For everyone wondering, the title translates to I have arrived in France. I got here three days ago and so far, I love it! I guess you could say I am a temporary addition to Bertrand and Karine's family. The girls I am taking care of are so cute! Sarah is 10 and Marion is 8. Neither of them speak English, so communicating with them is both frustrating and comical. Usually we can figure out the basis of the conversation using charades and words from my very small French vocabulary. Even though we don't understand each other, we still chat away about random things. The phrases, "Tu ne comprends pas" (meaning you don't understand) and, "Je ne comprends pas" (I don't understand) are spoken often. Eventually, the girls and I will understand each other better, but for now, I am getting really good at charades.
My first day here, the girls and I watched High School Musical 2 in French. I was exhausted and couldn't understand what they were saying anyway, so I dozed off a little. Sarah and Marion LOVE High School Musical. Since the songs are in English, they don't understand the meaning. And when they try to sing along, it sounds more like humming and mumbling. But watching them follow along with the dance moves and trying to sing along is cute. It's a good thing I have all the soundtracks on my laptop. Sure we can't really make any conversations, but we can listen and dance to music together. Marion loves Katy Perry and Sarah likes Justin Bieber. Since Karine wants me to teach them English, I told the girls I will translate the American songs they like.
Sarah and Marion also showed me around our area on my first day. It took awhile to understand what they wanted to do, but thanks to my laptop's translator, I figured out they wanted to go on a walk! So we ambled down to the beach which is literally a 3 minute walk away (Oh and thanks to the ocean being so close, there is always a nice breeze flowing). Then we walked down a road that was filled with tall grass and wildflowers that eventually led back to our home. I really like the girls. I feel more comfortable using my French with them rather than the parents. Maybe because I know they will just laugh if I mess up and try and tell me how to fix it. Ha, I am nervous to mess up with the parents even though I shouldn't be. It will take a little to get fully comfortable here.
The house is beautiful! And for those who don't know, toilets and showers are not in the same rooms. There is one big room with a small shower in the the corner, a tub right next to the shower, and sinks on the other side of the room. Toilets have their own little rooms that they share with a small sink. My room is very small. I think it used to be an office because there is a desk in here that takes up the majority of my room. I do have my own sink. I thought the small door was going to be a closet, but it lead to a very very small room that had a low ceiling and a sink. My bed is small, but very comfortable. My first night here, I didn't realize I was supposed to pull shutters over my window. At night, all the windows in the house have shutters that you crank down, or if you are downstairs, all you have to do is push a button and all the shutters roll down by themselves. I'm still not sure why they cover all the windows at night, but because of the window covers, I slept in too long on my second day.
The food here is pretty tasty, and we have dessert after every meal! Don't worry, dessert here isn't the typical kind of dessert in America. In France, dessert usually consists of fruit, compote (fruit purée), pudding, or yogurt. Speaking of yogurt, it does NOT taste the same as in America. I'm sure you could find yogurts similar to the USA versions, but the one I have tried here is super thick and strong. It is different that is for sure, but I can't decide if I like the yogurt here or not. My favorite dessert I have had so far is a tie between apple compote and a peach. Karine gets all the fruit and vegetables at a farmer's market, so they are very fresh and very tasty! I haven't tried the milk yet, but I am nervous to do so. They don't refrigerate the milk until after it is opened. And I don't know if they have fat free milk here, which is the only type I drink. Oh and just a warning for all those who are planning on coming to France sometime in their lives, vinaigrettes here are very thick and very strong! So beware!
Breakfast is wonderful! Basically, I wake up in the morning and eat dessert. Croissants are delicious, jams are delectable, and like I said before, fruit is amazing! Today for lunch, we had fish. I don't know what kind, but it did not taste like fish at all. It certainly looked like fish though! Bertrand grilled the fish whole, including scales and two still had their heads on. I have tried plenty of cheeses already, but I am still nervous to try Roquefort. I have no idea how it doesn't make them sick, because it looks very moldy. My favorites are the Brie and the goat cheese. Oh! I forgot to mention the baguettes! Karine buys fresh baguettes from one of the best boulangeries in Saint-Malo. Someday, I think I will buy a whole baguette just for myself...
France is beautiful. It is so green and full of history! Hopefully I will be able to walk around and take pictures of the buildings here soon. I love it and I haven't even seen the popular monuments and structures yet! Greeting people is still funny to me. All I say is, "Bonjour!" trying to look happy and friendly, but if they say anything back, I have no idea what they said. And the kissing on the cheeks thing is not what I thought it would be like. French people cheek kiss very slowly. I find it a little amusing. Oh yeah! I almost forgot to mention that I start working on Monday. Brooke will come and be here in Saint-Malo for the week with two of the kids she is looking after, Maelle-Marie and Aymeric. Sarah, Marion, Maelle-Marie, and Aymeric will all be taking sailing lessons, so Brooke and I get to sit on the beach and relax while the kids are sailing. Doesn't sound too bad for my first week!
