Bonjhola

EP 97: Rebecca Embarrasses Herself at the Doctor; plus an update on Damian's internship.

• Rebecca West

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Welcome to Bon Jola, a podcast about two women, Amy and Rebecca, who each move from the United States to Europe to become expats. Amy to Spain and Rebecca to France. We're here to share the highs, the lows, and the logistics of this adventure. Encourage you to follow your own, move abroad dreams, and remind you that you're not alone when the going gets tough. Enjoy.

Rebecca

Bonolo, Rebecca. Amy. So you have successfully seen a physician in your new town. Was this in person or was it another telehealth No, this is a real doctor's visit with a real doctor. Okay. Did you do it all in French? No, but I did some of it in French. Um, okay, so here's the scoop. This has been two years coming, right? I moved two years ago, and I saw a doctor briefly by telehealth to get a quick prescription, but that is the only medical appointment that I've had. And once we figured out we were moving to Monon, I was like, all right, I'm not gonna Paris. I will wait. first I was waiting for my cart Viel, that's the green card that now that I live in a place where a bunch of expats live, I realize how precious it is. People are like, oh my gosh, you have the card already? And I'm like, yes. After a quick two years, I have. So two years is on the quick end of, Yeah, it seems like a year and a half, two years is a pretty normal amount of time, and I have definitely met people for whom here longer, but I don't know when they started the process either. Right. So, because I was waiting on the carpet towel, I'm relatively healthy. I had done a whole bunch of doctor's visits before leaving the I put it off, I got the car Patal, find I'm moving. I'm like, okay, I'll do this when I get to Ton. So like a good little girl. I did it. So here's how it works. The Can I just interject? I wanna interject real quick and say, uh, how. Proud I am of you that you like within weeks of living in this new city, you took care of this. I mean, that's pretty awesome. I am, I am actually astonished by how easy this move has compared to moving to Paris and I guess this is something that expats and future expats should hear and I've, I've mentioned it before, it was so much harder to move to France than I expected it to be, and not in any of the ways I expected. It was really just in the fact that everything took so much work and everything decision and, and I, and I knew all of that. I knew everything was gonna be new. What I didn't know was how exhausting that would be and how little that would leave me in reserve for doing the things I thought I'd get to a lot faster learning French or going to a doctor like those were. Apparently mountains far off in the distance. 'cause first I had to conquer buying underwear and household cleanser. totally. I know it's amazing how that is. it is, and I remember in our early podcast episodes to you about your journey and some of the exhaustion points you had hit, deeply understand them. The difference in moving from Paris from that to moving from Paris to Menton is night and day. I am absolutely exhausted by from moving, but really only in the same way I would've been in the States really like a normal exhaustion rather than, I didn't even know what I was getting myself into. Exhaustion. right, right. Nice. So it doesn't mean that I haven't already had my first meltdown in my first two and a half weeks here, but that mostly has come from the fact and we'll get to Damien's internship. But it's come mostly from the fact that my husband is now gone 12 hours a day, five days a week. And that's a huge shift for us. And it's one that I didn't see coming, like mentally. working in a restaurant is long hours and they're evening hours. But I didn't know how it would feel, Yeah. not, a pleasant feeling, but it's only for 18 weeks, Yeah. Yeah. Your husband has a job yeah. Like this is what, this is what most of the world goes through because most of the world is not self-employed and you know, for the entire time you've known Damien, he's been self-employed. That's the thing, even because back in the States when he was running his company, he'd work nine hours, 10 hours, 16 hours. He worked until the job was done. The challenge of that was I never exactly knew when he was coming home, and this has been a lot more regular, but. While the hours were long, we did have complete freedom. If he needed a day off or if we wanted to leave and go to Europe for a month, we always had that Yeah. Now he has chosen to go work under somebody else's schedule, and it is a really different thing. So it, it means that I'm experiencing now what a lot of expat partners feel. So a lot of times people move to another country because their partner, their spouse has gotten a job and then the second person left to their own devices 'cause they frequently aren't working or can't work. And so they're trying to figure out their lives. And I know we're supposed to be talking about the doctor. We will get back to that. But the funniest thing about living here is that I am now surrounded by expats. Most of my friends are, they're still international. They're not Americans, but they are English speaking expats. And I am now a part of a group of women who lunch. That's really weird. you are, you are the, you are the wives club. You are part of the WIVES club. some husbands. I am part of the wives club and