There's really no place like Home

After over 10 non-stop months (10 months and 6 days if you want to be exact) in France, I am finally back home in the States. But first, let me bring you all up to speed on my previous issue.

So I more or less got my issue with that horrible landlord fixed. After filling out a main courante, my teacher was kind enough to go with me when I went to try and reclaim my deposit check. I hadn’t mentioned to Laurène (the ex-landlord) that I was bringing anyone with me, so as soon as she saw my teacher, (after being late to meet me) her expression instantly changed and she immediately just said that she would go and retrieve my check. Not gonna lie, it wasn’t exactly what I was envisioned. After the way that she had treated Alejandro and I, I had begun to imagine her seeing my bringing an actual French adult as a challenge, which would then have resulted in an exchange of verbal assaults. That didn’t happen, but it had at least been comforting to know that my teacher—as funny and good-natured as she was towards us students-seemed like the kind of typical French citizen that when provoked, was ready to defend herself in a heated argument.

Nope, she just went in, came back with the check and then I gave her the 60 euros she had requested for ‘damages’. I could understand replacing the stained hand towels (I’m gonna take a moment here to be selfish and say that that, was not my doing) but a few hand towels at Monoprix don’t cost 60 euros. She claimed damage to one of the chairs and her wooden mirror, but what she showed me was so minimal it was ludicrous. I was tempted not to give her the 60, but it was what was put in the main courante at the police station for exchange of the check, and my teacher was there, so didn’t want to be seen as that (read: like Laurene) kind of person. So I gave her the 60, but I got my check back, and that’s what counts. I was so relieved, I briefly remember wondering if my knees were going to give out under me.

Afterwards, I profusely thanked my teacher for going out of her way to come with me; I really couldn’t have imagined a teacher being so helpful in that way.

So there’s that, which was last Friday. The days following were mainly filled with packing, cooking/baking for Théo and Guillaume, while coming to the realization that with all the hassle from moving out of Laurène’s apartment, I was ready to leave Paris. The city itself if great, but I was tired of the glacial attitude of the Parisians, and the crummy, rainy weather. Tired of the smell, both on and under the streets in the metro, tired of how expensive transportation and food was, and how long it had suddenly seemed to get anywhere. And not only that, but as I'd been staying at Théo's since leaving that cursed apartment, I'd begun to feel like a burden, especially since Theo was Guillaume were in the middle of their difficult final exams. Unfortunately, our combined stress-his over his studies and mine over my landlord problems-was putting a strain on our relationship. Though when it came down to it, I think a big part of it was that I was so close to leaving.

And then came my final full day in Paris. I got up early, went on a run (something I'd managed to get back into and continued even after moving to Théo's), came back and showered, ate something light, then hit the city one last time with Theo. Stopped by briefly at ISA to say my good-byes, and then basically just wandered around Saint Michel and Île de la Cité. The sun had come out for a bit, and we'd decided to grab a bottle and sit along the Seine, but as we came out of the Monoprix just of Boulevard Saint Germain, the return of a cloudy sky threatened rain, and we switched to just heading back. I made a great asian chicken dinner and prepared both banana/berry and chocolate chip/Bailey's muffins, all of which we enjoyed with a bottle of our favorite hard cider and with The Godfather movie. (Now I can say I've finally seen it!)

Well, up to the end of the movie, we were ok; had succeeded in not dwelling on my impending departure the next morning. But as soon as I got up to clear the dishes, the air quickly became weighed down with a palpable depression. It was rough, but we knew it had been coming. In the end though, we tried and succeeded to reflect instead on the good times we'd had together over the past 10 months. Sleep that night was peaceful.

Morning came at 5:45. Got up, showered, had a quick coffee and we were out the door with my luggage. Took the RER B up to the airport, and before I knew it, it was time to leave. I remember thinking how for the past 2 weeks I'd wanted nothing more than to just go home, to my safe (if crazy) and secure (if not stable) home. And then suddenly, if not terribly surprising, I was having ridiculous half thoughts about just forgoing the plane and staying. But then Théo, bless his heart, began to list off all the great things that were waiting for me at home (a list I'd actually like to post next) and that cheered me up considerably. At least, through my tear-stained face, I was able to give a semblance of a smile and a small wave as I got on the escalator that took me away from him.

