One month ago today, Dave and I got on a plane and headed off for our new life in Lyon.
One month ago...
31 days ago...
(I was going to dramatically go into the hours and minutes and seconds, but then I have to somehow figure out time difference stuff, and when we got on the plane, and when we got off the plane, and all the things....so you are saved from some of my drama. Say thank you to the complicatedness of time :) )
I keep expecting to feel what I normally feel about the passage of time - that it is going super fast and super slowly simultaneously.
But as I was pondering this while walking Sweet Baby Eleanor Rigby the Destroyer of all Sadness* this morning, I realized that I'm not feeling that expected dichotomy. Currently I'm feeling that there's no way it has only been a month, that I must have left Cornerstone and we must have left our friends and Memphis and everything we formerly knew (ya see how I throw in the drama?), that that big momentous departure had to have been ages ago. That we've been suspended in this new place - hanging in the "transition phase" of language barriers, of "camping" in our apartment with just our air mattress for furniture, of no set friend group, of no set routines, of figuring out how bills work, of wondering where to buy things we need because Kroger and Target don't exist... - we've been suspended in this new place forever.
I don't know why I feel that way, but it's the truth of how I feel currently.
I'm wondering/hoping/anticipating that the arrival of the shipping container with the rest of our belongings (hopefully this coming Monday or Wednesday!) will help bring some "this is not just an odd transitional floaty stage y'all are in, you really did move here and this is now your life" realness to my mind.
In case you're wondering how I celebrated this one month lunaversary** - I first had a horribly ridiculous meltdown within 15 minutes of being awake; followed by about an hour of watching clips and reading articles about the Duke vs Carolina game that I slept through because it was at 3am and I forgot that we finally have wifi in our home and I may have been able to watch it if I'd set my alarm and found it somewhere online; followed by a very stressful but successful phone call to make a doctor's appointment (more on that in a minute); followed by some MUCH needed time with Jesus. On the lineup for the rest of the day - my three hour French class and a dinner at a pub with some of Dave's coworkers.
_______
A quick asterisks explanation because I feel their unexplainedness hanging over my head:
* I married Dave and he helped me realize that I had not been calling Ellie by her full name (how horrible of me) and that her full name is actually Sweet Baby Eleanor Rigby the Destroyer of all Sadness. As "SBERTDOAS" is a weird nickname, I've continued to call her Ellie which my husband graciously allows. Her french id tag (which I ordered yesterday - hooray!) will say Eleanor.
** My mom coined the phrase lunaversary when I was in high school because in fact it is not calendarally or astrologically accurate to call a celebration of one month of anything an anniversary. So shout to Robin Prak for that one.
_______
Several people have told me I should start a blog about our #frenchfords adventures. Their requests reminded me that I did in fact already have a blog and that it was in fact already about experiencing the world....so here I am, typing away :) I cannot promise that this blog will always be very interesting, or very adventurous...since it's mine I will claim the right to be boring and self-reflective and dramatic if I feel the need. Just a disclaimer!
The two things I'll finish with today are the story of my aforementioned phone call to the doctor's office (because I am just proud, not because it's particularly interesting) and a list of things about life here.
The Story.
From the other american couple that moved here at the beginning of January for Dave's company (shout out to Tim and Paula!), we'd received a list of various types of health professionals in the Lyon area who speak English. I needed to make an appointment in order to have a prescription renewed (because who knows how to do that here? not me!), so I google mapped where the few options were and chose the one within a 30 minute walk. I called yesterday and got a message that was in rapid french and all I could figure out was that it contained two alternate phone numbers, but they were spoken so quickly that even with my new knowledge of french numbers (WHICH ARE HARD, BTW), I didn't think I'd be able to get them copied down with repetitive listenings to the message, and even if I did - who knows what the numbers would actually connect me to?? Ah, the adventures of living in a language you don't understand. So I messaged a kind french woman I know to see if she wouldn't mind calling the number at some point to copy down the numbers for me. (Felt SO silly making that request and I told her so - you'll never survive a move like this if you're unwilling to be humble and helpless!) She wasn't available and Paula helped me realize that I'd probably called during lunch hour, so this morning I was ready to try again. The line rang (which in France is actually just slow beeping) and a real live person answered. And our conversation began like this:
Receptionist: Bonjour,
Me: Bonjour, je suis désolé je ne parle pas beaucoup français. Parlez-vous anglais? [Hello, I'm sorry I do not speak good french. Do you speak english?]
