fevrier vacances...sos

so the french have a lot of holidays.

and when i say a lot i mean a lot.

didn't we just come back from christmas holidays...?

anyways. so the boys had two weeks off of school. one of those weeks is a week with corinne. SOS SEND HELP IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM.

it was a rough week.

being an au pair is extremely tough in general. yeah for the most part they're at school or activities and i just have to pick them up or take them and whatever but there's also a lot more to it than just that. but when they have "vacances" it's like take a rough day, times it by 43859 and that's just one day of the vacances. i had to keep them entertained from 8 in the morning to 7:30ish or so at night. they had some activities...for two hours. so about a twelve hour day knocked down to ten hours. woooo...no it's really rough. and it was difficult because the boys are 7 and 9 so they don't need constant supervision. or at least you think they wouldn't. (not that i'm running off and doing my own thing all day like k bye guys! no i still do my job but sometimes i want a little break to get my head back in the right "happy" place.)

exhibit a: i went downstairs to see if they had play-doh because i've seen they have a play-doh bucket but i didn't know if they had play-doh or not. so i'm looking, gone for maybe 1 minute, i hear a huge crash upstairs. oh gee willikers. what now. well H (the 9 year old) was picking up cards (that he said "fell" but i heard him throw them but hey whatever) and there were some behind the piano so i pulled out the piano for him to get them then i guess he wanted to move the piano more so he tried and kaboom the piano fell and yippee... chalk one up for corinne looking like a bad au pair. i made sure he was ok then assessed the damage and the best way to go about fixing this problem. it's an electric piano so nothing too serious, he chipped the little wood stuff that makes the piano look nice and kinda banged it up a bit but we put it back up on its stand and turned it on and it works just fine. crisis averted. until the parents get home...the mom got home and was pretty upset about it but i made sure she knew it still worked and everything is ok. it's just dinged up a bit. then i took the boys to tae kwon do and we came back and had to face the dad...yup he wasn't happy. i mean i don't blame him but i figure H is ok the piano still works, yeah it isn't as pretty as before (not like it looked like a baby grand piano or anything) but everything is fine. well he was mad because there ended up being marks on the wall and the wood floor and the piano is broken so i had to help him take it downstairs into the car (where it was going i still don't know...it's back now though) and then dinner was just awkward with tension because yeah. and i mean how can i not feel like it's kind of my fault and i was being an au pair? i explained to them that i was looking for an activity for the boys to do but they already think i'm on my phone 24/7 or i don't play with the boys even though i do. all. the. time. i mean that's my job. i mean playmobil and legos aren't exactly my cup of tea but hey it's my job so i'll oblige. and i do. so that just made me look like an even worse au pair than i'm sure they already think i am.

but other than that little fiasco the vacances were just long and difficult and boring.

the boys like playing the same thing which is great but it just gets monotonous. and they never want to go and explore a new park or anything. the mom always says they need to get some air and go outside so i tell them and it's like i'm telling them they need to cut off an arm and give away their favorite toy. i think they enjoy making life hard for me.

example:

one day they had an activity where they went to this printing museum and i don't really know what they did but it gave me a couple hours to relax. well the mom suggested they go to this park on the way home. so we have to take the tram from the printing museum so i pick them up and i tell them we're going to get off at a certain stop to go to a park. so children who don't really want to listen to you and kinda march to the beat of their own drum and the tram at rush hour don't really mix too well. cue incredible amounts of stress for corinne. the courtesy rule of the tram is let others off before you get on. well H always wants to get on right away so i'm trying to hold him back (literally. by the hood.) letting the other people get off while making sure C is with us and will get on. so much stress. so i'm telling them ok next stop we get off. well C is saying "no. i'm not going to. i don't want to so i won't." well that's not gonna fly homie. so we get to the stop and H is bolting to the door getting off, C is staying in his seat not moving, i'm in the middle trying to wrangle the two of them. literally. i was holding H's hood so he doesn't run off the tram and trying to get C to get out of his seat because people are waiting to get on the tram, it's incredibly busy, and people are looking at this psycho american trying to keep her cool. finally C gave in and we got off and they played for a bit and geez. so much work.

so that was easily the most difficult week of france.

