A Weekend of New Things

So this being my first real weekend that I am here (last weekend doesn't count because I don't even think I was unpacked yet), I was able to do several things that were interesting and different.

Wine:
Mariam and I went out to a little cafe on Friday night and ordered a bottle of wine. You can't go to France and not drink their wine (at least I don't think so). So we walked around Le Vesinet (the town we live) and found that nothing was open or exciting at 9 at night. So we hopped on the train and rode up to the next town, Saint-Germain en Laye. There was 3 little cafes right in a row that had a lot of people at them. On the way walking to one of them I saw something on the ground and bent to take a closer look and what do you know it was 50 EUROS!!!! that was exciting. I looked around to see if anyone was looking for it but nobody seemed to notice. So after that excitement we carried on to the cafe and took a seat and patiently waited for our server. 15 minutes later we weren't so patient. Mariam asked someone but supposedly they were from a different restaurant and couldn't serve us. I dont know... so we went up to the guy at the door and asked for a table. He was very nice and sat us down and brought us a menu. We ordered our wine and sat there chatting and drinking wine for an hour and a half or 2 hours. it was absolutely lovely. we were sitting outside and the evening was quite comfortable. It was fun to just watch the other people around and try to listen in on conversations and catch whatever I could. After we finished, we walked through the town and decided to walk home because it was such a nice night. That turned out to take a long time but it was lovely and fun nonetheless. Here is a photo of us at our table:


Church:
I knew that I wanted to go to church this weekend but I wasn't sure where I was going to go. It is my plan to make a list of ones I want to try and just go to a different on each week. I had one all picked out for this week and had figured out how to get there and when it started and when I should leave and all those necessary details. Then it all changed. I had a friend in high school who introduced me to her friend that lived in France because I wanted to practice french with someone. Well this persons name is Max and he and I have stayed in touch kind of irregularly since then. He happened to find me online a week or so before I left and when I told him I was coming he said he'd help me find some people and a church in Paris. He lives in the south of France so I wouldn't be able to go to his church regularly! Anyways, he gave me the contact information for a girl named Emma who lives in Paris and goes to church here. I contacted her and she invited me to join her at her church and for a potluck afterwards. I was extremely excited. We made plans to meet outside the metro station right near the church and walk the rest of the way together. The church was little bitty. There were probably 45-50 people there and they met in a sort of classroom type room. Even before the service started people could tell I was visiting and began introducing themselves to me. they were so nice! The singing was so cool because obviously it was in french. Although I didn't sing along, it was cool to think about how God understands every language. The message was tough for me to follow because I still don't understand everything. I was able to understand what passage we were looking at and follow along in my Bible. After the message they did a bit more singing and then everyone stood around talking. I think I probably met every person at church! They were all so friendly and willing to meet me. The craziest thing for me was from the moment I said "Bonjour" they knew I was not french. They would ask me if I was english, or american, or just where my accent was from. I couldn't believe that they could tell from one word. To me I don't hear any difference. There were some people who wanted to practice their english with me and then there were some that didn't know any and it gave me a chance to try out my french. Overall it was good but it was intimidating because i didn't know anyone and i couldn't really communicate or comprehend. The biggest downside is that it took me an hour to get there. I am living just West of Paris and this church was in the North East, so it was a bit of a trip to get there. When I left Emma told me that she would like to have me come over to her house so that we can talk more personally and not be as distracted. I met her parents and her mom also invited me over. They seem very nice and I am sure I will see them again.

Driving:
Today I went out for my first "driving lesson." The car is a stick shift, so I owe a big thanks to my family for strongly "recommending" that I learn to drive one. Driving is a bit crazy here in France. They don't seem to have lanes and everyone just sort of passes as they please and go where they want. I haven't quite figured it all out, but supposedly the person coming from the right always has the right of way. Which i think this is quite frustrating. Even just driving down a street, if there is someone on a side street, they have the right of way. in a roundabout, the person entering has the right of way unless there is a sign otherwise. and the signs are a whole different issue. they make absolutely no sense!!! Another thing that was hard for me is that they have no 'right on red' rule like in the states. I was at a red light and about to go and Severine said "No, never on a red light! It is forbidden!" So hopefully I don't make that mistake. There are also signs that mean you can't go down a certain street, but they dont have words on them. they are just signs. So I almost went down several "forbidden streets" which wasn't good. I think I will be okay, because the only time i will have to drive is if it is bad weather and the kids can't bike to school or if we need to go somewhere that is too far to walk. So i think i'll be okay. it was a little scary though. I'm just glad they drive on the right side of the road.

