Five Months in Austin

The wind was starting to pick up when we went in mid afternoon to Lake Travis to try Tim’s fishing pole that the Elys gave him.

We did not manage to catch anything, but we saw some big carp.

Emma found a piece of bread to feed them and get them up to the surface of the water. A guy renting boats there said if we ran out of bread, he would give us dog food. These fish were as big as small dogs.

Mom and Dana arrived yesterday afternoon. The big event was today, however: late Christmas presents.

Right now the living room is full of wrapping paper. We also have various sizes of voice changing Darth Vaders staring people down, telling them, “I am your father,” or “Je suis ton père.”

We also have a couple of scarf winged creatures jumping on the beds.

Emma came home this afternoon with a certificate. Student of the week for politeness.

At bath time, she told me she didn’t speak English today at school. I wonder if she got the politeness award for being one of the few students to keep her mouth shut the whole time.

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Aujourd’hui, Diane et moi etions livrees a nous-meme dans la jungle texane !! ca veut dire que nous inaugurions une nouvelle conduite , celle du Van, la recherche de nouveaux supermarches, de nouveaux produits…Pour une malheureuse liste de quelques 10 produits, nous avons passe deux heures dans le supermarche, qui n’est probablement pas plus grand que le Super U de Pontcharra ! Le pire a surement ete quand on a cherche une boite de haricots rouges pour faire du chili : je n’ai jamais vu autant de sortes de haricots de toutes les couleurs, arranges a toutes les sauces possibles, et quand j’ai finalement trouve ce que Mark m’avait dit tres simple a trouver, j’en ai encore trouve dans l’autre rayon !! Les seules fois ou on a retrouve nos reperes, Diane et moi, c’est en voyant les quelques marques de biscuits sucres francais et les fromages francais, mais a quel prix !!! a peu pres 3 a 4 fois plus chers !! donc, on est reparties chercher les equivalents (!!!) americains.

Mais trouver les produits n’etait pas la fin de la partie !! il a fallu passer par la caisse, ou je ne me suis pas trop mal debrouillee avec la carte de credit et le board a signer electroniquement , mais la jeune femme a commence a me parler, je me suis sentie tres bete !! c’est un gentil monsieur d’origine chinoise qui est venu a mon aide et a repete clairement !!!Ensuite, nous sommes sorties pour aller a la voiture, mais la , autre probleme : Ou etait la voiture et a quoi ressemblait-elle ??? quoi de plus ressemblant qu’un van a un autre van !!! quand en plus Diane me soutient qu’il est blanc, et que l’on decouvre qu’il est gris, on se sent bete !! finalement, on est rentrees saines et sauves et avec nos provisions a la maison, mais avec beaucoup de retard !!

Derniere nouvelle, les grands-parents americains sont arrives cet apres-midi en renfort apres trois jours de route depuis chez eux, la voiture pleine de cadeaux pour les enfants !!comme d’habitude ! mais Tim et Emma etaient tellement fatigues, qu’ils n’ont meme pas pense a demander si les valises etaient pleines pour eux !!!

La semaine semble avoir ete longue pour les deux grands , avec ,il semble, quelques passages a vide qujourd’hui. Mais c’est vrai que leur rythme est tres different de Barraux et beaucoup de choses se sont passees en une petite semaine !!

Il etait temps que je transmette aussi les impressions francaises ! Effectivement, le voyage de plus de trente heures commence a etre un vieux et mauvais souvenir : retard a Paris, attente de 9 a l’aeroport de Newark tres tard dans la nuit pour les francais (sachant que nous avions quitte la maison a 4h30 du matin et peu dormi les quelques heures precedentes) puis arrivee a Austin, pas de voiture de location comme prevu, puis arrivee a l’hotel ou nos chambres , malgre nos appels , avaient ete relouees !! nous avons finalement dormi a 5 dans une petite chambre les quelques heures qui nous restaient, et encore !! Diane n’a presque pas dormi, tellement elle etait excitee de voir la piscine dehors , et prete a plonger !! 

Neanmoins, des le samedi, nous etions d’attaque pour commencer notre shopping americain, et dans un supermarche de taille moyenne, c’est deja un cauchemar, tellement tout est different et tres difficile a comprendre rapidement ! mais les enfants ont adore !

Puis dimanche, nous avons eu une accalmie du mauvais temps (et oui, pire que dans le Nord de la France, 8-10 degres, pluie, brouillard…)pour nous croire quasiment a la fin du printemps et pouvoir faire connaissance lors d’une petite fete des amis et voisins de Davis et Allison. Les enfants ont pu ainsi faire connaissance avec des copains de leur age et sont impatients d’arriver au week-end pour les revoir. Dans la semaine, l’ecole leur mange tout leur temps et leur energie !!

Tim et Emma ont commence l’ecole lundi et ca semble bien leur plaire. Tim s’est fait des copains a qui il parle en francais ou en anglais, il joue au football americain a la recre et reve de commencer le base-ball. Emma, quant a elle , est rassuree de pouvoir se faire des amis sans avoir a parler trop anglais !! la plupart de ses amis parlent francais bien que ce soit une langue etrangere pour eux !

Quant a Diane, Summer, sa petite copine qui prend sa place a Barraux, lui a presente son ecole, ses amis et ses institutrices lundi pour une demi-heure, et a la fin le verdict : “elle est trop belle cette ecole!”. On verra la suite vendredi pour une 2e petite adaptation et le grand jour sera lundi pour 4 heures le matin. Elle semble commencer a s’interesser a parler anglais et semble avoir envie de connaitre de nouveaux mots et de les retenir.

