Paris Encore...

2014 seems to be the year of Paris for this reason...I guess its' like that with clients sometimes, you never really know where work will take you - or how often.  I think this has been my fourth trip since the start of the year.  But that's not a complaint !

 

This time around I tried a couple of new places.  I was shooting to be close to an early morning meeting the following day and came across the Hotel Bradford Elysees - the room was super reasonable and had the extra treat of a balcony.  Naturally, a view I'd be happy to wake up to.  Actually, I would have loved to enjoy it lounging around with a cafe creme but somehow, not a lot of time for that when you travel for work...

 

Spent a little time wandering around in the Quartier Latin...more of a haunt in my student days and walking around at night, it's amazing exactly how much hasn't changed.  Other than the fact that the crowd looks younger to me, and I probably look older to them...One night I hit up the Creperie Saint-Germain (not pictured) which is where I had my first dinner in Paris when I arrived as a student, and with my roommate we went with the trusted recommendation of the Lonely Planet book.  The restaurant is still there, still looks great, still full of mostly French students, and still cheap.  The only thing that's changed is that the creperie is on google plus and that Lonely Planet doesn't publish books anymore...





Also scoped out a new place courtesy of my colleague who know's a friend who know's a friend who owns this place type of thing.  Peres et Filles is run by  - a group of fathers and daughters so its appropriately named (go figure).  Pictured above, it's a pretty classic bistro with a classic menu but everything has a bit of a twist from the decor to the steak tartare.  And that wild mushroom starter with organic egg..mmmmmmmm. 

 

 

Fastelavn + Danish Mardi Gras...

The past weekend and few days before that had been kicking the Danish Mardi Gras into high gear.  I missed out on part of it due to this weekend's stomach flu, but we still managed to catch bits and pieces, mostly through diplo-tot's school, and through the Embassy Party.

Called Fastelavn, this pretty much equates to a pre-Lent Carnival just like in many parts of the world -though interestingly, when Danish people will explain it to you, they always liken it to Halloween.

As you can imagine, it involves costumes...specifically lots of adorable kiddie costumes.  Just like everything else here in Denmark, it's pretty amazing how people adapt their costumes here to be outdoor and weather appropriate.  When I dropped off the diplo-tot at school for their evening party (that incidentally parents weren't really invited to - made me feel like I was dropping her off at her first dance!), the kiddies were all outside and didn't bat an eye...

Part of the reason a lot of the party takes place outside (in addition to this being Denmark where just about everything takes place outside) is that a main feature is this pinata-like barrel thing.  I don't think it has a name, it just seems to be called "hit the barrel" or "hit the cat out of the barrel".  Its' a wooden barrel with a small hole in the top, and back in the day, they used to do exactly what the name implied.  Hit the barrel until you could get the cat to jump out.  Seems a bit traumatic to me...These days, the kiddies come up with a thinner variation of a baseball bat and take turns bludgeoning it until the barrel falls apart (with toddlers, you can imagine this takes awhile) and goodies spring from the barrel.  At forest school it was popcorn and oranges, and at the embassy it was hersheys's and peanut butter cups and smarties and other favorites from home.

 

The other standard activity is to make "fastelavntris", which are branch bunches decorated with clumps of tissue paper and feathers and other kind of spring time doo-dads.  Generally, I consider a yard full of toddlers running around with branches a fine way to celebrate any holiday, but these branches originally had multiple purposes.  Now they're more decorative than anything else but earlier they used to be used (according to the brief history synopsis on wikipedia) for flogging the infertile, for flogging bachelors and virgins, and perhaps most importantly or frighteningly, flogging parents, until they gave in and gave their children the "fastelavnbollen" which are the carnival pastries here - big donut-type things filled with lots of cream (or sometimes, not so much).  I didn't get a good picture of the pastries but you see them in all the bakeries and all the fastelavn parties this time of year.  So the implication is clear - next year, more pastries!

 

Sidelined...

1/ Wrap top 2/ Pyjama pants 3/ Bkr Water Bottles 4/ Slippers 5/ Throw Blanket

Just when you thought you were finally getting caught up...the stomach flu hits.  Right in the middle of a work dinner. Awesome.  The past few days haven't been much more than recovery, lots of water, and  wrapping myself up in anything that feels soft and warm and generally forgiving.  But if there is any plus about stomach flu/virus is that it generally passes quickly so I'm looking forward to being on the mend soon!

A few new apps...

