Red Sox Win!

The Red Sox won the World Series for the second time since 2004!!

(If you need help translating, go here: http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en)

Before that, the last time they won the World Series was 1918! They called it "The Curse of the Bambino." Babe Ruth was a great player for the Red Sox. The Red Sox gave him to the NY Yankees. Babe told the Red Sox, "You'll never win without me." And the Red Sox didn't win. For a very, very long time.

This is a street sign that used to read "Reverse Curve". It was changed to "Reverse the Curse", to try and get rid of the Curse of the Bambino! We take our baseball seriously here in Boston!

But that's all over now! And it's ALL over the news. It's the only thing that has been on the news for a week. So Angela is happy it's over! She is happy the Red Sox won, though. Because Guillaume got to see The Rolling Rally on the DUCK BOATS! (Quack Quack)

That's right, the Red Sox took over the Duck Boats, and took the Red Sox all over the city, including right in front of our home! (Well, right on Cambridge Street.) Angela was at the hospital all day, her brother Andrew was visiting. They had a great view of the Salt & Pepper Shaker bridge, and she knew the Ducks would eventually end up there. Guillaume was at home, watching The Rolling Rally on TV, waiting for them to get to the end of Cambridge Street, so he could run down to take pictures.

We thought they would stop at City Hall Plaza and get off the Ducks, but they didn't. So all of a sudden, half of the Ducks were outside the hospital window! Angela called Guillaume and said, "Run! Run to the street or you'll miss them!"

So he ran.

Andrew ran too. He got downstairs in time to see the Ducks roll by. He didn't have a camera, though.

This is Cambridge Street with a lot of fans. Whole Foods, and the Holiday Inn are on the left, our apartment is to the right (not in the picture).

There were lots of police protecting us!

Here come the Red Sox!

Here's Manny Ramirez! Big Papi (David Ortiz) was on this Duck too, but he was on the other side, so Guillaume couldn't take a picture. The two older guys are David and Eliot. They own a huge chain of furniture stores. At the beginning of the season, they said if anyone bought furniture on a certain weekend in July, and the Red Sox won the World Series, they would get some of that furniture for FREE!

Coco Crisp on the left and Jacoby Ellsbury, in front of the Holiday Inn!

Here is the end of the Rolling Rally. They roll them around the streets instead of having it in one place so that that more fans can see the players up close. It probably helps cut down on troublemaking incidents also. (On the night the Red Sox won, "fans" were turning cars over for fun.)

In other sports news, the New England Patriots (American) football team are undefeated after 7 games, so we're looking forward to a Superbowl Showdown!

And of course, the Boston Bruins (ice hockey) going for the Stanley Cup!

Il a mangé le gâteau...

... pas enchiladas! (Peut etre pour diner ce soir?)

J'ai aussi mangé le gâteau:

avec du champagne, bien sûr!

Le gateau a ete fantastique. Pas beaucoup qui reste...

Le Boston Red Sox sont dans le finale de la "World Series" (ou "Fall Classic") avec le "Colorado Rockies", donc Bostonians sont fou!

Go Red Sox, Go!

Better than a puffin... or a muffin...

J'ai acheté un petit gâteau pour Guillaume comme une surprise!



Il travaille maintenant, mais je pense qu'il va manger le gateau, et non pas les enchilladas!!

La Carte Verte

We had our green card interview today in Boston! No pictures from today, but a happy ending!

We left our apartment at 1:50, and walked over to Government Center. We arrived at the JFK Federal Building at around 2:10. We checked in, and the man at the front desk told us to take a seat.

At 2:30, a young woman came out and called our last name. She brought us through the locked door. We followed her to her cubicle, where there were two seats just outside the cubicle, one seat next to her desk, and her office chair. She had us raise our right hands and swear to tell the truth.

She told Guillaume to sit in the seat next to her desk, and I sat on one of the chairs at the edge of the cubicle.

She started going through the file that the government made of all of our information. She asked Guillaume for his passport, work authorization card, and the little card that was stapled into his passport.

Then she asked if we had our original marriage certificate. I swear, I could not find that thing in my perfectly organized file! I found a copy and handed it to her, then continued looking in my (did I say perfectly organized?) file. I found the original just as she found the original that we had sent with our packet.

She asked how we met, when we got married. She asked if we had a big or small wedding, if Guillaume's family attended (bien sur!). Also she asked if we went on a honeymoon. She asked why not, we told her that we wanted to go someplace outside the country and he couldn't travel.

