Bonjhola

EP 58 - Rebecca's loaded up on the Good Stuff and sharing epiphanies revealed in Portugal, then drops a healthcare bombshell at the end

• Rebecca West

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Welcome to Bonjola, a podcast about two women, Aimee and Rebecca, who each moved from the United States to Europe to become expats, Aimee 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.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Bonjoula, Rebecca.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Bon Jovi, Aimee.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

You are, uh, now sick.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Yes, I have my second French cold and I'm very sad about it, but I do have my Dayquil and NyQuil stash, so it could be worse.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah, I was gonna say, did you, did you get some American drugs?

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Yeah. Back when we were in Oregon, or back when I was in Oregon, I brought home, uh, I think two bottles of each NyQuil, DayQuil in gel caps, NyQuil and DayQuil in liquid form, and some Mucinex and Pepto. I grabbed everything that I couldn't imagine getting here and feeling very grateful

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah, I'm surprised you're not in a better mood because you you're like hopped up on all the good shit

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Well, it's the new and I had all of these goals and things that I was excited to dive back into when we got back from Portugal. And you know, like they say, life is what happens when you're making other plans, but I feel very defeated, you know, by this virus and it's making other decisions than I wanted to make. And it's saying, no, you have to sleep in. Rest. And I, that's not what I wanted. And so

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

I have just

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

I'm feeling a lot of resistance

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

yeah But I will say having worked in the health and wellness field for as long as I had January is the time when people who overdo it In November and December crash because your body is like, okay, we're done We are done now.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

And the irony of it is that I was in Portugal for three weeks and it was a wonderful trip and I had a lot of time to just be, to just exist. We would walk. It's about a. Two mile walk down to the beach, and then we walk two or three miles on the beach. And this is not really in a touristed part of Portugal, so we could walk a mile or two on the beach and see maybe one other person. So it's very meditative, very grounding. And I had some really important really silly epiphanies. but they were mindset shifts that I'm really pleased about or I was pleased about. And I'm assuming in a week I will feel pleased about again. For example, I've always been the kind of person I am, the kind of person who goes at 110 percent and a hundred percent has always felt like what you should be striving for. And so the idea of, you know, take it down a couple of notches has always been something I resist because it's like, well, if I have a hundred percent, why wouldn't I give a hundred percent? And then I was in Portugal where the pace of life is dramatically slower.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah, I guess you don't you don't get to realize that so much in Paris since you're you're in an international bustling city. It's a European city. So you feel a difference from an American city However, it is still not the pace of life that most of Europe holds

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

If anybody goes back and listens to some of the first episodes, I definitely talked about Downshifting and how I really like the pace here in Paris and then having spent those few weeks in Portugal now that I'm back in Paris, I do feel that kind of amped urban Buzz and I'm, I haven't quite settled back into it partly because I'm sick, but also partly because I want to bring back from Portugal a different way of thinking. So instead of thinking, instead of going at a hundred percent and go at 80 or 20%, I'm thinking of it more now, like how you drive certain roads. It's safe to drive 20 miles an hour on other roads. It's safe to drive 60 miles an hour on. It's not a mark of whether or not you're driving. in order just to drive faster. Faster isn't the be all and end all when you're driving. You also want to enjoy the view, be safe, not run over pedestrians, not kill yourself. And so until I got sick two days ago, I was pretty excited about this concept of Allow yourself to drive a little slower rather than feeling like it was something holding me back or tying me down.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

I love this analogy so much. This is fantastic. It makes me so happy. And I also, when you said, when you said, um, You know, the first thing that came to mind when you talked about, the safety of some roads, right, there is a posted speed limit. It's not a, it's not the appropriate speed all the time, right? Like, if you take a corner, if you're supposed to take a corner at a speed no higher than 35 miles an hour, 35 miles an hour is your 100%. If it's raining, if it's icy, And you're, take that corner at 35 miles an hour, you're going off the road.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Yeah. Which, so here's the full circle of it, which is, you know, this is my rainy weather these two

