Changes in Plans: Part 2

So my last post was about 4 months ago and it ended hinting at some changes to our future. At that time we had only just found out about this opportunity and had to wait months to get more details and make a decision. Well as of today the decision is final, and 5 months of stressing about it is finally over. I'll try to make this very long story short: 

First of all, the tentative plan was to come back to the US to settle down in Summer 2016, mainly because I can't work as a nurse in France and my fantasy lifestyle of traveling Europe and not working was really hurting my bank account.
Then one day while we were on a road trip in October Adam got a very unexpected call from his manager saying that the company is essentially moving the French office to Switzerland and he is going to be part of that move. But that no other details would be known until February. And at that time he would get details of the transfer package
The reason this flipped everything upside down is because Switzerland accepts American nursing licenses. The other reason is because Adam was only given 2 options: take the transfer package to Switzerland or take a severance package and leave the company.
Living and working in Switzerland sounds amazing to most people but for us, having already lived in Europe, the shinyness of it had worn off and we were starting to be ready to have our American lifestyles back. Living in another country has its pros and cons.

Here were our 2 options:

1) move to Switzerland, Adam would stay in his same job, same role, just different location, and be given all the necessary paperwork and bonuses for the move. I would have to submit piles of paperwork to get my nursing license recognized, do an internship, look for a job, perfect my french, and work in a foreign hospital in a foreign language with different practices and it terrifies me. But we'd get lots of vacation days and be able to keep our traveling lifestyle, but also see our families very rarely.

2) move back to the US, as a nurse I can get a job anywhere easily. And Adam would have to quit his job and go through the annoying process of finding a new job in a new city and learning a new business. And we might always wonder if we regret not staying in Europe just a couple more years. But we'd finally have stability. Which, after 4 years of travel nursing, I'm ready for.
So basically one decision would make life hard for me, one decision would make life hard for Adam. 

Sparing everyone the details of 5 months of research and paperwork and documents I've had to compile, and the many long phone conversations I had with Adam and my parents (the last of which, the mounting stress finally took its toll on me) we made a decision, just one day before the decision deadline date.

We're moving to Switzerland!

We will be living in Lausanne. Which is an hour from Geneva, on the lake. We have to be there by July 1st. His company is going to help me get a work permit and also with french lessons and job assistance. I will initially get a job in tourism or at a restaurant until the nursing paperwork goes through, which will take a few months. 

March 31st I leave California and head to Denver to visit my sister. Then I'm spending a couple days in Florida for some wedding planning. Then on April 7th I fly to Stockholm to meet up with Adam because he coincidentally has a meeting there. And on April 11th I will be back in France. 

We will have a lot of tedious things to get done for this move and I started working on them back in January. Visa, work permit, apartment search, nursing license paperwork, French fluency exams, etc. And to top it all off I have to plan a wedding in Florida while living in Switzerland. At least that part should be fun. 


I'll try to keep up with updates on the process, all I can say is I hope the Swiss are more efficient than the French

Changes in plans: part 1

     The original plan was to leave France again in January when my visa expires, work 3 months and then come back for a couple months until we figured out what to do next. Without a visa, I'm allowed to stay up to 3 months at a time but only twice a year. Or, on and off for a grand total of 180 days. Even if I extended my visa, by signing up for more classes or getting married, I still would not have the money to stay past its expiration date, so leaving for the winter was something we already knew would happen.

So I was finally finding things to do with my long boring days. 

I found 2 volunteer agencies:

     One is casual, come whenever you can, directed by an American woman, we bring lots of flowers to nursing homes and sit with all the old ladies and help them make little bouquets to have in their rooms. Sometimes these old women are funny, there's one who always wants to pose for a picture with her flowers. Sometimes its sad, some women are so old and they tell me they're too tired to hold the flowers, one lady cried, saying she can't do anything anymore, and she just feels like dying. Its heartbreaking. 

