Excess Baggage : Max and Min Go To France!

We have been in France for about 2 months now. And I think finally, after this much time, I have recovered enough from the experience of moving two dogs overseas that I can write about it. It was that bad. So that's what this post is about, everything we went through, all four of us, to get our pups from the states to our new home in France.

All packed up and ready to go!

Lets start with the prework, all the paperwork required to get pets into the European Union. I spent days, literally, researching the requirements for this. There is not a single website anywhere in the whole of the Internet, I am convinced, that plainly states what you need to do and how. It's unbelievable really. I could tell we needed microchips, followed by rabies vaccines (in that order), and some sort of health certificate (in actuality, you need two, which I found out 7 days before we left), but it was very unclear which certificate to use and who needed to fill it out. I should also mention that all these forms are in French, which doesn't help the situation. I also knew that once the certificate was signed, it would only be valid for entry into the E.U. for 10 days (including weekends and holidays), and that at some point, it needed to be signed and stamped by a special vet in Austin. So as our moving day approached, I realized I could not ignore this mound of confusion any longer and I ended up calling the vet in Austin to get clearer instructions. I should have started with this, it would have saved me hours online. The regulations for this change frequently, and they are guaranteed to know the latest info. This is when I found out there were actually two forms I needed to have filled out, and that they needed to be done by a USDA approved vet. I already knew that our vet was qualified, so I called to beg for a last minute appointment. Turns out, even though she CAN fill out the paperwork, she doesn't like to (too much responsibility), so she said no. At this point we have 7 days to get the papers completed and back in our hands, and now we have to find a new vet to take care of the papers for us. This is in addition to the million other things we were struggling to take care of before we left! We ended up at PetSmart, where we had to pay $200 to get these silly papers taken care of. Then first thing the next day, we overnighted them to Austin and prayed they would make it back in time.

We left for France on Tuesday, and received the papers on Monday. Barely made it! Now comes the actual flight. We knew Max was too big to fly in the cabin with us for the actual plane ride, and that left us no choice but to fly them in the baggage compartment. Fortunately, AirFrance will allow two small dogs to ride together in the same crate as long as they do not exceed a certain weight limit. So I had a tiny bit of comfort at least knowing they would be together the entire time. We checked ourselves in at the airline ticket counter good and early, dogs require a minimum of two hours prior to departure, and made sure everything was all set to go. We chose to fly out on September 11th, and everyone thought we were crazy. I did too a little. But I'm so so so glad we chose that day. The airport was empty! Really, I have never seen it like that before. But for us it was great, we could take our time checking in, ask lots of questions, and not feel rushed at all. And I was less concerned that my dogs would be forgotten about or overlooked in the hectic mess that usually plagues airports. It was a huge comfort to me. But then came the hard part: saying goodbye. Everyone that helped us was extremely nice and reassuring, they do this all the time! But I still cried, for a good 15 minutes I think. We brought them to the "oversized luggage" area, the same place you would bring large musical instruments or sports equipment and other odd things you can't stuff in you suitcase. TSA checked them out, then placed the crate on a conveyor belt and we just stood there while they disappeared into the unknown. In reality, they went just right beyond the curtain into a holding area until it was time to board the plane. But I could not see the space or see them, I did not like it at all.

Fast forward about 12 hours, and it's touchdown in Paris! The only thing on my mind is finding my dogs. They are both old, and not all dogs can handle the stresses of such a long flight, although most can, without any problems. But I was still very nervous. We finally make our way to the baggage area, after what seemed like a hundred delays, and I can't believe what I find. Had I not already been so exhausted and stressed out, I would have been furious. Since we had a few delays in getting from the plane to the baggage, the luggage beat us there was already set out waiting to be picked up. And that includes the crate with Max and Min!! There they are, sitting in their crate in the middle of the airport, confused and scared, and very much all alone. There is not a single airport employee around. Anyone could have snatched up the crate and walked off with them. That's what we did. Anyone could have also opened the door to the crate, and they would have been off, free reign of Charles de Gaulle! I couldn't believe it. And all that paperwork we stressed over for days and paid hundreds of dollars for? Didn't need one bit of it. I carried around 3 copies of every paper I could find on them, all for nothing. We literally picked up the crate and walked off, just like a regular suitcase. Except there were live animals in it. The dogs were fine, they managed the flight ok as far as I could tell, but we were all tired and uncomfortable. However, if tired and uncomfortable were the biggest complaints we had, then I think it was a big success!

