May 21, 2012
Wow, it’s been a while since an
update, so this could be a long one! We’ve
just been so busy with the three bridge holiday weekends. Having four day weekends three weeks in a row
really cuts down on writing time. Next
year it won’t fall this way, so we’ll only get random mid-week days off. We did some traveling over the weekends so
I’ll try and capture those in writing.
First, my
language lessons are going great; this place does what you need, rather than
classroom style. I still have so much to learn but each week I am able to
communicate a bit more and with less stumbling.
Because most people at the school are learning English, we are the odd
ones out. They usually have several small groups or individuals at one time in
the five rooms, so they use me to help the English learners. I love that, Ross
thinks they might offer me a part time job eventually. We'll see.....
Anyway,
they'll have me come in and the others must ask me questions in English and I
answer them in English. Then we reverse and I ask them in French to help me.
Most of the facilitators are English or Scottish so the students like my easy
English, they say it's loud and clear and slower than the others. I think it's
the lack of strong accent too. We laugh because we're all in the same boat and
struggling, so it's easy to practice with each other. I have to explain so many
American things to them too; they're fascinated with the US. They have about 65
adults learning English from SKF so I have met more people there than Ross has
at work and know personal details about them. It's funny. You know basic
conversation questions......but you find out stuff :) SKF is the largest
employer in the Tours area so everyone knows it. I think there are 4000+ people
employed there. So I meet people from every area where Ross meets more in his
division and building. Plus, at the language school they've learned that I
don't embarrass easily and I'm outgoing enough to mix with strangers. It
terrifies some of them, but I'll meet anybody!
Last
week it was actually three men from Tupperware (another big employer here);
they wanted to understand American driving rules and ages, etc. So, they pulled
me from my room to meet these men and fill them in and answer their questions. They were impressed that for a short while a
very long time ago (1982-1984) I was a Tupperware lady.
What I like about this language place
is that if I have something I need or coming up, we'll go on a field trip. So,
Neil and I toured a pharmacy, have gone looking to make a copy of a key, and
ask directions from people on the street
.
I make his face go red a lot and the
other facilitators love that. Like everywhere I kept seeing "tampons"
lit up in neon signs and on store fronts. Big letters.....I thought, surely not......so I asked....turns out
they're rubber stamps, you know with your return address on them or paid in
full on them......but if you add "hygenique" or "feminine"
to the end, it means what you think. He handles it well; I just treat him a bit
like my teacher and a bit like my kids! He comes in once a week from Paris for
my lessons because of my level and his "native" speaking. The rule is when you have a full days’ worth
of lessons, you take the facilitator to lunch and you pay. (SKF pays me back)
It's good language training to order, etc.....plus we usually tie it into
another stop just to try my skills with a safeguard. I do so much on my own, so
it's been kind of fun. I just can't call them our "lunch date" like I
would with Calum :) We like this one little pizza cafe and go there a lot, this
week he was laughing because they know us. I said they probably think "oh
isn't it nice, that lady taking her son to lunch". I laugh and tell him
all the reasons the restaurant would be shut down in the US. We enjoy the food
and it’s a fun little place, we haven’t gotten sick or died yet, so I guess the
US regulations are maybe a bit too much!
Sometimes, if Ross has an afternoon class he joins us for lunch too.
Neil's been super helpful but after
this many sessions we know an awful lot about each other's personal lives. He likes a lot of my random questions….like
“who picks if an object is masculine or feminine?” And “why is a bra
masculine?”
And why on earth do we have to
say “I have five years” instead of “I am five years old”. Or if it’s in the
future, why say “Je vais aller” which literally means I go go…..instead of “I
will go”. Sometimes I overthink it a bit
too much.
Anyway, I am plugging along and
getting better at communicating my needs.
I still struggle with the responses, but that’s getting better. I made a hair appointment for tomorrow, my
first one here, so I’m hoping for success.
Explaining a cut and color seems so simple in English!!
I’ve also gone once to the
kinesiotherapist for a massage. In the
US I go once a month for a deep tissue massage.
