Sao Paulo!

I am very very happy to report that I have been having an amazing time over here in Brazil! This past week I have seen so many cool things and tasted so many interesting new foods and I am very excited to tell you all about it! 

I am currently on a plane to Rio, and I only have 45 minutes to write this blog so I have decided to do a mostly-pictures blog, since pictures are supposed to be worth a thousand words and I have so many of them! To breifly introduce my photos, however, I will inform you that the first couple of days that I spent here, Juliana had to study a lot because she had some final exams to take on Thursday and Friday, so my pictures from those days demonstrate how I filled my time while she burried herself in her books so she could do well on the tests and become an incredible doctor haha. I was lucky because I had her brothers and parents and lovely boyfriend to hang out with. They all took me different places and I had a great week! I also was happy because even though I always wanted to talk to Juliana, I knew how much better we would both feel if she just studied and did well on her tests so we could have fun together after! Juliana will find out later today how she did, but she isn’t worried at all because she studied a lot and thinks she did very well! I am so proud of her! Isn’t that great news?

I tasted papaya for the first time!

Helped Juliana’s mom make some cookies at midnight!

Had some of my own cookie ideas :)

Spent time relaxing in the hammocks in the backyard.

Tasted pao do queijo for the first time! With coffee, of course.

Practiced my Portuguese with Elaine while we ate lunch together!

Went rockclimbing with Juliana’s brother, William, and his friends! 

 

Got a beer with William while we waited for Juliana to finish her tests! This was an important life moment for me because I learned that my favorite kind of beer is the lightest possible kind that doesn’t taste like alcohol. I learned that I like bubbly water, basically. :)

Strawberry and Nutella pizza to celebrate the tests being over!! 

 

On Saturday morning, Juliana and Bruno and I took a bus to Sao Paulo so we could spend some time in the city! Juliana had bought us tickets to see Les Miserables (our favorite play) so we got to see that and it was sooooo incredible! The movie came out when Juliana and I were living together as best friends in California so it was a dream come true to come to Brazil and watch it live with her in Portuguese! I didn’t understand everything they said, but it was okay because I know all the words in English so I could just sing them in my head hahah. 

CUTIES 

Some food before the show! The theater is right behind Juliana.

After watching the play, we went out to a night club with some of Juliana’s friends from school. We drank weird Brazilian alcohol and then danced for a very long time and I had so much fun! I forced myself to just relax and dance (which isn’t very easy for me!!) and I had so much fun because Juliana’s friends wanted to teach me how Brazilians dance hahah. The club we were at painted everyone’s face with glitter which was also cool/interesting/fun hahah. I had a really good night! And when we got back to the hotel we ate some soup and then fell asleep. We were so tired from the long day! We didn’t wake up until 10 the next morning, and then it was time to go downstairs and have breakfast before the hotel put everything away! 

On Sunday we took the metro to a beautiful park in Sao Paulo that had an African museum in the middle of it! We explored the museum a little, and then we took an Uber to Paulista Avenue, a giant street that is closed for cars on Sundays so everyone can walk around. There were vendors and lots of live music! We walked around the avenue for a bit before it was time to take a bus back to Sao Paulo. We didn’t want to get home too late because we knew we had an early flight the next morning to Rio! By early I mean noon, because it is so hard for me to wake up before nine here! It’s like my body is refusing to actually adapt to the time change, but that’s okay because it works with my vacation-esque life style over here in Brazil.

Bananas bananas bananas...

Had mixed feelings about the size of this egg.

 

We just got into the air on our way to Rio and I am very excited! I have a window seat so I might be able to see the Cristo! Wouldn’t that be awesome? Either way, Bruno’s dad is taking us there later today! :)

