Our First Thanksgiving Abroad

John said something today that reminded me about our blog. I realized I hadn’t written for a couple of weeks now. Eek!

As we were enjoying the sites of Nantes for the last time before our flight, he mentioned the fact that we'd only had our residency cards for 10 days. Huh? Only 10 days?

As I thought about that short amount of time, it definitely seemed like we had picked them up over a month ago, not 10 days ago.

I definitely have a different sense of time in this part of the world.

Picking up Residency Cards

We decided to go to the police station early afternoon on a Friday, right before my last Spanish class. I believe that was the 17th of November.

I was super excited to be finishing 2 weeks, 20 hours, of Beginner Spanish. Side note, I have definitely felt more confident speaking the language in daily situations.

Practice, Practice, Practice. I am studying on my own using Duolingo and some handouts from a course I took when I was at Austin Energy so I can keep the momentum going.

Back to the 17th. We arrived at the police station and only had to wait about 2 minutes to be called to the counter. Our cards were ready and we picked them up within 10 minutes. It went by so quickly, especially for such a big milestone in our “To Spain” project. It was an awesome step to accomplish because it was the last milestone we needed to complete.

Is that All?

I am not sure we really got to savor the moment as much as we had anticipated we would. When we originally pondered moving to Spain, we imagined the milestones would be filled with a huge sense of accomplishment. I thought they might include some sort of universal party, too. LOL

But when you are living your day to day life, with food to buy and classes to attend, you can get a little pre-occupied. And for us it was also the week before Thanksgiving. There was much to do before the holiday: Nick’s schoolwork, my website edits, and completing Spanish class were on our minds.

We decided to take a trip for Thanksgiving break. The trip happened unexpectedly. We had only made plans for it just
two weeks prior to our departure. One Sunday we started talking about "getting away" and before we knew it, the idea became a reality.

At the time it seemed like an excellent time to "disappear" since everyone we know in the States would be celebrating...without us.

We decided to travel to France because it is very close and Nick has a list of ships he'd like to see while we are living abroad. Since France is only a short drive or flight away from where we live we asked him to look for something he'd like to see there.

Thanksgiving Away from Home

As I write this post, we are sitting at a table for four in the Nantes Airport cafe. We are super early for our flight because we had to leave our AirBnB.

It was a quick trip from where we were staying to the airport, and way cheaper than the taxi cab we took from the airport when we arrived. Talk about sticker shock.

We always seem to spend a lot of money getting from the airport to our rentals no matter where we travel. I think it is worth it though, because landing in a strange place late at night is just too hard to navigate and we are usually tired.

Just as we spend a lot of money up front, we also seem to make up for the expense at departure. I think it is because by that time we’ve had experience with the area and we know how to buy tram and bus tickets, something that can be quite confusing at the get go.

Why France?

We decided to go to France for Thanksgiving break because most people would be preoccupied with family gatherings and Nick’s school was going to observe the standard Thanksgiving break, with Wednesday through Friday off.

It seemed like a perfect time to get away. We chose Nantes so Nick could see the Maille Breze, a beautiful destroyer commissioned in 1956. They filmed parts of the Dunkirk movie aboard the ship. I’ve been on quite a few airplanes, (parked), and subs during my days as Nick’s mom so I know a thing about tours, and ships, and planes.

Probably way more than I ever wanted to know.

The tour of the Maille Breze was very thorough and the ship is in very good condition. We saw it the first afternoon we were in Nantes. We also saw Les Machines and the downtown area. It was Black Friday weekend so we got to see a lot of Christmas lights and people shopping. We also saw some of the most beautiful landmarks, including the cathedral and the castle.

The weather shifted on Saturday from cold to “Oh, my gosh that wind is really cold” cold. This morning we awoke to a temperature that felt like 35 degrees.

Reflections

As I sit here waiting for our gate to be assigned, I have to say we had a great trip and we are ready to return home to Barcelona tonight.

One of the things we appreciated most about our stay in Nantes was the quiet. Our place is in heart of Eixample which means there is non-stop street noise. Between that and the neighbors and the ambulances, we don’t usually have the luxury of hearing the wind blow gently or the sweet sound of nothing. Nantes fed my nature lover and my cup runneth over today.

John seemed to relax a lot, too. He told me he didn’t know he needed the break until we spent a couple of nights there. I agreed with him. We all seemed to benefit from some nature time. The trees are huge here, and include a variety I don't normally see: chestnut, persimmon and pine.

There was so much grass and water to enjoy, too! My inner nature lover was in heaven. I spent as much time as I could with my feet in the grass and my hands on the trees. We took some amazing photos, rich with a variety of colors as the leaves were changing for the season. Leaves of rich red, orange and yellow colors graced our foot steps as we walked to places like Lidl and various pastry shops.

A Break is Always Good

No matter where you live, it's always nice to get away. I’m glad we took a break from our daily life. Though I have to say our daily life in Spain is very relaxing, despite the hustle and bustle of Barcelona.

This week we will return to business. Nick will get back to school and John and I will get back to working on our projects. I’ll be launching my radio show a week from tomorrow and have much to do to prepare for my time on air.

Shifting Perspectives

It is funny how projects we began in our home country seem to have different purposes now. Because I am more relaxed, I don’t feel the pressure to succeed. Everything I do seems to have a different version of me driving it.

I feel more like my younger self, more free of “what will people think about this?” expectations that I had at home. I had been in Austin for 17 years so the chances of running into someone from my engineering career, coaching practice or people from my boys’ education there was high.

But here nobody knows us. And it is nice to be unknown here. I feel I can just be myself and it gives me a chance to find out more about me, rather than who I think I should be.

One of my goals for our time here is to shed whatever masks I might still have lurking in my suitcase. It is amazing how we take cues from our environment and try to become who we think the environment wants us to be.

As a coach I know how hard it is for people to “let others down”, especially the people we love dearly. But I also know how amazing it is to feel free of positioning and competition. This is something I've dived into for years now. It's amazing to me how many layers of shedding this type of work requires.

But I keep at it, because I really like my self.

Who's Running the Show?

The downside to me recovering more of my younger self is that poor Nick is stuck with me. He sometimes has a look about him that says, “What has happened to you?”

I usually tell him that I am perfectly fine, and that I was naturally goofy and silly way before he came on the scene. I don’t know that he believes me but in time I hope he can relax and just be him, too...whoever he really is or who he wants to be.

So it's worth getting a look of slight concern on his face if it releases him from whatever masks he's wearing.

But there is a time for masks, like Mardi Gras. Oooh, we should travel to see some Mardi Gras celebrations...

Focus, Self. Focus.

Back to Thanksgiving. We survived our first holiday away from home. I missed my sons and my family. I missed the turkey and dressing and pumpkin pies more than I imagined.

Thank goodness for Facebook pictures of some yummy Thanksgiving spreads. I have the best friends and family ever and I can't wait to talk to them soon.