The Come Back
I have been told more than once that coming back to your home country is way harder than leaving. So we thought that we could just pretend that Paris and France are a whole brand new destination and enjoy the pretend novelty.
Let's dig a bit
What makes my day (so far)
The food. This is a huge topic. Food is just too good - the bread, the cheese, the pastries, the meat... There is even duck :)
The walking. We can walk everywhere, no car anymore, no need to go to the gym. I just walk as a productive activity to go from point A to B and here I reach my 10,000 daily steps without noticing.
The lunch break. I am still a bit confused about it but sooo happy to not have to cook or buy out everyday.
The health insurance serenity. Yes I am happy to think that even though I have not completly finalized all the health insurance paperwork, I will not be bankrupt in case of one of us breaking a bone. I might actually start rollerblading again ?
The units. Welcome back to the meters', celsius', grams' and co. A relief.
The wine selection at the supermarket. No matter if I need some or not, I always take a trip to the wine selection… even at the gas station. This is beautiful.
The fun things
The keyboard. I definitly need to make some efforts there to start using the accents again when I write in french. Work in progress.
The dates and figures. It took me 4 years to be fluent at putting the month BEFORE the day, the ',' to separate the thousands and teh '$' sign before the number. Serious struggle there.
The kiss at work everyday. I think I actually liked the close to zero morning greating. I can take it once in a while but I need my space.
The coffee machines. I am kind of surprised that I get only 8 options of coffee/drinks at work ;)
The schedules. I am fine with shops, restaurant and other services not being open 24/7 but that would be great if the stores were actually updating their google cards so we don't have to go to the store to find out about their constantly changing schedule…
The planes. I was surprised in the US by the old airplanes like the Fokker's and McDonell Douglas'. Guess what I get to do my frequent Paris/Tarbes : a Fokker… ironic.
The kid friendly opera selection. I went to see the kid friendly version of Carmen at a great theater and I was fairly surprised how 'graphic' and 'shocking' the ending is for a kid audience. The guy actually beats her ! I think I was the only one to be freaking out there...
The card paiement. All stores do not accept cards and the threshold varies all the time. It can be 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 or whatever. Fun activity if you have time : engage the discussion.
So based on that
Let's keep the discovery mode on.