Les Bibliotheques de Bordeaux

To speed up the French learning process, we need French books, lots of them, for the kids.  We went to the library at Bordeaux city center, Les Bibliotheques de Bordeaux, one of the biggest public libraries in France.

Anyone who resides in Bordeaux can obtain a library card.  You just have to show your ID and proof of residency, a document with your current address.  The librarian who helped us spoke some English, super helpful.  It took some time for her to process all 5 cards.  Wherever we go, the request is always x5 😂  While waiting, I looked up, realizing how big this library is, 8 stories in total.  According to the librarian, the top 2 floors are not open to the public.  They hold very important old books.  I assume she meant ancient books.  The general public has access to Floor 1 to 4.  We were on floor 0, getting our library cards.  The main entrance was on floor -1.  

Floor 1 has books for the general public like nursery, children's books, fiction and non-fiction etc..  I snapped a couple of photos of the nursery and children's area.  The entire space is really well designed and inviting.

Here Nick is taking a well deserved break from reading a picture book 😆 Trust me reading in French was an exhausting activity.

Floor 2 is teens' heaven.  It has an arcade, a few PS4 stations along with cushy seats and all the games (you can borrow), lots of board games (you can play there), and a huge selection of music.  Which teen wouldn't want to spend time here?

I'm most impressed by the music room.  You can reserve a wide range of music instruments in the music room including piano.  The librarian told us that anyone can reserve to practice there and can do so two weeks in advance.  Noah's very excited about getting his hands on that piano.  

We spent well over an hour there and barely explored the first two floors in the building.  With all the books, music and entertainment there is in the library, I have a feeling it's going to be one of our frequently visited places.  

Evania and Noah's Unplanned Adventure

So what exactly happened last Friday after school?  Here's Evania's own account of their unplanned adventure.  With her permission, I'm sharing it here.

Here's a photo she took on the bus at 15:45 on Jan 6 during the unplanned adventure.  

I would title this a mother's ordeal!

First Week of School

On Tuesday, Jan 3, kids started school in Bordeaux.  We registered them with a local Montessori school.  The school has 2 campuses in a short distance of 2 blocks.  Levina will be at the primary school campus (up to grade 5), and the other two will be at the college campus (grade 6 and up).  When deciding which school system (public vs private), I joined every Bordeaux FB group there was, just to see what other expats' experiences were like.  Some say their kids fit right in the public school system, thriving, others had completely different, unpleasant experience with the teachers at the public school mostly due to lack of communication and large class sizes.  And there's the private school.  Some private schools are run by the Catholic churches, super affordable but usually have long wait-lists.  Private international schools offer bilingual education (English and French) and are very costly.  The Montessori schools land somewhere between the Catholic private schools and the international schools.  They offer a wide range of classes (Music, Geography, Science, History, Theatre and Sports similar to those in Canada) besides the fundamental classes (French, Math and English) along with smaller class sizes.  After chatting with a few expat moms, we felt the Montessori would be the best fit for our kids.  We were looking for support and immersion within a short period of 6 months.  For our kids, small classes will probably offer them more 1:1 support and an easier going social environment.  The last thing we want is to add any stress to them in a brand new country.

All three kids were feeling a bit apprehensive on the first day.  Ok, for Levina, it was a lot.  I could feel her anxiety, which made me double guess our decisions at times.  Nothing was going to make these kids at ease.  We just had to let this one play out.  But the time was going rather slowly that morning.  Our place is about 15-20 min away from school by bus #9.  We got up early, a bit too early.  Breakfast was baguette with butter, prosciutto, jamon, eggs and oranges.  Yes, they always have a good appetite in the morning.  Before dawn, we were on our way.

The plan was divide and conquer.  I take L, and Nick take E and N.  We met Levina's teachers for the first time in person.  They were very welcoming and attentive.  They spoke some English, which was to my benefit.  It was a relief that we understood each other.  We took a tour of the school.  The school is very small, 3 stories.  Kids aged 7, 8 and 9 are in one classroom on the 3rd floor.  The classroom is also small, probably half of an average classroom size in Canada, with tables and chairs in the middle and lots of shelves along the wall.  Teachers in Canada would find these rooms very cluster phobic 😂

Levina's schedule goes from 8:45am to 4:45pm with 2 hour lunch break, and no school on Wednesdays.  The older kids' go from 9am to 5pm, same 2 hour lunch break, and half day on Wednesdays.  At the end of the first day, the most they talked about was their lunch: salmon, mashed potato, veggies and chocolate mousse as dessert.  The food was so good that Evania and Noah even went for seconds.  Chocolate mousse was Levina's favorite, of course.  

