Karma Chameleon

I am happy to report that all of the trouble we had getting around in Chicago and leading up to the flight was banking good Karma for the long haul to France.  We did have some difficulties confirming our seats and checking our baggage as well as getting through security, which took well over an hour due to the longest line I have EVER seen at O Hare, and made all the more painful by our discovery that there was, in fact, a disabled and family area which the agent we had spoken too declined to tell us about when we asked him poin blank if there was one.  Mercifully, Lilah slept through all of this, perched in her car seat which was strapped to a Smart Cart that I found on the side of the road in the drop off area.  She slept from the moment we got in the car in Lincoln Park until the moment we got to the front of the line at which point she woke up on her own which she needed to do since she could not stay in the seat to go through security.   Once on the plane though, we were seated in the bulk head row as requested.  Then, the flight attendant moved the man sitting in the row with us so we had the entire row to ourselves.  As soon as we hit cruising altitude, Lilah was rubbing her eyes again and they brought out the bassinet.  She went right down for the duration of the flight.

Rock-a-bye Lilah, on the plane wall

We didn't get much sleep, but this had more to do with general insomnia as I was even able to stretch out on the floor.  The flight to Lyon from FRA was practically empty and we were able to retrieve her car seat from the gate so she went right back to sleep after sucking down a quick bottle.  

Our swap partner's next door neighbors met us at the airport as planned and this is where the real adventure began.  You will recall how much luggage we had (see below if you need a reminder).  Both the husband and wife from next door came on the ride.  Their car was about the size of a civic hatchback.  We weren't going to compromise Lilah's safety so her car seat took half the back seat.  I rode the whole hour perched on Chris' lap, curled in a little ball.  We had luggage under us and on top of us.  It is a miracle of physics that we made it home alive and without puking on the 10 miles or so of vicious curves.  The neighbors were very nice and gave us a tour of the property however they didn't speak a word of English so communication was a challenge. Luckily, Chris knows some French and I have about a 50 word (55 if you count what I learned today) word vocabulary which got me surprisingly far. 

The house itself is huge but the part that we are actually staying in is average sized as the rest of the place is not heated.  You enter into a large eat in kitchen.  On your left is the living room which in turn leads to the unheated section of the house.  From the kitchen there is a nice wooden stair case that leads to two bedrooms and the office.  The bathroom and pantry are also downstairs.  If you want pics of all the rooms, leave a comment and I will load them in a later post.  

Rene left the kitchen nicely stocked and I have been embracing the French spirit of cooking.  For dinner last night I made stir fried shrimp with Parma ham, pasta and some stinky cheese.  For breakfast, I fried the rest of the ham with egg coated bread to make a savory French toast.  We had an amazing pizza for lunch (not homemade) piled high with greens, parmasean cheese and more parma ham.  I think we might just have green beans for dinner...

Today, we drove over to Grenoble, the closest major city.  We didn't have much time to really look around but it is stunning with the alps towering above.  I dont have any good pics yet cause they are all from a moving car, but I will take some next time we are there which will certainly be in the next couple days. The place has a really nice vibe and is teaming with families with young kids.  On first look, it seems like parents do things pretty much the same as they do at home, except they are much more lax here regarding taking the Binky away.  I think I saw a 5 year old sucking on one and a number of 3+.

In order to ease the cultural transition, we spent the day shopping.  Well that and there were some things we really needed.  We also did some window shopping and almost had to go in and purchase this Raccoon Pelt jacket!

In the afternoon, we went to Ikea to get pillows and a shower curtain and Ikea here makes Ikea in the US look small.  They have every item they have in the US and a lot more.  The more includes the kids dept.  I had to resist going totally nuts however I could not walk away from these adorable, multi layered sleep sacks.  I wanted to get all three in the big kid size and the three little kid ones for #2, but I figured if this is what Ikea has, imagine what the other stores have, and was able to walk away.

On the way home, we stopped at a big box store that was a competitor of (or locally branded) Wal Mart.  They seemed to sell everything except healthcare related stuff (advil, etc).  This was disappointing as I need a heating pad since my US one doesnt work, even with a power adapter.  

After about an hour in "Wal Mart" we headed home and followed a little too closely what the GPS said and almost ended up on someones private property.  However, when we agreed that it didnt look familiar, we trusted our instinct and the GPS eventually figured things out. 

It is pitch dark now as we are in the middle of no where and I'm very tired.  I wonder if we will start sleeping and rising with the sun.  At least for the next couple weeks until the nights start at 4pm...