I am, I am unique in that while I work for myself. So I have a lot of flexibility, which has proven to be a little problematic because my motivation is a little low for working. I do have to say to them, you know, I would love to join you for this, this, and this. But I can't say yes to all the I do actually have some bills to pay still. Right, right. I. Um, and that's not true for all the ladies. So there's one, my new main friend here, they own three Airbnb properties here. So she is very, very busy. She's always having to tend to her guests and do turnovers. She does all the work herself, still, it's a very, flexible routine. It's just. She doesn't always know when she'll be available, but there's a lot of free time between those jobs. Right. Okay. So, uh, where do. Doctor's appointment. You saw a doctor, what happened? At least what happened that you're willing to talk about to an audience that you don't know. I am gonna tell you something embarrassing today. Don't worry. Um, okay, so first let me just give you some logistics. the way it works in France, once you have your little green card, can go onto a system called Lib, Lib. And it's a registry all the doctors. You can sort by availability and by specialty and by language. can't sort by gender, which I thought was everybody has their name. Most people have their pictures. So you can figure out gender. And that was important to me because being a female of a certain age, dealing with perimenopause, menopause, coming and gynecology, I mean like. Even in America, I wanted a girl doctor, and if I'm doing language plus girl parts, I definitely wanted a girl. that's the first step. You look on there, you can make an appointment right online. It's super easy. lots of availability. There's no rating system on that. So you're just going off of their information and their specialties and whatever they chose to fill out, and a little message for the entrepreneurs of the world out there. Self-employed people, the descriptions that you put on these association platforms. for us interior designers like the NKBA platform, it really matters. Like we just phone it in. We think nobody's reading it as a now a client. We're reading it word for word and looking for clues that you are the one we're looking for. So pay attention to your bios that you write. Now what I did do is I took their names once. I'd narrowed it down to walkability and stuff, 'cause I wanted it to be very easy to get to. I did go online and some doctors definitely have been reviewed on Google and some other platforms, and so I was able to get a sense of them. I narrowed down my choices to two women. One who has lots of reviews and they were very Now, I did put all this into chat, GPT and chat. GPT warned me, they said, usually in France, if you see bad reviews, it's about administrative work and wait times. And that was a hundred percent the situation with the gal that I chose. As a former healthcare professional who worked in a large clinic where patients were reviewing us. I concur that nearly 100% of the complaints in the US also that we personally get docked for are things like administrative tech. Like oh, the, the, the, the patient portal doesn't work. Two stars. Um, and, and stuff that is completely beyond our control. So that's true in the states no, luckily I had researched that, so it gave me a little bit of mm, context, right? the gal that I chose, apparently you can easily wait two hours to see her. She's apparently always behind, but sandwiched with those reviews. And a couple that said, she just canceled my appointment, so I was totally prepared for that to happen too. Don't know why., Within those reviews were also reviews. That said takes time with her clients, that she is very compassionate. She's a good listener, so obviously that's the reason why she's always late, was something I was willing to put up with. So I was really grateful for that information. I brought my book and then I also had a backup doctor who is newer, no reviews except for one that says she's lovely and fresh and full of energy. Here is my backup plan. Um, doctors, a lot of them just work out of individual clinics. This particular one, there was a door on the street and there is a little sign that says, clinic, and you have to buzz yourself in. And luckily, two women were there already buzzing themselves in. So I just got to follow along and hope that I was in the right place. Walked up a flight of stairs to the next door that lets you into the a waiting room. So there was actually a waiting room, nobody greets You just walk in and assume somebody's going to call your name. And the interesting mo thing in that moment was the other guest, clients, patients said Bonjour to me. And I noticed that they did it to several others too. So there's a little bit of a politeness thing there. Because these are just client uh, patients. They're not, they don't work there. the room was, is very shabby. The ceiling has definitely leaked, so the ceiling tiles, there's a whole bunch of 'em missing. And the ones that aren't are stained brown, like it's unpleasant, in a health situation. But I'm like new world, new country social system. They're not spending money on making a good thing, right? And then I was ready to wait two hours. I brought my book, but 10 minutes after my appointment, basically I hear my name Madame West and I'm like, oh gosh, me, way over. Enthusiastic. Um, and then as she was coming to get me, and this was the