So I have moved in with a French family here in Dijon and oh
my goodness, they are wonderful. My “mère” is whatever the “Steel Magnolia”
equivalent is here… (Oh my gosh I just typed that in French first… y’all, it’s
happening- I’m starting to think in French first!!). Anyways, she runs her
home, is an English teacher at her old school right by their home, makes
homemade jelly, and dinner for whoever is home every night. She has been so great helping me get
involved with other things around Dijon, and introducing me to her friends. Her
husband works in Paris during the week so I haven’t seen him that often but he is
extremely nice, like the rest of their family, and he has been extremely
helpful correcting my French- a common daily… hourly… ok minute
by minute occurrence. I told them I wanted to be corrected though because how
else am I going to get better?! I have four new siblings, and for the first
time, I am one of the babies of the family. All of my new siblings are involved
in the medical field- one vet (Claire), one doctor (Olivier), one studying
medicine for children at the hospital (Camille), and one who just started
medical school (Martin- the only one I am older than)… Needless to say I feel
rather educationally intimidated. I love how much at home I feel here though. I
am the only student living with a family this big, and I also happen to be one
of the only ones with the same size family at home in the States, so this is
nothing new to me. If anything, I am more comfortable with this situation than
I would have been in a dorm or living with a family without children. Oh, I
also I have a new dog, Gaston. He has become famous with our group because of
all the hilarious stories I am able to share about him, most famously his
sneaky ploy to steal my razor out of the bathroom, only to greet me at the door
with it in his mouth before sprinting and sliding all around the tile floor
taunting me with it. Yes, I felt like a fool trying to get it back, but I did
succeed. I think I will try to teach him English while I’m here J
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| Gaston- my 2 year old French Bulldog |
Sunday (Sept. 1st)- My
first night with them was hilarious, but so, so great. I was greeted with the
standard kisses on the cheeks (“bisous”), and then was whisked away to their home
10 minutes outside of downtown by bus, (about 25 minutes walking). I was asked
tons of questions and a little intimidated by how quickly they were speaking,
but to my wonderful surprise, I was able to understand most of what they were
saying! They were most fascinated by my name and kept talking about how strange
the name “Tillman” is. I told them it was weird in America too, but they just
got such a kick out of it, it was funny watching them talk and laugh about it
and try to figure out why I would go by a “nom de famille”, (family name/ last
name). Thankfully I like my name, but unfortunately they just can’t pronounce
it here very easily. My père just calls me “Elisabeth” since that is my first
name and I’m wondering if I will have to go by that at the university (fingers
crossed I won’t). We had a huge, very French dinner, (5 courses including a
cheese course), and then I got settled in my new little room. It is perfect for
my life here and it is nice having my own space. My biggest blunder of the night came
when I was trying to ask my mère when she did the laundry. The word in French
for laundry is “lessive”, but I said “lavande” instead. She looked at me with
the strangest expression and then quickly shuffled me outside to show me her lavender bush and explain to me that
it’s about to die so if I wanted some for my room, I could just grab some. I
was so confused and then realized that I had asked her when she does her lavender,
not her laundry… Whoops! I’ve had several other moments like this, but that one
was the best. She also gave me a few cute welcoming gifts including some
perfume, some lavender soap, a Dijon grocery bag since the French don’t use the
plastic bags we do in America, and a few other cute things. Very thoughtful!
Monday (2nd)- I
woke up and had a delicious breakfast of yogurt, granola, freshly squeezed
orange juice, hot tea, and anything else in their kitchen I wanted. I’m trying
not to eat bread at everyyy meal, but apparently the most common breakfast for
French kids is bread and chocolate…I wish! My new brother Martin walked me to
the bus stop and explained that it goes straight into downtown and
unfortunately I didn’t pay attention to the name of the stop so that made
coming home a little difficult, but I did manage and guessed right the first
time! Their house is in a cute little neighborhood right by this park so Tuesday (3rd) with my new house key,
go-phone, and a map in hand, I went for a walk up the hill to find the park and
I was blown away. The view was beautiful! I was right on the edge of a cliff,
overlooking the whole city of Dijon. I have already made several trips back and
I kind of don’t even want to work out when I’m up there. Literally you could
sit there for hours and just watch. There is a bocce ball court there and there
is a beautiful stone village, school and church and all. That afternoon my mère
Claude took me to their pool. I met some of her friends and it just was so cute
hanging out with them. Our families are only required to provide 2 dinners a
week for us, but she was so sweet and invited me to eat with them every night,
and I certainly didn’t mind. We had lots of fresh fruit, fish, cheese, and more
fruit. Wednesday (4th) My mère convinced
me to go rent a bike and let me tell you, I was all over that, until I showed
up at the building and saw how long the line was. Not wanting to disappoint
though, I waited for an hour and a half in that line and finally got my own
bike to keep for the next 3 months. I left for Bourgogne Thursday, (my most previous post), but
we were back Saturday night, and Sunday
(8th) morning came bright and early, but it was a big day in the Fleck
house- we were doing the Velotour in Dijon. My mère had been telling me about
this tour around the city with bikes since the first night and when she asked
me if I wanted to do it, I was all in. I tried to rally some of the other Wake
kids but unfortunately no one else rented a bike, making it rather hard to
participate. So I assumed I would just be riding with my mère and père, but
they had other plans. She told me we were leaving at 8:20 am and I was ready,
wearing my lululemon leggings, Red Bar tshirt, and Nike tennis shoes, happy to
have an excuse to finally wear workout clothes in public.
Y’all I stuck out like a sore thumb. All the other cute
French women were wearing khaki shorts, sweaters, scarves, sunhats, the whole
she-bang. C’est la vie. As we were riding, she told me I was actually going to
be riding with her friend Isabel’s daughter Louise. The thought of this
terrified me, but I asked the Lord for confidence and trusted He would be with
me, as He has been so much already. Claude dropped me off at Isabel’s and her
daughter wasn’t even awake yet. So we sat there for an hour in her kitchen
drinking tea and I actually had the greatest time. I then became nervous that things
would be uncomfortable with Louise, but they weren’t at all and I made new
friends that day, thanks to my mère and thanks truly to the Lord and His care
for us, even in the smallest and seemingly most meaningless situations. Matthew 6:30-34 couldn't be more applicable in my life right now. I feel like my desires are so small and meaningless, but God cares about my desires, even the smallest ones. I am continually being humbled, and I don't hate it! Louise’s friend Emmanuel
joined us and off we went, ready to take off at 10 am, our start time. I was
thinking this was going to be an hour, maybe an hour and a half ride. Y’all it took
us 4 ½ hours and we don’t even do the whole thing because it started raining!
My mère packed me a picnic lunch and I didn’t understand why until about 2 ½
hours in when I was starving and realized we were only barely half way through.
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| Me, Louise, and Emmanuel |
Anyways, bike tour ended up being great. We drove through
all of these buildings around Dijon, and I do mean through the buildings.
Several concert venues, their professional futball stadium, a popular
nightclub, a school, a dentist office, an insurance building, just to name a
few. When we finished, we snacked on more hot tea and homemade tiramisu at Louise's house. Not too shabby, am I right?
Ok, so sorry to overwhelm you with stories, there is just so
much to share! I am sure there will be plenty more, but for now, know
I am in great hands and learning to live even more independently and to rely on the Lord and His love for me even more. God is good.
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| "Good like good bread" |
So much love all the way from France!
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