Train

Oh my god, yesterday was an absolute nightmare, but it started and ended well.

I woke up at 6:30am and di my usual thing, and when I got back from taking the boy to the bus, I did some ironing and then thought to do banana bread because there was three oldish bananas, and since I was leaving that evening, I wanted to do something nice. I then watched an episode of Revenge I think, and the dad woke up and told me the kitchen smelled very good, so I was feeling smug. I then ran, but did very badly. I kept getting a stitch, and therefore had to keep walking. Blehh whatever, at least I ran a little bit. Then I took a long shower and prepares lunch (the dad left for a bit).

He told me to cook rice and then fry some chicken with mushrooms and add crème fraiche at the end. I cooked and covered it with tinfoil and went to pick up the boy. The kids and I ate afterwards, and the food was really good! The boy liked it too. The dad came back, and then I took the boy to guitar, and after guitar straight to pony club with the girl. I then had to go buy milk, and the line was so freaking long. I was getting annoyed because the time in-between pony club was the only time I had to get ready for my evening that day; I ended up getting twenty minutes to get ready, but I managed to put on a nice outfit and some makeup and pack my overnight bag.

The dad came with me to pick up the girl, and then we went straight to the train station, so I could make my 4:30pm train. I got there in time and boarded… everything worked out perfectly. Or so I thought.

I thought this part was bad (at least annoying, but much worse came later). When I boarded the train, I headed for a bathroom to finish putting on my make-up. The bathroom was locked, so I waited until my turn. A group of ghetto, black guys board and immediately start chatting me up and say a few things in English. They were creepy and gross and wanted my number. I dealt with it for five minutes and gave up on the bathroom and headed AWAY from those guys.

I found another bathroom and used it, and then found a nice, quiet seat where I’d be left alone. I noticed a ghetto looking guy near me, but he didn’t approach me, so all was well. Until the train stopped.

We stopped at like the second town you pass through on the way to Paris, and I was confused because it is a direct train. An announcement came on, and of course I didn’t understand, but I did hear 15-20 minutes and electrical problem, so I pieced it together. The conductor then walked through the train explaining the issue, and I asked if he spoke English. He didn’t, so I tried to clarify with French what was going on. He said minimum we’d be in Paris in 30 mins, and we would leave in 20 minutes, so I thought this isn’t so bad.

I then called Jerome to tell him the news. I also asked him to look up if another train would be coming through the stop to Paris to see if I could just ditch the broken one. He looked it up, and there wasn’t one for another hour, so I just had to wait.

Finally the train starts moving again. And then another sketchy guy sat across from mw and just stared. I just read my book harder; that usually means leave me alone. He didn’t get the idea and started a conversation in French. I just said I spoke English (in French) to be short and basically say leave me alone. Then he spits out a few English words, and I laughed. In my mind, I was like well I will just practice French with this kid; no harm in that. So he just asked me random questions, and I practiced French, which was kinda nice, although he was sketchy.

Meanwhile, the train stopped again and started and then stopped. It was so frustrating. Announcements kept coming on, and I at least got to ask Skecth Guy what was going on. I am pretty sure we sat at one spot for an hour, and we were in between stations, so I was STUCK. I couldn’t leave if I wanted to. I was so frustrated because I was getting to the point where I would be late for the event; I was already over the fact I wouldn’t have time to go to Jerome’s, drop off my bag, and eat dinner.

I called Jerome, and he told me to take a taxi at the next stop I reached. It was really getting that desperate. I was so confused and annoyed because the train would start stop start stop, and I never really understood why it couldn’t just GO. The guys did the best they could to explain to me with my French. Eventually Sketch Guy got bored with me because it was obvious he wasn’t getting anywhere. He was being creepy asking where I was staying in Paris that night and where I was going. But he had a nicer friend who seemed harmless that helped me when I was confused with announcements. 

Eventually we started again and were told we would stop at two specific spots and then arrive in Paris. I was so happy because it looked like I would arrive just on time. Jerome told me he was waiting at the metro for me where Palais des Congrès was, which I thought was sweet because I assumed I’d have to get there alone. I finally arrived in Paris at like 7:40pm (show at 8pm) and dashed to the metro. I think the whole area had train issues because the station was crammed with people, who I assumed were waiting for the trains to arrive, so they could leave. It was just a whole mess. I was glad to get out of there. I ended up being on that train for 3 EFFING HOURS GAHH. Worst evening ever. Not really, but so annoying.

I then hopped on the metro, which of course, was effing up and going slower than normal and jerking to a stop. I was sick of trains at this point. I finally got on another connecting line (that is automatic), and it ran smoothly, so I was less frustrated. I made it to the stop and met up with Jerome at like 8:05pm, and we ran to the Palais. I was in a dress and had my backpack and looked ridic. I was so exhausted when we finally got there.

I didn’t even have time to enjoy the Palais because the movie had started when we walked in. First of all it was HUGE and there was a movie screen with a big orchestra in front of it; a very nice set-up. We were shown our seats and then enjoyed the show. The orchestra played the music to the movie, which was the first Lord of the Rings btw. The volume wasn’t loud enough for the voices when they played music, so I had to read the French subtitles a lot, but it was fine! I basically could read (for the most part) the subtitles, at least piece together the words I knew, and it helped that I knew the story line as well.

I was so hungry during the movie (I hadn’t eaten since lunch, which is a long time for me). I asked if Jerome could get me something while he waited for me, and he bought a ham and butter sandwich at a bakery, which we sketchily ate during the movie. There was then an intermission, so we could have waited, but we didn’t know. We found his two roommates, and they all had a smoke outside during the intermission, and I told them my crazy story of the evening.

We finished the move afterwards, and Jerome and I switched to much better seats. Basically in the front middle, which was way cooler. The show was so great with the live music, and they had a children’s choir, which was really neat, and a female singer, who could sing at a very high pitch! All amazing, and then the actual instruments. It was way cool. I thoroughly enjoyed the show. 

At the end, we clapped for I am pretty sure the longest time in my life, but it was weird because not everyone stood up. In America, when one person stands up, basically it is a signal for everyone to stand up, but not everyone did last night, but they sure clapped a long ass time.

We took the RER back to Jerome’s place and ate some food before going to bed. The boys had to go straight to bed because of work the next morning, so I was awake at like 7:30am, but slept a little more when they all left.

I ended up not having shit to do today. Usually Jerome doesn’t work Thursdays, but he had training today. I was excited (yes, sad too) because that would mean I could actually hang out with my friends today because Thursday is reserved for Jerome haha. But of course, no one was up for anything today of all days. So I just took my time getting ready. I was mad because I couldn’t watch Disney in English; they were playing French shows.

I finally realized I could go to a train station and print my tickets for Dijon, so I set out to do that. I had to wait in a long line, but it was finally my turn eventually. I did my usual spiel of I speak French a little bit and then continuing to what I need. The guy was very nice and said he spoke a little English too, so we had a bilingual conversation. He said I spoke French very well though!  I have come to find out even if I utter a word of French here, the French appreciate it so much and love that you try. It is a definite confidence booster for sure!

I then went to Sacré-Coeur to kill time before my train. It was a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky, although the view of the city was hazy, but beautiful nonetheless. There was a cardiovascular event going on there with a host and people riding stationary bikes I guess to raise money/awareness; it was cool to watch. Usually things like that seem American to me (idk why), so it was nice to see.

