La Victoire

At the end of my physical therapy session today, my kiné slapped her hand on her forehead and said, "oh la la! We were supposed to use the "tu!".  (insert return of the awkward feeling here- why does she keep doing this?!)  I once again reiterated the fact that ce n'était pas grave - it wasn't a big deal.  I told her that after 7 years in France, I just still couldn't quite get the hang of this tu/vous business.  She told me that she still hadn't gotten the hang of it after 33 years... then, like music to my ears, she said, " Tu as ta carte vitale?".

That's what I like to call victory ladies and gents.

Tu Veux Un Update?

After my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad experience with Le Vous at my physical therapist's office, I was absolutely DREADING my RDV last Thursday.  I gave myself a pep talk before going in her office and I basically pretended like nothing had gone wrong last time ...no I had not inappropriately told her that she could tutoyer me, no there had not been a million awkward moments that followed.


She gave me a bizarre "Bonjour" as she walked through the waiting room to wash her hands and we didn't mention it once during my therapy session - so far, so good.

Then Monday happened.

We were doing the electrodes whilst she gave me the mini-massage (so that we would have time for "exercise"), when she said, "On s'est dit qu'on aller se tutoyer, non?" (We said we were going to use the tu, didn't we?).  Oh. Dear. God. Why does this happen to me?

Then, just to up the awkward ante a little more, I said, "Oh yes, we did, but last time I felt like maybe you didn't feel comfortable with that.  And you're right, it is hard to switch.".

Then we used the vous. For the entire rest of the session.