Bonne Année 2009!

Dear friends,
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday...as for us, we had a memorable time in Paris. But first, I'll give you an account of our eventful journey to Europe. After leaving our home of a year and a half in Provo, Utah, we stayed with our friends in South Jordan for a couple of days. During that time, we had to juggle the weight and content of our suitcases so as not to go over the limit of 50 lbs. per suitcase, which meant sacrificing a few more of our belongings. Finally, D-Day arrived and we found ourselves hauling 7 suitcases, 1 car seat, 1 stroller, 1 laptop, and 2 carry-ons. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 9:50am so we made sure to arrive at least two and a half hours early. We were greated by the chaos of a Delta check in area. By the time we figured out where we were supposed to stand in line and actually got to the desk, the clerk simply stated that it was too late for our luggage to arrive to the plane, and that we had missed our flight! After convincing her to put a little effort into finding a alternate route to our destination, we were able to check our luggage, pay a $150 fee for our extra baggage (ouch) and made our way through security: the adventure had begun.
Instead of the one connection we had planned, we had two. Thankfully, we made it on all of the planes without delay. Eve was strapped in her car seat, but she refused to sleep on any of the flights. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we arrived in London, England. Once, there we managed to get our rental car that we had reserved online. We dropped a few of our luggage at Levi s sister s and had lunch with her, before hitting the road in the direction of Dover. For those of you who have never been to England, driving is crazy! On top of the fact that the wheel is mounted on the right side of the dashboard, and that you have to drive on the left, the roads are so tight that they would be one way streets in the States: when you drive on those streets, and you see an incoming car, you literally have to pull behind a parked car to let it through and repeat until you get out of it.
Once in Dover, we took the ferry to Calais, France, and drove on to Paris. We had arrived in London at 9:30am, and by the time we arrived in Paris, it was midnight on Christmas Eve! We were warmly greated by my mother and brother, and celebrated together with my great aunt. By the time we crashed in bed, we had been up for almost 48hours; hence, Christmas Day started around 2 o clock in the afternoon, and we feasted again on Polish traditional delicacies and French desserts. The rest of the holidays consisted of lounging around while adapting to the jetlag and having dinner with family.
On the 29th, Levi and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary (yay!) so we left Eve with Grandma and Uncle Igor to spend a night at a posh hotel in Paris! It was divine! We had taken the whole day to stroll in the streets of Paris to see the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Concorde, the quais of the Seine, and to eat a proper greek sandwich (I know, it s not French, but they are so good and cheap). We finished by walking through the gardens of Luxembourg before finding our hotel. That was the most unforgetable way to celebrate our anniversary and it will take a lot of ingenuity to top it off in the future.
For New Year s Eve, after putting Eve down as usual, we played boggle and chatted until 10pm, when Levi, my brother, and I took the car through Paris to reach the Musee d Orsay, located at the center of Paris to see the fireworks at the stroke of midnight. We parked the car in a small street, a few blocks away to avoid the traffic, and reached a pedestrian bridge over the Seine. At midnight we saw the Eiffel tower light up and glitter through the dark, but no signs of fireworks. Then my brother remembered that the mayor of Paris had decided to cut down on the city s expenses by cutting fireworks out of the holiday celebrations. Thankfully, there were a few private parties who set off their own (such as foreign embassies, etc.) so we didn t look too stupid next to all the tourists standing by us.
Once the celebrations over, it was time for separations: Levi drove back to England alone, as I stayed with Eve at my mom s, where I still am while he searches for a job and an apartment for us to join him. In the meantime, I am doing some catching up with my childhood friends, and especially with my mom. The more time I spend with her, the more I realize how amazing she is.
Well, that s all for now. I will keep you posted with our progress and I promise that I will attach some pictures as soon as I reach England, since Levi took our camera with him.
I wish you all a joyful year 2009, and I wish to thank you all for your support and prayers.