Parlez- vous Francais?

Learning French is quite the experience. Sometimes it is very hard not to burst out laughing! Today I found out that I was wearing "un slip" men's boxers or underwear along with "une chemise" a man's shirt and "pantalons" pants. Not to be forgotten, "une ceinture" - a belt. If I were to preside over a wedding or go to court I would wear "une costume" a suit with "une cravate" a tie. To cool off afterwards we could go swimming, but I would have to go home and get my "maillot de bain" and "serviette" Swim trunks and towel. I can never get the pronunciation correct because I am snickering under my breath. I did, because of your prayers, pass my first French Final. The next one is June 27th. Please continue to pray!

The other big experience has been going to the hospital for my Crohn's disease. I am pretty much symptom free as long as I do not eat very many frites. But I have to take Remicade at the hospital now, instead of in my living room with a nurse administering the IV as I did in Tennessee. So, as soon as we arrived in March, we had to call a gastroenterologist and set up an appointment for the next infusion of the Remicade. The doctor was very nice, once we found him. If you were a graphic artist and a salesman you could become very rich in Belgium. You follow the signs until you get close then they disappear. When you ask for directions the people at the reception desk wonder why they have so many people going to the wrong place. After all, they make it to their place every day. So I had the first treatment after blood work. Then in May I had an MRI and in June (this Monday) I will have a colonoscopy. The MRI was an experience! They put a 1/4" aquarium tube down my nose through my stomach and into my small intestine. They sprayed my nose with toothache spray to make it easier. They said just swallow, just swallow. The technician couldn't get it to go into the intestine so he had the doctor do it. When that was finished, the doctor walked with me down to the MRI. The infirmier (nurse) gave me pants and a shirt to wear. Size small. I looked very funny. Pants 9 inches too short so the fly wouldn't button, and a shirt I couldn't move in. As an accessory I had the aquarium tube hanging out my nose. They had pity on me and traded the shirt for a hospital gown. When I was in the MRI, after the first scan they put the tube to use. Two technicians took a quart and a half of contrast die in little brown jugs and filled huge syringes with it and then squirted it down the hose as quickly as they could. The doctor came out before I was finished changing and told me I was in very good shape. I hope you aren't reading this while you are eating dinner.

Two Months In

Today we received our identity cards.  We are very excited that we no longer have to carry our passports with us at all times.

We have been here now for two months in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert.  We have each had about 40 hours of French classroom instruction and between 40 - 80 hours of French homework and study.  We have met people in their homes, had picnics in the park, and had spiritual conversations with fellow language students.  We are continuing to get to know our city by using the public transportation system.

I have decided to try to buy a folding bicycle to make getting around the city easier.  There were four bicycle stores that I had researched on the internet that I wanted to visit.  We plotted the stores on Google maps and threw in a castle that we have been wanting to tour.  The route came out to be a beautiful little oval.  Google maps said we could walk the entire route in 3 hours and 30 minutes.  Having decided which order our stops would be, and with the addresses all entered into the GPS, we headed off to the Metro.  When we came out of the Metro and headed to the tram stop for the next part of the trip, we found the tram was just pulling away from the stop as we dashed across the busy street against a red light.  Looking at the schedule, we decided to head off walking since the next tram was not due for another 15 minutes.  We were almost to the first bicycle shop when the tram passed us.  When we came out of the shop we got on the next tram to continue to our next destination.  Now some trams have screens on them, displaying what stop is coming up next.  This was an older tram that did not.  The tram was very crowded, and since I am very tall  I could not see out the windows to try to read the signs on the tram stops as we passed by.  The GPS was helping to let me know where we were, but after we had been on the tram for a few minutes, it lost its position through the metal roof.  Finally, after Elizabeth squeezed by a few people to look at a map on the tram wall, we decided we should get off the tram.  When we started looking at the map at the tram stop, we discovered we had gone several stops past where we needed to be.  So we crossed the street and waited several minutes for the next tram to take us back in the direction we had just come.  This got us close to our next shop but by now, we desperately needed to find a restroom and since it was past lunch time we stopped at a little Greek cafe for some salad (and the restroom).  We ended up cutting our shopping trip short, only visiting 2 of the 4 shops, and deciding to leave the castle for another day.  After another tram ride we made it to a Metro stop which took us back home - exhausted.

Even though we are living in an environment that is very foreign to two people who grew up in rural areas and have lived most of our married life in suburban areas, we are learning to get around the city with public transportation.  We find it all worthwhile because of the relationships we are building with people in the city.