So here I am. I'm sitting at my computer in a studio apartment in the 5eme arrondissement and I'm wondering how I make a transition from my last entry in 'the Alpha Au-Pair' to here and now. How does one do that?
My blog last left off with my friends and I standing naked in a hammam staring at each other, before getting into the wrong bathtub; and then being exfoliated by strange women who kept giggling about our faux-pas. So much has happened between then and now that I feel like it is almost impossible to catch up completely, so it seems best to just move forward? Suffice it to say that I finished my time in France, I moved back to the states where I got a job, I worked at that job until I couldn't any longer and then I made a mad dash back to Paris.
I am back to being an Au-Pair but I am in such a different situation that I can't even really compare it with the last time. They were two completely separate amazing adventures, just with many of the same details. I am currently living in the 5th arrondissement, basically on the Seine, in the studio apartment of my dreams. I take care of two very busy little boys, ages 4 and 8, I will call them N (4) & L (8). I started my french classes on Monday and am hopeful that my french will continue to improve over the rest of this year.
So far, my host family has been wonderful. They are constantly concerned that I need something, even when I don't, and they are always offering me things. An umbrella (this, I admit, was a stupid thing to forget), a rain jacket (when the airline lost one of my bags, they lost the one with my outerwear, of course), grammar books, normal books, and countless other items. They really are wonderful, and concerned, and they truly want the best for me. As soon as I make friends, they are even going to help me host a dinner party!
The boys are cute, hilarious, weird, and so smart; they make me laugh every day. They don't speak very much English but are eager to learn. N always asks me what something is in English and then when I tell him, he looks at me very seriously and says "hmm okay.' Like he is cataloging it in his little brain for later use. I love it. L has an English teacher twice a week at school, so he comes home and his homework is to practice asking people "What is your name?" and "My name is..." It's really cute.
I am teaching him different English phrases. Two days ago, we took a shortcut home from one of L's activities and he told me "on coupe le fromage." Meaning; we cut the cheese- which means to take a shortcut in France. It made me laugh of course. So I told him what that phrase would mean if he said it in America and he thought it was the best thing ever. So now he repeats it to me often. He also taught his mom. Oops.
Each week I draw them something on their dry erase board that they can practice their English over the weekend. Last week I wrote 'feeling' words and let N draw a picture of each feeling. The week before I drew them a face with all the body parts labeled. I'm not sure what I'll draw them this week maybe different animals... :)
I'm taking language classes that started on Monday and I can't lie, they are harder than they were last time, which is good because it means I have progressed enough to move up a level, but I still feel a little behind.
This weekend is Nuit Blanche, which I assume I posted about on my last go around, but if not: it's a night time art festival; the museums are open late, some of the metros run through the night and there are art exhibits set up all through the city with music and fun things to do. Last time it was rainy, but we walked through this giant interactive art exhibit with light up balloons that you could throw around. From there we parked ourselves at a tent with three guys painting these giant murals to music, all standing next to each other - when the song was over, they'd switch which mural they were painting. I'm excited to see what happens this year, apparently they are turning Gare du Nord into a giant nightclub, so I definitely want to see that.
I think that's going to be all for my first blog post from Paris, it's not very exciting, just a quick catch up!
Friday, October 2, 2015
Friday, March 8, 2013
don't give up on this post
So it has been almost 1,000 years since I have blogged so
this post will hopefully be a quick wrap up of the last few months while I sit
at dance, waiting for H. It is currently the first 2 week vacation break of
this half of the year. The boys are going to their day camp type thing and I
don’t have school so it is kind of a vacation for me as well… except for the
occasional errands. Here is a quick list of all the things in this blog post:
Tupperware party, getting wallet stolen, birthday, small details and then the
best/worst thing that has ever happened to me.
This last weekend I went to a Tupperware party hosted by
some of the girls on Siobhan’s field hockey team and it was actually a ton of
fun. The woman who ran the party brought all her Tupperware and then taught us
to make a bunch of really simple recipes (using her products of course) and
then we all got to eat and hang out. I learned how to make ham and cheese
croissants, chocolate fondant, English crème with a meringue, and these little
cake things with shrimp and zucchini. Of course, I have zero money (this story
coming next) so I couldn’t buy anything from her, but if I could have trust me
I would have bought almost the entire catalogue. However, just for attending
they are sending me a ravioli press, so I’m pretty excited about that.
The reason I have no money is not for lack of it, but
because someone stole my wallet! I was at WOS as per usual and my bag was
hanging on a hook underneath the bar in the middle of all of my friends. None
of us had moved from that location so we are all at a loss as to how it
happened, but all of the sudden I look down and my wallet was hanging outside
of my bag, completely empty. Not even a single centime. Annoying. Now, French
credit/debit cards all have a microchip in them and are ONLY usable with a pin
number, so that was essentially useless to this person. My American card was
called and cancelled immediately. My navigo pass (for the train/metro) was gone
but had my name and photo on it and if anyone is caught using it there is a
HUGE fine, then my student ID card from IU and my Indiana Drivers License were
all stolen as well. I think there was possibly 20 euro in the wallet at the
time, so really, the most that person got away with was a 20 euro bill and one
really good photo of me from college (the only reason I kept the IU ID).