The most embarassing thing happened to me when we were taking off though so I might as well tell you about it. I tried to pee at the airport before we left, but they were cleaning the bathroom and I didn’t have time to find another one. We had all had a glass of beer at the airport because it sounded refreshing (around 11) and I had been drinking lots of water in the morning but I didn’t have to pee until there wasn’t a bathroom. Juliana assured me I could just pee on the plane, but I was worried. I sat down at my seat learned that Juliana wouldn’t be next to me, but a few seats behind. A smiley Brazilian man in a striped shirt sat down next to me and he seemed nice enough, but I was so preoccupied with my bladder that I just kept looking down the isles to see if they would ever be clear enough for me to sneak off to the bathroom. Of course by the time everyone sat down, they told us to put on our seatbelts and the plane started moving. You know how sometimes the plane rolls around on the ground for a half hour before it takes off? Well, it did that! And I  kept telling myself not to panick but the more I tried to not think about it the worse I felt and then I became thorougly convinced that I would not make it. I would probably pee my pants if I didn’t get up. And then the plane stopped, and I lost it because I thought it meant we were waiting for another plane ahead of us to go. I pressed the help button and nobody would come. It wasn’t just that I was worried, I was in PAIN. It hurt so bad! I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to walk if  when I got up! But nobody was coming and the plane wasn’t moving. Tears began to creep out of my eyes and I couldn’t help it. The man next to me seemed very nervous! I asked him if he spoke English and he said no, and asked me in Portguese if I was nervous about flying. I didn’t know how to say I had to pee so I just shook my head and gestured for him to call someone to help me! I didn’t care in that moment if the plane was two minutes behind schedule, I just wanted to not pee my pants on the plane where nobody spoke English! The man next to me kept going back and forth between trying to call a flight attendant and trying to comfort me. I think he really thought I was just scared. But nobody would come. And then the plane started going fast and we were up in the sky and I just started to get up and climb over him because I wasn’t about to pee in my seat and I was genuinly worried my bladder was going to explode and I was going to die. I think he saw the determination in my eyes because he got up and the flight attendants rushed over and I told them what was going on and they seemed so worried (probably because there were actual tears on my cheeks) and they let me go. When I came out of the bathroom, there were three flight attendants there and I thought they were going to be mad but they just asked me really nicely if there was anything they could do to help me and kept telling me that they know planes are scary and that I will be okay and that they will be near me when we have to land….I am not scared of planes! So now I’ve realized that no matter what I say, this whole plane thinks I scared myself into having to pee. They are very nice about it though. And where is my dear translator, Juliana? I don’t know hahah. She will think this story is funny. She is by a window so she hasn’t been paying attention. The moral of this story is: pee at the airport. You’d think I would know this by now, right? Well knowing and learning are two different things hahah. 

I am really just happy that I am okay now. I can’t post this while on the plane because I don’t have internet, but I will right when I get to Bruno’s Grandma’s house! I hope you are all doing well and enjoy my pictures and unfortunate story hahaha. See ya later! 

Welcome to Campinas

Boy oh boy, do I have lots to tell you about! This past day and a half have been full of all sorts of excitement for me which is funny because they have been pretty calm days for everyone else. We haven’t been running around doing a lot of stuff (a lot of that has to do with the accidental four hour nap I took yesterday hahah) but even just wandering around and doing a couple little things has been incredible for me! Because I’m in Brazil! With Juliana! And everything here is so different. This isn’t France and this isn’t Chile and Portuguese is made up of only extremely easy and etremely difficult words (nothing in the middle). Here they have avocados the size of small footballs and bright yellow birds and mosquitos that don’t bite you (my new favorite kind) and there are turtles on the money! I have definitely been feeling the culture shock, but I have to say that I have never in my life felt more at home in a foreign country. This has everything to do with Juliana and her family and their incredible hospitality and kindness. I have been looking forward to seeing her Brazilian life since I met her almost 5 years ago, and now that I am here it is as simply normal and beautiful as I ever could have imagined it to be! I feel at home here because this has been a home of mine ever since Juliana came back from exchange and told everyone I was family. I don’t have to introduce myself to anyone or tell them about myself because they already met me in Juliana’s stories. And through the broken Portuguese and English and a lot of laughs and smiles and gestures, I am getting to know them too! 

