So, while living in France for a year may seem like a vacation, real life kicks in after a while, involving all the routine daily activities, particularly when you have children.
So, what does a average day/week look like for us.
The girls go to a public French school where the normal schedule is 8:30-11:30, break for lunch and back to school 1:30-3:45. Wednesday they are only in school in the morning.
Most days we are up at 7, mom makes breakfast while everyone wakes and gets dressed. We tend to eat similarly to what we did in the States, eggs, cereal, hot cereal, pancakes, waffles.
We leave around 8 to park at Larry's school. The traffic at the girls' school is often crazy, even more so if the weather is bad or cold and they are also currently repairing the road in front of their school, which involves one way traffic, parking spots filled with equipment and other misc. It's just a 5 minute walk to from Larry's school. There are no buses to take students, so parents either walk or drive them. (There are some buses for the middle/upper schools as there are fewer buildings so the kids have to travel farther)
I spend my mornings in several ways, exercise usually at least 4 mornings a week, the other morning being a grocery run to the neighboring town. There is also normal household chores, laundry(we have to spread out loads since we have a drying rack that can only realistically hold 1 large load), cleaning, dishes, which are a never-ending chore. We do not have a dishwasher and we really only have enough dishes for one meal, unless you use bowls instead of plates for one meal then maybe you can get away with two meals. Right now another chore is taking care of the fire, ashes, and bringing in firewood.
Most days Larry starts class at 9:00 and goes till 12:30, he packs or eats lunch at his school and then has afternoon class from around 1:30-4:30. If he doesn't have other work we meet him after I pick up the girls, but often he has fgroup work and stays later. He may get a ride home, or give us a call to pick him up.
The girls break for lunch at 11:30. We have decided that a break for lunch at home is good for the girls. Since school is all in French it gives their brains a break from all the language, plus lunches are a bit expensive to our standards, about 4,40€ per girl, which would be about $10 total per day.
I drop the girls off at 1:30 for afternoon class, and then I sometimes head to Larry's school to spend some time focusing on language learning. I may also try to do some reading, or if I am home prep dinner. I also try to fit in at least a 30 minute focus on French, using internet websites or videos, occasionally some audio podcasts on iTunes. It's a slow acquisition for sure.
We pick up the girls at 3:45 on most days, except Monday when Maria stays later for some tutoring with her teacher to improve her French and we pick her up at 4:30. Anna just stays late that day, which both girls can do any of the other days, Tues., Thurs. or Fri. without charge. If they stay later, after 4:30 then there is a charge like aftercare(mainly for working parents), there is also a before school care for parents who have to leave early for work.
Our evening are a whirlwind of homework, dinner prep, and bedtime. Larry is the homework expert this year since it's all in French. I can jump in if needed, but it will certainly take me longer and the dictionary will be used more than once!
Most weeks seem to fly by. We find ourselves asking, "It's Friday already?" We try to be intentional to enjoy our weekends, but with the increase of Larry's workload and the decrease in temperature we find ourselves being a bit of homebodies. We have jumped into a hiking club with a local group, next weekend will be our second trip assuming the weather proves nice enough to go. Sunday nights we also attend an International English church in Aix en Provence called ICCP. We have really felt at home and made quite a few friends. We even went on a retreat with fellow church members. I attend a weekly Bible study and the girls are part of the children's choir. It really is a friendly congregation.
So you see our lives don't look all that different apart from the language change.
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Monday, December 1, 2014
Stereotypes
Probably the one common thing that people "warned" us about before we came to France was that the people were unfriendly. I found this quite annoying, and particularly unusual advice from people who have never been to France personally or maybe had only traveled for a short time, most likely visiting big cities such as Paris or Lyon.
Well, I would have to tell them that they are most definitely wrong. We have had nothing but great positive experiences during our three months time here, despite the normal bumps in the road.
Here are some stories to evidence the kind people that we have come to know that characterize the French:
~On more than one occasion I have been told by other parents that if I need any help that they would be willing to help us out.~Anna has been invited to lunch several times, and when Maria invited a guest he brought presents for the girls! Hopefully that's not a general expectation, I think his mom is just especially sweet.
~We, the girls and I, have been invited to several play-dates or gouter(a late afternoon snack).
