David Hasselhoff, Where Are You?

Hey there world wide webs. My name is Deb and yes, I am part of the blog revolution and you have clicked on my brand new blog, Deb in the City.

Deb in the City is new coping mechanism since I quit going to bingo. I’m trying to manage my stress without doing harm to myself, and I hope that’s not going to take all the fun out of it. I have just moved to a brand new place and OK, I didn’t ever expect this but I now live in LaJolla, CA.

It’s incredible here though, paradise with easy access of the 5, the 81, the 78 and the 1. See, I can talk California already. And I get to live in this incredible house.

The house is brand new and everything works inside, all five bedrooms and five and a half baths. It's not quite finished yet and as you can see it's what we call "shovel-ready" nowadays. If anyone out there has a shovel, please feel free to come on over.




Before I got here I thought about southern California as this sort of life-sized set for Baywatch and I expected to get here and find everyone talking about grabbing their buoys. There is beach and surf culture, no doubt. And there’s the zoo of course, the other thing the world knows about San Diego. And Sea World and the Wild Animal Park. It’s all about the surf and turf here, but before it gets to your plate. San Diego loves its wildlife.

Yesterday, I was driving up in the hills on a tiny two lane highway in the beautiful high chaparral countryside when I hit a traffic jam in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. The reason:

Yes, those are camels and they live right here in San Diego County. They reside at the Oasis Camel Dairy (http://www.cameldairy.com/) in Ramona, the only camel dairy in the US. Oasis is run by these wonderful folks, Gil and Nancy.


They have a couple dozen camels that they milk and turn the milk into incredible soap.


The camels are also in show biz and do a brisk business around Christmas time, playing to sold out crowds at several nativity pageants around the area. Gil and Nancy can set you up with the whole nativity scene too, since they have pigs and donkeys and all sorts of exotic birds. Oasis going to start camel safaris in July.

Camels are herd animals, like children, so I plan on taking a safari to try and get a little horse sense about the pack mentality. As a nanny, I feel this will give me a nanny edge when I’m at the playground, confronted with a swarm of eight year olds. Head ‘em up and move ‘em out.

In case you’re wondering, and I know you are...



They are truly sweet creatures, toes and all.

This is Deb in the City saying so long from the Oasis Camel Dairy in Ramona, CA where every day of the week is hump day.

Chapped in Chapel Hill

Deb in the City here, with a chapped ass in Chapel Hill.

Pardon my cursing internet but I am about at the end of my nanny rope here. The child has tested my patience and I am hung out to dry here by her deadbeat dad so I gotta try something to get her back to her Pretty Princess state again. She’s just a little kid.

So I went over to Carrboro in search of something to make her happy. And my search was rewarded at this adorable place.

Tres Amigos, over on Main street. I can’t take the child to her dad in mexico but I can bring a little bit of Mexico to her. They had these insanely colored bright bottles of soda.



I found what I was really looking for, fresh cactus but ouchy.



Lucky for gringa, safety cactus comes in a jar. I also had a killer plate of tacos while I was at the tienda. Mucho gusto.

Then I wandered on down Main and came upon this woman,

setting up her corner store, literally on the corner. This is Luci and she is from Mexico.

She sells those flowers, which she makes and bracelets she weaves with names on them. I ordered one with "SAM" on it and will go to pick it up tomorrow.

Luci did not speak hardly any English at all and my Spanish is even worse but we were able to talk a little bit. She gave me a piece of paper, a copy of a letter in English from a family she worked for here. It said she works efficiently and is thorough in her attention to detail. Luci is responsive to suggestions and uses good common sense to tackle novel situations. She works very hard and makes the house gleam! If anyone out there in Chapel Hill needs a fantastic helper around the house, give Paula Craige a call (919-7893) and she knows how to get in touch with Luci.

In the spirit of the stimulus package,
(this is Obama's Stimulus Face) I’d like to propose to Luci that she and I tend the child and I split my salary with her. It’s the Nanny Bailout Bill, microfinance style.