Voici donc le resume de cette petite semaine de periple, ce soir nous sommes seuls a cinq dans une nouvelle maison et commencons vraiment notre vie americaine!!

PS : pour ceux qui me connaissent bien, en quatre jours, je suis allee tous les jours a Austin et revenue presque sans me perdre, avec l’adaptation a des voitures automatiques, d’abord une voiture de taille francaise, et aujourd’hui, avec un enorme pick-up et demain, avec un van dont la taille rivalise avec la 807 ou le Sintra !!!! meme moi, je dois encore faire beaucoup d’effort d’adaptation !

Tim and Emma are attending Austin International School. AIS provides instruction mainly in French, but also in English and Spanish.

After struggling years ago to get into the habit of speaking French at home, I found it hard to get out of the habit with my children. Also, they are home more often with their mother than with their father. So to make the transition easier, they go to a school that follows the French curriculum in French.

Tim and Emma have already come back with stories about their friends at school. The seem to like it well enough. Tim is still happy to eat at the cafeteria. Emma is pleased that she can get by without having to speak English. She says all her new girlfriends can speak French with her.

So far, we have failed to remember to take a picture of the two dressed in their school uniforms. Emma looks like she is going to a Halloween party as a flight attendant in her navy blue dress.

Tim tells himself in the mirror that he looks like an aristocrat.

Curiously, Emma has about 90 minutes of homework a night, yet Tim hardly has any. We are still trying to get to the bottom of that.

In France, I drive an old, dark green Citroën Ax. The Ax is usually left unlocked on the theory that anyone lowering himself to steal it probably needs the car worse than I do.

Over here in Austin, I drive a pickup truck. Maybe the Ax would fit in the back.

In France, the Autoroute I take to work is a four lane, divided highway.

Over here in some spots highway 183 has four lanes on each side, plus an extra three lanes access road in each direction as well.

In France, I was paying about 1,15 euros/liter for gas. Here, I paid $2.10/gallon. David figures the cost per mile is about the same in both places. He may not be figuring in the price of asphalt.

The beds are bigger over here as well.

Someone told me there are four seasons in Austin. November, December, January, and summer. So far we have had enough rain to leave things soggy.

We missed the ice storm last week. Our taxi driver said there had been 400 traffic accidents due to inclement weather. Arnaud says often the accidents were not drivers slipping on ice, but instead drivers surprised by the sudden release of sheets of ice breaking off the warming hoods of other vehicles, blocks half an inch thick and the size of stove tops.

I am looking forward to more of the lovely weather we had last Sunday. Blue skies and 65 F in the afternoon. We met the neighbors over here in t-shirts while the children played outside.

Events got off to a long start Thursday, Jan. 18 when we arrived from Lyon at Charles de Gaulle airport, taxied from one end to another, and then proceeded to wait 45 minutes for the ground crew operating the motorized staircases to arrive. Eventually we got off the plane. But we spent another hour riding buses around the airport to get to our gate.

No matter, however. We came over on Continental flight 057 from Paris. That flight was about three hours late leaving, and just as late getting in to Newark. We learned later that had we flown to Frankfurt instead of Paris, we might not have left Europe that day. High winds had broken trees and downed power lines. Yet, all we knew was that we would narrowly miss our 2:45 p.m. flight Newark to Austin and would have to wait until 8:35 p.m. for the next connection. My bag was missing at customs.
As the day dragged on, we slumped in uncomfortable chairs at the Newark airport, watching the delays pile up. Continental had no place for us to relax with three children, even in a terminal devoted to their airline. We had changed our boarding passes in Paris earlier that day. So we thought we knew we were leaving from gate 135 at one end of terminal C, and we thought we would board at 8:05 p.m.

Soon the projected time changed to 10:37 p.m.

After 6:00 p.m., we found out instead that our flight was late, and furthermore moved to a gate at the opposite end of terminal C. Tim and I walked out there. It was so far he said his feet hurt.

Near the new gate, C 85, I found Continental customer service, where they told me, essentially that they could not tell me more, and that I could call the hotel and rental car people in Austin myself to announce the delays and negotiate cancellations if necessary. It was weather related. Continental customer service offered no guarantees, no help, and no suggestions.

So I called Budget in Austin, and the extended stay hotel where we would spend the night. The woman answering my call at Budget agreed to hold the car, and have her colleague stay late. The hotel attendant agreed to hold my rooms, allowing me to cancel until 11:00 p.m. Austin time.

We trudged back to where Nathalie sat with the dozing girls. Tim walked slowly as his feet hurt. We had to jump out of the way of the empty Continental carts ostensibly there to drive the disabled to their gates.

Finally, we decided to make the move from C 135 to C 85. It was long and painful. When we got there, the projected time for our flight moved to 11:10 p.m., where it stayed until about 11:30. We eventually left Newark on that late flight, with enough empty rows to stretch the children out and let them sleep.

Arriving in Austin at 2:30 a.m., I walked over to Budget to collect my keys. Dark counter, nobody around. A guy nearby told me the attendant had gone home just before 1 a.m. I called their 800 number, and spoke with a gentleman in Newark who could do nothing for me until 5:00 a.m., but said he would adjust my reservation. We filed for my missing luggage, and ended up catching a taxi to Austin.

Then we got to the hotel, where the night attendant answered the buzzer by saying she had no more rooms. The person I’d spoken with on the phone decided to cancel my reservation at 11:00 p.m.

The night attendant, however, did managed to find us one unused room with one bed for the five of us. I tried to sleep on the floor with Diane. Diane had already slept on the planes and by the gates in Newark. Although the temperature was just above freezing, she could see the pool outside through the window.

She pounded her fists on my side, and said, ” Allez ! Je veux aller me baigner dans la piscine ! “