~A woman who heard us speaking English at the Mediabus, gave us her contact information and asked us to call her if we had any problems or needed help. Several weeks later upon seeing her again, she had the girls and I come to her house for a visit.
~One of Larry's classmates went out of his way to contact an office by telephone on several occasions to help resolve a problem.
~A worker at a gift shop not only gave us good directions, she also wrote them out for us.
~While standing looking at a map to make sure we were headed down into the right Metro, a man stopped and asked us we were lost and where we were headed. After explaining to him, he started to tell us how to get where we needed and then decided to just take us and show us. So, down we went following this kind French gentleman, who, by the way, had left his wife waiting at the top of the metro.
~Our landlords went out of their way to help us purchase our car and most importantly insurance. Our landlady actually took us to the office of their insurance agent, since getting it otherwise was proving difficult.
~Our landlady also took the girls and Larry and I to the first day of school, making sure that everyone understood everything.
~We missed that we needed to weigh our fruit ourselves at the grocery and when we were checking out the cashier was trying to explain what we needed to do. We didn't quite understand, so another women in line who overheard came and showed me what she meant.
I could go on and on and on...so, think before you judge and pass along stereotypes that you don't know are true. The French have been lovely and honestly more friendly than people in towns we have moved into in the States.
Well, I would have to tell them that they are most definitely wrong. We have had nothing but great positive experiences during our three months time here, despite the normal bumps in the road.
Here are some stories to evidence the kind people that we have come to know that characterize the French:
~On more than one occasion I have been told by other parents that if I need any help that they would be willing to help us out.~Anna has been invited to lunch several times, and when Maria invited a guest he brought presents for the girls! Hopefully that's not a general expectation, I think his mom is just especially sweet.
~We, the girls and I, have been invited to several play-dates or gouter(a late afternoon snack).
~A woman who heard us speaking English at the Mediabus, gave us her contact information and asked us to call her if we had any problems or needed help. Several weeks later upon seeing her again, she had the girls and I come to her house for a visit.
~One of Larry's classmates went out of his way to contact an office by telephone on several occasions to help resolve a problem.
~A worker at a gift shop not only gave us good directions, she also wrote them out for us.
~While standing looking at a map to make sure we were headed down into the right Metro, a man stopped and asked us we were lost and where we were headed. After explaining to him, he started to tell us how to get where we needed and then decided to just take us and show us. So, down we went following this kind French gentleman, who, by the way, had left his wife waiting at the top of the metro.
~Our landlords went out of their way to help us purchase our car and most importantly insurance. Our landlady actually took us to the office of their insurance agent, since getting it otherwise was proving difficult.
~Our landlady also took the girls and Larry and I to the first day of school, making sure that everyone understood everything.
~We missed that we needed to weigh our fruit ourselves at the grocery and when we were checking out the cashier was trying to explain what we needed to do. We didn't quite understand, so another women in line who overheard came and showed me what she meant.
I could go on and on and on...so, think before you judge and pass along stereotypes that you don't know are true. The French have been lovely and honestly more friendly than people in towns we have moved into in the States.
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Life's differences
Yes, life in France is different. Some differences in life are good, some are annoying, some just make you want to scream. I know over time that some of the differences will fade into normal, I experienced this in Ecuador. Over the year I lived there, many of the things that initially were strange or hard to accept, became normal and commonplace for me. And now as time has faded, only the most unusual or pleasing stand out in my mind. I am glad that a friend and I made a list of "top ways to know you are in Ecuador." So, I will attempt to capture some of the newness and things that strike me at the beginning of our time here. Maybe even allowing me to reflect back on it as the year passes.
Driving: Never having learned to drive a manual, that was the first task to tackle for me. While mastering that I encountered many things that perhaps made it even more difficult. Many of the roads surrounding the area we live are particularly windy and narrow. Many, many places when you encounter a car, either you or the oncoming vehicle must pull off the edge and stop, you will even see areas in the ditch that area a result of this. The roundabouts, or rotary, as our TomTom calls them actually have made driving the manual a bit easier and if we miss a turn, we can count on a roundabout to help us navigate back to our turn.