     The other is very formal, I had an hour and a half interview (in french) to see if I was qualified. Its an association that hires volunteers to give companionship to elderly sick in the hospital. I was supposed to start Oct 29th

     I even got a call back from the parent/student organization I had offered my English services to. I got an interview to be the teacher (paid) of an English conversation workshop for high schoolers every Wednesday.

     I found an English speaking expat (foreigner) group. Mostly women, most of whom are what you call trailing spouses, like I essentially am. They meet several times a week for various activities.

But then we took a look at my bank accounts one night and realized that, with the travel plans we already had, I couldn't afford to stay until January. After doing lots of math and budgeting and talking we decided it was best for me to leave before the holidays. I called up my manager at Stanford and my travel nurse recruiter and we quickly set up a contract. 

The new plan is: I'm flying back to the US November 30th, staying with my parents for a week and starting back to work in California on December 7th. The contract goes all the way until March 29th, which was part of the original plan. I'll just be gone 5 weeks earlier than I wanted but 4 months of paychecks will help us immensely in the long run. 

This had a negative effect on a few of my job/volunteer prospects. 

     The formal volunteer agency that I had to interview for was disappointed to hear they'd have much less time with me but still tried really hard to get me in on a team of volunteers because she really wanted me. But in the end she called me and said it wouldn't work, it was just not enough time to really integrate well.

     The teaching job I actually almost had. It was to start Nov 4th and they were willing to have me for just 1 month. But when she called me to offer me the job I was in England for the night and my phone didn't work. When I got back the next day and called her back she had called someone else to do it and this person would be there for the whole school year.

   One good thing, almost 2 months ago I posted in french craigslist to be an English tutor and just today someone finally responded. She's a college student and her English is actually really good so we decided to turn it into a language exchange and she'll help me with my French too. 

I will get to see Adam twice during those 4 months I'm gone. He is coming to visit me in the US in January. We'll meet in Florida and stay with my parents, his mom and stepdad are coming down to Florida too. So everyone will get to meet each other. 

Then in February Adam has a business trip to Vietnam so we're taking the last 2 weeks of Feb to go on vacation in Southeast Asia. We've had a hard time deciding what to visit, you really can't go wrong there. The tentative plan is a little island hopping in Thailand, visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and end in Southern Vietnam (the meeting is in Ho Chi Min City), where Adam's dad will meet us since he lives in China.

So I'm gonna keep you hanging like at the end of a chapter of a good book. That was just part 1 of our changes in plans. There's another change in plans but its still way too complicated to post about. So that will probably be decided and announced in late winter or early spring.

And before everyone starts making assumptions, no, I'm not pregnant! There are other exciting things in life besides that. 

Traveling and boredom

While I sit and type and try to kill yet another fly because Europeans don't like to install screens in windows, I'll update everyone on our latest travel adventures, and my life in between. 

First I have to tell you what it took for me to get WiFi in my apartment. We didn't install it when we moved in because I was about to leave for the US and Adam doesn't really need it when he can use the Grenoble hotspot with his phone service. So when I got back I wanted to install it because I knew I'd be bored a lot during the day. On August 29th i went to the wireless store and subscribed to the service, they said the box with the router would arrive within 7-10 days. A little slow but that's France. The next day we found an amazing deal on a Groupon-like website for the exact same Wifi service for a fraction of the price. I immediately went back to the store and asked to cancel the service. But this is France so its not so easy. He told me I had to WRITE a letter and send it in the mail to the main office in order to cancel my service. And then in 7-10 days when my box arrives, make sure to be home so that I can refuse to take the box, and the mailman will understand and send it back. So that's what I did, and I waited a week for the letter to be sent to call about starting the new service. When I called they said they had received my letter but it would take another few days for the cancellation to go through in order to start my new service. It took me another week to get ahold of them again because everytime I called the automated service would hang up on me because there were too many calls on hold and calls like that are charged a few cents a minute. When I finally got through 3 weeks after starting this process they said they would ship the box with the router and i'd recieve it in 5-10 days. Well it happened to arrive when we were in Turkey. (UPS sends you a text with an arrival date) Usually when you aren't home to receive a package they leave it at a little general store nearby and leave a note in your mailbox. Thats what I expected. When I got home there was no note in my mail box, when I did the online tracking number from the email it said that it was delivered and signed for. Well I sure didn't sign for it. I asked my neighbor and she didn't sign for any box. Where the hell was my box? I called UPS and they said they gave it to another neighbor on the 2nd floor. She coincidentally knocked on my door later that night to give me the box. So on October 2nd (remember I started the process august 29th) I finally installed Wifi into my apartment! and we're only paying 2 euro a month! Oh France. I will always be confused by your administrative processes 

