gluten-free is for good for me!

so one of my goals for 2008 is to stick a gluten-free diet (to the best of my ability). i decided to try it out for several weeks in december after one my doctors in the U.S. suggested that i try it and after talking to several gluten-free pals of mine. and needless to say, it changed my life. i only went off of it when the holidays came about and i didnt want to add additional stress and work for the boy's mom, who was making christmas dinner and then of course, i was back in the U.S. for a few weeks...(yummy chinese food!)

its a very hard diet to stick to, especially in baguette and croissant-laden France...but I am going to try. even if it means that i have to bring my lunch to work now. there are lots of bio, or organic markets, popping up in Paris and i pretty much stick to rice these days. it works for me...i joke that part of it has to do with being asian and having eaten rice nearly all my life. baked goods just dont agree with unfortunately....but i find that i dont miss it too much either...and gluten-free bread is expensive!! holy moly!

now i havent been diagnosed with celiac disease or anything, but for pretty much all of 2007, i has the worst gastro problems of my life. i looked 4-5 months pregnant half the time (to the point that even indifferent parisiens took one look at my belly and gave up their seats for me on the metro) and constantly felt exhausted and bothered and disturbed about my digestion...in pure numbers, i gained a significant amount of weight even though people dont believe me when i've told them that i've gained xxx pounds since 2006.

so i'm going to give it a try...and hope that one of the unintended results of going gluten-free will be shedding those xxx pounds!

its a small world?

a few signs that i travel waayyy too much (its even less now that i'm now working full-time and dont have as much time to go back and forth to the U.S.):

1) the gate agents for Continental Airlines at Paris-Roissy airport have started to remember me and now ask "you again?"

2) i have started to recognize certain flight attendants who do the Newark-Paris route...especially the daily 10 PM flight...i guess some of them are already slotted for the Paris flights since they speak French (though i have absolutely no clue on the logistics of flight crews)

3) i have memorized the flight schedules as well as the seat configurations for all Continental Newark-Paris flights (EWR-CDG)

tooo crazy,huh?

oh also...i've learned that its been a pretty rough flight if the flight attendants know your kid's name by the end of the 10 (!) hour ordeal...oh yes, my flight back on the New Year's Day took nearly 10 hours. A 2 hour delay due to catering problems and a malfunctioning door and then an additional 8 hours to get to Newark because of heavy tail winds. In contrast, it only takes about 6 and 1/2 hours to get Paris...and I arrived early yesterday! the boy was still at the apt when we landed!

in any case...10 hours over on a 757...tiny airplane for a transatlantic flight (seat configuration 3 by 3 with just one aisle) which is supposed to be most fuel-efficient ....completely full and at least 10 young kids on board. one of them kept running up and down the one aisle...bumping into the drink carts and one of the parents kept yelling his name....its no surprise that everyone know little Nico's name....

you go girl!

i'm back in paris...just got in this morning...still bleary-eyed and jetlagged...but its definitely nice to be back in my own apartment vs. my parents' house in NJ....something about having my own place...

so i saw something very cool and very comforting this morning as we were deplaning and boarding the shuttle bus that took us to the main terminal. as we watched the cabin crew emerging last from the plane, we were all pleasantly surprised to find that the pilot/captain of our flight was a woman...a hot tall blond too!

now blond stereotypes and feminist ideas aside, i can say i've never been prouder...and i only hope one day this will not be considered an anomaly but more the norm. and i can say with great confidence that you can probably only see such cool woman power on a U.S. airline....

a grain of salt

again..with the procrastination...or maybe i'm just really sick and tired of doing review questions (i've gone through about 4 gmat prep books...)..

anywho, one of the remarkable things i've noticed whenever i come back to the U.S. is how everything tastes so differently here. one of the biggest shockers on my taste buds is how everything is so salty! everywhere i go, i'm guzzling water and drinks because everything just tastes like someone threw in the entire salt shaker...and this is everything...chips, crackers, pasta dishes, pizza, chinese food,..everything that obviously has salt, but just waaay more here in the U.S.! and one of the biggest differences is that i guess is that in france, people dont leave the salt and pepper shakers out on the table, even in restaurants (this is a give or take). this is especially true when we are at the boy's family's house....everything is seasoned while cooking and there is no salt and pepper on the table...and i guess i've gotten used to it.

