I really do wish I had time to sit down and tell you all of the things about our life in language learning and France.  But, I barely sit down.  Even now, it is 11pm and we are still working on miscellaneous stuff.  Ah well…

So, I am going to share with you a fun story.  Not because it’s overly special or outstanding, but it’s simply a fun story, it happened today, and I have five minutes to type it out!

Each day, one of us goes to pick up the kids after school.  I usually make this last run of the day (we go back and forth twice each day, at least, so we take turns).  There is a little grocery on the corner between the school and our apartment, so the owner and friends who hang out outside, smoking their cigarettes and chatting at the picnic table, recognize most of the parents who make this trek.  I made it a point to be friendly early on and now know the store owner’s name.  They are a friendly, very French bunch.  On this day, as I rounded the corner to get the kids, a car pulled up and parked and a man with a bushy black beard got out.  He walked directly in front of me toward the picnic table.  He began to greet each person sitting around the table, as is French custom, with a hand shake and a hearty “bonjour!”  My walking pace timed directly so that, as he rounded the corner of the table, I met him on the same side.  I grinned, said “bonjour” to the others at the table as I walked up, and held out my hand for a shake from the bearded man.

I felt so clever and the guys all laughed.  But the friendly bearded man one-upped me by saying, as he shook my hand, “No!  En France, comme ca…” and properly greeted me as a friend, kissing each cheek!  However, I have lived in France long enough (a whole eight weeks) to have made this greeting more than once and played along.  Because it was friendly fun.  And because it meant that my forward handshake was embraced and welcomed as a friendly gesture, instead of a pompous one (this thought went through my mind – he might think I’m crazy – and his friends know “je suis americaine!”).

I was also grateful for a book Levi recently brought home from his school’s library called “Papa Pique” – which translates to something like “daddy’s face is scratchy from his beard” (yes that’s a lot of words to describe two…hence the reason we’re here learning French for ten months!).  I am grateful because once the laughter died down from Monsieur’s greeting, another of his friends asked me “Il pique?”  And I understood!  And I answered!  (“No, pas mal!”)  Thus, it ended and I got the kids from school (J’ai allé chercher mes enfants)…and went on with our day.

The End

Ugh, you all must forgive the infrequent posting.  It is a busy season with school, three littles, and all that lies therein.  However, we are doing well (mostly).  This week, I woke in the middle of one night in severe pain in my neck and shoulders, barely slept all night, was laid up all day (missed a day of school!) in severe pain, barely able to move, but not able to get comfortable.  By the next morning, it was sore and my range of motion was decreased, but I could function!  By today it is much better, with only some random soreness.  So weird!

Axel has finally finished pushing through FOUR! teeth, but it seems two more on the bottom might be making an appearance soon.  He is pulling up and beginning to test out his steps while holding on to things, too.

Levi and Amelia are loving school.  Levi went on his very first field trip – his class had been reading about pirates, then they went up to a fort from the 1800’s and played pirates all day.  The location included ropes course, zip line, old fort-y things (like dark rooms and whatnot), and even “big kids dressed like pirates.”  He LOVED it.  Amelia is doing well going to school all day and is even mostly diaper-free.

Matthew is staying connected to the work awaiting him in Kinshasa via plenty of emails and little projects.  Oh, and we are getting ready for our first two weeks off of school, making plans to travel a bit and take advantage of our huge opportunity – living in Europe.  There’s even some talk of what our living situation might look like – the house hunt is on in our absence, in case the ideal opportunity should strike.

Anyway, that’s a brief update…on to the regularly scheduled blog post, the last in the Our New Normal Series (I think)…

Albertville is a lovely village where about 18,000 people reside.  It is best known in recent history for hosting the 1992 Winter Olympics – many signs, including the town logo, still stand around the small town with pride.  I’ve seen the Olympic Hall, though this year they have gutted it and are updating it.  We have really enjoyed getting to know this place.