It’s not for relaxation at all, but rather to keep my muscles from
getting tight and stiff. I can so tell I
have not been going regularly. My joints
are stiffer and my muscles not cooperating. The record rainfall in April/May
hasn’t helped either….my arthritis is letting me know it’s still there. Well, just like the doctor, she stood there
while I took my clothes off (down to my bra and undies-don’t worry…..no nudity,
although I am sure some French people would think nothing of it), no blanket or
draping on the table, plus they have been trained to work only one area at a
time for a half hour. Oh my, I really needed a good workout too. I liked her and she wants to learn more
English as well. I’m like the local
expert J
it helped and I’ll go back, but I need more. She’s agreed to try longer and two
areas. In the meantime I found a massage
school in Luynes. He also does
massage. Like the US, you have to be
careful here which is why I went to the kiniesiologist, they’re at least
medical in nature. I just didn’t want to
end up in a parlor of some sort with someone touching more than my
muscles! From what I’ve read on this guy’s
website, it’s more what I want, so I go tomorrow for an hour and 15
minutes. We’ll see……fortunately as Ross
pointed out, I’m bigger than all the French people so if I’m in an
uncomfortable situation I can probably take them! J He actually said that
about a French jail cell when I said I never want to be stopped by the police
for driving or anything and put in jail.
One very fun thing I’ve noticed
here…..it’s random I know, but I love it.
When I go to my little bakery in town for bread or pastry it doesn’t
matter how many people are in line behind me, they wrap my pastry up like it’s
a beautiful gift, usually complete with a ribbon. No one complains or gets impatient, they just
wait. The bread gets a triangle paper
wrapped around the center. But I LOVE in
the evening getting out the pastry and having to open the “present”. It just tastes better that way. Every bakery is the same and everyone just
waits. It’s like a quaint cultural thing
but very amazing especially with a line going out the door.
If I have Sophie, I usually pick
her up, although that isn’t necessary, she can just walk in with me. She causes quite a stir being so little for
her breed. They’ve never seen a teacup
Aussie before so they want to pet her and say hello. We went for a walk in the park this week and
got stopped by a guy who wanted to know all about her.
So, for our first long weekend,
we went to visit Ross’ cousin Laura and her husband Christopher. We hadn’t seen them in years, but have kept
in touch. They live 3 hours from us in
the Vondy which is near the coast.
Christopher is French, so Laura has learned the language very well over
the years although her strong Scottish accent makes a few words and sounds
difficult for her. As we arrived, she
came out to greet us with her two little dogs and two cats. There are also two horses in the field! The
big dog Leelu wasn’t there so she started calling for her. As the dog approached us, we saw she had a
lovely present for us. She had been down
in the field and brought us a freshly killed rabbit, blood dripping and all. We
just laughed and laughed. We took Sophie
and she soon adjusted to the menagerie!
One of the highlights of the
weekend was a trip to Noir-Moutier, an island off the coast where Christopher
works. First you take the “passage du
gois” which is a road to the island, probably 4-5 miles long. BUT, you can only take the road when the tide
is out, otherwise the road is underwater.
As we crossed, families had parked on the sand and were out collecting
the shellfish, mostly mussels. The signs
at each end of the road tell you what times that day the road will be
open. It’s only about 2-3 hours twice a day. We drove up to see it at the end of our visit
and it was amazing….just an ocean view and you can’t imagine that a road is
there. There is one bridge on the other
side of the island for easy access, but the “passage du gois” was fascinating. On the island, they are most famous for the
salt they collect. We bought some to
bring home, fresh from the ocean. We
looked at the collection sites and the process, amazing! It takes sea salt to
the next level!
Christopher works as the managing
director of three resorts called “Original Camping” and if you Google it, you
can see some of the sites. It’s amazing;
in fact the press has labeled it “GLAMPING” for glamorous camping! We toured the one site and they are developing
the other two sites. The cabin/tent
things are very cool. They start simple and
go up to the one I’d like to stay in, complete with your bed overlooking the
ocean! It really is a fabulous site and
not camping like at all. The restaurant
was just opening as we were there so Christopher took us to be guinea pigs for
a sample menu. Seriously, it’s a rustic
looking, classy beach like restaurant.
