Sunday, July 25, 2010

Within 12 Hours of Landing in the US, I was Eating This...


#1 combo meal--no mayonnaise, no onions, no cheese with an ice tea to drink!

A special order at a fast food restaurant (or any restaurant, for that matter), what a concept!


Monday, July 19, 2010

Things I'll miss for the next month


The promised list: Things I will miss about France even for just a one month vacation

1. Bread, bread, bread. We absolutely go to a bakery everyday and buy fresh bread. While there, Lily and Zack usually do get some sort of flaky, sweet pastry as a snack. (I demand from them and allow myself only one delicious bite of this buttery heaven). Wonder bread, just isn't going to cut it while in Ohio. I'll guess I'll go back to being a carbohydrate-phobic for a couple of weeks!
This is the inside of "our" little, corner boulangerie...please note the people in line...there is ALWAYS a line at this place no matter what time of day it is.

2. The scenery. The color palate here is so different from the lush, layers of greens of Ohio. Here we are surrounded by grey stone, brown dry mountains, and a turquoise blue ocean. The greens of the pine, cypress, olive trees are somewhat muted and speak to the fact that it does NOT rain in the summer for nearly four months. In case that sounds boring, the vibrant colors of purple bougainvilleas climbing up each house, the bright blue plumbago that spills over every wall take my breath away with their beauty.
3. The pace of life. Things move slower here...and most of the time, it annoys my "type A personality" to no end. But sometimes, like on Sunday afternoons when EVERYTHING is closed and you get to spend the day with your family at home or at the beach or at a BBQ with friends, it's sorta refreshing. At home I know we'll be going a mile a minute to see everyone...my family is very much a "go, go, go" activity focused group. And I'm so excited to be apart of that. I just know there are going to be days when I will miss my afternoon snooze.

And then there are the funny oddities of living in South France that have become endearing and a good, daily laugh-I will miss these things too.
like, women (OLD and young) wearing see through white linen outfits with black undergarments
like, cigarette smoke always blowing in your face
like cars stopped in the middle of roads, blocking a lane of traffic, flashing hazard lights, while the driver is inside the boulangerie buying his baguette without parking.
like man capris and man purses on the MAJORITY of guys
like hearing "Voilà" in nearly every sentence spoken by French people--an adorable verbal tick and one of Zachary's fifteen words!

I'm truly on countdown mode. Suitcases are strewn all over the house. Laundry is piled in every one's room. The refrigerator is nearly empty of all things edible. And I have lists in my purse, lists on the desk, and lists in my head that I don't have time to write down. It's still a toss-up as to who is more excited, myself or Lily. I'm dreading the traveling, but once we get there, I can not wait to take a in a deep, deep breath of everything that is comfortable, normal, understandable, and somewhat predictable. A sense of belonging, identity, knowledge of "the system", (things I didn't know I had in the US until I began living in another country), are priceless commodities that making giving up fresh bread for four weeks seem totally insignificant.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Something to Look Forward To

We have just two weeks left until we leave for the US. We are heading “home” (I call it "home" because Phil and I both grew up in the same city) for nearly a month of time with our families. When you live in one of the most beautiful places on earth, and you miss your family terribly, central Ohio can sound like an exotic, desirable vacation destination. And we are thrilled to be going there.

I will totally give away my "american-ness" with this list. My love of all things convenient, fast, and large. These are things I cannot wait to experience as "normal", because for the last eight months the things on the list have not been my "normal". And I can't deny it...these things really, really annoy me about living in a different culture!

1. Parking Lots. Oh, to just drive to the store and be able to get in and out without having to do circles around the block, parallel park, balance two wheels of the car up on the sidewalk, or maneuver through a parking garage built for mini-coopers.

2. Customer Service. The people living in the South of France are not known to be extremely kind or friendly--other French people have told me this. And they bring their "don't bother me, and I won't bother you" attitude with them to work...like in retail shops. It's super annoying and I have wanted to strangle a person or two when I've really been looking for something and need help finding it.

3. Huge glasses of ICE water! Refilled whenever I want them to be at any restaurant. I thought I didn't miss ice. But that was in winter. No air conditioning in the house and hot, summer days equal major cravings for huge glasses of ice water. At a restaurant, I'm served a 3 Euro Perrier. It just doesn't cut it!

4. I'm going to call it convenient food. We do have McDonald's here. (Phil HATES McDonald's). But on days when I don't want to cook, when we are running errands out in town, or life is just busy there are no real choices other than McDonalds for a fast, relatively cheap, quick dinner solution. I'm pretty sure I've lost those last five nagging pounds of baby weight due to this fact, but man, I cannot wait to drive into a Chipotle, Panera, or Five Guys when the mood strikes me and feed my family for under 30 bucks in under 30 minutes!

5. The twenty-four-hour-ness of instant consumer gratification. I can go to WalMart at 3am and buy motor oil, milk, bandaids and diapers if I want. Not that I will...but WILL BE ABLE TO!!! Grocery stores here are close at 8pm everyday and are closed on Sunday afternoons. A lot of stores are closed for two hours during lunch EVERYDAY. We have a little convenient store by our house, which closes for three hours for lunch-which is so not convenient for me!

