Friendsgiving/Frenchsgiving

Before telling you about my week, I would like to apologize for two reasons. First, as you are well aware, I did not write this post yesterday (blogday) and I am instead writing it today! I didn’t blog yesterday because rather than a typical lazy Sunday, yesterday was a day that should definitely be included in this post! As for my second apology, well, I was going through my phones for pictures of last week and I realized that I only took four. I am probably more dissapointed in myself for this than any you are, but still, I feel like apologizing out of courtesy. Sorry! :)

 

 

WELL. My week was pretty nice. On Monday, Cameron, Maddy, and I went out to a little French restaurant after school. Believe it or not, it was the first French restaurant I had ever eaten at! We sat down outside and ordered our food and it was delicious. At a lot of French restaurants, you get to choose an entree (which is kind of like an appetizer) followed by a plate (which is like the main meal) which is followed by a dessert. I had a little quiche and salad and them some paella (hahah yes SUPER French) and for dessert I had pana cotta. It was all so yummy! After lunch we walked along the river and talked a lot about love. Cameron and I were pooped on by a bird together and I told him it was a sign we would be friends forever and he (mostly sarcastically) agreed. Look at all these friends I’m making awwwww. Hahahha. :)

 

On Tuesday, my French teacher, Michele, surprised me by coming up to me during one of our lessons and telling me that she had written to another teacher to request that I transfer out of her class and into his. She told me that she thought her class was too easy for me and that I would probably enjoy a higher level! It was so sweet of her and I felt very happy that she thought my French had improved so much! My French still needs a lot of work, but I will admit that I was getting pretty bored in that class. I didn’t want to change because all my friends were in that class, but after talking to Michele I realized that if the teacher thinks I should switch it is probably a good idea. Sooo today I had my first French lesson in the next level up. It was a little difficult to understand the teacher at first, but I think that was mostly because it was intimidating to be in a new classroom. The teacher’s name is Sylvian and he is super lighthearted and funny. Most of the people in my new class are from Colombia and Venezuela, so between assignments I get to speak quite a bit of Spanish which is cool. The material, however, I found a bit easy still. The three months of classes I payed for end this Friday, and Cecile thinks that I should wait to enroll again until January and spend December going to cafes and talking to French people hahah. I think that sounds fantastic so I am going to try that. It is kind of a bold-ish decision, I think, but I would like to get better at talking in French and then I can hopefully test into a high French class in January and clean up my writing in French. The important thing is that I am learning and having fun and improving every day hahaha. Also, I am happy with my French, which I think is the most important thing. 

 

 

On either Thursday or Friday after school (I don’t really remember) some friends and I went to the Australian cafe and after drinking our coffees, we couldn’t come up with anything to do. We didn’t feel like getting lunch, and it was so cold outside that we didn’t feel like walking anywhere. This boy Swizzie, who had been drinking coffee with us, got out his pen and a notebook and began drawing. He is a very impressive artist, and we decided he should give Cameron, Lenyn, and I tattoos on our hands with his pen. So he did! We sat there for over two hours as he drew up our arms and it was just kind of cool and relaxing. I am telling you about this because it is one of the only pictures I have of this week hahaha. 

 

On Saturday, Jess and I met up to go shopping for some warm wintery clothes and pumpkin pie ingredients. We went to very inexpensive stores and I found a lot of stuff including some very warm slippers and some super fuzzy sweaters! We had been planning a little dinner party with our friends for Sunday night, and Jess and I really wanted to make a pumpkin pie because we had to watch so many of our friends eating seemingly delicious pumpkin pies on snapchat during thanksgiving. According to the internet, you can only buy pumpkin puree in one store in Paris, so we travelled across the city to a store called Thanksgiving, where we were hit by a wave of nostalgia upon seeing so many North American holiday foods! They had Kraft Mac n’ Cheese and so many different kinds of peanut butter hahah. We didn’t stay long, however, because I was so tired of carrying the clothes I bought around with me in the city and was feeling very ready to get home. That evening, I stayed home and babysat Prune while Cecile and Fred went to a party. I was very happy that evening, lying on the couch with Prune in my new slippers while watching The Grinch, until the Grinch became scary for Prune and we switched t

to a whale documentary. 