We were treated so nicely and we were the only ones there except for
another employee and her family. So it
was custom for us and the food was fabulous.
The man who owns the sites is this amazing entrepreneur who helped
develop the modern art museum in Paris, owns his own chateau and vineyard. Only his wines are served in the restaurant and
they’re only available in very few wine stores.
This is his newest venture and it
has taken off. We really enjoyed our day
and think the sites will be very popular.
We also went the next day to a
seaside town called St. Gilles, which was beautiful. Ross had his first “moulles frites” which is
mussels and fries. It’s a seasonal thing
and from table to table, bowls of mussels were brought out. I’ve never seen so many in my life. I had another entrée but ate a few mussels as
well. They were very good and fresh, but
I just didn’t want an entire bowl of them.
The next weekend, Ross had business
in Brussels, so I went along and we made a long weekend out of it. I took Sophie for her first visit ever to a
kennel. A lady at work recommended it to
Ross. It is run by a woman about my age and
her mother. We drove out into the
country to get there and they were both very nice. We then laughed as they decided Sophie didn’t
need to go out back in the kennel with the other dogs, but rather she would
stay inside the house with them and be like their pet! They raise Pomeranians but kept them away as
they’re nippy. But Sophie spent the time
with them and their two cats in the house and running in the garden. Honestly!
We took the train to Brussels and
stayed in the old downtown section. We
did this for ease of walking around without a car. Ross worked on the Friday so I had the day to
explore and see the sights. I enjoyed a
breakfast at a little café on the square with one of their two waffle
dishes. There is the normal what we’d
call Belgian waffle, fresh made on the street or this smaller version called a “gaufres de Liege aux perles de sucre” It’s similar to the waffle only crunchier
because of the sugar crystals. They top it with all kinds of things; I had
strawberries and cream but watched kids getting it topped with nutella or
chocolate!
The city itself was amazing to
see and the buildings beautiful, but it wasn’t my favorite place at all. It was dirty and pretty rough; we had to use
our room key to get the elevator to go to our room to keep others off the floors. On the streets, the beggars were plentiful,
mostly Romanians called Roms and they had a sad kind of organized routine. They had territories and met up every hour or
so in the square and would trade children; so you’d see the same child all day
but with several different adults. While
sitting on a bench enjoying my sandwich I was approached by 8 different beggars
within an hour. Then there was one
little old man with a trowel collecting every used cigarette butt he could and
wrapping them in napkins and putting them in his pockets. I asked and he would then take them and shake
out any whatever you call the cigarette part and use rolling papers to make his
own smokes. It was soooo sad. I watched one Rom pull a carton from the
trash that had leftover fries with mayonnaise (the local treat), she handed it
to the three year old who proceeded to take the used fork from the container and
eat the dregs of what was left. That
really bothered me, we had been warned not to give money as it is an organized begging
system, but it all was so sad to me.
We took the train to Bruge the
next day which was a lovely old town. The buildings were just amazing and the
shops carried the local lace that is hand done. We had a great meal in a little
sidewalk café and enjoyed the day.
Sunday our train wasn’t until
4:15PM but we had really had enough and wanted to catch the earlier one at
noon. I had tripped and stumbled on the cobblestones
the day before and had a few bruises on my arm and knee, plus the cold damp was
making me achy. It was also Mother’s Day
in the US, so I was kind of feeling weepy at not being with my kids for the first
time. I just really wanted to go home. You know that feeling where that’s it….you
just want to be home. So we walked to the
local train station where they couldn’t change our tickets and said we needed
to do it by phone. So back to the hotel
where the desk clerk tried but was told we needed to go to the main station to
do it. So now we hauled our suitcases
and took the local train to the main station.
Once there, we were told they couldn’t change our tickets as they were
purchased in France and with Ross’s frequent train card discount so it would
cost like 80 euro each. SO…..I spent my Mother’s Day with Ross and our luggage
at the train station for five hours until our train. We walked around, ate, read our books, etc,
but it was a looooong day. As the train
passed into France I could turn my phone on again and there were messages from
the kids and I was able to text back and forth with them. Pitiful I know, but sometimes these things
just get to me. Ross advised me to get out
my sunspecs as I started reading my messages…..good call…then no one could see
my tears!! But it was the good laughing
tears. Tristan had written a message in French, Katie and email and card,
Lindsay and Calum numerous texts and an email gift…..we arrived home about 9PM
and I was able to have a Skype date which helped.