Spain: 

I accompanied Adam on a business trip to Madrid. While he worked for 2 days I explored.. Then Adam and I rented a car and drove up to Basque country in northern Spain by the border of France. I learned to drive a stick shift and I hate it but its necessary when you live in Europe.

We got into San Sebastian from Madrid pretty late and followed the address given on the Airbnb website. The host said it was on a street called San Francisco. We got to a street called San Francisco Javier, it was the only street in the town with the words San Francisco so we thought it must be right. I call the host and ask which building is his, his directions made no sense based on my surroundings so I started asking people on the street while Adam walked all over the neighborhood. Nobody I encountered spoke English, one guy didn't even speak Spanish, just Basque. My Spanish is limited, mostly to vocabulary related to having a baby, but I finally managed to find a guy on the street who would talk to my airbnb host on the phone and then he drove with us and showed us where to go and walked back home. Super nice guy, and a little drunk. Turns out the street we needed was spelled in Basque, San Frantzisko, which is why Google didn't find it.

Turkey:

I accompanied Adam on another business trip to Istanbul and we flew out early to visit Cappadocia. We spent a half day in Istanbul with my Turkish friend and had a flight to Cappadocia that evening. Istanbul traffic is HORRIBLE. We thought we gave ourselves ample time to get through the city but we missed the airport shuttle, tried to call for a taxi but they were all full. So we found a Turkish airlines office and changed our flight because there was no way we would make it to the airport in time. Even if we had made the shuttle bus we'd have still missed our flight because the 45 minute quoted shuttle time was actually 90 minutes because of the traffic. So we were now on a 10:30pm flight, which then got delayed almost 2 hours. We didn't get to the hotel till 3am.

Then on the way back to Istanbul 2 days later our flight was delayed 3 hours due to storms and we didnt get to our hotel until 2 am. We had lots of stuff planned in Cappadocia so no time to catch up on sleep. (including the sunrise hot air balloon ride we work up at 4:50am for) And I didn't want to sleep away my 1.5 days in Istanbul while Adam worked so I just drank lots of Turkish tea.

Miraculously I got randomly upgraded to first class on my way back to France and after my wonderful 3 course meal I passed out in the big comfy reclining chair for the rest of the flight, waking up a few times noticing my mouth was hanging wide open. 

     Most esteem-boosting part of my time in Europe: When I travel, and since living in France, I try to look the least American as possible, dress like French girls dress, try to blend in. When I walked into the Blue Mosque, wearing the required headscarf, the guy at the front says "where you from?" i said "I'm from the US" he says "really?? you look like everywhere! You so pretty! You're originally from the US?" I said "yeah, but my family is Italian" he said "Ohhhh!! that's why! Usually people from the US are just so-so, but you so pretty! You look like everywhere!" ... mission accomplished!

What do I do when I'm not traveling? not much. I'm usually bored out of my mind.

Starting in September I started the job search. I was deciding which of my possible job options I would dislike the least, and that's what I'd go for. 

~I posted 2 ads on the french craigslist offering my services as an English tutor: no response. 