Luckily, I have the most wonderful friends in the universe and they took care
of me, drove me home, gave me money to take the metro and fed me. Actually, I
spent the night at Siobhan and Thomas’s apartment and in the morning they let
me make cookies in their kitchen and it made me feel about 1000x better. Upon
returning home that day, my parents called me to let me know that someone had
found my driver’s license, used the address on it to find my home phone number
and had called my parents to tell them they found it. How nice is that?! So the
man left it in an envelope at a café for me and I went to pick it up this
weekend. Other than that, replacing things has been annoying. My navigo cost 23
euro to replace and they only take Carte Bancaire (credit/debit cards) at most
stations. Can someone please tell me how that makes sense at all? Someone stole
my wallet. HOW WOULD I HAVE A CB TO PAY YOU? After going to 4 different RATP
offices (being redirected about 1,000 times because 1. There was no one working
2. They only took CB 3. They weren’t authorized to do replacements) I get to
the 4th completely and obviously exhausted (and also poor from
buying all the metro tickets to cart myself around) when the woman tells me
that they too only take CB. I must have had an exasperated look on my face
because the woman said, “listen… do you have the 23 euro in cash on you right
now in exact change?” I did. “I will put it on my CB and you can pay me the
cash directly.” If there hadn’t been a window and a desk between us I would
have hugged her. So then within about 5 minutes, I had a new navigo.
My other American cards are on their way here, and I need to
go tomorrow and talk to my French bank about getting my French card replaced.
I’ve been avoiding it because they don’t like me very much… every other week I
get a phone call from them about how I don’t have a positive balance and blah
blah blah. My bad, guys.
My birthday was good. Definitely very strange being away
from my friends and family, but luckily I had a wonderful time with the people
here (despite getting robbed haha) Katherine, Valerie and I got sushi and ice
cream for lunch on the day of my birthday then after work I headed to WOS for a
small drink and Siobhan had made me a chocolate cake and even brought candles.
They lit the cake and sang happy birthday and then I proceeded to embarrass myself
in front of the entire bar when they were trick candles and I absolutely COULD
NOT get them to go out. We all had a good chuckle and then I went home and
watched IU win in REAL LIVE TIME. Host dad was travelling for business on my
birthday so we didn’t do anything; but they invited me to their apartment for
dinner Saturday night. We had a raclette (my first) and it was delicious.
Basically it’s just melted cheese on top of a potato and ham, what’s not to
love about that? Then when dinner was over, A told me he had a surprise and he
and host mom went into the kitchen and came back with a cake that he had baked
for me, they sang me happy birthday and then I let all the kids help me blow
out the candles. It was really sweet.
Let’s see… what else... I feel like I am pretty much
skipping January because it was cold and I don’t really think anything too
amazing happened? I basically laid in bed and was cold all month except for the
week that AUGUSTA came to visit. It was literally wonderful being reunited with
her and if she is reading this she just needs to stop dragging her feet and
move back because I miss her.
Jen also moved back to the US during these few months which
made me sad but before that happened we went to Versailles which, as everyone
knows, is my favorite place in the universe so… that was perfect even though it
was freezing. We were the coldest people on the planet that day.
OH WAIT. I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED IN JANUARY. THIS IS THE
GREATEST STORY OF MY LIFE. SO, for Siobhan’s birthday, Thomas bought her a gift
certificate to a Hammam, a Turkish steam bath. Upon hearing that it was not
that expensive, Katherine and I decided to tag along. We made the reservations
and were happy little clams. We knew very little about hammam’s but knew that
there is some level of unabashed nudity involved. We chalked it up to being in
Europe and just decided to bite the bullet and get over it. We get to the spa,
which was absolutely gorgeous, and are slowly directed around. We are taken to
a little locker room type area and given lockers and told to get ready and then
when we were, we could head into the steam room where someone would greet us
and tell us what to do/where to go. In these lockers were flip flops, white
cotton robes, towels and something in a little plastic bag that we assumed was
a shower cap (this was only confirmed at a much later date).
At this point, we all look around awkwardly and realize that this is it; it’s officially time for us to get naked under our little robes. We kinda look around to see if we should get all the way naked or what, and we see a girl start to put her underwear on so we just decide to go for it. We head into the steam room fully unclothed but wearing our little cotton robes and a woman comes to greet us. She says she will take our robes and we can get started. So there we are, the three of us standing naked in the middle of a spa room with massage tables, exfoliating tables, women who work there, and clients. I see one of the women workers absolutely crack up and I look around and realize that everyone else is wearing some kind of underwear or bathing suit. Except us. Naked as the day we were born. In public. God bless the woman who was in charge of us because she handled it with so much grace that I would never have been able to muster. She got us the right equipment (weird disposable underwear) and got us on our way. They explained the spa to us and said we could get started. We sit in the first steam room for a while and relax and then it gets hot and we go into the second room they told us we could go into if we were hot. In this room there are benches and also a little cool water pool, so we go into the pool. After about 5 minutes of being in the pool, a woman comes in to tell us that the pool is the very LAST thing on the agenda, and that we aren’t allowed in until after. So not only did we just get super naked in front of everyone, now we are doing the wrong thing and in trouble. After that we just kept our heads down. We got a full body exfoliation, a shampoo treatment and a head massage, THEN we were allowed in the lavender bath and they gave us homemade lemonade and we went about our evening. CASUALLY OF COURSE. And now dance is over so I guess that’s all for now.