It's hard to gauge how well the kids are adjusting, still too early.  However, it's safe to say that they enjoy the school so far.  No more resistance from Levina at least.  She made a couple of friends at school.  A couple of names came up during our daily school recap.  A girl named Anna came up to her, gave her a fist pump at the end of the first day and said "Good job" in English with a very cute French accent.  Really cute.  For the older two, school did an assessment on them (not sure how it was done), and decided that they each could stay in their current level (grade 9 and 7) for most classes.  Noah was placed in grade 6 Math at first, then he got moved back to grade 7 after the 2nd day.  With Evania, the teacher was very pleased with how well she's able to communicate in French, and placed her in grade 9 for all her classes except for Science.  Below is the school schedule for Evania and Noah.  6eme to 3eme correspond to grade 6 to grade 9.  The smaller the number, the higher grade.  So Evania is in 3eme, and Noah in 5eme.  Besides the core classes, they also take Spanish and Korean LOL.  During the time slots for English class, they are given extra French work.  The feedback from E & N so far is that Math here is a lot harder.  They are learning more advanced Math, and they love it.  

Our week ended almost uneventfully until Friday afternoon around 2:30pm when Evania called from school saying that she and Noah were going to take the bus home because school ended early.  She assured me that she knew which bus and which stop and which turn.  I figured she had taken the bus to school on her own this week, she speaks the language, and she sounded very confident...what COULD go wrong?  It normally takes about 20 min from school to home, but by 3:30pm, I still didn't see them.  I kept my eyes peeled at the gate.  Every tiny movement at the gate made me feel hopeful to see them coming through the gate, but NOTHING!  By 3:45pm, I started to panic a little.  Ok, A LOT.  I made Nick contact the teacher at school.  She confirmed that they had left at 2:30pm.  My heart sank.  We had no way of contacting them.  They had a phone, but no SIM card.  Couldn't call anyone or get help in an emergent situation.  It was like "Missing Levina in Madrid" all over again.  Only this time, I ALLOWED it to happen.  By 4PM, still no sign of them.  It was time to pick up Levina from school.  So I jumped on the bus, and Nick stayed behind by the bus stop, scanning both directions.  Nick messaged the teacher again, seeking suggestions.  What is the procedure in France in case of missing children?  Do we have to wait for 24 hours to report a missing person?  Do they have the amber alert here like in Canada?  I was on the bus, my mind racing at light speed.  What is the children's abduction rate here in Bordeaux?  We didn't do any research on that before coming here.  Why didn't we look into that?  By 4:07pm, Nick called...he could see them running towards to him from far away...then added "I'm gonna murder them".  I picked up Levina, hugged her so tight, and went to unite with the others.

That night, we went to a Free mobile boutique and got Evania a SIM card for 2 Euro/month (yes cell plans are dirt cheap here, I'll talk about that next time), with which she has 200 min talk time and unlimited texts.  We won't lose them EVER AGAIN.  At the time of writing this, the rest of the gang is laughing their heads off.  Evania says they were never lost at any given time.  She knew exactly how to get home.  Here's her own account of their unplanned adventure.

New Year's Eve

So the day after our arrival, New Years Eve, although severely jet lagged, we felt obligated to go out and explore, experiencing all the sights and smells Bordeaux has to offer.  Based on our previous experience, I had a slight suspicion that finding a place to eat without a reservation in a new city on this night might be a bit challenging.   