~I went to the school organisation next door and offered the same: "we have a wednesday class for high schoolers that already has a teacher but if she's absent you could fill in"

~I sent my resume to an job agency for babysitters that speak 2+ languages: no response (probably because I have no education in this, the French love certificates and diplomas)

~I was about to send my resume to an agency to look for jobs doing housework//laundry/grocery shopping for people who are too old/busy but my French friend said she tried that and they wouldn't consider her because she has no prior experience doing house cleaning. As if being an adult isn't experience enough. And she's French. So they surely wouldn't consider someone like me with a visa to deal with.

I found a language exchange group on Facebook and have met up with a few people that way. I've heard that french guys use it as a way to meet girls, I assume this is true since all but one of the people who responded to me was a guy. I met up with 2 of them though because I just need something to do with myself and I want to practice French. I met up with a French girl too and we've actually become friends. Its kind of like online dating, awkward. You meet up at an agreed on location and talk in a cafe for 2 hours getting to know eachother. I don't exactly know how to communicate with the guys for subsequent meetups without them thinking I'm interested in more than a language exchange. My french friend says even talking about my boyfriend doesn't matter, they might still pursue more (french guys aren't always the most faithful, or so I've heard) 

I've gotten some feedback on my french skills though. I'm pretty comfortable with normal everyday conversation now. One guy said I made almost no grammatical errors but my pronunciation and accent were bad. We spent the next 20 mins on the R sound. I'll never it right. Other french people say that my accent isn't that bad for an English speaker. So who knows. They can understand me and that's what matters.

Since I can't find a job and I have no money to go out with friends regularly, my friend gave me the idea of volunteering. I've signed up with 2 agencies. Both involve going to retirement homes or hospitals to spend time with sick elderly people, play games with them, do artwork with them, sit and talk to them. I start this week. 

We've got one October trip (roadtrip through the Alps and Alsace region of France) and one November trip (Morocco). Then I'll be out of money. 

Random observations and adventures in Europe

So there won't be any format to this. I've been keeping a list of random observations I've made or things that have happened to me in the past few weeks. Some of its in France and some of it happened during my week long solo trip in Prague and Budapest. I hope you enjoy

~I've explained before how the French smoke a lot. Like nothing I've ever seen before. Well an example of how badly they are addicted: I was on a train and it stops in the middle of nowhere for a good 20 mins. Finally someone comes on the loudspeaker and says "Sorry, we've stopped because somebody was caught smoking in car 11, we remind you that you are not allowed to smoke on the train, this is a non smoking train" There was also a family next to us on the train and at every single stop the parents would get out to smoke for the 2 minutes the train would be stopped. Ridiculous 

~Inside my apartment building is some kind of school organisation and since school starts soon people have been lined up inside and outside my building to get their books. My apt is on the ground floor and with no A/C I keep the windows open. The bottom of my window is about shoulder height on the sidewalk. Well I can't do this with all these people outside because one, they look into my apartment, and two, they smoke and the smoke goes into my windows and stinks up my apt. Hopefully this stops once school starts.

~I've also explained how business hours in France are, nothing open on Sundays, sometimes Saturdays and Mondays too, or another random day if they feel like it, especially in August. We were in Paris on a Saturday and decided to hit up the jewelry stores and look at rings. We found an entire street of jewelry stores, all closed, on a Saturday, in Paris. I expected this from a small non-touristy city like Grenoble but not Paris. So we found a department store with not so great jewelry just so we could look at something.