When I arrived at the airport in Sao Paulo, Juliana rushed up to give me a big hug and then handed me the string from the red heart balloon she had bought to surprise me with that had flown away when they got out of the car. She was wearing a red dress to match the balloon hahah and it was very cute and with me its always the thought that counts! Then I got to hug her mom, this amazing woman who raised Juliana and who I’d been dying to meet in person ever since the first time I met her on Skype. While we waited for Juliana’s dad to pull the car around, I realized for the first time how rough the whole learning Portuguese thing was going to be. Slowly and sweetly, Elaine asked me questions that I did my best to answer but soon it turned into her using whatever English words she could to try to communicate with me hahaha. I was glad Juliana was there to translate for us, because I wanted her to know so badly how much she already meant to me as Juliana’s mom but I was so tired and overwhelmed by the fact that Brazil smells like cookies that I’ve never tasted and so disoriented by how much taller I was compared to the rest of the airport people! Everything was distracting hahah but soon Juliana’s dad pulled around in the car and I got to meet him too and then loaded up my things and got into the car. Campinas is about an hour away from Sao Paulo, and I spent the hour in the car catching up with Juliana and marveling at everything I could see from the car window. From what I could see from the car, Brazil didn’t look anything like anywhere I had ever been! The plants looked so different and I trully had no idea what the billboards were advertising hahah. Juliana’s parents did their absolute best to chat with me about anything they could in the car! I could tell they were very happy to have me there, and it made me feel so welcome. :) 

When we got to Juliana’s neighborhood I had no idea which house to guess was hers, but when we got closer she described it as “the one behind the big blue castle” hahah and she was right. In her neighborhood there are a bunch of smaller rectangular houses behind little white gates and then this very random big blue castle house, and she lives right behind it. I am personally very glad she lives next to this big blue castle because it means I will always be able to find her house hahah. :)

When we got inside, she showed me around and I was very impressed! Everything was so shiny and clean and organized! She took me upstairs to see her room where she has this lovely balcony that overlooks a part of her city and apparently has the best view of the moon in the world. Then she took me downstairs where I was suprised to see that her house had a hallway that led us right out to the back yard and the backyard had tile just like inside the downstairs of the house! So basically her house is like half inside and half outside but all one house and I have never seen that before and I think it looks very very cool! It honestly worried me for a moment because one of my first thoughts was “what about when there is bad weather?!” but then it occured to me that it is currently the dead middle of winter in Brazil and it is 80F and sunny so I stopped being worried hahah. The first thing I did after my tour was take a very nice warm shower to wash the 28 hours of travel out of my hair, and then I brushed my teeth and drank a big bottle of fresh water and changed into a little dress so I could be cute like Juliana hahah. Then Juliana and I went to the outside part of the house and we each ate a pear and did a lot of catching up and memory sharing. :) It is just so nice to talk to her about anything, guys. She is such a big and important part of who I am and helped me grow in so many ways when we were in California so sitting on a porch and talking to her felt so natural and nice. The pear was also really good! You should all come to Brazil and eat a pear. Juliana kept offering for me to sleep because I looked so exhausted, but I told her I didn’t want to nap because then I would waste the day and wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. Finally, she convinced me to take at least a two hour nap because it was only 10am and I would have the whole rest of the day to get tired again before night time, so I agreed. So in my nice clean clothes I climbed into her bed and closed my eyes and then I opened them and it was half past two! There is something magical about waking up from a nap you didn’t mean to take. If you have stuff you need to be doing it can be upsetting and stressful but when you wake up in Brazil at your best friends house feeling wayyyyyy better than you did before it is certainly very magical. I got up and went downstairs to find out that Juliana’s parents had left to run different errands but they had made yummy food so Juliana and I sat down to have lunch. At this point I also got to meet Juliana’s little brother Victor, who was very nice and has very fun curly hair and has grown up so much since I saw him on skype four years ago hahah. Juliana used to tell me about how badly she missed Brazilian meat and beans and different vegetables, and I was lucky because I got to try a bit of each for lunch! I was surprised by how much I liked the rice and bean combination. It wasn’t rice like what I’ve tasted in other countries and the beans were a lot more flavorful than what I am used to. Also I was starving and it was so nice to wake up to a warm meal hahah. 