Then I took my train home, and the dad picked me up. I told him my crazy story, and he said it was probably an area-wide thing with the trains. When we got home, he asked if he could shut off the internet to work on it (always working on the internet), and that it would be ready by 9pm (he specifically said that’s when you skype your mom, right?). So I was kinda annoyed. I don’t have internet right now, and it is 11pm. The internet is fixed, but my pc doesn’t like the internet here, and every time he changes it, he has to come fix my computer. It is so effing annoying. He was gone for a few hours tonight (he just got back), but I am ready for bed and don’t wanna deal with internet stuff right now.

I used the family computer to write a long message, and that 15 minute session has already confused my brain because the keyboards are different, so I keep pressing where the character would be on the French computer—annoying!

Vaca is tomorrow, which will be today when I post it. It is weird because I will miss being an au pair a little bit actually. I say I am adjusted at this point!

LOTR

My internet bugged out last night, so that’s why I didn’t post.

Today I had class, and I was not feeling it for whatever reason. I wanted to fall asleep the whole time, which was annoying. The girls I usually eat lunch with were busy after class, so I just roamed around the area waiting for Paige to get out of class. The area is so pretty with nice apartments, and a lot of them have private gardens. I wish I lived there.

Anyway, I met up with Paige for a short while before I had to take my train home. Today was good doing all my au pair duties; I am really getting the hang of everything and balancing everything. Tomorrow is Wednesday, but I have been looking forward to it for a while now because I get tomorrow evening off through the next afternoon because I am finally getting Jérôme’s birthday present for me.

We are going to a show at Palais des Congrès to see a showing of the first Lord of the Rings with a live orchestra playing the music. It is a traveling show, and the next stop is in Paris. I do like LOTR, but I wouldn’t consider myself an avid fan. I have seen the movies and read all the books, except the last one, which I stopped mid-through (I have NEVER done that—I need to finish the darn thing, let alone re-read those books again). Anyways I thought this event was kind of weird at first, but the idea has grown on me, and I really am looking forward to it now. The music will be great to hear live. Classical music is always awesome live.

So I am hoping to take the 4:30pm train tomorrow, but I am stressed because it is a time crunch. I have to pick up the girl from pony club at 4pm, which runs over because they have to put the horses up and take everything off. So I am keeping my fingers crossed. I won’t really have enough time if I have to take the 5:30pm train to be able to go to Jérôme’s, meet up with the rest of who we are going with, and then make it to the show (all the way across Paris). I wanted to ask the dad today, but I feel weird asking about favors from them; it’s awkward. He would forget anyway, so I guess tomorrow is better anyway.

Dinner tonight. I ate the cauliflower, which you just bake in a pan with olive oil, some pork with herbs, and a stuffed mushroom and potato. Home-made bread with Mont d'Or cheese and then kiwi (not in pic). Solid meal.

Weekend

I never know where to start the blog after my weekend, so much to say. But on Friday I had class as usual, and then ate lunch with Clare and Meghan. We have found a sort of park area near the Arc de Triomphe, but there’s lots of traffic, so it isn’t really peaceful, but there’s benches at least! I made plans to see Clare later that night and then headed home. On Fridays, all I have to do is pick up the kids, but the dad offered to pick up the girl, so Friday afternoon was super chill. I did last minute ironing, packing, and eating the rest of my île de flottante. I got the 7:30pm train and headed straight to Chatelet to have dinner and drinks with Nico and Clare. It was kinda rainy, but we found a restaurant soon enough. I was the only one to eat; I got spaghetti carbonera, which was very good and then cherry beers for drink.

Clare left earlyish to catch the RER back home, and me and Nico found another bar and split a bottle of wine. We had a deep discussion about God, which was nice. We went home around 1am though to catch the last metro. It worked out perfectly timing wise because I had to coordinate to get home at the same time as Jérôme to get inside his apartment, and I only had to wait three minutes. We went straight to bed because he had work the next morning.

The next morning, I relaxed after waking up while the boys got ready for work. When they left, I slept and watched some shows. I made plans to meet Meghan at Hôtel de Ville to see an exposition on how Hollywood sees Paris, which was interesting. The room was full of posters and pieces from movies, and it had a big screen playing movies set in Paris (a lot of old movies I didn’t recognize, but they had The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Ratatouille).

Then we got Chinese food. When we ordered, I knew the guy would get it wrong somehow (speaking French to a Chinese person equals bad combination), and I was right. Instead of une carafe d’eau (water), we got une carafe du vin (wine—yeah buddy). Although, I was worried how much this would cost us, but it was only 7 euros, which split was 3 euro 50. Not bad! We then went to Forum les Halles, a mall, that I thought had cool stuff to do, but it was so big and crowded, we couldn’t find the non-mall stuff really. I was feeling tired from the wine, so I just headed home (first to Jérôme’s work to get his key) because I just wanted to relax and be lazy.

Vincent was there, so we hung out and watched our own TV shows. Watching French shows does nothing for me really haha. I then went to the grocery store to get food and cooked tortellini. I always make that there because it is easy and cheap, and a lot of the stuff in the grocery store, I don’t know what it is, so I just stick to tortellini. Jérôme came home eventually, and then we all went to Nico’s to see the Raleigh crew for a night out with them.

I had fun at the party, but it is hard being around all French people. It is inevitable that sitting alone will happen, and I am aware of this and know what I am getting into, but it is still hard. I am used to just talking to anyone at a party, but bringing French into the equation takes away all my confidence because it is so much of a struggle to speak and maintain a flowing conversation.

Eventually they all wanted to go to a club (Memphis—where I have been before), and I was all over it. I hadn’t really drank so much, so I started downing drinks to be on the necessary level for a club. We took a metro and then walked a bit and finally got there. We had to wait in line for a while, but I spent time using a bar’s bathroom (asking in French for it), chatting in French to Nico’s sister, and drinking a beer. I was pretty drunk upon entering the bar and spent time using the bathroom and finding a place to put my purse. It is cool here because clubs have places where you pay like2 euros and they’ll hold your coats and bags for you; very convenient. By the time I did all that, I got another dink, and then my memory is hazy. I remember dancing a bit in the club, then standing against a wall outside, then taking a cab home, and eventually going to bed. So it ended up being an early night unfortunately.

The next day, I didn’t feel too good obviously. I slept until like 1pm then the boys and I went to McDonald’s (I hate that I am admitting this), then to see Taken 2. It was a decent enough movie. Then Jérôme and I went to a cupcake shop! How American, but it was great. We got six little cupcakes, and then walked to the Seine near Note Dame and sat their tasting the cupcakes and talking. We watched the sunset too. It was a very nice evening; it was one of these moments that reminds me why I moved to Paris (not that I need reminding).

Then I took my train home and headed for bed. The next day (today), I didn’t go to class (pointless to travel 3 hours for a 1.5 hour class), and made plans with Kindall and Clare to go to the Luxembourg Gardens. They are absolutely beautiful. We just sat chatting for like 2 hours in the warm, warm sun. Today was GORGEOUS. It was sunny, not a cloud in the sky (so rare here), and warm—like 70 degrees. Why can’t every day be like today?!

Then we went our separate ways, and I headed to have lunch with Jérôme, which is always nice. I then bought a backpack and duffel bag from his store to use for this upcoming 2 week holiday. When I got home, I did my usual thing driving around. I was literally on empty for the gas tank, and was so afraid I’d run out, but the dad put in a little spare gas from the house for me. I asked him to fill up the tank tonight, but I don’t think he wanted to do because he said I would be fine for tomorrow. Whatevs.

Currently, I am looking up wine tours for Burgundy. They are kinda expensive uhg, but it’s definitely happening! I also looked up cool stuff to do in Paris, and there is a pet cemetery outside the city! Kinda cool, I def want to go because it has cool statues of animals! There is also a meetup this weekend for a wax museum I want go to. AND there is a restaurant where you can dine in the dark, which sounds incredibly cool! So in essence, there is a lot of stuff I need to get cracking on!