I feel like it hasn't really clicked in my mind that I am now living in France. I feel lost when we go out because all I hear is French and I have no idea what any of it means. I really hope I catch on soon, and I would appreciate any prayers for me to understand French. I already miss some things from the US of A. For example, I have to put special oil in my shampoo/conditioner/spray bottle of water to help prevent getting head lice. EW! I guess lice is common here? And I miss big, spacious showers.
P.S. I promise I will get pictures from France up soon!
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Thank You
This post is dedicated to my family. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for supporting me. Thank you for letting me live with you. Etcetera. I love you all and I will miss you while I am in France! Thank you for making it possible for me to make it to France. My family is amazing, and without everyone in it, my life would be so dreary and dull. So, I LOVE YOU! And again, thank you so much! You all mean so much to me!
If You're Going To San Francisco...
Be sure you haven't left your belongings in any strange or unusual places. For instance, don't leave your wallet and phone on top of a car like I did. And don't leave your purse at some random store in China Town that looks like every other store in that area like my cousin Ange did. More on those incidents later...
In order to be able to stay in France for so long, I needed to get a visa. For some reason, I had to go to the French Consulate in San Francisco to get a special au pair visa. It took a while to figure out how I was going to get there and where I was going to stay, but right before I left, everything fell into place.
Marie, Ange, and I all went on the San Fran road trip together, and the whole excursion was crazy. Like I mentioned before, we didn't know how everything was going to work out, but we ended up renting a car to drive and staying at Ange's cousin's house. The drive was supposed to take about 12 hours, but poor Marie ended up driving about 15 hours because I left my wallet and phone on top of the car at a gas station in Dixon, and forgot about it. After we turned at an intersection, Marie, Ange, and I all heard a thud on the car, but of course we didn't stop. An hour after the Dixon stop, I realized I didn't have my cell phone, and during my search, I noticed my wallet was missing too. So then we drove an hour back to Dixon, had to pay a toll, and we didn't even know if would be able to find my wallet! It was the longest hour of my life. I needed that wallet in order to get my visa! While Ange and I were running around the intersection, looking for my wallet, a cop pulled over to talk to me. I was nervous that I was somehow in trouble for running around like a crazy person, and somewhat hopeful that he would stop traffic to help in the search for my things. After explaining my situation to the officer, all he said was, "Good luck. There are drunk drivers out tonight." Then he drove off. You can imagine how comforting that was to hear... About two minutes later, Ange found my wallet! It was in the middle of the road, open, and face down.
Yeah it got ran over a few times, but it was completely camouflaged in the road! It is a miracle that everything was still in the wallet and not completely destroyed. As you can see, my wallet and cards are dented and scratched, and the wallet can't even close anymore... Unfortunately, I could not find my phone, and I lost all my numbers with it. But let's be honest here, my wallet was the only thing I really needed to find.
The next day, I had my visa appointment. Of course I had a copy of every document, except for the one thing I actually needed a copy of. My passport. Seriously, if Marie did not have her iPhone, the whole trip would have been a complete fiasco! The appointment just made me feel like an oblivious American. I was one of those people that make Americans look stupid and slow. I didn't know what to call each document, because some of them were only in French. I had to ask him several different times if I had the right paper. And since I was so nervous, I had trouble listening to what he was telling me. I think I replied, "What?" after everything he said. It didn't help me feel better when he would stop to say something in French to the guy next to him and they would start laughing. I am almost positive that they were making fun of me. Which is understandable. I got over it though. Besides, I liked being able to bask in the attractiveness of the two French men. And I wish I took pictures of the area around the French Consulate building. I loved the squeezed together buildings that towered over the tight streets.
After the appointment, Marie, Ange, Carrie, and I went to Pier 39. We explored the little shops, stopped for some grub, and saw some seals! Oh, and Alcatraz was there too. We passed a lot of street performers on our way to Ghirardelli Square. There were some interesting people in the side shows. Rainbow man, silver/gold men, creepy skeleton guy, armless guitar player, attractive acrobats, and my favorite, the homeless-looking guy that held a sign that said, "Need $ 4 Weed." It made me laugh, but hey, at least he is honest... Don't worry! We did drive over the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was super foggy so the whole bridge was never in sight. This gave it an effect similar to scary/action movies when the fog comes in just before the people driving on the bridge get attacked by a monster that sneaks in, invisible, thanks to the fog.
Later that night, Marie, Ange, and I went to China Town. Every store looked the same to me, they all offered pretty much the same things, and the vendors all looked similar. So when Ange realized that she was missing her diaper bag, at first, I wondered how we would ever find her bag. I remembered looking at the bag sitting on a pile of Chinese things, thinking I should tell Ange not to forget to pick it up again. But of course, I got distracted and forgot. Don't worry, we ran back through China Town and found it. The ladies in the store saw it and decided to put it behind the counter for safe keeping until the owner returned.
Well, that pretty much sums up the San Francisco trip. And after losing two different, very important things, we started joking around that Marie was the next one to lose a possession, but luckily, that never happened. If you want to see more pictures from San Francisco, click on this link --> Facebook and it will lead you to my Summer 2011 album on my Facebook account.