 

 

On Sunday, I had a relaxing morning sleeping in before heading off to Monica’s house (right down the street from mine) with Jess to make the pumpkin pie before the dinner party. I decided to think of that evening as a Friendsgiving, but when I found out we would be eating fondue for dinner, it became such a hilarious Frenchsgiving! I have never made a pumpkin pie before, and Jess and I were worried it wouldn’t turn out well, but it ended up being a total hit! We ate wayyyyy too much fondue and nobody had room for pie after dinner and a couple games of SET, but everyone somehow managed to enjoy a piece of pie and some people even had two! Nobody but Jess and I had ever tasted pumpkin pie before, but they all loved it. Since they loved it so much, I made sure to sneak a piece home so Cecile could try the little North American treat we had prepared. It was a really fun evening. We all laughed a lot and the food was delicious. One of my favorite parts of the night was the fact that I was home by ten (since I live so close) and in bed by 10:30 so I was able to get a full night of sleep too! AMAZING. 

 

When I got home from school today, I was greeted in the livingroom by such a lovely sight! Cecile and Prune had decorated the house with decorations and a tree! I wasn’t sure if they would get a tree, but I felt so joyful to see that they had! It is fake, but a christmas tree is a christmas tree and in any form it brings so much holiday spirit and I love that. They also hung up little lights in different rooms and around the railings for the stairs. It is so lovely in this house right now! Not that it usually isn’t, of course hahah. Just extra special right now. When I got home, I was also informed that Prune has been throwing up all morning and so as I blog, Prune is across the room from my watching a movie and doing her best not to throw up anymore. I want her to feel loved and well, but I don’t want to get sick and she smells like fever. But I will take care of her as best I can, of course. Cecile, before leaving, told me she loved the pumpkin pie despite its “strange texture” which made me very happy. I think she was touched that I brought a piece home for her, which makes me happy too. 

 

 The last super important and wonderful thing about today is that it is my Birthday Eve and last day EVER of being 18! 19 sounds like a fun age and the only annoying thing about 19 is that it is harder for me to say in French. Tomorrow I cannot wait to get up and open the package that has been sitting in my room for the past two weeks AHHHHH. FINALLY. I also want to give a quick shout-out to my Dad and Annmarie for getting me a Kindle for my birthdday so I don’t have to be limited by the small amount of books in the local library! Thank you! Tomorrow my friends and I are going to get lunch after school and I am making them all draw me pictures for my birthday hahah. It will be a great day, I’m sure. :) 

I hope you enjoyed this late blog post and that you all have a great day! 

The Day I Fell in Love With Paris

Last weekend, I was in a place where I couldn’t very well manage to write about anything but the terrible attacks on Paris. I want to start this post off by saying that I have moved past that place, and that I am happy. I have mourned and thought for a long time about those affected by the attacks, but after being sad, we must move on with our daily lives. I don’t know a single person who died, but I am sure that most of them would want me to laugh and enjoy yummy food and leave the house. Terrorists want people to be scared and hide away at home, but many people I have spoken to and I have agreed that we shouldn’t give them that satisfaction! So I have been living very normally over here in France. I know a lot of you are still a bit worried for me, but you should know that if anything I am much safer now than I was before the attacks were made. There is a lot of security all around Paris now and I see soldiers marching the streets with big guns all over the place. I hate seeing guns, but I know they are there to protect my friends and me. I am being safe and my host family is awesome and life is still beautiful after ugly things happen. :)

 

 

I was going through the pictures on my phone this morning to see which ones I should post on my blog and I realized that because of that sad place I was in last weekend I completely missed out on telling you about the day that I fell in love with Paris! I have been living here for almost three months now, and I have made some amazing friends and I feel very comfortable with my French family, but until the Wednesday before last, I didn’t think much of Paris. I mean people are always going off about how gorgeous it is and how romantic everything feels and how there is no other place like it in the world. And they aren’t wrong! I mean yeah, the buildings here are tall and adorable and you see people who seem to be extremely in love all over the place, but I never seemed to appreciate this city as much as the rest of the world. On that one little Wednesday, however, something changed. After work on that Wednesday afternoon, Jess and I decided to meet up and visit Notre Dame. I would like to say I was excited to meet her, but I honestly felt more relieved than anything. I was relieved to find someone who wanted to go somewhere with me in the middle of the day in the middle of the week who I could just walk around with and talk to. I posted a blog the weekend before that Wednesday talking about my realization that clubbing and big nights out are not for me, and I couldn’t wait to have a refreshing and healthy afternoon with my 18 year old Canadian buddy. We walked through Notre Dame and it felt like we had taken steps back in time! It was a scary sort of beautiful and it made me feel so small. We walked around that part of the city and decided to get a Starbucks so that we could have a little taste of home as we talked about home. I told her about how sad I had been when I moved here, and how that sadness lessened with time but never seemed to want to go away. I told her about saying goodbye to Caleb and about my grandma and about how so many things in my life were changing that I couldn’t seem to keep up with anything. And you know what Jess did? She listened. And then she told me about her life and the things she misses and I listened. And then we were walking along the Seine and we sat down on a bench and I let my eyes see what was actually around me and Paris was brilliant. It was a foggy day, but I saw how delicatley the bridges arche up over the canals and peacefully the swans floated along, hoping to get some snacks from tourists, and how even though it is a big city, it knows how to look so still.  I told Jess “PARIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL” and Jess, who was a little ahead of the game and had already realized this said “I KNOWWW SOMETIMES I JUST CAN’T BELIEVE IT” and we laughed and moved on to tell happy stories and funny stories. It grew dark, and arm-in-arm we made our way through a garden and back to the metro. We decided that our moms should be friends and that we should take walks like that one at least once a week. That was the day that I fell in love with Paris. 