doctor, there's no staff, it's her herself. She's talking in French to somebody who's clearly unhappy and you know, at each other. And then she keeps that conversation going kind of to me as we're going into her office, she's talking in fast French. I have no idea what she was saying, although I know exactly what she was saying the demeanor. Right. But at this point I'm a little nervous 'cause she's only talking in French. And so I say, um, that's my new phrase. My French is very limited. Are we able to speak in English? And she goes, ah. And so she changes to English and then the rest of the appointment was in English. It turns out I didn't know this till the very end of the appointment. She's Hungarian actually. Oh. So both French and English are second languages, and that turned into a funny moment when we were wrapping up the appointment 'cause she was giving me some prescriptions that I needed. One of them needed to be done for 10 days, the word for day in French is ju. the word for year in English is year. She mixed 'em up. So she kept telling me that I needed to do these things for 10 years and that she would see me in 10 years. And I'm like, okay, I'm pretty sure that that's not the right word, and I'd better ask and clarify means. hilarious. There were a couple moments like that. Her English is very good, but there's. You know, you can see when somebody's looking for the right word to use in the moment, and then you're sitting there trying to make sure you understand really important medical information. tricky. It really is. Yeah. we start the appointment, um, I had written out, I called my mom and my dad. I said, Hey, this is a good time for me to brush up on my family medical history. So I figured out everything about them and my aunts and uncles and grandparents This was before the appointment. Right. Okay. Okay. I wrote it. Because in my mind, you're still in the room with her and she's talking and you're like, hold on, let me call my father. So let's just in the show here, take This is why she's two, two hours late, folks, because she has her patience to reach out to family members to get the most current and accurate health history. So before I went, I gathered my medical history. I wrote that and everything about why I was going to the appointment down in English. threw it in the chat GPT, and I said, translate this to French. And I printed it out in both versions she ended up reading the English one. 'cause for her French and English are equivalent. So, she did that, had our appointment. Then the funny part comes because I needed to do a female part examination. we go from the main, there's two rooms. We go from the main room to the adjoining room where there's the clinic. What do you guys call that we lay on Oh, the, the exam table. exam table and she's like, okay, as in. Get undressed. And now in America you are given complete privacy for undressing. I don't know how it is in Spain, I'm gonna ask you in a second, but in France, she was just standing there. And the problem with that is that I am extremely bad at undressing myself. I don't know why, but I every damn time take my pants off before I take my shoes off, which. for a really awkward moment when you're standing and taking your pants and underwear off in front of a complete stranger and then realize you still have to take your shoes off and now you're completely, even right now, I'm so like, well, this is what it is. There's not, I'm already in it. My pants are already down. gotta get And then I hopped up on the table and she did her exam. And that was interesting too, because chose her because she was listed as having both gynecological and geriatric specialty. And I'm like, Ooh, intersection of me. But the table didn't have, and maybe there are, and she didn't need them, but it didn't have any stirrups or anything like that. So it felt much more casual. Um. And less, honestly, less clinical in a way that I liked. weird, but I liked Um, yeah. But man, no privacy. So have you experienced Uh, not yet. I'm having my first exam in May, the first week of May, Oh, congratulations. yeah. Yeah, because I figured I should get. Uh, get that done before I go back to the States. Um, but I do, like, I am getting physical therapy right now and my physical therapist is Argentinian, but the same thing, you know, like if she's, you know, if I'm wearing pants and she's gonna do some manipulative work or um, or therapy on my, on my legs, she's like, okay, pants off. And then like, you know, it's like, all right, and, and I'm super, I'm not shy at all. So when she said pants off the first time, I just started taking off my pants, and then I became surprised that she never left the room while I was taking off my pants. really funny is that her, they, she and her husband have a clinic. It's chiropractic and physical therapy, and. During one of our sessions where I was, you know, pants off on the table and she was doing some work, we were having a conversation and there was a word that neither of us could think of, like in Spanish or English, and we're like, what is that word? Not sure what that word is. And then her husband opens up the door and pops his head in and he's like, the word that you're looking for is this, and then leaves. And I'm like, never, ever, ever in the US would that. Ever, ever happen because somebody would get sued because we love to sue people. But you know, here no one assumes that you're out to get them priori beliefs. And so things