After lunch, I finally got to meet Juliana’s boyfriend, Bruno, for the first time! She had told me little things about him over the last two years and I couldn’t wait to meet the boy who meant so much to Juliana. When he got to the house he gave me a big hug and seemed very friendly in a quiet way and I realized that even though I liked him already, he is someone you have to spend time with to get to know. And I met him yesterday so all that I know right now is that he is a good listener and really cares about Juliana and whatever is happening in her life. He is a part of any conversation even when he isn’t talking and he is very good at speaking English! I’ve always been impressed by people who are quiet and comfortable at the same time, and so far it seems to me that Bruno is such a person. Because there is nothing awkward about his silences! And it may seem like I have thought a lot about Bruno and that’s true hahah and its because he is dating the most wonderful girl in the world. Seeing Juliana and Bruno together brings me a lot of joy because they are so respectful and sweet to each other. Seeing them always makes me think of Alishua so I have told them a million stories about him hahah. They are definitely my favorite couple to third wheel with! :) 

Juliana and Bruno and I took an uber to what was explained to me as the biggest mall in Latin America! So that was impressive. It was very big! And apparently I only saw a small part of it! We walked around for a little and then stopped at a little italian cafe to get coffee. I had just exchanged my money and they let me buy it because I really wanted to use my Brazilian money for the first time! The coffee was good, but the company was even better. We hung out there for over an hour and talked about school and cultural differences and anything else that came up hahah. Its crazy how much we have to talk about after 4 years of growing older! Its also crazy how Juliana and I remember different parts of all out memories together and its fun reminding each other what happened or why, like we fill in the pieces for each other. Bruno told me that after meeting me, different parts of Juliana, parts that aren’t so Brazilian, have started to make more sense to him. I think that is pretty cool. :)

After ubering home from the mall, I realized I hadn’t really taken any pictures with Juliana and I really wanted to brag about seeing her on social media so we rushed upstairs to take a picture on her balcony. Juliana has a very interesting obsession with her the view of the moon from her balcony, and she really wanted it to be in the picture but to her great dissapointment we couldn’t find it! We took a couple pictures anyways (actually Bruno gets all the photo credit) and then we sat in her room for a little and talked with her dad and Bruno. That was when my first realy Portuguese practice started hahah. I was feeling awake and enthusiastic from the coffee so I decided to actually give it a shot, and just trying a little harder I was able to understand a bit! After listening for awhile, I started to remember some words so I would use them in broken sentences, but it seemed like Juliana’s dad understood me and it felt amazing! In Chile and France I didn’t try to speak anything but English on the first day, but I only have two weeks here so time is of the essence. I was proud of myself for the little I was able to do, and I think it meant a lot to Juliana that I was trying hahah. 

A little later, we went downstairs and cut up a bunch of veggies to make some soup for dinner. While we were getting dinner ready, Juliana’s dad came up to me and gave me a little chocolate and told me that it is one of his favorites, and that even though its something small, he has a goal of getting me something small that he loves every day so I can share in enjoying some of the best simple things about his Brazilian life. Just like that, a tiny piece of chocolate became so important to me hahah. I don’t know when I should eat it haha I’m just so proud to hold it in my hand!

At dinner, I kept up with the Portuguese practice and found myself understanding more and more! It is hard because I am bad at pronouncing the words, but very very fun and it is so nice to be able to connect with Juliana’s parents! The food was soooo good! I had two bowls of soup and joked about how nice was to eat some nice warm soup on a cold winter evening hahah. :) 

After dinner, Juliana made some delicious brigadiero and we ate it and watched Star Wars before falling asleep. She had gotten up super early to come get me at the airport and I had barely slept on the plane, so we were pretty exhausted! We ended up falling asleep on the couch and had to crawl upstairs to fall asleep for the rest of the night hahah. It was such a fulfilling first day in Brazil, and I went to sleep feeling safe, loved, well-fed, and very happy. 

Elaine made me some special little heart cookies :)

 

This morning Juliana and I slept in until 8:45 before getting up to go on our first Juliana and Sally run! Juliana hasn’t gone running for quite some time, but she wants to work out with me while I’m here and hopefully develope some sort of routine and keep it up after I leave! I think this is awesome. We took it slow so that she wouldn’t hate it, and we ran and walked for a little over an hour. Tomorrow morning we plan on getting up so we can run early in the morning because that’s my favorite part of the day! We made a deal that by the end of my trip, I have to be able to speak Portuguese conversationally and she has to be able to run the whole course without stopping! I like this plan hahah its a nice one and we get to help each other.