Went through security (where they took the rilettes I'd bought as gifts the day before, grrrr) and then boarded the plane a mere 10 minutes later. Was in Frankfurt about an hour or after that.

The trip as a whole was pretty uneventful, though I have to point out that my layover in Frankfurt was rather unpleasant. When I turned to the corner heading to my terminal, my nose was instantly assaulted with a foul sewer smell. Gross. And then they made me pay for my extra suitcase, which I'm not gonna lie, I'd expected to pay in Paris and was then happy when I hadn't. So it wasn't exactly the whole paying part that bothered me so much as the fact that the lady I got was wholly incompetent and had to charge my card twice because she hadn't charged me enough the first time. I got one of the aisle seats in the middle, so sleep came in sparse and never satisfying 15 minute intervals. Plus it never got dark outside, which didn't help.

Arrived in Seattle, but customs took a good 45 minutes. But getting to see Papa after that brought me right back to my childhood, and I had to force myself not to cry. (I think he did too..) Was able to retrieve my luggage fairly quickly and were out of there.
True to his word, and even though I was still pretty tired, I got my promised welcome home dinner of Sam's Sushi. Fish has never tasted so fresh to me in my life.

After that, went back to Papa's where I stayed the night. Decided that I would see Mom and Jen (and Luna, of course!) the next day.
Well, that was my arrival..still more to catch up from these last couple days, but I'll get to that soon.

It's good to be home, Seattle.

More love than ever,

Rachael

A sigh of relief

Miracle of miracles! Got my deposit back on Tuesday night, after weeks of believing I might never actually see it again. I had to pester my old landlord again and again just to come to Paris, but she finally did--though she only let me know the day after she arrived and had already gone into the apartment and showed it to a bunch of other people. (The poor souls, they have no idea what they have in store for them...) It was my long day, and then I had babysitting afterwards, but as soon as I got the text that I could come by later that night, my heart rate keep up a galloping pace for the rest of the day. I ended up getting off from babysitting a bit later than usual, so I was rushing a bit, but I brought Alejandro with me in case she turned out to be crazier than I thought she was and pulled a knife on me or something. (Ah, the things paranoia with conjure...) That, and she also wanted me to pick up the carpet I'd 'forgotten' (read: purposely left behind in the hopes she would get rid of it for me) and some sheets, which aren't mine or Alejandro's...maybe ISA's?

So I got there kind of in a rush, but had Alejandro stay out of sight on the stairs so as to not make her more paranoid than she already was.

Pretending to be nice to her...was weird. In my mind, I'd composed again and again my 'goodbye and good riddance, paranoid bitch' speech, but had kind of been half ignoring the fact that I wasn't going to do that until I had my check safely in hand.

Well, the first few minutes were just her giving me my stuff, and basically going over things that I could have done better before leaving.

Finally, as I picked up the carpet, I couldn't take the whole dancing around the bush thing any longer and just asked her if I was going to get my deposit back. The pause as she looked unsure was probably one of the slowest of my life. But finally, she slowly--ever so slowly--said yes. Now I can assure you I didn't collapse into a puddle like I wanted to, but I can't say that the relief wasn't plain on my face as I remember letting out a relief-laden 'thank you'. Not that she deserved it, but hey, fake niceties, remember? And it's not like I had the check in hand yet, either.

Speaking of which. As we're about to exchange the keys for the check and she's extending the check towards me, she recoiled and said 'Maybe you should hand over the keys first.' Ha! The witch. I'm pretty sure I let out a half exaspererated laugh, but remember thinking, hey, I can always call the police if she decides to get coy about handing over her share. That, or as I outmatch her in height and strength, I could've just knocked her lights out and taken my check...kidding!

I handed her the keys, and the next seconds? The second longest in my life. But then the next thing I knew she was extending out her hand again and this time I was taking it.

