There is nothing new or extraordinary in our lives, so the posts will be more rare.
So what's new in 2 weeks ...
We made the moving-out inspection of our old appartment in Metro 112 with just a maintenance guy. Everything was great so there was no problem, he even told me that the cleaning was awesome \o/ Yeah, I've got a super power \o/
To celebrate this, before Sam takes his bus to work, good americain citizen style, we went to Starbucks. Obviously, I've got the question "What's your name ?", she understood it and repeated it very well but has written Nutichia. It is now official Laetitia is not a good first name when you want to travel.
I had to call the moving compagny to have some news. Our stuff is still in Europe, everything was loaded on the 21st of February, the ship arrives at New York the 12th of March, then 10 or 15 days later, the local company will call us for the delivery. When we signed, they told us that it could take up to 12 weeks for the delivery, we are on the 14th weeks so for mid of April it will be 22 weeks, when you do something like this, you don't have to be in a rush!
I'm still looking for a job, I've applied at Valve, UndeadLabs and Bungie, I keep searching a little. I hesitate between apply everywhere just to have a working-visa and apply just where I really want to work. For now I took the second option, Sam pushes me to the first one, suspense suspense ;-)
We have tried a new restaurant: Sushi Maru, it's turning-sushi style restaurant (Kaiten Sushi). Because it's quite downstairs from our new appartment, we had to test it. And it was EXCELLENT \o/
We went to the cinema to see 'Lego The movie". We laughed like children, it was really fun and I understood all of it \o/ Seats are still comfortable, with space and cup holders. The mistake we made, it's that we have juste finished our breakfast, so we couldn't taste all the theater treats, but the popcorn bag were giant, I still do not believe it. We have to go back to take some pictures and taste the nachos with cheddar ;-) Be careful of the movie soundtrack, it stucked in our head!
I make some progress, I am able to make phone calls in English \o/ It was to fix a rendez-vous with an association (to give our old bed) and to fix a problem with pudget sound, so it was short, but I do it fine \o/
I had a noisy surprise on Thursday morning, at 8:30, fire alarm in the appartment and it wasn't me. 5 minutes later, I watch in the hallway, I see a woman with her baby and her dog, a man who is dressing. So I leave the idea of just an excercice, I decide to go downstairs. Everybody was outside, in pyjamas for the most. 5 minutes later the firemen were there (what a big truck !!) and 5 minutes later, we could go back in our appartments. Now I know that I have to train our cats to go in their moving box when they hear this noise. Little morning fear.
Because I had to stay lie down, I could finish the 4400, Heroes and I began X-Files. Yes, I have never see any X-Files episode (just one but fourth times). It's funny, especially the one with the AI (it's really smart to elaborate plans but it mounts the floppy disk and reads it ... seriously ...) and I discover other episodes of Quantum Leap and what a pleasure. It's a little bit old but it's awesome.
The guys from the association came to get our old bed and they were really nice. They also complimented me for the cleanning. At the leasing office, girls wera sad that we have to leave and I also have the pleasure to have an american hug from one of the girls \o/ And they told me that we will get back most of our deposit \o/
Showing posts with label en. Show all posts
Showing posts with label en. Show all posts
Monday, February 24, 2014
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
#23 - Week 9
On Sunday morning, we played GuildWars2 and on the afternoon, we went to a small walk in the botanical garden in Bellevue. It was a little bit sad because trees and flowers don't like winter, but it was amazing to discover this side of the town, 15 min from downtown Bellevue, it was great and beautiful.
As you can see, there is Bilbo's house, 2 funny goblins, a beautiful waterfall and a playing field. The playing field is at one entry, near a school, nice surroundings (look at this sky !!!)
While returning, we passed on a railroad closed for a long time. I had a theory of stolen train which could go that way, thus I had told to Samuel to be always wary when he crossed. OK I am not comfortable near railroads. Besides this railroad passes on a totally wooden gigantic bridge, what fascinates Sam. With his sparkling eyes, I cracked and we went to this famous bridge but we arrived in front of an attractive very well made rusty gate, but far from the famous bridge.
On Tuesday, we got the keys of our new apartment. We had to pay the rent, had an assurance contract and give our PSE account number. We checked the apartment with the technical chief. His job is to fix everything (light bulbs, wall scratches), it's really easy, when you have a problem, you fill a form on their website and they come to fix it. He explained to us how everything worked in the apartment and we did our joyful dance \o/
As you can see, there is Bilbo's house, 2 funny goblins, a beautiful waterfall and a playing field. The playing field is at one entry, near a school, nice surroundings (look at this sky !!!)
While returning, we passed on a railroad closed for a long time. I had a theory of stolen train which could go that way, thus I had told to Samuel to be always wary when he crossed. OK I am not comfortable near railroads. Besides this railroad passes on a totally wooden gigantic bridge, what fascinates Sam. With his sparkling eyes, I cracked and we went to this famous bridge but we arrived in front of an attractive very well made rusty gate, but far from the famous bridge.
To congratulate ourselves, we went to the mall to drink and eat something. We tried Jamba juice. It was delicious delicious. And to eat, we tried Top pot, it was excellent excellent.
On Tuesday, we got the keys of our new apartment. We had to pay the rent, had an assurance contract and give our PSE account number. We checked the apartment with the technical chief. His job is to fix everything (light bulbs, wall scratches), it's really easy, when you have a problem, you fill a form on their website and they come to fix it. He explained to us how everything worked in the apartment and we did our joyful dance \o/
Here is the floor plan of our apartment :
The cats will no longer have "their" bathroom :/
THE big bad news of the week: ArenaNet doesn't ask for H1 visa this year, event if I have a good resume according to their HR, a little piece of dream is gone (ok a big). It's life, now I have to find something elsewhere. [Sam: if you're looking for an amazing AI programmer in the Seattle area, you MUST contact Laetitia!]
Saturday moving day + Ikea and Sunday Superbowl \o\ Seahawks /o/ (we have to understand the rules before the match). Sunday, January 26, 2014
#22 - Week 8
This week was dedicated to the apartment research \o/
The Saturday was particularly efficient with 9 apartments seen in 5 different locations with 16960 steps \o/
We visited a place far from downtown Bellevue but nearest from Sam's work: Surrey downs. It is like a village with apartments, with little lakes and cute watercourses. But on the road between the leasing office and the apartment, we see a least 20 ducks on our way. I don't like ducks especially since they ran after me while I was running. The man of the leasing office goes on talking with Sam, straight to the ducks ... I just stop waiting that they go away and I catch up the guys, incognito. Well the apartment was dark and too small for us. And to live there, I think having a car is necessary. So we will stay in downtown Bellevue at least one year, and we will see when we will have our driver license.
The second place, in downtown Bellevue, above the luxury shops: The Bravern. The residence is super classy and luxury, the fitness room is great, has the swimming pool, a jacuzzi and a steam room. So we quickly understood that it will be too expensive for us but the hardwood floor in all the apartments was just what we wanted. And we were very disappointed because, it is really too expensive for us and also too small for us.
The third, a little residence near our actual home, Aventine. Nothing to say except that it was really small, we were sad because there was hardwood floor :/
These are the 3 appointments that I had. Is is not really efficient. The best is to check the residences on a map and just go to see their leasing office. So for the rest of the day, it was already 4:30(PM), we done so.
We went to Courtyard off Main, we saw a nice floor plan on their website. Sadly, it was already taken so the girl in the leasing office gave us a tour, even if it was a smaller one, but while it was very warm, it was also too small.
Just before closing, we found a perfect floor plan at Avalon Meydenbauer. But they had no time to give us a tour :/
We celebrated this first day of apartment research in a restaurant: the Red Robin. What a pleasure. Bottomless beverages and really good hamburger and fries (much as you want). After having paid, the waitress gives us back our credit card and ask if she can refill our glass ... in France you pay and you get out, not here, I love that!
On Sunday, we have visited the residences ... well the Sunday is not a goo idea: with a pre-superbowl final match (yeah Seahawks \o/) and the Martin Luther King Day there was nobody at the leasing offices, but we had some card so I've sent emails.
We went to the hairdresser. Here you have like in France (normal style, they do stuff with your hair), some very crazy shops with hair-make-up-nails and the barbers. I have choosen one: Rudy's barbershop. It's an old gas station, chairs are comfortable. People were nice, my hairstyler was really nice and kind. $29 each in 30 minutes. For a men, it's probably expensive but for a girl with short hair, it's a real pleasure. In France, for each height to cut, I had to pay 40€ ($54) in average.