There are many one-lane bridges and underpasses, one we use each morning, where we can't even see oncoming cars, so we honk and pray that no one is approaching. Not sure why there isn't a mirror at this spot as mirrors are very common due to the narrow, windy roads and houses commonly having walls and tall hedges. Which reminds me of another difference, in the US we commonly can see the house in neighborhoods all down the street, and over into the neighbors backyard. Here they go out of their way to black any view of they house from neighbors, passersby, you can literally live next to house and not know what they look like or never see the neighbors. I have finally seen that we live next to an older couple, I know this only because I saw the wife on the second story patio.
Parking...yes, you can almost park anywhere, unless the authorities are present, and it's common to temporarily park and put on your hazards; is the easiest way to accomplish an errand, unless you can walk rather than drive somewhere. Cars are small here, so spaces are small too, and it's normal to fold in your mirrors to fit a tight spot. Love the parking garages we have used that have a lighted system of green and red for letting you know whether each spot is vacant or full. We need that in the States, or maybe we have it and I've never experienced it.
Groceries/Food:
Food seems more expensive in general(although it's sometimes hard to compare with the difference in packaging and measurement, I have to remind myself that a K is over 2 lbs). As a result we are choosing to eat less meat(which seems to be most expensive), and make use of other sources of protein, beans and cheese since it is in such abundance here! SO many kinds too. A complete aisle with various kinds, one side almost entirely yogurts and puddings(they are really popular). A whole aisle of small packages of cookies, but little in the way of salty snacks, and when you do find them, they are these tiny bags. You know how our grocery has hundreds of kinds of cereal, it's like that with cheese and cookies here, but not much cereal.
Some general observances about the grocery. The carts have 4 wheels that all rotate, which makes it really hard to control them, so I have taken not to wear well-tractioned shoes to control the cart! The store also seems to have a really strong meat/fish odor. At checkout you are expected to handle the task of bagging your things. The counter descends and you have a pileup of groceries when the checker is done.
Some foods we have had a hard time finding
Peanut Butter: Nutella is really, really popular here, but it's so chock full of sugar and little protein. For sure, it's super yummy, but we need something a bit more substantial for making sandwiches.
Baking soda I finally found, but was using baking powder which comes in these small packets, kind of like yeast, but only holds a couple teaspoons.
Hot breakfast cereal is also something we don't see often. Oatmeal comes in smaller packages, but we have discovered that we like rice, couscous, and polenta for breakfast even more than cold cereal! I was even able to find what is basically Cream of Wheat and Cream of Rice hot cereal, near the flour and baking items.
Greetings:
I love the politeness of the French. They greet people upon entering a shop, room, and again upon leaving. Some, but not all use the European kiss, mostly one on each cheek here. Lots of please, thank you, thank you very much can be heard as well.
The two-hour lunch break: It's great for the girls to have a break from the all-French they have at school. We pick them up and head home for lunch. Many students stay at school, and the smaller shops close for lunch. Don't expect to run errands during this time. One of the bakeries in town even closes till 4 in the afternoon. The other one stays open, they of course get the lunch crowd for business.
Those are just some observances that I have noticed so far, I'll have to update as time goes on.
Driving: Never having learned to drive a manual, that was the first task to tackle for me. While mastering that I encountered many things that perhaps made it even more difficult. Many of the roads surrounding the area we live are particularly windy and narrow. Many, many places when you encounter a car, either you or the oncoming vehicle must pull off the edge and stop, you will even see areas in the ditch that area a result of this. The roundabouts, or rotary, as our TomTom calls them actually have made driving the manual a bit easier and if we miss a turn, we can count on a roundabout to help us navigate back to our turn.
There are many one-lane bridges and underpasses, one we use each morning, where we can't even see oncoming cars, so we honk and pray that no one is approaching. Not sure why there isn't a mirror at this spot as mirrors are very common due to the narrow, windy roads and houses commonly having walls and tall hedges. Which reminds me of another difference, in the US we commonly can see the house in neighborhoods all down the street, and over into the neighbors backyard. Here they go out of their way to black any view of they house from neighbors, passersby, you can literally live next to house and not know what they look like or never see the neighbors. I have finally seen that we live next to an older couple, I know this only because I saw the wife on the second story patio.