Floating Islands and Chickens

Today I saw Jérôme, which was much needed and went by way too fast. Today was a good day though when I got home. No activities for the kiddies today, which is a relief. When they each got home, they had gôuter (snack—literally means to taste), then I sent them straight to do hw and practice their instruments. After it was each individual English lesson, which went well. I taught the girl to starve and the boy to wipe; the words, sounds funny when you read that haha.

Then I made a tomato salad with a feta-like cheese; super yummy! And we had Chinese cabbage and bacon for diner. For dessert, we had les îles flottantes. Picture below. It is a crème anglaise with floating islands on top (whipped egg whites pretty much). So good! A few weeks ago, I had this dessert when I had lunch with Jérôme, so it was cool to have it home-made. I first had it during my study abroad trip last summer as a group meal though. Brings back memories!

Tomorrow is Friday, yayyy! Although as for tomorrow night, I don’t know what I am doing, and I am stressing. It is hard finding people to hang out with here. Everyone I know lives outside the city uhg. I need to find plans for tomorrow night because Jérôme is doing work stuff. I wish I lived in the city. Life would be easier, but oh well that is life.

Les îles flottantes (floating islands). We made this dessert tonight. Crème anglaise (makes me miss Flying Biscuit!) with les blancs en neige (white snow-- puffy egg whipped thing).

Whole chicken I bought last week I think. When I say whole, I mean whole haha..

Driving

I meant to write this yesterday, but sometimes driving here is ridiculous. Whenever you are in small towns driving  the roads are super narrow along with parallel parking spots on one side of the road. Most of the time, if a car is coming in the opposite direction, one car has to pull over to let the other through. That's annoying but fine; these towns were built before roads, so they do the best they can. Yesterday though, a dumbass car was just sitting in the middle of the road in a small town. A car coming from the opposite direction had to awkwardly squeeze by as I waited behind the dumbass car just sitting there. Then it was my turn to awkwardly squeeze by, and you know what, the dumbass car just sat there and didn't move. So rude. That would not stand in America. I should have blared my horn; they deserved it.

One thing here; people don't respect rules. Jérôme has told me one thing he liked about America is that we respect and follow rules, and it is true. I just don't understand French people sometimes. Americans are very united, and I think that's why we follow rules because we really love and care about our country. The French love their country too, but I guess they show it in other ways.

Well I just needed to rant about driving here. I miss driving in America where I felt like I positively knew what I was doing. Here sometimes I just guess... should I go or not?

And now to PARIS... weeeeeeeeeeee.

Odds and Ends

Bleh I messed up today. The kids wanted to sell calendars for Scouts, and they asked me to go with them, and I said no because I didn’t want to.  To just awkwardly stand there the whole time, no thanks. Anyways, that was a bad decision because the parents found out and talked to me about it. I feel really bad, and I realize it was a dumb move on my part.  It is just that we are in a small, safe town, and I grew up in a small, safe town, so I am just under that mind-set that is safe. Anything can happen though.

The mom said I need to be more assertive to get the kids to do things like homework, shower, and music practice. It is hard to cram all that stuff in after school, but I will try harder. I just don’t like being the bad guy, but sometimes I need to be.

GLAD Wednesday is over, gahh. It doesn’t start bad, but once the activities start, it is non-stop for like 6 hours straight. That’s why I didn’t want to sell calendars… needed a damn break. I am happy it is Thursday tomorrow because no classes, but I still go into Paris for some much needed me time.

On a lighter note, my trip to Bourgogne has been planned. I am going there for a few days with Paige and Meghan, and we are couch surfing!! Fabulous. I love couch surfing. This girl seems so nice too because she is offering to pick us up and drop us off at the train station; how sweet. And her site says she has 3 beds and a kitchen to offer the surfers, nice! I was expecting all three of us to share a futon. Should be a good time in Dijon. We are taking a day trip to Beaune as well for a wine tour most likely and then another day trip to Châtillon sur Seine and directly to Paris that night. We booked all the trains, so we are good to go; just need to actually plan what we will do every day!

I usually run on Wednesday, but I didn’t today L So sad. I will set a goal for myself, and say I will run this weekend i.e. Saturday… a nice Saturday morning run sounds nice. Or maybe I can fit it in tomorrow in between coming home and picking up the kiddies. We’ll see.

Today I made a cake with the girl. She fell off her horse in pony club a few weeks ago, and apparently you have to bake and bring a cake for some reason if you do that. The dad found an easy recipe for us where you use a carton of yogurt and then use the carton to measure everything, which was cool. It turned out yummy too; just your average yellow cake, but that is good stuff.

Yesterday, I went to class. I do enjoy class now! And then after had lunch with the two British girls, Clare and Hester, and then met up with Paige for 45 minutes. It was great to see her. I hadn’t seen her properly in a while. I don’t count 45 minutes as proper either, but it something at least. She is going away this wknd too, but I am excited to travel with her during holidays; good quality time. I also am supposed to go out with the Brits on Friday hopefully.

Oh also, I put my feathers in today. It was a crazy fad last spring/summer, but I found them before they were popular (thanks to my roomie Elizabeth). I wore them for months and months until February, and took them out for an interview. I brought them to France because I was like what the heck, and the girl found them and LOVED them and kept asking about them, so I finally put some in her hair and mine today. Look up hair feathers if you think I sound crazy; they are really cool.

Back from Bordeaux

Back from Bordeaux. It is Monday afternoon, and I decided to just stay home today. I’ve been watching a lot of TV shows and doing laundry. I have a French class today, but it is just a class where you sight-see Paris and don’t really learn much, so I just didn’t go. I mean the class is only 1.5 hours… it isn’t worth it to travel 3 hours round-trip for a 1.5 hour class; sorry, it just isn’t. Also we are supposed to be told where in the city to meet, and I had no idea where we were meeting today anyway. I emailed my school asking, but they just told me the classroom, and we don’t meet at the classroom; we are supposed to meet at a location.

I didn’t get home until 12:45am last night (technically this morning) and waking up at 6:30am… is was all too much. I deserve a lazy day. But now I have finished most of my shows, so I am worrying about life i.e. my future, and how I am supposed to stay in France next year. It is a daunting task. I have thinking I need to do about what I want to go to school for (I mean if I really want to go to school). I think it is a smart move because most students have their Master’s, but I never planned on doing that. I don’t know what schools to apply to; I know nothing about French schools, so I am starting at square one. I know that need to get recommendations and all that, and I hope I have enough people I can ask. Gah need to move on from this slightly depressing topic.

Well now to Bordeaux this weekend. I remember I just wanted Friday to come, so I could just board my train and travel to a new place. I arrived in Paris at 7:15pm well before my 8:30pm train to Bordeaux. However, it took a while to get to the other train station, and I learned it was MASSIVE and had tons of other people; it was overwhelming because it is so much bigger than my usual train station. I wanted to get food before I boarded, so I did that, and boarded the train with a few minutes to spare. I hate time crunches, but it all worked out.

So I stored my small suitcase and found my seat (first class), which basically looks nicer, has a plug, and maybe the seats are a little bigger, not too much of a difference. After 5 minutes of just settling into my seat, a group of young people my age came and were sitting all around me, and I could tell one of the guy’s wanted my seat when he spoke to me (although, I didn’t know this by what he said, but one can guess situations). I just gave him my ticket, which told him this is my seat biatch, and him and his friends seemed all confused, but they just shrugged and he sat across from me.