At this point, we all look around awkwardly and realize that this is it; it’s officially time for us to get naked under our little robes. We kinda look around to see if we should get all the way naked or what, and we see a girl start to put her underwear on so we just decide to go for it. We head into the steam room fully unclothed but wearing our little cotton robes and a woman comes to greet us. She says she will take our robes and we can get started. So there we are, the three of us standing naked in the middle of a spa room with massage tables, exfoliating tables, women who work there, and clients. I see one of the women workers absolutely crack up and I look around and realize that everyone else is wearing some kind of underwear or bathing suit. Except us. Naked as the day we were born. In public. God bless the woman who was in charge of us because she handled it with so much grace that I would never have been able to muster. She got us the right equipment (weird disposable underwear) and got us on our way. They explained the spa to us and said we could get started. We sit in the first steam room for a while and relax and then it gets hot and we go into the second room they told us we could go into if we were hot. In this room there are benches and also a little cool water pool, so we go into the pool. After about 5 minutes of being in the pool, a woman comes in to tell us that the pool is the very LAST thing on the agenda, and that we aren’t allowed in until after. So not only did we just get super naked in front of everyone, now we are doing the wrong thing and in trouble. After that we just kept our heads down. We got a full body exfoliation, a shampoo treatment and a head massage, THEN we were allowed in the lavender bath and they gave us homemade lemonade and we went about our evening. CASUALLY OF COURSE. And now dance is over so I guess that’s all for now.
What is my life?
Monday, December 10, 2012
Le metro
When I got to france, host dad told me thy I needed to always have a book on the metro and that I shouldn't make eye contact with anyone. Sometimes I forget my book & I want to recount the various awkward encounters I've had thus far. I've got some gems.
The singing accordion player
Very often, people play instruments on the metro and people give them a little bit of money if they play well. There is one accordion player who is constantly on line 3 and we keep having extremely awkward run in's. This one particular evening he stopped playing his song and in front of the entire metro car, told me I was the most beautiful person he has ever seen. People clapped. It was uncomfortable. Every time I have seen him afterwards he has winked at me.
The hop-off
Also on line 3, a man got on the metro and sat directly across from me. He was humming and singing to himself but wasn't threatening in the least. He asked if I had a tissue, I did not (bad Au Pair) he asked several other people, eventually found one and then went back to humming his song. It came time for me to get off the metro and switch lines so I got off. As I walked through the metro station I heard a "mademoiselle!!!" and turned around to see this guy had hopped off the metro and run after me, I assumed I dropped something and stopped. He proceeded to invite me to get a coffee and told me I was really pretty and he would have regretted the chance not to at least invite me for coffee. I politely said no thank you but that it was really sweet, he wished me a wonderful night and then went to wait for the next train.
Let's get married
Staying out until 6am is always awful. It's so exhausting and taking the train in the morning is rough because there are rowdy drunk people, so you never go alone. This time, Katherine and I were taking the metro back and an extremely drunk guy heard us speaking English, and told me he really wants to live in the United States one day and proceeded to propose to me and then introduce me to the entire train as his woman. He was not bad looking. Should have let that one ride.
Naked homeless
This happened just the other night, I was sitting on the 1 and a man gets on the metro with his guitar case and he is just talking a mile a minute. I understand exactly nothing of what he is saying but immediately realize he is homeless. He sits across from a really pretty blonde girl and starts waving at her and trying to get her attention. All of the sudden he lifts up his shirt and shows her his stomach. Everyone is horrified. He then unbuttons his shirt and flashes his whole chest and everyone. Literally speechless. He then sat on the metro and played his guitar the rest of the ride. It was weird.
Lesbian dance party
Waiting for the metro one night and it finally pulls up in front of me. I should have known better when I saw people dancing on the car I got onto but I just assumed this was a rowdy group of French people who would mind their own business. Not true. I sit down and am unnoticed for several minutes, enough to get a good look at the situation. It's a group of 7 people, 2 girls dressed really fancy with short skirts and hiiiigh heels, one girl with super short hair, a sports bra and these weird pants that I can only describe as short parachute pants, then the rest were guys dressed pretty scuzzily. They had these homemade instruments that were like big sticks with strings and looked African? All of this is completely surreal to me. They are dancing and shouting and the girl with the weird pants is doing hand stands and swinging from the handle bars. I consider getting off and switching compartments when one of the guys spots me. I knew immediately I was in for it. He comes up and serenades me in a language that I didn't recognize and then dances around me. He tries to take my hand and kiss it but the girl in the weird pants intercepts him and does it herself. The two of them proceed to dance literally on top of me even though I kept saying "arrêtez s'il vous plaît" and then the girl tells me she loves me and the entire group got off the train and went about their way. Um...what?
