"Thoughts are created in the act of writing. It is a myth that you must have something to say in order to write. Reality: You often need to write in order to have anything to say."
This is the point from which I must begin again. I've learned that I'm an evolutionary being. I don't progress necessarily by setting one goal and moving on to the next (future post: Why I Don't Do Diets)...I often take the back roads, the long and windy ones. The scenic ones. The road won't necessarily be paved with all the tick marks of the 'list' but it will be 'lovely' and 'picturesque,' reminiscent of the comings and goings of living a life with all of the crazy and unpredictability that has been: Our Life In France.
Last I wrote, June 2010, we had been in France a year and a half. We were relishing the joyous novelty of being in Paris, of living in the City of Lights, loving random things like the fact that in order to take our Mac Books to get fixed, the only place, at that point, was the Apple Store at the Louvre! Seriously, a bummer ride to take! Seriously?...every time we had to drive in, turning left onto Rue Antoine de Saint Expèry, there in full view was - Le Tour Eiffel! Each time, even up until our last trip to the ET, I kept thinking, and may this be ever our mantra to Living Life Overseas, may we never take this for granted.
At that point, we didn't know how long we would be in France. At that point, we were still pushing rocks up hills trying to understand why our visas were taking so long to go through; why every time we put paperwork in hoping to advance the visa cause, we were told we had yet another form to file, waited weeks for that to be processed, only to be then told that something was yet still missing, during which time, we had to leave the country every 3 months to maintain our still-visitor visa status. By the time our visas officially did come, we had to fly to San Francisco, last minute, to pick them up! The insanity of this requirement, this obligation, will never cease to bewilder us or our pocket book! Those last minute tickets wound up costing €10K! 'Insanity' became the special key-word we would use to capture pretty much anything we neither understood nor could tolerate but had no choice but to endure.
Three years have changed a lot. Our kids grew up. They struggled. They needed friends. They learned a new language. They struggled some more. They made friends. They went on holidays. We went on holidays. Swiss holidays. French holidays. Oooh là là. Daddy worked. They struggled some more. We endured. We treasured loving friendships. We overcame. We moved across town (other end of the village, 3 minutes). We installed a kitchen - in a rental. What?! We had a garden. We gardened. We composted. Lots of crazy. Lots of amazing. Lots of Daddy working. Lotsa-lotsa things. ...and then we moved to Singapore!
Aaahh, so happy to be here! J'adore la france, mais, je suis contente d'être là. We're in the right place. We are ready to live, love, work and play! Singapore and SE Asia - we're ready for you!
OK-lah?!
