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!