New interview from Aurelien...

Aurelien speaking about his experience at Tuck on the web...

"The american way of romance"...

Click on the picture to read the article

Daddy s working... working... working... good!

We are today sunday and our dear and so precious Aurelien is working very hard on the other side of the Hudson river...

His first official week of work started very smoothly last monday (he was on training the previous week). The staffer was not onsite... - here his your office, check if you have everything you need, here is your blackberry, try to connect yourself etc... He was 100% operational but that monday morning there was not much. Then little by little he got busy, very busy and on thursday extremelly busy as the sample of a real life in banking started there. And since well he is... busy... thursday : 8:30am-3:30 am and zzzzz - friday : 8am - 1:30am and zzz - saturday : 9am to 1:30am then zzzz - sunday : well he is still onsite but think that he will be able to take a couple of hours off before to join back again. Bouhouhou i was planning to go and see Summer Stage in Central Park - we ll see how it goes. My life these days is full of surprises!

The blue sky is coming (back) after the rain, but they plan a big storm at the end of the day... a little bit maybe like in the Pichon family...

See you!

Chloe... 4 years old already!

Time is flying! Our little "crevette" (could be translated as shrimp but this is actually one of her nicknames...) just blow her 4th candle away!

The day started around 9:45 for the 3 of us... - our little Mr left for work about 2 hours before.

Chloe discovered all her birthday presents together on a chair in the living room...well our bedroom eheh!... So hophophop she ran to open and unwrap presents - covered with the trendy trend of the moment... princesses paper! Lots of ohhhh and ahhhhhh - then i read her birthday cards and promessed a thousand time to read later on this book or this magazine... and then her stomach spoke : "i m hungry!". So breakfast for me and Chloe then we made a couples of things here and there. We made a good Skype session with Tata Floflo with to key stories : ptit ours brun, tchoupi, princesses etc... some kind of web baby sitting in a way! Then lunch and beddy bed time for Elanais before our big adventure of the afternoon and the surprise for Chloe : the Children museum of Manhattan. There Chloe was able to go and play all along living lots of experiences wiht the fire truck, the bus, the market etc. But most of all over there there is the worlds of Dora and Diego. The museum is great for kidos. Then we went for a tea-time at Helmers place just one block away to celebrate and enjoy one of there delicious ice-cream : the treat of the day! We spoilt each other and i did not very much diet that day, but still it was quite reasonable. Chloe chose a plain chocolate one with m&ms on it... Baby Elanais drank nicely her bottle and me just one scoop of mint-chocolate ice-cream. I took lots of pictures - particularly for Daddy who was obviously not able to join us there and hophophop we head home. Diner time and Chloe was over excited because she had to blow her 4 candles away! She was so excited that the sandy man (french thing i guess) need thousands of tones of sand to bring her asleep. Here it was the 19th of june 2008...

Oh and thanks a million for all your emails and cards - friends and family - it was so nice for her!

Bises a tous!

Raw Tomato Salmonella Warning

Tuesday June 10, 2008

Yesterday, the United States FDA confirmed that a U.S. nationwide "salmonellosis outbreak has been linked to consumption of certain raw, red tomatoes". Previously, the alert had been confined to certain states. The FDA advises that people NOT eat the following types of tomatoes, or products, such as fresh (uncooked) salsa made with these tomatoes:

- Round Red Tomatoes
- Roma Tomatoes
- Plum Tomatoes

The following types of tomatoes are consdered SAFE:
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Grape Tomatoes
- Tomatoes with the vine attached
- Home-grown tomatoes

Symptoms of Salmonella:
Severe diarrhea, stomach cramps, fever, nausea and vomiting within 12 to 72 hours of exposure. The illness usually lasts four to seven days. If you believe you could have salmonella, please see a physician. This is a reportable illness which is being tracked.

Source : http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/b/2008/06/10/raw-tomato-salmonella-warning.htm
For updates : http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html

The World of Les Puces

Our little precious do have now there own blog - here is the web link :
http://theworldoflespuces.blogspot.com/

As for all our blogs do not hesitate to 'subscribe' - you will then receive an alert on your email address when a new article will be posted.

To do so, click on "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" at the bottom of the blog you have some interest in.

Have a good week - here it is extremelly hot...

Here we are!