Parking...yes, you can almost park anywhere, unless the authorities are present, and it's common to temporarily park and put on your hazards; is the easiest way to accomplish an errand, unless you can walk rather than drive somewhere. Cars are small here, so spaces are small too, and it's normal to fold in your mirrors to fit a tight spot. Love the parking garages we have used that have a lighted system of green and red for letting you know whether each spot is vacant or full. We need that in the States, or maybe we have it and I've never experienced it.
Groceries/Food:
Food seems more expensive in general(although it's sometimes hard to compare with the difference in packaging and measurement, I have to remind myself that a K is over 2 lbs). As a result we are choosing to eat less meat(which seems to be most expensive), and make use of other sources of protein, beans and cheese since it is in such abundance here! SO many kinds too. A complete aisle with various kinds, one side almost entirely yogurts and puddings(they are really popular). A whole aisle of small packages of cookies, but little in the way of salty snacks, and when you do find them, they are these tiny bags. You know how our grocery has hundreds of kinds of cereal, it's like that with cheese and cookies here, but not much cereal.
Some general observances about the grocery. The carts have 4 wheels that all rotate, which makes it really hard to control them, so I have taken not to wear well-tractioned shoes to control the cart! The store also seems to have a really strong meat/fish odor. At checkout you are expected to handle the task of bagging your things. The counter descends and you have a pileup of groceries when the checker is done.
Some foods we have had a hard time finding
Peanut Butter: Nutella is really, really popular here, but it's so chock full of sugar and little protein. For sure, it's super yummy, but we need something a bit more substantial for making sandwiches.
Baking soda I finally found, but was using baking powder which comes in these small packets, kind of like yeast, but only holds a couple teaspoons.
Hot breakfast cereal is also something we don't see often. Oatmeal comes in smaller packages, but we have discovered that we like rice, couscous, and polenta for breakfast even more than cold cereal! I was even able to find what is basically Cream of Wheat and Cream of Rice hot cereal, near the flour and baking items.
Greetings:
I love the politeness of the French. They greet people upon entering a shop, room, and again upon leaving. Some, but not all use the European kiss, mostly one on each cheek here. Lots of please, thank you, thank you very much can be heard as well.
The two-hour lunch break: It's great for the girls to have a break from the all-French they have at school. We pick them up and head home for lunch. Many students stay at school, and the smaller shops close for lunch. Don't expect to run errands during this time. One of the bakeries in town even closes till 4 in the afternoon. The other one stays open, they of course get the lunch crowd for business.
Those are just some observances that I have noticed so far, I'll have to update as time goes on.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Blessings
Sometimes it comes to mind that there have been SO many blessings that I need to make a list. This has been one of those seasons, not to say that God hasn't been blessing me up until this decision to journey to France. I believe that perhaps I have had to have more faith and trust and therefore have been more aware of his working in our lives. Here is a list of those things that came to mind, but by no means a complete list of all God has done!
Family to help us move
A loving farewell with family
Monetary support from family
Family to drive us to NYC
Ease of travel and flights
All our luggage arriving undamaged
Help from someone at Larry's school
-finding our housing
-birth certificate translation
advice on various things
-bank account
-carte dejour
quick adjustment of schedule change
Getting a chance to explore Aix en Provence
Meeting other ex-pats at the park and church
Help from church individuals to move us
Amazing landlords who helped us with
-school registration
-getting a car
-getting car insurance
-providing the misc. things we needed for the house
-allow us to use their pool
-drove us to the first day of school and helped us communicate
-internet connection
Great church service with several invitations to do things together
Good first days for the girls
Nice/supportive teachers at both schools
Friendly parents
Finding an economical grocery solution
Purchasing household supplies easily
Selling our house in the States-over list price
Amazing trip to Cassis
Use of the TomTom to get us around easier
Help with learning to drive a manual
When I look at this list I stand amazed at how God has truly taken care of us, providing for us, even at times we didn't know what we needed. May I keep my eyes on Jesus during this journey, keeping my faith strong enough to keep me above the water. May the most important thing out of this entire year be a stronger relationship with my Savior.
