Spring Break

The hardest thing about studying French in France is not being able to see all the amazing places in Europe.  Seriously, who goes all the way to Paris, France and doesn't see the Eiffel Tower?  Our family!  The picture above is from a year ago, when we visited my brother's family in Paris, Tennessee.  (I thought I'd throw it in for fun!)  Anyways, we found really cheap tickets and took the TGV (the fastest passenger train in the world) from Albertville to Paris Easter weekend to go to church, but there was no time to "see" Paris before coming back to Albertville for classes.

I think most people would think that's a little crazy.  Yet, even though I would have loved to "see" Paris, I am not at all disappointed with our trip to Paris.  We were truly thankful to have the chance to receive and celebrate Holy Communion on Easter Sunday with our fellow Lutherans of a sister church body in France (and to go to a French potluck was just icing on the cake; think potluck and 5 course meal all in one).

Europe is full of amazing places to visit.  I'm not going to start naming them, because I'll just long for them even more.  So when one is given a window of opportunity to travel a little, one should do so, and so we were determined to go somewhere! Yet, we did not have much spare time to plan a route. So what is one to do? Well, decide on a destination. We decided to visit Luther Land, also known as Germany.

Back in the states, we did not take many vacations, but when we did, I would spend a lot of time researching all the possibilities of places to go and things to do.  We never tried to make it up as we went along and we always had our lodging set and a few coupons printed off for here or there.  Well, not this time.

I did not have much time at all to research places to go.  On the nights that I didn't fall asleep after putting the kids down, I had the choice to study or plan for our vacation and even though I'd rather have been planning our vacation, I chose to study.  That left us with very little information to go on for our trip and no lodging booked for the last 3 nights.  Some how we made it around Germany with 3 little ones and very minimal Internet though.  I've never stopped at so many tourist information places before in my life!  

We started our spring break near Strasbourg, France (Wœrth, to be exact) going to Sainte Trinité, a congregation in fellowship with the LCMS.  We were so thankful for our time there, to visit with fellow Lutherans and have The Lord's Supper again.  It was a great start to our spring break.

We ventured on to Luther Land.  We visited Heidelberg, Worms, Eisenach, Erfurt, Weimar, Wittenberg, Leipzig, and Nuremberg.  And of course, since we had to drive through Switzerland to get back to Albertville, we had to stop at both a cheese and a chocolate factory.

As we look back, it wasn't just a sight-seeing tour for our family. Many of the places also provided a chance for Micah to strengthen his future classroom discussions of our Lutheran heritage.

You can see more of our trip by clicking this link to my pictures on Facebook.  A new window will open and you can click on a picture to scroll through all the pictures with captions.

Sink or Swim in Class

Our class

We wrapped up our first trimester of class a couple weeks ago with a week of exams.  Each day we had a different part of the exam in the morning and afternoon.  We had grammar, reading, dictation, oral & written comprehension, and oral & written production.  Yes, a whole week of testing.  It was actually very nice.  With the testing spread out through out the week, it gave Micah and me extra time to study and review everything we've learned since January, that is to say, everything we haven't had time to revisit because we desire to take time to care for 3 little ones when we aren't in class.

Learning a language with a family is not easy.  Some might say it's insane.  Some meaning me.  I don't think the cultural change or the language barrier has been that difficult.  Yet, the transition from being a stay at home mom to a full time student and yet still a mom has been crazy hard.  The first couple weeks of class I studied every minute I could to try to stay on top of everything we were learning.  I quickly realized that I couldn't keep that up.  I wasn't getting nearly enough sleep staying up past midnight and then waking up through out the night to feed a 3 month old and getting up for the day at 6:30am.  I wasn't spending much quality time at all with my kids and they were starting to let me know through their behavior.  I finally realized towards the end of the second week that I couldn't do it all.  I could not possibly learn it all and be there for my family.  So I've been trying to convince myself that it's okay that I don't have time to study everything.  Of course that's easier said than done.  Every day I struggle with wanting to learn everything and be able to speak French as well as my peers.

Towards the end of the trimester I was starting to drown in class.  I was falling so far behind that I couldn't understand our teacher and I wasn't able to think fast enough to say anything in French.  I have so much in my head, but I can't seem to pull out what I need fast enough to form a sentence.  I was ready to stop taking classes and be a stay at home mom again.  I was pretty much convinced of this after talking with a few other moms who are finding alternative ways to learn French.  Surprisingly, it was during exam week that I started to swim again.  I finally had a chance to study without having more water (information) poured on top of me.

