from moi

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to send a message from me too. We're ok. Thanks so much for your concerns. It was a long, hard week but it's over and we're just moving on. I think what has made it easier is that we don't know too many people in this city and essentially just had each other for company, so is became much less dramatic.

What I realized quickly is that my french is far better than I gave myself credit for, especially in times of stress! I managed to answer all of the questions from the doctor, listen to her admin's extremely vague directions on how to get to the clinic behind the hospital in a different city (Schlitingheim or something like that...different city but in reality it would be like going from arbutus to granville street) to visit a doctor on the 3rd floor (which is really the 4th), go to the other doctor who turned out couldn't understand why the first doctor kept sending patients to her since she was an addiction specialist (when I gave her my letter from the first doctor, her first question was "You don't take heroin do you?" and my first question to her was "Is heroin the same word in english?"...she told me that she has had so many patients from the first doctor who she had to send elsewhere...and yes, she has called the doctor to explain the mix-up many times but the admin seems to not understand), find the other part of the clinic where I could find another doctor who could help me, explain the mix-up to the clerk and let her know that I am Canadian so would need to pay up-front, tell everyone who wanted to know why the hell we were in Strasbourg in the first place just to appease their curiosity of having a foreigner in their clinic, re-explain everything to the third doctor, understand the explanation of how to take the crazy labour-inducing pill the next day and when to come back, find the lab to get my blood drawn in the hospital in front of the clinic, and figure out how to get back home. Yes, I know it was one long sentence, but I wanted you to feel how I did during this long crazy day! Actually, it was only 3 hours but it felt like forever. Thank goodness Axel came with me when I had to go back because after the excrutiating pain, the last thing I wanted to do was translate expletives from english to french at how badly it hurt!

One thing that was extremely frustrating was how no one could believe that I was married but don't have Bergman as my last name. For a country like France which is so progressive in so many areas that everywhere else is still stuck in the 50s, you would think that this kind of thing would be more common! You wouldn't believe how many times I was asked what my maiden name was and when I said it was Cruz they assumed I didn't understand so I would explain that Bergman is my partner's name but I still use Cruz. They would roll their eyes or do the familiar "oh god, she really doesn't understand what I'm asking her" lip purse, and then re-ask the question. And then I would say that I kept my last name because it was easier. And EVERY person would tell me that in France, it is automatic to use your husband's name. So I would then say what if they wanted to use the wife's name to which they stopped harrassing. I don't want you to think that I don't like the name Bergman. It's a great name. But having Cruz my whole life and then just switching now just makes it confusing for me. The bank has refused to let me keep my name though. And my resident card also has Bergman as my last name, despite having no documents with Bergman attached to my name. It's kind of a game for me right now. How many times can I say my last name is Cruz and then have Bergman put on the file.

OK...now Strasbourg needs to be explored and because Axel is spaced out, I must do the duty. Since this medical pause, we have already checked out the european parliament, cronenberg breweries, jupiter and 3 of its moons, as well as settled in. More to come so stay tuned!

:)