On Monday morning, 2 apartments seen. The one which we had the good floorplan we'd seen on Saturday. Sam has fallen in love with this one, big enough for all our stuffs: big couch, 2 desks. It's a 1-bedroom with den, it is really great when you are only 2 (well with 2 cats) but you need a place to work.
After this, we saw the Avalon Towers residence. The apartment was not free so we couldn't see it, but they have a show room. This apartment was so nice and lovely. I loved it (with harwood floor !!). It was a 1-bedroom with a study, but our 2 desks don't fit in it. The woman of the leasing office looked like my grand-mother (when I was a little girl but I will always see her like that), I just wanted to take the apartment for her. She made us a tour a the residence. It was really classy, with a big fitness center in the top floor where we could see our view if we took the apartment. In the residence you have beautiful views : forest, city, mountain and the other tower. For our price, we had a view on the other building but far enough to have sunlight ... but our windows were just in front of the bedroom of a man, who slept naked, without sunblind or something. It was surprising and so we didn't sign for it.
On Tuesday morning, we took all the measures in the apartment with the den, to choose our furniture. So we signed the papers and paid the deposit. The deposit was a lot more expensive than what they told us, because of our credit score. We didn't know what that was, but now we know that when we arrived, we must ask to your bank to have a credit card to raise your credit score, or you can buy a house or a car. Our banker have told us that this card cost $300, and every penny count for us, and we didn't understand the power of this card.
We have got our id card of the state of Washington, so classy \o/
The Saturday was particularly efficient with 9 apartments seen in 5 different locations with 16960 steps \o/
We visited a place far from downtown Bellevue but nearest from Sam's work: Surrey downs. It is like a village with apartments, with little lakes and cute watercourses. But on the road between the leasing office and the apartment, we see a least 20 ducks on our way. I don't like ducks especially since they ran after me while I was running. The man of the leasing office goes on talking with Sam, straight to the ducks ... I just stop waiting that they go away and I catch up the guys, incognito. Well the apartment was dark and too small for us. And to live there, I think having a car is necessary. So we will stay in downtown Bellevue at least one year, and we will see when we will have our driver license.
The second place, in downtown Bellevue, above the luxury shops: The Bravern. The residence is super classy and luxury, the fitness room is great, has the swimming pool, a jacuzzi and a steam room. So we quickly understood that it will be too expensive for us but the hardwood floor in all the apartments was just what we wanted. And we were very disappointed because, it is really too expensive for us and also too small for us.
The third, a little residence near our actual home, Aventine. Nothing to say except that it was really small, we were sad because there was hardwood floor :/
These are the 3 appointments that I had. Is is not really efficient. The best is to check the residences on a map and just go to see their leasing office. So for the rest of the day, it was already 4:30(PM), we done so.
We went to Courtyard off Main, we saw a nice floor plan on their website. Sadly, it was already taken so the girl in the leasing office gave us a tour, even if it was a smaller one, but while it was very warm, it was also too small.
Just before closing, we found a perfect floor plan at Avalon Meydenbauer. But they had no time to give us a tour :/
We celebrated this first day of apartment research in a restaurant: the Red Robin. What a pleasure. Bottomless beverages and really good hamburger and fries (much as you want). After having paid, the waitress gives us back our credit card and ask if she can refill our glass ... in France you pay and you get out, not here, I love that!
On Sunday, we have visited the residences ... well the Sunday is not a goo idea: with a pre-superbowl final match (yeah Seahawks \o/) and the Martin Luther King Day there was nobody at the leasing offices, but we had some card so I've sent emails.
We went to the hairdresser. Here you have like in France (normal style, they do stuff with your hair), some very crazy shops with hair-make-up-nails and the barbers. I have choosen one: Rudy's barbershop. It's an old gas station, chairs are comfortable. People were nice, my hairstyler was really nice and kind. $29 each in 30 minutes. For a men, it's probably expensive but for a girl with short hair, it's a real pleasure. In France, for each height to cut, I had to pay 40€ ($54) in average.
On Monday morning, 2 apartments seen. The one which we had the good floorplan we'd seen on Saturday. Sam has fallen in love with this one, big enough for all our stuffs: big couch, 2 desks. It's a 1-bedroom with den, it is really great when you are only 2 (well with 2 cats) but you need a place to work.
After this, we saw the Avalon Towers residence. The apartment was not free so we couldn't see it, but they have a show room. This apartment was so nice and lovely. I loved it (with harwood floor !!). It was a 1-bedroom with a study, but our 2 desks don't fit in it. The woman of the leasing office looked like my grand-mother (when I was a little girl but I will always see her like that), I just wanted to take the apartment for her. She made us a tour a the residence. It was really classy, with a big fitness center in the top floor where we could see our view if we took the apartment. In the residence you have beautiful views : forest, city, mountain and the other tower. For our price, we had a view on the other building but far enough to have sunlight ... but our windows were just in front of the bedroom of a man, who slept naked, without sunblind or something. It was surprising and so we didn't sign for it.
On Tuesday morning, we took all the measures in the apartment with the den, to choose our furniture. So we signed the papers and paid the deposit. The deposit was a lot more expensive than what they told us, because of our credit score. We didn't know what that was, but now we know that when we arrived, we must ask to your bank to have a credit card to raise your credit score, or you can buy a house or a car. Our banker have told us that this card cost $300, and every penny count for us, and we didn't understand the power of this card.
We have got our id card of the state of Washington, so classy \o/
Sunday, January 19, 2014
#21 - Week 7
What a busy week!
Friday, we received our new TV screen \o/ A huge Samsung, Smart TV (which means Netflix directly on it), 3D (yeah, we don't care about that either), 51". UPS had to pickup our "old" one (the one that was broken when we received it) the same day, but they ended up not coming. We called, and were told that the delivery guy came, but that there was nobody for him there, then we were told that there was nothing at the leasing office and that the delivery guy doesn't go upstairs, then we were told that our address doesn't exist. Difference with France, here people do their best to help you event if it's late in the day. I don't know if it is hard for them to work so late, but what we can see, teams change often. But for a "customer" point of view, it is really great. So we left the TV on Saturday at the leasing office and they came on Monday.
Waffles again on Saturday because it's really good (and I have to finish the milk). Then we had to buy some stuffs to do the king pie (the real term is "galette des rois" so I just imagine the translation), but there was like a storm with a lot of wind and rain, so we watched the games available on the PS4 ... around noon (less than 15 minutes after we were in the couch) a blackout, Sam went down at the leasing office, it is in the whole block. So we tried to find something to do then suddenly ... sun, sun everywhere. So we took this opportunity and we went buy our stuff. And on our way home, the storm was back with a cold wind and come hail. And in the apartment, no electricity yet. Pudget Sound Energy kept his twitter account and their website up-to-date, always jovially even if they were sorry, especially for the Seahawks' fans (they won \o/). We had the electricity back at 5:30(PM), just when we have choosen a restaurant to go. So to celebrate that, Sam has made the dinner and it was really good!
We have made some king-pies, because all our french and belgium friends talked about that on Facebook. Our friend Nico gave us a recipe but it needed some almond powder and in the safeway, we could not find it, but there was almond pasta, so with a little research on the net, and here we go with that. We were surprised to find the puff pastry in a can and when I opened it I was really surprised to see that the puff pastry really wanted to go out. So, this is the result:
Friday, we received our new TV screen \o/ A huge Samsung, Smart TV (which means Netflix directly on it), 3D (yeah, we don't care about that either), 51". UPS had to pickup our "old" one (the one that was broken when we received it) the same day, but they ended up not coming. We called, and were told that the delivery guy came, but that there was nobody for him there, then we were told that there was nothing at the leasing office and that the delivery guy doesn't go upstairs, then we were told that our address doesn't exist. Difference with France, here people do their best to help you event if it's late in the day. I don't know if it is hard for them to work so late, but what we can see, teams change often. But for a "customer" point of view, it is really great. So we left the TV on Saturday at the leasing office and they came on Monday.
Waffles again on Saturday because it's really good (and I have to finish the milk). Then we had to buy some stuffs to do the king pie (the real term is "galette des rois" so I just imagine the translation), but there was like a storm with a lot of wind and rain, so we watched the games available on the PS4 ... around noon (less than 15 minutes after we were in the couch) a blackout, Sam went down at the leasing office, it is in the whole block. So we tried to find something to do then suddenly ... sun, sun everywhere. So we took this opportunity and we went buy our stuff. And on our way home, the storm was back with a cold wind and come hail. And in the apartment, no electricity yet. Pudget Sound Energy kept his twitter account and their website up-to-date, always jovially even if they were sorry, especially for the Seahawks' fans (they won \o/). We had the electricity back at 5:30(PM), just when we have choosen a restaurant to go. So to celebrate that, Sam has made the dinner and it was really good!
