Small Treasures

So, six weeks without a post might imply that my life has been a whirlwind of excitement, too great to pause and record in a blog!

Or, it may just mean that my internet went down for three weeks, and that France Telecom could use a little work on its customer service...

I will simply lay out the facts and let you judge which of the above explanations is the primary reason for my tardiness in updates!

The newness of heading to the large Michelin complex at "Site des Carmes" has now nestled into what is a familiar routine. I head out of my little studio around 8 in the morning, and mutter the new spanish phrases I'm learning thanks to the audio lessons on my ipod as I walk past fragrant pastry-shops and bakeries, over the tram line, down some stairs and up to my office on the 4th floor of my building.

Once inside, my days have evolved from the initial weeks of collecting expatriate and then international mobility coordinator stories, to now identifying the themes and designing an internal communication platform that will attempt to improve some of the challenges that were often repeated in my interviews.

As of this morning, we had the opening page of the new intranet site fully functional - and seven full weeks are left to finish developing the whole platform! At times its overwhelming, and a little lonely, to make sense of the loads of incomplete information that I have. When the pieces start falling together, however, the work becomes quite exciting

Outside of this 8:30-5:30 world, there have been many small treasures that have enriched my days. Earlier, before the rains came, Evelyn (who's one of three other IMBA students still in Clermont) and I took to hiking in the hills around Clermont on the weekends.

Then, France somehow managed so slip back into about a month of winter, with cold, rainy days for weeks and weeks. Fortunately, a surprise opportunity to stay in a beautiful chateau/monastary outside of Paris for an International Mobility conference was able to bring some light into this time - and gourmet meals cooked up in Evelyn's kitchen, concerts and a medival festival tended to warm up the rest of that stretch.

The internet did go down for three weeks too, which led to some interesting afternoons catching up on emails and Skyping with my parents and Javier from the McDonald's wifi zone, which is always a hub of Clermont's finest characters...

What lies ahead? Summer, it seems! While it's not a "true" summer break, the heat has come rolling in, and right behind it, my friend Emily arrived to spend part of her European tour in my corner of the continent. And she's getting me out - Paris last weekend, Dijon and Avignon the next two - it really is beginning to feel like a true European summer adventure!