Year 1 in France

Year one in France

I am sitting writing this on my couch (okay, so not really mine as the apartment came furnished but I guess it is mine in that I am renting it!), the Olympics on the small tv (that also came with the apartment), cheering first for Canada (of course!) and in the absence of a competitor from my homeland, bringing on all the Go Team vibes for France.  Without a doubt the tv has been on more in the past week then it was the whole year I have been here.  (Yup, July 22^nd marked my one year anniversary of moving to France and straight into this apartment.)  In fact the tv didn’t even work since sometime last fall when a lightening storm through off the cable and I didn’t even ask my landlord to fix it until the Games were looming. 

There is so much I could write about this year, and I will over time, but first I want to pen something shorter to see if I can actually remember how to post on my blog that has been dormant for an extraordinary length of time.  (What can I say?  Time got busy,  I ran out of steam.  And I get distracted by new and shiny challenges!)  I did ask on social media what you would like to hear about and since I got asked about my level of bilingualism that’s as good a place to start as any.

When I look back to my first visit to see Emily in France I am flat out astounded by how far my French has come.  Francois’ family doesn’t speak English (tho they have been trying to grasp more of it which makes me so grateful) so I relied heavily on Francois, Emily (to a lesser degree as she too was finding her French footing) and a whole lot of charades.  And smiles.  And a marked lack of participation in conversations.  Which if you know me is really isolating as I love conversations- hearing peoples stories, experiences, thoughts etc.  But having said that I can tell I have improved a lot does not mean I have any great degree of fluency.  I try, and look for chances to try, and do my Duolingo every single day (on a 519 day streak right now) and just when I think “I’ve got this!” I get thrown by my inability to talk about something.  Or even understand what is being said.  I blame it to some degree on my accent, or my lack of a good French accent, because sometimes I know I am 100% using the right words and (miraculously) the right verb conjugation and yet I am not understood.  This has been particularly true with my landlord who after a full year still does not understand me.  I think he does not have an ear for things being said in a not quite the way he is used to way.  With him I often use text and rely on google translate to make sure I have my message, and reply, right. 

One day I was out walking rarely in the morning and an elderly man spoke to me across the narrow street.  I crossed over to him and wondered why he was talking to me about wine (vin) when he was really talking to me about the wind (vent).  Lucky for me I have a good sense of humour about these things. 

Having said all of that I have navigated the following solo- test driving and buying a car, arranging insurance, going to the repair garage to work out repairs (Vicki the Volks got hit on the street), been to see my doctor (2x) and a dermatologist.  All with people who speak not a word of English. I have done innumerable shopping exchanges, negotiating prices at yard sales.  I have even returned things to a store successfully and set up loyalty accounts at various retailers, having mastered my address and phone # in French.  😊  I have made hair appointments (in person- I still shy away from phone conversations in French) and chatted through the hair cut and highlighting process.  So I have to give myself some credit and keep plowing my way through my online lessons, and continue to look for times and opportunities to practice. 

It is the one single reason I think that I have not really made friends here.  Oh la la, that makes me sound like a sad loser doesn’t it??  I get it though.  Who wants to hang out with me when the ability to interact will be trying?  (Though I do get better after a glass or two of wine!)  But I also am pretty good at being on my own (covid helped with that) and I am so included in Emily and Cos life that I am very seldom left to my own devices for any length of time.  It has been particularly good the past few months with her being on maternity leave giving me a good excuse to be with her, helping daily with the little ones.  And I do not allow myself to get bored, remembering the observation of a sweet, motivating friend (hi Cynthia!) who observed that bored people are boring and lord knows, I never want to be known as boring.  😊

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