Comfort Zone

"Excuse me," I said to the kind woman at the auto shop getting her tires changed ahead of us.  "This may be kind of bazaar, but...would you be interested in meeting with me?  You said you like to speak English, and well, you could practice your English, and I could practice my French...."

She laughed.  We exchanged email addresses.  She starts a new job on Thursday in Switzerland, so she's not sure if she'll have time to meet, but I will send her an email shortly and see what happens.

This is my life.

Many people may describe me (Kate) as outgoing; but, in fact, I can be quite shy.  It's not natural for me to start random conversations with strangers - especially in French.  I [unfortunately] rely on Jordan for that.

But this must change.  How will we make new friends in Aix-les-Bains if we do not start conversations with people we're crossing paths with at the market or auto shop?  How will we find People of Peace?

And so we go, out of our comfort zones.

Rather than having every meal at home, we need to have some meals out so that we are forced to speak French.  Instead of studying on our couch, I should take my notebook to the café or pizza shop downstairs so that I may have a conversation with the owner or a passer-byer.  Rather than relaxing at home with our board games or English music, I need to learn to like window shopping so that I can meet the shop keepers and practice French.  Instead of grocery shopping with an agenda of getting what we need, we need to shop with the goal of conversing.

Living in France is very different.  It's not bad.  It's not good.  It's just different.  Sometimes it feels bad or uncomfortable, but we didn't choose to move to France because we wanted to be comfortable.