Riding in the conductors cabin of the metro
Waiting to take the metro home from school one day, hands in my pockets, I yawn. At the moment I yawn, the metro pulls up and the conductor opens his front door and tells me that it's rude not to cover your mouth when you yawn. I apologize and start to get into the train. He tells me to come in the front compartment with him, and he will show me how the train works. I say no thank you and scurry onto the train. I sit down and the conductor then opens a door into the compartment. He tells me he won't drive the train until I get into the front of it. There were like 20 people in my compartment staring at me, looking at me like 'um, get into the front section. Now. We're late.' I'm only going 3 stops and I really have wanted to ride in the front of the train... So I go.
He sets me up in a little seat next to him and starts showing me buttons and levers and then asks if I like Tupac and plays some songs on his iPhone. He introduced himself to me (I immediately forgot his name on accident) and am just content to watch the view from the front of the train. It was actually pretty cool. Suddenly it was my stop, I thank him and he tells me that he drives the 2 every afternoon and if he ever sees me waiting for it, I am not allowed to ride in the passenger cabin, I have to ride with him.
I am the queen of the metro
The singing accordion player
Very often, people play instruments on the metro and people give them a little bit of money if they play well. There is one accordion player who is constantly on line 3 and we keep having extremely awkward run in's. This one particular evening he stopped playing his song and in front of the entire metro car, told me I was the most beautiful person he has ever seen. People clapped. It was uncomfortable. Every time I have seen him afterwards he has winked at me.
The hop-off
Also on line 3, a man got on the metro and sat directly across from me. He was humming and singing to himself but wasn't threatening in the least. He asked if I had a tissue, I did not (bad Au Pair) he asked several other people, eventually found one and then went back to humming his song. It came time for me to get off the metro and switch lines so I got off. As I walked through the metro station I heard a "mademoiselle!!!" and turned around to see this guy had hopped off the metro and run after me, I assumed I dropped something and stopped. He proceeded to invite me to get a coffee and told me I was really pretty and he would have regretted the chance not to at least invite me for coffee. I politely said no thank you but that it was really sweet, he wished me a wonderful night and then went to wait for the next train.
Let's get married
Staying out until 6am is always awful. It's so exhausting and taking the train in the morning is rough because there are rowdy drunk people, so you never go alone. This time, Katherine and I were taking the metro back and an extremely drunk guy heard us speaking English, and told me he really wants to live in the United States one day and proceeded to propose to me and then introduce me to the entire train as his woman. He was not bad looking. Should have let that one ride.
Naked homeless
This happened just the other night, I was sitting on the 1 and a man gets on the metro with his guitar case and he is just talking a mile a minute. I understand exactly nothing of what he is saying but immediately realize he is homeless. He sits across from a really pretty blonde girl and starts waving at her and trying to get her attention. All of the sudden he lifts up his shirt and shows her his stomach. Everyone is horrified. He then unbuttons his shirt and flashes his whole chest and everyone. Literally speechless. He then sat on the metro and played his guitar the rest of the ride. It was weird.
Lesbian dance party
Waiting for the metro one night and it finally pulls up in front of me. I should have known better when I saw people dancing on the car I got onto but I just assumed this was a rowdy group of French people who would mind their own business. Not true. I sit down and am unnoticed for several minutes, enough to get a good look at the situation. It's a group of 7 people, 2 girls dressed really fancy with short skirts and hiiiigh heels, one girl with super short hair, a sports bra and these weird pants that I can only describe as short parachute pants, then the rest were guys dressed pretty scuzzily. They had these homemade instruments that were like big sticks with strings and looked African? All of this is completely surreal to me. They are dancing and shouting and the girl with the weird pants is doing hand stands and swinging from the handle bars. I consider getting off and switching compartments when one of the guys spots me. I knew immediately I was in for it. He comes up and serenades me in a language that I didn't recognize and then dances around me. He tries to take my hand and kiss it but the girl in the weird pants intercepts him and does it herself. The two of them proceed to dance literally on top of me even though I kept saying "arrêtez s'il vous plaît" and then the girl tells me she loves me and the entire group got off the train and went about their way. Um...what?
Riding in the conductors cabin of the metro
Waiting to take the metro home from school one day, hands in my pockets, I yawn. At the moment I yawn, the metro pulls up and the conductor opens his front door and tells me that it's rude not to cover your mouth when you yawn. I apologize and start to get into the train. He tells me to come in the front compartment with him, and he will show me how the train works. I say no thank you and scurry onto the train. I sit down and the conductor then opens a door into the compartment. He tells me he won't drive the train until I get into the front of it. There were like 20 people in my compartment staring at me, looking at me like 'um, get into the front section. Now. We're late.' I'm only going 3 stops and I really have wanted to ride in the front of the train... So I go.
He sets me up in a little seat next to him and starts showing me buttons and levers and then asks if I like Tupac and plays some songs on his iPhone. He introduced himself to me (I immediately forgot his name on accident) and am just content to watch the view from the front of the train. It was actually pretty cool. Suddenly it was my stop, I thank him and he tells me that he drives the 2 every afternoon and if he ever sees me waiting for it, I am not allowed to ride in the passenger cabin, I have to ride with him.
I am the queen of the metro
Yes it's rude here too. But who are you voting for?