And then, after a few more half-assed pleasantries, I was out of there with my carpet and junk and down the stairs with Alejandro, heading towards the nearest BNP to immediately deposit the check.

Now here's the funny part: so on the way, Alejandro told me a little story about how he'd once received a fake check. (Thanks for the extra paranoia Alejandro..)

Well we get to the first BNP a few blocks away and it's closed. Annoyance. I decide to play it safe, as it was getting late, and so instead of trying to guess at which one may have one as well, we just headed to one I know for sure was still open, about 15 minutes away. We get there, it's still open, and I proceed to deposit my check.

And it doesn't take it.

It didn't take it!

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.....the first time.

In the few seconds it took me to decide to try putting the check in another way, I was already planning my frantic return to the apartment, hoping Alice hadn't already skipped town, or something like that.

But then it took it, and it was in.

I'd almost had a heart attack, but in retrospect, I think my reaction was kinda funny. Alejandro certainly thought so..

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Anyways, I now have money again! And while it's tempting to go splurge, I've since only since used what I got back on paying my phone bill, and food. As soon as I saw the check go in, I decided to treat ourselves to a little celebratory sushi dinner next to our apartment, so that was nice. I think it's better if I save my money for now and at least wait until I get my last financial aid fisbursement at the end of this month.

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Hup! Well I'm glad I got that taken care of before my first French test of the semester on Thursday. Think I did, ok, but we'll see on Monday..

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Cheers!

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Rachael

Happy Thursday

Been in the new apartment for just over a week now, and everytime I climb the flights of stairs to the top, I'm surprised yet again by how quick and not out of breath I am. I suppose going from a 5-story to a 3-story building will do that to you.

Anyways, it's nice not to basically see this anymore when I look up:

Also, been having this stomach thing lately..not sure what it is, and though it's not major I imagine, it's annoying and want it to go awayyyy.

Oh well, at least it's my weekend now (aside from babysitting tomorrow) though I should/kinda hope I'll be spending most of it studying and doing the large amounts of homework I suddenly accumulated.

Happy Thursday,

Rachael

To have a roommate again

Hey guys,

It's been a little while, but it was time to update a bit.
So I'm now all moved into the new apartment with my new roommate, Alejandro. To be honest, it was a very stressful week, and not just because of moving stuff, but it's done and these last few days have been much better, if not perfect.
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But a little about the moving part: So I had to have all my stuff out by midnight on the 29th (as per the request of my crazy/paranoid/rude/bizarre landlord. And being the poor students that we are, we just put what we could in our suitcases and bags and lugged those from one apartment to the other..making about 5 trips. We no doubtedly looked ridiculous all laden down like we were on the metro, but whatevs, it was much cheaper than renting a moving truck or whatnot.
Unlike my last apartment, which is kept solely for the purpose of being rented out, this new one is normally lived in by our landlord. She's renting it out to us for the next three months while she's on a trip through southeast Asia. There's pros and cons to this:
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Pros:
-She has just about all the home supplies we could want
-More home-y feel
-Because it's actually lived, it's been updated over the years (fairly new floors, tile, walls)
-Her CD collection, half of which I'm going to rip onto my computer
-Recipe book collection, some of which are exotique
-Wifi
-Has a semi-big tv
-Washer
-The shower has a shower head holder!
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Cons:
-Even with all the home supplies, she doesn't have a coffee maker or spaghetti strainer (apparently not a coffee drinker, which is verrry rare in Paris)
-The more home-y feel is due in part to all of her stuff that she left behind, which hasn't left a lot of room for ours..
-The apartment gets steamy really easily for some reason, even when the heater is off
-No couch, and
-She has a pretty large table for the living room, but as we're only two and that's also where Alejandro sleeps, it's kind of annoying
-Wifi sucks half the time (shares with a neighbor and the modem isn't in her place)
-The tv has no cable and only a VHS player=useless/takes up more room
-I'd almost prefer a dryer (=jeans that don't sag easily)
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I'm going to be perfectly honest now about the whole having a roommate again: I definitely miss my alone time. I suppose I've always been more of a independent person who can deal with solidarity well and enjoyed cleaness, plus doing what I want, when I wanted it. Alejandro is no longer in school here and is instead looking for an intership or job, which means that so far, I have yet to be in the apartment all by myself because he's always here.
But having a roommate again is kinda nice, too. I hadn't realized that I'd begun to really miss daily interaction with a fellow American--not to mention fellow Washingtonian, as Alejandro is from Spokane-- (something I hadn't had as often last semester). And we have similar interests, big one being Hispanic food (he's also Cuban, which isn't Mexican, but close enough). He may not be as neat or cook and clean as well as I can, but I think I just need to keep being insistent/persistent. (He's already gotten better on a few things.) As for the alone time, he told me just earlier that he has a job interview lined up, so hopefully that will give him something to do. Also, it's just been nice having someone to sit down and have dinner with every night.
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Now, just gotta hope my old landlord gives me my deposit back and/or doesn't take money out from it. She'd orginally said she come back at the end of February, but I guess she couldn't be bothered, so now it's either the 11th or 15th of March. Only about another week or so to go..


