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!