She asked Guillaume his date of birth (he almost said the wrong date!), if he had a job, and where he worked.

We talked a little bit about how much we traveled back and forth to see each other during the past two years. She then asked if we had anything from our travels. We showed her 4 photo albums full of stuff - she said she liked our pictures, she flipped through one or two of the albums, just glancing at photos. We gave her our lease with both names, bank statements with both names on the account, he's on my work medical plan, plus on my life insurance.

Then she asked questions on a checklist that everyone has to answer: are you involved in a political party, are you a communist, were you involved in prostitution, have you committed genocide, drug smuggling, etc.

Then, she said, "You're approved today!" She took his work authorization card away, but gave him a copy of it in case he still needs it for work.

We walked out the front door of the building at 2:55 p.m.

We can't believe it's over! (Well, when we receive the card in 3 weeks it will be... !)

The New Job

Bonjour!

Guillaume started his job on Tuesday, October 16. After almost 6 months of not working, he was excited... but he also didn't want to go!

This is the front door of the restaurant. When they move to the Mandarin Oriental next summer, the front door will also move. It's very pretty!

He arrived at 3:00 p.m., and met some of his new colleagues. He "shadowed" a server for the evening, and learned a little about how L'Espalier works. The person who is responsible for providing guidance and training recently left the company, so the training is a little less structured right now.

This is the inside of one of the rooms (we didn't take any of these pictures - they're borrowed from websites online).

Over the last few days, Guillaume has been learning about the different dishes, how they're prepared. But mostly, he's been learning about all the wine. Yesterday, he spent the entire morning online investigating wines that are on the menu. I think he likes his job!!


Meanwhile, Angela has become a "lady of leisure", staying home, watching tv, playing PS3! Her mom is coming into the city to visit this afternoon.


The picture of the NZ Fat Fatty (so fat!) on Cyrielle's blog reminded me of this:

Last week, we were watching a football (soccer for the Americans) match that was on the Faroe Islands. We wanted to learn a little about the islands, so Angela googled it, and found that there are Puffins on the island. Angela then googled the Puffin, and fell in love with another Fat Fatty!

We found out that the Puffin also lives on Bar Harbor, where we spent 4 days in August. We didn't see any Puffins, and now Angela wants to go back. There are websites where you can "adopt" a Puffin, and they send pictures, and tell you where they are. But it was $100 to adopt one, and since we can't take it home with us, we decided not to adopt!

If YOU want to adopt a Puffin, you can go here: http://puffin.bird.audubon.org/adoptapuffin.html

Au revoir!

October in Beantown

Boston is sometimes called "Beantown", or, shortened to "The Bean." Why? Because of Boston Baked Beans, of course! In the "early days," Boston had a lot of beans, because they are cheap and easy to grow, store and cook. Boston had a lot of molasses because of trade. Sugar and Molasses were brought in by the shipload from the West Indies, to be sold in Boston in exchange for rum and other local goods. Put together beans and molasses, and it makes baked beans!

A couple of weeks ago, we went apple picking at Honeypot Hill Orchards, in the town of Stow, Massachusetts. Angela used to go there with her parents and brother when she was little. The apple trees seemed much bigger back then!

We picked up Helen, Angela's mom, at around 12:00, and drove 30 minutes to the apple orchard. http://www.honeypothill.com/

The best apples were high up in the trees, so Helen and Guillaume climbed the ladders to pick the apples!

Once we had 2 bags of apples, we left the orchard to get something to eat (besides apples!). We went to Verrill Farm. http://www.verrillfarm.com/ They do not have apple orchards, but they have a lot of fresh vegetables, plus homemade soups, great sandwiches, and desserts. We bought some sandwiches, and sat outside at a picnic table.

Guillaume turned into a piece of corn.


Then he turned into an apple.

On Saturday, we picked up Helen in Lexington, and drove north and west to see the beautiful leaves that turn colors every fall (locals call it "leaf peeping"). Unfortunately, because of the un-seasonal warm weather we have had, the leaves were not very pretty. But we took pictures anyways.

This past Sunday, we went to Angela's aunt and uncle's house for dinner (Guillaume drove!).

Her mother and brother were there, too. We had a pork roast (filet mignon) with carrots and mashed potatoes, and homemade applesauce (from the apples we picked!). Helen made homemade apple pie (from the apples we picked - we picked a lot of apples!), and there was a chocolate cake for dessert, too.