In order to be able to stay in France for so long, I needed to get a visa. For some reason, I had to go to the French Consulate in San Francisco to get a special au pair visa. It took a while to figure out how I was going to get there and where I was going to stay, but right before I left, everything fell into place.
Marie, Ange, and I all went on the San Fran road trip together, and the whole excursion was crazy. Like I mentioned before, we didn't know how everything was going to work out, but we ended up renting a car to drive and staying at Ange's cousin's house. The drive was supposed to take about 12 hours, but poor Marie ended up driving about 15 hours because I left my wallet and phone on top of the car at a gas station in Dixon, and forgot about it. After we turned at an intersection, Marie, Ange, and I all heard a thud on the car, but of course we didn't stop. An hour after the Dixon stop, I realized I didn't have my cell phone, and during my search, I noticed my wallet was missing too. So then we drove an hour back to Dixon, had to pay a toll, and we didn't even know if would be able to find my wallet! It was the longest hour of my life. I needed that wallet in order to get my visa! While Ange and I were running around the intersection, looking for my wallet, a cop pulled over to talk to me. I was nervous that I was somehow in trouble for running around like a crazy person, and somewhat hopeful that he would stop traffic to help in the search for my things. After explaining my situation to the officer, all he said was, "Good luck. There are drunk drivers out tonight." Then he drove off. You can imagine how comforting that was to hear... About two minutes later, Ange found my wallet! It was in the middle of the road, open, and face down.
Yeah it got ran over a few times, but it was completely camouflaged in the road! It is a miracle that everything was still in the wallet and not completely destroyed. As you can see, my wallet and cards are dented and scratched, and the wallet can't even close anymore... Unfortunately, I could not find my phone, and I lost all my numbers with it. But let's be honest here, my wallet was the only thing I really needed to find.
The next day, I had my visa appointment. Of course I had a copy of every document, except for the one thing I actually needed a copy of. My passport. Seriously, if Marie did not have her iPhone, the whole trip would have been a complete fiasco! The appointment just made me feel like an oblivious American. I was one of those people that make Americans look stupid and slow. I didn't know what to call each document, because some of them were only in French. I had to ask him several different times if I had the right paper. And since I was so nervous, I had trouble listening to what he was telling me. I think I replied, "What?" after everything he said. It didn't help me feel better when he would stop to say something in French to the guy next to him and they would start laughing. I am almost positive that they were making fun of me. Which is understandable. I got over it though. Besides, I liked being able to bask in the attractiveness of the two French men. And I wish I took pictures of the area around the French Consulate building. I loved the squeezed together buildings that towered over the tight streets.
After the appointment, Marie, Ange, Carrie, and I went to Pier 39. We explored the little shops, stopped for some grub, and saw some seals! Oh, and Alcatraz was there too. We passed a lot of street performers on our way to Ghirardelli Square. There were some interesting people in the side shows. Rainbow man, silver/gold men, creepy skeleton guy, armless guitar player, attractive acrobats, and my favorite, the homeless-looking guy that held a sign that said, "Need $ 4 Weed." It made me laugh, but hey, at least he is honest... Don't worry! We did drive over the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was super foggy so the whole bridge was never in sight. This gave it an effect similar to scary/action movies when the fog comes in just before the people driving on the bridge get attacked by a monster that sneaks in, invisible, thanks to the fog.
Later that night, Marie, Ange, and I went to China Town. Every store looked the same to me, they all offered pretty much the same things, and the vendors all looked similar. So when Ange realized that she was missing her diaper bag, at first, I wondered how we would ever find her bag. I remembered looking at the bag sitting on a pile of Chinese things, thinking I should tell Ange not to forget to pick it up again. But of course, I got distracted and forgot. Don't worry, we ran back through China Town and found it. The ladies in the store saw it and decided to put it behind the counter for safe keeping until the owner returned.
Well, that pretty much sums up the San Francisco trip. And after losing two different, very important things, we started joking around that Marie was the next one to lose a possession, but luckily, that never happened. If you want to see more pictures from San Francisco, click on this link --> Facebook and it will lead you to my Summer 2011 album on my Facebook account.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
The Background Story
Here it is! My blog, finally updated. The reason? Because I have had so many people suggest that I write a blog while I live in France. Just a forewarning, I am definitely not a gifted writer. So I apologize for any grammatical errors or boring writing styles you might read... But hopefully, blogging will help mold me into a better writer.
Anyway, this first post is to tell how I got the France gig. My sister Marie, whom I love so dearly, volunteered at a hospital with a girl named Brooke. Brooke was saying how she is going to France to be an au pair, AKA a nanny, for a French family that lives there. Marie wanted to know when she would be back because she knew I would be interested in living in France. Turns out that the relatives of the family that Brooke will be helping out, was looking for an au pair! Marie called me up, told me what was going on, and then I got in contact with my future French family.
After gathering paperwork and retrieving documents from various places, I am finally ready to go to France. I leave August 17th and that date is fast approaching! I'll be living in Saint-Malo which is located in the Brittany region of northwest France.
So there it is folks. The background story to my new life, a new adventure, and a new beginning.
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