We have made some king-pies, because all our french and belgium friends talked about that on Facebook. Our friend Nico gave us a recipe but it needed some almond powder and in the safeway, we could not find it, but there was almond pasta, so with a little research on the net, and here we go with that. We were surprised to find the puff pastry in a can and when I opened it I was really surprised to see that the puff pastry really wanted to go out. So, this is the result:
It was really good. But the recipe was for 8, so we have made 8 "little" pies, but the truth is one personne can't eat one pie (maybe someone else but not us) so it's more 16 parts than 8. But it was really good \o/ In the second try, we tried to close the pie to avoid to have all the "frangipane" to go out the pie, but each time it goes out :/ But is was really good!!
Here the proportions are more important than in France and because we are good eaters and not into sports and we don't want to be obese (I have promised to my stepmother to take care of Sam!), we pay attention to what we eat. To monitor well, in France, we bought 2 "Fitbit Flex" wristband. We saw that we rarely done the minimum of 10'000 steps to do in one day. It also tracks the sleep, usefull to see how often and when Bash wake me up. So we bought the "Fitbit Aria" scale and we try to put all we eat on the website. It scales weight but also the body fat percent and geek stuff, it is connected by wifi so it sends the datas to our dashboard \o/ So now we see that we are not into sports, we eat too much and we are fat \o/ Seriously, we lost some weight so we can eat again King pie and waffles!
I have called the french mail office because our mails arrive in our old apartment. The guy told me that the delivery address was wrong, that's why we were not having our mails. Except that the mails are still in France and the only mail that we received had the wrong address but the postman had no problem to delivery it.
So he wrote an email to another office ... it's so slow :/
We are searching an apartment because our rental agreement ends on the 24th February. We like our apartment in Metro112, but there is carpet in every room (except for the bathrooms and the kitchen) and cats love it :/ The apartment is in the North at the corner of 2 big roads so it is noisy and our windows are in front of a city light so I have trouble to sleep. The residence is really great and we are fine here. To be continued ...
I have sent my resume to the HR of ArenaNet, without much hope I confess, but at least I try ...
The french taxes office answered me about their mail. I had the same mail in january 2013, they have told me that it was not their, so I have not looked forward: MSTAKE! This year, I was answered that until the levy of this taxe is not stopped, they take the money, then they realise the mistake (because I pay this taxe with Sam since we are married) and give the money back. Now the levy is stopped ... see you next year to see that.
On Wednesday, we went back to the licensing department to have our address checked and do our Id cards. It took 1h30 but the next week, we will have our Id cards \o/
Saturday, January 18, 2014
#20 - Week 6
Here is some of our news.
- Our apartment in France was sold (the 01/03 when we were sleeping), so we are no longer house owner \o/ That means that when we will come back in France, we won't know where to go (prepare your friend's bedroom or your couches ;-)) So we finished to reimburse our loan, to pay the utilities, etc. We don't have any news from the new owners, that means that everything is fine or they haven't seen the apartment yet.
- For this occasion my kind daddy has left the keys and has took the mails. Great! Bills, taxes, letters from our bank, to resume, the forwarding made by La Poste doesn't work. When I tried to reach them by mail, they ask me for my contract number, let's see it (check the "numéro de contrat" field):
- The licensing department called me to fix an appointment to make my identity card. I precised that Sam has also made a request and that will be great if we could come together. She searched and checked his file (less than 1 minute) and told me that there is no problem for them if it's better for us. So we have an appointment Wednesday 01/15 \o/
- For the cold strom on the United States, we are safe. It is a litlle bit cold but no storm, no snow, some rain but that's all.
- Our apartment in France was sold (the 01/03 when we were sleeping), so we are no longer house owner \o/ That means that when we will come back in France, we won't know where to go (prepare your friend's bedroom or your couches ;-)) So we finished to reimburse our loan, to pay the utilities, etc. We don't have any news from the new owners, that means that everything is fine or they haven't seen the apartment yet.
- For this occasion my kind daddy has left the keys and has took the mails. Great! Bills, taxes, letters from our bank, to resume, the forwarding made by La Poste doesn't work. When I tried to reach them by mail, they ask me for my contract number, let's see it (check the "numéro de contrat" field):
For the moment, I've sent an email and if I have no answer soon, I must call them, with a time lag of 9, that will be fun fun fun \o/
- We have asked again our bank, the taxes office and all the administrative offices to change our address. For the bank, it was good, it was just some stuffs sent before, the taxes office haven't answered yet, and the french national health care, they have th sens of humor. They sent me an email to say that I have an answer in my inbox available in their website, why put the answer in this email, no it won't be fun. When I tried, I had the message "Service temporarily unavailable. Please try again later ..." for 2 days. They need more information and their final answer is to ask to the health care of my country ... just because their web site changes Bellevue by Bellevue La Montagne in France \o/ I have insisted telling them that I don't really care about their mail, but they have a problem in their website so they could juste look at it. They answered me to contact the office of the abroad French, in France, they can be joigned only by phone and postal mail. I give up!
- I read the driver guide of the Washington state. It is available in pdf and explain clearly how to get your license driver and it costs only $35 \o/ The book is really because, it warns that the other driver may not follow the rules so you have to be really careful of your behavior and the others' behavior. I think it is really good to warn drivers and the only time that I drove, a Sunday morning early (it was for Ikea so yes there was some people), I found that it was ok, I will make a special post for the driver license ;-)
- Sam has a lot of fun at his job, he works hard and they appreciate his job.
- We watch the show Psych, it's fun. We finished the first season of House of cards, it is really good! We also watched "The World's End" and "Iron Sky": fun fun and fun. I started Buffy and for the moment, even if it's a little bit old, I really enjoy it. And Netflix rocks!
- The thing that took me a lot of time, it's LEGO Marvel Superheroes on PS4, I am addict, I dream of that, it's all I like in games (collections, fun fights, enigmas, quests ans cars races), well for the AI and the flight command, we have seen better ;-)
- Oh and we code a little bit, but you will know more about this later ;-)
- I have reheat a pizza in the oven (you 're goint to tell me that t's not very interesting and you are right) and when I opened if there was a little smoke, nothing serious for me but serious enough for the apartment's fire alarm. It really hurts the ears, it calmed the cats, it was an expérience. Hoppefully, we opened everything and less than 1 minute later it stopped. You have been warned!
- The licensing department called me to fix an appointment to make my identity card. I precised that Sam has also made a request and that will be great if we could come together. She searched and checked his file (less than 1 minute) and told me that there is no problem for them if it's better for us. So we have an appointment Wednesday 01/15 \o/
- For the cold strom on the United States, we are safe. It is a litlle bit cold but no storm, no snow, some rain but that's all.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
#19 - Week 4 and 5
Holidays week with Christmas and new year eve. So less talk and more pictures!
We hope that you had a wonderful end of year and we wish you all the best (happiness, love, friends, health, money, work, etc.) for this new year!
We hope that you had a wonderful end of year and we wish you all the best (happiness, love, friends, health, money, work, etc.) for this new year!
Friday, December 20, 2013
#18 - Third week
A quite busy week with some problems.
In France, the bank made an error and reclaimed us about 5000€ ($6 835) because we wanted to reimburse our apartment loan in advance. But this error was on a paper needed for the sale to make sure the whole load was paid. So the sale was stopped until we give the money to the notary. Tyn called the notary and the bank on Monday morning at 6:00 AM for us (thanks Bash for waking us up and thanks Tyn for watching your emails), but of course our bank is closed on Mondays \o/ But Tyn (he's my hero) called the bank headquarter and the woman was nice and corrected the mistake and sent the paper to the notary. So one problem solved (well for the moment ...)
Still in France, the company which has installed our windows had to come back to change one shutter and to repair another one. This company is named Ecosol and honestly, avoid it at all costs! The workers had to come the 12/2, and because we had no news, we contacted the company and the real estate agency which had to get our keys back. The real estate agent has got back the keys after he saw my email and he checked the shutters. And surprise, just one has been fixed. So I harassed the society, and he answered to us, in a very harsh way, that his workers and travels are not free and when they left, all the shutters worked, so they won't come back. I forwarded these kind words to the real estate agent who now has to find a way to fix the last shutter (with a lawyer it'll work better). They came 3 times for these shutters!
