The Swafford's are in France!

Below you will find 4 entries written before we had internet access, starting with the most recent one...enjoy!

Feb 1

Our line has been activated! We got a telephone call this morning (thanks to the phone Patricia gave us) from the guy from France Telecom who activated it. So, now David is trying to figure out how to hook up our Livebox. We should have internet very shortly! It is very exciting :o)

The electrician also came this morning (thanks to Denis Grandidier raising cain) to fix our hot plate.

In the beginning:

It is finished:

This is almost even more exciting! Last night for dinner we made chicken Fajita Tacos, and they so yummy. Tonight I will be using my new oven!

We’ll have Lemon Pepper Chicken, with potatoes and broccoli. :o) We were going to buy some frozen cookies the last time we were at the store, because I didn’t have my homemade cookie ingredients memorized, but we couldn’t find them. Very soon though, we will have cookies.

We are also going to get monthly bus passes today, after the electrician comes. This will allow us to ride the bus an unlimited amount of times without having to pay each time…they do similar things with MARTA. This will even be beneficial to me since I will be meeting with Farid for English lessons! :o) Today should turn out to be pretty good, not that the other days have been bad. I guess I should say that today will be less frustrating :o)

Jan 31

I’m sitting here in the apartment looking at our Livebox. Why am I only looking at it?

(see you can look at it too!)

Because we can’t use it. Come on, you can’t think that it would be as simple as receiving it in the mail, hooking it up, and viola! Oh no…here is the story…

A few days ago a girl named Sophie rang our “doorbell” from the street. After much confusion, David went down to talk to her. When he came back upstairs he told me that Sophie’s telephone line (also the line for internet at TV) was activated. Big deal, right? Well, she hadn’t ordered it…yet. She tried to call and order it, but they told her that she couldn’t because she had it already. Much to her confusion, she found out that she was Robert Swafford. So, she tried to explain to them that she wasn’t but they wouldn’t listen to her, because she wasn’t Robert Swafford. How did this happen? Well, Sophie lives at 1 Rue de la Paix…and we live at 1 Bis Rue de la Paix. This is a difference that they had failed to make a note of. We’ve been receiving mail from France Telecom…but not all of it. She received the delivery notices for our Livebox and digital TV…while I’ve been here waiting for them. So she finally brought them over so that we could pick up our packages from la poste. Only, the problem now is that our line is still not activated! Patricia Grandidier came over this morning to drop off the desk David bought, and the 50 piece kitchen set*, and some lamps, and also went with us to the France Telecom store so we could figure out what the big hold up was. They couldn’t help us, but they did say we needed to pay 30 euros to fix the problem with activating the wrong line. THEY want US to pay because THEY activated the wrong line. Well no, that isn’t going to happen. Patricia told us that if it showed up on our bill, to not pay it, and let her know. I love having French friends. Good news, the guy is supposed to come tomorrow around 2:30pm (14:30) to activate our line…or however that works. Soon…we should have internet soon.

Another bit of interesting entertainment from today…we went to the immoblier (apartment agency) to pay our rent and ask when the electrician would come to fix our hot plates. Long story short, the electrician can not schedule a rendezvous (meeting) because we don’t have a telephone… Honestly, it’s like this huge Catch 22.

A bit of good news! Isn’t this the best part of my entries!? Yesterday, David received his monthly scholarship money (our income) so we went shopping! For luxuries such as an oven! (a little smaller than a typical US microwave). It is an 18 L oven. Oh the smile it brings to my face! I can cook some decent meals now…and cookies! We also were able to buy a kitchen trash can, a bath mat, a hair dryer (!), as well as food to cook! Next big purchases on our list include a shower curtain, shelves for the bathroom and bedroom, a full length mirror, extension cords, and a trip to Japan :o) But ya know, it’s amazing what you can live off of when you don’t have much, and it really isn’t that bad.

One more bit of good news. One of the professors, that Julie (the wife of the married couple that was here for the master’s program) was doing English lessons with, has emailed me in hopes of continuing his lessons. She said that he is advanced enough to the point where he just wants to practice. So I will have a “part-time” job. Yippee! I can contribute to our income. Not much, but it’s better than nothing. Josyane (the American’s students best friend, and now mine – she works at GTL helping the students with EVERYTHING) also mentioned to me that when I start to get bored I can begin to talk to her about some part time work. That could be cool. I don’t know what that would involve, but I do know that it would involve getting paid.