After exams I was still fairly certain that I wanted to stop taking classes, because I knew that if I continued I would start to sink again and eventually drown with all the new information.  However, our teacher talked me into continuing on.  She completely understands my situation with kids and everything.  But she can also tell that I'm understanding concepts and that I just don't have time to study and memorize those concepts.  She thinks I should keep with it and at least get what I can out of it.  Even if I can't quite utilize everything I'm learning yet, it will be a lot easier once we get to Africa to apply it, than if I stop taking classes.  I agree with her, I learn best in a classroom.  I would get a lot more from class in a week than I would on my own in a month, maybe even 2 months.  Especially considering back in the states I would always fall asleep working with Rosetta Stone.

So, here's to 2 more months of classes for me!  They won't be easy, but they will be worth it in the end.  We will still be here through the end of July, as Micah will be going on through July.  I'm pretty sure I'll be drowning again by the end of June though.  I think that it would be best if I get out before I completely drown.  This will also give me time to accomplish last minute tasks and care for the household before going to Togo in August.

Our Shipment

All of our containers and boxes of donations, theological books and personal items have arrived safely in Togo.  Less than 4 months and we will be there too!  Thank you Jacob Gaugert for all the hours you put into getting our shipment to Dapaong.

Notre Appartement à Albertville

Last week, we learned vocabulary for housing and directions.  Our homework one night was to draw a layout of our appartment and walk the class through the layout using the vocab we learned (by memory).  I've copied my layout and short dialogue below.  

Nous avons un appartement de 4 pièces à rez-de-chaussée.  Nous avons l'entrée dans le couloir à gauche, nous avons la salle de séjour et la cuisine. Pour le droit est la chambre de Sam et la salle de bain. Au fond du couloir a gauche est notre chambre avec une douche, des toilettes, et la chambre de Liza avec une douche.

Pictures of our apartment

Kitchen

Dishwasher...

Dining room & living room

Study

Sam's room

Full Bathroom (sans bath tub)

Hallway

Master bedroom

View out the master bedroom window on a rainy day

(we're on the main floor, so the mountains are blocked a little bit by the bushes and trees, 

but they are still pretty amazing)

There are showers & sinks in both the master bedroom and Liza's room 

and this closet toilet is in between the 2 bedrooms

Liza's room

Liza's view of the mountains (although the clouds are hiding them a little)

Italy

Our first 5 weeks here in Albertville flew by. We’ve learned a lot of French, even if it doesn’t seem like we can speak much of the language yet. We are definitely getting the basics and will soon be speaking a lot more. We are in the middle of a 2 week break (our schedule coincides with the local schools, since many of us have kids in school).

Since we were so busy getting settled, taking care of the kids, and keeping up with class, we didn't have any time to plan a voyage during our winter break. However, Micah and I really wanted to go somewhere. We did a little research one night and booked a rental car for a week (because it was cheaper than 3 days), found a hotel, some sites to see, printed off directions (because we still don't have a cell phone) and headed in the direction of Italy.



We were headed for Turin, Italy, only about 200km (124 miles) from Albertville. Google said we could have been there in 2 1/4 hours, but we decided to add 2 hours to avoid the $50 tunnel toll through the mountain. We figured we had time on our side, why not?! We could drive over the mountain, instead of through it.


Driving through Lanslebourg- Mont-Cenis France, aka "ski town" to us. While driving through (the first time) we saw lots of people carrying skis. We soon found out why.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at the road that would have taken us up the mountain, all we saw were people skiing; no road. Little did we know the road we needed to take turns into ski slopes during the winter months. So we turned around and drove back.

Past where we pulled off the road and got stuck in the snow.


This is a view out my window while we were stuck in the snow (on the side of the road where there was an area to pull off).  It was around 10 minutes before a nice couple came and helped push us out.




Past Le Fort Victor-Emmanuel (above), still wanting to stop, but definitely no time now, and back into the town we had stopped at for lunch, to connect with the toll road to cross into Italy (below).


It's not getting dark yet, we were just in the shadow of a mountain.
Brr, was it cold compared to being in the bright sun.


Micah paying the $50 toll.


Into the mountain we go...


Mama: "We're in a mountain!"
Sam: "We're going through a really, really, really, really, reeeeaaaally long tunnel!"


Welcome to Italy


And another tunnel


Only in the United States is 102 too fast


Our interesting hotel room, newly renovated by the great owner.  Where's David?!