In the United States, ArenaNet payed us back the money we spent in our moving, so proudly, I go to the bank to make a check deposit with the ATM. Unfortunately, at Bank of America, when you deposit more than $1000 by check, you only get $200 in your account, and you have to wait 10 days to have the rest. Well no problem we don't have to eat this week :D
We connected the TV and the PS4 \o/ and we saw that our new TV is damaged /o\, we have to wait for an answer of the after-sales service ... Nevertheless we tried to connect the TV to what we thought be the building TV antenna using an outlet in the wall ... well it is not the outlet for the building antenna, it's to receive Comcast, but we don't want it (too expensive at not really interesting). So we bought an indoor antenna. We saw that we could received some nice channels (KZJO, Q13Fox, Ion). But of course, there is just one good position for it in our apartment, 3 days to find it (yes it works when i am near it, and doesn't when i am in the couch ... 80s \o/). Later, we will probably take Netflix and/or Hulu, cheaper than Comcast and better for us.
Well, let's see the good news: we have a couch and we found a restaurant which do some curry pork like in Japan \o/
Yes, it's a normal size, we didn't asked for a big one, and on the side you have a soup and a salad, if you are really hungry ... just with the pork and the rice, I have 2 big meals.
In France, the bank made an error and reclaimed us about 5000€ ($6 835) because we wanted to reimburse our apartment loan in advance. But this error was on a paper needed for the sale to make sure the whole load was paid. So the sale was stopped until we give the money to the notary. Tyn called the notary and the bank on Monday morning at 6:00 AM for us (thanks Bash for waking us up and thanks Tyn for watching your emails), but of course our bank is closed on Mondays \o/ But Tyn (he's my hero) called the bank headquarter and the woman was nice and corrected the mistake and sent the paper to the notary. So one problem solved (well for the moment ...)
Still in France, the company which has installed our windows had to come back to change one shutter and to repair another one. This company is named Ecosol and honestly, avoid it at all costs! The workers had to come the 12/2, and because we had no news, we contacted the company and the real estate agency which had to get our keys back. The real estate agent has got back the keys after he saw my email and he checked the shutters. And surprise, just one has been fixed. So I harassed the society, and he answered to us, in a very harsh way, that his workers and travels are not free and when they left, all the shutters worked, so they won't come back. I forwarded these kind words to the real estate agent who now has to find a way to fix the last shutter (with a lawyer it'll work better). They came 3 times for these shutters!
In the United States, ArenaNet payed us back the money we spent in our moving, so proudly, I go to the bank to make a check deposit with the ATM. Unfortunately, at Bank of America, when you deposit more than $1000 by check, you only get $200 in your account, and you have to wait 10 days to have the rest. Well no problem we don't have to eat this week :D
We connected the TV and the PS4 \o/ and we saw that our new TV is damaged /o\, we have to wait for an answer of the after-sales service ... Nevertheless we tried to connect the TV to what we thought be the building TV antenna using an outlet in the wall ... well it is not the outlet for the building antenna, it's to receive Comcast, but we don't want it (too expensive at not really interesting). So we bought an indoor antenna. We saw that we could received some nice channels (KZJO, Q13Fox, Ion). But of course, there is just one good position for it in our apartment, 3 days to find it (yes it works when i am near it, and doesn't when i am in the couch ... 80s \o/). Later, we will probably take Netflix and/or Hulu, cheaper than Comcast and better for us.
Well, let's see the good news: we have a couch and we found a restaurant which do some curry pork like in Japan \o/
Yes, it's a normal size, we didn't asked for a big one, and on the side you have a soup and a salad, if you are really hungry ... just with the pork and the rice, I have 2 big meals.
Bash approved the couch exactly 2 minutes after we finished to built it! It is really huge and very comfortable. The seller helped us to bring it to our apartment with his car. For the story, the sellers are from Hungary, he works at Microsoft with a H1B visa, like Tyn, his wife have her H4 visa for 2 years, she can't work ... it doesn't reassure me :D
We looked at your locations in Google for the last 30 days, here is the result:
On Friday morning, we had the pleasure to see some snow \o/
At the Subway (\o/), my change contained a $1 bill with an url on it: http://www.wheresgeorge.com ! A track system for bills Oo. Mine comes from Portland and it was born in March 2012, I am the first person to signal it. It is useless but it surprised me ;-)
Saturday, December 14, 2013
#17 - Christmas party
On December 14th, the ArenaNet's Christmas party took place.
We can see the fear on my face and the madness on Tyn's (it's probably his face that scares me). This is the picture we took when we arrived in the tower. But let's go black in time, 'cause it's a fun story.
18:45: we arrived in Seattle. We walked slowly to Columbia Towers. Why slowly, because for me the roads in this city does have a real problem: it goes up and down all the times. Stupid hills!
We discussed with some people, and a suited guy finally tells us that the ArenaNet party can begin. We are invited to follow him to the first elevator. In fact, it was like a rocket. We arrived really fast to the 40th floor. We left the elevator, and discover that we are among the firsts to be there. We went to the cloakroom to give our coats, and were invited to pose for a picture (yes the first one of this post ... end of the flashback). Then we could to go to the second elevator to go to the 74th floor.
Once we arrived at the 74th floor, we received 2 tickets for drinks and one for chips, and went to the main room. It's huge! The whole floor is booked for the party, and there's gambling table everywhere. Poker, roulette, blackjack, Spanish 21, and others games which we didn't knew. And a lot of food tables \o/ We've found heaven!
So as I told you, the party was on all the 74th floor, in a tower in Seattle ... so the view was really amazing.
So we decided to play a bit. And because we are totally noob in this kind of games (except for poker but most of the tables were full), so we chose a free blackjack table, and the croupier explained to us how it worked. I won a lot, Tyn way less but still a little bit. We also ate delicious meal (beef, salmon, really good fries, a lot of chocolate). Then we tried the Spanish 21 (which is almost like Blackjack) because there was an excellent mood at the table. I laughed a lot, the croupier (Zach) was really funny!
This party was at 7:00 PM to Midnight, everybody was invited with his or her family. The address: Columbia Towers, 701 5th Ave Ste 7500, Seattle. We were happy to go to Seattle and to see a lot of people (well I was a little bit stressed by the idea to see a lot of new american people with a few I used to see online, or to read their books.)
The dress code was "Black & White" and the theme "Casino".
It promised to be super classy and we looked in our walking closet ... our 2 clothes luggage ... well we haven't taken our suits with us so we tried to do our best (be careful Tyn is scary on this picture!)
We can see the fear on my face and the madness on Tyn's (it's probably his face that scares me). This is the picture we took when we arrived in the tower. But let's go black in time, 'cause it's a fun story.
17:55: departure from our apartment to the bus stop at 10 min walking. A little bit before the last intersection, we see our bus (at least one with the good number) at the traffic lights ... then it goes straight instead of turning right. Because I am wise, I do not panic. WRONG! Although considering the time it was not bus, so Tyn the real wise reassured me, we arrived to our bus stop and Tyn wanted to reassure me some more by showing me the bus schedule ... and surprise! This bus stop is not served during the holidays. So we had to go to another bus stop not far away from this one. We were still on time, everything was fine, we arrived before the bus, we stepped in. Mission accomplished.
18:20: the bus leaves Bellevue to Seattle passing by highways above the Lake Washington, it's really beautiful, but when we arrive in Seattle, strange thing, we going underground. Surprise, there is a bus network under the city, like a subway: the bus passes in a tunnel (too narrow for my taste) and goes station to station. It really blew my mind, because I was not excepting something like that (for you it's spoiled \o/)
18:20: the bus leaves Bellevue to Seattle passing by highways above the Lake Washington, it's really beautiful, but when we arrive in Seattle, strange thing, we going underground. Surprise, there is a bus network under the city, like a subway: the bus passes in a tunnel (too narrow for my taste) and goes station to station. It really blew my mind, because I was not excepting something like that (for you it's spoiled \o/)
18:45: we arrived in Seattle. We walked slowly to Columbia Towers. Why slowly, because for me the roads in this city does have a real problem: it goes up and down all the times. Stupid hills!
18h55: we arrived in front of the Columbia Towers ... and ... holy crap ... we couldn't believe what we were seeing. We could barely distinguish the top of the tower! That picture was taken near the bus stop station.
We searched for the tower's entry by turning around, so by 8:00 p.m. we finally arrived. No, I'm kidding.
19:05: we got into the tower. It's big, super classy, and people are mostly well dressed, even if there's a couple geek t-shirt around, which is enough to reassure me. So everything was fine! (Well we didn't had much choice anyway).