 

Back to this past week, now! It was a good one. I was very happy to see my friends back at school again. I love them all so much. Nothing too crazy or interesting happened during the week! After school we always go get a 1 Euro coffee at this Australian/French couples cafe that is right near our school and we try to speak together in French. This is very entertaining for the Australian/French couple, but less entertaining for everyone else in the cafe hahah. On Thursday after school, Olivia, Monica, Maddie, Cameron, and I decided to go visit one of the memorial places from the attacks. When we arrived, I was shocked to discover that it was right where I had gone with my German friend Julia the first time I had ever gone to a bar! There was a pretty big crowd of people there to honor the victims. There were also a lot of TV cameras. I walked slowly around the display, reading notes and poems and letters that people had left there. It really was an incredible sight. Seeing it didn’t make me sad, it made me feel like none of us were alone in our suffering. I am very glad we went there, I will certainly never forget it. 

 

Yesterday morning I met up with Jess at Musee D’Orsay because we decided to “go get ourselves cultured” hahah. We wandered around the museum (WHICH IS FREE WITH A STUDENT CARD HECK YESSS) and admired the artwork and statues! I don’t know much about art other than a bunch of painting words I learned from being an expert witness in mock trial. Jess and I tried impressing each other with our educated opinions on certain pieces, but mostly ended up giggling and saying the colors were pretty. At some paintings, however, we didn’t want to giggle or talk. The art was so detailed and thoughtfully put together that we had to be quiet and just stare in awe. The museum used to be a train station, which I think is pretty cool, and it had a big wonderful golden clock which was, to me, a piece of art itself! After about 2 hours in the museum, we went and got some sushi and then met up with Cameron and Olivia and Olivia’s friend and Monica and Kieran. It was a good day! I came home at about 7pm and ate dinner with Fred and Cecile and told them all about my day! 

 

 

So here I am! In bed on a Sunday morning, blogging to you all about my fantastic life in France. I will be 19 soon! That’s exciting hahah. Later today I will make my momma’s banana chocolate chip muffins and clean my room and run and then go to the movies with Jess and her German friends! It will be a good day and a great week and a fantastic rest of the year, I’m sure. 

As for Prune, well, she is doing well! LOOK AT THIS 2 THAT SHE DREW THE OTHER DAY! I am so proud omg. Look at that. HOW! 

 

