On my first date with my now-boyfriend, we sat under a bridge somewhere between Zurich city center and the airport, waiting for storm clouds to pass and the music festival to hopefully resume.
I told him that I’d spent time that summer in France and was learning French. I was, in a sort of skipping rocks, cutesy, explorative kind of way. Him being Swiss French, with French as his first language, he was eager to hear me speak. I told him there was one phrase I’d been practicing with friends that really challenged my pronunciation: « J’ouvre les huîtres » which means, “I open the oysters,” or, “I’m opening the oysters.” (I do love oysters, and the “ou” sound in French is notoriously hard for English speakers, as well as the French “r.”)
Him also being Swiss in all the best ways—practical, fair, honest—he wasn’t going to let me get away with a half-hearted or incorrect pronunciation, and we sat there with him very cutely and matter-of-factly repeating it and having me follow.
We kept talking after parting ways that first date, which I think was, for both of us, unexpected and thrilling. (The concert never started back up, but our date lasted for hours of conversation under that bridge.) He’d occasionally pop quiz me vis WhatsApp—“how do you say it?” And I’d send a sheepish audio note back.
We spent this past New Year’s together in Verbier, and his friends purchased oysters for the occasion. I laughed and ran over to him holding one up. « J’ouvre les huîtres!! » We both smiled, and he hugged me, a moment I think that had us both reflecting back on those first, fresh moments together.
I’d had a 70-day Duolingo streak for French going at that point, and I was about to start taking twice-weekly French classes in hopes of one day communicating with his family as naturally as he (polyglot of five languages, sigh) does with mine. (I am appreciative for how much really can be communicated through body language, smiles and gestures!)
Still, I open the oysters; j’ouvre les huîtres, in continuously opening up in the unique, beautiful and vulnerable way that only this loving relationship could invite, in opening to new possibilities in life, and new pearls of wisdom from experiencing life and learning from, and with, someone who I admire and who inspires me every day.
I’m opening the oysters, and, shucks, aren’t I lucky to have this great guy doing it with me.