19:05: we got into the tower. It's big, super classy, and people are mostly well dressed, even if there's a couple geek t-shirt around, which is enough to reassure me. So everything was fine! (Well we didn't had much choice anyway).
We discussed with some people, and a suited guy finally tells us that the ArenaNet party can begin. We are invited to follow him to the first elevator. In fact, it was like a rocket. We arrived really fast to the 40th floor. We left the elevator, and discover that we are among the firsts to be there. We went to the cloakroom to give our coats, and were invited to pose for a picture (yes the first one of this post ... end of the flashback). Then we could to go to the second elevator to go to the 74th floor.
Once we arrived at the 74th floor, we received 2 tickets for drinks and one for chips, and went to the main room. It's huge! The whole floor is booked for the party, and there's gambling table everywhere. Poker, roulette, blackjack, Spanish 21, and others games which we didn't knew. And a lot of food tables \o/ We've found heaven!
So as I told you, the party was on all the 74th floor, in a tower in Seattle ... so the view was really amazing.
You can see the Space Needle (which looks like a small needle but it's huge), and the bug wheel near the ocean.
Here you can see a piece of the stadium and the port.
So we decided to play a bit. And because we are totally noob in this kind of games (except for poker but most of the tables were full), so we chose a free blackjack table, and the croupier explained to us how it worked. I won a lot, Tyn way less but still a little bit. We also ate delicious meal (beef, salmon, really good fries, a lot of chocolate). Then we tried the Spanish 21 (which is almost like Blackjack) because there was an excellent mood at the table. I laughed a lot, the croupier (Zach) was really funny!
Here is the result of our gambling night:
You don't know what it means, us neither :D (white: $100, red: $500, green: $2500, black: $10000 ... yes dollars). Except that we had to trade our chips against lottery tickets and we ended up not winning anything, so we got back to the dessert buffet to get revenge! Here is our loot (the boxes not the Christmas tree, that one is another story)!
Some nice boxes "Happy Holidays - ArenaNet". The box on the left contained madeleines, the little one in the middle, we don't know yet and the box on the right was empty, as we could have taken whatever we wanted from the buffet ;-) We did not fill it because we were afraid to look like we had no food at home ;-)
At midnight, after the last lottery, the party was over, so we went home thanks to the cabs reserved by ArenaNet to give a ride home for those who needed it.
It was really great with a lot of beautiful memories, thanks ArenaNet ;-)
It was ok when I had to speak with people. They were all kind and warmful. And I could see Tyn's boss, who is really nice and so tall, it reminded me our little Gus from Lille ;-)
#16 - Second week
Inevitably this week was peaceful than the previous one, thankfully!
This is what animated the week : we received a lot of packages (because we bought a lot of things \o/).
We received an automatic vacuum cleaner (its name is Neato XV-21), the TV (a beautiful samsung with a piece paid by the ex-colleagues of Tyn, thanks Ubi Lille!), our new phones (Nexus 5) and their cases.
So we had to take these things in hand:
- change our sim cards which were not of the good size. Again we could take the advantage of T-mobile services. In less than 10 minutes, we had our new sim cards, with a smile although it was more than 8:00 PM. What a pleasure!
- connect the TV and the PS4. We discovered that Sony has thought about everything ... hell no, Tyn's player account is french, so all the services of the PS4 were those in France, so there is less things. And for security reasons, we can't change the country of the PS4 account. So you have 2 choices : delete your account to keep your name, but you lose everything you've got in this account (game, trophies, etc.) or do another account. We decided to have an account by country, it's really more simple ;-)
- let the vaccum doing his job. What a pleasure to just push the start button, go to your desk and just wait that the work is done and your apartment is clean. I better understand Tyn's life (Bam, in your face!). Another good point for it, it intrigues the cats, so they are awake. Well Bash seems to be already bored by that so he sleep again now, but Choco is watching it!
- use our Nexus 5. No soucy no surprise except that it is really extremely light (well I cheat because a colleague whose I hide the name beacause I know he wants to stay anonymous - huh Harry ;-) showed me this phone).
I have the pleasure to hear some people of our gamers band of the monday evening, I could hear their little voices and their cheerfulness via skype. And that was really great \o/ I miss you guys!
The most amazing moment : ArenantNet's seduction strength. They are nice and friendly (well the few that I had the chance to speak to were), they seem to always be in good mood (if they drink the same drinks as me, they are suger full, and so it doesn't surprise me), they have a patch day - we play system. When theu put a major path online (with new contents), all the society is invited to play, so I could play with my lovely husband, and that has no price!
And finally, they propose to go to the cinema. Not like "hey Thursday we can go to the cinema after work". Like "Thursday, we have booked a session at 15:00, comme!
So I have the luck to go in the room, full of ArenaNet's staff. I avoided to make the dance of joy but it was awesome. Except the fact that Sam was late. He forgotten to leave the office, so he has to find another latecomer to go to the cinema ;-)
Well watching all the movie in english was a little bit tough. First words of Gandalf, I was not sure so I watched on the bottom of the screen ... oh yes, I felt so lonely, no subtitles to help me. But it was quite good, except for certain dwarfs and Gandalf sometimes that I have some problems to understand (and some moments in the movie - why an elf-girl and the love story? why?)
To eat, we tried something in the mall. Between the fastfood and the restaurant, pasta/pizza style. We took a menu (pizza-side-drink) because the proportions seem to be reasonnable! WRONG! The side was a bowl of pasta, yes some pasta with bolognese, or paste with cheese, etc. All the sides are more that my lunch. I don't finish my side because it was too much and the pizza part looked like delicious. And it was! For the drink, I took a Tropicana fruit mixture, beacause a fruit juice has less suger. WRONG. It was really really good, like candy sirop. I loved it but if I drink this again I will die!
Another food surprise : the subway. The last week I forgot to tell you that the spicy chicken is really spicy, there are more sort of cheese. This week I took something that looks like the french sandwich "steack and cheese". Except that it was a double sandwich, more meat, more cheese avec more vegetables. So I could make 2 big lunches with only one sandwich.
News from the cats : they sleep ... except the evening from 17:00 and the night. They sleep a lot in their bathroom, at the top of the furniture. Except one time to another, when I wake up them, they come at the window to watch the birds.
Well during the night, it is not a quiet as the day, the record is 30. Yes I have to wake up 30 times in one night, the night after that, we locked them in their bathroom. I slept so well from 21:30 to 7:00. Now it's 2 or 3 times during the night, I can deal with it!
(For a calm week, I have a lot of things to tell ;-))
Another little thing: the food shopping. It's really hard and it takes time to choose the right things. And again the quantities are differents: 15 french croissant for $5, a little bottle of salt is more expensive than the big one. They have a lot of types for the MnM's (peanut butter, cherry, etc) So we eat well, somethimes too much but everything is good ;-)
Last point : yiha, we've got rains and some snow during one evening \o/
This is what animated the week : we received a lot of packages (because we bought a lot of things \o/).
We received an automatic vacuum cleaner (its name is Neato XV-21), the TV (a beautiful samsung with a piece paid by the ex-colleagues of Tyn, thanks Ubi Lille!), our new phones (Nexus 5) and their cases.
So we had to take these things in hand:
- change our sim cards which were not of the good size. Again we could take the advantage of T-mobile services. In less than 10 minutes, we had our new sim cards, with a smile although it was more than 8:00 PM. What a pleasure!
- connect the TV and the PS4. We discovered that Sony has thought about everything ... hell no, Tyn's player account is french, so all the services of the PS4 were those in France, so there is less things. And for security reasons, we can't change the country of the PS4 account. So you have 2 choices : delete your account to keep your name, but you lose everything you've got in this account (game, trophies, etc.) or do another account. We decided to have an account by country, it's really more simple ;-)
- let the vaccum doing his job. What a pleasure to just push the start button, go to your desk and just wait that the work is done and your apartment is clean. I better understand Tyn's life (Bam, in your face!). Another good point for it, it intrigues the cats, so they are awake. Well Bash seems to be already bored by that so he sleep again now, but Choco is watching it!
- use our Nexus 5. No soucy no surprise except that it is really extremely light (well I cheat because a colleague whose I hide the name beacause I know he wants to stay anonymous - huh Harry ;-) showed me this phone).
I have the pleasure to hear some people of our gamers band of the monday evening, I could hear their little voices and their cheerfulness via skype. And that was really great \o/ I miss you guys!