After showering off and changing, Juliana and Victor and Bruno and I all headed off to a street market to get Pastel, a fried street food that is actually Chinese but it very popular here. It was a nice walk to the market, and when we arrived I got to see so many cool fruits and veggies! The Pastel was interesting and I really liked the texture of it. We ate it in the shade and sipped sugar cane juice and I learned that Juliana LOVES sugar cane juice hahaha. After that, we went to a pharmacy to get some sunscreen and then walked back home for lunch.

For lunch we got to eat the rice and beans again but this time with some squash and once again it was delicious! Such a satisfying meal! And after lunch we had a cup of coffee with some cookies Juliana’s mom had made before Juliana had to go upstairs to study for some medical school tests she has tomorrow. This was around 3pm, and now it is almost 7pm and I have taken forever writing this blog hahah. It turns out I have a lot to say and am very out of writing practice. Also, my nails are a little longer so I keep hitting the wrong letters. I don’t think I am going to proofread this one before publishing it because I want to get on with my night and go learn more Portuguese. But before I go, there are a few other things I want to say! 

 

I brought some gifts for Juliana’s family because I wanted to give them a little taste of California. I brought Juliana some Black Oak coffee and and a Papas and Pollo tee shirt and she loved them and is actually wearing the shirt right now. My mom gave her a bracelet and some earings that she hasn’t removed since I gave them to her yesterday hahah. I brought a smores inspired chocolate bar for Victor and he ate the whole thing already, and I brought Elaine an apron for when she bakes cookies and shes been wearing it all day long hahah. I don’t know why but watching everyone enjoy their gifts has made me so so so happy! I just wanted to do something nice for them because they are doing a thousand nice things for me every day! I also brought Lagunitas for Bruno and his dad becasue they make their own beer, and he said it was the perfect kind (thanks Alishua hahah). 

I already have so many good stories to tell about this wonderful place and I know that I haven’t seen anything yet. I just can’t wait for the rest of the trip! I am not going to blog like this about every day I just wanted to talk about the first day because it was such a good and important one! I hope this was interesting to read about, because there is more of it coming later. :) BJ hahaha

Also, by the way, I found a way to fit this in my suitcase and smuggle it to Brazil. I am proud of this accomplishment and Elaine is very happy hahaha. 

Off to Brazil!

When I created this blog, I had the intention of only using it as a way of remembering my single year abroad in Chile and keeping my friends and family updated on my life without having to tell the same stories over and over on skype. I was so pleased with the results of documenting my year in Chile that when I moved to France I decided to continue the tradition, knowing that being able to read about all of my happy, interesting, and strange experiences abroad would someday mean a lot to me. Well, now I am off to Brazil! And no no no, don’t fret, I am not going for a year. I am going for 17 days to visit the wonderful and perfect Juliana Rosa and her family, and I couldn’t possibly be more excited! I have never gone on a simple 17 day vacation abroad before, but I have decided to blog every now and then throughout my time there because I want to remember as much as possible, and I want you to be able to hear about it too!
I am currently sitting at gate A10 at SFO. It is 5:53 in the morning and I am kind of hungry but there is only one shop open this early and about 70 people in line so I treated my self to a nice piece of gum for breakfast and I am hoping they serve food on the plane hahah. Last night Molly and Alishua and I stayed up until about 11pm and then Molly and I woke up at 3am to get here on time. Sooo I am running on a bit less than 4 hours of sleep, but I will be sleepwalking my way through airports for the next 24 hours and I am on my way to a country I have always wanted to go to so things could be much much worse!
I really like airports, and I think the airport people can tell because they have been very kind here today! My bag was 4 lbs overweight and they took it for free when they found out I was going to see my best friend for the first time in 5 years who just got into medical school! I think it makes people happy to make already happy people a little happier, and I like that.
Usually I have so much to say with my just-about-to-get-on-the-plane blog posts but since I’m not going for a year, everything feels so much lighter! Hahah. Especially my suitcase. :) It’s just two weeks, and they are going to be two amazing weeks and who knows what I will learn or taste or see! I can’t wait for all the simple things. I can’t wait to help Juliana’s mom make those cookies I see all over instagram, or help Juliana study for the two finals she didn’t realize she had later this week hahah. I can’t wait to meet Bruno (her boyfriend) and his dad. Did I mention we are all going to Rio together?!
Now that it is 6am I might see if I can go buy a yogurt or something because my stomach keeps growling and this is going to be a long flight so even if it has breakfast I could definitely eat two. My layover is in New York, isn’t that cool? I’ve never been there before either and I know airports don’t count but I’m still excited to see the other side of the country (through some windows).
Well, wish me luck on these long flights and I will update you with some actual exciting news when I am in BRAZIL!!!