THEN the little butt signaled a conductor when we walked by to talk about the situation. Wtf. I thought we had settled matters? He told them the situation, and they talked for a long while, and I eventually gave him my ticket, and he walked away for some time. When he came back, they discussed further and my ticket was given back. Then the conductor asked me a question, and I just said in French I don’t speak French. The guy across from me asked if I spoke English, and then asked when I purchased the ticket. I told him, and they discussed further. I don’t know what happened, but eventually the guy had to pay a fine (I guess), and he left his seat for somewhere else. He looked kinda pissed, but in a way that shows that he didn’t get away with whatever he was up to, so I don’t know how he tried to cheat the system, but he did and didn’t get away with it. Then sometime later, a new guy came and sat in the seat. I stayed in my seat the whole time, and I am just glad I didn’t screw up and do anything wrong.

During the ride, I just watched like 2.5 episodes of Dexter, and then I was there in Bordeaux. We arrived about 10 minutes early, and I just waited outside the station for Jérôme who was picking me up with one of his friend’s cars. While I was waiting (it was like midnight), a girl came and asked me if she could sit with me because she didn’t feel safe. She had to translate to English, and I learned she had a bf in Bordeaux she visits every weekend because she lives in between Paris and Lille, and I told her I had a bf and that I studied in Lille. Then I said goodbye because Jérôme had arrived.

We eventually found each other and drove back to his friend’s place. It was a house outside (but basically in Bordeaux) that Jérôme used to live in when he lived in Bordeaux for a few months for an internship. It was pretty big. I am used to small, cramped Parisian living, and this was a legit house with a lot of land and such.

Two of the roommates were awake when we arrived, and we just chatted for a bit and went to bed. We used English (sad to say) when they talked to me, but it is just that I can’t have a real conversation in French, so that’s what I did. 

The next day, we took our time getting ready, and I met the rest of the roommates. Jérôme and I then borrowed another car (a real clunker, which was funny) to have lunch at his cousin’s house, a family of five with three girls. I was nervous about this because of the French thing, but they took the time to speak slowly, ask me questions, and make sure I understood, so I felt really welcome there.

I just feel so weird when I am with French people that don’t try to talk to me because I just sit there. I can’t participate in a conversation when I don’t understand what is being said. It sucks, but I am such a baby because I really do need people to make the first step with me right now with French; I am not confident enough to make the first step. Maybe that is a downfall; I don’t know.

Anyway, lunch consisted of fois gras (duck pâté), which is considered a real delicacy, but it smells like and looks like cat food to me; it’s not bad, but I don’t think I will ever love and appreciate like I should apparently. Also bread, wine, raw duck and pork (maybe), and mandarins. It was a good meal. It is funny because two months ago, I wouldn’t have touched raw meat, but it is no biggie now. It is thinly sliced by the way, so it isn’t so bad. Not bad at all actually.

After lunch, we took a tram into the city center. Trams are nice because it is like a metro, but you can see the scenery! Bordeaux (mainly the surrounding neighborhoods) really reminded me of an American city in Florida. It had a beach town feel , and the houses looked like they were from Florida. The city just had so much space and was spread out like an American city with proper sized big buildings and parking lots, and the construction was new. American city. Actual Bordeaux was a classic, old French city though.

We walked around the city center for hours exploring. I saw churches and lots of pretty old buildings. We walked down the main street. Which is straight, so you can see both ends. We walked by the river. At one point, we stopped at a café, and I got my favorite—pineapple juice because I was just parched. There was a carnival nearby, which is exactly the same as a state fair in America, except that all the rides have sexy girls in bikinis painted on the displays with the names; kinda weird. I mean a carnival is for kids! C’mon.  We rode the Ferris Wheel, which was nice to see all of the city from above. After, we got these special, small cakes called canelés, which are famous in Bordeaux. It is just a little cake with a chewy crust and gooey inside with a unique flavor. We then headed back home.

Also, we had great weather most of the day. It started off rainy, but turned into a perfect day. We lucked out for sure.

I just took a couple hour break and went for a run and showered. I have to leave in a few minutes, but I am happy I ran. I hate running isn’t a daily thing anymore; it is really sad. I don’t have too much time to myself here other than sitting on trains, but that doesn’t count because I am not doing something I want to do like running. I do like reading, but I always just half sleep on trains. I am glad I didn’t go to Paris today i.e. ride trains. They are so much a part of my life now.

Took another break to pick up each kid. I was thinking during my drive that I am incredibly lucky with my kids. They are so good. They listen to me too! They don’t talk back ever. I am not sure because I can’t speak French yet, so they can’t wine and complain as easily, but I think they really are just good kids. Sometimes the girl will give me an exasperated look, and I’ll have to talk her into doing whatever, but overall, they really are great. I couldn’t deal with little monsters all the time. This job is hard enough as it is.

Back to Bordeaux. So we headed home and chilled out for a bit with Jérôme’s friends. I can’t really remember, but me and Jérôme went back to the city later on to have dinner. We had to wait in line for like thirty minutes, but the restaurant was smart and lines people up at a bar, so you can buy drinks if you want. When we ordered our food, it came in like 15 minutes; very good service. It was funny because there was a couple next to us, and we ordered the same exact thing as them by accident. I got a pizza with raw ham and vegetables, which was very yummy. Pizzas here are annoying because you have to cut the pieces yourself and use a knife and fork the whole time. It’s hard and takes time to eat!

After dinner, we went to a bar called Le Petit Bois to meet up with Jérôme’s friends (The Little Woods), and it was so cool because it had cute, fake trees growing from the floor to the ceiling, and it was a wine bar—parfait for me. When you ordered wine, you got to choose from a sucre or sale side (sugar or salt). The sugar dish was little pieces of cake (coconut and chocolate) with whip cream in the middle, and the sale was slices of cheese, ham, and bread. It was a cool concept.

We walked to the bus and got home around 2am I think? And stayed up at some late hour chatting. I go to bed too late during the weekend; never catch up on sleep. The next day, we set an alarm for 9:30am, but didn’t get out of bed until 10:45am. We got ready and went to have lunch on the river. I had a fish dish, and Jérôme got a steak that came with bone marrow, which I tried, but it tasted really weird, and I don’t think I’ll ever eat it again. While we walked to the restaurant, we passed through a market that sold all sorts of food. They had kebabs, pastries, fois gras, bread, etc. So many different smells! Then we headed home and ended up watching some Canadian movie, which was in French, but they added subtitles for me. Half the movie was in Arabic though, so the subtitles were in English, so I felt bad, but everyone could speak English at least a little better than me. It was called Incendies and was a messed up movie. The ending was a pretty shocking revelation. I don’t know how someone could come up with it. Look it up if you’re interested.

After the movie, we had to head to the train station. It was sad to leave; I didn’t want to! We got there with 10 minutes to spare, so we were rushed, but everything worked out. The first hour, I read and Jérôme slept, and then we watched part of HP7 Part 1. Love those movies (Part 1 and 2 at least). We were in Paris before we knew it, and I had to make my long way back home. I had to take a sketchy RER at 11:45pm to the far away train station. Uhg I was sketched out; sketchy characters in the RER so late. I am so happy no one messed with me. I got home at 12:45am and headed straight for bed.

Bordeaux was a great city. The actual city center is small, which means walkable, but the areas around it make it a big city. It was like a mini Paris with the cute, old buildings, but it had its own flavor too. The river is much wider than La Seine, and it just has a different feel; more laid-back, maybe that is where I am getting the “beachy” feel to it. Hopefully I go back one day!

