Chugging along

It's been a quiet, though busy couple of days. Nothing super exciting really - setting up cell phones, utilities, banking, etc. It's been just over a week since we arrived and looking back we've made an incredible amount of progress.  We survived jet lag, moved into our new place and started the slow progress of settling into our new life here. Audrey seems to understand the concept that she is living somewhere new call this our "new maison" and talking about her good friends back home who she'll be able to Skype but not see in person for a while.  For a 2 1/2 year old, she's really picking up on all this.

I think being here also has her more aware of the whole English versus French concept.  A good friend here unloaded a bunch of children's books in French on us.  Last night we were reading some of them and she grabs it from me saying, "No mama, I read this one.  It's French".  Hmmm...was that perhaps an insult to by French reading level?  I hope not.

I've attached a couple pictures of the town where we now reside.  It's a decent sized community just north of Strasbourg, the 7th largest city in France.  Lying right on the German border, it has a very distinct look to the town that's hard to mistake.  Today, I took Audrey out in the stroller a couple times and I could see how she seems to take in her new surroundings pointing at the corn fields and houses very different from those in Boston.  I reminded me of one of the main reasons we came to live in France - to expose the kids to new surroundings and expand the view of their world.  Time will only tell what impact this will have on them.  For the rest of you, below are some of the pictures that we captured on our walk today to give you a glimpse of our everyday life here in Alsace.

Enjoy!