At this point, seasoned expats would probably have hopped in a cab to the nearest hotel and gotten some sleep. Instead, we decided to take a four hour train ride from Paris to Montpellier. While I was very happy to have my dogs back in my arms, they do have a way of making everything more difficult. And since I had two dogs to handle, this means Kerry got stuck with all of the luggage. We searched for a spot for them to potty, which was pointless because they had both wetted the crate. I felt bad about that, but I felt much worse about the fact that I still could not feed them. But since we still had hours to go and we would all be stuck on a train for a while with no possibility of relief, I could not give them anything. Looking back, I see this as a huge oversight in our planning, and another very good reason to have stayed in Paris for the night. I felt horrible. They took it like champs though, and after 45 minutes of squirming to get comfortable, they slept most of the train ride. By law, dogs must be muzzled during train rides, at least in France, but this was not enforced one bit. Ours never needed their muzzles, and we saw plenty other dogs without muzzles as well. We have been told that "some laws are meant to be broken," I suppose this is one of them. As a side note, it's also a law that you must clean up after your dog if he uses the sidewalk as a toilet, and I have never seen anyone (except for us) bother to do this.

Prior to our journey aboard, I had read many articles on flying pets overseas, and almost all of them concluded with "if you don't have to do it, don't!", and I can definitely see why. It is an experience I certainly hope never to repeat. In the end though, I am very thankful to have them here. They keep me company during the day and make sure I am never lonely. Max had his 13th birthday last month (I realized I've had him over half of my life now) and as he gets older I am more grateful for each day I have with my happy, healthy boy, even if he does sleep 20 hours a day. These two little stinkers are a mess, I don't know what I'd do without them!

Location, Location, Location!

Kerry and I got some very exciting news a couple days ago. On November 19th, the keys will be handed over and we will finally have our HOME here in Montpellier!

Our apartment search began one week after we arrived. Before I understood what European apartments were really like, I was excited to return to apartment living, or at least looking forward to some aspects of it. I had in my head images of large apartments with new kitchens and granite counter tops and big, fancy community pools. Silly me... The buildings in this town were built hundreds of years ago. Some of them look like they are lucky to even have electricity and running water. So after an abrupt adjustment of my apartment standards, we set out on a full days journey around town with our real estate agent (provided by Schlumberger) to view apartments. What a disappointment. Everything either looked like a run-down cheap motel or was located "on the wrong side of the tracks." We were prepared to make some sacrifices in what we were looking for, but these were just too much.

We continued searching over the next few weeks, every day I checked the listings online. We saw a couple other places, but nothing that made us think, "yes, we want to live here for the next three years." The problem is simply that there is no availability in this city. Within a month, we were feeling very discouraged. There were only about three new listings each week in all three neighborhoods I was monitoring, so the chances of one being a good fit for us was extremely low.  Add to that the fact that our temporary apartment is not comfortable (we only put up with it because no one has complained about our barking dogs) and you can see why it was easy for us to feel down about the apartment search.

But one month ago a listing showed up online that caught my attention. It was smaller than we had hoped, and while the location is fantastic and very desirable, it was not actually our first choice. However, as I had suspected from the online ad, the positives of the apartment outweighed the negatives. It is small, not very nice, and does not have air conditioning (visitors, you have been warned). But it is right next to the tram line, has an elevator (very rare), is well under our budget, and has two balconies, which will be fantastic during the warmer months. We had a number of reservations, but we decided to apply for it anyway, since there are so few apartments available in this town, and it was easily the best option we had seen yet. Finally, after an entire month of waiting, we got our answer! On average, people move into an apartment about two weeks after the application is submitted. Somehow, for reasons we cannot fathom, it will be five weeks for us by the time we finally get the keys. Three extra weeks is a big deal when you are stuck in a tiny, smelly hotel room! But we see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we can't wait for next Monday to hurry up and get here!

Our work is just beginning though. We are immediately faced with a tough, but overall fun, challenge: the kitchen. It is very common here to find apartments with "unequipped" kitchens. Since each unit is individually owned, you never know what you are going to get! Things we take for granted in America as coming with the apartment are absent; if you want it, you buy it and install it yourself. As a prime example, our new kitchen:

Nothing but a sink.  As a friend in my French class pointed out "it's not a kitchen."  So somehow, we are faced with the task of fitting an oven, dishwasher, fridge, counters, cabinets, stove top, and oddly enough, the washing machine, all into this little space! As if that wasn't hard enough, the entire kitchen has three electrical outlets, and unlike the double outlets in America, it's one plug per outlet over here. Which means there are not even enough outlets for all the appliances, not to mention a coffee pot or a toaster! But the upside of this type of situation is that we have complete control over what we want to put in it, so we can choose to fix it up however we like. I know it will be a lot of work and a lot of creative thinking, but I'm looking forward to transforming this little space into my new kitchen!

Here are a few other pictures of the apartment. As you can see, my decorating skills are about to be put to the test.

Living / dining area:


Good sized balcony:

The smaller of the two bedrooms. Our agent tried to convince me that it was a "big" bedroom. I wanted to tell her that in Texas, people have closets as big as this room.