As for Friday, I had lunch with a lot of girls after class. I have made two British friends, Clare and Hester, who are great and British! Love the accents and the way they say things sometimes, like Clare once asked a girl where she lived, “Where abouts are you from?” Love it. Meghan and Paige joined us along with another American, Hester knows who was very nice as well, and a Mexican girl, who is really cute. I like the girls in my class, so much nicer!

I also met a girl in my class whose parents live in my small mountain town!! AHHH crazy, small world. I told her the shop my mom works at and where I used to work, and she knew of them. We probably have seen each other before in the past; weird to think about. I want to get her info tomorrow because I think we could be friends!

Dessert we had tonight: Tarte aux poires bourdaloue. Trés bonne!

French Driving Lesson

Wow my weeks really do fly by so fast now. I can’t believe tomorrow is Friday! Last night was Sunday night; I know it was! Ah this year is going to go by too fast L I need to plan my next step. Everyone is saying grad school takes a lot to apply; I am already nervous. I need to buckle down during my holidays I suppose and start that whole process.

Today I was going to catch the 9:30am train to make it to that au pair meet up by 11am, but of course, the train didn’t come, so I caught the 10:30am train. I was waiting outside for the train listening to my iPod when an announcement came on. I didn’t bother to take my headphones out because I wouldn’t understand anyway, but then everyone started walking away, so I knew something was up. I was all nervous because I didn’t know what to do. Wait for an unknown amount of time? Or ask someone?

I finally followed some people to the inside of the “station,” and just sat there trying to eavesdrop on people’s convos. Hah. Sometimes it is hard to eavesdrop on English convos, let alone French. There was no hope there. I was trying to formulate “When does the train arrive?” in my head, but couldn’t figure it out, so I settled for “Le train prochain vais arriver à quelle heure?” (the next train will arrive at what hour). I went to the front desk, and two words in, the lady asked à Paris? Oui. 10:32am. Well that was easy enough. Problem solved.

So I just drove around the town to kill time trying to find a café. Instead I went to a super-marché and bought erasers and house shoes. I also got honked at when driving because I followed and American instead of French rule. I was turning left onto a road and stopped to let the car already on the road to keep going straight. The rule is if Car A is driving on a road and Car B turns onto the road from Car A’s right side, then car B has the right of away. Somehow I got confused that if Car B (me) was turning left onto the road then Car A had the right of way. Wrong. Because the car honked behind me when I stopped to let Car A go.

Well now I know. Uhg I hate that rule though. Makes no sense. If Car A is driving on the road there is no reason they should yield to Car B who is trying to get on the road. Just wait your turn Car B. Sheesh. This means every time Car A (now this me) is driving, they have to slow down on the main road every time there is a road from the right because Car B *could* be wanting to turn onto the road. Très annoying. I hope that made sense.

Anyway got to Paris, and I headed straight to La Défense and killed time at the ginormous mall and ended up finding H&M and buying a neon purple shirt; I am a sucker for purple and neon colors. Then met up with Nico. We got sandwiches to go and meandered until we found a “park” i.e. a bench with foliage around it (we are in the business sector outside the city). It started to rain towards the end, and there was shelter conveniently close by (although, weather.com only said 20% of rain, but I have learned my lesson and still brought the umbrella).

It is sad, but days are usually cloudy all day, and I don’t notice it until the sun actually comes out, and I am like SUN how glorious you are. I need my daily dose of vitamin D! I always (to a tee) see the sun during my drive back from the train station every day. The clouds just magically clear out and reveal the sun. It is a weird coincidence.

My English lessons went well today, although, the game we played was too easy for the kids (right on par with me). But I could tell they liked it. English games are def the way to go. It’s fun for me and the kids, and that’s what I want English to be about. I focus on speaking too because I think that is the most important out of speaking, writing, reading.  However, the prev au pair left all her old stuff, and she really taught them grammar and such. I just don’t want to do that, so I hope the parents don’t mind because the dad is always around during the lessons, so he knows what I am doing (not that he is purposefully there to eavesdrop; we just all hang out in the living room/kitchen area).

Dinner was lentils and sausage. I love me some lentils!!! I can’t believe I never ate them before. The sausage was good too. The dad also made home-made croissants, which were tasty, and the kids absolutely loved, but there wasn’t enough yeast, so they didn’t rise enough. Didn’t affect the taste though!

Jérome texted me a picture of his dinner tonight that he made with his friends in Bordeaux; blanquette de veau. When we went to Charleston, S.C.  for the weekend back in April, we went to a French restaurant, and that is what I ate. It is a veal dish; essentially like stroganoff. I am so against veal, but I wanted to try something different, but it was extremely good. I hope they have left-overs tomorrow for me!

I half kinda packed, but I will finish tomorrow. I am excited to get out of my bubble though. Somewhere new! I am excited. I plan on watching Dexter throughout the train ride. I am on season 6 and need to catch up to the new season. I know I will fall asleep though; trains have a mysterious power over me.

Well I am just rambling. Maybe I will post tomorrow before I leave, but I doubt it. I have a lot to do when I get home from Paris (pack and iron), but I will probably blog during my train ride and update on Monday. Bon week-end!

Short Post

Nothing much to say today. I took the boy to the bus, came back and watched Grey's, then slept for another hour, ran for 40 minutes, showered, ironed, pick up the boy, ate lunch, went to the boy's guitar lesson but no one was there, so came home and made banana bread (peace offering for car) and my laundry.

Uhg I hate listing out everything. But I had a lot of downtime today with no guitar and no pony club (girl visiting her collège [middle school]), so today was relaxing. My days are never relaxing! I did music stuff last night meaning downloaded some music and updated my iPhone to the new i.OS or however you spell it. I actually posted pics to my blog as you see below.

I helped make dinner tonight. Leak and potato soup; yum yum. Btw, the banana bread came out well! That will be breakfast tomorrow for sure along with cereal.

Tomorrow for English lessons, I am going to play another game with the kids where you draw a card with a word on it like tree. You have to explain the word you drew in the opposing language, so it will be French for me and English for the kids. I hope it isn't too easy for them, but I know it will be challenging for me. I like how I can combine English lessons with French lessons too. And I will also do the Word of the Week. The girl's is going to be "to sell." I used this word earlier this week, and she didn't understand, so I made a mental note. As for the boy, idk yet.

Tomorrow I am going to a Meet-up event at Starbucks to meet au pairs (and internationals?) to just chat and make friends. Then going to have lunch with Nico. Along the way, I need to mail a postcard, buy and eraser, and get 200 euros out of the atm.

Well nothing else on my end, this was a lame post sorry!

Au Pair Life

My car! A Panda Fiat. So cute and small.

What I did to my poor car :( You can't really tell, but it is dented and scratched.

First successful oeuf à la coque. The girl asked me to make one for her, so I made another for me!

Fiat Fail

So I made a boulette today uhg! I was parallel parking my car to try to get a close spot at the train station and proceeded to scrape against a pole. I got in my spot fine, but I was trying to get as close to the wall as possible and that pole was in the way. It made a little scraping noise, and I thought no biggie. I was wrong. The back passenger door is scratched and dented pretty bad. Why me?!?! I had to take my train to go to Paris, so I let the problem leave my mind until I got back home.

On my drive home, I was tempted to lie and say a car randomly ran into me while it was parked, but I never could really do that, but it did cross my mind. When I got home, the dad’s car was there, but I couldn’t find him, so I just watched the new Grey’s episode and went to pick up the girl from school. The dad greeted us when we came back, and I immediately told him, so I could get it off my chest. I just explained what happened and offered to pay, and he didn’t seem too happy, but I didn’t expect anything less.