Wish me luck!


Rachael

Disappoint?

Wednesday, I started my third class, written French without having too much trouble finding the classroom. Y'know, which is always good. I'd had a pretty awesome day beforehand, despite having woken up a little later than planned for our last trip to the new apartment before moving in. I caught the right RER B train just in time, made my connection with almost no waiting, and was able to meet Alejandro and walk to the apartment a couple minutes early. Once we'd settled business less than 10 minutes later, we made the relatively short trip up to my school's quartier and wandered around looking at leather bags and glasses before getting hungry.

But here's the best part. We ended up coming up from the metro from the wrong exit, making us walk a couple blocks to where we wanted to go, but on the way we caught site of a place that said it was a Mexican restaurant. We were a bit skeptical, but decided to check it out anyways. (I like to think that it was in this moment that the nostalgic culinary gods took pride in my faith of good Mexican food. )The place was authenticly Mexican-looking (none of that Tex-Mex feel!) though not overly done and with good taste. The music playing, while I couldn't exactly name the singer, it was definitely one of the CD's Mom listens to a lot at home. We ordered from the lunch menu, which gave us a pretty good deal: entree and main dish for 13 euros. Alejandro and I decided to each order something different so we could try a little of everything. Me: sopa de tortillas for the entree and 3 tacos (1 chorizo, 1 carne asada, 1 of carnitas) plus rice and beans. For entree, Alejandro got a tostado de tinga, and for the dish, burrito de piccadillo. When we got our plates, we were a tiny bit disappointed to see that the portions were significantly smaller than what we'd received back home, but then again--this is France. Huge portions are kind of a no-no here. But while the taste wasn't exactly like what we were used to from home, it was close. Maybe as close to it as we were gonna get. Or maybe not?

Well, we went back last night to try the dinner menu. As we'd enjoyed our lunch there fairly well, we were once again pretty excited. Unfortunately, after looking over the menu, we saw that they didn't have much else in addition to what we'd already had for lunch a couple days before. And it was expensive. Each main dish was at least 17 euros, and each entree was at least 8. After thinking of a way to get the best deal we decided to each get our own main dish and split an entree. Three quesadillas for the entree and carne asada plus a chicken taquito with mole poblano. As for myself, I ordered the dish of chicken mole poblano. The entree, while not bad, was a bit of a disappointment, mainly for the price. First, they were more empanadas than actual quesadillas, and they were small. Didn't think they were worth the 8 euros..At this point, I was beginning to get a little skeptical on how my mole poblano would taste. After all, mole is the specialty of Papa's hometown, and I've had some of the best. So when I got my plate and found that the mole tasted almost exactly as I remembered it, I was pleasantly surprised and pleased. And there were corn tortillas, which again, while not exactly the same, were close, so definitely used those to clean my plate. Alejandro however, didn't like the mole (sad for him) but then I just ended up getting his taquito. We got our bill, and cringed a bit. A total of 47 euros. I felt a little bad as ok, yeah it wasn't horrible for me, but it wasn't worth that much, especially when one of us hadn't enjoyed it. In the end, We skipped dessert there and went to the McDonald's a couple blocks away. I got a brownie ice cream thing (really good) and Alejandro ended up getting like an entire meal. All in all, I think we've decided not to go back for the time being and instead have kind of made it our mission to scope out other good Mexican and/or Cuban restaurants that aren't overpriced. But hey, at least if we get desperate again, we know this one is there.