This is a big step forward for us, and the 19th can't get here soon enough. But in the mean time, I have a kitchen to plan, off to IKEA I go!

December trip to America is BOOKED!

We are counting down the days until we arrive back in the wonderful, English speaking, Starbucks crowded, over-polluted (so the French say) land of America! I can't believe it's only a month and a half away, which means we have already been here for almost two months!

Here is the itinerary:

So please please please if you will be in any of these cities when we will, let us know!

Not that I don't have my own agenda... We try really hard not to be too homesick here, to only think of home when we are not missing it. It's a tricky subject. How does one find the balance of enjoying the moment, the life we have right now, but still remembering and cherishing everything and everyone we left behind? It is easy, when we face struggles here (which is daily) to wish ourselves back in the simple and familiar life. But it is not constructive. On the other hand, refusing to remember things we love at home, because they bring about a longing we cannot soothe, is not good choice either. So we limit ourselves. We limit our phone calls to when we are already in good moods, and contact with home won't double the desire to be there. And we remind each other why we are here, and all of the positives that will come from this, eventually. A couple of weeks ago I also started a list. Every time I found myself missing something from home, I made a note. This way, I can remove it from my head, and when it's time to go home, I have a list of all the things I wanted but couldn't have while away! This doesn't work for everything of course, I cannot have my old, organized, plenty-of-counter-space kitchen back, but I can have some things!

Here's what I have so far:

1. Lattes - from Starbucks or otherwise. I have found the land where Starbucks does not exist.

2. TexMex. Torchys Tacos, Chuys, here I come!

3. English television. We don't have a single English speaking channel here. Not one.

4. Macaroni and Cheese.

5. Enjoying shopping, in stores I already know and love (Nordstroms).

6. Catching up with friends. This is obvious, but worth mentioning.

7. Holidays and traditions. We already missed Halloween entirely, and if we don't get an apartment soon, we will miss Thanksgiving too. I am terrified I won't have my own place in time to decorate for Christmas. But at least we will be HOME for it!

8. Half Price Books. I'm bringing an extra suitcase for this.

Needless to say, it will be nice to back in America for a few days, and have a little break from the French life. 43 days and counting!

 

Parlez-vous français? Nope.

I finally managed to get myself signed up for some French lessons. Everyday it became more and more apparent how urgent it was for us to at least get the basics of life down, so I researched some schools, picked my favorite (Accent Francais), and dragged myself over there to sign up.

Here's what I expected / hoped for from French lessons:

A small class of people, at least some close to my age, who all spoke English and wanted to learn French. I expected a teacher that would help us learn the basics of the language, who taught in French and English. I looked forward to a learning structure with textbooks, worksheets, and homework. (Yes, I wanted homework.)

Here's what I got when I showed up on day one:

8:30 a.m. - all new students meet at the reception desk, there are probably about 40 of us. One of the administrators walks in. He then says something very quickly in French, waves his arms, and then starts to leave the building. Everyone else followed him though, so I did too. Most of us look pretty lost and unsure about it. He leads us to another building, sits us down, and starts talking again, in French. It is day 1 of beginner French, don't you think we could have a little English, at least for the administrative stuff!? Next thing I know another lady is calling my name, so I get up and follow her. We sit in another room, across from each other, and she too starts talking at me in French. Mostly I just sat there shaking my head and saying "uh" a lot. This is my oral test. I see her circle the number 'zero' on her paper a few times, and then I'm finished. It just seems like they could find a less stressful and humiliating way to determine that I am, in fact, level zero. Which I had already told them. Then I sat and waited for an hour while everyone else had their oral tests, which they would later use to split us into groups for the actual classes. This is where you might think I could sit and have some nice, English conversation with some people. Nope. Here's what I got: Spanish, Spanish, Spanish, German, German, Japanese, Armenian, and South African. It was a very quiet room. Finally, at 10:00, we have our class schedules. I got put in the afternoon class, from 4:00-7:15. And now I find out I'm expected to go on a two hour walking tour of Montpellier. No way was that happening! So I left. Frustrated, stressed, and disappointed. And class hasn't even stated yet!!

Fortunately, it got better. Things usually do. I went back at 4:00 for the actual lesson and enjoyed it very much. The classes are all in French, but at least the rest of the class is on my level. And the teachers are very nice, and very animated!  The pace is good for me, and the lessons are very practical.  Every week we have new teachers, which is helpful in gaining new perspectives and hearing differences and similarities in the way words are pronounced and sentences formed.  

 Four weeks later and I can see a huge difference.  It no longer matters that most of my class does not speak English, we know enough French now to get by.  I'm still awful and a long way away from being able to really talk to people, but dining out is now more enjoyable than stressful, and every now and then I'm able to have something that resembles a conversation with someone. It's a very neat feeling!