Still Alive and Kicking

For our first update from France, I'm going to steal the e-mail that Jason sent home because it's such a good description. I hope you enjoy.

Well, we've successfully survived our first two days here in Lyon, not to mention the full day of travel that it took just to get here. You should have seen us getting off of the little 24 seat plane that took us from Frankfurt to our final destination. Bleary-eyed, covered in crumbs from all of the snacks we had been using as pacifiers for Brooklyn and Talia, and smelling like we hadn't had showers for a couple days. Add all of that to us attempting to move two girls, a stroller (which neither girl wanted to sit in), 3 wheeled carry-ons, two backpacks, a camera bag, a diaper bag, and seven pieces of checked luggage, and it would have put stitches in your side. I was laughing too. Way down deep inside. I had to look pretty far to find it, but it was there. It literally took us an hour just to get from the plane to the rental car place, and we didn't even have to go through customs! (Thank Goodness... they probably shut down and ran for home when they saw us coming. Maybe the flight attendant called ahead and warned them.)


**Here's Jason with some of the luggage...

It took us two trips and three hours in our little blue Peugeot to get all of the luggage transfered from the airport to the home of the B*** family. The attendant at Alamo was kind enough to let us leave the pieces we couldn't fit in the car behind their desk between trips. I hate to admit we stopped at McDonalds for dinner, but at least the salad I ordered had several different kinds of very fancy (a.k.a. stinky) French cheeses. It was actually quite good. Brooklyn quickly caught on to the game of hide and go seek being played by a bunch of the kids in the play area. It wasn't long before she was standing in the corner with her eyes closed counting "un, deux, trois, quatre..."

Everybody here in Lyon has been so incredibly nice and helpful. They are all very patient with my broken English, and the B*** family has been so kind to take us in and help us out. We are not in our apartment yet, but have an appointment arranged for tomorrow evening at 5:30 to sign the contract, have the inspection, and get the keys. We're looking forward to starting to set up our own place.

Kara has had to jump into work with both feet: Yesterday they had a training meeting for a couple of hours, and today she had to help administer a test similar to the TOEFL to the incoming students. So while she was off winning the bread, Brooklyn, Talia, and I braved Lyon's public transit system, which incidentally is absolutely incredible, and went to the Parc de la Tete d'Or where we got to play at a playground and hang out with some giraffes and some African alligators. We had a nice time, but I think the girls were pretty tired of walking by the time we made it back to the bus. I'm not sure what would give me that idea, except maybe that I had one slung over the shoulder and was practically dragging the other through the grass.

Lyon appears to be a very nice city. It is in a picturesque location at the edge of a mountain range to the west and a plain to the east. It is a fairly large city, but not as big as Chicago or New York. So far the weather has been very nice, though I guess it is supposed to rain tomorrow. We haven't really had the chance to take any pictures yet, but we'll try to do so and get them posted on the blog.

We certainly miss everybody. We've had some wonderful moments these past couple days, but it has also been a big adjustment, and not always very easy. Brooklyn asked me yesterday when we were going to go back to Illinois, and if it weren't for having to do the plane flight all over again, I might have said "tomorrow". But we're really excited to be here and anticipate that things will get easier as we get into a regular routine. And for those who are able, we hope to have the chance to host you and show you around our new home sometime during the coming year.

A brief update: We're still not into our new home yet, but we are hopeful that we will get the keys after the final inspection today. We'll be without internet for a bit after that, but look forward to posting more once we're connected again.