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

I am not able to go 35 miles an hour on this road and I have to accept that right now if I'm lucky I'm going to go 10 miles an hour and really I should probably just leave the car in the garage

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Stay home,

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

for

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

implement weather.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

So, even though I'm super bummed about being sick right now, it does go with what I wanted to bring back, which is drive at the appropriate pace for the conditions. And I was hoping for sunny, clear roads on January 6th, and it's not. Um.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

And think about what you want from your road trip, too.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Yes. Yes. Because getting there faster, where are we all getting

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

The grave.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

getting to the end of our life. I know. I'm, it continues to be a journey for me. I am not pretending to be perfect at it yet, but Paris was a downshift now Portugal's helping me downshift further and go. The journey is on. All there is. So we'll see if I hold on to it.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

How many times a year do you need to go to Portugal to have that reminder?

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

I love that you just asked that question. And I don't know that it's about Portugal per se, but it's about taking myself outside of my own rat race. The first time I experienced this successfully was when I wrote my first book, happy starts at home, discovered I could not write it. in my regular life. Some people can get up every morning and write for an hour or something. I'm, that's not me. So I had to book an Airbnb for three to four days at a time. And in four sessions over the course of a year, I wrote the book, which is great, but that's not the point of the story. Because I was full, Forcing myself to take these mini vacations. I was experiencing these moments away from the hustle and bustle of my life. And the year I wrote my book was one of the healthiest years I've ever

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Mm hmm.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

I imposed, or I guess I gave myself an excuse to take those trips. So my answer would be, I think about if I was truly being my healthiest once a

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

I would take a three to four day break from the internet, from my jobs, from my bills, from my clients, even from Damien. I have to remember I am an individual strong person and I can forget that in my own

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah. Yeah. It is real easy to forget that when so much of your attention is focused on other things and other people. Oh.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Yeah. Now, funny thing is I've known, I wrote that book in 2016, so we're, that's eight years ago now that I learned that lesson is nine and I have not been good about taking those breaks. I. Take them maybe once a year. And that, I would say, is only a sustaining

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

And the move to France, I had to, I didn't understand something until recently, which is in the past, I could come to Europe and Europe was the break from my real

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Mm hmm.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Well, my real life is here now. And so ever since March, I have been. adventuring, but it's the thrill seeking, the thrill ride kind of adventuring. It's not a be quiet and be kind of adventure.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

part of that because you are in Europe.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Well, I think it's because I'm trying to live my real life. The one that has bills and responsibilities and deadlines and Europe. Kind of amps it up because I'm also trying to learn French and find new friends and, and figure out how weigh my vegetables at the grocery store. And so your, your brain, my brain is always, always, always

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

in life. And so being in Portugal, I worked for one week before Damien showed up. And then the last two weeks I turned off email. I turned off everything. And I literally could find, I could feel my body. I don't know how to even describe it. I could feel my body heal,

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Mm hmm. Mm

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

the way I want to put

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

hmm.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

My body and my brain feel them healing. Ah, and yet I'm sick. So, the irony,

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Well, your defenses, your body let your defenses come down.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

I suppose. And, know, if I'm not completely crazy, is my immune system doing what it's supposed to do, and it needs to do that in order to be good at its

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yes.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

if you never ever get sick, then you're actually weaker, right? Is that true?

