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Have Baby, Will Travel (And Now is the Time)

Testing the New Baby Carrier, Ottawa, June 2013
Testing the New Baby Carrier, Ottawa, June 2013

The past eight months have been a long blur. Working and taking care of Mark pretty much drained all my energy—Feng and I are both completely maxed out.

But despite the new challenges we face as parents and despite the lifestyle adjustments we had to make, we are still travellers. “Have baby, will travel”—here is the motto at home. After all, I travelled when pregnant!

We haven’t done much in the spring other than taking Mark to the U.S.A., spending a weekend in Montreal and going to The Rolling Stones concert in Toronto. It’s now time for a real trip, to Mark’s other “homeland”—France.

Mark is going to meet his grand-parents, his uncle and his aunt, and his great-grand-parents. And hopefully, it’s not too late to start the baby on a healthy diet of rotten blue cheese, bottles of wine and baguette crust, nom de dieu!

I just hope he won’t take up smoking…

One of the reasons why I decided to work as a freelancer was to make better use of my time and to be able to travel more easily. With most 9-5 office positions, you don’t get a lot of time off—just the regular two-week holiday. As a freelancer, I work my butt off during busy times and yes, I often juggle assignments late at night and on weekends, but at least I can book time off whenever it’s convenient for us, and I can even work remotely if needed. Not having to beg HR for time off is a huge relief, I hated this aspect of the Canadian work life.

So, from June 25 to July 24, we will be living la vie française with bébé. Expect pictures and funny reverse culture shock stories!

Now I just have to pack, brush off my Parisian French and say goodbye to the humongous Tim Hortons coffee cups that have been giving me my daily energy boost for the past few months.

France, here we come!

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Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

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