like, like people are just effing people. Just because someone has a penis doesn't mean he's a pervert. Just because like, like, you know, I mean. also bodies are just bodies. the biggest Thank you. Yes. A body is just a body and we all have them and they're not big deals. Everybody farts. Everybody poops. Nearly everybody ends up having sex if they live long enough to do like, you know, I mean, it's just like we're all peep. it's a really strange experience because it ties into, um, what I was taught about being female, about being modest, about parts of my body that are unclean or dirty or sinful, there's so much wrapped up in. sense of privacy in the United States that I have just chewing on ever since this appointment. And it reminded me, I don't know if you remember way back when I was getting my entrance medical exam and I walked into the little changing closet. Yeah, I was, I had that thought at the start of this episode because I was, I was thinking like, what is, what's the experience gonna be like in gynecology and I had a total flashback that conversation and what I pictured happening in my mind as you were telling us that so different so normal and normalized. I wanna say both of those words. It's like normal, normalized. Yeah. So, let's see, what else? Um, couple things, actually, I forgot to mention this. When you're looking at Dr. Leave, there are actually different tiers of doctors in the system. So there's a sector one, sector two, and a couple of other things. And so it turns out that doctors can choose to be a little bit more, um expensive or exclusive. I'm not entirely sure what the decision is in all of that, sector one doctor is paid through like just what the system allows, sort of like having insurance or not taking insurance in the United States. And Yep. chat. GPT said that for your primary care doctor, which you do have to assign in this system. Go with sector one. There's no reason to complicate You don't need a, an extra level of or whatever. everybody does ask if you have a mutual, so that's that top up insurance can take care of the extra went and got blood work done. and I had to euros. And that would've, fully covered if I had to mute you. Well, so they always ask that question too. Um, wait, have I talked to you only to myself about the maiden name thing? I don't think I, You have not talked to me about maiden name things. here's another thing. All right, so we wrap up the appointment. It was very straightforward. She changed, she made herself my primary care doctor in the system while I was sitting there, and also helped me update my address and stuff. So that was awesome. And I have a couple of prescriptions and then I was supposed to get a bunch of blood work done get a baseline And she explained to me where the. The lab is you just go, there's no appointment. You can go to any number of them, but there's one couple doors down and I had to, fast beforehand, very normal, right? So I go the next morning. I'm, I give them my piece of paper and it was nine 30 in the morning and in French. So I, I don't know the reason that they gave me, but I do understand they said you need to come here between seven and nine. I don't know if that's because that's when they like to test somebody's blood in the day or, because that's when the clinic does that. I will never know. But they gave me a, uh, a urine jar they sent me home with it and they said. Fill this and they said, not P can't be older than an hour when you bring it in, Oh, interesting. but it was labeled with my birth name, my maiden name, and this is something I've noticed before. I've gotten mail system to my maiden name, and I'm like, but that's not my legal name. This is so weird. So I asked my French teacher about it today and turns out, in fact, that is how the French system operates. Your birth name is the thing that never changes. You can get married. You can get married So they track everything by your birth name. And the only way to have that different is to go through the administrative paperwork of literally having your name changed on your birth certificate, which apparently is possible. you know, obviously it doesn't matter that much to me. Right, right. Again, a very different thing and very surprising to me. Yeah. Yeah. very, I mean, in a way, well, I, I kind of like that. That's very, it's simple and effective, right? Because so much happens over the course of a lifetime. Particularly with women and names so just it that, just, it's, it's almost German in its efficiency of being like, well, this is the name you're given in your, in your birth, and this is the name that we're going to use. We assigned you this number at birth. This is your number. Yeah. It's very much that feeling. Yeah. I think that if I was only a married name for me, I, it wouldn't have kind of hit me the same way, but because I chose my last name between marriages, very personal. And so for me, I'm like, but. chose my name and I like my name. the other thing last time we were together I think was when we talked about how we can't find cotton balls here. Yes. Well, I got my blood drawn today and the medical office has cotton balls, so I'm gonna keep my eyes open for medical supply stores and see if I can find cotton balls, course, brilliant. anyone is going to have them, it would be a medical supply store. Yep. Nurse did a great job, didn't hurt getting my blood. Got the vein first try. Super nice people. And that was all in French, so the doctor