~When my friend was in town we decided to get pizza on a Saturday afternoon, after finding out the first 2 places were closed (on a Saturday) we sat down at the first place we saw open and figured we would share one pizza between the 3 of us as a sort of snack. No, not allowed. The chef got angry with us and said we each had to order something. We said, how bout 1 pizza and 2 salads, no. We each have to order a pizza (they're not big pizzas). I explained we weren't that hungry, well sorry, no can do. So we left. The next restaurant wouldn't let us share either. I still don't understand why

~In Prague I met a girl in my dorm the first night who was also a solo traveler and we decided to explore together the next day. She was very nice, but she was from India. We had nothing in common. After one day I became very bored. But then we spent the 2nd day together too. I kept trying to find a way to break away but she kept following. I felt bad, she didn't do anything to me but we were so different, my attempts at humor went right over her head. The 2nd night I went down to the hostel bar (which the Indian girl said was boring) and found a huge group of people from various English speaking countries playing games and hanging out. I had so much fun! But I can see why the Indian girl thought it was boring. Too many cultural differences. On my 3rd and final day in Prague I managed to break free and explore on my own and it was great! She also was going to Budapest after and I saw her there! I tried to hide behind a new friend and we almost walked right into her. I'm sure she saw me. I feel really bad. 

~I took a sleeper train from Prague to Budapest. In my 3 bunk cabin was me, a cool Australian girl my age, and a middle aged Russian woman named Olga that spoke NO English. Probably the best part of the whole trip. Olga was the nicest, funniest lady and kept trying to talk to us even though we didn't speak the same language. Offered us chocolate, offered us breakfast of salami, tomatoes and bread, showed us pictures on her camera of her and her friends. We couldn't understand anything she said but she kept talking. It was hilarious. In the morning when we got to the train station we got on WiFi and translated "it was very nice to meet you" and she was so happy. So my first sleeper train was a success, I slept comfortably and the company helped. I ended up hanging out with the Australian girl the whole day and we had lots of fun. We did a pub crawl and met more fun people. It was a great day.

~speaking of pub crawl, if you go to a bar in Budapest there is a bathroom attendant. You need to tip her when you walk in or else you won't get any toilet paper. She gives you a small handful. I don't know what you would do if you ended up needing more.

~So in Prague we took a day trip out to a town called Kutna Hora and visited this bone church. Monks decorated it with the bones of 40 thousand people, 30 thousand of whom died during the plague, if I remember correctly. When you walk in they give you a paper with the history. The first sentence being "this is a holy place and the resting place of 40 thousand people so please be respectful." Well there was this girl and her mom (either Czech or Russian) and she was wearing skin tight jeans, heels, and a tight lacy tank top. She had really greasy hair and fake extensions. Her mom was taking pictures of her in the middle of this church and she was posing all sexy like. Pulling her boobs up in her shirt, poking her butt towards the camera, sticking out her tongue. It was so gross. Someone I told this story to said she was probably taking pics to be a mail order bride haha

~If you go to Prague or Budapest, don't expect the overt friendliness of Western Europe or the US. Communist mindsets linger. I was told this by a person from Prague on my way there. Don't take it personally. They may look like they hate their life and they don't like helping you, but that's just how they are. It wasn't as bad in Budapest except for once we asked 2 different ladies at food stands to help us with the map and were immediately turned away. I didn't even get out the whole question. 

~The land on which Budapest sits is full of thermal mineral springs so if you go you must go to a thermal bath. It was so relaxing. The water felt amazing on my skin and my muscles. The minerals have a funny smell and there were so many people I'm sure it wasn't the cleanest thing to do and is probably a cesspool for bacteria but it felt so good. There were 5 different pools of varying temperatures between 28 C and 42 C (82F and 108F) My favorite was the 108 degree one. So hot but so relaxing. There was also a steam room that was 131F and I only lasted about 10 seconds in there, I couldn't even breathe. 

~The hot thermal cesspool of bacteria is most likely what got me sick the next day. It really could have been anything but its too much of a coincidence that the next night I had a 101.2 degree fever. Luckily I was in York, England by that time with my nurse friend and being the good nurse she is, she had a first aid kit with a thermometer and tylenol. I didn't let it stop me from enjoying York and the English countryside, I just loaded up with drugs and caffeine and pushed through it. When I got home finally on Thursday I napped for 2 hours, slept 12 hours that night, took another 3 hour nap the next day, slept 12 more hours the next night, and I think the sickness is finally gone today. 