We stumbled upon this busy back alley in the old town filled with restaurants.  The whole street was crowded with pedestrians all dressed up making their way to possibly their most important meal of the year.  We wanted our first official meal to be French cuisine.  After all, we traveled 24+ hours to get here.  The first few restaurants we approached were French, but the first question they asked was "Reservation?"  We quickly realized that no reservation, no dinner could well be our fate for our New Years Eve.  In the meantime, Levina was losing it.  She was so tired that she could care less about food.  Maybe we should widen our options.  Maybe we'll do French another night.  Maybe kids will like this restaurant, Ottoman, serving Turkish foods.  Noah was very resistant, Evania just wanted food...any kinda food, and Levina...stopped walking already.  That's 4 to 1.  We told the server that we had no reservation, and the server looked very apologetic, but he said "1 minute" and went inside.  I'm sure it took less a minute for him to return, but it felt eternity.  When he came back with open arms, it was such a relief.  We get food, YAH!  

Inside the restaurant is very tastefully decorated with Turkish furniture and rugs.  I loved what I saw.  It felt like we were in one of Rick Steves Europe Netflix travel shows.  I was sure the food would be just as good as seen on the show.

Levina decided that she didn't like the Champagne 🍾  

 

Our food didn't disappoint.  The main entree is lamb on a bed of rice with flames, so flavourful, absolutely delicious.  It ended with a variety of Turkish delights.  The girls were excited to try the Turkish delights.  They had read about them ever since they were young from the Nutcracker picture book, and had asked me what they tasted like every time.   Nick made a bet with the kids before the food was served that we would not visit Turkey if they didn't like the food.  Well, the verdict was yes.  They would like to see Turkey, or should we say Türkiye.

First 24+ Hours

After spending months packing up our 2800 sqft house into boxes, we started our year-long journey abroad with 2 suitcases and 5 backpacks. First stop, Bordeaux, France.

Travelling across the Atlantic ocean was exciting, but not kind to parents, especially if you have a kid like Evania who gets sick before setting her foot on the plane. She literally puked all the way (YYJ -> YVR -> AMS -> BOD), without any food and water. Our Dutch flight attendant's concern for her well-being almost made me feel guilty. I tried to downplay her physical state. The plan backfired. The lovely lady insisted a bit of coca cola would help. Well, the end result was not a pretty sight. It's safe to say her future profession would not involve any air travel.

Levina and Noah did well overall.  Binge watching Wednesday during the layover kept them content.  Levina practiced her French flash cards on the flight from AMS to BOD.

We landed in the Bordeaux airport safe and sound. Evania was feeling relieved that the end was near, and a bed was awaiting. The humidity in the air from the recent rain was so refreshing, very tropical like, temp at 20 Celsius. ALL of our luggage showed up. What a relief, considering the horror stories you read about thousands of lost luggage at the airport! Our Uber driver showed up. Another relief! Our travel almost ended without a hiccup. Well, too good to be true. Our Uber driver spoke rapidly (I guess that's what French sounds like) with a few English words. In essence, he wasn't able to take all of us. But the car we reserved was for 6 passengers, wasn't it??? My stress level plateaued at this point. He said "Oui, 6 persons WITHOUT luggage, with luggage only 4 persons". What?! Ok, Which kid can we ditch? He decisively turned to Nick, telling him to take the bus, easy, 2 Euro! Just like that, we got rid of one of the kids. Nick's travel continued by public transport in the beautiful city of Bordeaux.😂 

The ride from BOD to our Airbnb was short, 20 min.  I'd be lying if I said kids were thrilled with our Airbnb. "This alley looks sketchy", "I miss Kiki", "I wanna go home", "I want my own bed" Ugh 😩 I was not in a mood to please them. I felt the same way. I miss my 4 legged daughter. The fact that I'm now responsible for one fewer being is a strange concept to me. 

 Our Airbnb is small, around 60 m2 (roughly 650 sqft) but it's got everything we need. It's completely kitted out of Ikea catalog, smart and functional designs for small spaces, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The 2nd bathroom is a bonus. It wasn't in the Airbnb description. And the 2nd bedroom... hum, technically isn't a separate room on its own. It's separated by a large curtain from the living room. Beds and linens are clean and comfortable. But again, 1 too many kid, so the lucky kid gets the sofa for a week and they decide to take turns. The youngest always gets shafted. Levina volunteered to take the couch. We'll see how that goes. 

The kitchen is fancier than mine back home. It's got an induction stove top. I don't know why I haven't invested in the induction technology all these years. That thing cooks food in no time, and turns off on its own if you remove the pot. How did I survive cooking using an electric stove top? Something in the kitchen is a bit out of the ordinary. Where you expect to see a dishwasher is actually a washing machine for your laundry 🤣 and no it's not a dual function dish/washing machine. I guess we have to be smart about reusing dishes or not using dishes at all for eating.