Dear Prune

Dear Prune,

 

So I am here in the Copenhagen airport, about to take my last plane back to San Francisco. A lot of people know that I am on my way home right now and I think a lot of them are worried for me because I had to say goodbye to you. Everyone knows how much you mean to me, I think, or at least they all have an idea. I would always take little videos of you to put on snapchat and after just a month of posting these videos, a good chunk of Northern California had fallen in love with you hahah. I think my friends will miss seeing these videos, and I know I will sure miss taking them.

 

But the whole “missing you” thing is the obvious part, and I wanted to write something about the less obvious things I feel upon moving back to the US and not seeing you every day. One of my hardest feelings to deal with right now is the feeling that I will be missing out on the experience of watching you grow up. I was only with you for ten months, but during those ten months, I watched you loose your first tooth and have your first crazy birthday party. I taught you how to braid and understand English and somewhere along the way you even learned how to use the swings at the playground all by yourself! Watching you grow up is one of the most beautiful things I have ever got to experience, and it kinda kills me that you are going to do so much more growing up and I will have to watch from so far away.

 

Of course, all of these feelings are there in the first place because I love you so much hahaha and how lucky I am to have developed such a close relationship with you in such a short amount of time! You really have become my little sister, and definitely my best five-year-old friend in the world hahah. :)

 

Oh, Prunette. I am crying here in the airport just thinking about everything you have done for me without even realizing it. You have forced me to be patient and taught me many simple ways to be more generous and kind, and for that I could not thank you enough. 

 

You are five years old and you can’t even read in French yet, but I am writing this directly to you because I really believe that someday you will grow up and speak perfect English, and when that day comes you will be able to appreciate this. I promise to remember lots of hilarious stories about cute and sassy things you said to me during this year and all the adventures we had together. I will never forget how much I love you, and you will always be welcome in whatever home I am living in. I think you will grow up and do great things someday, but I want to let you know that at the age of five, you have already done something incredible: you’ve made me feel at home. You have given me enough hugs and kisses to make any other au pair jealous, and you have changed me by making my ability to love even stronger. :)

 

I la-la-love you, Tiny. 

 

Love, 

Sally 

 

The Last Parisian Chapter

About 10 months ago, I was sitting in the Scandanavian Airlines section of an airport bawling my eyes out because I felt heart broken and lonely and weak and exhausted. I was about to embark on my second year abroad, and knowing that millions of other young people would kill for the opportunity I had been presented with, I decided to write the cheeriest blog post I could and focus on the positive feelings I felt; the ones I wanted to remember. 

But the thing is, I remember all of the sadness. I remember trying to surpress my sad feelings because I knew they would pass, but not being able to. I remember arriving in Paris and not unpacking the first three days because THAT is how badly I wanted to go home. I felt I had made a mistake; I had moved around too quickly and I simply wasn’t strong enough to think positively. 

In the begginning of my year in Paris, I did a lot of sugar-coating in my blog posts because I knew complaining wouldn’t make me feel better. If I ever wrote that I was having a bit of a hard time, I can assure you whatever was happening was twice as hard for me as I made it seem in writing. I am not a liar, but I do tend to trick myself into thinking that I can think my way out of my feelings hahaha. 

