SO WEEK TWO HERE WE GO.
the kids had school every day except wednesday like normal this week. so i just chill, iron, do whatever all day...most of the time it ends up in me shopping which isn't the best but hey when in france...? :) i started my french class on monday so i went and there are four other girls in imy class. two other au pairs, one from ethiopia and the other from new zealand, and the two others have guys who are french, the one is married to a french man and is from the phillipines, and the other is german american and has a boyfriend who's french who is on the nantes basketball team. they are super nice and on monday we went to lunch after class so it was nice to get out and meet some new people and go out. French is killing me. the teacher speaks to us only in french which is good, and she's a really good teacher, but i don't know how to explain anything in french and the pronunciation is all different. And my spanish comes out when i try to speak french. i feel like the french don't pronounce a lot of letters but in spanish they pronounce like all of them and so i put my spanish accent on french words and it just doesn't work. some things are extremely similar to spanish and others...not so much. she was asking what people bring to other people when they're invited over for dinner or something and the teacher was saying people in france normally bring "gateaus" and i was so lost because it sounds just like "gato" which is cat in spanish and i was like if someone brought me a cat when i invited them over they'd never be invited again...-_- and we were filling out this worksheet and i accidentally put the wrong verb in the wrong place so i wrote that i buy my friends when the to buy verb was supposed to go somewhere else. i don't buy friends i promise. it's a struggle. work in progress. i feel like i'm getting better at spanish rather than french hahaha. it'll come.
on wednesday we went into town and stopped at the castle and holy cow it is so pretty and awesome! it's crazy that it's older than my country. it was so fun to explore and read about it and learn all about it. the whole time i was there i was thinking how i'd break into it and climb it if i had to. it was well built, i would've had a hard time. (don't worry, i wanted to try and climb the walls and stuff but i resisted) then we went through more of the city center and i found more of my favorite stores so france...you're not going to be good on my wallet. and i have to remember everything i buy i have to take back...yeah it's going to be a struggle. but then the boys went with their older brother who is visiting for two weeks to go have lunch with their dad at his office and go swimming so i went home and relaxed and got some stuff done. then they had tae kwon do for the first time! 2 1/2 hours of waiting in a hot building. but it's nice to get out of the house. then back and dinner then they go to bed. a busy day for sure. but better than sitting at home being bored.
saturday was the big party day. i woke up and was cleaning my room and just threw on some running shorts and a tee shirt and was eating breakfast when i was told that people were coming for lunch and that's why everyone was rushing everything. oops. so i ran up and got ready and helped them clean up. then when it was time for the party...there was so much food. people brought food and wine for claire and bertrand which is common in france. obviously. and there was food on food on food. desserts on desserts on desserts. loco i tell you. i felt awkward because i don't speak french and in a major cultural difference is how people greet each other. in america, it's a hand shake if anything. here, it's the side kisses on each side thing. which is so weird to corinne. i am not a touchy person, i like my space, if you know me, a hug from me is rare. some people hug everyone when they see them, i just hope and pray i can get away without having to touch anyone. i'm not a germaphobe or anything...i'm just weird like that. so side kisses? weird. so i tried to just stay in the background of things and if they speak english they would talk to me which was nice. the previous au pair came and it was nice to talk to her and she was so nice. so it was nice to meet people and eat lots of food. :) i was going to make an american dessert but i didn't have time and i'm glad i didn't, there were so many desserts. and i think the french wouldn't be able to handle any dessert i would've made because it would've been a lot of sugar and fat...the french aren't all about that. which is proving to be a struggle for me. i'm not that much of a healthy eater and the family is which is good...but i need my sugar fixes every now and then! but yeah the party was good. people didn't leave until like 12:30ish and so it was a late night. and now it's sunday so it's my day to chill and relax. i think that's weird for the family because they always ask what i'm going to do today and i just say oh just hang around and relax because that's the kind of sundays i'm used to and they're always telling me things to do. but i just need to relax from the previous week and get ready for the upcoming week.
so week 2...done. now i'm starting to find a routine and i'm getting used to life in france. there's still some struggles and i've been told that the first two weeks feel like just a vacation, then it kicks in and it's really hard for three months then it's fine. so i'm hoping to not follow that mold. the first day was rough, i missed my family, my friends, my normal american life and familiarities, my puppy, my nephews, everyone speaking english, all of it. but this is my life for 11 months and i couldn't be happier. it's so great. i've had too many struggles with things that didn't work for me too many times. first, my converter didn't work. so i couldn't charge my phone, computer, camera, anything which was extremely frustrating. the wifi wouldn't connect on my phone or computer for a while, i found a converter and my computer wouldn't charge, it would charge, then stop and say it's charged, then charge and i'd have it plugged in all night and it would be off so it's not using any battery and in the morning it'd still just be at 30%. so incredibly frustrating. and then to make life better, it died! my converter died on me. so no converter. so so so so frustrating. so i ended up having to buy a european iphone charger, whatever, i need to find a converter to charge my computer because a new charger is 80 euros which aint gonna happen for me. so right now i'm using bertrand's older sons charger thankfully. i rely on my computer a lot. my struggles aren't over though. i got this travel straightener which automatically changes to the voltage of the country i'm in, it still has an american plug but it's good for any country because the voltage is different. i plugged it in, didn't work. -_- so i bought a new straightener, just a cheap one from the grocery store and i'm praying it works for the whole year. i can't keep buying things i brought from america that don't work. and my iphone that my dad got me that was unlocked and ready for a sim card is struggle city. front camera doesnt work, it's super slow, all sorts of things but hey. it's a phone and i got a sim card with a french number and stuff so it's all i really need. guess i won't be taking selfies where i can see what i look like before i take the picture. going back in time to turning the phone around and hoping i get my face in the picture. lolz. so other than all those struggles, aka everything technological not working for me when i rely on technology so much, everything has been fine! and thank the heavens for imessage and everyone in my family and most of my friends having iphones so i can communicate easily. when connected to wifi. :)
the other difficult issue? language barrier. that's probably number one on my corinne struggles in france list. i went to set up a bank account and i was thinking "oh they work in a bank, and in america at almost every bank there's someone who speaks spanish for people who need it and stuff so they should at least speak a little english" nope. i met with the lady and she didn't speak any english. so i wrote down what i needed and my questions for her beforehand just in case this happened so it was a good thing. but she got a guy who could translate and explain things to me at the end in english so it was fine but boy oh boy was it a struggle for a bit. but i got a bank set up. woooooo hoooooo!
so that was week deux (two. look at me i'm practically fluent in french.) and any part on week one that i remembered. here's to the rest of the weeks and continuing to love the french life. except for the fact that there is no mountain dew. anywhere. but ça va. (i think that's how to write it?) i can spend that money on other things. and it's better for my health too...that's all for now. toodleloo.
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