Almost One Week Away

Here’s another one Ben, so your keyboard doesn’t get wet. This one was written on Monday, September 15th, 2008. Enjoy! Oh, and tomorrow’s the first regular season Blades game so I better hear about how you all went and had so much fun 🙂

As I sit here drinking my Nescafé coffee, I can’t help but think about how weird it is that everyone I know and love back home is sound asleep in their beds, waiting for an early morning for school or work. Everyone that is, except probably Andrea, who is most likely still on Facebook or photoshopping pictures, or doing whatever she does at three in the morning ☺. Tomorrow, it’s officially been a week since I left and in some ways, it feels shorter but in other ways, it feels like a million times longer. My days have pretty much been the same: waking up at 7, walking Julien to school at 8, coming home and emptying the dishwasher and doing laundry, having lunch at around noon, reading, sleeping, or writing until 4, picking Julien up at school at 4:30, coming back home and playing with the kids until supper (which is usually around 7:30-8), going to bed at around 11, and starting the same thing over again the next day. Even though it’s quite repetitive, I’ve been enjoying myself a lot while I’m here, and I think I’m completely used to the time change now. On Friday, my day was changed a little and I went to Versailles with Catherine so that I could make an appointment to extend my Visa. I was talking to another au pair about it and she said she had to wait for four hours, so I was prepared with a book and lots of paper just in case. I only ended up having to wait for 45 minutes and made an appointment, which isn’t until December. I absolutely loved it in Versailles. I saw the castle from a distance, which was gorgeous and the culture was just absolutely amazing. The city just seemed so alive! Once I got home that day and picked up Julien from school, we literally played 20 games of Uno. Yes, I counted. It was fun though, and I think the kids enjoyed it. On Saturday, I went around the town with Catherine doing errands, and when Julien left for a birthday party, Alexia and I got to spend some time together one on one. Her English is already improving and it was nice to be able to have someone to talk to, even though it took a lot of patience. Her and I spent a lot of time looking through my “I Spy” book, then we played ping pong, the Wii, and she showed me some pictures of her family vacation so she could talk about them. The next morning (yesterday), Catherine and I picked up Alexia from a sleepover and then we went to another town to look for stuff to buy. I guess it’s kind of like a garage sale except in France, everyone just brings all of their stuff downtown to sell so all of the stuff is together. We were there for at least an hour, but Catherine made a few purchases. For lunch, we ate outside in their backyard and I ate lamb for I believe the first time ever. And it was actually really good! Later that afternoon, I went for my first driving lesson, wahoo! That stupid clutch petal is going to tie my brain in a knot. Laurent said I didn’t do that bad, compared to everyone else who has to learn how to drive a standard as well as learn how to drive in general. It’s going to take a while to get used to, but I’ll get it eventually. After that, I went for a bike ride with Laurent and Julien through the forest. I was actually dying, considering I haven’t ridden a bike for at least two years, but it was all good, plus it was nice to see all the scenery. We biked to the town where my school is (Rambouillet), and then biked back. Apparently it was 11 km; that doesn’t really mean anything to me, considering I suck at measurements, but it was fun. The rest of the night, I just relaxed because technically, it was my day off. Now, I’m back to “work” which I love even better than the weekend haha. My goal for this week is to get Julien to start saying English phrases, instead of just talking to me in French all the time. My school’s supposed to call today to let me know when I start, so I think it’ll be either tomorrow or on Friday, depending what level I get into. Their Internet is still not working, which is a shame cause it’s hard enough going without a cell phone and television (well, English television..). Maybe I’ll try to find a wireless Internet place downtown, but in the meantime, I’ll just continue writing on Word and post my entries as soon as I can. I hope everyone has a great sleep and that today will start the week off well. Au revoir!