My first few days here were immediately after the French election. One of the first things that A said to me was "so, who did you vote for?" I tried explaining to him that I am American and that I did not vote. This was confusing to him. "Why wouldn't you vote? Everyone votes. My dad voted for XXXXXXX"
This left a big impression on me. A 5 year old knew who his dad voted for and knew that it was important to vote and although he didn't quite understand, he was horrified that I didn't vote. So naturally as November approached they grew extremely curious about our election and I learned more about theirs. Here is what I learned.
Everyone in France has a political opinion. Everyone is extremely well informed about politics of not only France but also the world (although slightly biased by their pretty liberal culture). The French voting percentage is in the mid 80's and they were absolutely horrified to hear how low ours is in comparison. There are many many political parties in France, more than 5 and each is either as liberal or more liberal than ours, even their 'conservative' parties.
They are currently voting to legalize gay marriage which is causing a lot of uproar in the predominantly catholic country but I believe will ultimately be passed. All other personal rights remain extremely open in comparison to ours.
The French are well informed of American politics but from what I discovered, they really only hear the big points of the arguments and sometimes they didn't understand them. They would ask me to explain what was meant by certain comments made by the politicians and I would have to do my best to explain them.
The first time the family asked me who I was voting for, I started to explain that in the US it's not really appropriate to ask people who they are voting for because it's a personal thing and they said that it was the exact same in France. (Note that this didn't stop them from asking me... however I take it as a sign that they see me as part of the family so it's no longer necessary to follow etiquette rules like that.)
I shared my political views with them and we actually had a nice discussion involving American politics, trying to explain the electoral college to them (this was seriously next to impossible) and comparing our two processes.
The funniest thing to me is that the French didn't seem to understand why anyone would vote for Romney. They treated the election like a formality and assumed Obama would win with flying colors. Not a single person seemed concerned that he may not win, which I also tried to explain to them. I told them how close the election was and that lots of Americans did in fact want Romney to win, to which L scoffed and said "god, Americans are stupid." (This is a typical sentiment echoed by her on a semi-weekly basis; we're stupid, fat, lazy, etc. I have learned to ignore these comments because she is 14 and I remember that everything was stupid around that age.) but it also wasn't just the French. German girls in my classes, Swedish girls and various other Europeans would just come right out and ask who I was voting for and when they got the answer it was a resounding 'ohhhhh good'.
Finally it came time for the election and despite my fathers insistence and organization and help with my absentee ballot, I didn't get it turned in on time. (Read, dad told me 1,000 times to do it and I kept saying that I would, eventually I sent it in just under the wire and was informed that it was too late. Let this be a lesson, daddy's are always right.) So I did not vote in this election and I feel very un-American.
In effort to right this wrong, I only felt it appropriate to go sit at WOS for the entire evening and watch the election from start to finish. I wore a navy blue shirt, a red white and blue hair bow and painted my nails as close to red white and blue as possible (dark pink, blue, light pink)
I watched the election with Katherine, Jen, Jo and the Swedes, by the end it was just Jo and I who made it the entire night (this was a feat and a half considering I had to take care of children the next day and that we are 6 hours ahead of the US so we had to wait that much longer.
The French were extremely happy that Obama won and think its funny, ridiculous and ignorant that people are trying to secede. Let's be honest... Because it is.
This left a big impression on me. A 5 year old knew who his dad voted for and knew that it was important to vote and although he didn't quite understand, he was horrified that I didn't vote. So naturally as November approached they grew extremely curious about our election and I learned more about theirs. Here is what I learned.
Everyone in France has a political opinion. Everyone is extremely well informed about politics of not only France but also the world (although slightly biased by their pretty liberal culture). The French voting percentage is in the mid 80's and they were absolutely horrified to hear how low ours is in comparison. There are many many political parties in France, more than 5 and each is either as liberal or more liberal than ours, even their 'conservative' parties.
They are currently voting to legalize gay marriage which is causing a lot of uproar in the predominantly catholic country but I believe will ultimately be passed. All other personal rights remain extremely open in comparison to ours.
The French are well informed of American politics but from what I discovered, they really only hear the big points of the arguments and sometimes they didn't understand them. They would ask me to explain what was meant by certain comments made by the politicians and I would have to do my best to explain them.
The first time the family asked me who I was voting for, I started to explain that in the US it's not really appropriate to ask people who they are voting for because it's a personal thing and they said that it was the exact same in France. (Note that this didn't stop them from asking me... however I take it as a sign that they see me as part of the family so it's no longer necessary to follow etiquette rules like that.)
I shared my political views with them and we actually had a nice discussion involving American politics, trying to explain the electoral college to them (this was seriously next to impossible) and comparing our two processes.
The funniest thing to me is that the French didn't seem to understand why anyone would vote for Romney. They treated the election like a formality and assumed Obama would win with flying colors. Not a single person seemed concerned that he may not win, which I also tried to explain to them. I told them how close the election was and that lots of Americans did in fact want Romney to win, to which L scoffed and said "god, Americans are stupid." (This is a typical sentiment echoed by her on a semi-weekly basis; we're stupid, fat, lazy, etc. I have learned to ignore these comments because she is 14 and I remember that everything was stupid around that age.) but it also wasn't just the French. German girls in my classes, Swedish girls and various other Europeans would just come right out and ask who I was voting for and when they got the answer it was a resounding 'ohhhhh good'.