Dishwasher or no dishwasher, I was feeling relieved that we now have a place we can call home, at least for the next little while.

How to Create Your Own Panoramic Photo

Throughout my limited travels, I often take lots of nice scenic photos that eventually end up in the digital storage. From time to time, I look through them, wishing that I had an ultra wide angle capturing the beautiful scene in front of my eyes. Maybe it's time to invest in a fisheye lens. However, an economic solution is to create my own panoramic photo without spending a dime.

I recently read an article from Photo Life, a high quality photo magazine, on photo merging technique from its February/March issue. It highlights tips and guidelines on creating a true panoramic photo from several similar scenic shots. I tried them, and absolutely loved them. Here we go. I'm going to share what I've done and the steps I took with you. Hope you'll find them useful in your own photo creation. I used Photoshop CS4 photo editing software. You probably can achieve the same results using older version of Photoshop or other photo editing software.

Step 1: Open all images to be merged. Browse to File > Automate > Photomerge, and click on Add Open Images. There're a few different layouts you can play with. Choose Auto for optimal results. This step may take a while to complete depending on how many images you're merging. I used the images of Tokyo Tower I took during my trip to Tokyo last year.





Step 2: Convert the resulting image to Smart Object. Browse to Layer > Smart Object > Convert to Smart Object. During this step, all the image layers generated by Photoshop are merged into one.

Step 3: Straighten object lines. Some objects in the resulting image are not exactly at the right angle due to different focal lengths used in the merging shots. To straighten them, Edit > Transform > Warp to bring up Warp tool that allows you to adjust object lines up, down, left and right. The best way to do it properly is using Grid view (View > Show > Grid) to see your horizontal and vertical lines as reference point. This step may be time consuming; however, if all your shots were taken at the same focal length on a tripod, you may not have to do much here.

Step 4: Crop image for final editing. Once you're happy with the image, you can crop it to the desired ratio. There you have it. Here's the final panoramic photo of Tokyo Tower view.

Olympus Stylus Tough-8000

Tough-8000 is a brand new model from Olympus this year with a shockproof, waterproof, freezeproof, crushproof, and shakeproof body. I was quite impressed by the review, and got one in Akihabara, the electronic world in Tokyo. It's always convenient to have a digital camera with a smaller body. I like the fact that I can drop it, take it 10 meters under the water, or even accidentally step on it. Having a toddler who's always curious what I do with my camera, I'm not afraid to let her play with this one. I doubt she'll break Tough-8000. Best of all, it takes stunning pictures.


I'm very happy with the shutter speed of its action mode when you half-press the shutter button before the shot. With the fast shutter speed, you can capture really special moments. I took this one at Tokyo Sea Life Park when Nick was throwing Evania up in the air. They were having such a happy moment. It was so beautiful with the blue sky in the background. I just couldn't resist snapping away.

By the Stained Glass Door

I took this photo of my little girl at Ishiya Chocolate Factory in Sapporo. She was drawn to this beautiful stained glass door situated near the entrance, and stood there for quite a long time. Perfect photo opportunity for me. I took a couple of them with flash. Flash kills the natural light coming through the glass. It was difficult to take photos without flash under the low light setting, but because she didn't move much, I was able to snap a few without flash. This one turned out to be one of the best.

Ramen Noodle Bar in Sapporo

Becoming a favourite place for us to get a bite on the run during this trip, the numerous Ramen noodle places dotting the Sapporo city center offer not only convenience but more importantly a variety of mouth watering selection of the local noodle dishes that have become world famous.


Anyone traveling with a toddler knows the best place to eat on the go is somewhere that’s spacious, noisy, and informal. While this Ramen noodle joint we came upon when strolling around in Sapporo lack the former two qualities, it more than made up for it with its authenticity, charm and a fabulous noodle selection. Tucked in nicely off the main road in the hub of the city, this typical Japanese noodle house appeared to cater to a mixture of the working crowd and the travelers. The tables were set close to one another, providing an intimate if not so private setting. The noodle bar was situated right at the center of the restaurant, and much like a Sushi bar, all the food preparation was performed in view of the customers.