The owner pointed out a lot of interesting places and fed us very well. It wasn't a bed and breakfast, but we had the personal treatment as if it was.


Sam & Liza's room

The owner suggested we eat at Cianci, so we did. We tried a few authentic dishes which included rabbit and lamb, all very tasty.

The next morning we had a great breakfast at the hotel. The owner made sure we had hot croissants, freshly boiled eggs and a nice plate of meat and cheese on our table even though most of the food was out on the buffet.



We took the tram downtown and got off at the market, which had overtaken the parking lot in which we had parked for supper the previous night. This is the largest open air market in Europe. Produce was so cheap, that we bought a bunch to bring back with us.


We enjoyed some delicious pizza for lunch before really getting into our site seeing.


Walking to Piazza Castello


Palazzo Madame


at Piazza Castello


at Piazza Castello


Duomo di San Giovanni Battista

The main reason we decided to go to Turin (or Torino) was because we wanted to visit Duomo di San Giovanni Battista (Cathedral of St. John the Baptist) where the Shroud of Turin is located--a linen cloth that bears the image of a crucified man believed by many to be Jesus of Nazareth. Alas, the sign on the door says they're sorry they're closed until April.

The day was flying by, but we wanted to see one more thing before leaving. Tunnels. Not tunnels to drive through, but tunnels to walk through. Under the city of Turin are lots of tunnels from e dell'Assedio di Torino del 1706 (the Siege of Turin in 1706). Even though the kids skipped their naps they were well behaved and loved the tour through the underground tunnels.

 

Sam climbing back out of the tunnels (railing added years later)

Liza fell asleep on our way back to the tram.

We rode the tram back to our hotel where our rental car was and grabbed a quick bite at a nearby foreign restaurant...


Sam enjoying a McChicken at McDonald's in Italy, while playing a game that was projected onto our table.

We changed a couple diapers, hopped in the car and drove home.... Haha, if only it was that easy to get out of the city. We had our directions and our map pulled up on the iPad, but it took us 3 times before we got on the right toll road out of Turin. If only we were more familiar with Italian signs, we may have saved about $8 in tolls. Oh the price you pay for not knowing a country's language.  Good thing we are learning French before we go to Togo.

Our First Week in Albertville

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Sam & Liza woke up around midnight and were up for an hour or so before going back to bed.  I woke up at noon (5 a.m. Central) and slowly woke everyone else up for lunch.  Sam was disappointed he didn’t get to eat breakfast.  We spent the afternoon unpacking.  We didn’t take any naps, hoping the kids would be tired and sleep through the night.  Our great upstairs neighbors (who have helped us out so much) took us on a tour to see downtown Albertville. Being New Year’s Day, most of the businesses were closed.

Friday, January 2, 2015

Sam & Liza both woke up at some point in the wee hours of the morning (at what would have been the end of their nap times in Milwaukee).  They were wide awake and ready to go.  After a couple of hours Micah got them back to bed.  I woke up at 9:15 a.m. and woke up everyone else, thinking we’ve got to get on schedule before Monday comes.  We met up with our amazing neighbor, who took us to Carrefour, a 15 minute walk from our school, to get some food and other basic necessities.  We had “fun” carrying everything back in and on the stroller or on our shoulders avoiding piles of snow while navigating upon not completely shoveled sidewalks.  In the afternoon Micah went to register Sam for school.  Sam has to go to pre-4k while we are here.  This was probably my biggest concern coming here, because Sam has never dealt well with going anywhere without Micah or me.  Thankfully this past year he’s done well as long as Liza is with him, but that wouldn’t be the case for this school.  He would be going all alone.  I was afraid we would have a few really rough days.  More on this when I get to Monday!  We put Sam & Liza down for naps hoping that maybe their bodies would figure out nap time vs bed time.

Liza's morning hair in France

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Sam & Liza woke up in the middle of the night yet again, but thankfully it’s been a little earlier and a little shorter each night.  They were only up for about an hour before going back to bed.  I woke up at 9:30 a.m., but left Micah to wake Sam & Liza.  David and I went to the market downtown and bought a variety of vegetables, sausages, and cheese.  FYI: French Munster cheese is not to be confused with the American Muenster.  Thankfully Micah likes it anyway, so it wasn’t a complete loss.  I bought some kind of sausage that was very tasty, and what looked like bratwurst and some sauerkraut.  I am extremely pleased to share, I was right.  The sauerkraut will be a weekly buy, if I can help it.  It was hot and fresh and had bits of pork and sausage in it.  Extremely good fresh, not so much warmed up again, however.  We decided to just nap Liza, so that Sam would start to adjust to not taking naps.  We also decided to try putting Sam and Liza in different rooms for now; even though they were going to bed alright, we didn’t know if they were waking each other up in the middle of the night.  Since David has been refusing to sleep alone in his room, we figured we might as well move Liza in there.

