Hahahahahaha! I've had those moments, too. One was on Canadian Thanksgiving. We were down in ON with my in-laws. My father-in-law generously gave us his hand-me-down snowblower when they bought a bigger one. It was a lovely fall day, and we were outside. He was showing me how to use the snowblower (I'd never seen one before then), probably reiterating (for the thousandth time, lol) how important it was to NEvER stick my into the machine, when I got the giggles. I laughed so hard I couldn't talk, and my father-in-law just stood back and watched me, waiting for my fit to pass. When it did, he said, "What?" I told him, "Oh, my, if anyone had told me two and a half years ago that I would be HERE at this moment, with my Canadian father-in-law, learning how to use a snowblower because I had moved to a place in "French Canada" where we average around two and a half feet of snow ever winter, I would have thought that person INSANE!
It was also pretty surreal, in the beginning, when some very normal things were sooooooooo hard. (I arrived with close to ZERO french. I knew my ABCs, 1-10, and some words like voiture and vélo, which aren't even used much up here.) Confusion at the gas station actually brought me to tears one day. (The guy was trying to charge me, like, $28, but I'd put over $60 in my car.) It doesn't happen as much anymore. My french is a little bit better, but mostly, I'm simply not terrified and confused all of the time. The human brain can apparently only maintain terror and complete confusion for days or weeks at a time before it just wears itself out and responds instead with a resigned, "Alright, this again. Bring it."
Then there are the small victories, which are HUGE. At the dépanneur where I stop most often, I went in to pay for gas, and I told a familiar, friendly clerk my total en français. She beamed at me, and I told her (in french) that I'm learning, slowly but surely. She finished the statement with me, and then high-fived me.
