subversion, exploitation, abuse of openness #swf09

#5 social media are privately owned but thought of as public. IP battles still to come

#6 social media confuses the immediate with the important; tiny facts with more complex truths

#7 social media provides inadequate ramps to offline; mistakes chatter/talk for action

#8 individualism and differences diminished by favoring popularity, peer-love, in-group authority

#9 highly contagious context for meme-transmission, yet immature ability to detect dangerous viruses

#10 false urgency created by constant updates sucks undue attention

#11 context for privacy and anonymity and behavioral fault-tolerance has changed but consequences are unclear. When you make a mistake that is published in text, it’s not easy (or possible in some cases) to redact or correct these, whereas voice conversations allow for more forgivability, more experimentation. Anonymity is constructed very differently online than in person.

#12 Rumors or exaggerations travel faster and wider than truthful facts.

 

These were written in twitterese, so please excuse (or appreciate?) brevity. This is also a test of MS Word 2007’s blog publishing feature.