To locate us more precisely, here under are 2 little maps of where we live:





And if you wish to drop us some lines - here is our address :
Mr & Mrs Pichon
30 River Court, Apt 309
Jersey City, NJ 07310
USA

Bises!

Here we come!

Here we are finally setup and installed in Jersey City and everything is going just great! We arrived last sunday - we rented a car - our ML staying in Hanover for the summer as on NJ/NY we do not really need any car at all!
We live in the area of NewPort of Jersey city just accross Manhattan. Our building has a concierge, and is part of a group of 3 large towers with their own private entrance, and security services. How safe! When we leave the building, on the left comes the Hudson river (Atlantic ocean let s say) and a little marina with a nice view on Manhattan and a promenade on the sea front along - straight ahead a tiny square and on the right side a super top playground for kidos. 5 minutes walking distance there is the Path - type of underwater tube to reach the center of Manhattan (different that the intra-Manhattan subway). The center of Manhattan is then just 7 minutes away. 10minutes away we do have access also to the taxis-boats for Manhatan - not even 10minutes sail away from the other side. Oh and we can take the little trail to go to different places in Jersey City. Awesome!

The building provides a service of dry cleaning, mail and a nice concierge is there to help and to open regularly the door for the pram! Yes i do have lots of naive questions for him in my pocket...

For the shopping, 10minutes away (still walking) there is a shopping mall on 3 different floors including lots of big names and famous brands / boutiques (Gap, Victoria secret, Macy s , Kholsm JCPennys s, Aldo, Sephora etc etc with of course a food corner). And if you add 5 extra minutes we do have access to a commercial area with lots of big shops like BJs, supermarkets, etc. 15minutes away on the other side we do have other shops like Target, Staples, A&P etc. The funny part is you can even bring back your cart with you pushing it up to the building, leaving it just outside the door and taking a new cart intern at the building to bring your groceries upstairs. For banks and services, restaurants / take-away and even starbucks (the fan will recognise themselves...) everything is there just walking distance - 5min!

Our apartement is a one bedroom about 85m2 i would say - so about the same size than Sachem minus 1 bedroom. We are very lucky as it is well spoted - 3rd floor out of the 32 and on the side of the Hudson river... we do have a magnificient view on Manhattan... day or night the view is really beautiful! aie aie aie!... add a couple of boat and jetskis on the river during the day... rrrrrrrrrrrhhhh! nearly too much to say that no Aure is NOT on holiday but here to work... him This apartement is all white painted which gives lots of light... and we do have large windows on the water side - same view in the main room or bedroom. There is a large bedroom, a reasonable bathroom, an opened kitchen on the main room - and so a very big living room / saloon...

And there are lots of drawers and cupboard to organise easily ourselves - idem for the kitchen!

What to ask more than that? Chloe and Elanais sleep in the same room and we sleep on the comfy futon in the main room . We use a lot the air-conditioning right now - available in the 2 rooms - lucky us it is available as since last saturday it is extremelly hot in here!

Bises a tous!

Beurk and double beurk...

Here under is the link to an article about the american chicken published in the newspaper 'La libre Belgique' - sorry this is in french
http://www.lalibre.be/actu/europe/article/420854/le-retour-des-poulets-a-la-javel.html

Aure in the news... not big but still...

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/04/24/the_call_of_wall_street/