The noodle dishes seem to have a strong seafood theme, with almost every dish containing some type of seafood ingredient. Menu with pictures adorned the wall, showing dishes ranging from giant scallop and tofu to cooked pork and egg with miso base. The price was reasonable, with the most expensive being the giant scallop noodle, priced at about 1500 Yen.


We selected a fried Ramen noodle dish with squid, shrimp, and vegetable, and the house special scallop dish. The fried noodle dish (seen in the photo above) was wonderfully flavoured with just the right amount of salt, and the squid tasted quite tender. In case you're wondering what the black objects are in the noodle, they are black fungus, a type of edible jelly fungus, widely used in Asian cooking. Yeah, I know it sounds yucky, but it tastes yummy. The main attraction still belonged to the house special scallop noodle. Those jumbo scallops at first appeared to be some sort of large oyster mushroom, but one bite was enough to mark this dish a must-have for future visits. In addition to the exotic flavour of scallop in such size, it was cooked slowly in the soup base so the soup embodied so much of its texture and flair. I regret not having photographed it. As you could imagine that it was a huge challenge minding my little one in such a setting.

However, we were much rewarded for our little find, leaving us another regret that we could not pack up this little piece of delight and bring it back home with us.

First Day in Japan

First day in Japan was a bit rough. JAL lost one of our suitcases with all of Nick's and my clothes in it. Jet lagged, we were up about, hoping to find a department store to buy a few essential things. We came upon this big intersection in downtown core without a single soul on the street. Hum...where are all the people? Oh...we were away too early. Two hours later, this same intersection was full of traffic and pedestrians coming and going all directions.




We were told ESTA was a big department store right by JR station, where we could find things we need. We waited around for its business hours. Ten o'clock came, and it finally opened. To our surprise, the first 3 floors were all electronics including cameras, cell phones, ipods, laptops, and LCD TVs. Each floor was comparable to a single Future Shop here. What caught my eye was the price of PS3 seen in the photo below.


With the currency exchange rate, it's only around $100 CAD, a lot lower than the going price in North America. There has to be a catch here, written in plain Japanese except that we don't understand a word of it. Someone please tell me what's on the price tag.

Booking Hotels for Japan

When Nick and I decided that Japan would be our next travel destination, I was excited about all the planning ahead of me. Little did I know what the real challenge would be. I had a difficult time finding the right hotels for my family.

There are very few good English online reservation engines for Japanese hotels out there. The one I would recommend to most people is Rakuten. It's easy to use, and the search results are comprehensive. Not only can you sort the results by price (most people do), but you can sort them by user rankings. However, I didn't find a good package suit for my family.

The other one I came across is Jalan.net. It provided more packages within the same hotel than Rakuten. The only downside is that it's all in Japanese. I did find an English how-to guide on Jalan.net. It was helpful, but not sufficient. It is a basic guide on how to fill out the online search form; however, the search result is of course in Japanese. The only information I could make out was the total cost. I wasn't willing to jeopardize my family's vacation stay simply based on the dollar amount. I eventually had my Japanese friend help me with booking a hotel in Sapporo. I noticed something quite interesting from booking with Jalan.net. You actually do not pay in advance. Once you make your reservation, you'll receive an email from Jalan to confirm your stay, and that's it. You won't even have to provide your credit card information. The site is operated based on trust. I know it's a bit foreign to North Americans. Believe it or not, that's how things work in Japan.

If you are willing to take a bit of risks, you can try Priceline.com, where not only can you bid on hotels, you can also bid on flights and car rentals. The risk is that you don't know which hotel you'll end up with in advance. If you are traveling with families especially with children, this is probably not the best option for you. Hence, I opted out this option.

I also compared a couple of popular ones that most people use here in Canada like Expedia.ca and Hotels.ca. For the similar packages from the same hotel, the prices are a little higher on these sites. If you are price sensitive, these are not your best bets.

Of course, it doesn't matter which online reservation engine you use, the best way to find out about a particular hotel is to read reviews by real travelers. Before I make a reservation, I always go to TripAdvisor to find out what others say about the hotel.

Things to keep in mind when making a reservation:

• Most prices are quoted per person per night.