13 Novembre 2015 - Attacks in Paris

Last night after putting Prunette to sleep and waiting for her parents to get home, I changed into my PJs, grabbed my thoughtfully prepared backpack, and headed out from Asnieres to Paris on the metro. I was in a pretty fantastic mood. I was off to meet Olivia (English friend) at her flat in Paris where we planned to get a good nights sleep before getting up super early to take a 7:45am bus to Brussels, Belgium! I couldn’t wait to take my first international bus and to see a new city and a new country for a whole weekend with a great friend! We had plans to eat lots of waffles and chocolates and meet up with two different exchange student friends of mine during our trip. We got in bed relatively early and spent quite a long time talking. The wifi at her flat wasn’t working so instead of watching a movie or something, we laughed and talked as I showed her all sorts of videos and pictures saved on my phone of my friends and family back in California. At around 11pm, I got message from Anastazja (Polish friend) saying that there had been a shooting and a suicide explosion in Paris and that I send a message to my mom to tell her I was okay. When I went to send my mom the message, the internet on my phone wasn’t working very well, but after a few minutes I was able to send messages to my mom and dad. I didn’t explain what had happened in my messages, because I was pretty confused as to what was going on, but Anastazja made it sound urgent so I sent them the messages before trying to go online and read about what had happened. The internet was being really slow, though, and I was tired, so Olivia and I turned out the lights and began to fall asleep. After about a half hour, my phone started buzzing. I ignored it at first, but it kept making noises so I sleepily rolled over to see what all the fuss was about. I opened my phone to several different texts from different friends in France. They were asking me if I was okay and whether I was at home or not. I was confused, but I began to get the feeling something very bad had happened. A message from my friend Jess (Canadian) informed me that there hadn’t just been one shooting, but multiple throughout Paris and that it was a terrorist attack. I quickly woke myself up as best as I could and began to send messages to all of my friends in Paris making sure they were okay. I felt panicky. I wanted to calm down by thinking positive thoughts. I told myself my friends were probably absolutely fine and that I was getting worked up over nothing. I told myself it would be funny in the morning. But then I heard the sirens (which didn’t end up stopping for hours) and I could feel in my gut that whatever was going on was pretty intense. My friends were quick to reply to my messages (THANK GOD); telling me they were okay and either safe at home or on their way to being so, which brought me momentary feelings of relief. I was safe inside Olivia’s flat, my friends were safe in their own houses, and my parents had recieved my messages and knew that I was safe. For these things I was grateful, but I still didn’t understand what was going on. WHO was shooting people and WHERE were people being shot and WHY was any of this happening? Had the shooting stopped yet? The abulances sure hadn’t. If I had been at home in Asnieres, I could have turned on the TV to find out or asked Fred and Cecile what was happening. My internet kept fading on and off, but I spent a long time trying to load different articles on my phone so I could understand the situation the city was in. A little later, I got a call from Maira saying that France had declared a state of emergency and shut off its borders so I wouldn’t be able to go to Belgium in the morning. I had completely forgotten about Belgium! My internet began to work a little bit better and I began to recieve a lot of messages from my friends all over the world asking if I was okay. I decided to post a status on Facebook so that when people saw the news they would know I was alive and well, but I had to try loading it for about a half hour before it would actually post.

I know this story might be confusing, and I am sorry that I am not telling it in a more simple way. But honestly, I was exhausted when all of this was happening and very emotional, and as I write this I am still quite exhausted and emotional so just bare with me. 

I honestly spent most of that night crying my eyes out. I had been informed that hostages had been taken and that over 80 people had been killed already but they weren’t done counting. Curled up in a bed on the floor, I listened to the sirens and helicopters and I could feel the fear for all of Paris and it made me sad because I knew that in other parts of Paris, worse things were happening to other people. What really scared me was how random the locations had ended up being. They were places like Republique and Bastille where my friends and I go all the time. I imagined what it would be like if Maira or Cameron or Nick or Jess hadn’t responded to my messages…if they had never ended up responding, and how I would feel, and then I cried harder because in different parts of Paris, that was currently happening the friends and families of many unlucky Parisians. I eventually fell asleep and slept for about a solid two and a half hours until the alarm we had set for 6am woke Olivia and I up. We accepted that we weren’t going to Belgium, which was sad, yes, but literally the least of our worries. We spent the morning drinking tea (according to Olivia, when times are bad, we ought to drink tea) and calling our loved ones to discuss what had happened. We found a little radio in Olivia’s storage room and listened to try to understand what a lady was saying in very fast French. The radio lady said that Paris was on lockdown and that people should stay at home. She said all museums, schools, and markets would be closed and that curfews were going to be inforced. The news said that the 8 attackers had been killed, but that there could still be accomplices on the loose. I decided to stay until around noon before taking the metro back to Asnieres. I understood that traveling was not advised, but there was a reasonable amount of other people in the streets and all I wanted was to get home. On the metro, everyone looked like they had gotten very little sleep. Most of France, I believe, spent the night watching the news for updates. People on the metro also had a cautious look in their eye, as if they didn’t trust anyone.

When I got back to Asnieres, Fred and Prune and I went to the forest for a walk. Since we don’t live in Paris, leaving was more acceptable. I changed into workout clothes and ran in the forest during the hour or so that we were there. While I was running, the forest felt emptier than usual, and the sky was grey and even the trees seemed sad. Tears began to fall as I ran around in the woods, and I just let them. The few other runners who saw me seemed to understand. Some of them were crying too.

