Aujourd'hui, le fils est passé de l'ouest - Today the son rose from the west

Today Justin arrived in Lyon!! Yay!! When he walked through those doors of Saint Exupery Aeroport, I was so excited/relieved/excited to see him I nearly Tebowed right there outside of French Customs!! He looked so handsome, and tall and so grown up. I was so glad to gather him up and head back into Lyon. The Saint Exupery airport is about 22 miles outside of Lyon. His flight landed at 4:00 p.m. and so we were going to head straight to Venniseaux to pick up Mike (I know you don't know where or what Venniseaux is, but that is me just being fancy and throwing out French stuff....the name makes it sound so much prettier and nicer than the actual city which is in South Lyon, a very industrial area where Mike's work is located. It really isn't the prettiest parts of town, but let's face it, Venniseaux sounds like it is pretty exotic).

Let me back track for just a second and tell you what happened BEFORE I picked up Justin. So you know I am getting a little cocky about my driving around Lyon. I kinda had that GIANT reality check today that I am just a punk Americain!! In order to get to interstate from our apartment, I have to go two blocks and turn right, blah blah blah. I have seen several cars that go down the first street and so my curiousity was peaked and so I looked on a map and decided that there is a little short cut that you can take to get to the same interstate. I have been telling Mike I need to try it and over and over again, he has said, "once you find a good way that works, you shouldn't mess with it." I kept thinking in my head, "I bet I can do this and it be an even better way." So today I left a few hours early to go to get Justin because I wanted to pop by the IKEA which is on the way to the airport. The IKEA is not too far from Mike's work, so in my head I had already planned to take the same route to Mike's work and then turn on the navigational system to get me to IKEA and then to the airport. BUT first, I was going to try this new and hopefully improved road. I turned down the first road....seemed like I was going in the right direction, and then pretty soon, I knew something was wrong because I wasn't running into the road I knew that led to the interstate, and then I turn left, and right, and I don't know which, and now I'm totally lost!! In my shame I pulled over and begged the French navigational system to take me back, and that I promised that I would never do anything without her permission again!! About fifteen minutes later I am passing by my apartment again, I pass that first street that tempted me with promises of cutting 1 minute off my commute, and I arrived joyfully at the second street, and I went without incident following faithfully my beautiful, lovely, my forever faithful, French navigational system.

The other day I wrote about how I got so lost going to the Darty electronic store. That day I had attempted to plug in the address into the navigation but for some reason it didn't have the address. Today, before I left IKEA, I tried to program in the directions to the airport. For some reason it didn't accept the address that I had and so I decided to just try and follow the interstate signs get me to the airport. Ok, that was my SECOND driving mistake of the day. I did happen to arrive at the airport but I am telling you that today was the second most scared I have been on the roads since I arrived. I felt so lost and so panicky and I just wanted my little Frenchy navi to say, "En 300 mètres, tournez à gauche," ("in 300 meters, turn left") but she wasn't there!!! I felt such relief when i got to the airport, I swear you just don't understand the absolute amazement that I feel when I get somewhere!! Today was like that feeling....only like tripled because I wanted to get my boy!!

I'm sorry I write so much about my driving experiences, but friends let me tell you, it is a hard thing to drive in a foreign country without any idea where you are or where you are going. I promise no more driving blogs. Well, unless something really good comes about that you must know about!

Today was also my first experience with the true gusting winds of Lyon. Seriously it was like gale force winds. They were constantly gusting at 25-30 mph. The apartment sounded like a freight train was going through. For most of the morning the dogs were either barking at the loud wind or huddled for safety in the couch. Justin said that the winds also made for a very bumpy arrival.

Funny thing that happened to me today at a local restaurant in Ecully where we went for dinner. Mike and I had been trying to eat at this Italian restaurant for a week now. This past Monday, he and I had walked over there to eat, but it was closed (I guess some local places are closed Sunday and Monday). We went over on Tuesday night, but were there too early. All the restaurants are closed until 7:00 p.m. when they open for dinner. The third time is a charm because tonight they were open. We arrived at 7:30 and were the first ones in the restaurant. When the waiter gave the menus I asked if they had an English menu which he had none, and he clearly spoke as much English and I spoke French. We could read most of the menu and so we ordered. I have been using Google translate a lot to type out questions I need to ask someone who doesn't speak English. Tonight, I had used my phone to type out questions that I needed to ask the waiter. He was a good humored guy. I could tell he was humored by me and with me typing out my little questions on the iPhone. I would type and then hand him the phone, he would chuckle as I was just asking for water or a menu to take home for ordering. As we finished our dinner, the waiter came over to our table carrying HIS iPhone in his hands and he handed me the phone, with his typed message to me, in English, where he asked if I wanted any dessert. He laughed and I laughed at each other!!! It was very funny. What would I ever do without my iPhone and my SKYPE and my navigational systems!!!! Scary thought!!!

The take away today....I'm so happy Justin has arrived and I have renewed my loyalty to Sasha, my sassy French navigational system and one true friend in Lyon. We are going on a date this week, her choice...I hope it's nowhere too greasy!!!