This is what happens to candles when they are placed on a radiator over night.  Oops!

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Sam still woke up for a little while in the night, but thankfully Micah was able to at least keep Liza in bed when she woke up.  Since there aren’t any LCMS churches within 4 hours of Albertville, we had a service in our apartment.  Followed by Sunday School.

Ready for Matins

Monday, January 5, 2015

Somehow everyone slept through the night, except Micah who kept thinking the kids were going to wake up (that and the Detroit Lions were playing).  Micah had his level tests in the morning and then took Sam to see his school.  They came home for lunch.  Then Sam was off to his 1st (half) day of school...  Micah took him and returned about 15 minutes later without Sam and apparently without any problems.  The teacher took his hand, said “ready, set, go” and Sam went without looking back.  Wow, prayers answered.  When we talked about school back in the States, Sam didn’t want to go, so we decided not to talk about it much.  But ever since we’ve been talking about it in France he’s been okay with the idea and looking forward to going, even knowing that Liza could not go with him (His comfort is saying Liza is going to 2 yr. old school, which is really just the school’s nursery).  Thank you Lord for preparing Sam for school.  Of course we pray that he continues to enjoy going to school here, especially with everything being in French.  

Sam's "serious" look, in front of his school.

After picking up Sam from school we ventured to the big store, comparable to a Super Wal-Mart, on the edge of town to buy a few things needed for school and around the apartment.  To get there we had to catch the bus; being new to town and not knowing much French, this was a big thing to prep for.  Getting to know the schedule, map, prices, etc.  The bus ride was fine and we started out alright in the store, but then both Sam and Liza had melt downs and we wondered, “do the French take their kids to the store?”

Riding the bus back from the store

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Everyone slept through the night again.  We are starting to get into routine!  Micah took Sam to school.  I took Liza to the nursery.  Micah & I went to orientation.  Micah picked up Sam from school for lunch.  I picked up Liza from the nursery.  We all had lunch.  We all went back to school/orientation.  I did laundry for the first time in France.  Really not all that different than in the United States.  Although, we have drying racks in our apartments to dry our clothes on vs using the dryer.  It was interesting finding the best way to get as many clothes as possible hung up.  Don’t worry, I mastered it and got 2 baskets full of laundry to fit.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Wednesday will be a day off for all of us except Sam, who will just go to school in the morning.  Micah dropped Sam off at school and the rest of us went to Lidl (Aldi) to get some groceries.  We got back just in time for our appointment with the bank to set up a checking account here in France.  Sam has been getting worn out from going to school and not taking naps that we decided to give him a nap, along with everyone else.  It was a little harder getting to bed at night, but I think the naps helped in the long run.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Our first day of classes were today.  It was a long, tiring day of focusing hard on the phonetics of vowel sounds.  Especially hard for me since I have TMJD (jaw problems) and the French really work their jaws when they speak.  For those of you wondering about David.  I’ve decided to take David to class with me for now, until he gets to be a distraction.  Today he pretty much just ate and slept through class.  Hopefully this will continue.

We are still working on getting cell phones.

Email & Facebook are the best ways to contact us.

micah.wildauer@lcmsintl.org  

robin.wildauer@lcmsintl.org 

(we still use our personal emails too)

Our mailing address is (mail is always welcome!):

Wildauer Family

50 Chemin de Galibouds

73200

Albertville

France

Mission Possible

At times it seemed this small part of our mission would be impossible.  Getting everything together before leaving the states.  Selling our house.  Flying half way around the world sure seemed impossible a few days ago.

We had so many late nights getting everything together in time to leave for France, but we did it.  Tuesday morning we were pretty much packed and ready to go with minimal loose ends that could be taken care of later.  We headed to the title office and signed all the papers to sell our house.  The excitement was very short-lived, since we had to rush home to finish packing up the bags and throw them in the 2 vans that were headed for Chicago.  We met up with Micah's family at a Culver's near the airport for one last treat and then made our way to O'Hare where we had great help unloading all of our bags, taking back our rental and checking our 8 ginormous bags.  We all walked to security together and said our last goodbyes before leaving the states.  

