Mathieu, de mensetsu, demande qu'est-ce qui est dur quand on rentre en france après une expatriation. j'ai commencé à écrire une réponse sur le site, mais ça s'est tellement allongé qu'il m'a paru finalement plus simple d'en faire un post. j'avais déjà jeté quelques idées sur la question un an après le retour où j'avais surtout parlé

Nail polish is for people who think it's fun. that's what i tell my son whenever the topic comes up. however, i'm not sure many people share my opinion, including professionals in spas and other nails salons in france. my first experience with a salon was right after we moved back. i had booked appointments for my maid of honor and myself to get pa

Ingredients: - 500 g chestnut puree - 1 tb rum (optional) - 85 g flour - 1 tb baking powder - 50 g butter (melted) - 3 egg yolks - 3 egg whites - 1 pinch of salt preparation: - heat oven to 350f 200°c (thermostat 6-7). - mix chestnut puree, egg yolks, flour, baking powder, butter - beat egg whites until stiff - fold in - pour dough in muffin tin -

Number of times praise was heard for online grocery shopping: 67 number of hours spent online filling grocery baskets: 5 number of attempts to validate online basket: 2 number of times online groceries delivered to door: 0 * i heard the ultimate time and energy saving thing to do was to get grocery shopping done online. supposedly, you can get it d

Ce post fait suite à deux autres, qui évoquaient la consommation de cafféine et l'utilisation du jacuzzi et du sauna. dans ces deux cas, une étude rapide de la littérature montrait que les interdictions fortes associées à ces activités pendant la grossesse n'étaient pas fondées et relevaient plutôt d'une application abusive du principe d

I recently came accross this essay about procrastination. i found it quite interresting in general, and in particular it helped me articulate the main issue with my professional situation: i lack much needed time to procrastinate. i think i view procrastination a little differently from the author of the essay, but in essence, i am in full agreemen

This blog has been on a long hiatus for almost four years. i am coming back to it after reading the blogs of french expats in japan (mostly, béné and amélie marie) and listening to a wonderful postcast series called mensetsu. i find these stories of travel and life abroad so interesting. also, the vision of the people recounting them is a remind

In the plane on my way back from japan, i had the opportunity to watch a couple of japanese movies that i don't think have made it to theaters in france. one of them was a highly entertaning romantic comedy called "mixed doubles". i want to talk about it in this post because it was a really fun movie, but it also seemed very telling about japanese

In the words of a colleague, a career in academia is a long string of failures sometimes, and sometimes only, interrupted by success. i had one such success two years ago when i received my coveted job offer. since then... i wouldn't say it's been downhill from there, but it hasn't been easy. proflikesubstance is currently running an interesting se

Every time i go to the grocery store, i cringe when i drive by this add in the parking garage: if this cookie were a car, it would be impossible to park. because frankly, forget about the cookie, this statement is true of pretty much any car here - bar the smart and austin mini. parking in those tiny, tiny spaces is such a nightmare that people don