Merry Christmas everyone!!

The end of 2007 is nearing! P1 and P2 are over, the P2 exams are done, we cleared out of our room in Villa Foch, we had a bunch of goodbye parties in Fonty, and we're home for Christmas.

The anticipation of going to Singapore is fantastic, we so much look forward to the nice weather, the Asian friendliness, the great food, and the many fun weekend trips that I know we will do. Oh, another positive element is that Angela will be able to work in Singapore. Having a holiday break was good fun, but going back to work in Singapore, together with nice colleagues that you haven't seen for a while is also great.

Leaving Fonty was very strange though. It was sad to pack our bags and to realize that P1 and P2, the core part of the programme, is over. Why was this sad? well, mainly because some people will not go to Singapore, but will stay in Fonty. We had a great time in spite of the massive workload and we will miss the friends who stay behind. Good job there is skype and that we may even work together on projects. So cheers to all you friends staying in Fonty, have a great time!!

Now moving on, our week at home is great but short. We get to see many friends and spend time with family, but time flies so fast that we already have to start thinking about packing and about our preparation for life in Asia. Thanks to Qantas, we won't be able to carry much stuff in the airplane, so at least that makes life easier in terms of packing...

As far as our short term planning is concerned:

- 29th DEC flight to Singapore
- 30th DEC flight to Bangkok for New Year's Eve celebration with classmates
- 1st JAN back to Singapore
- 2nd JAN Angela starts working
- 7th JAN Omar starts P3

Our Bangkok trip will be a short, packed, party stay. We are contemplating a day of sightseeing in Bangkok, followed by a massage to get ready for the night, Thai dinner, NYE at a cool rooftop bar like Sirocco, or Banyan, and finish off the night with trendy clubbing at the Bed supper club.

All the best for your breaks, Christmas and NYE parties, our best wishes for 2008, and may the friendly little Christmas elves bring you lots of nice presents!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Nature calling

A few weekends ago we welcomed my uncle Henk and his girlfriend Jeannette in Fontainebleau. They booked a weekend to Paris and visited us in Fontainebleau. This was a good opportunity to explore a little bit of Fontainebleau’s famous forest. There are many places to park your car and start walking or cycling and we took one of them close to one of the spots overlooking the gorge. There is a long line of big stones (boulders) lying in the forest and besides climbing the boulders one can also hike through the forest to walk trough the gorge.

Our petite hike started by following the yellow signs until we lost them and followed the blue signs. Because it was in the afternoon and it was getting dark we decided to make a shortcut and walked back to the car. Next we went on a quest for the 10-meter boulder Omar claimed to have seen. After searching for this big stone in the ‘boulder park’ alongside the N7 we concluded that some of these boulders indeed get big and reach almost 10 meter. It was very nice to go into the forest and I realized that we should do it more often.

After having been in Fontainebleau for almost 4 months we had not seen any wild animals. Before coming to Insead we read on the blogs and in the Partner guide that boars and deer can be frequently spotted and that people should be careful when driving home at night since accidents happen frequently between boars and cars.
Many of Omar’s classmates told us that they see boars, deer and rabbits often, but every time we drove at night we did not see any, until we went to Montigny sur Loing for a Dutch party. After having eaten ‘Boerenkool met Hemaworst en spekjes’ we drove back to Fontainebleau when we spotted some boars next to the road doing what they always do, sticking their nose in the mud. We saw some more crossing the road and we were very happy. Our first Boars!! A week later we saw a doe standing in the forest next to the road. She just looked at us and we realized that this is one of the things that makes living in Fontainebleau so beautiful, being so close to the forest and the animals that you can actually see them in the wild where they belong. 

Visiting the tourist spots

This weekend Angela's parents came over to visit from the Netherlands. They brought lots of delicious things we cannot buy over here like drop (liquorice) and appelkruimeltaart (apple crumble pie). Because all hotels in Fontainebleau were full they decided to book a room in a hotel close to Melun which turned out to be a very good hotel, despite the blue painting in the corridors.
Because Omar had classes on Friday and Angela also had some activities planned, Jan en Tini took their car to explore Fontainebleau and Melun. On Saturday however, Omar decided to join the activities and the four of us drove around the area and visited a number of villages like Nemours, Bourron Marlotte and Montigny sur Loing. In the afternoon we stopped at one of the bouldering places close to Fontainebleau where we tried to find the highest boulder to climb. We did not have special gear with us like many of the people who were trying to climb the boulders and than circle them with a small mattrass lying on the ground. So we decided to only climb the small rocks.

The evening we went down to Vaux le Vicomte near Melun. They have (check their internet website for more accurate details) a candle light visit on Saturday evenings where the visitors can have a look at the different rooms in the chateau and than later on explore the gardens, all lighted by candles. This was great and we loved the chateau. In the gardens it was often very dark and despite Omar's warning for Angela not to fall in the fountain (which turned out not to be there) he did not see where he was walking himself and fell over one of Vaux le Vicomte's nice bushes, so nicely designed by Monsieur le Notre. Vaux le Vicomte is definitely worth going and the interior is absolutely beautiful with lots of furniture from the 17th and 18th centuries.