The most amazing moment : ArenantNet's seduction strength. They are nice and friendly (well the few that I had the chance to speak to were), they seem to always be in good mood (if they drink the same drinks as me, they are suger full, and so it doesn't surprise me), they have a patch day - we play system. When theu put a major path online (with new contents), all the society is invited to play, so I could play with my lovely husband, and that has no price!
And finally, they propose to go to the cinema. Not like "hey Thursday we can go to the cinema after work". Like "Thursday, we have booked a session at 15:00, comme!
So I have the luck to go in the room, full of ArenaNet's staff. I avoided to make the dance of joy but it was awesome. Except the fact that Sam was late. He forgotten to leave the office, so he has to find another latecomer to go to the cinema ;-)
Well watching all the movie in english was a little bit tough. First words of Gandalf, I was not sure so I watched on the bottom of the screen ... oh yes, I felt so lonely, no subtitles to help me. But it was quite good, except for certain dwarfs and Gandalf sometimes that I have some problems to understand (and some moments in the movie - why an elf-girl and the love story? why?)
To eat, we tried something in the mall. Between the fastfood and the restaurant, pasta/pizza style. We took a menu (pizza-side-drink) because the proportions seem to be reasonnable! WRONG! The side was a bowl of pasta, yes some pasta with bolognese, or paste with cheese, etc. All the sides are more that my lunch. I don't finish my side because it was too much and the pizza part looked like delicious. And it was! For the drink, I took a Tropicana fruit mixture, beacause a fruit juice has less suger. WRONG. It was really really good, like candy sirop. I loved it but if I drink this again I will die!
Another food surprise : the subway. The last week I forgot to tell you that the spicy chicken is really spicy, there are more sort of cheese. This week I took something that looks like the french sandwich "steack and cheese". Except that it was a double sandwich, more meat, more cheese avec more vegetables. So I could make 2 big lunches with only one sandwich.
News from the cats : they sleep ... except the evening from 17:00 and the night. They sleep a lot in their bathroom, at the top of the furniture. Except one time to another, when I wake up them, they come at the window to watch the birds.
Well during the night, it is not a quiet as the day, the record is 30. Yes I have to wake up 30 times in one night, the night after that, we locked them in their bathroom. I slept so well from 21:30 to 7:00. Now it's 2 or 3 times during the night, I can deal with it!
(For a calm week, I have a lot of things to tell ;-))
Another little thing: the food shopping. It's really hard and it takes time to choose the right things. And again the quantities are differents: 15 french croissant for $5, a little bottle of salt is more expensive than the big one. They have a lot of types for the MnM's (peanut butter, cherry, etc) So we eat well, somethimes too much but everything is good ;-)
Last point : yiha, we've got rains and some snow during one evening \o/
Saturday, December 7, 2013
#15 - First week
Laeti :
The important thing of this first week in Bellevue is the first day of Tyn at ArenaNet. As expected and because it's Tyn, everything is great, he starts at 8:30 (and I don't push him out, well on friday yes maybe a little) and he finishes at 19:00. Great long days, but he is doing it like a boss!
From my part, it's more "clam".
Go shopping to have something to eat: discovering of the american size (3 days to finish the piece of ground beef).
Talk with the leasing office, which is at the ground floor the of the building (it is really usefull) for the rent, to explain them that we have some troubles to open a bank account. The woman tells me gently that it's the last day to pay the rent without penalties, but according to the special situation and because the previous tenants were never late to pay, she can give us one more day.
Tuesday, Tyn does all the papers to obtain a SSN (thanks Eva to go with him!) and come back from work early to go to the slected bank : Bank Of America. Tyn goes to the one near the home but at 17:15 they tell him that there is 45 min to wait and they close at 18:00, so they call an other office and no problem, they close later and there is less people. During this time, I go back to the apartment to get the check which Tyn forgotten (allright, asking him if he has it at 8:00 in the morning was not my greatest idea, so this is our fault ;-) ), I hurry to find this second office (45 min of our apartment, yes it's americain notion of near ;-)), Tyn is already in the office and he opens our bank account. All we needed is our visas and a second pieve of identity, and so we have our temporary bank card \o/ Thank you Bank Of America \o/
Wednesday, after a roundtrip to ArenaNet to have a new check (they rembourse our moving bills, don't go to have check, that is not that easy!), little adventure for me when the bus changed his route because of roadworks and holidays, hopefully I have the us data on my phone, so I can asly go to the bank and go home to pay our first rent in Bellevue \o/
Thursday and Friday, it was more calm, just one new resident in animal crossing ;-)
Friday evening, restaurant with Tyn to celebrate his first week. We went to McCormick & Schmick's, near Bellevue square, and it was so delicious. My fish&chips was so good!! To be honest for the breadcrumb and the chips, they can do better (a little thought for Guéguette), but the fish was delicious!
Saturday shopping : gloves, beanie hat and running shoes for me, and both of us a sweat: a Cougars' for me and Huskies' for Tyn.
We also received the papers to fill and return to have an appointment for our ID card \o/
The important thing of this first week in Bellevue is the first day of Tyn at ArenaNet. As expected and because it's Tyn, everything is great, he starts at 8:30 (and I don't push him out, well on friday yes maybe a little) and he finishes at 19:00. Great long days, but he is doing it like a boss!
From my part, it's more "clam".
Go shopping to have something to eat: discovering of the american size (3 days to finish the piece of ground beef).
Talk with the leasing office, which is at the ground floor the of the building (it is really usefull) for the rent, to explain them that we have some troubles to open a bank account. The woman tells me gently that it's the last day to pay the rent without penalties, but according to the special situation and because the previous tenants were never late to pay, she can give us one more day.
Tuesday, Tyn does all the papers to obtain a SSN (thanks Eva to go with him!) and come back from work early to go to the slected bank : Bank Of America. Tyn goes to the one near the home but at 17:15 they tell him that there is 45 min to wait and they close at 18:00, so they call an other office and no problem, they close later and there is less people. During this time, I go back to the apartment to get the check which Tyn forgotten (allright, asking him if he has it at 8:00 in the morning was not my greatest idea, so this is our fault ;-) ), I hurry to find this second office (45 min of our apartment, yes it's americain notion of near ;-)), Tyn is already in the office and he opens our bank account. All we needed is our visas and a second pieve of identity, and so we have our temporary bank card \o/ Thank you Bank Of America \o/
Wednesday, after a roundtrip to ArenaNet to have a new check (they rembourse our moving bills, don't go to have check, that is not that easy!), little adventure for me when the bus changed his route because of roadworks and holidays, hopefully I have the us data on my phone, so I can asly go to the bank and go home to pay our first rent in Bellevue \o/
Thursday and Friday, it was more calm, just one new resident in animal crossing ;-)
Friday evening, restaurant with Tyn to celebrate his first week. We went to McCormick & Schmick's, near Bellevue square, and it was so delicious. My fish&chips was so good!! To be honest for the breadcrumb and the chips, they can do better (a little thought for Guéguette), but the fish was delicious!
Saturday shopping : gloves, beanie hat and running shoes for me, and both of us a sweat: a Cougars' for me and Huskies' for Tyn.
We also received the papers to fill and return to have an appointment for our ID card \o/
Tyn :
What a crazy week! The jet lag has helped me being more of a morning person that I've ever been (literaly: nobody had seen me this awake so early in the morning before), and I was able to get work a 8:30 a.m. on Monday fully rested and ready. And what a welcome! I receive goodies right away (a collector edition of Guild Wars 2), the colleagues are incredibly nice, and since it's almost Christmas, I even get... A PlayStation 4 ! It's going to be hard to beat such a first day.
After the first administrative formalities and a tour of the studio, I discover my desk, facing a window, with a view on the forest. Simply gorgeous, it's almost a shame that there are screens in front of my eyes. Thankfully, the job was very exciting right away. I'm on this phase where I have a huge amount of stuff to learn, where everything is completely different from what I used to know, and that's fascinating. In my previous works, at Ankama (on Dofus 2) and at Ubisoft (on O.zen), I was there early in the production, which meant that I could learn piece by piece as stuff was created. Here, there's already tons of existing stuff, and discovering and learning all of it is going to be a blast.
On the evening, the bad side of the jet lag kicks in. I'm tired quickly, and as soon as I get home, Laeti and I have only one thing in mind - getting some sleep. I think it's the first time that I feel this much the effects of time difference, but it's probably also the pressure that goes down a little. This week-end is the first in ages where we actually have some time for ourselves, and it feels great.
The toughest part this week, without a doubt, was letting go of my sweet wife every morning, only to see her hours later in the evening (sometimes way too late - sorry, I get carried away), at a time when we're both already tired. I'm infinitely grateful to her for being at my side in this incredible adventure, and truth be told, without here, I'm very much doubting that I would have done such madness. Thank you, my love.