Then during the week we Skyped
with Katie and Liam several times and I got to watch him try peaches for the first
time and watch his crazy almost crawling thing.
He screeches at us on the screen which makes us just smile! So, my emotional moment passed and all is
well again.
This weekend Ross had Thursday,
Friday off as well but we did things around the house. We had dinner with Anne-Rachel and Paco
Friday night and had a great time. They
have three kids and the middle one Martha is a hoot, she’s 3 or 4 and just
makes us laugh. Naomi the oldest is more
serious, but she and I were able to converse in French which was nice. The baby Esteban is just over a year and almost
walking. We’re planning a day trip with
them next week to Chennanceau, a local chateau.
We have two sets of guests coming
up and we are excited. Our friends
Jacques and Claire are moving back to France after 16 years in the US, we’re
their first stop for a few days before heading to family and getting
settled. We’re looking forward to their
visit!! They helped us so much before we
moved and made it not so difficult for us.
Then my friend from Pennsylvania Dyane and her husband Todd are coming
in June. He has a medical conference on
Paris and they’re coming for a couple days.
I can’t wait; Ross says he and Todd won’t have to say a word, Dyane and
I will be talking nonstop!!!!! We raised
our kids together and did so much together when the kids were young; it will be
fun to be just grownups!! We’re all
grandparents, so I’m sure we’ll be talking a bit about our grandkids!!!
The bathroom renovations are
still underway. I’m hoping it is
finished before our first guests arrive next week. Nothing moves fast
here! I like some of the things they
picked for the bathroom, other bits aren’t my taste, but I am excited to get
rid of the ugly tile and worn out tub and have a brand new room with a shower
stall!!
Then I think the landlord is
going to re paint the kitchen and put in a new floor. J That will be two out
of the three ugly brown tiled rooms changed….yahoo! We still will have the main area tiles, but
one set is tolerable, the three butting up against each other was something
else!!! We would have lived happily with
everything the way it was, but I admit I do like new and fresh! I feel like we’re making friends with the plumber
and his wife (and dog), so that is nice.
We work on our languages together and it actually has helped us both.
Ross is in the US this week for
work, but in Philly, not Georgia. I have
a busy week, but have the car so that helps.
We go together to the US in June where we’ll both head to camp for teen
camp and a family visit. After we return,
we’re going to get a little car for me.
That will help me get around town and do my errands.
So, that’s the last few weeks…….we’re
still struggling at church, but praying we get that figured out. The language issue is one thing, but there are
a few doctrine issues we don’t like. We’re
not sure where we’re supposed to be or what we’re supposed to do, so that is
difficult. But, we plug along and in
general we are really happy here. If the
weather will ever turn warm and sunny, I’ll be so happy! I’ve really gotten used to my hot Georgia days. I’m thinking I will roast when we are back
this summer…..my body is now used to this colder damp weather. We still have the heat on! I turn it off if
there is an afternoon I can open a window, but in general, it’s still on and I wear
a jacket to go out places. That is so
different for me!!! I see the kids on
Skype in shorts and sleeveless shirts and the sun shining…..so I’m basically
paying for A/C in the US at the same time I’m paying for heat here…….amazing!
Off for lunch than a Skype date
with Lindsay and a mystery person. She
told me to make sure my makeup and hair were good and that I wasn’t in my
jammies. We usually Skype when she gets
home from work so it’s 10 or 11 Pm for me, so I’m pretty haggard by then! So I’ve been wondering who my mystery Skype
date is with and have conjured up some amazing scenarios!! I’m sure the reality is nothing as crazy as
my imagination. Ross has been laughing
and laughing at my guesses. She’s off
school, so we can Skype earlier and yes, I did my hair and makeup and I’m wearing
clothes, not jammies!
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