Our First Day (34 hours, really)

I need to make this one quick. The kids are starting to lose their battle with jet lag. 

They were total troopers today. At the departure gate, Samuel heard some teenagers speaking French. He ran over to me and said— mom, they’re speaking French, can I go talk to them? With all of the confidence in the world, he started talking in broken French, working the crowd. Later on the train, our seats were at a table with two girls, 10 and 15. Samuel dove right in. I gave him bonus points for putting himself out there (even with his inadequate vocab). 

For the past couple of months, I’ve been making the kids do “twenty minutes of French”— their choice, videos, podcasts, books— each day after homework. Today, when I suggested we watch TV (in French) for twenty minutes, Bennett said— mom, we don’t have to do twenty minutes of French when we’re IN FRANCE!! Touche Bennett.

Cooper’s wisdom came like this: French people’s farts smell different.

We’re on our own until Monday morning, when we start language school. We plan to wander around town tomorrow- that should take about 12 minutes. 

My American faux pas today: at the small grocer (which opened over 30 minutes later than advertised— no one seemed to mind the wait outside in the rain), I used the credit card machine with the chip reader, so I thought it was like the ATMs where you put the card in quickly and remove it. I kept pulling it out too quickly and the grocer said (in French) — You are too fast! You are not in the United States, you are in Sancerre. You will need to slow down.

Yep— that’s why we’re here.

First thing the boys did when we got into our apartment was dump out the legos they brought. Home sweet home.