the boys know what drives me insane and so they do everything they can to push my buttons. i know i know. "that's what little boys do!" everyone told me this would happen..i just hoped it wouldn't. another thing that i wouldn't happen cause you know this was going to be the most magical time ever. well life is really hard and i'm not patient at all and i want to be the nice and fun and silly au pair but i don't know how when the kids do everything they can to drive me insane. any and all advice would be appreciated.

beuller?

beuller?

ok thanks for the advice. not.

anyways the only thing that matters is i'm alive, the kids are alive, and yup. they went to their grandparents for the second week so a break was much needed. the only thing is when you don't have any money there's not much to do...so i got a lot of sleep and caught up with my shows! yaay..

no i hung out with my friends in the evenings so that was nice. but waiting all day to do something was a bit boring. but hey i was kid-free for a week i'm not complaining.

on thursday i went to a little city called Vannes. i saw it on pinterest, it's about an hour away, cheap enough with covoiturage (a carpooling website thing) so me and a couple friends went. and boy was it an adventure.

first of all, trams and busses were out in nantes. all. day. long. apparently there was "aggression" against one of the bus drivers or something so in solidarity of the attack so they decided "ok how about on a thursday we stop all public transportation in a city that relies heavily on such necessities?" -_- france. if they can protest something they will.

(no seriously once there was a protest and we asked what it was about and it was because of the "repression from the cops against techno music" what?! france i tell ya.)

so we called the girl who was taking us, told her the situation, she's like ok yeah walk to this place. well that was about 2 miles away. then we got to vannes and walked all over and it was so small. like i wanted to make sure we'd have enough time to see everything so i didn't book a ride back until 7...well we got there about 1 and we could've left by 4 and saw everything twice. but hey it's all good. so we ate at a pizza place. one thing i've learned about the french and their cuisine: they don't like to cook their eggs. and europeans scoff at americans for eating raw cookie dough...

but really. i got this pizza with cheese, ham, and an egg on it. i've had egg on  a pizza before and it was really good. well it was cooked last time. it came out raw as raw could be. so i scooped it off and blech. but anyway then we explored. 

little toooooown such a quiet village...(trying to quote a beauty and the beast song but i'm not 100% sure of the words.)

vannnnnnnnessssss

this is what i saw on pinterest. see why it was on pinterest now?

amigaaas! they're really my amigas because they're from spain. well and they are my friends.

so vannes was nice. the ride back was originally 7:20...then 7:45....then 8:00 -_- we spent our time in a cafe. but the lady was so nice. easily the nicest french person i've ever met. we had to go to this grocery store to meet him to pick us up. well we had no idea. the owner of this little cafe looked up the address, printed us directions and told us where to go and everything!!! so nice!!!! well it would've taken us 45 minutes to walk there and it was on and off raining so we decided to get a ticket and take the bus. weeeeell....we got on the bus going the wrong way. we bought a one trip ticket. -_- just to get off at the next stop. so we got on the next bus and i hoped the driver wouldn't notice...but he did...and i was already beyond frustrated i was just like whatever let's just pay and get another freaking ticket this is ridiculous but my friend explained and he was like fine go ahead. so another nice french person! then when we got off we waved and he like bent down so he could see us and with the hugest smile on his face waved back. ok so maybe not all french people are mean. just most. wait what..? 

so we got to the grocery store, got picked up, he was really nice and dropped us off by stations near our houses...i felt bad because i was last to be dropped off and i think he was in a rush so i had him drop me off kind of far from the house but hey what's another mile. my booty was so sore the day after. 

but yeah. that was the february vacations. now it's back to reality. oh there goes gravity. (name that song or artist) next break...april. can't come soon enough to be honest. and i get both those weeks off sooooo i'm thinking a european excursion! yaaaas! fingers crossed. 

oh a bit of happy news: i have passed my hump day so i am OFFICIALLY on the downhill of life in france! gotta live it up! and by live it up i mean eat as much bread as i can and try and go to as many other countries as i can. 

really the french bread is that good. if you wonder if you should visit france their bread is reason enough. 

so that's that. here's to hoping i make it out alive. because some days i just want to lock myself in my room and get a ladder and escape through the window and run to the ocean and swim back to america. but my fear of the ocean prevents me from doing such ridiculous things.