 

This tragic experience has lasted less than 24 hours, but it feels like its been three days. I feel a huge loss in France, my third home. The kind of loss you can only feel when you’re close enough to see the pain but too far away to actually help heal it. I know that tragedies like this have happened before many times, are happening in other countries currently, and will happen again in the future, but this one happened so close to where I am that I cannot help but feeling a tremendous sorrow. When many people are killed at once, we often see them as a collective number which makes the pain easier for us to deal with, but I cannot help remembering that about 150 innocent people just like me left their homes on a normal Friday (like me and all of my friends have done a number of times) to be shot to death in the streets of Paris. It is as if, all of a sudden, today and yesterday have nothing in common.

 

 

I want to say that the messages I have recieved from countless friends and family members all over the world during this scary time has made me feel extremely loved and blessed. While I myself am not religious, I have felt your love and prayers deep down in my heart, and while I am working through the sadness these events have left me with, your support has made me feel a lot stronger. I cannot thank you enough for being there for me, even from so far away, and offering to help me however you can. Tonight I will go to sleep early and get a lot of much needed rest. I am safe and warm and I promise I will be careful. I love you. 

The Case of the Missing Kimono

I don’t really have much to say about this last week, and I am not sure why. I had a pretty good week, I think, but my days weren’t super interesting so I don’t know what to say about most of them hahah. It was very nice to get back to school after being gone for two weeks! I love waking up early, reading my book on the metro, learning French, hanging out with friends after class, and then coming home to run before seeing Prune, and that is what I did most days this week! Sometimes it is difficult for me to not get bored while living such a free lifestyle. I can do whatever I want with my time, and sometimes I end up spending my time sitting on the couch and wishing I had stuff to do or people to talk to that don’t require the use of social media to reach. I have found that when I am having boring days, the best thing I can do is find little things to do that make me feel like I have my life together. I clean my room very well, read a little in French of try to understand the news in French, practice drawing with my left hand because WHY NOT, brainstorm about christmas arts and crafts I could do with Prune in December, and do whatever else I can come up with. I decided this week that I miss school pretty badly. People here have asked me if I would consider doing another au pair year or travel for another year before college, and after giving it some thought I have come to the conclusion that while its possible learn such important lessons while traveling, I love school and I want to keep studying right when I get back to the US. I was also doing some thinking this week and it occured to me that having so much free time this year could either make me into a super lazy person OR end up really helping me get to know myself while allowing me to enjoy things that a lot of busy people wish they had time for. Like reading a lot! The library that I go to every Wednesday doesn’t have that huge of an English book section, but I have been able to find some pretty awesome books there! Right now I am reading The Da Vinci Code because I remember my older cousins watching the film made after it quite a few Thanksgivings ago and really seeming to enjoy it. The cool thing about me reading it here is that it takes place in Paris, so I recognize most of the street names and then actually find myself walking up and down the streets I have been reading about. As for French, I am currently reading Matilda, and now when I am home alone and read in French I try to read outloud so I can practice pronouncing the words. I probably say a lot of them wrong, but that’s okay. :)

 

 