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah, yeah, it is true. Um, You know, it's like you don't, you don't recruit military forces and not have them train and then throw them into combat and expect to come out alive. So yeah, our immune system is a reactive, responsive system to the environment. And if it doesn't have a chance to experience and learn and adapt from what it comes across, then, then yeah, you get, when you, when something gets through the defenses, it gets knocked down pretty, pretty hard. It's one of the reasons why, you know, in the initial phases of coming out of the pandemic, when people did get Just what was basic colds and flus, they felt it so much more. It was like, it, you know, it wasn't just the sniffles. It was like, bam, you're out. And one thing I just casually observed, and I don't know if it is anything other than, a correlation I'm making up in my own mind, but the people who were the most sequestered, you know, who did the, the best job and were the A plus students at Shelter in Place were, um, more likely to be like seriously knocked down than people who were like, Oh my God, I can't stand it. I have to get out of the house and engaged early and often in the world.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Yeah, I know that there's a lot around parenting with that too, like let your kids play in the dirt. Their bodies need to get to know the bacteria and pathogens that are around

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah, there's a whole hypothesis of immunology, um, called the, Hygiene Hypothesis, which is based upon observations that kids who grow up with pets and kids who grow up in farms in rural areas have less autoimmune disease and less asthma than, um, than kids who grow up without those things. And it's this idea that You know, early and often getting the immune system exposed to all sorts of different bacterias Viruses molds, you know all all the different things Helps build a more robust immune system that is more resilient over the lifespan,

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

And it's also about letting the whole system work the way it's supposed to. I've been reading the most wonderful book on the history of French cheeses, totally geeking out about it. And so much of what the book is about is the Bacteria that is in different areas of France, and then the effect that those bacteria have on the cheeses that they're trying to

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

right?

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

in terms of flavor and stuff. But one of the things that was interesting was, um, some of the changes that came around with Pasteur, who created pasteurization, and there was a big craze in the cheese making industry, too, to, to turn to, like, steel doors instead of wood

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Mm hmm.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

But through some of the book, um, as I've been reading it, In certain situations, the steel is less good because it kills off or it allows all the bacteria to be killed off. And so now the good bacteria that not only creates the flavors that they want in their cheese, but also kept the bad bacteria at bay, also diminished, letting the bad bacteria have the opportunity to take root. So,

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

That's hand sanitizer

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

know,

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

in a nutshell folks

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

it's a delicate dance of, of things we can't even see creating the biosphere that upon we, upon which we

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah,

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Oh, speaking of biosphere, so Portugal. Obviously not very developed compared to many of the other places that we've been. really dark sky. We saw five planets in the sky one night. I don't think I've ever seen five planets at one time. That was so cool.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

awesome.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

See, getting to see the stars. It's, you know, I spent the last 30 years in Seattle, which almost always has a cloud and marine layer. And then Paris not only clouds up a lot, but obviously has tons and tons and tons of night sky. So the stars are not something I get to enjoy very often. It's a real treat. Um, I mean, everything about Portugal was just a little bit closer to a natural lifestyle, even though it's obviously a completely developed country. Um, there were some fun differences. One, they definitely don't care about the bonjour effect. Going into a store in Portugal feels exactly like going to a store in the United States. They're like, the clerks are like, okay, you're here, we don't care, let us know if you need us. Um, was, it was just, it was noticeable, not good or

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

People are so much slower, In everything, in their walking, in their talking, their body language is more open. will absolutely stop if you're trying to cross the crosswalk or something. They're just very aware because it doesn't feel like anybody's in a hurry. Everybody that we encountered spoke quite good English. That was something I wasn't sure about, but traveling there as a non Portuguese speaking person turns out to be very easy. And then of course the cost of living is significantly lower. I learned that the median wage there is 11, 000 a year, the equivalent of, it really puts life in perspective when you hear those numbers in a completely developed country, right? Your brain does a little bit of like a, Oh yeah, reality check

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah. Gosh, no wonder. I mean, that is, um, half, I think, of what it is here in Spain.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Wow.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

when I think about, you know, the impact that all of, that the housing market has had on the average Spaniard, I can't imagine how much worse it is in Portugal.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Yeah. Well, and then it makes you understand the blowback against the golden visa

