Teeny Tiny Baby Steps

We were expecting a package from a store in Aix-en-Provence. We made a purchase and had it shipped to us but I really didn’t know when it would come. I got the whole Fed-Ex deal figured out – we get our US mail shipped to us about every other week and we get a reference number, I watch the package go from Houston to Memphis to Paris and to here. And I also know that they always deliver around 10:30 in the morning. All I have to do is wait for the buzzer alerting me to the fact that the delivery man is at the door. I then pick up the door-phone and tell him what floor I am on and then I open the door with the door-phone. (Kinda sophisticated deal for someone who has never lived in a city apartment.)

So this shipment from Aix didn’t come Fed Ex, it came TNT. (yeah, like the dynamite) When I arrived home from French school, there was a delivery notice pasted on the street door of the apartment building with our name on it telling anyone and everyone who passed by that those stupid Americans weren’t home when TNT tried to deliver their package. I very carefully read it to determine what I should do next and, best I could tell, I had to call this place and arrange for delivery. (en Francais, of course) Paul was out of town, so I couldn’t pawn this off on him. I hate when that happens! So anyway, I called the number. Somehow I communicated that I had received this notice. Then they asked for the reference number, I gave it to them without skipping a beat (and not having to use the PAUSE button) and we arranged for delivery that very night! Amazing.

Then, this morning I went to buy my fruits and veggies at the market. There is a vendor there whom I met during my first week here. I see him each time I go to that market, but with my French class taking much of my time, I hadn’t been to the market in a long while. So today when I went there, I saw him and actually carried on a pretty decent conversation with him. He even asked how Kate was doing! Amazing encore. And when I got home, I noticed that he had thrown into the bag some free parsley too!