Bonne Année 2011!

Bonne Année à tous! I wish you will be successful at finding more happiness and joy this year. I believe that what you really want does not come towards you for free unless you actually go look for it. "Take a step every day, that will make three steps forward in three days," so says an old Japanese singer. This reminds me of the Australian motto: Advance Australia. In their emblem, a red kangaroo and emu are depicted as those two animals only move forward (or rarely move backward...). So I encourage you to keep moving forward no matter what the speed is. In this photo, you can see a gray kangaroo, who got used to the food being delivered by Japanese tourists. Poor thing.

Over in France, Nathan and I are excited that our (technically Nathan's :P) holiday is almost over! In France, the legal working hours is 35 hours per week, and every month you gain 3.5 days of holidays. Nathan's first contract as a postdoc was for four months from August to December, and he gained 14 days of holidays. On the last day of his contract, which was one week before Christmas, he had 7 days of holidays that were going to disappear. Luckily, someone out there was looking out for us. Nathan was granted to apply his expired holidays for this holiday season. "Mottainai," as Wangari Maathai would say, nothing should be wasted, so this is how we are spending a long vacance...in Grenoble.

1) Cleaning and organizing: At the end of the year, Japanese would do the big cleaning to welcome the new year pure and clean. As we just moved, there is not much to do, yet I still feel the need to clean something. I am sure I will be one of the top students if I went to the "Household Academy." However, the New Year's Day is an exception from cleaning, as you may accidentally sweep the luck out. It is a perfect day to write a blog.

2) Eating: Nathan requested ham and scalloped potatoes for Christmas. I am not a fan of ham, so I consulted Giada as usual and made Pancetta-Wrapped Pork Roast. Instead of a pork roast we used a filet mignon de porc, and it was super. For dessert, we bought a bouche de Noel from a patisserie. I thought the Japanese had the wrong idea of "Christmas cakes" but now I realize that they are following the French style. When I was young, eating the left over fresh strawberry shortcake for breakfast after Christmas was the best! And this holiday season, I finally perfected my Crème Brulée after five years of practice and modification of online recipes. The thing is though, I no longer need to bake my own as I can find good ones just around the corner... My skill will be useful once I am back in Canada again.

3) Gathering: We were invited by an American couple to spend the Christmas day along with friends from my French classes. From delicious appetizers to three different kinds of homemade cakes, it was a lot of deliciousness. I am not brave enough to invite a big crowd to our place yet, but we had a French couple and their bébé from Nathan's office on New Year's Eve-Eve. Our goal is to start speaking French before that bébé starts speaking!

Basically, we have been eating throughout the holiday. To cleanse our body, we hiked up La Bastille today, and I believe that burned a few calories. Step by step, yeah? Our new year's resolution is to get physically active so that we won't end up like the gray Roo!