Why am I telling you this? Well. At this very moment I happen to be sitting in the Scandanavian Airlines section of an airport, tearing up because I feel full of love and happy and hopeful. In the last two days I have said goodbye to people who have become as close as family to me in the past 10 months and whom I will miss dearly. But this time, the strong emotions I have upon leaving and the difficult goodbyes I have had to say have not left me feeling week. I feel strong, actually! I feel like I have gotten through a year that has really tested my spirits and doing so has allowed me to grow and change and see the world in brand new ways. You know, all the stuff they said would happen hahaha. 

 I am about to start a very long and very interesting voyage back home, which involves going from Paris to Oslo, Oslo to Copenhagen, and then finally taking the big flight from Copenhagen to San Francisco! Not the most efficient route (by any means) and all of this will take over 24 hours, but it was the cheapest option! So I am content. 

Also! These past two days have been weird and filled with bitter-sweet goodbyes, but they have been super fun too! 

(I just found out that my flight is delayed until midnight… Hahahah. It is 10pm and everyone is PISSED. Except me hahah. I had a 7 hour lay-over anyways!)

On Tuesday, I met up with my remaining au pair friends for a goodbye picnic. There were five of us in total: Jess, Marlene, Camila, Chloe, and me! We met up at Parc Monceau and spent some lovely last hours lying in the grass together and telling stories and laughing. The weather was wonderful and we brought along grapes and cakes and sandwiches to enjoy. I was happy to spend my last full day in Paris doing some light picnicking because I think that is one thing that Parisians certainly do best!

 

Before heading off to work, we grabbed one last coffee together! My last over-priced Parisian espresso! We sipped our espressos outside on those little woven chairs, too. So perfect! 

When it was time to say goodbye, the goodbyes didn’t feel real. Especially with Jess. I adore my other au pair friends, but I have to say that Jess has had the biggest impact on me and my time in France. She is the longest and most steady au pair friend I have had, and not seeing her every few days will be so strange. I know I will see Cool Tough Jess again, whether it be in Canada or California or somewhere in between, but saying goodbye still felt super weird and annoyingly early. It didn’t even occur to me while we were in the park that it was a goodbye picnic until the end when we were all hugging! Hahaha. I love all of those girls. I love Chloe’s sense of humor and Marlene’s ability to wonder and I don’t really know Camila that well but she is half chilean and comes from SF so OF COURSE she is awesome!

Later that day at the park after school, I spent my last little bit of time with Anastazja. We had our own little picnic of raw coconut bits and strawberries, and I brought some candy to give to Chloe and Maxime and Prune. Once again, it didn’t feel like the last day. Anastazja and I spoke about casual things as we munched on our summery snacks, and when it was time to leave I almost just called out “Bon! A demain!” 

Chloe and Maxime were sad that I was leaving and they gave me goodbye hugs. Prunette ran around giving everyone goodbye hugs too, clearly misinterpreting the situation hahah. Anastazja began to cry as we hugged goodbye and passed me a letter she had written for me. Seeing her cry like that, just because I was leaving, made me wish that I could cry too because I wanted to show her that I felt the same way, but my tears never seem to fall at the right moments. I told her this, and she said she was happy for me because she knew I had missed home all year, but that I was part of her every day life and now I just wouldn’t be there anymore and that she would miss me a lot. I wished she could read my mind and understand that some days, she was the only reason I stayed in France. 

That evening, after dinner, I decided to give Prune the little polka-dotted stone rock that I had been holding for her as a goodbye present. I told her that it was a magic rock that she had to take verryyyyy good care of. I held out my arm and showed her how the rock held some of my freckles in it, and that I had put them there just for her. I told her that the rock would be there if she was ever sad or lonely or if she ever missed me, and that all she had to do to make it work was hold it and hug a pillow, and that the rock would make her heart happier! 

It was all fun and games until two minutes later, I found her on the couch, holding the rock and hugging a pillow. I asked her why she was doing that, and she told me that she missed me already. I didn’t want her to see me cry, so just sort of took some deep breaths and carried on with the night time routine. Cecile arrived soon after that! We watched a little bit of a movie together, had some dinner, and then I went in my room and stayed up very late packing. 