was in English, but everything else, the pharmacy, all of that has been in French. Nice. Nice. Oh on. On that note, I guess this is a little win, a little bit of progress. Yesterday I was in my Spanish class and I got a phone call through locally and I was like, oh, local, local phone calls. That's usually like a thing, a real thing. Like someone's trying to deliver a package or the school is calling or something, right? So I answer the phone. And I'm getting up to leave and this guy starts chatting at me in rapid Spanish, but I'm able to detect, it's a guy from a bank who's very excited that we've been such loyal customers and he wants to offer me a loan. And, and so before I even get out in Spanish, I'm like, dude, I'm in class right now. I don't have time for a call like And he, and then he was like, oh, so sorry, so sorry. Um, you know, if you ever need anything, we're here. And then the call ends. But it was such a rapid, quick and telephone that after the fact I was like, wait a minute. That was kind of awesome that I understood what was going on and I was able to respond in, in an appropriate way that was understood. And then the call ended. Um, that was great. Like I, yeah, I understand. Spanish spam calls very exciting and evidently now I am, um, I mean, I don't get, I don't get spam texts on my US number, uh, while I'm here in Spain, which is amazing, and they don't get spam. or, and I haven't been getting spam calls on my Spanish Uh, but I think because we bank with Santander, that's why they called Yeah. Yeah. Man, feel like the phone is the final mountain couple of calls, 'cause you know, when they, when they have a package for you, they call you, they're like, hi, I'm here with a package. Um, and you just, or, or the other day I had, what did I have to make a phone call about? Oh, it was a package. The package couldn't be delivered and they said you can reach the company. Here. Well, here was only a phone number. I had no other recourse. I had to call a French company. It almost killed me. But they were so nice. 'cause I would, you know, I always start with, do you speak English in hopes Yeah. no, or he says a very little, and you can, and I say a very little, you're like, oh yeah, it's a very little. But I was really flustered and he was so nice. 'cause he was like, take your time. And that calmed my nervous system down and allowed my brain to work enough that I actually could communicate what I needed Yeah, makes all the does, it really does. I mean, I think it's a good life lesson. what? To calm down and take your time. All right. I concur. I concur. Um, okay. So after dropping trow embarrassingly, the final note that I had that I wanted to share today was that I thought was really funny. We're at the end of the appointment and she just goes, is there anything else you need? And then she just rattles up a co off a couple of painkillers, I'm like. So I got Vicodin, I got amoxicillin, I got opiates. I got this. I got that. I got ae. some thyroid medication? Is your blood pressure too high? all she offered me was Dorine and ibuprofen and Dorine seems to be their go-to generic. Ibuprofen level thing. So I'm pretty sure she wasn't offering me the full pharmacy, but it was a really funny, very open-ended question. That is pretty funny. did you get some ibuprofen that you can then pass along to your spouse? he's a fan. He's still all stocked up from his shoulder surgery 'cause he actually found the same thing. They were very willing to, to pain manage at least with that level of medicine. Yeah. Um, another, actually, another thing that's different here is that so many of the medications are offered in, um, packets sachets or ointments. Like I have an antibiotic something that I'm, that she gave me, but in the states, it's almost always been given to me in a pill form when I need an antibiotic. This is just a localized cream. I've never, aside from Neosporin, right? I've never had an antibiotic cream before. That's fantastic because being topical, it's not going to have the systemic probiotic. Destruction that wondering. yeah, that we would have from taking a pill. If it's a broad spectrum antibiotic, then it would just, you know, it would, it would jack up the microbiome on the skin while it's killing, you know, whatever bacteria that's on the being eliminated. But when you take something internally, systemic, you know. Deforestation of the gut microbiome is, has much more far-reaching consequences over the entire system than something And I definitely know that's true. 'cause in the past, every time I got prescribed an antibiotic, I was also prescribed something to against yeast infections because every time we have the whole apartment, let's move all the family in. so I'm hoping that that's not gonna be the case this time. No, it wouldn't. There's no reason for it to That's awesome. I wonder if something like that is actually available in the States, but you have to know and or it has to be compounded by a pharmacy because, you know, we just have our way of doing things. But it doesn't mean that these things are completely inaccessible to us. don't know what we don't know. Exactly, and we, we have to trust our doctors. At some level you have to. Yeah, Even though we know we can't trust our doctors at many levels, it's a really hard balance beam to walk on. You know, everything ultimately goes back to the information that you have access to. And some people are more curious and go investigating and digging