Receptionist: Non
Me: J'ai besoin un rendez-vous s'il vous plaît...Je suis américaine mais j'habite à Lyon maintenant [I need to make an appointment please. I am an american but I live in Lyon now]
I won't write out the entire conversation, but the gist of it is that I managed to tell her why I needed the appointment, give her my basic information, confirm that the doctor she told me I'd see can speak english, and confirm that I was understanding the right appointment date. I then immediately texted Dave to tell him what happened and that I felt like vomiting from stress, but that I'd DONE it. (And my supportive husband echoed my pride with his own :) ).
This may not seem like a big deal to you. But I have learned that phone conversations are absolutely the hardest, so I am ridiculously excited about this successful interaction!! And honestly still get a little nervous stomachache while thinking about it because, good night irene, it's stressful.
And I'm such a teacher's pet that part of me wants to run to school and tell my teachers how I did! (but I should probably finish this blog post and do my homework first....)
The List.
this is a list of randomly ordered observations that I've made while living here, of differences - no judgment passed on good or bad (usually)...or of just random things I want to share
- dog poo is everywhere
- the drier has a thing that I pull out after every load and dump the water that it's just sucked out of the clothing down the sink
- related to the above, the washer has some kind of hose that I couldn't understand anything the installation man told me about it so I haven't messed with it. hopefully that continues to go okay
- I get text messages from the phone company about random sales that other stores are having
- the sterotypical image of french people walking around eating baguettes is real life
- the bread here is FLIPPING AMAZING. seriously. the idea of not living near this bread again makes part of me want to fall in love with France and never leave.
- the kiwis we got from the street market two weeks ago are the greatest kiwis I've ever tasted in my life (Dave also felt this way about one of the oranges he had, from the same vendor -- maybe she uses magic to grow her produce)
- I don't know where to buy stuff
- sales don't happen all the time here - there are two sale seasons (one after Christmas and one in the summer) so everybody gotta get everything bought up then
- there are two trees in our apartment left her by the previous tenant that weren't watered for about 5 months. I'm trying to save them. If you have a green thumb, send me your green energy
- the river is still getting higher - I'm interested to witness it's habits here, having lived near the Mississippi for so long
- lots of streets are one way so you only have to look one way before crossing the street
- hot chocolate is made by steaming hot milk and then putting a blob of solid chocolate in it on the end of a popsicle stick. not as sweet, but quite delicious
- I haven't seen milk sold in anything bigger than a liter yet
- lots of things are smaller here: dishwashers, ovens, trash cans, fridges, serving sizes, drink cans, candy servings
- our toilet is in a room all by itself with just a little sink
- most places have "seche serviettes" in the shower room - towel warmers!
- I get a text message from the water company that I'm responsible for checking the water meter and reporting the number to them next week
- sometimes peeing by people happens in public. I've seen multiple parents with young children take them over to bushes, pull their pants down and hold them up so they can pee. I don't know if adults do this too...stay tuned
- numbers from 70-99 are really hard. 70 is soixante-dix which literally means "60-10", and then once you get to 80 it is quatre-vingt which is literally "4-20"...so 99 is quatre-vingt-dix-neuf which is "4-20-19"
- phones don't ring, they beep
- some places charge for plastic bags - I think this is a great idea to encourage people to use reusable bags
....I have many more but I really do need to do my homework (I was distracted by my meltdown this morning, don't worry - normally I don't leave it until this late!) and then grab a bite of lunch from the neighborhood boulangerie (bakery) on my way to class.
We are grateful for technology every day so don't hesitate to message, post, whatsapp, email, skype, snail mail at us! We love you all!
Special hugs from me to anyone who actually made it to the end of this rambling, no order, non important information post - I don't promise that next time will be better. #reallife ;)
Kelly out. Mwah!
One month ago...
31 days ago...
(I was going to dramatically go into the hours and minutes and seconds, but then I have to somehow figure out time difference stuff, and when we got on the plane, and when we got off the plane, and all the things....so you are saved from some of my drama. Say thank you to the complicatedness of time :) )
I keep expecting to feel what I normally feel about the passage of time - that it is going super fast and super slowly simultaneously.