Finally it came time for the election and despite my fathers insistence and organization and help with my absentee ballot, I didn't get it turned in on time. (Read, dad told me 1,000 times to do it and I kept saying that I would, eventually I sent it in just under the wire and was informed that it was too late. Let this be a lesson, daddy's are always right.) So I did not vote in this election and I feel very un-American.
In effort to right this wrong, I only felt it appropriate to go sit at WOS for the entire evening and watch the election from start to finish. I wore a navy blue shirt, a red white and blue hair bow and painted my nails as close to red white and blue as possible (dark pink, blue, light pink)
I watched the election with Katherine, Jen, Jo and the Swedes, by the end it was just Jo and I who made it the entire night (this was a feat and a half considering I had to take care of children the next day and that we are 6 hours ahead of the US so we had to wait that much longer.
The French were extremely happy that Obama won and think its funny, ridiculous and ignorant that people are trying to secede. Let's be honest... Because it is.
Parc Asterix; the coldest I've ever been
For the teenagers birthday, she asked me to go with her and her friend to a theme park just outside of Paris. I hear 'theme park outside of Paris' and my brain goes like this:
OMGPARISDISNEYWORLDICANTWAITTOGOIVENEVERBEENTOREALDISNEYWORLDIMFREAKINGOUTIHOPEIMEETSLEEPINGBEAUTY!!!!!!!!!
My princess dreams are cut short when she says she wants to go to Parc Asterix, a French theme park based on a French comic book about a time traveling Viking and his friends. (I think) but hey, of course I'll go, sounds awesome!
I agree to go the Saturday that they ask me to because; hey, free theme park with roller coasters? Why not. So I get up at 6:30 on a Saturday (not fun) and we take the metro to the louvre and board a bus that will take about an hour to get Parc Asterix and bring us back at 6:30. It doesn't open until 10 so we wait just a little bit until the park opens. It's a little chilly and cloudy, which was concerning but I decide to think nothing of it.
We go ride the big roller coasters first before the lines get long. There were about 2-3 big roller coasters, definitely nowhere near as big as the roller coasters that I have been on, but they were okay. Around the end 3rd roller coaster it starts pouring down rain. I go on one more roller coaster with the girls were I got drenched down to my absolute bones. Not a single inch of me was dry.
I immediately started shivering, we wandered around the park for a while until deciding to have lunch and warm up. The food at this amusement park/ the set up was really interesting. They had real food not just burgers. And there was a buffet section that came free with your meal. It was ridiculous.
I wanted to stay in that warm restaurant all day, and the teenager told me I totally could but I didn't want to leave the girls wandering a park alone so after lunch I followed them around but was uninterested in the other rides. They were all kinda lame or closed and the teens just wanted to go back and forth from one big roller coaster to the other. I basically just followed and then sat at the exits, soaking wet and freezing.
Finally the girls were cold too so we went inside and shopped around in the 4,000 gift shops and we went on a carousel possibly 6 times because it was covered from the rain. I picked a pink horse and didn't move. No one was shocked.
I have never been so cold, wet, or tired in my lifetime. Finally after the longest and coldest hours of my life, the sun came out. I am not joking when I say that I found a patch of sun and just stood in it for the duration of the day trying to warm up. The girls rode some ride 15 times in a row so it was totally fine that I didn't move. On our way out, we buy waffles with chocolate (delicious and horridly messy) and finally get onto a bus to take us back home.
We get back to the apartment and I take the hottest shower possible. When my shower runs out of hot water (spoiler alert, within 10 minutes) I get out, sit and wait a half an hour for it to get warm again and take another steaming hot shower. I somehow made it out that night to WOS for the back-to-school party, but don't ask me how because I have no idea.
The pictures: Asterix sitting on top of a mountain, my pink carousel horse, other horses on the carousel, Siobhan and I in silly costumes at the back to school party.
OMGPARISDISNEYWORLDICANTWAITTOGOIVENEVERBEENTOREALDISNEYWORLDIMFREAKINGOUTIHOPEIMEETSLEEPINGBEAUTY!!!!!!!!!
My princess dreams are cut short when she says she wants to go to Parc Asterix, a French theme park based on a French comic book about a time traveling Viking and his friends. (I think) but hey, of course I'll go, sounds awesome!
I agree to go the Saturday that they ask me to because; hey, free theme park with roller coasters? Why not. So I get up at 6:30 on a Saturday (not fun) and we take the metro to the louvre and board a bus that will take about an hour to get Parc Asterix and bring us back at 6:30. It doesn't open until 10 so we wait just a little bit until the park opens. It's a little chilly and cloudy, which was concerning but I decide to think nothing of it.
We go ride the big roller coasters first before the lines get long. There were about 2-3 big roller coasters, definitely nowhere near as big as the roller coasters that I have been on, but they were okay. Around the end 3rd roller coaster it starts pouring down rain. I go on one more roller coaster with the girls were I got drenched down to my absolute bones. Not a single inch of me was dry.
I immediately started shivering, we wandered around the park for a while until deciding to have lunch and warm up. The food at this amusement park/ the set up was really interesting. They had real food not just burgers. And there was a buffet section that came free with your meal. It was ridiculous.