Adam is still in Ethiopia until Sept 5th. I have nothing to do all week. I'm going to Geneva with friends one day. I thought about taking a train to Milan but I don't want to spend anymore money this week. I guess I'll have to finally start the job hunt. Who knows what I'll end up doing. I just need something to keep me busy all day while Adam is at work. I'm allowed to work part time on my student visa. So wish me luck.  

Back in France

I'm so glad to be back in France. I've been able to meet up with all my friends and I realized something very quickly: I lost a good chunk of the progress in my French skills that I worked (and payed) for the whole winter and spring. I had a feeling this would happen. This just means that I have to take the studying seriously now, watch some French TV, and speak it whenever possible. Unfortunately I don't have the money to take anymore classes. Which makes me sad because I really enjoyed them. 

I went to a cafe my first week back with my German friend, she has a French boyfriend and has made huge improvements in French since I left. Whenever I would talk to the waiter he only replied in English, even though I never once spoke English to him. When my friend spoke to him in French, he replied in French. This annoyed me. Is it my accent? I've been told its a little strong but my friend has an accent too. Did I seem to be struggling when she appeared to have no difficulty? Or was it that he heard the English accent and wanted to practice his English? 

I asked one of my teachers this back in the spring. Why, when I speak French to a stranger, do some people immediately respond in English? He said its one of 3 things. 
1. the older generation of French people were taught in school a mindset of "if you can't do something perfectly then don't do it at all." Therefore the older generation might get a little annoyed and speak English with you since your French is not perfect
2. Politeness is very important here and a French person might speak English with you out of politeness because they know its easier for you to speak English.
3. The younger generation is very excited about learning English and jumps at an opportunity to speak it with a native speaker. (this is why Adam is still not even close to being fluent after 2 years here)

So I need French friends to speak with. I love my friends here but none of them are French. We speak French together but don't always know how to correct each others mistakes. I am also going to look into language exchange. You meet up with someone who wants to practice your language and you switch between languages. My friend does this and said that most are just guys looking for a foreign girlfriend. There is also that French girl I met on the tram in January. We lost touch but I will text her one of these days, she was really nice.

I started reading Harry Potter in French. It took me one hour to read the first chapter. But at least it is something I actually enjoy reading. And is good practice. Its at a lower reading level and has everyday speech.

I will do these things in between my hectic, exciting and ever growing travel schedule. Here's a quick summary of that:

~Norway was fun, beautiful, chilly, and rainy. One of my travel nurse BFFs just happened to be in Norway too so we spent 2 days together
~Just finished up a road trip with one of my college BFFs through Provence and a little region in south western France called Lot. Then ended up in Barcelona where Adam met up with us and where some of our Grenoble friends also happened to be vacationing so we met up with them too. 
~Adam has a 3 week long business trip to Ethiopia so I decided not to sit around with nothing to do. Starting Saturday I will be doing some solo exploring of Prague and Budapest for a week.
~Then I'm meeting up with a nurse friend who will be traveling in northern England, where we will explore Manchester and York for 4 days and pop down to London for a day to meet up with some other Stanford friends who will just happen to be there too.
~2nd week of September Adam has a business trip to Madrid so I will be joining him and then we are staying through the weekend and renting a car to explore either northern or southern Spain... haven't decided yet
~Adam just found out about another business trip at the end of September to Istanbul, which I am the most excited about, because it has been high on my travel list for a long time.
~The fall has many possibilities but I'll save that for another time