Dinner at the Pound's was a lot of fun. Their 3 kids (Ana, Joshua, and Julie) always take about a half hour to calm down after everyone gets there, but then they are pretty good. David and I, as well as John and Constantine went. We are starting a study of Nahum. I don’t think I’ve ever read that book before so it will be really interesting. We also ate dinner with them. It was wonderful…we’ve eaten meals since we have been here, but this was more like a real meal...like a meal your mom would make. And we ate a lot…too much actually. That is the problem with good food, even if it is healthy for you. So we didn’t pick a specific day that we would meet, but we hope it will be a once a week kind of thing.

On a last note…I really feel like it is going to take me forever to learn French. David says it won’t be as bad as I think it will be, but when I hear him talking to Patricia and can’t understand a word they are saying, I disagree. It’s hard to get started…because you don’t know where or how to start!

My life is an adventure. I hope yours is too!

*50 piece kitchen set included:
- 5 knives and wooden block
- 4 piece cooking utensil set
- measuring cups and spoons
- peeler
- cork screw
- 4 large and 4 small plastic plates
- ice cream scoop!
- small, med, and large, storage containers
- can opener
- salt and pepper shakers
- large pot, pan, and skillet
…I think that’s about it. Pretty nice.

Jan 29

Our internet never came on Saturday. It’s kind of annoying. We waited here all day, didn’t go to the Grandidier’s and couldn’t get in touch with anyone back home. Then, nothing happens on Sunday so that is another day we couldn’t accomplish anything. Plus, our hot water didn’t seem to be working at all on Saturday, and when we woke up Sunday morning it was still freezing. Freezing to the point that we weren’t about to take showers. That started to worry me…what if we didn’t ever get hot water again!? Scarey…

Since we couldn’t shower, we didn’t dare go to church…instead we watched a sermon on DVD…then went walking around parts of the downtown Metz area. David wanted me to get a feel for where we live in relation to everything else. We walked along the river and to the campus of the Universite de Metz (Metz University) It is too bad that David wasn’t doing a dual degree with this campus, it’s so close to us! Anyway, it is a pretty nice campus – cool building architecture. Some students were outside playing soccer, but other than that it was pretty much dead. But they are kind of secluded from the rest of downtown which makes it feel more like a “normal” college campus. After that we went walking by the Plan d’eau. This is where the Mirabelle fireworks are ever year, over a big lake. It’s really a pretty lake, but it’s hard to think of it that way when it’s so cold outside. After that David tried to test me, to see if I knew how to get to the Cathedral from where we were. It’s kind of like walking around downtown Atlanta and asking someone to get to the old Bank of America building (the pencil building). It sticks up so that you can see it, and all you have to do is head towards it. But, even if it weren’t like that, I knew how to get there. :o) It is very close to our apartment. So we went there and then to where the American’s favorite ice cream shop is (they aren’t selling ice cream this time of year though – we were just finding places), and then David started to get hungry so we headed back to the apartment to make dinner.

Good news about our refrigerator though. It has a small freezer space that had an ice cube tray in it. Of course, that means we tried to make ice, and it worked! It took a really long time, but it worked. This is a very good sign. Hopefully it will still work over the summer (hey, you never know) so we can have cold drinks. That would be wonderful.

Today, Monday, David had to go to campus – you will hear me refer to this as David going to “work.” And we were thinking that the Livebox might get delivered today…so David prepped me on what I could say to the guy if he comes. Along the lines of “I don’t speak French.” But…it’s 4pm already, and no delivery guy! There is also supposed to be an electrician coming to fix our hot plates…he hasn’t shown up either. I was really looking forward to being able to use the internet to help me plan meals, and do travel research, not to mention help the time pass while David is away. But, that doesn’t really matter yet anyway because David has to get paid before we can buy any real food, or travel anywhere…and that hasn’t happened yet.

Last night we practiced more French. We counted from 1 to 100 again, faster this time, and alternating back and forth. Then went into even higher numbers so that I would be able to say years. So then he asked me multiple people’s birthdates and I had to say them in French. It went pretty well. David is a good teacher. Then we played scrabble. I was winning the entire game – until the very end! I hadn’t used a Q, so that was minus 10 points! Argh… These games are great though. They are travel sized games that come in their own little travel cases (we have Scrabble and Yatzee thanks to the Dunlaps)

With more of my free time I’ve been planning out other things we need to buy, and the throw I going to knit. I think, and I still have to consult David before it is official, but I think it will be dark blue and tan to match our futon and the rug under it. We really need another blanket, we always have to pull the comforter off of our bed. Anyway, I’ve created a couple different patterns that we’ll have to choose from, and then I need to go buy yarn and I can get started! Maybe by then we will have our internet, telephone, and TV connection so that I can watch some French TV and try to learn more French while I knit. That’s the plan at least…