Being just under seven square miles, it is completely fine to be without a car in our situation.  We are quite pleased that all of our needs can be met by walking, but have taken the bus to the giant Walmart-like store for some necessities.  The bus system is excellent.

So, I have some pictures and highlights to share with you to introduce you to our hometown for the next year.

The scenery is beautiful here!

From the our bedroom window…

From the kids’ bedroom window…

The lovely homes in our neighborhood are a fun collection of French and Swiss styles – Alpine, I suppose

This lovely older home is currently looking for investors to be rebuilt into a retirement home…

The streets of downtown are less than ten minutes away. We head this way about three times each week for supplies…

This photo usually comes up if you search for “Albertville” on Google…well, I took this one, but one exactly like it.

Each Saturday we head to a local market for fresh produce, some meats and most of our cheese…Levi loves cheese of all kinds…even more than I do! France has over 400 officially recognized types of cheeses.

The boucherie truck at the market.

One of our favorite places – laitiere – creamery!

One of our very favorite cheeses, Beaufort is made in a town not too far from here. The Beaufort été is better than the Beaufort (it is aged) – think a sharp cheddar/parmesan, but better…

One of our two favorite boulangeries (bakeries), La Mie Calline. We probably buy from them three to four times each week.

A city building of some type, very regal looking.

A speed limit sign in France, for those a little less traveled. I love little things like this.

A fire hydrant. We saw one open once, on the inside they look the same as ones in the US. Go figure.

We have two of them…just in case anyone was curious.

This sign near the language school campus is a reminder for what happened here and who was lost. There are several around town – I took a picture because it is amazing to see the history in person. This wasn’t some far off place in a history book, it was the people from THIS house.

Here is another plaque posted on a school up the road a bit. I love that the memory is not lost.

This is L’Arly and it runs down one side of town. Just beyond it is Conflans, the medieval city.

A view from Conflans…which will get its own blogpost in the [near] future.

For this next part, I thought you’d might like to know a little about our average day. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, we have full school days. We get up around 6:30 (ideally) and all have breakfast around 7:30 once everyone is ready. One of us (or sometimes all of us) walk Levi and Amelia down to their school. It’s only about a five minute walk, so it’s no big deal. We laugh that it would take longer to drive there, counting the time to get in the car, buckle car seats, drive, find a parking spot, unbuckle, and walk into class.

Levi in front of his school on our first visit there. Amelia’s classroom is the blue door just inside.

We take Axel down to nursery care at 8:30 and head over to the main building to begin a short devotional time with the entire student body at 8:40. The whole day at the language school is built around the public school schedule, so that our kids can still be a priority and no worries about timing. We have a time of a devotional, or on Fridays, a time of worship, followed by announcements. It may go without saying, that everything is in French (though some announcements to get translated by a more experienced student for the next few weeks so we don’t miss anything critical).

At 9, we break up into our various classrooms, divided by level. While we will move up throughout the year, we will have the same teacher – and since my teacher is awesome, I am excited.

10 or 10:15 is a morning “pause” for 15 minutes. Matthew and I often have breaks that overlap and we see each other at the apartment to grab a second cup of coffee and, frequently, chocolate.

After another hour in class, we are done at 11:20 to be able to grab the kids for lunch. Most often, Matthew walks down to the maternelle (French pre-K) to get Levi and Amelia, while I grab Axel from the nursery and make the trek up one flight of stairs to get lunch started. Matthew also often buys a baguette (yes, daily buying of bread is normal here – I will talk more about this is the next blog post) to go with lunch.

We all gather around for our two hour lunch break, talk about our days, try to get some little chores done, before heading back out to school. I take Levi and Amelia, most days, back to his school at 1:20. Axel heads down to the nursery at 1:35 and our afternoon session begins at 1:45.

We have a 15 minute afternoon “pause” around 3:00 and our school day is done at 4:20, in order to facilitate Levi and Amelia’s school day finishing at 4:30.