The call of Wall Street

Credit crisis aside, MBAs are still graduating in droves and finding work

By Robert Weisman
Globe Staff / April 24, 2008

Despite the credit crisis that has devastated banks, crippled hedge funds, and thrown thousands of highly paid financial employees out of work, the lure of Wall Street is proving stronger than ever for graduate business students entering the workplace this spring.
more stories like this
Financial services - buying and selling stocks, trading exotic investments, and doling out financial advice - remains the most popular destination for tens of thousands of US students earning master of business administration degrees this year, according to academic consultants, administrators, and business students themselves.
Many accepted job offers from banks, brokerage houses, or private-equity firms after summer internships last year. That was before the crisis triggered by subprime mortgage defaults emerged full-blown, sending markets into a tailspin and precipitating the fire sale of investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. But among those toting freshly minted MBAs into the turbulent financial sector, there are few regrets.
"It's gotten more attractive," said Rob Daly, 26, an MBA candidate at Boston College's Carroll School of Management who plans to work as a financial consultant for investment bank Duff & Phelps. "Call me a contrarian. But when everybody starts talking about the subprime mortgage problems, maybe that's when they're winding down."
Brigitta Herzfeld, 30, who will collect her MBA from Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said she's comfortable with her decision to work for financial giant Goldman Sachs, advising wealthy clients on their personal investments. But she has no illusions that "wealth management" will be easy.
"It's going to be a hard first few years," Herzfeld said. "We're starting in a tough period. It will be harder to pull in new clients. But markets always go in cycles, so it will be nice to ride that full wave."
Even first-year MBA students, who will make their initial Wall Street forays during internships this summer, say they're confident that boom will follow bust and markets will rebound. "This is the perfect time," insisted Aurelien Pichon, 30, a French student at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. "Once the corrections have been done and the strategies have been revised, everybody will ramp up again."
For now, Wall Street employers are scaling back. Financial firms plan to eliminate tens of thousands of jobs, the deepest cuts since the high-technology bust earlier in the decade. Citigroup Inc. recently disclosed it will pare 13,200 jobs, while Merrill Lynch & Co. said it will cut 4,000. And as many as half the 14,000 employees of Bear Stearns are expected to lose their jobs after the firm is absorbed into buyer JPMorgan Chase & Co. Even the vaunted Wall Street bonuses, long MBA bait, are vulnerable to the downturn.
But that's not deterring MBAs, typically a breed of ambitious Type A personalities, or the Wall Street firms that hire them.

"Financial services firms are always interested in talented MBAs," said Timothy Butler, senior fellow and director of career development programs at Harvard Business School in Boston. "And the retiring baby boomer generation will create a big need for knowledge workers in that industry. The firms have to balance their intermediate and long-term needs against the short-term financial crisis."
more stories like this
So even as they lop off more expensive senior management jobs, the firms are eager to fill their pipelines in anticipation of better times ahead. Most recruit aggressively on business school campuses, and still dangle six-figure starting base salaries - higher than any field except management consulting - to MBAs at the elite schools.
"We need to continue to hire talent regardless of the market conditions today," said Sarah Quarterman, global head of campus recruiting for Merrill Lynch. "Our recruiting is focused on the market of the future. These students aren't going to be actively adding value till 2010. And by then today's market will probably be a distant memory."
"The prestige and opportunities associated with a Wall Street career will always be attractive," said Lauren Francis, a spokeswoman for JPMorgan. "And despite economic cycles, investment banks recognize the importance of maintaining a strong pipeline of talent."
While figures aren't yet available for the class of 2008, the share of MBA students entering financial services has been on the rise in recent years at leading business schools. The percentage reached a decade-high 44 percent at Harvard in 2007, the most recent year for which statistics have been published. In a survey of students at all full-time MBA programs last year, the Graduate Management Admission Council, an association of graduate business schools, found that 27 percent planned to seek jobs in finance, more than any other sector.
"Clearly, in the hierarchy of disciplines at business schools, finance is at the head of the class," said Tim Westerbeck, managing director at consulting firm Lipman Hearne Inc. in Chicago. "It's become the superior discipline in terms of how they define success. Wall Street, despite layoffs, still employs a lot of people. And the eternally optimistic MBA student doesn't see this as an opportunity that's going away."
Some educators think it might be healthy, however, for graduating business students to work in another field before entering venture capital or private equity - or instead of entering those fields.
"Get a real job," advised Howard Anderson, a Sloan School professor and former venture capitalist. "Think about taking a line job at a company where you're really needed. One of the things I tell my MBA students is get a job where you develop a skill set you can use your entire career. Then if you become a venture capitalist and companies ask you what to do, you'll know what you're talking about."
Still, for many students, Wall Street's attraction remains strong, even in a financial crisis. "I still think it's the place to be," said Matthew Vamvakis, 29, a first-year Tuck student who's interning this summer at JPMorgan's private wealth management business in New York. "And at this point in our careers, we're still the least expensive, highest value talent that Wall Street can get their hands on."
Twenty-nine-year-old Carroll School student Zamir Klinger, a former high-tech engineer, said he's looking forward to working as a mutual fund analyst for financial firm Eaton Vance Corp. in Boston. "I made a big switch from engineering to investments because this was what I wanted to do," he said. "This is a long-term career for me."
But business students might reassess their career choices in the future if conditions in the financial services industry continue to deteriorate - especially if Wall Street salaries start to decline and bonuses dry up - warned John A. Challenger, chief executive of Chicago consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
"The financial rewards have been so great there for many years," Challenger noted. "As the Wall Street firms try to protect their pipelines, one of the things we haven't seen yet is a sense that people are going to make a lot less money."

