To ship or not to ship?

This one little question is driving me crazy. Shipping my stuff to Pittsburgh saves us a heap of money in furnishing our new apartment. We'd have a bed, couch, all the kitchen gadgets, plates, forks, and knives we could ever want, not to mention all the little touches of home. The price to ship the stuff isn't too bad, especially compared to renting a uhaul and truckin it' cross country...but not shipping and just buying the basics (a bed, mostly, and maybe some plates) until we have some more money gives us cash to get cars right away. I'm so worried about finding a decent car loan and would much rather prefer to buy an old used car than some overpriced new thing thats just going to go all rusty and salty from the pittsburgh freeways anyways! Why does money have to be so complicated?

work work work

I am still uncertain about what i am going to do for work and especially after this project in Minneapolis that ends in one month. I have couple of plans that i wish they will work but i am still not sure...
I should meet my superior this weekend for a coffee-beer-wine to talk about my training/networking plan. When i first signed my contract (almost one year ago), we defined a pretty great training plan. But you know one year is pretty far and i don't know if it is still what they think.
Anyway, i write down some ideas, goals and actually am pretty happy with what i did and how i conceive my career path. I just hope that my supervisor will accept it.
We will see this weekend if we could make it...

Comme à tout commencement d'un nouveau travail, il y a beaucoup de questionnement sur ce que je vais pouvoir faire et où est ce que je vais aller. J'ai rendez vous avec mon supérieur ce week-end (meeting informel je vous rassure...) pour discuter du plan de formation. Il y a un de cela, nous avons défini quelquechose mais le temps est passé et peut-être les choses ont changé. Enfin j'ai peaufiné ce que je veux faire en formation et pour une fois, je suis satisfais de la tournure que ca prends... Il faut cependant que je le fasse valider. Je serais plus informé ce week-end si nous pouvons nous voir...

Petit bout de chemin

Sorry for non-french speakers but i need to balance the French-English language...

Voilà presque deux semaines que j'ai mis les pieds sur le sol américain avec quelques mouvements déjà. L'arrivée s'est plutôt bien déroulée malgré les contrôles de sécurité renforcés et la (ré)adaptation à l'univers États-uniens. Comme à mes débuts il y a presque deux ans, j'ai (encore) éprouvé des difficultés face à la nourriture beaucoup trop grasse et aux multiples problèmes de communication. C'est un peu comme si votre geste le plus simple (aller faire ses courses) devenait un vrai calvaire. Alors imaginé pour trouver un appartement, acheter une voiture...
Néanmoins je viens de recevoir l'appel de mon futur proprio pour l'appartement. Nous emmenageons dans un F5 mi-février! L'appartement est sûrement sur-dimensioné pour nous besoin mais c'est le seul que j'ai trouvé convenable à un prix dans notre budget. Nous allons donc avoir 3 chambres, une salle à manger, un salon et en plus de cela un grand balcom avec le barbecue déjà en place. L'avantage du quartier et ce pourquoi je l'ai choisi est que tous est accessible à pied (très important pour un Européen...): restaurants, bars, supermarché, librairie, banque, cinéma... Au final je pense que c'est un bon choix!
Côté boulot, j'ai commencé dès mon arrivée et une semaine après j'étais envoyé à Minneapolis pour la semaine et cela jusqu'en Mars... Je n'ai pas vraiment trouvé le temps de visité la ville et je dois avouer que les -20 degrés avec vent glacial ne me motive pas trop. Plus qu'un jour et je serais de retour pour le week-end à Pittsburgh histoire de faire des papiers, signer le bail et plus si affinités... Je vais quand même réussir à caler une soirée, enfin on verra!

We got the apartment!

Hooray! We just heard from our new landlord that we were approved for the cutest freaking apartment in the whole wide world. We're so excited about this...I know I am, anyways. The place has hardwood floors, built ins, a fireplace, a huge dining room and THREE bedrooms! That means you all can visit us whenever you feel like escaping :) Here's some photos the current tenant sent us of the place...consider these the 'before' pictures...we'll post 'after' photos later! I want to paint the kitchen cupboards but I love the funky avocado stove. Word is we'll have a big pantry and a creepy basement too! My favorite part though is the front porch, complete with a porch swing and barbecue, and french doors that we can open up in the summer for some fresh air. The house is in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, which is a really cutesy neighborhood. I think Mr. Rogers used to live there, too (seriously).

Weee!

Apartments and Cars and Deposits, Oh My!

Moving to a new city is hard. Especially when you have to arrange stuff before you even get there. Some of the stuff on our to-do list is pretty obvious...find a place to live, find a mode of transportation, figure out where all the necessities are (i.e. grocery stores, libraries, beer distributors, etc.), finding a good doctor and dentist...blah blah blah. I can't really speak for Yannis, but its a little overwhelming sometimes! There's this sense of excitement for something new and of course that we'll actually be in the same city for once, but all these little details that I've never really had to deal with are suddenly coming on all at once! Its all really exciting though, and as much as I'm going to miss the West coast (goodbye, sun. see you in August), I'm really looking forward to exploring Pittsburgh. We think we found an apartment, just crossing our fingers and toes that we are approved (more on that later), and I've gotten some pretty great leads on nanny jobs, including one in particular that I'm really excited about, but don't want to talk about for fear of jinxing everything. I'm also coming off of my recent trip to Europe and kinda miss the place. More on that later, too...with pics. I swear mom, they'll be up soon.

Welcome!

Hey, welcome to our blog!

This is just a little something we put together to keep friends, family, and whatever strangers happen to come across us here updated on our lives. "Meet Me Au Milieu is Franglish for "meet me halfway", which is pretty apt for our situation. The steel city might not be exactly halfway between California and France, but its pretty darn close! We're hoping to use this blog as a place where we can keep in touch with people from home and share with them all the new stuff we're getting into in Pittsburgh.