This is Deb in the City, saying adios from Carrboro, the sister city of Santa Cruz de Juventino Rosas in Mexico. Si se puerde!

Southern Charmed

OK, Chapel Hill is loaded super-intelligent people. I’m hoping a little of that is gong to rub off on me. Ever since I was told it was something I wasn’t by my mean brother, I have aspired secretly to become the sharpest tool in the shed.

This part of the country has produced some really smart people and some really smart inventions came out of those people.

Astroturf, for instance, has made my life better and that was invented nearby at the Research Triangle Park.



I went and visited the other day and I was hoping for a crisp isosceles or even a nice right triangle in a pinch. I admit I was a little disappointed that the park is not really in the shape of a triangle. This error I could forgive because the park is loaded with companies like Kryosphere



Syngenta

and Glyconix

that are busy inventing all the things we are going to need once the future gets here.



This handsome old-school logo is for the Association of American Textile Chemists and Colorists and this organization tests all textiles and fabrics to make sure the dye stays put and all sorts of other qualities. Thanks to this non-profit organization, your clothes do not burst into flames. Unless you paid for that feature.

Meanwhile, back in Chapel Hill I stumbled upon this structure off a road at the edge of the campus.

Yes, that is a castle. It is the home of its own secret society, the Order of Gimghoul which was started by a group of enterprising U of N students way back in the day. From what I can get out of the locals, the society is for invited upperclassmen and faculty only and is exclusively male. But not all-male like Legends in Raleigh and I heard that rules also make for an all-female guest list at their parties.

I’ve got my hoop skirts ready, so if there’s any Gimghoulers out there listening, I’m ready for an invite and I’m not going to hog the keg.

This is Deb in the City, your southern belle in training, saying that’s what I like about the south from Chapel Hill.

Nothing Finer

Hello internet, it's me again. My name is Deb, but my friends call me Deb. And you have clicked on my blog, Deb in the City which is my little project to help me adjust to my recently-readjusted life. OK, I did not see this one coming but I now live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Yes, the Carolina that nothing could be finer than from the old song. But I’m getting ahead of myself. For starters in the finer department, I get to live in this fantastic house.

It has a two-car adult garage plus a child garage on the right for the Barbie Jeep and the pink peddle car Estate Wagon. Which is actually pretty cool.



OK, this house is not in Chapel Hill proper. It’s in another little town and the neighborhood has a name all of it’s own.

Governor’s Row is a row, but so far I have not seen the governor of which the sign speaks. Maybe "governor" is more informal, like in olde England. I am still getting used to southern habits.

Chapel Hill on the other hand, does have a legitimate hill and the University of North Carolina sits right up on top of it. There was once upon a time a chapel too but now there is a big beautiful antebellum hotel, The Carolina Inn.

Well, it’s in the antebellum style since it was built in the 1920’s. Technically speaking it’s après-bellum or post-bellum, I guess you’d say.

The University dominates the city, and as the oldest state funded school in the country, I think it’s earned that right. And Tar Heel pride dominates every corner of this city.

I didn’t understand about Tar Heels before I got here. I thought Tar Heels were the people that lived in the Tar Nation. But the locals set me straight about it. Tar itself is still a little confusing for me though. Last week I had a flat on my bike and a nice Southern gentleman with a genuine drawl asked me if I needed help to "change that tar". Slowly, I’m learning how to speak southern.

And to fully get my southern groove on, I am cultivating two habits: sweet tea and chewing tobacco. I made the mistake of trying them both at the same time and I would not recommend this.

This is Deb in the City, basking in southern charm from my front porch rocker, saying so long, y’all.

Quand a Liege...

When in Liege, do as the Liegoise. Peket is dangerous. There is no other way to say this. Went last night to the House of Peket and now I see why Tchantches has a wooden head because I have one too. Oufti.



Meanwhile, the child is drifting far away from me and I needed to find something to try and bring her back. She’s just a little kid with a lost father and I am not getting support here so I have to try something.