What a crazy week! The jet lag has helped me being more of a morning person that I've ever been (literaly: nobody had seen me this awake so early in the morning before), and I was able to get work a 8:30 a.m. on Monday fully rested and ready. And what a welcome! I receive goodies right away (a collector edition of Guild Wars 2), the colleagues are incredibly nice, and since it's almost Christmas, I even get... A PlayStation 4 ! It's going to be hard to beat such a first day.
After the first administrative formalities and a tour of the studio, I discover my desk, facing a window, with a view on the forest. Simply gorgeous, it's almost a shame that there are screens in front of my eyes. Thankfully, the job was very exciting right away. I'm on this phase where I have a huge amount of stuff to learn, where everything is completely different from what I used to know, and that's fascinating. In my previous works, at Ankama (on Dofus 2) and at Ubisoft (on O.zen), I was there early in the production, which meant that I could learn piece by piece as stuff was created. Here, there's already tons of existing stuff, and discovering and learning all of it is going to be a blast.
On the evening, the bad side of the jet lag kicks in. I'm tired quickly, and as soon as I get home, Laeti and I have only one thing in mind - getting some sleep. I think it's the first time that I feel this much the effects of time difference, but it's probably also the pressure that goes down a little. This week-end is the first in ages where we actually have some time for ourselves, and it feels great.
The toughest part this week, without a doubt, was letting go of my sweet wife every morning, only to see her hours later in the evening (sometimes way too late - sorry, I get carried away), at a time when we're both already tired. I'm infinitely grateful to her for being at my side in this incredible adventure, and truth be told, without here, I'm very much doubting that I would have done such madness. Thank you, my love.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
#14 - Installation day
December, Sunday the 1st 2013.
Be online it's a good start but we really need chairs ;-)
At Ikea, no surprise, all the ikea are the same ;-) We find all we need: desks, flatware, chairs, lamp. After unloeading the stuff, brink back the car, we go to the subway! Everything is quite similar to the french subway, we are just always surprise by the drink size, we have all the day to drink it ;-)
Then we assemble our desks and our chairs and we settle down to our desks ... we are happy but we are under the jet lag effect, it's 18:00 and we are really really tired.
We decide to go out for a walk and maybe take something to eat.
Near the Bellevue Square, we arrive in the snowflake lane: dancers, musicians, illuminated buildings, Christmas carols ... and the best : some fake snow : it's really AMAZING. So we stay like an hour to watch the show and to take advantage of the happiness.
When the show ends, crowd dispersed calmly, the road can reopen 10 minutes after the end of the show. What a pleasure!
For the meal, we went to P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, because I wanted to stay with the cats, we ordered to go, it was really really good !
Be online it's a good start but we really need chairs ;-)
We rent a car on the hertz website, 30$ for the day, we print the road map to Ikea, we take the furnitures list make on the website (we discover some options on the website like print the list with all the references, in order in the shop and the coordinates in the warehouse).
We take the car: an automatic chevrolet cruze ... the first time that I drive an automatic car, the first time I drive in the USA (I have a French driver license).
So it's not more complicated than a manual, you just have to keep your left foot very very far because of the usual clutch, you don't engage you strongly brake. Yes, it happens to me, in the parking lot and really slowly, I think I was going to stall ... beginner failure.
In the morning, I read a website (in french), just to be sure.
In the morning, I read a website (in french), just to be sure.
At Ikea, no surprise, all the ikea are the same ;-) We find all we need: desks, flatware, chairs, lamp. After unloeading the stuff, brink back the car, we go to the subway! Everything is quite similar to the french subway, we are just always surprise by the drink size, we have all the day to drink it ;-)
Then we assemble our desks and our chairs and we settle down to our desks ... we are happy but we are under the jet lag effect, it's 18:00 and we are really really tired.
We decide to go out for a walk and maybe take something to eat.
Near the Bellevue Square, we arrive in the snowflake lane: dancers, musicians, illuminated buildings, Christmas carols ... and the best : some fake snow : it's really AMAZING. So we stay like an hour to watch the show and to take advantage of the happiness.
When the show ends, crowd dispersed calmly, the road can reopen 10 minutes after the end of the show. What a pleasure!
For the meal, we went to P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, because I wanted to stay with the cats, we ordered to go, it was really really good !
Saturday, November 30, 2013
#13 - First Day
November, Saturday the 30th 2013.
Administrative day in perspective!
Open a bank account at Becu was our main goal. At the bank, we write our name on the list in the waiting area, the advisors know who is next and it's very good! After waiting 30 minutes with a lot of apologies, the advisor tells us that without an ID card or a SSN, it's impossible. Because this bank was strongly recommended and because we need ID card, we walk one hour to the driver licensing office.
It's more organized than the French office: you have a numbre, there are a lot of counters, but it's very simple, you have a big room with all the counters and in the middle you have plenty chairs and there are screens to know the last numbers called.
After less than 10 minutes, my number is called. The employee told me that it's weird that the bank reject the visa and that I have to see another banks, then she explains all the papers I have to do to have an ID card : fill a form, go to a special counter to be photographed, wait their mail to return it with our us phone number, then they call us to get an appointment. Easy but long, it takes more than a month :/
We try to go back to the bank because we have to pay our rent: banks are all closed :D
We go to Bellevue square to eat (it's 15:00 and we are starving!) and to buy our SIM card (and maybe phones). We go to T-mobile, the advisor receives us very warmly and tells us that they have offers for H1B visa. So he tells us their rates, we tell him that we want 2 Nexus 5. He tells us that it's cheaper on the google store, but they have then if we want to. For the text message to France, he advices us to use hangout instead. it's a pleasure to have such advisor ! He makes all the papers that we don't have to come back, gives us our card and says that the activation will be ok tomorrow.
We walk quickly to our apartment, because Jesus waits to connect us to internet, yes his real name is Jesus. In 5 minutes, it's ok, we are online, life can go on!
I discover little american pleasures: the distributor of ice of the fridge, having a laundry room with a huge washing machine and a dryer!
Administrative day in perspective!
Open a bank account at Becu was our main goal. At the bank, we write our name on the list in the waiting area, the advisors know who is next and it's very good! After waiting 30 minutes with a lot of apologies, the advisor tells us that without an ID card or a SSN, it's impossible. Because this bank was strongly recommended and because we need ID card, we walk one hour to the driver licensing office.
It's more organized than the French office: you have a numbre, there are a lot of counters, but it's very simple, you have a big room with all the counters and in the middle you have plenty chairs and there are screens to know the last numbers called.
After less than 10 minutes, my number is called. The employee told me that it's weird that the bank reject the visa and that I have to see another banks, then she explains all the papers I have to do to have an ID card : fill a form, go to a special counter to be photographed, wait their mail to return it with our us phone number, then they call us to get an appointment. Easy but long, it takes more than a month :/
We try to go back to the bank because we have to pay our rent: banks are all closed :D
We go to Bellevue square to eat (it's 15:00 and we are starving!) and to buy our SIM card (and maybe phones). We go to T-mobile, the advisor receives us very warmly and tells us that they have offers for H1B visa. So he tells us their rates, we tell him that we want 2 Nexus 5. He tells us that it's cheaper on the google store, but they have then if we want to. For the text message to France, he advices us to use hangout instead. it's a pleasure to have such advisor ! He makes all the papers that we don't have to come back, gives us our card and says that the activation will be ok tomorrow.
We walk quickly to our apartment, because Jesus waits to connect us to internet, yes his real name is Jesus. In 5 minutes, it's ok, we are online, life can go on!
I discover little american pleasures: the distributor of ice of the fridge, having a laundry room with a huge washing machine and a dryer!
Friday, November 29, 2013
#12 - The trip
November, Friday the 29th 2013.
6:00 : We wake up, we finish our luggages.
7:10 : My father and my stepmother arrive to drive us to the train station (thanks them !), beacause we have a few baggages: 2 big luggages, 1 small luggage, 2 backpacks with our computers and above all the 2 cats !
8:36 : Our train leaves and we nearly don't cry (thanks Anthony and Gus for coming to see us !) Charles de Gaulle airport : here we go !