another thing that is quite different is the intensity of certain flavors. in france, the boy lives on this chocolate-y cereal by nestle called chocopic (it doesnt exist here in the U.S.) of which he claims has all sorts of vitamins and minerals...huh-huh. anyway, he's tried several chocolate cereal equivalents here in the U.S. and has claimed that all of them are waaay too sweet and too chocolate-y for his taste. funny since he practically lives on chocolate-y snacks...even certain desserts are too much for him. i once made yellow cupcakes with betty crocker chocolate frosting and he could barely finish one. a bit ironic since he is french and lives in a country famous for its desserts!!

back home to the mothership.....

i know i'm a bad blogger...but i am back visiting my parents in NJ this week and i've been super busy with super important things like shopping around the mega post-holiday sales for the perfect black wool/cashmere blend coat for the boy's upcoming birthday in february and then catching up with fun and fabulous people like my friend celina, my big cuz karen, and some of my old-coworkers in Princeton. and then there was the one-day sale at macy's yesterday....

so these are all good excuses...and good excuses for totally not preparing for the gmats. i totally want this exam to be over with..even if i'm not prepared. its in exactly 3 days....the funny thing is that my career aspirations have sorta changed since i began preparing for the exam so we'll see where it takes me....

its a full moon....

so today, one of my high school gal pals announced that she was now officially engaged....and honestly, i couldnt be happier for her and though, i have yet to meet her husband-to-be, i know he's wonderful and that they will make each other very happy. however, this engagement is literally the 5th engagement announcement i have heard in the last 3 weeks or so and i'm starting to wonder if there is a full moon out there...a full moon that has lasted over 3 weeks...yes i know full moons are an old wives' tale usually reserved for predicting a date of a baby's birth...but seriously, but i like my theory. and it doesnt hurt that my cousin actually did give birth last week to her second child....(beautiful baby boy...named Brandon!!)...

and man i was starting to get all sad that i didnt attend any weddings this year...i have three marked for next summer already! though, if i was still living in NJ, i probably would have gotten to attend more weddings if i really wanted to...my parents went to a ton this year. thats because Taiwanese weddings are crazy and tradition calls for the parents of the bride or groom to invite all of their own friends and their families (which often means that there are a lot of people at these weddings that the bride and groom dont even know). so that means, my parents go to a ridiculous number of weddings of their friends' children...crazy, huh? i cant even imagine how my own wedding would be like..and since its impossible to fit everyone in one reception hall...there are usually 2 or 3 wedding receptions to follow in order to cover everyone and be respectful. the boy cannot wait...and he hates being the center of attention. i wont even go into what he wants for a wedding..

anyway, i'm off for the week..spending the week in Nantes with the boy's family. lots of relaxing...eating...and studying for the GMATs! though apparently the resort we are staying at has a spa and a casino...i cant tell if its going to be like a cruise ship resort or not...

why i'll never be 100% french...part II

i just spent 65 euros on 6 bandes dessinees...and in american, that means i spent nearly $100 on 6 comic books/adult picture books. they had better be good....and at least they're hardcover books (one of them is like practically 150 pages long...like a real book)....and not flimsy paperbacks (like marvel comics)..and can be re-sold later on ebay if needed. and this time i went to fnac (a big borders-like bookstore) and luckily they have more sales assistants than auchan, but i still had to ask someone where to find the ones i needed....again, its all categorized in a system i dont understand. i went to the non-fiction history section to find another book...again, completely lost and when i finally found the book i was looking for, there was only one copy left...and of course it was in poor condition (the cover was ripped) and they wouldn't sell it to me for a reduced price....oh the irony!

this can so go under "why i dont shop for fun in france"...and its so true...good for my wallet, but then i go on binges when i'm back in the U.S.! though i have to give fnac credit...they have revamped their stores and tried to make it more inviting and cozy with couches and more sales assistants....like borders and barnes and noble....