A Fresh Start (up)

Hi there, and sorry for the silence of these past weeks, I have been working, and also working, and working again, and finally… getting married!

It has a beautiful ceremony, like the ones you see on TV shows and that I dreamt of having: an intimate civil wedding on a little hill, with the sound of the ocean, and a beautiful sun… And obviously the perfect groom, which is by far the most important! Well, of course I would have preferred to have all my family and friends with me, but that would be for next year in the South of France: I just realized how great it is to have two weddings, since when it was over yesterday I just wanted to start again! Dinner was also delicious, at the Cliff House, facing the ocean (I never get bored of looking at the waves under any circumstances!), with great people (thanks guys for your presence!).

Pictures are here (thanks again Sébastien!), and I just hope to see all of you next year for the religious one!

I hate Mondays… I know, who doesn’t? This is a problem with no solution, because I hate Mondays when I had a bad week-end (I feel that I shouldn’t go back to work without having fun before) but also when I had a great week-end (I feel that… well, it should be longer!). I can’t imagine what it would be if I didn’t like my job

Anyway, this week-end was a really good one: Remy and I went to Carmel-by-the-Sea, one of the most romantic places I’ve ever seen… Well, most of you know that sea and sunset are enough for me . We also slept in Clint Eastwood’s ranch… well, without Clint Eastwood, obviously! On Sunday, after driving through the beautiful natural reserve “17-mile drive”, we went to Monterrey, and I was a bit disappointed by the aquarium, which is supposed to be the best in the world, but I loved seeing big colorful jellies… All the pictures of the week end are here.

Anyway, the conclusion of this week-end on the coast is that I want to have a beach house, do yoga every Sunday morning after drinking fresh orange juice, and then going running on the beach… OK, you all understood that it wasn’t going to happen: so far, my traditional Sundays look more like 1) eating a lot of Nutella instead of drinking orange juice 2) watching lots of episodes of “The West Wing” lying on my sofa instead of running on the beach or practicing yoga… For sure, they won’t feature my life in “Lifestyle Magazine”

I’ve been completely swamped with work these past weeks, so this blog isn’t really being updated… I also feel that I am finally finding my rhythm here: at the beginning, it was all new and I wanted to travel everywhere, so I had plenty of things to tell, whereas now I feel that I am settling down more, taking some time, as if I was going to live here forever (and I pray “God Immigration” that it will be the case!). I am also preparing for the wedding, which is really exciting: the civil one is on August 30^th this year in the US, and the religious one on July 25^th next year in France. Believe it or not, my mother is so efficient that the venue, the church and the caterer are already booked for next year! On my side, I’m just planning the US one, trying to make it as “Melrose Place” as possible. I have the chance to be about to have a really traditional wedding in France, so I want the US one to be just fun so… we are getting married on a hill facing the ocean (see picture)! I promise that I won’t put the music from 90210 when walking down the aisle!

What else in my life… my acting classes are about to end, it was just great to work with such a good teacher/director, even if I still don’t feel that I will be shooting a movie with Brad Pitt anytime soon J. Remy is doing great: he has been selected to present a conference at Oracle World in September in SF, so he is delighted and also scared like hell.

Well, as you see, I’m becoming a bit boring (a friend of mine told me that it will be even worse when I’ll be married!) so what’s new in your life guys?

  I’m exhausted after a long trip back from Tahoe (I’m still sick in cars!) so the article will be short and very factual. We spent the 3-day 4th of July week-end in Lake Tahoe with Seb and Audrey, and it was really cool and relaxing: lying on the beach under a perfect sun, watching beautiful fireworks on the lake, eating in a delicious restaurant with lake-view… is more or less how I’d like to spend all my week-ends … This is what I really love about California: 4 hours away from San Jose you can discover this beautiful lake with all the water-related activities, whereas it is a very popular ski resort during winter… This country never stops to amaze me, you really can’t become cynical when you live in this country… Pictures are here!

Big news today … After having asked his permission to my father, Rémy “officially” proposed to me this week-end, and I said yes! We’ve been talking about it for a very long time (almost 3 years, after he “non-officially” proposed to me!), and we’re finally doing it! We are having a “civil” wedding in August in San Francisco in City Hall with only our witnesses and US friends, but we are also having a religious wedding in the South of France next summer (2009) with all our friends and family, which will be the big event. All our family has started planning already!