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

The sun is shinning...

This week was very busy with plenty of activities! Loottttttssss to do!

On Monday i attended a meeting on " Start-ups and Family: Can You Do Both? ". This session was very interested hosted by the founder of kayak.com was. Two couples expressed themselves on doubts, pains, references, issues and solutions. Interesting.

On Tuesday my usual Pilates session was a little more advanced. Its level is increasing, my abs also even if there is still a lot a lot of work to find them back... Ouch ouch ouch baby my angel ouch...

On Wednesday we went visiting a maple syrup production place with the Tiny Tuckies, for TT, mini TT and for their mum also hehe - The weather was beautiful as most of the days currently.

On Thursday playground and walk under the sunny blue sky, so warm that we could have left our jumper at home... Yesterday on Saturday it was 20°c even! Ah but no we are only in april. At the evening we had a diner at a nice italian restaurant Lui Lui with the winter term study group of Aure. Jojito 4 years old was there playing together with Chloe.

On Friday nothing special except a nice crepe party for yhe 4 of us well 3... in front of Ratatouille a Disney movie. Chloe followed it but we shall still wait for at least an extra year before to go to the cinemy the story of the 2 lovers which is not the main subject 'le p' tit chef' rat (beurk when I think of it! well this is a Disney movie let's not forget about it!). Our little miss is right in her princess period... and she might be for a while...

On Saturday Chloe had a birthday party. The theme was 'princesses' and required to be dressed in your favorite princess costume... Chloé did not much hesitate between her tinker bell and Cinderella and nicely disguised she enjoyed herself the 5th bang of 5 pm and did not want really to leave. I had even to go back and pickup one of her plastic shoe she lost on the road... hihi. I will post some cute pictures soon.

Overally the week-end was once more very very busy as usual, in particular for Aurélien who works on a video and a song for the ASW (recorded in studio eheh lucky him) for the ASW 2008... week-end of the future students admited at Tuck for the next year - it reminds us lots of souvenir... april 2007 is not so far but nonetheless...

Voili Voilou for the last news!

Ah little personal message - this is my blog after all! - I am extremelly late on my email answers - i am so sorry about it but there is so much to do, a little bit everywhere but let's be positif it is better for the last month. I work hard on it and you will receive some reply from us soon.

Bises a tous!

Here are some nice pictures taken this saturday the 12th of april.

Chapi... Chapo...

Bonjour!

Here we are... already in... April! Littl'cutty Elanaïs is now 3 months old! To celebrate this i just took her footprints in a special dough, anticipating our nostalic moments... The time is so much flying! Since our return from holiday everything is just going perfectly perfect : we found our way and routine (well type of as a day is never like the previous one hihi), Elanaïs is doing very well, Chloé speaks everyday better english (at school one day the children went to see and speak to the teacher to tell her they were amazed how she was able to speak to them now!) and the Aure's schedule is lightened. Spring is definitely here! And thje sun warmed a little bit lands around the snow then is melting... The ski season is over since last week with the closure of the Dartmouth skiway. Will reopen in November...

