As I have told before, I looked into multiple sites, agencies, whatever, to find a new family to work for so I didn't have to leave France. Sophie and Pierre were one of the families I found on aupair-world. Which, by the way, is a good place to find a host family in all places of the world if anyone is interested. I had called a few families, and emailed a handle full of others. Out of all my options, the Queros stood out the most. I don't know how to explain it other than they just felt right for me. Anyway, so obviously I chose the Queros and they chose me, so I arrived on October 1st.
Getting here was semi-crazy. I woke up way too early in the morning (so did Juliette and her dad) to get to the train station. I don't remember exactly how early my train was, I think around 6:30 AM, but it was early. And luckily, my bags were fewer and lighter this time, although not by much, but it still helped! There weren't many people on the train yet, so I had a whole four seat open area to myself. A few stops later, a family with two young boys had seats in my little area. They were cute, and antsy. I could tell the mom was getting a little frustrated so I tried to help. I got out my laptop, and turned on Rio. They didn't speak English, but I figured the kids would like the colors or being able to watch something. The youngest boy who was probably about three years old watched for a little, but he couldn't understand so he lost interest. Every once in a while he would come back to watch, but the oldest, he was probably about six years old, stayed the entire time. I was getting hungry, so when they shared their snacks with me, I was happy! I guess one kind act is repaid with another act of kindness. We finished Rio and then started Tangled, but they had to leave before we got to finish our second movie. They thanked me, said goodbye, and left.
When my train pulled into the Bordeaux train station, I had to get off and wait for my next train. I had no idea which platform my train to Pau was. And I had two heavy bags that I didn't want to drag around in my search, so I decided to just stay put. Later I realized that I couldn't find the platform on the train information screens because the train was arriving in an hour and a half. All if the information on the screens were for trains that were arriving within the hour. Once again, I got lucky because my train to Pau was picking up where my train from Douai left off. All I had to do was get my bags on board.
When I got off the train, I didn't know where to go. Luckily I had seen pictures of the Queros, and they had seen pictures of me, but I didn't know if I should go right or left. So I followed traffic. Well, after they all past because I was having technical difficulties with my luggage... I saw someone that I thought was Pierre, so I started smiling. But I got nervous because what if it actually wasn't Pierre... Then I would look like a smiling idiot, dragging two large bags to a complete stranger. But he asked if I was Annalise so I knew it was the right person. I was so excited! Everyone was there to pick me up except Sarah, the ten year old. She was at her friend's birthday party. Piha was very friendly. She waved hello to me, she smiled, she danced, she laughed. It was adorable!
I find it very easy to talk to Sophie and Pierre, which is great! Since Sophie stays at home, she and I have already had plenty of serious and funny conversations. Sophie has traveled a lot. She lived in Ireland for a little bit. At the time, she didn't know English, but she got a job as a waitress anyway because they were in desperate need of workers. She has also been to Thailand. Sophie spent ten days there, with monks, without talking. So freaking cool, right? And she has lived in New Zealand for a long time. That is where she learned English so well. And I feel like she has been to other places too, but she hasn't told me about all of them yet. Hearing her stories really makes me want to travel more. I want to spend a week without talking in a monastery. I want to live a normal life in a different country. I just want to see the world! There are so many things I want to see, and places I want to go that I am afraid I will never get a chance to see them all. So I have spent the past week exploring options on how to travel more after France. But then I run into the problem that I should be going to college...
The Queros are a really fun family. Like my family. We have dance parties. We play loud music in the car and sing along. We joke and laugh. It is fun. It is relaxing to me because it makes me feel like I am at home. So my homesickness level here is a minimum. Well at least for now. Of course I have moments where I just miss my family and friends, but it is not near as bad as my homesickness in St-Malo.