This Wednesday, something ridiculously stressful happened during Prune and my weekly trip to her gym class. Right now in Prune’s class, the students are supposed to bring little white kimonos to the gym class and then change into them when class begins. Cecile made if very clear to me on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning that I shouldn’t forget the kimono at home because it is an important part of the class. So I made sure the kimono was in my bag, safe and sound, and took Prune to the gym class. When we got there, I went into the corner of the gym with Prune and set down her stuff where I always do, and put the kimono on top of her jacket so it would be easy for her to locate when it became time to change. The gym class doesn’t have windows, so all the parents leave for the hour and then come back to pick up their kids. This hour is when I go to the library right down the street. So I went to the library for a little under an hour, and then came back to pick up Prune at her class. When I went into the class to help Prune put on her shoes and jackets, the children had already changed out of their kimonos and were just holding them or putting them into backpacks. I realized Prune didn’t have one near her, and I asked her where it was. She shrugged and said she didn’t know (which is very typical of Prune because she tends to not care too much about most things haha) and so I decided to try and ask the teacher. I went up and tried to ask in French, but she responded in broken English that I shouldn’t forget the kimono at home next time. I told her I didn’t, and she told me I did. It was loud in the gym and there were kids running around everywhere and I began to get a little irritated because the teacher was looking at me like I was crazy but I was positive that I had brought the kimono. I didn’t know what to do, so I went outside and called Cecile so she could translate for me, but she was busy at work and it was still so loud and I didn’t know what to do so I went back inside to talk to the teacher again and she had left! I began to worry, because the kimono had seemed pretty important to Cecile. Prune seemed worried because I looked worried, and as we walked home I kept trying to ask Prune what had happened to her kimono that I had most definitely left for her at class. Cecile called me and I explained the situation and she seemed very upset but didn’t have time to talk. I made Prune lunch and put her down for a nap, and then sat in the house worrying until Cecile finally came home. I was irritated because the teacher was so unhelpful and becuase the situation made me look careless. I felt like a dissapointment of an au pair and I had no idea how to understand what had happened to the kimono. When Cecile got home and heard the story, she seemed far less irritated with me, but still spent the next hour making phone calls trying to figure out what happened to the stupid kimono hahah. The teacher was apparently very unhelpful on the phone with Cecile as well. I didn’t know what to say to Cecile as we drove in the car to Prune’s horseback riding lesson, but after a few minutes of silence, Cecile said something along the lines of “I JUST HAVE NO IDEA WHERE IT WENT AHH” and we both laughed and laughed. We laughed because somehow this Kimono evaporated into thin air while I was at the library. And it felt so good to laugh, because I had been stressing over the kimono all day but in that moment we realized it was juuuuust a kimono! It was such a simple thing to keep track of, but we had no idea and still have no idea what happened inside that gym class that caused Prune’s kimono do disappear hahaha. 

While Prune did her lesson, I went on a run by the big park near the horseback riding arena. It felt so nice to clear my head and run about and not think about kimonos and angry gym teachers and everything. I had my phone with me, so I took some pictures of the park for you! 

 

The other thing I want to tell you guys about this week is the adventure I had last night. Its almost 3pm on Sunday, and I am so exhausted becuase last night I decided to go out with friends and I didn’t get home until 7am and it was too much. I had a pretty good time last night until about 4am, when I really wanted to go home but couldn’t find a night bus, so my friends and I walked and walked through Paris until the metro started up again this morning and we could go home. While I walked, my feet hurt and I really wanted to sleep, and I all of a sudden I was hit by a wave of homesickness. It is becoming hard for me to distinguish the difference between growing up and simply changing in personality. I realized as I was walking that I have been thinking about going out with friends at night as something that is just a part of growing up, but last night I realized that was very silly of me. I like falling asleep reading and waking up early to run and going out and about when the sun is shining and feeling healthy. It made me miss the way that it was so simple to go hang out at a friends house in California, because here we live with our bosses and are not exactly encouraged to invite our friends over, so in order to see people we have to meet in the city, and more people happen to be free at night. Walking around last night, I realized that my friends are awesome, but I need to find more friends who want to go on bike rides with me or explore the tourisy places I haven’t been to yet or go on picnics. I went to sleep feeling dissapointed in myself for not understanding this right away. 

BUT.

Today I woke up a little after noon, and all of a sudden the reason I shouldn’t be ashamed of yesterday was so clear: I NEVER HAVE TO DO THAT EVER AGAIN IF I DON’T WANT TO! And the thing is, I probably will have other crazy nights and what not, but staying out all night once doesn’t mean I have signed a contract to live the rest of my life a certain way. I am still a young and healthy person, and what I find interesting might bore other people around my age but WHO CARES? I can live this year and the rest of my life making choices based on what I feel would please me most to do with my time. And of course this all sounds obvious to all of you, but I have come to realize that I think in circles. When I am taught something, I do my best to learn it, but when life teaches me new lessons I am always so surprised at how much stronger they get to me. So you know what? I am glad that I went out last night and that my feet hurt and that it made me unhappy for an amount of time, because I learned something. I got to know myself just a little bit better, and that, at least, is a great thing! 

This is a picture of my friend Jess and I in front of the Opera last night. She is Canadian and super cool! :)

Nimes and Halloween

Good morning, lovelies! 

So today is my last day of vacation, and I couldn’t possibly be more excited to go back to school tomorrow morning. I feel so simply happy this morning, and I think that is because I had a very full two week vacation, and now, back home in Asnieres, I am looking forward to getting back into my “normal” schedule.