While I was packing, I ran into Anastazja’s letter and couldn’t help but open it. About half way through I was reading through tears, but when I got to the last sentence I began bawling. She complimented my progress in French (which all due to her and Cecile, really), talked about the freindship we had created, and even drew me a picture at the end of our park family. What really hit me was how beautifully she wrote in French, and how full of meaning all the little simple sentences she wrote were. I sent her messages as I cried after reading her letter and before going to bed. I couldn’t believe I wouldn’t see her for awhile after that and I hated that we had to say goodbye. A week before I had felt like I would be in Paris forever, and in that moment it felt like I wasn’t supposed to leave!

This morning I woke up to Prune’s little footsteps running around upstairs. We had a pretty normal Wednesday morning! We had breakfast together, got dressed, and then walked to her gym class. It was sunny and warm and I let her ride her scooter all the way there! While Prune was at her gym class, I sat outside with my Spanish au pair friend, Sandra, and we read quietly together. We would have talked (she is like my only Spanish practice and a fantastic conversationalist) but I really wanted to finish Cecile’s book before leaving! I ended up being able to finish it by the time the class was over, and when it was time to leave all the moms wished me luck in life and Sandra gave me a big hug goodbye! I am SO visiting her someday! :D

When we got home, Prune took a big nap and I began to do my last little bit of packing before cleaning the heck out of my bedroom. Throughout the year, I cleaned my room at least once a week, but I wanted to make it spotless for my departure. I wanted Cecile to have never seen the room that clean! When Cecile got home later, she said it was soooo impressively clean and that I didn’t have to do that! But I felt good about it. That family had been so good to me, and I wanted to give my final best back. 

Fred’s parents arrived a little bit later. I had tea with Marie and she enjoyed some of the sand castle cake I had made and said it was delicious. :) Cecile and Prune had gone to Prune’s horse backriding lesson and I had stayed home to let the grandparents into the house and it was nice to get to see them one last time.

When everyone was home and it was time to say goodbye, I went around to hug everyone and Cecile started crying and I was shocked. Cecile is someone that I still don’t know where to put into my mind, because she is so fierce yet so kind and so focused and so creative and so critical and so loving all at once. And she cried because she would miss me! ME! I really didn’t see that coming and I hugged her and wished I could cry with her. I told her I would definitely cry on the airplane, and she said she understood. She handed me photos she had printed out of me and the family and even gave me a cute little purse and told me that we now having matching purses! She told me she had been cryng all day whenever she thought of me leaving, and I was overwhelmed with the pride of meaning so much to her. 

Saying goodbye to Prune was a quick and simple. We hugged goodbye and she kissed me on the cheek and I kissed her on the cheek and then I got into the car with Fred. I had been saying goodbye to Prune for the past week, and there was nothing more I could do in that little last moment. I left letters for both Prune and Cecile/Fred at the house and hoped the letters would do a good enough job of explaining how much I adore that family. 

 

Fred and I left for the airport pretty early just in case there was traffic, and there wasn’t hahaha. We arrived about two hours before my flight would leave, but I was happy because that meant there was lots of times for problems to happen and be fixed! Fred helped me all the way he could. When we stopped at the baggage drop, I asked the lady how much it would be to check another bag, and she said it would be 91 Euros! Seeing that I looked a littel discouraged, she advised me to simply pay for one overweight bag so it would be 40 Euros instead! I was thrilled to hear that, and I happily began rearranging my bags in the middle of the airport. This sight must have made her happy, because afterwards when I went to pay she said it was free for me! :D I love people!!!!!! Fred walked me as far as he could, and then offered to buy me dinner since we had so much time. But I was so ready to just sit down and start blogging and I really wasn’t hungry and I knew he probably wanted to get home to his parents and Cecile and Prune, so we said goodbye and I took off to my gate! 

And here I have been, for about three hours now, just blogging away and waiting for my plane! While I have been writing I have eaten a sandwich and some carrots that I packed and I even helped translate for some paramedics who were helping and English man who wasn’t feeling to well and didn’t speak any French! So I have been having a pretty good time at this airport hahaha. My plane will leave in about 45 minutes, so that is cool. 

I might do some blogging tomorrow morning while I am waiting for my last plane in Copenhagen! Until then, I hope you enjoyed the last chapter of my Parisian adventure and that you won’t miss my blogging too much when I get back to a normal life in the States. :D