This blog was talking about Internet and Technology a few months ago, so I don’t want to get too cheesy here, but I really had everything like I have dreamed of: the proposal on the beach, then a suite at the Four Seasons (which was at least 3 times larger that my apartment, I could have lived in the bathroom!) with some rose petals on the bed, some champagne, and massages at the spa … I guess I love luxury, despite years of claiming that I’m a simple girl!

Apart from this big news, the smaller event of my week is that I started my acting classes in Stanford, and so far it’s been great, we’ve learnt how to shoot a commercial … I won’t be Monica Belluci anytime soon (or never for that matter) but I’m having a lot of fun!

I know I look ridiculous with this hat, but I must say I like the picture anyway… My damn attraction for everything that I saw on American TV!!!

As you might have understood, I’m just back from France after my one-week trip. I spent a couple of days working at the eBay office in Paris to avoid losing too many days off (they are precious in the US!) so I saw everyone again: it is almost hard to imagine that the two offices are part of the same company, since the different sizes create completely different atmospheres. I must say that I enjoyed the traditional French breakfast in the cafeteria where everyone spends at least a few minutes in the morning to discuss with others around really good brioches

I presented my thesis on Thursday, got an A and a great proposal: my tutor told me that she thinks that I can get published, and that she would help me if I considered it. I am thinking about it; it is both a lot of work and a great opportunity.

On Thursday I attended the class gift ceremony and the last HEC party: I saw people that I haven’t seen in two years even if I deeply love them, it seems crazy… But during the party everything seemed exactly the same, it was so reassuring… I realize that it must be really hard for those, unlike me, who have spent this last year in HEC. For me, this week was just a nice remembrance of how it used to be; for them, it’s much more the end of something without a clear vision on the future. The graduation ceremony was really moving, especially our dean’s speech: this school really deserves its first rank in Europe, and for once (even if it is highly unusual for a French person!) I must say that I’m really proud to have had the privilege of attending such an institution. All the pictures (party + ceremony) are here.

But all this week I’ve been waiting for a “click”, that would make me think that I belong in my home country, and that this time in the US is just a nice experience. I’ve been looking for that in the many attentions of my mother, in the laughs of my friends, in the terraces of Parisian cafés… and I just couldn’t find it. Of course I miss my parents and friends, of course I miss French food and art de vivre, but I never felt that I belong there, whereas being in the US seems natural… I’ve heard the terrific question a thousand times this week: “why do you want to stay in the US?”… and I can’t manage to find a rational and therefore convincing answer to give to these people, so I always answer with the same passion that I had when I was 5 and told my mom that I wanted to live in the country of the big buildings; which automatically lead people to think that I watched TV too much and that I will go back to France when I’ll realize that living in the US is not an episode of 90210 every day. Well, I don’t want to ascertain things because you feel stupid when you change your mind despite what the proverb says, but I am *almost* sure that I’ll never feel delighted at the idea of coming back to France, and therefore will do everything I can to avoid it, even if it won’t be easy considering the visa mess in which I find myself!

Anyway, I finally took a plane back yesterday to go back to Rémy (who I missed so much this week, I am so sad that he couldn’t attend those moments with me) but since it is me, nothing could go easy: 6 planes landed at the same time in DC, so I spent 3 hours at Immigration and Customs, then I heard that my connection was delayed because of a thunderstorm in Richmond. 4 hours later my plane finally arrived but…. it had a technical problem: they couldn’t turn the computers on, and therefore couldn’t put fuel in the plane! I started to sleep on the floor of the airport (a few hours after having heard by my dean that I am part of the elite of the world, it’s somewhat ironic) and another 2 hours later, we finally boarded: useless to tell you that I am exhausted, especially after spending the entire day catching up with work emails!

Just a quick post: I’m flying back to France tomorrow for a week, to present my thesis (on Thursday)  and attend my graduation ceremony (on Friday). I can’t wait to see you again guys

Quick summary of the past week: a lot of work, a nice dinner with Nicolas and Thomas in San Francisco yesterday,  and a day in Santa Cruz with Audrey and Guillaume today. A beautiful beach (as you can see), a nice lunch around 4pm, and the visit of the “mystery spot”, a really weird place in the forest where gravitational rules are not respected, you can see it all here! Yes, we seem very stupid not standing perpendicular to the floor . Other event of the week: Remy participated to the show on BFM radio called “L’Atelier Numerique” to speak about his job; I’ll post the podcast here when it’ll be available! Yes, we will all be famous for 15 minutes of our life

See you in Paris!