One thing I should mention is that the Queros are vegetarian. However, Sarah is not, so when she is here every other week, Sophie will cook meat for her and I. We always have hamburgers on Sarah's last night, and we have duck very often because Sarah loves it. Duck is pretty good. It always comes with a thick layer of fat, so you know it is flavorful. And lucky for Sarah, I hate eating fat because it is chewy, so she gets to eat the duck fat I cut off. A treat from me to her. Sophie is happy that I am easy to please and not picky in the slightest because if I was, she would have a hard time making special orders all the time. And I am not a huge meat eater, so I don't really miss it.
Speaking of food, I have tried some strange and scary dishes. Sophie, Pierre, and Piha may be vegetarian, but everybody else is not. I forgot to mention that the French frown down upon vegetarians. When Sophie came back from New Zealand as a vegetarian, her parents thought she had joined a cult... Anyway, I have tried most new dishes at Sophie's parent's house. They live next door, like in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I think they are afraid that I am getting malnourished here so they invite me for lunch or dinner with meat sometimes. One night, they had a plate with two types of sausages and some clumpy dark reddish-brown blob on it. I was going to try it all without asking about the questionable items, but Sophie told me what it was anyway. The strange looking clumpy stuff was coagulated pig's blood with onions. Oh ew! I was repulsed by the thought of eating blood like some creepy vampire wannabe, but then I remembered one of my the pacts I made with myself. I would try anything and everything new, even if it sounded disgusting. So I scooped up some pig's blood and plopped it onto my plate. It actually didn't taste that bad. It definitely wasn't the most scrumptious food, but it wasn't the worst. But I still decided I didn't want more. I tried it and that was enough for me.
Another day, I went to Sophie's parents for lunch. There were serving a Spanish dish of rice and different seafoods. There were shellfish, chicken, rabbit, and shrimp mixed with the rice. Whole shrimps. Like I'm talking tails, eyes, legs, and antenna things. I didn't even know shrimp had antennas. To eat them, you would cut off the head and then peal off the shell until it looked like an American shrimp. I discovered that rabbit is actually pretty tasty, although I thought of Maurice, Pepita, Regis, Jean-Michel, Chantal, Martine, and the little baby bunny when I was eating the rabbit meat off the bone... There were also little fish served as a side dish. They were served like you would serve chips or fries. And they were fried.. whole. Their little eyes were staring at me. Once again I had to remind myself that I was going to try everything. So I closed my own little eyes and popped one into my mouth. I tried not to think about all of the scales, bones, fins, and organs I was eating. And it wasn't that bad, but I didn't want anymore whole fish in my digestive system.
I am turning into a huge herbal tea drinker. Sophie knows that I don't drink alcohol, coffee, or tea, so whenever they are ordering/offered coffee, she asks if there is a herbal tea for me to drink. And she makes she it is herbal tea and not regular tea. So because people drink coffee here like it is water, I drink a lot of herbal tea. And I have found that I like it a lot. For one it is getting cold, so a warm drink is nice to have. And for two, it is soothing for me to have a minty drink before bed. It helps me sleep better!
All in all, I think I am going to like it here. I will get to see a legitimate autumn season in the country, I have a church close by, the family here is amazing, and most importantly I am comfortable. I fill like I fit in here. Sophie and Pierre said I am welcome for as long as I want, so now I don't know when exactly I will come back. I plan to stay as long as it takes for me to become fluent in French. So it will be a while before I come home. But people are welcome to visit, so start buying plane tickets! I would love a visit from family or a friend! :)
Unfortunately the only family pictures I have are from my Photo Booth on my MacBook. So most of the pictures are distorted. But at least you get an idea of my family! And a good laugh...
This last one is classic. Every time I look at it, I am instantly thrown into nonstop laughter.
What a wonderful post. Sounds like you have a great fit with the Quero Family. Post some more pics of the family and the landscape around their home. We love you. Keep up the good work. Love, Dad
ReplyDeleteOK, we are all waiting for another post. Been over a week now. We are starving for an update when you find time. I am sure that I am not the only one.
ReplyDelete