Before starting I must admit that writing for this blog has really helped me to improve my English and to get by on my own in the USA. It was a trip I was waiting for for years… It’s been a good way to reconnect to my inner self…
From my first steps in Los Angeles, I had to make great efforts about my accent! I had to raise my cheekbones and to crinkle my nose a little bit, but also to speak quickly enough and to emphasize the tonic accent to adapt myself to another language! In a few hours I was able to get huge lessons about different accents I heard! There are so much people from everywhere in LA! That allowed me to practice my american english in a better way. So thank you AceParents blog for I was able to learn a lot of vocabulary during the previous year!
There are days when I tell myself that buying this blog was a whim that is of no use… And others where I am really happy to be able to confide in English and work on this language again and again…
I think when you’ve had a taste of blogging for 12 years just like I did, it’s very hard to get out from this routine. Written expression is very often an inexpensive means of avoiding the couch of a psychoanalyst…
Now let me tell you about my arrival in Los Angeles. A lady holding a big sign with my name was to wait for me on the arrivals. My plane landed at LAX at 4:50 p.m. but I didn’t complete the formalities for entering America before 3 hours! In short, my arrival in LA started as a bit messy one… Also I was totally asleep after my flight!
As soon as I arrived, I therefore looked for the employee of the company, with no success. A young French man was also waiting for the same tour representative. So we started to chat about life and personal development. After a few minutes, a huge sign occured! I realize he had the same first name as the one who led me to undertake this trip alone (this deceased childhood friend of mine, the one I made a delayed and complicated mourning for… I talked about it in my episode 1). So it’s barely arrived, after 5 minuts in the USA I had already found a way to unpack my troubles to a perfect stranger haha! I’m like that, I like to help others but I also confide my own worries very easily! The problem with mourning is that there is always a voice or a figure to remind you of the deceased person. It’s an inner battle not to look for a shadow that looks like him or a friend who replaces him… Which is absolutely impossible… So here it is, from my first steps alone in the USA I am faced with this! This is where you realize that family life and children usually save you the nostalgia associated with bereavement. I quietly slip away from this situation, evoking the coincidence, determined to enjoy my trip. I’m filled with inner peace…
To return to a more earthly and material plane: My phone plan subscribed to a French company called Free (a big shit!) did not work at all! Not a scoop I thought regarding to all the reviews I’ve seen on the web about those guys… So as soon as I picked up a bit of wifi, I used WhatsApp to call my husband and my children and to get reassured!
Throughout my trip I spent my days wondering what time it was in France and what my children were doing. Shortly before my departure my youngest son was a bit sick, so as an anxious mama I needed to be constantly reassured about his condition. It’s only when my husband told me that everything was fine that I managed to allow myself some fun. I took the bus towards the Saddleback hotel, the starting point for the circuit I had booked 5 months before… A kind of re-birth to me… I missed the USA so much during the last 7 years! I realized 11 hours of flight were nothing when you come to reach your dream!
When I arrived at the hotel by night the restaurant was closed but I was too exhausted to go out, and as I had kept the lunch offered by Air France in my bag, I had a quick meal in my room. After taking a few photos in the hotel, its palm trees and its bean-shaped swimming pool, the beautiful pink californian sky, I took a breath of fresh air at the hacienda-style garden and finally went to bed. So hard to sleep!
I was so excited to be back in Los Angeles after all these years! I would have preferred to be there with my family of course however the cost of the trip would have been enormous and my children do not enjoy the plane at all… It must be said that 11 hours in a tiny seat without being able to sleep is a long time… To me that’s really the worst part of a trip…
After a 5 hours short night, I was so tired with the jet lag effects I had to walk with my eyes closed towards the shower to wake myself up. 10 minutes under hot water with a good shampoo is the only thing that may wake up efficiently the kind of marmot I am!
The next morning I had a basic breakfast in front of the hispanic fountain in the pool garden. I met a few members who had subscribed to the same tour. This trip took us from Los Angeles to the Great West where we visited the most beautiful sites in the world such as Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Yosemite or Monument Valley. We also drove on the legendary Route 66 and spent time (and money) in great casinos and hotels in Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and also Utah.
On my first day I enjoyed a nice walk on Hollywood Boulevard early in the morning, a “latte coffee” in a traditional bistrot and a nice meal in the desert, halfway between Los Angeles and Laughlin, a small casino town in Nevada, based on the edge of Colorado River.
I was so glad to see again the Chinese Theatre where the Presley family strutted around 2 days before! The last time I had walked the boulevard a few years earlier there were still quite a few thrift stores and charity shops. Alas, souvenir shops have supplanted vintage ones. Shame!
After a walk in the hills and in Beverly Hills, we discovered several areas of LA. I admit it, I love LA but I have been very attracted to the desert and the red soils since my childhood… And in this total luxury offered by the Stars’ neighborhood, I especially wanted to escape to the Great West! Fortunately my wish was soon realized since we had the lunch on the edge of the desert, a meal with a view on the sands! I took some pics of my arrival in the most arid part of California! And the further we went through the middle of nowhere, the better I felt!
Next step: the mythic Bagdad Café!
My feeling as a mom on this first day of the trip without my children: Not too bad hahah! It’s the first morning in years that I didn’t need to make sure both of them had a breakfast before going to school… At the same time I feel like I’m rediscovering a part of my youth since with my parents and I came in the USA for our summer vacations when I was a child. I feel as a wind of spiritual renewal and freedom blowing over me. I finally found these arid landscapes I have dreamed of so much… Those which seemed so inaccessible to me a few months ago, and even a few hours agos, were now taking place at my feet. And there I told myself that I had really complicated my life… I have hurt myself for years to impose some rules over me, rules about my holidays with or without the children, about things you must avoid when you become a mother etc. The more I moved towards Monument Valley and the more I found the red earth in front of me, the more I was able to regain my self-confidence I felt as the red dust made my impossible mourning fade away…