I was so grateful to be invited to Bretagne and Nimes, and I am certainly glad that I accepted the invitation. I was able to see many new cities and speak in almost only French for two whole weeks, and I certainly feel lucky to have been able to see and learn so much after only being here for a little over two months. While in Nimes, I tried really hard to not think about all the fun my friends were having without me, but I still missed them quite a bit! I got to see them yesterday and it was soooo great to hug them and be around people my own age after a week with Prune and her grandparents. My first day back in Asnieres, I was so happy to walk by the metro again and meander along the familiar streets. It didn’t matter if people weren’t as smiley as they are in the South of France, I was HOME. So after officially feeling at home here, I sit on this couch on a Sunday morning feeling so content about the fact that I won’t have to have a vacation for another couple months, and I can peacefully live the working Parisian life I love hahah. 

 

 

So I am guessing you are interested in hearing about my week in Nimes! Well, you’re in luck because I took a lot of pictures, and it would be my honor to share them. 

Before I do so, however, I want tell you how amazed this week has left me with the generosity of my French host family. You see, we au pairs have contracts, and depending on your contract, maybe all your family has to do is provide you with enough food to stay alive, somewhere to sleep and use the restroom, and of course whatever money you earn for the work you do. What they don’t have to do, is pay for your train ticket to the South of France. And aside from the parents of the child/children you watch over, the grandparents of the child/children owe you absolutely nothing. Prune’s grandprents didn’t have to have me come live with them for a week and cook all my meals. They didn’t have remember that I like to run and find a nice little park for me to workout in. They didn’t have to take me somewhere new every single afternoon just so I could see as much as possible, and they certainly didn’t have to pay my entry for every single place we went. But they did. This isn’t Rotary Youth Exchange where the families agree to have a new “daughter” for a year, this is people being overly generous out in the real world and expecting nothing in return. I cannot believe how lucky I am to live with such amazing people. I really lucked out. 

So, yes! The week was spectacular. I spent the mornings running to the park to do Crossfit workouts and then working with Prune and trying to teach her to recognize numbers. She knows numbers 1-7 now! Like she can count, she just needs to remember what the numbers look like. In the afternoon, we did something different every day! 

(OMG ADULT MONKEYBARS)

One day, we went to the circus.

One day, we went to the center of Nimes where I got to explore a lot of Roman ruins, including an arena and the public baths which are now a beautiful park! 

Another day, we went to this village made of only rocks and then got to go into this big cave and see art projected onto the walls! It felt like being inside a painting.

One day we saw a famous windmill!

Ugh, I thought I took more pictures...

On the day before we left we spent the whole day at the zoo which was super fun! One of the animals Prune loved the most was the Bison, which I thought was hilarious because its a Bison. I liked the zoo a lot more than the circus because at the zoo you can learn things, which is sad for the animals but a good thing for young minds. The circus however disgusted me with what they did with the animals. Nobody was learning anything when they made six different tigers stand on their hind legs. For me it was just a horrible demonstration of the power humans can have over things, and how sad it is that other humans find that useless power impressive. 

I apparetly took zero photos of the zoo, and I apologize. I guess I was having too much fun! 

 

 

Before taking the train home, Mari, Prune’s grandma, took us to a park to enjoy our last few minutes of wonderful Nimes weather. We made her some flower jewelry to thank her for everything and she liked it hahaha.

 

On the train ride home, Prune became friends with two twin four year olds who were sitting right in front of us and I took a picture because it was such a cute little 2 hour friendship. She introduced me to them as her big sister, which was pretty cute too. 

Since it was the day before Halloween, they had a witch on the train who went around giving out candy and taking pictures. Prune and I didn’t miss out on that festive opportunity! 

 

Last night I went out to a couple Halloween parties with Olivia and Maira. We wore all black and then painted leapord spots on our faces and it was an okay last minute costume I guess hahaha. We had so much fun! Words cannot describe how happy I was to see them again OH MY GOODNESS. Last night, I also went to my first club. We had to wait outside in a line, JUST like in the movies, and then once we were inside there were just a lot of people and really loud music! The decorations were pretty cool, and we danced for quite a while, even though I remember feeling like a blade of grass while danceing because there was nowhere to put my arms because it was so crowded! 

I am glad I faced my fear of going to a club! I’m growing up here a little! 

 

I have been writing this blog for over 2 hours now, so I am going to go eat lunch with my family. I hope you all had a great halloween and have a super awesome first week of November! Good byeee. :)