After school we have various normal things – dinner prep, eating, grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, and, of course, homework. We try to spend some time outside, either by going for a walk (to get groceries or bread), heading over to one of the small parks in the neighborhood, or just letting the kids ride bikes around the courtyard on campus.

We’ve also tried to include plenty of fellowship. Once the kids are in bed, we might head to the other apartments in search of games being played or just to hang out, one of the many nice things about living in a small space! Plus, we our kids are great sleepers!

Wednesdays are a little different because, until this year, all schools in France were closed each Wednesday! (Long long ago, there used to be Saturday half days, but that is gone now.) This year, the schools decided to have half day Wednesdays, and our language school decided that this was a great opportunity for parents to stay home and study without distraction. This means, we take Levi and Amelia to school in the morning like normal, but then it’s just us and Axel. It’s a nice quiet time to get some work done before getting them at 11:30 for lunch.

Saturdays and Sundays have been different every weekend so far, and we hope to make time to travel a little bit on weekends once we’re in a good groove. I’ll make sure and get you filled in on those adventures. One advantage to travel is the opportunity to practice French in new situations!

In the next post in this series, I will talk about Albertville and some of our favorite spots!

The language school in Albertville has been in existence for 47 years. It was started just as it continues today – a place for missionaries to learn French in order to live and work in Francophone countries. Except instead of seven students, it has grown to somewhere around 60! The campus consists of four buildings and some lovely areas for the kiddos to play. The parking lot is more often used as a courtyard with community bikes and balls and picnic tables. Levi has already mastered riding a bike (no training wheels), and Amelia is loving the scooters. There is a small swing set in another part of the yard that has a baby swing, too.

Classrooms and single-room apartments – also the kids’ favorite place to ride bikes and scooters!

The first building is a large old house, covered in vines. It houses some storage and a large family (it has six bedrooms). The other three buildings are all connected, but separate sections. The first is the administrative building, but also has a conference room, the laundry room, a large break room with a ping pong table and one family apartment.

This beautiful old house houses sits at the front of campus. Pascal, in the photo, lives here with his parents and four younger siblings.

The tallest building is where our classrooms are but also has single student housing (or married students without kids). The last building is the “family building” – it has eight apartments and where we call home. We are also very blessed to have the nursery in this building for the school hours, so our littles are close by.

The family building is where we call home, though none of those are our windows…and, of course, the Alps in the background.

The Family Building is a fun mix of private two and three bedroom apartments. All four Congo Families live in this building, so we hang out a bit and, all being table game lovers, tend to play games late at night once kids are in bed and studying is done (mostly…).

The top floor Matthew and I call the Medical Wing, because all three apartments house doctors and their families. Having a pediatrician, OB/GYN and a surgeon one floor up has its perks. Two of those families will be serving at a hospital in Vanga, about an hour and a half flight from Kinshasa, supported by MAF. The floor below us houses two families, one of whom are the other MAF couple here and headed to Eastern DRC. We are so glad to get to know them (though we first met in Idaho this summer) and we look forward to the arrival of their first kiddo this winter! Actually, three ladies in this building are pregnant…what a fun winter it will be!

There are quite a few families that live nearby off campus, too. You see a lot of bikes and strollers parked around campus during school hours. The weather here for our first month has been lovely – only three days of rain and it’s topped 80F most of the sunny days, so walking and biking are a favorite mode of transportation. I will talk about the town off campus things in an upcoming post.

The campus is bursting at the seams with students eager to serve and learn French, but it is a place where God is working and the staff are so ready and willing to teach.

Matthew and I are different classes – he is in the next level up. It’s fun that way. We often see each other on breaks, and, of course, during lunch. I also have a blog post coming about our daily schedule, where I will go into detail about “a day in the life.”

Thank you for praying for our time here – and may it continue to be on your hearts!