Last week-end i proposed myself to be a chaperone of a Hanover high school party. I asked a friend of mine to come with me - she was delighted also. Mon main goal was mainly educational. I wanted to see if what happens on tv soaps was real or not... and as a matter of fact it is! Here below is a resume of the evening :
So Marie and I were awaited for 7:15pm for a debrief on the party rules... We were only 2 to not be a student's parent. Ouhlala! Not much of fun there! We get together and read a little piece of paper double-sided - our pure reference for the evening. We read the rules (the content is at the bottom of this article). The key rule is simple : no touch... at all... We ask a couple of questions and clarifications.2 policemen were there, real ones with big hat and gun... plus the smile as an add on which was nice. Reassuring? Well... Then we were assigned plus one parent to the main party room. Yehoo it will be much less boring and we can really see what happens from the inside. In fact i knew already this area as we had a birthday party there from 2 neighborhood last february. The room was decorated much differently. There was no inflatable castle anymore... but a beer belly guy as a boring DJ called 'Lou's' - la loose... RnB and only RnB (like BG) we were very disapointed as there was no real dancing. To like this type of music is ok but when it is only this all the night long... well it is a bit... headache too much... Dancing was about jumping or acting like raper even on the floor. There was also the acting like top model fashion teen group walking allllll the night long... also pogo type but soft version of it. Then there were 2 slows during all the evening and ... well chaperone like us were then hyper super busy. And the last dance of the night was a slow... the last chance for cupidon! At this point we were overbooked! I discovered that slow time is the pet hate of the chaperones!
The lights were minimised and it was a bit sad : no spotlight, no nothing - only tiny white lights on the wall. On the food side... water in transparent bottles (to check the content, no soda or juices) and popcorn at least (buttered and saltied of course). Weird as we are all aware that the average american does not cook and eats bad food most of the time. These rules were against their habits and it should bring some fun to the evening but to propose fun food during these parties, not at the canteen or the lunch box! We are very far away fron my personal culture on this point. Regarding the different types of people there was it was very funny to see the difference. The cools were in the corridor at the beginning. There were all kind of groups : fashionable and trendy, from good families, looser kind of, future dud if they do not calm down very soon (we were given a couple of a names and guys to watch out closely), the group of the hurried (giving lots of work for us! we even had to come close to them to separate them when kissing... special well done to Marie who went to knock knock twice and strongly as the guy was too much concentrated to notice anything else... it was very funny, well for us at least!) and then there was the nerd group... which exist for real in fact not only in soaps! And the nerd was with an overweighted girl who was on her own most of the evening speaking to nobody at all... except to her... nerd... snif snif Marie and myself were very sad with a little tear on the cheek...
At the end of the evening we were asked what were our impressions and overally we found the evening very interesting and say different than the ones we could have had in France.
I also believe that it would be much much better to leave USA before our cutty babies becomes teens, as i do not see where is the constructive side of these parties where everything single is wrong and prohibited... Well anyway,

Bye now!


HHS Rec Dance - Chaperone Guidelines

Entrance
Large sign at door with facts:
$5 cover charge
HHS freshman/sophomores only - no exceptions!!
No re-admittance
Substance Free - Zero Tolerance Event - BE SMART
Police Officar at the door
No backpacks allowed (if a student brings a backpack in it will be labeled and put in the
backpack storage room and kept locked-only adults will have access to this room)
Purses are subject to search
The Hanover Parks & Recreation Department is not responsible for lost or stolen property

Ensure only HHS fresh/soph using HHS id's or class lists
Students will sign in filling out their name and parent contact information
Students will not be allowed in after 9 pm
Any suspicion of drug/alcohol use - see "issues" beiow for action
Stamp hands to monitor no re-admittance policy

During Dance
Chaperones will be posted at:
2 inner gym doors that lead outside
1 gym door
1 back gym/hallway door (be aware there is a back stairway)
Other chaperones should float with one female and one mate checking bathrooms
2 Taking money and guarding the elevator and front stairs
Police officer will be at the door

The following will be posted for students to see:
Inappropriate dancing includes:
Excessive thrusting/grinding
Hands on floor while being "grinded"
Hands on wall while being "grinded"
Large mosh pits (small groups are OK)
Intimate behavior of any kind
If encounter any of the above see "issues" below for action

Lighting
One set of the back lights will remain on during the dance.
The dance area will be light by white holiday lights.

Refreshments
Popcorn and water will be available.

Issues Resolution
Drug/alcohol suspicion - contact Rec. Rep and or police officer immediately
Inappropriate Dancing - tap parties on shoulder and say "let's keep the dancing appropric
Resistance in anyway - contact Rec. Rep
Injury - contact Rec. Rep immediately (1st aid kit and AED are located behind the reception desk in
the lobby)
Mosh pit - stop music if need be
General "out of control"- confront parties and stop music if needed
Fire or other emergency - Evacuate the building to the High School
If needed dial 8-911

End of Dance
Ensure that no students are left without ride before closing Rec. center. Students may use the house phone near the reception desk in the lobby. Dial 8 for an outside line.

Clean up
There is a function in the multi-purpose room on Sunday so it needs to be clean after the dance.
Trash should be picked up and brought to the dumpster in the parking lot
The floor needs to be swept
If needed the entrance should be vacuumed