Tuesday, July 17, 2007

The Thing About Moms

Back in May when I first told my mom that I would be moving to France her initial reaction was "I hope you don't think I'm going to come visit you while your there." She couldn't understand why anyone would want to visit France let alone live there for 7 months. And as such she didn't speak to me for a couple of days. After the initial shock set in she called me back and apologized for her initial reaction but she still insisted that there would be no visits from the maternal unit.

Ignoring her decree I composed an email to her, several other family members and friends outlining my vacation schedule for the school year as well as the steps and extended processing times for obtaining a US passport. To which my mother replied:

"...just in case you're interested I'm going to get my passport. Maybe I'll take a trip to somewhere. Not sure where yet but by the time I make up my mind as where to go I will at least have it. Not that I'm coming to France or anything but you never know..."

I thought to myself "wow she's actually lightening up on the idea, she'll get her passport in no time."

Fast forward to today, my mom applied for he passport using the expedited service which means she will probably receive her passport before I even receive my renewal. Recent conversations with the maternal unit went something like this:

Maternal Unit: So I'm thinking of coming to Paris either in February or April. How long are your breaks exactly, I don't want to fly to Europe for only 5 days. I"m thinking of staying for 2 weeks or so.
L'Étrangère Americaine: *dead air*
L'Étrangère Americaine: errr, uhmmm, oh two weeks huh? Are you sure you want to stay that long? Do you think you want to visit some other countries while you're here?
Maternal Unit: Yeah, I wanna visit Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Greece and Australia.
L'Étrangère Americaine: AUSTRALIA? AUSTRALIA? Mom, the flight to Australia is 24 hours.
Maternal Unit: Oh, maybe not Australia.
L'Étrangère Americaine: Ok so I guess we'll be going on a European World Tour 2008.

So mom has been converted, who am I kidding, she knew along that she would be visiting me in France even without my prompting. Now, to get the ball rolling for my sister. Does anyone have any suggestions as how to overcome a fear of flying? She refuses to take pharmaceuticals to aid in calming her nerves.

3 comments:

Potted Farm said...

I lived in France for 6 months in 2005 and no one from my entire family came to visit. I'm going back for 9 months and again, none of my family is coming. They're supportive of me going, but then again my maternal unit can't find France on a map, so maybe they're just glad to be getting rid of me? Either way I feel your pain. And no advice on fear of flying. Unless something has happened to your sister on a plane does she even have a rational reason to fear flying?

Anonymous said...

I prefer australia like your mum!

- Mills Pierre

The Un-Ashtangi said...

My sister's fear of flying is completely irrational and isn't based on some awful flying experience that she had in the past.