9:40 : Arrival at the airport where we could test the special carts "you-can't-carry-all-of-your-luggage". Results : the airport is not design for these :D Event if the carts are available nearly train doors (available = abandoned), there is just one elevator on the dock. On the first floor, we discover than we have to go a different teminal and for that we have to take the automatic shuttle which is really brutal, trap your luggage to avoid a fall! And we learn that the path to the shuttle is forbidden to the special carts \o/ After the shuttle, we find another special cart (put in order this one \o/), we suffer the strike (french speciality I think) during almost 30 min (people yelling and speaking in a megaphone "we are motivated" "we all burning down" ... delightful with our cats, thanks !) When Icelandair's staff arrive, Tyn ask them how to do with cats : we have to register (desposit the luggages, take our boarding pass), go to a special counter to pay (100€ per cat) and leave thecats to the "special luggages" counter. The icelandair staff comme to take us to a vip counter, because we wera at the end of the queue. Before leaving the cats, we gave them some sedative (thank you Marie for the material, it worked well) Recipe: smash the sedatives, put the powder in a pipette, add some water and squeeze, and in the cat's mouth. Material: sedative, fork + cat bowl to smash, pipette, spoon to pur the powder int the pipette, water.
After that, we watch them leaving with the staff ... really hard moment, as you can imagine!
13:20 : Take off of the plane to Reykjavik. We watched "The incredicble Burt Wonderstone", it was fun, then Tyn fell asleep while I played to the 3DS \o/
17:20 (Reykjavik time, so 18:20 in France): Take off to Seattle. We watched "Oblivion" and we regreted it ... very much, so Tyn choose to sleep to not suffer again from my movie choice, so I watched "Run fatboy Run" it was fun, then I watched "The great Gatsby" and I regreted it.
16:30 (Seattle time, so 1:30 in france): Landing in Seattle, luggages and cats recovery. I was told to not be frightened if the cats were still asleep... I haven't had the time to worry, both of them arrived, seating in their carrier and very happy to see us! So we left with our driver (thank you ArenaNet!) to our apartment \o/ Warning: Icelandair does not give free meal aboard, so keep your credit card near you or get food before ;-)
17:30 : Discovery of our apartment ... 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a laundry room and some huge closets (pics are available here).
18:00 : We go to the store to buy some food and for the cats ;-) We bought the classic bottle (3L) and some ready-to-use litter : you havo to take off the paper and the litter box is ready, really usefull to avoid to carry the big loud package at home!
19:30 : Setup of the cat space in the smallest bathroom, Choco is really awake, Bash is still a little bit sleepy but they eat so everything is ok!
21:30 : Meal : hawaiian pizza cooked in the oven which is almost twice the size of our french oven.
23:30 : Sleeping time and the end of this really long day of 31 hours \o/ Even if we were tired, at 3:00 we woke up ... but we slept to stop the jet lag effect, because someone has to go to work on Monday ;-)
6:00 : We wake up, we finish our luggages.
7:10 : My father and my stepmother arrive to drive us to the train station (thanks them !), beacause we have a few baggages: 2 big luggages, 1 small luggage, 2 backpacks with our computers and above all the 2 cats !
8:36 : Our train leaves and we nearly don't cry (thanks Anthony and Gus for coming to see us !) Charles de Gaulle airport : here we go !
9:40 : Arrival at the airport where we could test the special carts "you-can't-carry-all-of-your-luggage". Results : the airport is not design for these :D Event if the carts are available nearly train doors (available = abandoned), there is just one elevator on the dock. On the first floor, we discover than we have to go a different teminal and for that we have to take the automatic shuttle which is really brutal, trap your luggage to avoid a fall! And we learn that the path to the shuttle is forbidden to the special carts \o/ After the shuttle, we find another special cart (put in order this one \o/), we suffer the strike (french speciality I think) during almost 30 min (people yelling and speaking in a megaphone "we are motivated" "we all burning down" ... delightful with our cats, thanks !) When Icelandair's staff arrive, Tyn ask them how to do with cats : we have to register (desposit the luggages, take our boarding pass), go to a special counter to pay (100€ per cat) and leave thecats to the "special luggages" counter. The icelandair staff comme to take us to a vip counter, because we wera at the end of the queue. Before leaving the cats, we gave them some sedative (thank you Marie for the material, it worked well) Recipe: smash the sedatives, put the powder in a pipette, add some water and squeeze, and in the cat's mouth. Material: sedative, fork + cat bowl to smash, pipette, spoon to pur the powder int the pipette, water.
After that, we watch them leaving with the staff ... really hard moment, as you can imagine!
13:20 : Take off of the plane to Reykjavik. We watched "The incredicble Burt Wonderstone", it was fun, then Tyn fell asleep while I played to the 3DS \o/
17:20 (Reykjavik time, so 18:20 in France): Take off to Seattle. We watched "Oblivion" and we regreted it ... very much, so Tyn choose to sleep to not suffer again from my movie choice, so I watched "Run fatboy Run" it was fun, then I watched "The great Gatsby" and I regreted it.
16:30 (Seattle time, so 1:30 in france): Landing in Seattle, luggages and cats recovery. I was told to not be frightened if the cats were still asleep... I haven't had the time to worry, both of them arrived, seating in their carrier and very happy to see us! So we left with our driver (thank you ArenaNet!) to our apartment \o/ Warning: Icelandair does not give free meal aboard, so keep your credit card near you or get food before ;-)
17:30 : Discovery of our apartment ... 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a laundry room and some huge closets (pics are available here).
18:00 : We go to the store to buy some food and for the cats ;-) We bought the classic bottle (3L) and some ready-to-use litter : you havo to take off the paper and the litter box is ready, really usefull to avoid to carry the big loud package at home!
19:30 : Setup of the cat space in the smallest bathroom, Choco is really awake, Bash is still a little bit sleepy but they eat so everything is ok!
21:30 : Meal : hawaiian pizza cooked in the oven which is almost twice the size of our french oven.
23:30 : Sleeping time and the end of this really long day of 31 hours \o/ Even if we were tired, at 3:00 we woke up ... but we slept to stop the jet lag effect, because someone has to go to work on Monday ;-)
Thursday, November 28, 2013
#11 - The relocation
We choose to move with just the essentials, so we sold all our stuff (apartment, couchs, TV, tables, car) and we took all we need (clothes, books, computers, cat and cats' toys). One part goes to Seattle by a container on a boat (we signed with moving home compagny so we let you know if it was a good or a bad idea), the other part comes with us, yes the 2 cats too: Choco and Bash ;-)
This is their carriers after the "Pimp my carrier really quick befor moving" effect.
The apartment is almost empty (just one bed left !), it's almost cleaned. Everything is going to be good for our last day as French residents ;-)
Tomorrow, we'll wake up early, the train to Paris leaves at 8:36 and the flight lands at 13:20 (we need to be 3 hours before the landing for the cats) and we arrive in Seattle near 16:30, local time.
I have some cleaning to do ;-)
This is their carriers after the "Pimp my carrier really quick befor moving" effect.
 |
| Front : Choco's on the left, Bash's on the right |
 |
| Back : Choco's on the left, Bash's on the right |
Tomorrow, we'll wake up early, the train to Paris leaves at 8:36 and the flight lands at 13:20 (we need to be 3 hours before the landing for the cats) and we arrive in Seattle near 16:30, local time.
I have some cleaning to do ;-)
Monday, November 11, 2013
#10 - It's coming closer!
We have both the date for our final work day before moving: the 22nd of November.
Then, we'll go to Switzerland to see Tyn's family.
And on the 29th of November, we'll leave France with Choco and Bash. \o/
I would also like to take this opportunity to show you this excellent newspaper article done by an awesome journalist! (Sorry it's only in French, but the resume is that Tyn rocks!)
I am really proud of my King (I promise that one day we will take a picture like the Lion King if we have a child, or if Choco or Bash accept to do it ;-))
In France, our apartment is sold and is becoming more and more empty. Our housing, for the first three months in Bellevue has been found: Metro 112, 317 112th Avenue NE, Bellevue, WA 98004.
It's really near the city center of Bellevue (I can easily go shopping) and near a bus station (Tyn can easily go to work). :D
Then, we'll go to Switzerland to see Tyn's family.
And on the 29th of November, we'll leave France with Choco and Bash. \o/
I would also like to take this opportunity to show you this excellent newspaper article done by an awesome journalist! (Sorry it's only in French, but the resume is that Tyn rocks!)
I am really proud of my King (I promise that one day we will take a picture like the Lion King if we have a child, or if Choco or Bash accept to do it ;-))
In France, our apartment is sold and is becoming more and more empty. Our housing, for the first three months in Bellevue has been found: Metro 112, 317 112th Avenue NE, Bellevue, WA 98004.
It's really near the city center of Bellevue (I can easily go shopping) and near a bus station (Tyn can easily go to work). :D
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)