Month: January 2017

Our Apartment

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Here is a tour of our apartment.  This way you can feel like you’ve come to visit us.  We’d love for you to stop by if you are in our general corner of the world.

After entering into our apartment building, you’ll need to climb up to the 4th floor. This is the view out of our front door, looking into the stairwell.

Welcome!

Looking in the front door to the entry/ hallway

Living room & dining room, as seen from the hall way, just to the right after walking through the front door

Living room, looking from the corner behind the dining room table

The view out of the living room

Kitchen & laundry room

Josiah’s side of the boys’ bedroom, which is across the hall from the kitchen, living room & dining room

Thad’s bed and his side of the bedroom

View from Josiah & Thaddeus’ bedroom

Eila’s bedroom, next door to the boys’ bedroom

The desk in Eila’s bedroom

View from Eila’s bed

At the end of the hallway, between Eila’s bedroom and the parent’s bedroom is where you’ll find the toilet (in a special tiny room all by itself.)

Bathroom, complete with bath/shower and sink as well as a cabinet and mirrors

And to the right at the end of the hall is our bedroom, which also has an amazing view!

 

 

 

 

 

Kids’ Take

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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.

 

Kids entertaining themselves with the spin cycle of our washing machine…

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?!

Boys playing soccer with Brian before the snow fell.

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

First Grocery Shopping Trip

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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.

Nous Sommes Arrivés

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We have arrived in France!  We had an uneventful flight and arrived exhausted, with all of our luggage mostly in tact, in Albertville on New Year’s Eve.

Josiah with our luggage in Geneva

Eila, Brian and Josiah on the plane (Shannon and Thaddeus slept most of the way!)

Some of the students from our language school came and helped us carry up our bags and gave us a delicious and very special meal from the area where we are living.  This area is called La Savoie, and is in the French Alps.  These very tall mountains are on every side; it is absolutely gorgeous.

La Savoie

There are a few specialities for this region and the one we were treated to for our welcome feast and to celebrate the new year was La Tartiflette.  It is a dish with potatoes and onions and ham that is cooked with a special French cheese.

We had just a short time (1 day) to unpack and get situated before we had appointments and school starting.  The boys were able to start school on the first day back with the rest of the French students.  There are exactly three American children in the boys’ school: Josiah, Thaddeus, and Thad’s new best friend. It is God’s gift to Thaddeus that he is in class with another American boy and they are both thrilled to have each other.

Josiah is in a 4th/5th split class.  In the US, he was in 4th grade.  In France, he is in CM2, which is the equivalent of 5th grade.  Josiah’s teacher speaks a little English and so she has been giving him some alternate assignments and helping him to learn classroom directions and other important school phrases in French. Unfortunately, the TAP (afterschool care) teacher doesn’t know any English and so there is a lot of miming and guessing at what is happening.  It does keep things interesting.

Eila had a test to see where she fit in school, but the results had to be sent away.  The regional administration has just assigned her to a school and we will meet with the director and French as a foreign language teacher later this week.  Hopefully, she will be able to start classes on Friday.  There are several other girls about Eila’s age whose families are studying at the Center with us, so hopefully she will find someone to connect with soon.

Brian and I also took a test to see where we fit in school and we started our classes at the Center. The classes are fairly intense as we are in school the same times as the children, 8:30-4:30pm, minus a break for lunch.  We have also been doing as much as we can to help ease the kids’ transition.  We have our phones and internet set up now.  We have the kids enrolled in school, mostly.  We have library cards, school supplies and food.  We have met one of our neighbors and explored a bit of the town too.

We have only been in France for ten days, but it seems like much longer and also much shorter.  I think it might be that way for a while.

First Night in France