But as I was pondering this while walking Sweet Baby Eleanor Rigby the Destroyer of all Sadness* this morning, I realized that I'm not feeling that expected dichotomy. Currently I'm feeling that there's no way it has only been a month, that I must have left Cornerstone and we must have left our friends and Memphis and everything we formerly knew (ya see how I throw in the drama?), that that big momentous departure had to have been ages ago. That we've been suspended in this new place - hanging in the "transition phase" of language barriers, of "camping" in our apartment with just our air mattress for furniture, of no set friend group, of no set routines, of figuring out how bills work, of wondering where to buy things we need because Kroger and Target don't exist... - we've been suspended in this new place forever.
I don't know why I feel that way, but it's the truth of how I feel currently.
I'm wondering/hoping/anticipating that the arrival of the shipping container with the rest of our belongings (hopefully this coming Monday or Wednesday!) will help bring some "this is not just an odd transitional floaty stage y'all are in, you really did move here and this is now your life" realness to my mind.
In case you're wondering how I celebrated this one month lunaversary** - I first had a horribly ridiculous meltdown within 15 minutes of being awake; followed by about an hour of watching clips and reading articles about the Duke vs Carolina game that I slept through because it was at 3am and I forgot that we finally have wifi in our home and I may have been able to watch it if I'd set my alarm and found it somewhere online; followed by a very stressful but successful phone call to make a doctor's appointment (more on that in a minute); followed by some MUCH needed time with Jesus. On the lineup for the rest of the day - my three hour French class and a dinner at a pub with some of Dave's coworkers.
_______
A quick asterisks explanation because I feel their unexplainedness hanging over my head:
* I married Dave and he helped me realize that I had not been calling Ellie by her full name (how horrible of me) and that her full name is actually Sweet Baby Eleanor Rigby the Destroyer of all Sadness. As "SBERTDOAS" is a weird nickname, I've continued to call her Ellie which my husband graciously allows. Her french id tag (which I ordered yesterday - hooray!) will say Eleanor.
** My mom coined the phrase lunaversary when I was in high school because in fact it is not calendarally or astrologically accurate to call a celebration of one month of anything an anniversary. So shout to Robin Prak for that one.
_______
Several people have told me I should start a blog about our #frenchfords adventures. Their requests reminded me that I did in fact already have a blog and that it was in fact already about experiencing the world....so here I am, typing away :) I cannot promise that this blog will always be very interesting, or very adventurous...since it's mine I will claim the right to be boring and self-reflective and dramatic if I feel the need. Just a disclaimer!
The two things I'll finish with today are the story of my aforementioned phone call to the doctor's office (because I am just proud, not because it's particularly interesting) and a list of things about life here.
The Story.
From the other american couple that moved here at the beginning of January for Dave's company (shout out to Tim and Paula!), we'd received a list of various types of health professionals in the Lyon area who speak English. I needed to make an appointment in order to have a prescription renewed (because who knows how to do that here? not me!), so I google mapped where the few options were and chose the one within a 30 minute walk. I called yesterday and got a message that was in rapid french and all I could figure out was that it contained two alternate phone numbers, but they were spoken so quickly that even with my new knowledge of french numbers (WHICH ARE HARD, BTW), I didn't think I'd be able to get them copied down with repetitive listenings to the message, and even if I did - who knows what the numbers would actually connect me to?? Ah, the adventures of living in a language you don't understand. So I messaged a kind french woman I know to see if she wouldn't mind calling the number at some point to copy down the numbers for me. (Felt SO silly making that request and I told her so - you'll never survive a move like this if you're unwilling to be humble and helpless!) She wasn't available and Paula helped me realize that I'd probably called during lunch hour, so this morning I was ready to try again. The line rang (which in France is actually just slow beeping) and a real live person answered. And our conversation began like this:
Receptionist: Bonjour,
Me: Bonjour, je suis désolé je ne parle pas beaucoup français. Parlez-vous anglais? [Hello, I'm sorry I do not speak good french. Do you speak english?]
