Lovely Awkward: A Year of Wine, Romance and Life Among the French

Lovely Awkward: A Year of Wine, Romance and Life Among the French

Friday 15 January 2010

And now for a completely different freak-out!


I have a scooter!!!

I haven't seen it or touched it or smelled it (as you can tell, I have no idea how to inspect these vehicles), but now I have one. The Professor just sent me an email from his phone saying that he'd made the purchase.

Part of our mutual fear in this relationship has been my inability to get around in France -- well, lack of ability. At times, that made my stick-shift driving lessons quite difficult because each time I stalled the car, I was chipping away at my independence and our possible happiness. That's a lot of pressure.

A bus? Yes. There's a bus that comes to our little mountain complex. But it's infrequent and never on time (which means I can miss it and then have to go home for an hour to wait for the next one). As someone from Ottawa where I've only ever had to take the bus from the outskirts of the city into town, I've also never learned how to properly read a bus schedule. So, although the 1 euro bus in Nice can and has taken me places, I'm less likely to take it for little errands. Which, let's face it, are all I really have to do there at the moment.

I'm excited about the scooter. But SCARED (am I always scared of something or what?). It has skinny wheels and could topple over at any stop light. Now I can't just trust that the Professor knows what he's doing (as I did with the motorcycle) because I'm going to be the one in control. Freaky.

But just as the motorcycle was a symbol of me adapting to the Professor's life and movements when I went to France the first time, maybe this scooter will be the symbol for me making a life of my own.

Yay for independent scooter women! I'm posting a picture.

Oh, yes... and it's automatic!!

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations! Well you can also rollerblade, right?

    Carmen

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm not rollerblading down the hill. Still getting used to stopping.

    But maybe I'll have to. My brother was telling me that there's a certain art to riding a scooter and that I'd better figure it out before I try driving around town.

    I've googled this information. But is that really a safe thing to do? I'm relying on the Prof to give me some instruction, too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I want to see a picture of you riding your scooter!

    Carmen

    ReplyDelete