Family to help us move
A loving farewell with family
Monetary support from family
Family to drive us to NYC
Ease of travel and flights
All our luggage arriving undamaged
Help from someone at Larry's school
-finding our housing
-birth certificate translation
advice on various things
-bank account
-carte dejour
quick adjustment of schedule change
Getting a chance to explore Aix en Provence
Meeting other ex-pats at the park and church
Help from church individuals to move us
Amazing landlords who helped us with
-school registration
-getting a car
-getting car insurance
-providing the misc. things we needed for the house
-allow us to use their pool
-drove us to the first day of school and helped us communicate
-internet connection
Great church service with several invitations to do things together
Good first days for the girls
Nice/supportive teachers at both schools
Friendly parents
Finding an economical grocery solution
Purchasing household supplies easily
Selling our house in the States-over list price
Amazing trip to Cassis
Use of the TomTom to get us around easier
Help with learning to drive a manual
When I look at this list I stand amazed at how God has truly taken care of us, providing for us, even at times we didn't know what we needed. May I keep my eyes on Jesus during this journey, keeping my faith strong enough to keep me above the water. May the most important thing out of this entire year be a stronger relationship with my Savior.
Monday, November 12, 2012
a mini vacation
We have plenty to praise God for; a chance to get away as a family and see some friends.
Monday, November 5, 2012
bouncing and teeth!
Thursday, November 1, 2012
school days
We received Anna's preschool pictures today, and I may be biased, but I do think we have the cutest girls ever!
And them I had to get Maria's preschool pictures and compare the two. Definitely sisters!
And then I realized that I don't think I ever posted Maria's school picture this year.
We have plenty to praise God for; the blessing of these two beautiful girls, inside and out.
And then I realized that I don't think I ever posted Maria's school picture this year.
Monday, October 29, 2012
October
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Royle visit
We have plenty to praise; friends we enjoy visiting even after 4 years apart.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Stone's Trace
We spent the day as a family at a Pioneer Festival near Ligonier. They had great activities for the girls to do. We really enjoyed the day and the weather was perfect!
There was a Punch and Judy puppet show, do you think the girls liked it?
They were able to make, with a little help, their very own corn husk doll. (for free)
We got to visit the sheep and chickens and watch one sheep get shorn. Elsewhere we saw spinning looms making the cleaned wool into yarn.
Maria riding a wooden cow?, wearing her new feather hair piece(also free to make).
They rode in a horse drawn wagon, which was only $1.
And Maria tested her corn maze skills.
We also had some yummy food including apple fritters and ice cream! If you live within driving distance we highly recommend visiting next year. It's held the weekend after Labor Day.
Also we are gearing up for more changes around here. Larry starts his new job tomorrow at Symmetry Medical as a manufacturing specialist, we will find out all the details tomorrow at orientation. We are truly blessed to get medical coverage that starts immediately, no wait. Since our coverage from the church just ran out Aug. 31, we are extremely thankful. I guess the part that gives me some dread is Larry will switch to 2nd shift once he is trained. This means that essentially I will be a single mom during the week as he will go in at 3 and home after 11. This is a blessing as we won't have to take Anna to the sitter, whom we love, but any extra $ is helpful in our tighter budget. So, after the dust settles we will see how things all fit together, but I can't thank God enough for providing for us as He has in the past 3 months since moving. He is truly God of our everything.
We have plenty to praise God for; a wonderful day as a family and looking ahead to how God is providing for our needs.
We also had some yummy food including apple fritters and ice cream! If you live within driving distance we highly recommend visiting next year. It's held the weekend after Labor Day.
Also we are gearing up for more changes around here. Larry starts his new job tomorrow at Symmetry Medical as a manufacturing specialist, we will find out all the details tomorrow at orientation. We are truly blessed to get medical coverage that starts immediately, no wait. Since our coverage from the church just ran out Aug. 31, we are extremely thankful. I guess the part that gives me some dread is Larry will switch to 2nd shift once he is trained. This means that essentially I will be a single mom during the week as he will go in at 3 and home after 11. This is a blessing as we won't have to take Anna to the sitter, whom we love, but any extra $ is helpful in our tighter budget. So, after the dust settles we will see how things all fit together, but I can't thank God enough for providing for us as He has in the past 3 months since moving. He is truly God of our everything.
We have plenty to praise God for; a wonderful day as a family and looking ahead to how God is providing for our needs.
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