Today is a sad day in the Rousseau household in Boston: Guillaume starts his first job ever in the United States! Of course, it's not really sad, it's very exciting! But we have spent so much time together during the past 6 months, we (Angela) won't know what to do when he's at work!!

He is working at L'Espalier, arguably the best restaurant in Boston. http://www.lespalier.com/

It is not far from home, so in nice weather he can walk, or ride his bike. It is 1:00 p.m. now, and he will leave in an hour! Oh no!!

Au revoir, Guillaume-ah!

Tennis anyone?

We bought tickets in July to the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York. Since Angela was still recovering, Guillaume went to the US Open with Angela's brother, Andrew.

Andrew lives in the state of Connecticut, about 1 1/2 hours away. The train doesn't go to Connecticut, so Guillaume took a bus (and he said he'll never take a bus again!).

Guillaume slept and Andrew's home on Friday night, and they took a train the next morning to New York.

The US Open is played in Flushing Meadows, in Brooklyn, New York. They saw the semi-finals; first Novak Djokovic vs. David Ferrer, then Roger Federer vs. Nikolay Davydenko. Even though Angela wasn't there, she watched the matches on tv, trying to find Guillaume and Andrew! They sat about here:

The seats were very good, nobody behind them:

And the view was great!

They left before the crowds (before Federer won), and took separate trains home.

Guillaume bought a shirt at the US Open for himself, and for Angela, he bought a US Open tennis ball. We will go next year, hopefully for the finals instead!

August with the Frenchies ...

We had a very busy summer, with a lot of visitors from France.

First, we met our friends from Paris, Vincent & Martine, in New York City. We took the train from Boston, and arrived at 12:00 noon at our hotel. We took the ferry to Ellis Island to read Angela's family's name on the wall.

After that, we went to Grand Central Station for a drink to relax ... what a life!




We went to the hotel to get ready for our evening. We went to the rooftop bar at the Peninsula Hotel, with a view of Central Park.




When we left the Peninsula Hotel, we headed to Brooklyn for dinner at the River Cafe. The view of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty at night was beautiful!



After dinner, we walked back to Manhattan using the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a very long walk (for Angela's feet)!



The next day, we had a sportive Sunday. We went to see the New York baseball team at Yankee Stadium. Our seats were very far, and we left before the end of the game. It's very long...





Back to Boston on the train, and we arrived at midnight. The next day, we drove to the town of Bar Harbor in the state of Maine. It was a 7 hour drive, and it rained a lot along the way! We stayed at the Cadillac Motor Inn, in the center of the town.

We rented tandem bikes. Guillaume says that Angela was not pedaling at all (not true)! We tried to go up the mountain, but couldn't, so we stopped for a coffee instead. We biked around Bar Harbor, to the beaches, and through the woods.




Our next stop was the house of Marguerite Yourcenar, Petite Plaisance. Our friend Martine really wanted to go there. We were given the tour in French! After the visit, we went into her garden.


Finally, we packed a lunch and rented a canoe on Long Lake. Guillaume and Vincent had to put the canoe in the water themselves, and then we had lunch on the canoe (it was a little windy).



After the long drive home, we rested in Boston for a few days. Then we went to Seabrook, in the state of New Hampshire, to visit Angela's friend Sue at her beach house. They are from Kansas City, in the state of Missouri (in the middle of the country). It was great to visit with her and her whole family! (Vincent still remembers the waves!)


For our last evening before Vincent & Martine left, and before Angela had to go back to work, we went to a very nice dinner at The Capital Grille.


**EMERGENCY for Angela*** WOOP WOOP!!
Angela had to go back to the hospital unexpectedly, so missed out on all of the fun...

Romain, Greg and Cyril arrived, and did all the activities that Guillaume planned for them: New York City, baseball games, whale watch, Duck Tour (quack quack), visit of Boston...



Then, Claudia and Cyrielle arrived just in time for the party that didn't happen since Angela was still at the hospital. They went on the Whale Watch, too, after a small incident with an Aquarium employee. grrrr.

We didn't know what to do to relax, so we took a "little aperitif" anyway.



Guillaume & Cyril went to NYC, and Claudia and Cyrielle left for Paris, but Angela got to visit with them for a few hours before they left - she made it home from the hospital just in time!

It felt very quiet here in Boston once everyone was gone because EVERYONE slept here at Garden Street, and we still miss you!






Angela utilise Google Translator quand elle ne comprend pas http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en