I then had to wait to tell the mom when she got home what happened. I could hear the dad tell her from my room, and she gasped, so I was like great, this is going to be so much fun! I was talking to the prev au pair on facebook what I did, and she told me that the mom wasn’t going to be happy. I skyped and told my mom everything, and I was dreading dinner and confronting the mom, but I sucked it up and did it. It was not a bad conversation. We spoke calmly, and I offered to pay again, and she said the deductible was 200 euros, and I told her I would get the money in two days, and she said she appreciated that.

So what’s done is done. I effed up, and now have to pay. I need to move on! My mom is a sweetheart and offered to pay half, thank you mom!!!!! You’re a lifesaver even if you’re an ocean away. I really appreciate this and everything you do for me! You put through my venting sessions every day and don’t tell me to get over it; you sympathize. Again thank you! I love you!

Ok so I think I have failed to mention this tidbit of my au pair job. I am always mentioning laundry. Well to make matters worse, I am always doing laundry for a simple reason. The kids legit wear their clothes once and put them ALL in the dirty clothes every day. WTF. I don’t wash something until there is a visible stain or smell, or if I just know that I haven’t washed it in a while. Uhg it is sooo annoying. I really think they do it, so they don’t have to put their clothes away themselves. Lazy butts. Ok I mentioned this. Nothing more to say other than it is ANNOYING.

So I had my first French class today in my lower level. It went much better than my other class. It is a little too slow paced, but that’s ok with me. I am comfortable speaking in there, which is all that matters. I met two British girls, and I think we will hang out after class on Friday, so yay for friends hopefully! The only bad thing is our classes our 2 hours and 15 minutes, and my old class we got a break in the middle, but not this one. I was burned out by the end. I may ask the teacher if we can start doing breaks. The teacher is a guy, which is interesting. I have never had a male French teacher, but he seems really nice, so I like him.

Jérôme bought our return tickets from Bordeaux, so this mini trip is all squared away. One less thing to worry about. I am worrying about my holiday trips though. I am going to Burgundy with Paige and then London/Brighton with Jérôme and Nico (so far), but I haven’t bought tickets or figured out accommodations. A little stressed, but I have 3 weeks to figure shiz out. But all this travel is the first week of my holidays, and then the second week, I have no plans. I will have a week of nothing in Paris, which will be wonderful. I can run every day, research grad schools, and catch up on life/sleep in general.

Also stressed about the decision to go home for Xmas. It is like half and half for me. If I could combine home and Raleigh then it would be an instant decision, but Raleigh is 5 hours away and everyone will be gone for their break, so it won’t be “poppin” there. Home would be great, but I’d get bored within a few days and just daydream about free time in Paris. Or rather Nice because I could join Jérôme for Xmas, but I think I will feel weird not being with my fam for Xmas. So idk what to do. I need to figure out soon because of plane tickets.

Tomorrow I am planning on running, ironing, making banana bread, and hopefully watching TV shows, oh and sleep. Tomorrow no school for the girl, and I will have more free time because she is going to an orientation for her middle school. So this Wednesday won’t be as busy as usual. I am excited. I am making banana bread because there are old bananas I can use, and it is a good peace offering for screwing up the car.

This post is all so random, but my life is random sometimes. I mentioned I watched the first episode of the new season of Grey’s; it was uber depressing, and I cried a little. But I forgot how much I love that show!

Gettin Shiz Done

Whew a lot has happened. Where to begin. Well today was interesting.

I had a change in my normal au pair routine this morning. I had to drive all the way to Elliot’s school because either we missed the bus, or it just didn’t come. Who knows. Anyway… I had to drive 45 minutes on random, unknown roads with an 11 year old French boy directing me. A wee bit stressful… especially knowing I had to drive back alone (of course without a GPS). But it all worked out! No boulettes here. 

Although, I knew by the time I got home that I wouldn’t be able to take my normal train to arrive to class on time. So I took a later train at the closer station, so that was nice, and booked it to French class.

I really wanted to skip. I was tempted since I was gonna be late, but I was a good girl and went. However French class was a fail, and by the end, I pulled my teacher aside and told her in English, I couldn’t do it. She kept talking in French, and I had no idea what she said and kept telling her, but she kept repeating in French?? I had had it, and went to the school office and begged the guy to put me in a lower class. 

Eventually he did!!!!!!!!!! YES SUCCESS. I now am in a lower level class with the time block I NEED. Life is great… so I have class tomorrow and Fridays now along with a Monday field trip class, so my sched got completely re-done, but this allows me to have Thursday off, which coincidentally is Jérôme’s day off, so that works out nicely. So I will see tomorrow how this new class is like.

My fam told me at dinner the trains are going on strike tomorrow. They gave me a website to check if it will affect my train, but the site isn’t updated, so I am in the dark. Idk what to do really, but I checked the schedule on the official train site, and there are no delays there, so idk. Worry about that later.

I spoke French more today to my fam than usual as a part of C’mon-Loretta-it-is-about-time-you-learn/try-French. And all my efforts were greeted warmly as I knew they would. The dad made a chocolate cake for dessert, and I told him in French that I didn’t know he had made a cake (I never saw him do it), and the boy told me “très bon” on what I said (very good). Heck yeahhhh!

I also bought a train ticket to Bordeaux today for this weekend! Jérôme is going for a few days starting Wednesday after a well-deserved mini vaca, and he asked me to join this weekend if I wanted to. Of course I’d like to travel! I was all stressed because the cheap train ticket I found disappeared, but I re-found it today, and got a first class ticket for half as much as all the other time blocks, so heck yeahhh again. Jérôme used to be in a reggae band when he lived in Bordeaux for a few months, so we will be staying with them at their house, so it should be good times.

I think that is all for today, so now rewind to zee weekend.

I ended up not doing the catacombs with Paige on Saturday because it was closed for ventilation problems. We retardedly stood in a line for like 10 minutes before a nice man pointed a sign to us saying it was closed. So we were like now what?? The mall thing I talked about had outdoorsy stuff, and the weather was dismal, so we nixed that plan. I randomly mentioned a cool looking (on the outside) museum near the Eiffel Tower, so we headed there because Paige never turns down a museum.

It was the Musée du quai Branly; a museum with ancient artifacts from all over the world like head-dresses, tools, jewelry, stuff like that, so it was cool, and I enjoyed it.

Then my new internet, au pair friend, Jenna, met up with us, and it was great meeting her. We went to the museum’s café, and I got a waffle with whip cream (or gaufre). These waffles are northern cuisine (Lille! And mainly Belgium), so I haven’t seen them in Paris, so I quickly made the decision to order one. We chatted for a bit, and then Jenna had to go meet up with other friends. She lives kinda near me, so it is nice to relate to her because we have the same “Paris problems.”

Paige and I then went to Nico’s and ordered delivery sushi, which was scrumptious. We ate and talked, and Paige met Traylor! After eating, Nico and I met up with Jérôme while Paige met up with some other girls. The boys and I went to a bar near Jérôme’s work with his colleagues. I mainly chatted to Nico the whole time. Then me and Jérôme headed home and stopped at this cool bar near his place; I have mentioned it before. It was voted cheapest bar in Paris in like 2008, and it is so cheap! We ordered 4 shots for 10 euros; that is cheap for America even.

At one point, Jérôme left for like 5 seconds, and literally this French guy came up to me immediately after and started to chat me up. He was very intoxicated, but we talked about Lille (I think he is from there). Later on (a little too much), Jérôme rescued me, and we went home.