Receptionist: Non
Me:
I won't write out the entire conversation, but the gist of it is that I managed to tell her why I needed the appointment, give her my basic information, confirm that the doctor she told me I'd see can speak english, and confirm that I was understanding the right appointment date. I then immediately texted Dave to tell him what happened and that I felt like vomiting from stress, but that I'd DONE it. (And my supportive husband echoed my pride with his own :) ).
This may not seem like a big deal to you. But I have learned that phone conversations are absolutely the hardest, so I am ridiculously excited about this successful interaction!! And honestly still get a little nervous stomachache while thinking about it because, good night irene, it's stressful.
And I'm such a teacher's pet that part of me wants to run to school and tell my teachers how I did! (but I should probably finish this blog post and do my homework first....)
The List.
this is a list of randomly ordered observations that I've made while living here, of differences - no judgment passed on good or bad (usually)...or of just random things I want to share
- dog poo is everywhere
- the drier has a thing that I pull out after every load and dump the water that it's just sucked out of the clothing down the sink
- related to the above, the washer has some kind of hose that I couldn't understand anything the installation man told me about it so I haven't messed with it. hopefully that continues to go okay
- I get text messages from the phone company about random sales that other stores are having
- the sterotypical image of french people walking around eating baguettes is real life
- the bread here is FLIPPING AMAZING. seriously. the idea of not living near this bread again makes part of me want to fall in love with France and never leave.
- the kiwis we got from the street market two weeks ago are the greatest kiwis I've ever tasted in my life (Dave also felt this way about one of the oranges he had, from the same vendor -- maybe she uses magic to grow her produce)
- I don't know where to buy stuff
- sales don't happen all the time here - there are two sale seasons (one after Christmas and one in the summer) so everybody gotta get everything bought up then
- there are two trees in our apartment left her by the previous tenant that weren't watered for about 5 months. I'm trying to save them. If you have a green thumb, send me your green energy
- the river is still getting higher - I'm interested to witness it's habits here, having lived near the Mississippi for so long
- lots of streets are one way so you only have to look one way before crossing the street
- hot chocolate is made by steaming hot milk and then putting a blob of solid chocolate in it on the end of a popsicle stick. not as sweet, but quite delicious
- I haven't seen milk sold in anything bigger than a liter yet
- lots of things are smaller here: dishwashers, ovens, trash cans, fridges, serving sizes, drink cans, candy servings
- our toilet is in a room all by itself with just a little sink
- most places have "seche serviettes" in the shower room - towel warmers!
- I get a text message from the water company that I'm responsible for checking the water meter and reporting the number to them next week
- sometimes peeing by people happens in public. I've seen multiple parents with young children take them over to bushes, pull their pants down and hold them up so they can pee. I don't know if adults do this too...stay tuned
- numbers from 70-99 are really hard. 70 is soixante-dix which literally means "60-10", and then once you get to 80 it is quatre-vingt which is literally "4-20"...so 99 is quatre-vingt-dix-neuf which is "4-20-19"
- phones don't ring, they beep
- some places charge for plastic bags - I think this is a great idea to encourage people to use reusable bags
....I have many more but I really do need to do my homework (I was distracted by my meltdown this morning, don't worry - normally I don't leave it until this late!) and then grab a bite of lunch from the neighborhood boulangerie (bakery) on my way to class.
We are grateful for technology every day so don't hesitate to message, post, whatsapp, email, skype, snail mail at us! We love you all!
Special hugs from me to anyone who actually made it to the end of this rambling, no order, non important information post - I don't promise that next time will be better. #reallife ;)
Kelly out. Mwah!
Laughing out loud at the dog poo comment, and reliving my early days living in Brussels. There was dog poo everywhere! So proud of you for actually attempting (and succeeding) phone conversations in French. That is huge for only being there a month! I used to get the same stomach thingy going on when engaging with the native French speakers, but it gets better and better and most folks were patient and kind...or took pity! Please keep your blog posts coming!
ReplyDeleteYes, people have told me on several occasions that people in Lyon are "colder" than people in Paris, but I have not found them to be cold at all! Most people have been kind and Dave and I have had quite a few experiences of people even taking the time to help us pronounce things correctly or asking us where we're from, etc. That's one of the reasons I am motivated to keep learning quickly -- I want to be able to have further conversations with these people! :)
Delete