20 Flights, 11 days, 4 Cities, 2 Very Exhausted People, 1 New Year

Well it's been more than two weeks since we returned from our trip to the states, so it's time to catch up a little bit...

It's no secret that traveling is exhausting.  We love to travel, and rarely make it an entire month without picking up and going somewhere.  If I stay in one place for too long the travel bug always starts nipping at me and I've got to find a way to get on the road again, but our recent trip to America took it all to a new level for me.  In a round trip of less than two weeks, we had 20 flights between the two of us, stopped in four different cities (not including flight layovers), and crammed in as much of good ol' America as possible in our short time there.    

Our first stop was New Orleans.  Kerry's long time bff (is ok to use 'bff' when referring to boys?) was getting married!  It was a beautiful, traditional Catholic ceremony in the city, followed by a winter themed reception at a country club in the 'burbs.  Then bright and early the next morning it was off to the airport for me to surprise Mom for her "Sorry the World Didn't End Yesterday and Now You Have to Face a New Decade Surprise 50th Birthday Party."  I don't think my mom has had a birthday party in ten years, so it was time we celebrated, and she was totally surprised!

Family Photo

But it was quick trip for me, because the next day I was back to Louisiana to meet Kerry and celebrate Christmas Louisiana style.  At this point, I was really looking forward to staying put for two whole days.  Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were perfect - relaxing, and full of family and yummy food.

Our turkey carver - nice apron Kerry ;)

The day after Christmas we left for Drippings Springs to spend a couple of days with my family and friends.  Kerry made us a big pot of gumbo while mom styled my Granny's hair into a mohawk.

See?   Mohawk!

She's such a good sport.  I think it also helped that we distracted her with a giant box of chocolates from France for Christmas.  The next night we stayed in Austin and I got to spend an evening with two of my best gals and made my obligatory Austin stop at my favorite restaurant, Chuy's.

After that we had only one more day to rest up for our long journey back to Montpellier.

The entire trip was a wonderful blur.  I can't believe how much we managed to squeeze into such a short time.  But after all the flying, coordinating schedules, and lack of sleep, the thing that really threw me through a loop was returning to France.  For two straight days I barely left the bed.  Part of that was pure exhaustion, but also at play were the very unexpected and unwelcome post-America blues.  It makes complete sense that our first visit to America would remind us of everyone and everything we left behind to have this French experience, but somehow, I didn't see it coming.  And no one warned me either!  Being back in a place where everything is comfortable and familiar and we are surrounded by friends and family made coming back to France a much more depressing task than expected.  We knew when we signed up for this that we would miss a lot - holidays, birthdays, weddings, babies - big stuff.  But I don't think either of us thought much about the little things.  Like walking the dogs to the neighbors house on a Tuesday night because we felt like catching up, or discussing the latest TV shows or news headlines, or how nice it is to walk into a store or restaurant and feel like you belong there, not like you are the outsider trying to get by in a totally foreign land.  And after 11 days of almost constant contact with others, it suddenly felt like we were very alone here.  It was really the first time I had felt lonely since coming to France, despite the fact that I spend a great majority of my time by myself.  I wanted to take it all back and come home, the trade-offs just weren't enough for this to be worth it, and after so many months of struggling, it was starting to seem like it would never be good enough here to make up for everything we were sacrificing.  But of course, returning home was not an option.  And after two days and lots and lots sleep, I started coming back to life.

In reality, our life here isn't all that bad, and it does get better and better as time goes on.  But it is very different than our lives in America, and returning home for almost two weeks highlighted that contrast in an unexpectedly harsh manner.  In many ways, we are being forced to learn how to live all over again.  A new language, new culture, new stores, new driving rules, new friends; in almost every aspect of life, we are starting over.  Sometimes it's fun, sometimes not.  But for better or worse it is our life now, and comparing it to the American style of living we left behind wont help us to adjust or accept it.  I do believe these feelings are a normal part of the expat experience.  At some point everyone goes through a phase of deep regret and a longing to go home; it is only a matter of time before something triggers it.  And most likely, I will go through it again before this is all over.  

In the last couple of weeks we have come a long way with getting settled in our apartment.  We still have a long way to go, but the list is shortening and our satisfaction level growing.  2013 holds a lot of promise for The Huguet House - with hard work comes reward, and we are very excited to see where the year will take us!

Bonne Annee Tout Le Monde!