I was going to be one of those parents that didn't let her kids watch TV.  I wasn't raised with very much of it, but I definitely enjoy it as a guilty pleasure from time to time and I imagine those two things are going to be related.  My daughter still doesn't get very much of it, though movies like Finding Nemo and shows like Dora seem to be finding their way in.  And since we often watch together, I don't even mind that much.

I was pretty much of the same mind about phones and all that -screens are screens right? But those iphone screens are a funny thing.  They really aren't kidding when they call these kids digital natives.  And part of me thinks that if there is something to interact with at some level, does that mean that it's bad? I don't know yet, but I do know that my daughter - who is three - is faster on my phone than I will ever be and she doesn't even get all that much screen time.

Recently a few companies reached out to see if we'd give their apps a whirl so I've compiled a few ideas here based off of that, along with a few other favorites:

1.  Endless Reader: This is pretty much a dream app...spelling, reading, trouble making monsters? It's all here.  Also lots of variety to boot.  Endless alphabet and endless reader are pretty much the best combination of engaging and educational out there.

2.  Pandora/Adventures of Pan/Hullabalu: Personally, I'm a bit on the fence about this one, but my daughter adores it.  Visually, the animations are pretty cool.  It's a story that you follow along with but has interactive features that extend the story and make it more entertaining.  I'm not crazy about the voices and diction (which you will hear repeatedly if your toddler likes an app) and wish they had an option to change the language of the story.    But diplo-tot is a fan of all things panda and all things app, so a panda in an app is a guaranteed winner in her eyes.

3.  Moose Math: This is also a golden standard.  We started out with the free version and are just about to upgrade as she's catching on more.  Basically, the app uses counting and very basic math to add up to various smoothie recipes.  Diplo-tot was a huge fan of some of the Duck Duck Moose music apps earlier on, and we've loved nearly anything we tried from them.   This was a natural next step and just as popular with her, though it took her awhile to get the whole blender concept.

4.  Caribu: Candidly, I'm still figuring this one out, since it also requires the coordination of someone else on the other end, but I'm loving the idea so far and it's just a question of getting the grandparents to really get through the installation phase (other parents, you likely know what I mean).  But the app combines storybooks - it comes with one but you can purchase others  - and video calls to allow you to "read" books together when someone else is far away - a parent, a grand parent or anyone else.  Basically it's a dream for military, Foreign Service or otherwise separated parents to still get that evening storytime in (and here too, other parents, if you've ever had to miss that for whatever reason, you also know what I mean).  For us especially, with living far from family, and two parents who travel I think this one will be start to come into rotation more.

While I do try to keep a lid on "screen time", I also try to be realistic about it. So what else is out there in terms of good apps to try?

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A (Royal) Theater outing...

It's probably not a secret that I miss Vienna as a post.  A lot.  I missed it while we were in DC.   And I missed it here.  Sometimes hindsight kind of does that to you.  It's not that I'm not enjoying Copenhagen, but somehow, there's something about that first post that sets a bit of standard that you judge everything else by, kind of like a first love.  Some things of course, after our first loves turn out better, and turn out for the better.  But some things just don't quite measure up - probably because we judge them somewhat unfairly.  That's how memories are I guess.  

One of the things I miss most about Vienna is being down the street - literally - from the Vienna Opera. Big and grand and full of performances.  I went with guests...with friends..with family...with just about anybody and sometimes all by myself.  I didn't mind.  The whole experience was enough for me.  There was something about this winter that got me out of the groove a bit and one day I decided that I had had enough - there was no reason why we couldn't get out to enjoy Copenhagen's theaters in the same way.

And no surprise, it's not Vienna.  Nothing but Vienna can be that.  But across the past couple of weeks we've been pretty good about getting out there to try new things and it all started with an outing to the Royal Theater for the premiere of the ballet Napoli.  The ballet was good, but the second act was just stunning with the "underwater" scenes and the production as a whole did a great job of conveying a warmer, sunnier clime during the deepest winter.  It's still playing a few days through March if you're in Copenhagen and can catch it.

And in that picture below, in the box on the right, leaning over in the gray dress? I know it's fuzzy but it was taken directly across from my seat.  That's the queen.  As in Queen Margrethe of Denmark.  Pretty cool right? Her enthusiasm for the production was infectious, and it was just as fun to watch her elegance and composure as watching the ballet itself (and as a side note, the orchestra? AMAZING).  Now as I recall, Vienna may have delivered many things in my memory, but royalty wasn't one of them.  For that, I just have to stay right here in Copenhagen.