I wanted to stay in that warm restaurant all day, and the teenager told me I totally could but I didn't want to leave the girls wandering a park alone so after lunch I followed them around but was uninterested in the other rides. They were all kinda lame or closed and the teens just wanted to go back and forth from one big roller coaster to the other. I basically just followed and then sat at the exits, soaking wet and freezing.
Finally the girls were cold too so we went inside and shopped around in the 4,000 gift shops and we went on a carousel possibly 6 times because it was covered from the rain. I picked a pink horse and didn't move. No one was shocked.
I have never been so cold, wet, or tired in my lifetime. Finally after the longest and coldest hours of my life, the sun came out. I am not joking when I say that I found a patch of sun and just stood in it for the duration of the day trying to warm up. The girls rode some ride 15 times in a row so it was totally fine that I didn't move. On our way out, we buy waffles with chocolate (delicious and horridly messy) and finally get onto a bus to take us back home.
We get back to the apartment and I take the hottest shower possible. When my shower runs out of hot water (spoiler alert, within 10 minutes) I get out, sit and wait a half an hour for it to get warm again and take another steaming hot shower. I somehow made it out that night to WOS for the back-to-school party, but don't ask me how because I have no idea.
The pictures: Asterix sitting on top of a mountain, my pink carousel horse, other horses on the carousel, Siobhan and I in silly costumes at the back to school party.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Halloweenish
I don't really like Halloween. It stresses me out because I always want to be something witty or funny but am neither witty nor funny enough to come up with a good costume and I end up stressed for days trying to come up with something and I always just end up saying, 'forget it' and going as something totally lame. French Halloween was no different.
When the kids lived in Singapore they celebrated Halloween so they are extremely familiar with the concept, but it isn't very popular in France. There were no decorations, big bags of candy, costumes or anything, but the kids wanted them. I'm sure if I had really looked into it, I could have found some sort of Halloween celebration somewhere in Paris for kids with candy but like I said, I'm not super into Halloween (read: I got lazy).
This year, Halloween fell during the kids 2 week fall break. (Recall that French schools run for 6 weeks and then give kids a 2 week break throughout the school year.) The boys ended up going to a camp type thing that is set up by the Mayor of Paris in each school and it ran the entire day, so my schedule wasn't really changed, I just took them to the school and picked them up each night but didn't have school myself, which was nice. H went to a friends house for a week and L always does her own thing so I didn't have much to do. This whole set up was really convenient for me to just skip over celebrating with the kids. No one seemed to mind. We played dress up in their costumes and ran around for a bit. A was allowed to dress up to go to the school but he couldn't decide what costume to wear. We're kindred spirits, I guess. He packed a backpack with both a Spiderman costume and a knight costume so he could decide once we got there.
We walked into the school and he pulled on my hand and told me that he had decided he wanted to be Spiderman and asked if I could help him put it on before he saw his friends. That little Spiderman was so cute I couldn't stand it. He ran inside and I heard all of his friends tell him how cool he looked, it was adorable.
For grown up Halloween, WOS had a Zombie themed Halloween Party and my darling friend Pierre let me borrow a costume to wear, but I couldn't find anything that was witty or clever so I picked a prisoner and planned on putting on some zombie makeup but we couldn't find it, so... oh well. Katherine went as Laura Croft, Jen went as Catwoman/Zoro and Jo just wore a skirt?
There were some of the scariest and most disgusting looking zombies at this party. Francois was dressed so scary, people were covered in fake blood, there was a guy with an eyeball falling out, and all of the bartenders wore contacts that made their eyes so scary and like 8 different colors. I quickly realized that in France, Halloween is not the excuse girls use to wear skimpy (or occasionally witty) costumes. Halloween is supposed to be scary and let me tell you, it was.
Sorry that this blog post read like it was written by an 8 year old. I'm so exhausted.
More to come!
When the kids lived in Singapore they celebrated Halloween so they are extremely familiar with the concept, but it isn't very popular in France. There were no decorations, big bags of candy, costumes or anything, but the kids wanted them. I'm sure if I had really looked into it, I could have found some sort of Halloween celebration somewhere in Paris for kids with candy but like I said, I'm not super into Halloween (read: I got lazy).
This year, Halloween fell during the kids 2 week fall break. (Recall that French schools run for 6 weeks and then give kids a 2 week break throughout the school year.) The boys ended up going to a camp type thing that is set up by the Mayor of Paris in each school and it ran the entire day, so my schedule wasn't really changed, I just took them to the school and picked them up each night but didn't have school myself, which was nice. H went to a friends house for a week and L always does her own thing so I didn't have much to do. This whole set up was really convenient for me to just skip over celebrating with the kids. No one seemed to mind. We played dress up in their costumes and ran around for a bit. A was allowed to dress up to go to the school but he couldn't decide what costume to wear. We're kindred spirits, I guess. He packed a backpack with both a Spiderman costume and a knight costume so he could decide once we got there.
We walked into the school and he pulled on my hand and told me that he had decided he wanted to be Spiderman and asked if I could help him put it on before he saw his friends. That little Spiderman was so cute I couldn't stand it. He ran inside and I heard all of his friends tell him how cool he looked, it was adorable.