beyond what they're told, but not everybody does and nobody does for every single thing in their life. So It can't. exactly, exactly. But it's not just all what you know, it's also what you've been told in terms of propaganda. You and I have talked about that before, and it was funny, as I was leaving, getting my prescriptions and stuff, my brain did go, I don't really know anything about this woman. I don't know anything about her medical training. Um, and it's, it's a huge leap of faith to put your hands, put yourself in the hands of a foreign doctor and it's not. it should be. I'm not saying that there's a reason for that leap of faith, but at least for me it is a conscious decision to say, I am not gonna worry about that. I am gonna have faith that this person is medically trained and about. I don't know anything more about an American doctor, but I don't ask those. Same way See, I have the reverse bias. I am so much more trusting of foreign doctors than I am of American because I know the degree to which the American system, the American medical system, is purchased by pharmaceutical companies and that that trumps everything with regards to and in socialized healthcare I have a naive untested. Belief that that is not as. Prevalent or as deeply rooted, right? I mean, pharmaceutical reps come into undergraduate schools pre-med students and start courting them at the pre-med level with lunch and learns and things like this, and they track them all the way through their medical So it starts before you even realize what is happening. And being in the medical field, whenever you go to a conference, you are lunched and learned about. You know, being in nutrition, it was, it was supplements, it was supplement companies that effectively do what big pharma has been doing in the medical system for decades. Right. But it, and, and even if you have a critical mind and you believe yourself impermeable to bias, the reality is, at the end of the day, with enough messaging, no human is impermeable to bias. Familiarity. Familiarity is going to root itself and, you know, and facilitate a recall or a recommendation, be it for a surgery, a medical device, a pharmaceutical, a supplement, or even some like crazy ass restrictive diet plan, right? Like it's, you know, I mean, it's not, and it's not limited to, to medical, it's, it's, everything. It's everything. there's definitely. This system has its but what there isn't is a profit motive that is not the foundation of this system, and that does for me, give me a sense of trust, as you say, untested, unfounded. But it is a logical trust. It's not like we're just believe it in unicorns right now. Yeah, I, I mean now that we're moving back to the states I've been traveling back and forth a lot and getting, More deeply connected to, my immigrant side of my family, and they are all like, my father, my cousins. My aunts and uncles, they all still routinely will go to Mexico for dental work, for cancer care, for medical checkups, you know, just wellness checks. It is worth it to them to fly down to Mexico from Alaska get that kind of care. Fascinat. Yeah, I think some of it is, is to. Finances as well as, um, you know, like the American medical system does bankrupt over half a million people a year. Um, so that is, that is a factor as well as The language aspect right in your birth tongue. It's just more comfortable even if you have, as in the case of many of my family members grown up equally on both sides of the border and are very fluent in both languages. but I do, I do know that. from what they have told me, that the care that you get in Mexico is more comprehensive, more time dedicated to the patient and a higher quality of care than we do get And it is worth flying out of the country It's, yeah. And obviously every single one of these decisions is a personal decision, but I was thinking back to the, the stained ceiling, the, the, the dilapidation of this building that I was in, which of course goes hand in hand with the fact that everything in Europe is older than anything in the states, too. But it's interesting, the psychological game that this plays with your head. You know, well tended. We see a beautiful sterile medical clinic and our brain says clean, hygienic, good care. mean, yes, hygienic is important, beautifully interior designed does not equate to hygienic. But our brains work that way. And it's like, it's so hard To pull apart these pieces and not A, with B, when A and B are not actually related. same. Yeah. Yeah. Well now that, um, everybody knows how I undress, so that's fun. Um, do wanna catch up on anything else? Say that for the next episode. I, well, I wanna know real quick how, uh, how the internship is going, how your husband is surviving the world of a Michelin star kitchen. What is, is, has he transitioned beyond chopping carrots? Is he now chopping onions? What is, where is he at? What's happening? All right, so he's got, it's gonna be 18 weeks total that he's there. he will get to move around in stations, but right now he is in the prep kitchen, which they consider the hardest and lowest position. Makes And his life. It did start out with shucking peas and he has shucked many peas. And then after you shuck the peas, because it is a three star Michelin restaurant, you must sort them into four sizes because God forbid you peas on a plate. Wait, can you say that again? Got forbid you have two different sized peas on a plate. no, you, you shuck them and you