Right before saying the last of all of our goodbyes.

Now Micah and I were on our own to get our 3 little ones and all our stuff to France. Stuff: 5 carry-on bags, 5 personal bags (think plane activities for the kids' bags), 2 car seats, and an umbrella which wouldn't fit in any other bag. We decided, since we could, we would take both a regular stroller and a sit and stand stroller to get all our kids and stuff to the airplane.  It was smooth sailing through security and all the way to our gate.  The first flight was the longest, yet overnight.  I figured we would sleep most of the way over the ocean to Dublin, Ireland.  Apparently, our airline didn't think we should.  They decided to serve dinner a few hours into the flight.  Thankfully the kids kept sleeping, but not for long. For some reason, two of them woke up; Sam went back to sleep with some persuasion, but Liza did not.   We didn't get much sleep before they served breakfast 2 hours before getting off the plane.  We arrived in Ireland at 8 a.m. (2 a.m. Central Time).   It was a little crazy getting our travel-weary kids, car seats & all of our bags off the plane.  I was so glad we had our strollers handy on which to load everything.  Haha!  Not the case.  We quickly found out that we would have to do some walking without the help of wheels.  We had to walk all the way to the terminal, a very long walk with sleepy kids and lots of stuff. Remember how I said "3 little ones?" Not so little when tired and needing to be carried.

Thoughts of a 2 year old on an airplane, "Must stay awake!"

We found our strollers and walked all around the terminal to end up practically where we started to wait for our next flight.  We had a few hours to wait, but they passed quickly.  The kids were some how really excited to get on the next flight so we really didn't have any problems getting them on. From Micah's e-mail to family: "One of the highlights for me came in Dublin where we were having a handful with sleep-deprived older kids who also needed to release energy but we were about to board. The attendant had just come over to gate check a buggy and simply said to us it was time to pre-board the families. To which, Sam starts dancing a four-year-old's circle dance and cheering at a surprisingly acceptable decibel, 'Yeah! It's time to board. Time to go to France!' Hands in the air, Liza joins the circle dance and chant for a minute. Got a few chuckles from others around."

Our second flight was only 2 hours long, but we were so tired by this point that we all slept the whole flight.  It was so nice to get some sleep. That is, until it was time to depart the plane and our kids didn't want to wake up and walk on their own.  With a little help from the stewardesses, we carried all 3 kids off the plane along with all of our stuff.  Once we were off the plane at the gate (where one would normally pick up their stroller) we were left to carry everything by ourselves without any wheels.  Apparently, even though we checked our strollers at the gate we had to go all the way to baggage claim - which was after customs - to pick them up.  Really?!  We finally convinced sleepy Sam to walk on his own albeit lightly crying along the way. I carried a couple personal bags and the two car seats (1 with a baby in it), and Micah was loaded with the rest of our bags and Liza.  Since the camera was buried, I'll leave to your imagination the picture of Micah loaded down by all the bags and a 2 year old!  Getting through security was fun; we had no problems getting our passports stamped (except for me scratching my knuckles up trying to get the passports out of the first bag Micah loaded on his shoulders).  Thinking we were almost there, right after the stamps was a one-way security gate that Micah couldn't possibly fit through with all the bags and once I went through I couldn't go back to help him.  Micah had to throw most of the bags through to me as to not set off the alarm, which we actually set off a couple times anyway (you would think someone would have helped us, but I can only imagine they were too busy chuckling at the sight).  

You can imagine Micah looked a little like this!

We finally got to our strollers and 8 ginormous bags (thankfully they were all there).  I went to get a couple of carts to put our bags on, but realized they only take coins and all we had were paper Euros.  After being the last to disembark the plane and getting through to the baggage claim area, there was no one around to ask for coins from, absolutely no one! European fliers are rather quick and efficient. Micah started carrying our 50lb bags 2 by 2 to the first exit door.  We then had to find a way to get through, not one, but two one-way doors and a security gate. Thankfully this one was a little wider than the last one. By this time a few airport employees came through and explained that we just needed a plastic chip to get a cart.  Apparently the carts don't cost a thing, you just have to have a little plastic chip and know how to read French.  Who knew?!  And where exactly were we supposed to obtain these chips?!  So, we loaded up 3 carts and gradually got through our last 3 obstacles before seeing "Wildauer" held up on a sign by our taxi-bus driver.  Whew, we had made it to France and would eventually make it to Albertville without any problems.  Mission impossible was somehow possible.

Mission Possible!