Bad, bad week: a bad flu after my Yosemite trip, some tight deadlines at work, not many hours of sleep, and the confirmation that I won’t get my visa this year. Yes, dear friends, I’ll be back to Paris in February 2009! I hope that, like Nico says, “brunches with friends and lots and lots of boat trips” will compensate the fact that I really didn’t want to see the Eiffel Tower again so soon. Speaking of Paris, I’ll be there next week for my graduation: it is weird because I feel so out of touch with all this school thing, but on the other hand I feel really nostalgic that this part of my life is over. I’ll share the pictures with the nice square hat soon!

A part from that, the week wasn’t all bad: I had dinner with Seb and Valentine (from the French office) on Thursday and it was really cool, like a real French dinner in a French restaurant with a lot of talking before, between and after the meals… Seb saw that I was on the verge of getting completely crazy with the flu + the workload, so he saved me from a major nervous breakdown by inviting me that evening

Fortunately this week-end was pretty cool: Audrey turned 25 and invited some friends to a nice restaurant in SF (see picture), so I met some cool people (French, of course, can’t help it!) and then we went to a club (French, of course!) where I met an HEC from my promotion that I was supposed to meet in the weeks to come, but I guess the French community is a small world!

Remy had a conference in Chicago this week so I went with him for the week end. This city is simply awesome! It is a rare example of what my ideal city would look like: there are pieces of art everywhere! All my pictures are here.

First of all, we decided to be fancy and booked the Sheraton for 2 nights: and I remember the time when I said that I was a really simple person…! Truth is, I really enjoyed the sweet sheets and pillows, and the room service of the Sheraton… It feels good not to be a student anymore

In a nutshell, we took the architectural boat tour which describes the most amazing buildings I’ve ever seen, then we took a walk in Millennium Park and saw the great Cloud Gate and we spent at least half an hour watching ourselves in this bean-shaped mirror. If you don’t know what the Cloud Gate looks like, you should better check my pictures, otherwise there is no way to explain what it is

In the evening we went to Shula’s steakhouse, and for a carnivore like I am, Chicago is a real paradise! Then we headed to Kingston Mines, the most famous blues club in Chicago, and one of the bands was great: J.W. Williams & the Chi-Town Hustlers are really worth listening to.

On Sunday we went shopping on Magnificent Mile: and entire mile of great stores, isn’t it supposed to be called heaven? Then we went’ to Gino’s East to try the famous deep dish Chicago-style pizza: 6cm of toppings!! Finally we went to the Chicago Museum of Contemporary art: even if the Koons exhibition only starts in two weeks (I was so frustrated!!), we got the chance to see some amazing pieces, including a big shell in which you can lie down!

Going back to work after a week end like this is kind of tough, especially since I’m all alone in a big empty apartment … And you guys, what are you up to these days?

I spent most of the day in the middle of my paint tubes, brushes and canvas: the result is this piece of junk on the left but I felt so good! It was as if I had what I liked the most in my “old” life back

Apart from that, back to my French week. We had dinner on Tuesday with David and Veronique, two great French expats living in San Jose… It was really cool to share our thoughts about the life and people here, and they had some really great stories (most expats have, but they really know how to tell them ).

On Thursday I went to a dinner gathering HEC alumni on the West Coast. Amazing people there, and it is always reassuring to see that even if, having just finished school, I have the impression that business careers are really “standardized”, it is not always the case, especially among HEC expats. There was in particular an entrepreneur advisor who took the time to tell me how he got there, and I would simply love having a job like that in a couple of years.

Yesterday we went to the Open Studios gathering 160 artists, and I had a real love at first sight with Sunn Yo: her paintings make you calm and serene, her portraits are just astonishing, the colors great, the technique perfect… Anyway, after that we joined the French gang (Cécile and Karim her boyfriend, who is American but speaks a perfect French, Audrey and Guillaume) to a great Moroccan restaurant called Aziza and had a delicious pastilla to share. Yes, I know I’m supposed to integrate a little bit better, but it’s not my fault if I keep on meeting great French people

A dinner with friends on a Saturday night and painting on Sunday, I feel as if I was still in Paris! Oh, I forgot about the difference in climate