The Sound of Silence

Wednesday, Kristian and Lilian flew back to the US for a few weeks. I couldn’t go with them, because I’m still waiting on my French residency permit (Carte de Sejour/CDS). Until I get my card, the lawyer we spoke with advised me not to leave the Schengen Area. She said that I should definitely not go back to the US. So, I’m holding it down here in Lyon.

I applied for my residency permit back in March, and I’m still waiting on the number that I can use to track my progress. In other words, my application is in the waiting room before the waiting room. Applications for a CDS go through the local prefecture (regional government), so the length of time they take can vary wildly. Unfortunately for me, Lyon is one of the slower prefectures. And the French government is having problems overall with processing everyone’s applications.

In fact, there were national protests back in June about the delays. One of our friends told us about it after the fact, or I might have joined in myself! Our friend was saying that everyone involved should have gotten their paperwork approved automatically. After all, there’s nothing more French than putting together a protest.

Anyways, now it’s just me and the dog.

We had visiting from the US, but they left yesterday morning (after filling my fridge with food, OMG best house guests ever!). It’s weird to go from 6 people in our apartment to just me. I enjoyed an afternoon nap on the couch yesterday, but now I’m firmly in “find other people to talk to” mode.

I unintentionally got some social time yesterday evening… As the designated “friend who isn’t leaving France,” I got house keys from a couple of other families. I’d arranged with one of the husbands to water some plants last night… but then his wife made plans to spend the night at home and he forgot to tell me. I think I scared her half to death when I casually walked into their living room!

She’s such a good sport, she offered me a drink and we spent the rest of the evening catching up.

I’m going to spend the first week of August at an Airbnb in Marseille, but I’m otherwise going to be at our apartment until Kristian and Lilian get back. It will be too easy to scroll instagram on the couch, so I plan to give myself some structure. Lilian already told me that she’s not going to bring me back any of my fabric from storage in the US if I don’t finish an existing quilt project. So, that’s on the list. I also need to take a certification exam next week.

Other than that, I have some tech stuff to play with. And a backlog of adventures from this past spring to write about. I also want to finish the re-design of my business website and (finally) publish Kristian’s business website.

There’s also the matter of human conversation. I’ve been blessed to have been making more local friends, but almost all of them will be on vacation for the next several weeks. I’ve signed up for as many lyra/pole classes as my body can handle, but I’m looking for other things I can do in order to interact with other people. Preferably things that are cheap or free. Any fun suggestions?