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

100%.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

because originally they were allowing random people to buy regular homes, but they had to invest at least 500, 000 euro. And so they were just artificially making the homes be worth 500, 000 euro so that all these, foreigners live their little expat dreams without realizing, you know, completely innocent of the fact. That is completely outpricing the Portuguese people who deserve to have a home in their own

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

It's, uh, it's complicated.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

It is. It is. Yeah. And it's, it's funny because I, how do you, how do you feel about that as someone who did take advantage of that, of the golden visa scheme and,

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Oh, how, oh, well, of the things that occurs to me is that all of us who are on the bottom of the wealth totem pole, way, very, way far away from the Elon Musks and Gates's of the world and Taylor Swift's, people we like on the list too. You know, the people with that much money. money makes them money. They are allowed to play games with their money in a way that anybody in the middle and lower classes are not allowed to. And so as I have slowly accumulated a small pile of wealth for myself and I'm making choices about how to use it, I am really torn because I don't like the idea that I would be contributing to a system of housing

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Mm hmm.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

But I also am like, but why can't I take advantage of the rules that have been set up? Other people are going to take advantage of those rules. Why artificially keep myself poorer and broker when an opportunity presents itself to me? I'm not saying I have an easy answer. But I will also point out that I haven't been flashing pictures of my condo in Portugal all over Instagram because I am uncomfortable with the idea of having even a little bit more money than another person. How's that for a psychologically confused answer?

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

I think it's superhuman. I mean not, not superhuman as in Superman, but superhuman as in really, genuinely very human.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Yeah.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

It's so, I don't know, it's normal in my mind to hold very complex, conflicting emotions and ideas on the regular.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Yes, but people don't really tend to share them

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Well, that's true.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Everybody wants things to be in black and white, and everybody is so ready to be offended that it can feel very vulnerable to answer a question like that with any sense of honesty. then when nobody out there is being honest about how conflicted all of these decisions are, then it becomes now a point of shame and one that we can't talk about, so we just argue about it and call each other names. You know, and then we just like go into the whole expat versus immigrant thing and now we're back into classism and racism and all I wanted to do was walk on the beach.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

I feel so removed from all of that right now, and I feel so glad. I'm so happy to feel so removed from all of that nonsense.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

What do how can you tell me more?

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

And maybe it's just that I have not been as engaged in the online world as of late. You know, I go through these fits and starts. Like, I detest social media, and sometimes I just end up there anyway, because Phones are addictive. Um, and then I get cranky and I pull back again and, uh, you know, here in Spain, the children get Three and a half weeks off of school for the Christmas holiday. And so having kiddo at home, you know, there hasn't been as much focused time to get caught up in rando drama on the internet. So I feel very removed from the, from the conversations where it's only this or that. It can only be this way. Et cetera, et cetera. And I'm super happy about that. I also feel like there's a little bit of pushback to that now. Like, there's been a, there's been a really strong energetic shift that reminds me a lot of what happened when, um, Stuart, What's his name? The comedian, Jonathan Stewart. Is that right? That's not

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Jon

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Jon Stewart. The, there was the, you know, we can't talk about, anything other than the Wuhan market hypothesis of COVID otherwise you're, you know, racist, you're, or whatever, you know, there was only one narrative that was acceptable for a significant period of time in 2020 as to how the COVID Pandemic came about. And then Jon Stewart was like, just like said the thing that nobody was allowed to say. And instantaneously, people stopped getting canceled online and blacklisted for talking about other possibilities. And I feel like something has happened recently where there is less severe instantaneous. Cancellation and blacklisting for doing something as abhorrent as talking about weight loss. I mean, that's kind of where I'm seeing it. Like, I almost feel like all of a sudden in December, it feels like it's okay to talk about people wanting to lose weight again, that that's not, like, a bad thing. And I don't know why. I don't know why, but it's just a very, uh, It's a sense that I'm getting in the internet that people are going to feel more comfortable being honest about being uncomfortable in their body without feeling that they're going to be told that they are like victims of the patriarchy or they're not allowed to You know that that they're not accepting their body at any size if they want to change something, right? Like I feel like some of that and maybe it's just New Year's stuff. I don't know that could be it But I do feel like at least in that realm, there's been a strong shift of almost a release of all this pressure of being told that there's only one way to think and one way to speak and one way to be in the world. I don't know.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Yeah. Well, and I think that there was this fear of being canceled, you know, and that shows up in a lot of different levels. It's not like you and I are famous people that are going to get canceled at that, uh, celebrity