This is a pretty good place to be

Last night I needed to write down that I'd finally found a new place to move to. But yesterday was also my first day of second semester, and I didn't really go that much into how that went, so I'm going to take the time to do that now.

You see, it's funny how things happen. Last month, I would've told you that despite being here for about 6 months already, I unfortunately wasn't close to being fluent like many people (including me) thought I would become. Now before you jump ahead, I'm going to say that I am still very far from being considered fluent, but I'm closer. Definite, solidly, closer. Over this past break, I'd started to realize that not only was I now being to understand everything that was being said on the streets, but I was finally being able to comprehend almost all of what my French friends spoke about, which--let me tell you--has always been much more difficult than understanding my teacher who used proper French and pronounced it well.

That isn't even the best part though. I went to class yesterday a tiny bit nervous because, despite my intentions, I hadn't really reviewed on my break. After the surprise at finding out that my teacher is actually a woman, (ok, yes, I should have noticed that the first name ended in -nne, indicating a girl's name, but would you imagine a lady with a name like Fabienne?) my nerves were eased when I remembered that first days almost never start out with actual work. My hunch was confirmed when my teacher announced that we would start off by participating in a type of speed dating-like activity to get to know each other a bit.

Here is what I learned in the first 10 min:

-Unlike my last general French class, at least half the students are American,

-Where my last class had people from 18-60 years old, here, the only people older than 21 were 23, 26, and 32.

-No priests/nuns-in-training, (not that that was a terrible thing or anything, but now it feels more like a real class),

-There were only a couple of us from last semester, everyone else was fresh from their respective country,

-Therefore, said fresh people's speaking and comprehension abilities were sub-par to say the least, which,

-MADE ME FEEL LIKE A FREAKIN' PRO.

Ok, so I felt a little sorry for them as they stumbled and struggled, often asking me to kindly répéter s'il te plaît, as I spouted out my French confidently and with ease. Of course, I remember being in their spot when I first arrived. But I'd be lying if I said that it didn't make me feel just a little bit (read:really) good.

Yeah, I saw many faces like this one yesterday..the poor things.

It made me glad that despite the fact that I haven't been home or seen my family and friends for the longest stretch of my life, it's worth it if I'd finally started to be comfortable with the language. At least with non-natives.

But if you know me, I'm not exactly the type of person to truly take pleasure over someone else's discomfort, so in return, I've decided that I'm going to give my new fellow classmates the best advice I can think of: swallow your pride, but be confident. That they shouldn't be afraid or hesitate to practice their speaking as much as possible, even if they know that they're making mistakes. Because once you become comfortable wrapping your mouth around French words and hearing a foreign language come out of your mouth, you stop focusing on how much of an idiot you sound and start focusing on applying what you learn in class into your day-to-day life.

Well, there's still more I want to write, but I think I'll stop here for now. Tomorrow Alejandro and I head back to our new apartment to give our landlord the rest of what we owe her in rent and to collect the second key. Getting even more and more excited! :)

Much love!

Rachael

Second semester: start.

A bit to recap:

After a little over two weeks of vacation, started one of my new classes today. And for those of you wondering what exactly I did during this vacation, I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you by saying that aside from babysitting, all I basically did was stay inside and cower from the cold. However, in my last post I mentioned that I wanted to make my vacation productive, and that I still managed to kind of do. Ok, I didn't review as much as I would have liked *coughmeaningmorethantwonightscoughcough* but apparently that wasn't as detrimental as I thought it would be..more on that later in a later post.