For grown up Halloween, WOS had a Zombie themed Halloween Party and my darling friend Pierre let me borrow a costume to wear, but I couldn't find anything that was witty or clever so I picked a prisoner and planned on putting on some zombie makeup but we couldn't find it, so... oh well. Katherine went as Laura Croft, Jen went as Catwoman/Zoro and Jo just wore a skirt?
There were some of the scariest and most disgusting looking zombies at this party. Francois was dressed so scary, people were covered in fake blood, there was a guy with an eyeball falling out, and all of the bartenders wore contacts that made their eyes so scary and like 8 different colors. I quickly realized that in France, Halloween is not the excuse girls use to wear skimpy (or occasionally witty) costumes. Halloween is supposed to be scary and let me tell you, it was.
Sorry that this blog post read like it was written by an 8 year old. I'm so exhausted.
More to come!
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
The zombie burlesque show that wasn't
I have a million things to write about and I keep forgetting to write them all down and then more things happen and I get so bogged down that now I'm desperately playing catch up! So...sorry about that!
The thing I love about Paris is that on any given day/night you can find a thousand and one things to do. Movies, plays, museums, weird themed parties, bars that are open until all hours of the night etc.
This story takes place on a random Saturday night. I went to Siobhan's house and she informed me of a Zombie Burlesque Show happening near where she lived. Obviously we decide to go. We were not really sure what all it entails,and we were slightly terrified but interested none the less. We catch a bus and head to the area.
We go down the street to the address and come to two huge doors with people standing outside and posters everywhere. We assume this is the place of the show and go inside. You know what they say about assuming things... We pay a small cover and walk inside. It's an old theatre that has been converted into a club, the theatre geek in me is totally tweaking out. It's suuuuper crowded but no one is dressed up like zombies so we are a little confused. There was a band of at least 10 people on stage, wearing horrifying outfits that I am positive came from a French version of hot topic. There were 3 women singers and they kept rotating, each one wearing a terrifying outfit. Siobhan and I were the youngest people there by a solid 10 years.
After about 10 minutes, we realized that we were not in the right location. This band was apparently in the middle of an intense set of weird pop-punk French music and the crowd of middle aged french people was breaking it down like I have never seen before. We headed to an upper balcony to observe.
We let it ride for a little bit and eventually leave, sad that we didn't see any burlesque zombies and confused about why we didn't. We then realize that we walked the wrong way down the street and the zombie burlesque show was towards the other way. (A fact we realize when we see skulls painted on the ground heading in the opposite direction.) we decide to head that way just to check it out.
We immediately realize we have found the right place when a woman in a corset, petticoats and full on zombie make up is taking tickets at the door. We would have gone in but we already paid cover at the other place and poverty is a serious issue for Au pairs.
We meet up with Siobhan's friend and head out to oberkampf and just hang out for a bit until the place we went to closed. The metro is also closed but Julia and I take the night bus, a terrifying experience that I will never do alone, but convenient and free to get home instead of paying for a cab.
We had so much awkward and strange fun that night but I genuinely hope someday Siobhan and I find and attend a zombie burlesque show. It's now on the top of my 'must do while in Paris' list.
The thing I love about Paris is that on any given day/night you can find a thousand and one things to do. Movies, plays, museums, weird themed parties, bars that are open until all hours of the night etc.
This story takes place on a random Saturday night. I went to Siobhan's house and she informed me of a Zombie Burlesque Show happening near where she lived. Obviously we decide to go. We were not really sure what all it entails,and we were slightly terrified but interested none the less. We catch a bus and head to the area.
We go down the street to the address and come to two huge doors with people standing outside and posters everywhere. We assume this is the place of the show and go inside. You know what they say about assuming things... We pay a small cover and walk inside. It's an old theatre that has been converted into a club, the theatre geek in me is totally tweaking out. It's suuuuper crowded but no one is dressed up like zombies so we are a little confused. There was a band of at least 10 people on stage, wearing horrifying outfits that I am positive came from a French version of hot topic. There were 3 women singers and they kept rotating, each one wearing a terrifying outfit. Siobhan and I were the youngest people there by a solid 10 years.
After about 10 minutes, we realized that we were not in the right location. This band was apparently in the middle of an intense set of weird pop-punk French music and the crowd of middle aged french people was breaking it down like I have never seen before. We headed to an upper balcony to observe.
We let it ride for a little bit and eventually leave, sad that we didn't see any burlesque zombies and confused about why we didn't. We then realize that we walked the wrong way down the street and the zombie burlesque show was towards the other way. (A fact we realize when we see skulls painted on the ground heading in the opposite direction.) we decide to head that way just to check it out.
We immediately realize we have found the right place when a woman in a corset, petticoats and full on zombie make up is taking tickets at the door. We would have gone in but we already paid cover at the other place and poverty is a serious issue for Au pairs.
We meet up with Siobhan's friend and head out to oberkampf and just hang out for a bit until the place we went to closed. The metro is also closed but Julia and I take the night bus, a terrifying experience that I will never do alone, but convenient and free to get home instead of paying for a cab.
We had so much awkward and strange fun that night but I genuinely hope someday Siobhan and I find and attend a zombie burlesque show. It's now on the top of my 'must do while in Paris' list.
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