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

No, no, but I had plenty of plenty of people cancel me and like step out of my life during.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

just within friendships and, um, even, or getting. Uh, what are they, what if Facebook kicks you off the Facebook platform because you used the wrong word, I guess, in a post, but I think what we were seeing for a while is that everybody was so afraid of getting cancelled that they started walking on eggshells, which is not a way to live. You cannot let the fear of somebody else being mad at you or taking away their approval, whatever level that is at, let you shape yourself to what they want you to be. That is the, that is a slow but sure death of your own soul. And so maybe if people are just finally tired of walking on eggshells and they're like, no, look, this is how I feel. This is how I see myself. see it. And I think that's so important because if we can't do that, we can't have conversations. We will stay to talking heads that take on our little political points never ever allow information to come in because it could challenge our black and white view of the world. it's a very fragile way to live. It will, it will kill you and it will kill everybody else around you.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Well, I would say that American culture has been nothing if not fragile for quite some time. Hmm.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

is. And we've talked about the need for resilience and grit. And I think it's part of why I have enjoyed calling my, calling entrepreneurs, my friends for so many

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Hmm.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

people who are willing to risk their daily income status have a different level of grit and resilience than people who don't. Um, we're lucky enough to find longterm stability in a job, which is hard to find

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah,

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Um, but an entrepreneur chooses instability and that says something about, like, if you're an intra entrepreneur and listening, like Bravo to you, like no matter how hard it is or how much you have or haven't succeeded, have a spark inside of you. That is rare and valuable.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

it's so funny because my experience is so different and maybe it's just because I come from multiple generations of people who have done their own thing and worked for themselves, but I've always viewed. Working for someone else as being a much more unstable and fragile position because I don't have control over how much I get paid. I don't have control over whether or not I'm allowed to come and work. You know, something could happen and I could lose that position because of a stockholder meeting. Right? So it's never really felt like this secure thing. Because I think by time I was able to enter the workforce, it was already starting to become clear that working 20 25 at the same job and getting the gold watch was not going to be something that we, our generation, was going to be entitled

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

No. And I do think that it is a facade. There is no actual stability there, but I think it's easier to trick yourself into a sense of security and stability in the nine to five job. Like there's no, no veil of security when you're an entrepreneur. It's day you're like, I better go make this happen. I mean, you know, after five to 10 years, you hopefully have created a machine that is self sustaining, but it still needs sustaining. You can't just drive a car for 20 years and expect it to just keep running. You have to take it in for tune ups and fill it with gas, and the business is the same way. Whereas, you know, especially here in France, it's really hard to get fired. So depending on where you live, you can coast out your life.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

that's true. That's true. It's hard to get fired in Spain as well.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Yeah. And there's a, there's pros and cons to that too.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

There

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

We

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

are pros and cons.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Oh, speaking of which, I was affected by my first strike. Um, there have been quite a few while we've lived here over the many months.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

The French do love a good strike.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

That is their love language, I think. Well, we had, uh, tickets to go to the Pompidou Center, which is a modern, uh, museum, modern art museum here in France, in Paris. And they're going to be closing it this summer for five or 10 years for a great big

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Whoa.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