Snickers the cat hangs around campus and loves the kids…and by “loves” I mean, “puts up with their attention.”

Our school is the group of white buildings in the center – Matthew took this photo during a hike.  You can actually see the window I am looking out as I write this.  Crazy.

Last week was mostly administrative stuff – like a soft beginning.  Monday was off, Tuesday was placement tests and a campus tour (it’s a very small campus), Wednesday is always a day off (though Levi and Amelia have a half day of school), then Thursday was Orientation where we covered the school, history and a great talk (translated, thankfully) from the president of the association.  The school is 47 years old and is a great witness to Albertville, since this small city of 18,000 only has three tiny churches.  Thursday afternoon we all opened French bank accounts (to make transactions easier and to be able to get things like cell phone service).

Friday was our first official day of French language school in our respective classes.  I am in the beginner French class – I am glad to be able to cover the basics.  While I can function out in public with toddler French and a decent vocabulary, my reading, pronunciation and even understanding of the structure of the language are all lacking.  I loved finally being able to, by the end of the day, know how to pronounce a French word by reading it.

Matthew is in the next level up class – his class was reviewing present, imparfait and passé composé conjugation.  I definitely do not belong there, and he definitely does.

So, this will be our first full week of classes and the new normal.  I will be honest and say I spent most of today overwhelmed at the balancing act it will be – three kids, a household, and full time schooling.  I don’t know how anyone does it and I’m not really sure how I’ll do it, but thankfully, we are called to this whole process and the Lord is my strength.  Whew.  Thank the Lord for that!  Also, Matthew was awesome and helped out big time today to get caught up so that we can all start the week at least not behind on everything.  There will be homework, and plenty of it…so, bring it on and let’s learn a second language!

On Sunday, we had a grand adventure in a neighboring town, about a 15 minute bus ride away.  It was the annual Fete des Montagnes, where the town parades the animals from the mountains and into pastures for the winter.  It is similar to a fair, with food and crafts and a parade featuring the Savoie culture (we are in the Savoie region of France).  The day included a lot of waiting, but enjoying the down time, a lot of walking, and some lessons learned (like which side of the street to stand on when you’re waiting for your bus…and watching it drive away and having to wait another three hours…that happened).  But, it was a great day to enjoy the local culture and tastes of France!  Here are some (or a lot of) pictures…

Brochure, because I can’t yet spell in French

Got there early, so we played at the park while we waited for the parade to start (also, safe parenting!)

Park cutie!

Our fellow MAF compatriots, Dave & Ashley, came along – and twinsies!

Walking around town trying to find the festival, we found the town of Ugine to be beautiful!

Ugine houses

There was some sort of fortress…with tunnels!

Experimenting with the camera focus

The top of the fortress thingy

The festival was on the top of a hill

Looking down into Ugine

The pasture land was picturesque – and the garden was perfect!

Les Montanges

Wild grapes?! They were sour, but fun!

Gorgeous!

We found the festival!!

Serious bread.

The local crafts were fun to watch.

Watching the wood lathe – he made a honey server

Pretty storefront

This copper booth – we wanted all the things.

This guy looked so French to me! Can you see the dagger on his hip??

Waiting for the parade to begin…

Here comes the parade!

Traditional packs

The music was really fun!

Some of the couples were doing traditional folk dances

Those hats – and they were wearing wooden clogs.

Adorable!

They seemed happier in person…

Even the babies were in traditional Savoie dress!

Tiny sheep herder

Cider press and free samples!

Baa

The cows were huge and had loud bells – no one’s getting lost in the mountains with those on!

The local sports clubs also gave demonstrations during the parade. Here is the local judo club – Matthew has done judo for several years.

The guys climbed things with bikes…not rode them, climbed with them. It was impressive!

Enjoying some cider and the parade

Over at the animal display – old farm equipment working hard…

It was an awesome experience and we’re glad to have gone!  What a way to be immersed in the culture and the language!