put them into different sizes, Yeah. They have to sort them by size. So you have four different sizes of after you shuck them in their little pea piles. right? So that when it, the plate is served, all of the peas are of the same size. Correct. Okay. This is amazing and horrible. I love it. So It's even worse than shopping carrots. well and that's the good job. So he's been doing a lot of that. And then the other thing, the thing he's really been tasked with, and this is probably the worst job at the restaurant. He has to take baby sardines. Baby sardines are about an inch long, and they look like teeny tiny kind of invisible fish with giant eyes. He has to take them with the tweezers and then he has to take about a three inch mold, two inch mold, round mold, and he has to put them in a rosette so that you make this three, two, or three layer rosette of a, basically a spiral of tiny baby Then that perfect little disc dehydrated. And then after being dehydrated, it is fried so that now you have a baby sardine cracker. And you've eaten these because I remember you telling me. Yeah. How little you enjoyed them when you went to the restaurant to have a meal before he started working there? So the new routine is my husband gets home around nine 30 at night and goes immediately into the shower and his clothes go immediately And he brought a couple of little fishies home and tried to give them to Murray, our cat, and even Murray wasn't interested. Are you serious? Wow. have been a texture thing 'cause they were already fried, very amusing to both of us. so yeah, so my husband's life is poutine and for those of you who know poutine in Canada, we are not talking about the same thing. So Canada poutine is fries with gravy and cheese curds or melted cheese. I think they do in some areas here. Poutine are little. baby Sardines and it's absolutely disgusting 😂 Sorry, but I'm not. Mm-hmm. I'm not a fan. Not a fan of this one. I had a roommate in my early twenties who was an Alaska fisherman, and he would go out on the boats, and then when he would come back, he would have to air out his fisherman's clothes outside of the house. so he'd hang them up like outside the front door to air out and dry and stuff, but you know, for a couple of days you open up the door to leave the house and like rotten fish was horrible. Uh, so I can only imagine what walks into the door every evening at 9:30 PM. But luckily, this is a delicacy that is only available for a very short season, and so. It will be ending soon and they have to replace it with something else. So yeah, he got good at that. And of course, nobody enjoys doing it. And so he has done hours and hours hours of tweezing tiny baby fish into a rosette It sounds powerfully meditative. I'm not sure he would agree with that. He, he definitely comes home very tired. He's standing. Basically for 12 hours straight gets two 50 breaks. they work just as hard as the TV shows, make it look. This is one of the things where I think reality TV might actually be pretty realistic. Um, they're speaking four languages in the kitchen, Spanish, English, Italian, and French. two Americans, Damien, and a guy named Sam. Sam was very excited. There was gonna be another American on staff. He's very happy. Damien is very happy and he's learning a ton. but he's also definitely tired. And I mean, the thing is he hasn't been standing like this in a long, long time, Right, right. His body is completely untrained for kitchen and he, He is you know, and he is standing for, for long stretches and it's a new job. So anytime you start a new job, your first two weeks, you're like, I don't think I can do this. And he hasn't even said that. Like he doesn't, he hasn't hit that wall, but I Dude, he's been waiting his whole life to do this. There's nothing he could come home with blood pooling out of his shoes, and he would never, ever consider not going in the next day. The man has been. Waiting 50 years for this moment, he would, he would happily die surrounded by baby sardines if it came to it Plus, you know, his fellow workers, they're what, 25 ish? And they are all saying, wow, this is really hard work. And the thing is, Damien spent his entire life contractor. He was on for those 12 hours tiling, for example. Hammering walking roofs and hoping not to fall off in 112 degree He has done stuff that is so much harder than this, that even though it's hard, he's just like, no, it's not. Yeah, exactly. It's all perspective. It really is. So that's the kind of the, that's it. He's having a great time. He is gotten compliments from some of the lead chefs. Couldn't be going better. It really couldn't. We're really happy. Fantastic dude. I'm so pumped for him. I am so happy Let him know I said congratulations, and I'm super excited. I will not be That's okay. The season's almost over. You'll have missed your window. I know, I know. I'm not sad. Um, but yeah, just in general, this has been a really good move. people here are very nice. They're very friendly. Even the French ones are a, a nice form of French. Um, I have found a secondhand shop. I found a couple, but one is way too fancy, way too Chanel and Louis Vuitton stuff, but one that's more my speed. I've made some friends. I found a French class. is gonna be a really good year. Yeah. I think we should end on that note. It's not gonna get better than We'll in the next week, and we'll share those. Beautiful. Until then.

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