I looked all over town but there are just not any Mexican people or stores here. So there are not Mexican stores either. Finally I found these at the supermarket.

Mini taco tubs! I cannot take the child to her father in Guadalajara but perhaps I can bring a little of Mexico to the child.

My search took me to a neighborhood across the river, where most everyone seemed Arab, with all the ladies in their hijabs and the butcher stores advertising halal products. I found a fantastic supermarket, named Ali Baba which had an incredible selection of all things North African and Arab and Mediterranean.



The cheese department covered cows, goats and sheep and sold yogurt in buckets of 10 kilos. We just don’t have that in America.

I came here with the idea that it was going to be all frites and chocolate and beer and waffles and chicons. And all of those things are here of course, but goat cheese in a can? Fantastic!



Then I found a tidy Spanish market and poked around. The woman that owned the place was very friendly with me and patient with my terrible French.









She told me her family moved her from Asturia in Spain when she was a little girl so that her father could work in the mines. She said that the mines are what brought the Italians, the Polish, everyone. Except the Chileans, who came to get away from their bad government and by that time, the mines were mostly closed. Even with the mines shut down, the people come anyway, looking for a better life. It has always been so.

This is Deb in the City, traversing the diasporas, saying adios, au revoir and farewell from the glowing city of Liege.

La Goute Locale

Deb in the City here, live from Liege, looking for local flavor.

So I was walking around today, looking at old stuff. Europe is full of old stuff, and that’s interesting for Americans, since nothing we have is that old really.

Found some peculiar new stuff in a shop window for a video games store.

Here is Bruce Lee with his girlfriend the flamenco dancer. Are they dancing or fighting? This is the mysterious beauty of it. It’s profound, right?

I was excited because I was going to the Museum of Walloon Life.


The museum is in a beautiful old abbey. It’s a very nicely done modern museum, all new, with lots of video and all the media tricks. Very impressive. I went through the entire museum, listening to the electronic device that told me all about coal and iron and crystal and all the thing that were manufactured here in Liege.

And I got to the end and I was really mad because I read in a guide book that the museum had a waffle in the shape of the crucifix and yes, that is the main reason I went. And then, it was not there anymore.

I went home and looked for it and googled "waffle cross Belgium" on the internet, and this is what I got.



A waffle in the shape of Texas. I don’t think it’s in Belgium. And it’s not a cross. It is a waffle. Sometimes the google does not work.

This is Deb in the City, looking for waffles in all the wrong places, in the waffle capitol of the universe, Liege.

Liege, Mon Amour

Hello internet. I’m Deb and you have clicked on my blog, Deb in the City. I know, I know, technically speaking this is a vlog because it’s video but the word vlog sounds like a car made in the soviet union. Vlog, vlog, vlog.

Deb in the City is my coping mechanism to help me adjust to my new life. I have just moved out of my comfort zone and now live in a city which is new to me. I did not plan it this way but now I live in Liege. Wow, or as they say here Oufti!

But, I live in a fantastic house here.

It has a gate and as you can see and it has columns and shrubs with artistic styles. And a Jacuzzi in the bathroom. It’s not in Liege exactly, not in the city but is close enough that I can go to town on the bus.



The city of Liege has a mascot that I see everywhere is this fellow, who is called Tchantches, the Wallon name for Francis. Wallon is the local language. We would call him Frank I guess in English. Frank is a fun loving marionette who was born between two paving stones here in Liege.



He has a couple of theaters that do his plays and a whole museum devoted to his costumes and puppet lifestyle. He is a marionette who likes to drink. OK, he's basically an alcoholic puppet.




And as an American, I am used to alcoholic puppets.

I must admit I am a little sad to be in Europe and miss our new president coming into office though I am delighted that everyone here seems as happy as I am that the alcoholic puppet is retiring to Texas with his Nanesse, leaving his big mess behind for the next guy to clean up. As a nanny, I’m a little sick of cleaning up after others, but I am willing to help the new guy.

This is Deb in the City, contemplating ma vie europeean from Liege. Oui, nous pouvons!