Don't go thinking I'm rich with all this traveling. I don't have a job in France (which needs to change) and don't have very much saved up in the first place. 2 volunteer trips to Madagascar before knowing I'd move to Europe really hurt my bank account's potential. 
I want to take advantage of my time in Europe to travel as much as possible before moving back to the US and having 1/2 Asian babies.
It is very possible to travel through Europe on a tight budget (if you're willing to compromise a little) 
~We stay in hostels or budget hotels/airbnb. Or when I join Adam on a business trip his company gives him a really nice hotel that I sneak into. 
~Luckily, flights within Europe are pretty cheap but still we fly the budget airlines with stingy rules. Trains are an option too but not always the best. Adam usually combines our trips with a business trip so that his flight back home gets paid for.
~We cook half of our meals ourselves in the hostel kitchen or snack on baguettes, cheese, fruit or granola bars all day when we plan to splurge on a nice dinner.
~We don't drink. This saves a lot. Its easy for us though, thanks to Adam's "asian glow" and my general dislike for most alcoholic beverages. Occasionally I'll have a beer or glass of wine if I feel like it
~We only pay for an attraction if one of us considers it a must-see or do. Otherwise we wander the streets, taking in the culture. Or hike, because its free and you get great views.

Same goes for when we are home in France. We both have sort of minimalist attitudes, Adam is better at it than me, so its easy for us to live on a tight budget.

With all the traveling I have there probably won't be another post for a while. I will be posting pictures to facebook of course. 

Missing France

So Adam tells me he enjoys reading my blog entries and that I should write more often. My plan was to wait until I got back to France to post again since this blog is about living in France but I guess I'll give one USA update. 

Now that I'm back to my normal life, the 4 months I spent in France feel like a vacation or a dream. And it really was both. I wasn't working, I was taking classes in something I love to learn, making friends with really cool people, spending everyday with my boyfriend. Sometimes it doesn't feel like it was real.

I've been back here almost 2 months and I really miss France. I see all my friends back in France posting pictures and I wish I could be there spending the summer with them and Adam. Summer is my favorite time of year and I'm spending it working like a dog right now. But then again its financing my super awesome life so I shouldn't complain. I do realize and appreciate that not many people get as lucky to live how I do and I never thought I'd even be so lucky. 

I miss speaking French and learning French culture. I was improving so much and I'm scared I've lost some of that improvement already. I've gone to a couple Meetup.com french speaking groups. I had dinner with my french nurse friend and her husband but for some odd reason I got shy and didn't speak very much French and I was kicking myself the whole drive home. 

I've been picking up an extra shift at the hospital almost every week. Each extra shift worked, in my mind, is a plane ticket or two. Working almost four 12-hour night shifts a week is exhausting and really messes with my internal clock so being awake when the sun is up is very difficult for me these days. I also have very little time to hang out with my friends which, at this time in my life, I'm considering a good thing because I'm not out spending money that needs to be saved. 

I also apologize to my friends for not keeping in touch like I thought I would since we're in the same country again. I'm really too tired to do much of anything these days.

But I have enjoyed delivering babies again and being with all my fun and crazy nurse friends. I had really missed the 5 am conversations that happen in a Labor and Delivery nurses station: vulgar and inappropriate but always highly entertaining. 

So 3 more weeks left in the US. 2 more left in California to work and then the last week I'm spending in Tampa with my parents. Time went slow at the beginning but now is flying by.

I'm not going straight back to France. I'm flying from the US to Norway to meet up with Adam for a 9 day Norwegian vacation. It will be lots of beautiful scenery and many outdoorsy activities.

I get back to France July 26 and have a few days before one of my college BFFs arrives for our 10 day southern France road trip that will take us from Grenoble to Barcelona with several stops in between. Then in late August while Adam is on a business trip to Ethiopia I'm planning on meeting up with some friends in northern England.

And then I have to find a job! So after all these trips are over with and I start my job search I'll post my next update. Until then I'll be a busy European explorer, I really do love my life!

Back in the USA

    I've heard that, when living in another country, the 4 month mark is the hardest. The newness and excitement have worn off and all the annoyances and homesickness that you ignored start to add up. For me, it was the annoyances and differences I was putting up with that were really getting to me finally. 