Early the next morning, we woke up early to go to Parc Astérix; a theme park! Jérôme’s work paid for us, so that was cool. We basically stayed the whole time (10-6), so it was a longgg day. I proudly did all the roller coasters, and it is funny because the littlest ride I did was the one that really made me wanna puke. It was one of those ship rides that goes back-and-forth up-and-down. I HATE that stomach in your throat feeling, and it was all too much. I held it together though.

We drove back to Paris, and hit bad traffic, so it took longer than driving to the park. Bad traffic even on Sunday, dang? That’s Paris for you. We headed back to Jérôme’s where he bought his Bordeaux ticket, and then he went to a friend’s place while I hung out alone for a bit waiting to leave for my train.

I got home at like 10:30pm and was POOPED. Instead of catching up on much needed sleep during the weekend, I really get less, so I headed straight for bed, and woke up to my stressful morning.

But all in all, today was a good day. I got a lot done!

Field Trip Friday

Well it’s Saturday. I never blog on Saturday, but it is nice just to chill in Jérôme’s apartment for a little bit. It is noon, and I am meeting Paige at 2:45pm to do the catacombs, and then we are going to a sunken mall near Les Halles. Tonight is Nuit Blanche (White Night directly translated, but really means sleepless night). Anyway a bunch of museums and things are open at night hours tonight, the metros are staying open later, and performances and artists will be on the streets. So it will be like a big party everywhere I think… maybe? I don’t know the plan tonight, but it seems like you can just walk around, and there are plenty of things going on to be entertained.

I am listening to French music right now, just thought I’d add that. I usually listen to French music when I blog because first of all it is very nice to listen to; very beautiful. And just being around French must count for something and be good for my brain. At least that is what I think, so I am giving it a shot.

Anyways… yesterday I had class from 10:30-12:00. I showed up at the classroom, and just awkwardly hung around for a while, and my UNC friend finally showed up (her name is Meghan). And then I got the best news EVER. Our teacher kept saying (in French) are you here for the visit? And I was so confused… no I am here for class? But class turned out to be mini-field trips in Paris every Friday!!! Wooo!!! Yay for randomly switching into this class because it worked better with my sched. I was supposed to have class Tuesday, and that turned out to be a grammar/lecture class. Boy, I lucked out!

So we went to le Marais, a cool district in the 3^rd and 4^th that also has a Jewish sector with GOOD food. We went to the house of Victor Hugo and got a tour from our teacher in French, but half the class was basically getting to this location, so it was a quick class, and I got to see more of Paris. Not bad. Not bad at all.

After class, me and Meghan went back to our school to attempt to switch our other class because it is too advanced. We couldn’t though, so we are stuck, but we can suffer/work on everything together I suppose. At least we have each other. Then we walked down the Champs-Élysées for Meghan to grab food (I packed a sandwich) and had lunch in a nearby garden. Then she had a mission to go to the Longchamp store, and she bought a nice purse. We then took the metro and went our separate ways home.

So glad to meet a friend though!! Especially from UNC; it is great. I just need a big circle of friends, and I will be a much happier person. It is hard having limited friends, and I am not used to it. But I am making progress.

Nothing much happened at home. I couldn’t take the train till 9:30pm (usually 6:30pm), but I got to eat dinner though at least. The dad cooked that whole chicken I bought. Along with normal meat, I ate part of the neck (best part) and some of the second stomach of the chicken; it was all gray inside when you cut it, so kinda weird, but hey I tried it.

I didn’t do much last night; just headed to Jérôme’s apartment, and he got off work really late, so thus, we stayed up really late just hanging out. And now he is at work, and I am here alone.

I can download shows here so much faster than home. I just downloaded the first episode of Jersey Shore… YEAH BUDDY. I know I am awful, but I don’t care. I am allowed a guilty pleasure.

Who Doesn't Love Scattergories?

No time, no time, no time. Always no time. I wanted to watch a show before bed, but I am pushing 11pm, so it wouldn’t be a smart decision. Uhg I go to bed so early now; I am so lame. Whatevs.

Today I got a reality check in French and realized I want to move down a level. I am not comfortable in there, so I don’t speak up. I need to feel comfortable because I need to speak to improve and make progress. No more excuses now, I need to learn French. So hopefully tomorrow I can switch, but my hopes aren’t high because all the classes are full.

I met a girl who went to UNC today in my class… so awesome! It was nice meeting someone who knows my life if that makes sense. State and UNC are only 30 mins away, so we have a lot in common! I hope we become friends. We have class together tomorrow too yay! She had to go immediately after class today to get a haircut to which I said good luck with that, but she told me there is an au pair here who has an fb group and she cuts hair for 10 euro! I am totes doing this soon!!

I also met a girl from Texas, who was nice as well. I like my Americans… sorry if I sound so uncultured, but I crave American interactions living here haha.

I bought some English grammar books today for the kids too along with a notebook with NORMAL lined paper. Usually the notebooks here kinda look like our graph paper… too many freaking lines. I don’t get it, and that is why I am happy I found a normal notebook. I had to leave straight after that to make a train to get home at a decent/early hour to prepare for eng lessons.

So I got home and prepared. THEN I RAN YAY! It was 20 mins, but that’s enough. I got to sweat and get my heart pumping if only a little bit. I did the Word of the Week with the girl first (prev au pair’s thing, but I am continuing it bc the parents like it). I taught her the verb “spread.” She had to write 5 sentences in different tenses, then throughout the week give me sentences when I ask to earn points. When she reaches 10, it is time for a new word and she gets a piece of candy. It is a good way to really learn a new verb. I then did worksheets with her from the books I bought. We worked on pluralizing words.

Then it was the boy’s turn. His WotW was “blow up,” which was hard to explain, but he got it eventually. I then played a home-made version of Scattergories with him, which he LOVED. He kept wanting to do round after round, so I felt pretty smug. He thought of English words while I thought of French words, so it was very challenging for me. At the end of each round, we went over our answers and when we had a blank we would tell each other a word we could have used, thus we both learned vocabulary. Killing two birds with one stone, go me. And the dad saw all of this and how much of a hit it was, so I am happy my first day of English lessons went well.

I then created an excel document of the weekly schedule of the kids. The prev au pair did this, and hers was still up from last school year, so I just switched it to the new one. I am being a Productive Au Pair today.

Well that’s it pour moi. Tomorrow is le week-end wooohooo! Il me tarde! (Rough translation: I am excited/I can’t wait).

Oh that reminds me… at dinner when we had dessert, the boy grabbed a mandarin orange and said in a song song voice, “Mandarine est ma copine.” I chuckled a lot (Mandar-een est ma co-peen—see it rhymes!!) This sentence means the mandarin is my friend; I thought it was cute, and you know what, I understood what he said too!

Busy Busy Bee

Wednesday. Longest day of the week for an au pair. No school for kids. Well the boy, in middle school, has it in the mornings, so I still have to wake up at the indecent hour of 6:30am.

But I when I came home, I watched some of The Challenge and fell asleep until 10:15am. I told myself I wouldn’t sleep for so long, but I did. Because I had beaucoup shiz to do today. So I groggily got up, ate some cereal, and forced myself to run, which I am totes happy I did. I miss running 4 days a week!!! It is sad; I just don’t have time anymore. After running, I showered. And then started to iron the most laundry at one time I have ever done; I really let the laundry pile up this time. Not doing that to myself again.

During ironing, I asked if I could help with lunch, but the dad had it under control, so I thankfully got to finish ironing along with coordinating unexpectedly washing the boys sheets bc he wet the bed. Poor kid.

