Man, have we've been busy these past few weeks! Our shipment finally made it from Paris to our apartment in Austin - all 350 kilos of it! We spent an entire, exhausting day sorting through it all, deciding what needed to be unpacked and what needed to stay boxed up until we get more permanent digs. In the end, only a measly 2 boxes were completely emptied out and the rest was left boxed up until we have our own space and enough room to unload it all.

We've also been spending quite a bit of our time polishing up our resumes and scouring the web for job openings and career opportunities. Job-searching is a full-time job in and of itself and as the days go by, it doesn't get any less intimidating. It's still very early on in our search, yet, so we're still confident about the market and the leads we've encountered so far.

But, the most interesting way we've been spending our time is exploring our new, old city. We've been having a blast getting to know the community around us, discovering new places and revisiting old favorites. This past Saturday, we spent the day with friends celebrating Eeyore's Birthday which has been an Austin tradition for as long as I can remember. I hadn't been to any sort of American-style festival in such a long time that I didn't even know what to expect. This was the perfect way to spend one of our first Saturdays back in Austin, though - with fun-loving people on a sunny day eating local food, drinking local beer, just having a good time in the hot Texas sun. I remember now how much I love celebrating for the sake of celebration; how much I love being outside in the sun; how much I love turkey legs!

Saturday was also the first time Gui and I got out to ride our bikes out together. His bike came in on the shipment from Paris, so we'd been waiting for its arrival to hit the hilly neighborhood ensemble. Riding in Austin is nothing like riding in Paris - the cars are so much bigger and so much faster here, that it really pays off to search out the most bike-friendly routes before hitting the street on two wheels. We didn't ride very far, but it was a good taste of what we should expect from city biking around here.

And, tomorrow morning we're heading to another bike-friendly city - Portland! We're taking advantage of the few free days we have while we have them and are meeting some French friends in Portland before they make their way to Austin on Thursday. It'll be a short trip, but I'm seriously stoked about finally meeting a city I've heard so much about! I've no doubt there will be much to report back on.

Our stuff!


Drum circle.

Unicycle football.

Potato sack races!

Costume contest (featuring Thing One and Thing Two).