Just a Theory

Trans rights are human rights

À Rouen

At the Church of St. Ouen

We arrived à Rouen just over a week ago. This is our second extended visit, a house exchange with a lovely French couple who’s daughter lives in Portland. We loved our six-week visit in 2008, and were excited to do it again, this time in summer. We will be here another six weeks.

In 2008, I was still an independent consultant. I did a bit of work for Etsy during our visit, but for the most part did not work. For this visit, I’m grateful to my employer, iovation, for putting up with my absence and allowing me to work remotely. So far it is working quite well, I think, especially since most of my time is going into Sqitch, an open-source project.

Domination and Control

So I spend my mornings with my family, walking around Rouen, or teaching Anna Scratch, and my afternoons and evenings most days working. And because we’re here, we can travel around Europe, too. This weekend we go to Bruges. Never been there, but look forward to learning more about it!

Summer is a nice time to be here. We see many more people, and like Portland, people seem happy to see each other on sunny days after a long, wet winter. (Also like Portland, it rains a lot in June.) We’ve also shifted Ms 7’s schedule so that she can be up late with all the other kids.

A few other items of interest:

  • Julie is blogging our trip on her blog. Read it if you like travel and good writing. Her slice of life stuff is much better than mine. :–)

  • Anna now has her own blog, too. Check regularly for her photos.

  • Cidre

    Man oh man is the cider good here. Along with Calvados, it is the regional drink of choice. Even the cheap grocery store stuff is amazing. It’s especially good for lunch!

  • I’m mostly taking pictures with Instagram; see my Tubmblog to follow along. I will also get out my DSLR some, though so fare I haven’t.

  • I asked via Twitter and via Facebook: “Pop quiz: How many  devices does a family of three (parents, 7yo daughter) take for a 7 week house exchange in France? #”. I know many of you are waiting on the answer, so here it is: 7:

    • 2 iPhones
    • 2 iPads
    • 2 MacBook Airs
    • 1 TV

    (Although Darth thinks we should have brought an iMac in the kid’s backpack, it did not seem practical). The TV was a last-minute purchase, because I knew ahead of time that the house had an HDMI projector and optical-ready surround-sound system, so it seemed the best way to keep up with our shows. Haven’t used it much, yet. Everyone is reading on the iPads, though; Ms 7 has a very expensive reading habit!

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