The kids have been doing pretty well with such a huge life change.  After just a few days of school, Eila is feeling a lot better about the whole thing.  She has made a few friends and also connected with some friends back in the US, which has helped her to feel more at home.  She still doesn’t understand much, but now knows that lots of people have some English and they are all willing and eager to help.  The boys have found the same thing to be true.  The boys have also been enjoying playing in the snow whenever they can.

 

Here are two stories from our first fews weeks:

It’s a good thing that Thaddeus studied so hard on DuoLingo.com to learn French before we arrived.  He was 24% fluent upon arrival and that has made all the difference. 😉

Our first day in France (New Year’s Eve!), we mentioned that it might take a few days to get adjusted to the time change (6 hours) and Thad responded without hesitation: “I’m adjusted”

We proceeded to explain that he might be tired before it is time to go to bed and that being adjusted after an international move usually takes a few days or even weeks. He didn’t seem convinced.

The next day, we were talking about adjusting again and how it is okay that we are not all completely comfortable in our new place yet.  Thad didn’t miss a beat and said “I’m comfortable.”  And what do you say to that?!

Josiah is a homebody.  He loves his family and friends.  He is a loyal and sensitive friend.  Josiah likes to succeed and really doesn’t like to appear incompetent in any way.  So, moving to a new country during the Christmas vacation to attend school where he does not understand or speak the language is a bit daunting.

There were a lot of changes at the end of 2016 too, one of which was moving out of our first (and only) home and staying with grandparents for several weeks.  During the first of these stays, while Mom and Dad were away at a training, Josiah read a book that he and his brother both enjoyed quite a bit.  It seems to fit this period of our life well…

Fortunately, Josiah was able to watch movies during the flight to France.  Unfortunately, he didn’t sleep at all.

Fortunately, Josiah found a creek right next to our apartment to play in.  Unfortunately, that creek is a sewer drain and not fit for playing in.

Fortunately, the food in France is not bad; they even have fast food restaurants.  Unfortunately, Josiah also got the stomach flu just after arriving (day 2) and he had to start school 2 days later on Jan 3.

Fortunately, the first day went better than expected, as his teacher speaks a little English and helped him to understand what she was teaching.  He also mastered “Je m’appelle Josiah.” (My name is Josiah.)  Unfortunately, that is pretty much the only thing he can say in French at this point.

Unfortunately, It was a rough start to 2017, but it will surely get better fortunately.

cross-posted on thaddeusyee.com and josiahyee.com

No more matter where you are, you need to eat.  And, for us right now that means we go to the Carrefour, which is super close to our apartment.  For the most part, it is very much like an American supermarket.  They have a few extra cheese aisles and an entire aisle devoted to little cookies.  Plus, there are about a hundred yogurt choices.  There is even a little foreign food section, with Asian and American foods.

Our first day here, still a little jetlagged, but needing some nourishment, we picked out a few items and went to check out.  All was going very smoothly until the cashier asked us something about our celery.  We didn’t really understand, but thought that maybe it was related to the fact that we had not put it in a bag. But, then she had a problem with the carrots and cucumbers too. Then, seeing that we didn’t understand, she went and showed us  what needed to be done, which is to weigh the produce and get a sticker for the bag before you go checkout.  The cashier was super helpful and patient and it ended up being a successful shopping trip, plus we learned what to do for next time.

We’ve also noticed scanners at the Géant (the really big grocery store), but haven’t figured out what those are for yet.  Maybe we’ll meet some more helpful cashiers on our next grocery shopping trip.