The first two weeks in France

A view of the plane from our seats.

Carson on our 777 to Paris Getting ready to land, we are all VERY tired!

Sorry this first entry will be a long one but I’ve got lots to catch everyone up on. We boarded a flight to Paris on the 3rd. Carson did great on the flight! It was a nine hour flight from Houston to Paris and Carson slept for 6 of those hours! The other 3 he spent looking out the window and watching his DVD player. We arrived in France on the 4th of Dec. A car picked us up from the airport and took us to our apartment. That’s were things started to get a little rocky. When the car dropped us off we stood out in the rain for 20 min. waiting for our agent (Eva) to let us in. We soon found out that our bell was broken (and it is still broken to date). Once we finally got in the movers showed up with our US stuff and they brought it all in and unpacked it. Our agent, Eva, whizzed around our apartment showing me how things worked (all the appliances are in French and look very different than my US versions), she then said "Voila, so everything is ok Jane (she always calls me Jane). I must go, don't forget the gas man comes sometime between now and 4! But how will you hear him.....(she tought for a minute) Jane you should wait for him outside!" Mind you this was 2pm and she was telling me to stand out in the rain for 2 hours so I could make sure I was there to greet the gas man and get it turned on. I did not take her advice and we missed the gas man that day. He ended up coming the next Wednesday and called my cell phone when he got there.....much better plan. On Eva's way out she introduced us to our next door neighbor who asked if we were a quiet family. He then informed me that he had lived in his apartment for 30 years and is a quiet man, so we need to be quiet too. He ended our visit with the casual comment that he was a member of the French police.(French cops carry around machine guns, they are very intimidating) Pretty sure that last comment was to drive home his point to us to be QUIET! He only speaks French, so if he does yell at us I will have no clue about what.When Eva finally left I sat in our apartment very overwhelmed thinking what have we done? I still had no idea how anything worked and the place was beyond grossly dirty! We got something to eat and pretty much went to bed that night, that's all we had the mental and physical strength for.

The next day we discovered that we did not have cable/internet/phone set up like we were promised. We were informed that it would not come on till on or around the 22nd. Hooray for early Christmas presents...it was finally turned on yesterday a few day early! Ryan was home with me till Monday the 8th when he had to start work at his new office. He left that morning at 8:30 and I wanted to cry. What was I going to do to keep myself and Carson busy and not lose our minds without any communication till he got home at 6? If something went wronge I couldn't even call him!!! Well, thank goodness we brought the portable DVD player and lots of kid movies for the plane trip, it was my saving grace! Carson watched movies and I cleaned our apartment from top to bottom. (it looked like it had not been cleaned in a decade) The French have a different quality of "clean" than I do. Before we signed our lease I asked if the apartment would be cleaned before we moved in and they (the relocation company and Eva) said "But of course it will be cleaned, what do you think?" I think they didn't clean it, that’s what I think. So for the next week I cleaned, organized and unpacked our things in our apartment and made a list of things we would need to get. I also took Carson out for walks to check out our new neighborhood and to get a feel for where things were.

That weekend when Ryan was home we took a trip out to the Achan (it's like the French version of a super Wal-Mart but much crazier). The place was packed full of people and the French do not know the idea of personal space. They pushed us out of the way, moved our cart, jumped in front of us, stood extremely close to us, they basically broke every rule of personal space. We got our things and got the Hell out of there. Nightmare! Luckily since then I've found a smaller closer grocery store that I can go to, making trips to the Achan a thing of the past. Sunday was a day of rest for the Weldy's, France wears us out.
This week has been a better week. My neighbor is warming up to us. Carson has been killing him with kindness. Today he offered Carson a piece of candy with a smile and held the door for us. Carson yelled up to him "Merci for my cany!" (we’ve been working on hello, goodbye and thanks with him) I now also have a much better understanding of where we are in Paris versus where the things I want to go are. It’s a good feeling to know where you are in the world. I am also feeling better about my French and have a few phrases down. I’m hoping to take a French class while we’re here. Also the best thing that has happened this week (next to getting internet) is our meeting Anna. I got her name from another Cerner Mom who knows her and has used her as a babysitter. She is from England and she was a teacher there. She moved to France to move in with her French boyfriend. (he's going to school to be an opera singer) She is wonderful and I liken her to my own Mary Poppins! She will come to our house a few nights a week/weekend to let Ryan and I have some “couple” time! She and the internet have made my week!
I will keep adding to this blog when I have some good stories and will add more pictures soon. I’m sure I’ll have lots of stories to share about our life here. It’s going to be a bumpy but amazing ride.