Then picked up the boy and had crunch time eating lunch (SO GOOD- chicken and potatoes, but this sauce had the most awesome flavors), get to guitar practice, then go home and get girl for Pony Club, buy milk and a WHOLE chicken (head and organs and all) at the cremerie, go home, then pick her up. It’s such a time crunch to make sure everything is on time!

Then I asked about dinner and I made a pizza with the dad’s guidance. Made the dough and all! The kids LOVED it so props to me! They also had to shower before formation musicale, and I was washing my sheets. I just had a day crammed full of stuff!!! I couldn’t breathe. I like being busy though.

Tonight I spent a lot of time preparing for a 10 minute speech for French class tomorrow about my state. It’s def not 10 mins, but whatever. I am done. I don’t miss homework one bit. This many month break from it did not help tonight at all.

I made an au pair friend online. I know that sounds lame, but we are meeting in the next few days and she lives in my same general area. Far ass away from Paris. I am excited though to make a friend. I am in dire need. She is American too yay!

Complete 180

Short blog today, although they are never short. Anyway, I need to watch a TV show before bed and go to sleep at a decent hour.

Today was a good day. I honestly can't handle my range of emotions every day. I don't understand myself.

Anyway, I went into the city because I had a free day and met up with Paige and two of her friends. One named Lisa (German), who I've met a few times and she is really sweet. And then a new girl, who is British. So many cultures. I met them at Grand Palais to see the going ons of a fashion show inside. We saw models and photographers outside and all the hustle and bustle, so that was cool.

I then went to Jérôme's because he was home since he worked a night shift this morning. I had a long talk about yesterday and felt better after discussing with him. I don't know how the heck I'd be dealing if I didn't have him here. It helps immensely to have someone here who loves me, and I know will always help when (not if) I need it. So if you are reading this... thank you for all the support you've given me, f.b.!

When I got home, I did a shit ton of laundry, which will dry over night and hopefully be waiting to be ironed tomorrow. I then picked up the kids, and asked the dad what I could do for dinner. He told me it was a good idea to ask (get a head start). We had left-overs, so I only prepared cauli-flower. Dinner was good as usual. Pumpkin soup, elbow macaroni with spaghetti sauce, a little bread with Mont d'Or cheese, and then a soft kiwi.

OMG I just pressed back space and the webpage went back, and I lost EVERYTHING. But luckily, I pressed the fwd button and the text was still here. I usually write on Word, lesson learned.

I spoke to the girl a bit today in French, and she was totes impressed with my skillz. Everyone always says I am good at French; I mean when you try with a native speaker, they always say you're good, and they mean it. But the girl is straight up and says I am bad, so this was a real compliment from her. She said and you just kept going on and on pronouncing everything right! She didn't use those exact words, but that is what she meant.

Ok byebyeee. I am glad I had a good day! :)

Vent Sesh

Don’t feel like blogging, but I haven’t in forever.

Today’s drama. The dad making me feel bad about myself. He told me I get home too late to do au pair duties. I won’t have enough time to prepare English lessons, do laundry, etc. I have been managing fine. He also said the prev au pair stayed home the one free day we have every week (started class) to do laundry and stuff, but I AM NOT DOING THAT. NO WAY. I have a life, and I am not being cooped up at home all day with the dad doing laundry. No way in hell. But I feel guilty. He makes me feel guilty. It is bs. I don’t like feeling like this.

Sometimes I want to run away to my mom, to my house, where I will just feel and be loved even if I act like a moody bitch like I sometimes do (even though I now regret all my bitchiness bc I took my sugar-coated life for granted). But I can’t do that here for obvs reasons, and it is frustrating to put on a happy face ALLLLLLLL THE TIME.

Bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I am on eggshells here. Not a lot, but it is always there… a little insy bit. It is driving me insane. I sound crazy right now. I don’t care. I need a vaca. Time off. But I have like 4 weeks till a 2 week vacation, which will go by toooooo fast I know. I don’t even know what I am doing for vaca, or where to go, who to stay with. I am so pathetic and depend on everyone’s mercy here. I am frustrated. To say the least.

I miss my old life. Student life: advice for all students: never leave!! Never graduate. Real life is well real. And I am not really even in real life, but it is too much.

I hate sounding this way. Last week was so good. It is all an evil cycle. When will it end? I’d be fine if the dad didn’t make me feel guilty, but he did, so I need to move on. But it’s not like I want to fix this problem of getting home too late. I get home with enough time to start my chauffer schedule. What more do you want.

And I have to take a different train now to get to Paris earlier for class, which messes up my normal return-to-au-pair-fam-time, so this is the first day I come home “late,” and he discusses this with me. Wtf. Just leave me alone. FRUSRATED AH.

My mom just updated me about this bs birth certificate bs I mentioned days ago. The US Embassy were assholes, and just ignored my emails. Thanks America. I had to figure out how to contact Puerto Rico. And thankfully my mom called bc I am in France so calling Puerto Rico… idk how that would work. Apparently you have to go in person to get the shiz done and it costs $3, so I may have my godfam help me out. We will see.

Also… so yeah… started class today. It was like 2 hours and 15 minutes but went by pretty fast. We began with talking to our neighbor and then introducing them to the class. So I had a French convo with a German girl, and then introduced her. Pretty good practice. Then we did grammar work, and I was lost half the time. Next class, I have to prepare a 10 minute speech about my country. Talking for 10 mins in English is hard…

Class is great, but it takes all my time away from the city and just la la land in general, so that part sucks.

As for the weekend. I had lunch with Paige and Nico Friday. Then that night, I went out with those two including Vincent (for a bit), some Raleigh French friends, and one of Nico’s roomies from Raleigh, Romain, who I love, and another French named Harry (idk if there is a French spelling). We went to a few sit down bars, then to a bar/club until like 6am. It was fun! It took forever to hail a cab though, and we totally stole the cab from a couple, but it was 6am and cold and I wanted to go home.

The next day, I spent the day with Paige’s friend from Toulouse and his friends. They were all super nice and generous. The girl’s apt we were at fed is a big breakfast, and then paid for us to rent bikes and bike the city. Scary experience, but exhilarating. I died and was born again. Parisian traffic is intense, but it was a great experience.

I was one metro stop away from Jérôme’s work after bikes and saying bye, so I popped in to say hi, and coincidentally, it was his lunch break, so I joined him. I hadn’t seen him since Thursday, so it was a nice surprise. After a late lunch, I called Nico, and went to his place for a few hours because I didn’t want to go back to Jérôme’s and be alone waiting for him. I didn’t do too much at Nico’s, which was fine by me. Just chatting and talking to his sister a little (she doesn’t speak English).

Eventually I went “home,” and Jérôme came back around 10pm or so, and we were so exhausted from our separate nights out before, so we had a quiet night together. We made dinner, and just did nothing. Again fine by me. Then we slept for like 12 hours, and just chilled inside all day. It was a lovely day, though, so it was such a waste, but whatever.

I took the 6:45pm train, and my fam was all wondering why I came home so early. I had nothing else to do, so that’s why. I ate a little food. The dad made home-made bread, some egg/butter/crème fraiche concoction, and then coquette chocolate stuff from the first day I arrived (like chocolate lava cake).

I watched the Real World Reunion episode before sleeping. And then woke up at 6:30am to do the uge (idk how to spell—slang, short hand way to say “usual,” you see?).

It is cold in my room. I had a mini-heater back home in America. I wish I had it. I don’t like cold. Today was amazingly beautiful and warmed up by afternoon enough to wear my tank top without a jacket and layers, roll up pants, and wear flip flops!