Paris with Kids

One of the nice things about our post in Lome is that the flights route through Paris! So last month I got to see the beautiful city for the first time. We spent one day just walking around and looking at gorgeous buildings, one day at Disneyland Paris, and one evening at the Eiffel Tower.

Highlights:
Luxembourg Gardens is amazing. You can rent these insanely cute little sailboats and sail them in a fountain, pushing them with a stick when they get stuck. James and Cassandra loved it, and Thomas got to eat ice cream and play in the dirt. Win-win! :)

There's also a fantastic playground there. We spent a couple of hours there and would have stayed longer if rain hadn't looked threatening.

Our trip to Paris was nothing like I'd envisioned my first time in the city of lights, but it was a really lovely little mini-vacation on our way to Togo. Next time, we'll stay right in the city center and not spend so much time riding trains to and from the airport. (The Sheraton in the airport was nice, with adjoining rooms that looked directly onto the tarmac! We'd stay there again for a quick transit stop, but for a longer trip it's better to be in the city.)

More photos to come.

I shall endeavor to post more often from Lome than I did from Georgia!

:)
Lauren

Two Weeks in Tashkent

We arrived two weeks ago today! So far we've been really pleasantly surprised by everything. Our house is huge and beautiful, our neighborhood is really walkable, the other Embassy people seem really nice and have been welcoming, and our new nanny Firuza is wonderful.

Our Russian is rusty but passable, simplifying life a great deal. Our UAB beat us here, and they delivered it the day after we arrived!!! Our HHE is supposed to be delivered tomorrow, which must be a new State Dept record (two weeks after arrival!) We weren't expecting it for five or six months, so this is a glorious surprise.

The kids seem to like their new school, Tashkent International School, and their new teachers. It's a nice campus and the staff seem great. I miss having school uniforms, though! The kids are always so cute in formal uniforms.

Like always, I shall endeavor to post periodically. We'll see how I do here, since I'm only working part-time. I always intend to post things and fail, but theoretically I have a lot more free time here.

cheers,
Lauren