We are going to the Pound’s apartment tonight for dinner, at 6pm. They have 3 children, so it is always pretty lively over there. But it will be nice to be able to talk back to some other people in English, instead of looking at them like, “uh, what?” We will also be doing a bible study with them once a week – I think – so we’re going to talk about that to, and try to pick a day and get other people to come…maybe some students from GTL. I hoping to be able to have some people over here sometime too…but again, it’s amazing what you can’t do without any money. So, we’re waiting…

Jan 27

It’s my second day in France! I was laying next to David in bed this morning when I started this…he was still “sleeping,” but I don’t really sleep that late anymore so I was bored. Amazingly, I seem to be adjusted to the time change already. Sleeping on the plane and on the train must have helped with that. When I arrived it was -3 C (26 F) and a little cloudy. Aside from my nose and ears being a little cold, it hasn’t been too bad. I have a very warm down jacket to thank for that…and all the walking we do. When you are out in the cold all the time there isn’t as much of a temperature change to feel like you do in the US getting in and out of warm cars and buildings.

Our apartment is wonderful! It has so much character. We are on the top floor (4th) so we have slanted ceilings and moon-roof windows. There are also old railroad ties and poles that come out of the floor and walls. Plus we have a 2nd floor mezzanine bedroom (up the stairs).

This will serve as our guest room – so come visit! It isn’t very big though, but that’s ok, because we don’t want you to hang out in your room all day, you have to spend time with us :o)

Our room is a lot bigger than I expected.

Our bed is positioned nicely underneath some of the decorative railroad ties, and near that nice white pole. It actual works pretty well, and it is the best use of the space in that room, especially if we are going to add other things.

(this is opposite from our bed. David's iPod Bose speaker is in the center, and my stuff is on the left side, David's is on the right, and we share the center drawers)

We still need some other furniture like some end tables, and maybe a portable closet (if the one in the hall isn’t big enough…we have yet to unpack that much), and some more drawers.

We have a water closet and a bathroom…that also has a slanted ceiling thus a low mounted shower head, so we’re learning to take bath-showers. (bath-shower = sitting in the tub instead of standing) You can stand, but since the shower head is mounted at the level of your waist it gets kind of chilly.

Our kitchen is not very large, but has lots of potential.

(this picture is from after the entry was written, so some of the potential is being shown!)

As soon as we can we are hoping to put in a small oven (well, everything is small), some more shelves, and another countertop next to the sink.
These are some of the shelves we have underneath our countertop. We could probably use more space like this.

The kitchen overlooks the living room that has been furnished with the generous donations from the Grandidier family. They gave us a lot of furniture that they were going to replace, and it works well here.

Our first meal was spaghetti, because it was easy and inexpensive. For breakfast we have been eating the Apple Jacks that David’s mom sent him last semester – he had never opened them. We also had huge salads last night. They had lettuce, of course, tomato, cheese, oranges, egg, mushrooms, carrots, and dressing. We ate the salads with soft baguette bread and David’s oil/vinegar/parmesan/herb creation. For dessert we have been eating the Japanese candy that Eileen sent us – green tea kit-kats, pocky sticks, latte kit-kats, yummy starburst-like chewy candies, and koala cookie/crackers. David is addicted to the latte flavored koala crackers, it’s hilarious.

Last night it was snowing! Yep, we had snow accumulating on our roof and windows. After the snow stopped it started hailing, but it didn’t last all night. There is still some snow on the grass near the river (we can see that from our window), but that is about it. It’s cold enough for more, you never know!

Today we had plans to go to the Grandiders for Thibaut’s (“T-bo”) birthday. He turned 10. We were also supposed to be getting our Livebox (internet)…but it never came. So now we don’t know when we’ll get it, cause nothing happens on Sundays…and David will be at GTL on Monday, so if they come then, they’ll have to talk to me. I hope they don’t need anything! I think David’s plans were to sleep in until they came. But eventually that became pointless. So instead, we cleaned the entire apartment…swept, mopped, dusted – everything. Now it is liveable. The kitchen and bathroom floors still appear dirty, but that is just because they are stained. We also moved furniture around – our bed and a dresser that was in the living room. It was pointless there, so we put it in the bedroom and are now using it for clothes…I have a lot more clothes than David…but he won’t share his extra space with me! :o( I’ll live. (this is shown in the picture above...where you can see David's iPod Bose speaker)

Well, time to go!

Words I learned today:

The fork = la fourchette
The spoon = la cuiller
The knife = le couteau
The plate = la assiette
The table = la table

AND I counted to 100 and said all the letters of the alphabet. “Y” is the weirdest letter!

Adios! Oops, I mean, Au Revior! Bon Voyage!