For the past couple of weeks, Alejandro and I had been e-mailing and e-mailing countless people renting out apartments. It got to the point where we realized we weren't going to be able to snag a two-bedroom, but Alejandro volunteered to take the living room in the case of a 1-bedroom. Really, très gentil. After who knows how long (ok, a couple weeks) of scouring Craigslist, Fusac, and a few agency sites (a last resort) Alejandro came across an ad for a place on some website I'd never heard of but that had been recommended by a French friend. He e-mailed the renter and before we knew it, we had an appointment to go visit the place. At this point, I'd expected to only find a place that fit within our budget outside of city limits, but while this place is closer to the suburbs, it's only a few stops away from where I live right now.

Well off we went one morning, finding the place easily thanks to Google Maps and Streetview (seriously though, how did people live before the internet???) We called the renter to let them know we were just a few minutes away and were surprised to find it was actually a woman. Up until then we'd communicated by e-mail only..it was funny that we hadn't considered this possibility because she hadn't given her first name and had never indicated her gender.
Anyways, we got to the place, which is a 2 minute walk from the nearest metro, and only had to climb (thank god!) 3 flights of stairs to the top floor where the apartment was situated. I'm going to try and keep this from getting terribly long, so in short, we liked the lady, liked the apartment and discussed possible move in dates if we were chosen to rent it (there were other candidates for such a good place, of course). Then a few days later, the renter (herein known as Laurene) e-mailed us and let us know that if we were still interested, she was offering the place to us. I couldn't believe our luck. Shortly after that we pooled together our monetary resources (following a scare concerning my funds..or lack thereof) met her again, paid half, signed the contract, and got a key (second one is being made).
So.
YAY WE FOUND OUR PLACE!!


AND IT EVEN HAS A WASHER...DOUBLE YAY IS IN ORDER, NO?
I think so.

Anywho. The place is great but again, will refrain from going too much into detail tonight. We move in March 1st, which is a school day for me, but I'll just work around that somehow. But in the mean time, it's time to get back to reality, do my homework that I've already been assigned and get to bed. I do believe I have 6 hours of class tomorrow...better than 7, but still not cool :(

Tootles,
Rachael

Oh snap a cold snap

Greetings to everyone :)
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Just checking in, I assure you, despite the freezing temperatures that Paris has recently gotten, I'm still alive (though barely leaving my apartment...or my heater for that matter).
It's a chilly--if sunny--27 degrees F right now. There hasn't been enough precipitation for snow yet, but that's expected to change sometime in the next few days. It's been over a year since I've seen snow in Paris, so it should be nice. And as I don't have to drive, and the metro is underground, even better!
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I'm a few days into my break now, and I've got until the 20th of this month to laze around. I'm kidding, actually I want to make this as productive as possible, especially since I ended my semester strong. (I did pretty good on my French finals:) ) Last night, I made myself go over some of the review packet I'd made a few weeks prior. Because what's the use of acing finals if the slate is wiped clean a few weeks later?
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I mentioned that I was planning on moving, and now the date is set. I have to be out of here by the end of this month, though unfortunately I have yet to strike lucky in finding a place. The good news though: I've now got a future roommmate. His name is Alejandro and he's also part of the ISA program, but was attending the business school. He'd been wanting to switch to independent living for a while now, so when I decided to move, it was perfect. I have to admit, that at the beginning of the year I was really happy I'd gotten my own place, but over the course of the last couple months reality kind of sunk in and I realized that having one's own place is more expensive than sharing, especially in Paris. But as I know Alejandro well enough and I'm not getting placed with some random person, the economical factor is definitely worth it.
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However, finding an available and decent 2-bedroom apartment hasn't been easy. I must've e-mailed about 20 different owners already, but all of them have replied that the place had been rented. We kind of have a suspicion that maybe it's because we mentioned we're foreigners in our e-mail...;/ Regardless, we both need a place by the end of this month, and so will probably have to actually call some of the people and hope for a more favorable response. (And hope that our French is good enough and/or that the person doesn't speak too fast..)
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Well, maybe I should go out and do something, despite the chill. I can at least take advantage of the couple hours of daylight, right? The bookstore and then maybe a cafe sounds like a nice idea..;)
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Love you all,
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Rachael