A Foreign Concept

We have been experiencing the real meaning of that phrase lately. There are many ideas around here that are completely foreign to us (why should I be surprised?):

- All mayonnaise here contains mustard. Even if it says "Nature" (meaning plain). Even if it doesn't say or show anything about mustard on the front label. I did find one exception, which was a gourmet mayonnaise in a small reusable glass with a top. Please tell me regular mayonnaise in the U.S. doesn't contain mustard too and I just never noticed?

- At church, now that we are back into the school year, the children are regularly fed lunch in their classrooms while the adults are in the main service. Also, the service goes from 10am until 12:30pm or so. Two and a half hours. This is why they feel the need to feed the kids lunch. But we eat a good breakfast before going to church, and normally Sunday lunch is a family affair for us. 12:30 isn't very late for lunch. We were very surprised at this practice (which no one told us about). Another surprise: Jason's class was walked to McDonald's to get drinks during the service (without us having any idea). This was very weird for me.

- Elementary school children have Wednesdays off and must go to Saturday morning classes from 9 to 12. This may take me a lot of getting used to. Every day off has school both the day before and the day after.

- In Sunnyvale, California, if a stoplight malfunctions, you can expect it to be fixed within a few hours. Here in a small village in southern France, our main stoplight to get out of our neighborhood onto the big road to our village or elsewhere has been flashing orange for over a month now. We've gotten used to it. It'll be strange if and when it is ever fixed. But I wouldn't mind.

- To fill up your regular car's gas tank (with diesel, even), you shell out 51.24 euros on a day like today. That's $64.21. Oh. My.

- But on the upside, here's a foreign concept I actually like: the whole family goes home for lunch every day, for a two-hour break together from school and work. I pick up both kids from school and bring them home for some down time and a meal "en famille" - even David came home today and ate with us. He doesn't always do that, but fairly often. It's such a nice feeling. It brings the family together. It's a pace of life that adds something missing in the U.S. In association with this concept, if children do stay at school for the lunch two-hours, they all eat a hot lunch. No one brings or sends a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to school. No one sends anything, in fact. If your child stays for lunch, you must buy the school lunch, which includes a hot meat dish with vegetables and a cheese course and dessert! Wow. Even in elementary school. A different kind of cheese every day, of course. I remember hearing somewhere that France has 400 kinds of cheeses.

- Another nice thing here: At restaurants, if you use a credit or debit card, your card is never removed from your sight. Instead, a little handheld machine is brought to your table, where the card is inserted and wirelessly verified and charged. Wouldn't you think this would be something the U.S. would have thought of? We don't even have to sign anything. Therefore there's nowhere to add a tip; it must be done in cash. That's not so convenient. But then you don't need to tip much either. Just a small token of appreciation. Service is included (hence not very fast service...hmmm, it's all ups and downs).

- At our daughter's elementary school, we've seen cars in the parking lot from Belgium, Germany and Spain. All new arrivals for the school year? Fun to see, in any case.

I am starting to realize I am a foreigner here, on the continent of my childhood but not my adulthood until now. It takes adjustments all around. It's good stretching.