• Hotel taxes and charges are included in the price.


• Every hotel has its own cancellation policy. You should always check with the hotel.

I'll do another post on the hotels we stay for our trip, and let you know how they turn out.

My Little Precious

Here's what's kept me busy in the last little while.



Evania, 16 months, enjoys summer and loves the water park. There she was in her pink bikini, soaking up the sun.

What's new?

I have not written anything for a while, but instead have focused on caring for my little girl. I am, however, excited to be back blogging on my other two passions in life, travel and photography. I have been taking photos mostly of my daughter, as you can imagine. I will share some ideas and experiences on that subject in some upcoming posts.

I am going on a trip to Japan with my family, through the region of Sapporo and Tokyo area. This poses both as an enormous opportunity and challenge from an amateur photographer's viewpoint. Opportunity owing to the raw exotic beauty of rural and coastal landscape of Japan, presenting a intriguing canvas for capturing some unique shots. Challenge because there will certainly be a bevy of subjects worthy of pursuing yet finite amount of time at disposal.

Circular Polarizer Filter for Landscape Photos

I always look for ways to improve my photographic skills, and recently I came across Travel to the Edge with Art Wolf. It's an excellent site for travel photographers at all levels. I spent hours on it just going through the tips and techniques section. There's so much information to absorb. I felt like a little girl in a candy store :p.

One of the tips from Art is to use circular polarizer filter when taking landscape shots on a sunny day. Here are two photos I took of post Gay Pride Parade party at English Bay last Sunday. One was taken with filter, and one without filter.




Why circular polarizer filter and when? Basically, circular polarizer filter blocks certain amount of light coming from the sun, darkens the blue sky and creates a contrast in your photo. In the second photo, the blue sky appears to be light blue, and the white clouds do not pop out catching your eyes. However, you can see a striking contrast between the blue sky and the white clouds in the first photo. To maximize the effect, use the filter on a bright sunny day when the sun is high in the sky.

Where to buy and how much? Most electronic stores do not carry accessories such as filters. You can find them at camera specialty stores. Here in Vancouver, Lens and Shutter carry a variety of filters. A good circular polarizer filter normally costs around $50. I also looked around online like CameraWorld.com; however, the ones they carry are quite average. I'd rather spend a bit more on a quality filter that will go a long way.

Roadside Surprise

Having lived on Vancouver Island for nearly a decade, I have seen a lot of live animals off the road. Deers and bald eagles are common sighting, but I had never seen a black bear on the side of the road before our trip to Tofino.


We spotted this black bear just outside of Ucluelet, a small town south of Tofino. The bear probably just came out of hibernation, hungry and determined, causing a scene on the only through road to Port Alberni. A few cars stopped including us, hoping to catch his prominent presence on camera. I grabbed my camera and stepped out of the car. Nick thought I was crazy as the bear turned around and looked at me right in the eye. I was no more than 20 feet away from him, and probably wouldn't have a chance to get away if he decided to come after me. I was determined to get a good shot of him. Nothing could stop me at that moment.

A Little African House on the Coast

I've been absent from blogging for a little while due to personal commitment. It feels good to be back to my normal routine. Let's pick up where it was left off.

What you see here is African Beach House Nick and I stayed at in Tofino. I searched for Tofino accommodations online, and very few nice accommodations came up within our price range. At the very last minute, I booked a cabin from African Beach House after obtaining the details from the owner over the phone. The owner sounded very friendly and trusting, and didn't even take any deposit or credit card information for our reservation.


After a 3 and 1/2 hours drive from Nanaimo ferry terminal, we finally arrived at African Beach House Bed & Breakfast. At first sight, "Oh god, we're staying at a run-down house..." thinking to myself. The owner came out immediately to greet us. His welcoming presence made us at ease. He led us to the cabin located behind the house you see in the photo. The self contained cabin was built with solid wood, fully equipped with kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedroom upstairs loft. Inside the cabin was tastefully decorated with an African influence. The entire property was surrounded with ancient cedar trees, providing tranquil ambiance during our stay. The best of all is its location. it's right across from North Chesterman Beach, easy beach access for morning walks or sunset watch.


I have to say it was quite pleasant to find such a hidden gem along west coast Pacific Rim. We would definitely stay there again.