    The height of this feeling coincided with a weekend trip to London. I got to speak/hear English and be around a culture that is much more similar to my own. I came back to France for one last week of French classes and realized I had lost all motivation to speak/learn French or be in France. 

    Luckily this feeling wore off after 2 days and then it hit me that 2 days later I was leaving France for 10 weeks and I got really sad. 2 of my friends will no longer be in France when I get back and I am pretty bummed about that. 
    But although I was ready for a break I am no where near ready to move back to the US permanently, I can't wait to get back in July. 

French culture that I like better than US culture

    4 months is not a long time but I started to begin to understand French culture. In my French classes, the articles and news clips we were given for written and oral comprehension were related to something about French culture and we would have class discussions about it and how it related to/differed from our various cultures.
    In past posts I know I've complained a little about France and there are definitely things to complain about and get used to but I want to understand and embrace their culture and these are my 2 favorite aspects (and the 2 that I can easily explain in words. The rest is hard to explain, you really just have to experience it)

    ~Unlike in the US, they are not worried about everything always being the biggest, newest, fastest, bestest. They are not worried about keeping up with the Jones's and being materialistic. No one has big diamonds on their hands or cares about having a big fancy house/car. There's certain things that could definitely be improved but it doesn't bother them, its just how it is. I've discussed this with other US expats and all agree, its refreshing. Now, obviously not every American is the same and there are certainly materialistic French people, but in the overall sense of the 2 cultures, the difference is noticeable. 

    ~They work to live, not live to work. In the US, I've noticed, some people are proud of not taking a vacation day in 2 years. Its always work work work, whether we like it or not. In France, they get 5 weeks minimum of paid vacation, Adam gets 7 or 8. Businesses and schools close up shop for at least an hour every afternoon for lunch, nothing is open on Sunday, and sometimes Monday too. They will not stay open for 5 more minutes to help that one last customer. The legal work week is 35 hours. My french teachers said its becoming less like this in recent years, discussions are popping up about stores opening on Sundays, people are working longer hours, but all in all the attitude about work is just different.  

Coming back to the US

    Like I said, 4 months is not a long time to be in another culture and gone from your own, but it was enough for me to have a slight bit of culture shock when I returned. I was told from multiple people to expect it. My mom came back from Amsterdam after 5 years and didn't like it and wanted to go back to Europe. 

    ~First thing, American accents and ways of speaking. Minus the few American students I talked to at school here and there, I'd really spoken English with only 1 other American the whole 4 months, Adam. I got to my gate in Geneva last week and sat next to a girl with that annoying American 20-something girl voice ("like, totally!") and I cringed. It was like nails on a chalk board. Then more Americans arrived to the gate with various American accents, less annoying, but still annoying, and loud. I discussed this with a doctor at work yesterday who lived in Spain for a year and he said the exact same thing. My mom completely understood too.

    ~Loud restaurants. This was surprising. Went out to dinner with my parents and the first couple times was slightly overwhelmed with the volume of the people and the music in the restaurant and just the restaurant itself and the lights and the colors and the TVs and people everywhere.  

    ~The food. Its been a week and a half and it still hasn't gotten better. Starting the morning after I returned, my body hasn't been happy with what I've been eating. I'm almost positive its the ultra-processed American food, which is just about everywhere here, even when its "healthy." I cooked a lot and with fresh meat and veggies from the market and all the restaurants in Grenoble use fresh, local ingredients. I just hope my body readjusts soon, I'll have to watch what I eat.  
    ~and just a nit picky thing, now that I'm back people come up to me and say "hows Paris?!" and it drives me a little crazy because I've never mentioned Paris, I always just say I live in France, and people only think of Paris. Its a big country with lots of other cities, and Paris certainly isn't the best representation of France as a whole, for anyone who's been there. All my teachers always got a look on their face when they talked about the Parisians. Its kind of similar to how we look at New Yorkers, not the best representation of Americans.