And they've got a surrealism exhibit right now. And I love surreal art. So I got tickets and we walked up to the Pompidou, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo. And everybody's kind of standing around, like it's kind of a weird stand around vibe energy. And it took us like two or three minutes. And we finally realized the whole thing was just shut down. And everybody was standing around looking at their phones, trying to figure out, is it really shut down? Is it shut down all day? What's going on? But yeah, sure as heck, the whole thing was shut down for a strike. I got an email about two, two hours later saying, we're very sorry, um, but the museum is closed for exceptional reasons, which is how they often say it in French. And we will refund your tickets for the exhibit. And life goes

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Wow.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Yeah. But we ended up finding two. Uh, really great thrift stores right in that same area. Damien got a really fantastic winter leather coat three new stripy blouses. So it's a good lesson in going with the flow of what life is handing you and not freaking out about plans changing, which is something that I am practicing. And it turned out to be a really good

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Awesome. Yeah, that reminds me. I need to go back up to Paris so you can take me thrift shopping.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Oh, and I'm finding more and more and more good ones. So yes, I'm glad that we actually waited because now I've got a whole route for us to follow. Well, is there anything else we would like to share as we go into the new year? 2025.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

I honestly can't think of anything. I think really the takeaway from today's episode is,, be mindful that there's a speed limit and be mindful that sometimes you need to go below the speed limit to stay safe and on the road.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

You do. All right. Well, actually, you know, I've got to slip this in here at the end. I don't. I don't know if I told you, Aimee, do you know that Damien crashed his bike?

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Nope.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

No. Okay. So I was in Portugal already and he was, it was like finishing up the quarter with all of his friends. Remember his friends are in their mid twenties, late twenties. It was nighttime. It was a little bit wet out. They were all biking from one bar to another and he clipped a curb. He went down. No helmet. He's okay. His face is okay. He sprained his right hand, which is mostly healed now, and he appears to have torn his rotator cuff in his left shoulder. He's had rotator cuff surgery before, so we've been down this road. He ended up having to go to the hospital, so we've now tried out the French health care system, and it is the beginning of a journey. Just like in America, he was at the hospital for four, five, six hours, long time. But got x rays, and nothing was broken, so now he's back and he's going to have to get an MRI and then find a surgeon and everything. So the two lessons, or the two things to share, number one is, guess what the hospital bill was?

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Zero.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Well, now you make my answers sound bad. No, it was 20 whole

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Oh, my God. That's amazing.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

I know. just feels like a typo.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

I need five more zeros here. Why is there only one zero?

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Exactly.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

me out of zeros.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Um, and then we are, we are getting our toes into the system. So how it's working so far, because Damien is a student, he was able to apply for the healthcare system a bit earlier than me. So that means he has a social security number. they mail you a pin number so that you can get into the Amelie site so that you can sign up and get your doctor.'cause it kind of works like a PPO here. Well he,'cause we kept moving. He never got his four digit thing. So we had to go to the CAM office, C-P-A-M-C-A-M office, and they were able to give him. His four digit code. Great! So we come home, and he's like, Now I can log on to the site, change my address, and find a doctor. Sadly, it has been three days, and so far, every single day, the website has said, We're sorry, the website is down. It does continue to be a one tiny baby step forward at a time experience of learning how to be an

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Yeah.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

but we're going to focus on that beautiful silver lining of a 20 euro hospital bill and trust that the rest of it is going to work out.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

Wow. I can't believe you dropped something like that at the end of the episode because now I feel like we need a 20 minute conversation about, like, how is Damien doing? Is this going to affect his ability in school? Because he's right handed, right? Yeah. Yeah.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Yes, but it is his left

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

What

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

that is good. But this is the perfect way to do it because I really just told you everything we know so far. So stay tuned because we're definitely going to be diving deep into the French health care system over the next couple of months. And have no idea how this is going to unfold.

chingona_1_01-07-2025_041022:

a great way to start 2025.

rebecca_1_01-07-2025_131022:

Oh, good Lord. Well, with that, our dear friends, fois, and please keep yourselves healthy and well.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Bonjola. If you did, the best thing you can do is share it with another person brave enough to move abroad. See you next time!