Le Premier Semaine (The First Week)

Here are the things Jason enjoyed or noted about our first week:

1. McDonald’s on our 4th day here. The girls don’t even really like McDonald’s food, but they love getting a Happy Meal toy and, of course, the playland. Well, the playland at this particular McDonald’s was small, but indoors, which is key when it’s July. After about 2 minutes, Joss runs over to me to say: “Dad, what does ‘pardón’ mean? A French kid was talking French to me and he said ‘pardón’. Does that mean sorry?”

2. The kids got their first taste of the mayonnaise-based French “fry sauce”, and they weren’t “tre” excited about it. To be fair, however, they don’t like the Utah pink fry sauce either (the only thing I can figure for why I love it and they don’t is . . .nope, there’s no good reason.)

3. Upon going through the enormous yogurt, dairy, and cheese section in the supermarket, this Tom & Jerry-influenced comment: “Dad, that’s the kind of cheese that mouses eat.” Referring, of course, to a big block of Swiss cheese. One very cool thing about the supermarket is that they have 2nd and 3rd floor parking. So—how does one get a full supermarket cart up to the third level of a parking garage, you ask? First, the escalators are gently sloped and not stair-like. But then secondly, they magnetize your wheels to the escalator so it locks in place. Very cool technology, which they need to apply somehow to little collars that could be attached to 3-year-olds.

4. Having a pool. I won’t lie—it’s pretty much the coolest thing we’ve ever had in our house besides my drum set and our TV trays. It’s equipped with a pool alarm that goes off when unexpected splashing occurs. Notwithstanding the aforementioned alarm, Maisy—and her disproportionate confidence in her swimming abilities—fell/jumped in at least twice in the first 3 days and we had to pull her out by one arm, sputtering. Save your prayers for this “enfant.”

5. On our very first day with the rental car, I may have inadvertently run over a baby lizard that may have traumatized the girls for maybe the last 3 days. If I really did run over a lizard, I guess I feel bad. Although if it was a gecko instead, I simply find it ironic.

6. The girls’ first full French phrase: “Un glace, si vous plait” (Ice cream, please). They must be mine.

7. We’re still waiting for a partial shipment of household goods that should arrive via air freight shortly. However, in order to get the kids into the pool and beach, we had to buy some new beach towels (I will be polite and not list the prices since I don’t want to have to explain why I took a second job setting up deck chairs at the Pullman Royal Casino private beach to pay for them). The problem with buying a new beach towel is that you should wash and dry it first. Well, we washed it, but normally—how does towel lint pill off and collect? In a dryer. Which we don’t have. Everything here sun dries on a clothes line. This is just a long way of saying that if you look closely at our first week pictures, you may note that we are all covered in a fine layer of New Beach Towel Lint. I’m still finding lint accumulations in places only the Marquis de Sade documented.

8. The beach—there are tons of public beaches around here (if you can find a parking space). There WILL be other postings about our beach experiences, but just know that some things have changed since my European beach experiences as a teenager. First—and perhaps this is a Belgian characteristic—but I’m seeing a lot less female body hair than I seem to remember (or was traumatized by). Second, I’m seeing about the same amount of modesty levels as before on men (my Speedo tolerance strangely unchanged) and on women (somehow, this one doesn’t bother me as much). Although a certain balcony scene from There’s Something About Mary has distinctly and repeatedly come to mind. The kids gladly only recognize the cool sand castles and temperate water thus far.

9. Driving a manual transmission Opel as our rental car. I actually learned how to drive in a stick shift Opel car in Belgium all those years ago. I love the fact that now it’s my turn to take the wheel with my family and get them around safely now.