I will post a list of "Things I Will Miss about France While In the US" this week. Truly, there will be things I will be sad to leave even for just a month! But the countdown for the "grandes vacances", as Lily now calls it, has begun, and we are giddy as can be to hug our Moms, shop with our sisters, drink a beer with our brothers, and run wild with our cousins.






Monday, July 5, 2010

Can You Throw a Fourth of July Party without Cool Whip?

Yes, but it won't be as much fun! And your frozen, classic-American-summer-dessert choices will be very limited!

Phil pointed out to me, that on a historical note, we had most of the countries involved in the Revolutionary War represented at our little barbecue. About twenty French, German, and British friends all came over to "celebrate" the holiday with us. It was fun to entertain and share a little casual American food tradition with them.

Speaking of the food, I wasn't super happy with how all it all turned out. I get so nervous cooking for French people. Phil always reminds me, "Don't try to out-French the French, just do your thing; they'll like that more anyway." So, our menu was as close to a typical 4th party as we could get.

We had to improvise a little. We couldn't find the right cut of pork for "real" pulled pork sandwiches. What we ended up with was alright, but not super. Soft, fresh hamburger buns are impossible to find. And then my apple pie stuck in the pie plate and came out of the dish very sloppily (in a country where presentation of food is EVERYTHING, I was embarrassed and found myself apologizing for its appearance when I passed around the plates.) Oh well, the hot dogs (no BallPark's or Hebrew National's here) and the hamburgers seemed to be a big hit. And all credit for that must go to Phil on the grill.

We had our flag hanging on our patio, tables decorated in red, white and blue, and country music playing the background. Phil had a horse-shoe set in the backyard and explained the game. The kids played with water balloons and squirt guns. Except for the language,the local rosé wine in everyone's glass, and the lack of fireworks, it was pretty good showing of a typical American fourth of July BBQ.
I don't have very many good pictures, I was running around crazily trying to keep people happy and keep Zachary from eating all thirty hotdogs on the serving table
It was very hot. We had fans all over our patio trying to keep the air circulating, but whew, the sun was intense and people shaded themselves under our giant umbrella. If this little BBQ becomes a tradition and we decide to do it again next year, I think we'll invite people over for an evening affair. And about the heat---what do you do with small refrigerators, even smaller freezers and no 7-11 in sight selling 10lb bags of ice??? Keeping drinks cold was a bit of a frustration! But no one really complained. I think that's because the priority went to keep the rosé chilled!
My dear French friend who has helped me so much to understand and learn "conversational French"


Our British friend who occasionally referred to us as the "Colonists". He had a busy day planned but still managed to come because he felt that we needed a representative of the Crown at our party.

Next year, we'll try to have some more authentic American brands - Jello, Budweiser, and maybe even some Cool Whip. But even if I did nothing to raise the opinion of American cuisine, spending an afternoon with good friends, is always a fun time.

Friday, July 2, 2010

The Graduate...of the Moyen Section

Today was Lily's last day of school. Finally, right? But when you get so many weeks of vacation, I guess you have to go to school until the first week of July.

I am beyond proud of this little girl. Six months ago she walked into her new classroom without speaking a word of a French, without knowing a soul in the room. She adjusted to a new schedule (an eight hour school day four days a week), new foods (eating brie nearly every day for lunch), and a new ways of doing things (using a bathroom without any doors or privacy). That's a lot of change for a little four year old.
Her maitresse (primary teacher). Lily told me the other day she said, "Je t'aime" (I love you) to the maitresse.

And this afternoon, as I picked her up for the last time from this little school, I was a little emotional about all she's accomplished. She speaks French now...not perfectly, but well enough that at a playground she has confidence to play and run around with kids. She has real friends at school. Every morning and every evening there are always elaborate waves and giggles as shes says hello and goodbye. She became a little French student at a little French school. And wow, I am so, so proud.
The teaching aid in the classroom. Lily would always tell me that Patricia would fix her hair after the "nap" time. I'm pretty sure her job description is more complex than just hairdresser.

Phil and I relinquished a lot of control when she started school. And it was excruciating (especially for a Mom) to do. With my struggle to speak French in the beginning and the general "no news is good news" mindset of communication between parents and teachers, we told ourselves over and over: if she is happy to go to school, things must be going alright. We told ourselves that this is why we came to France...so our kids can learn another language, participate in another culture.

There is so much that happened at school that I have no idea about. I don't know the day when Lily answered her first question correctly in French. I don't know the day that Lily was picked by the other kids to play a game on the playground...there was so little communication between us and the teacher. But Lily was happy, and each week she seemed to become more and more comfortable. So, each day I would send her for eight hours of unknown activities--a black hole of of learning.

Lily showing off some of art work. She brought home a huge folder of all her books and paper the last week of school. This was part of the "black hole of learning"...she never brought her work home throughout the week. I guess in France they just keep it all a surprise until the end.

But now it's over for the next two months. She will begin school again in September. She will be used to the schedule, the food, the bathrooms. And she will be able to communicate!

Someday when we move back to US we hope to find a way for her to continue learning and speaking French. But Phil and I have both decided that even if she loses all the French she'll ever learn while living here, the life lessons she's gained from being thrown into a seemingly impossible situation will give her confidence. She has shown herself to be a brave, independent, and adaptable girl. There is a lot I can learn from her!
My little hero!