Well i was going to be done after my driving story, but as I was writing the doorbell rang and it was another au pair from down the street. She just arrived last night from Sweden and was told that there was another au pair here. So we chatted for a bit. Her name is Caroline and she seems sweet. she is 19 and is excited to be here. So hopefully i will get to know her more later.

Well this post is long enough now. Sorry for the lenght but I'm sure you enjoyed it. If not, then you wouldn't still be reading this. :) I hope everyone is well and I would love to hear from you!

Au Revoir!

My First Friend!

Well I made a friend! The family i live with has friends next door that also have an au pair. they just had a baby so my family wanted to go see the baby and give them a gift. they took me with them so i could meet the au pair. the children told me to try and be friends with her so that they could go over and use the tennis court and swimming pool...:) they are funny. but anyways, the girls name is Mariam and she is british. she is 23 and has been working as their au pair since the end of May. Today we hung out and went into Paris for the morning. We got coffee and just walked around looking at stuff. It was fun to just talk about our backgrounds and our families and our experiences and everything else. We are going to do some other things too so hopefully this will be a good friendship. She knows some good places to shop for cheap stuff and get cheap food. i'm excited.

She is going to be going to the same language school as me too. She was going to one in Paris but when the mother of the family she is working for found out i was going to one closer, she had her switch to mine. so we will be able to walk to school together!

Here is a couple pictures of us out today:

The Neighborhood and my living area

Today i'm going to post some pictures of where i live and the surrounding area.

this first picture is the house i am living in. it is kind of a strange shape and i haven't managed to get a good picture of it yet. i'll keep trying. the car out front is the one i will be driving. i think they are going to take me out this weekend to make sure i know what i'm doing before i drive the kids around.




The following house is a special one. it is about a 2 minute walk from my house and is on the way to the train station. the first time i walked there with the kids they pointed it out and told me that it is the house of Johnny Depp the actor! so that is quite exciting and i take an extra long look each time i walk by in case he is there so that i can say i saw him. i'm sure he isn't there much because he probably has houses everywhere, but it is still fun. :)

this is the lake that is across from johnny depps house and also on the way to the train station.

here is another picture of johnny depps house. its just from another angle.


here is another house in the neighborhood. nothing special witht his one.


the lake from a bit of a distance


another house


another house. i think this one is cute


one more house




this is a little bridge that goes over the lake to a restaurant.




and now here are some pictures of my living quarters:
this is my bedroom, mainly my bed.


another angle of my bedroom:



my shower... its pretty small


here is the rest of my bathroom:

well enjoy everyone. will post another blog soon!!!!!!!!

lots of new foods

People would tend to say i am a picky eater. which is not a good thing when you are going to a new country... however, i have been quite brave to try new things and here is a brief summary of my thoughts!

for dinner the other night, the family asked if i liked salmon and i said yes because i do. typically i like teryaki salmon or something similar. i was expecting it to be grilled or something like what you get in a restaurant in america. well i was soooo wrong! it comes out on 2 plates and it is as raw as raw can be! not sure what to do, i watched the family. they took this pancake like thing and spread a white cream on it. then they piled the salmon on top. what did i do? the EXACT same thing. i was scared to death... but you know what? it was SOOO good. i actually enjoyed it a lot! i couldn't believe it.

then today they asked if i liked fish (in french, but i didn't know how to ask what kind of fish, so i just said OUI!). when it comes out they tell me its tuna. well i HATE tuna. i absolutely despise it. but what did i do? i watched them eat it and did the same thing. and you know what??? it was also good! not my favorite, because it was in a spicy mixture of tomatoes and capers, but it wasnt bad at all.

lunches are very different here. in america we tend to eat something light for lunch like a sandwich or salad or something. not here! they go all out for lunch. one day was beef and green beans and rice. another day was pork and salad and something else. it is very strange. but again i have enjoyed it!

my favorite thing about the eating so far is the CHEESE!!! (chris, i think of you every meal because i always eat cheese). i have tried a different kind of cheese each day so far. it is amazing. they dont eat it with the meal typically, but after. its almost like a dessert. it is delicious. i dont know exactly what kinds i have tried, but they are all great. the family is impressed because they say americans typically dont like the strong cheeses. but i do! so good.

and lastly, i LOVE sweets. chocolate, cake, cookies, pies, everything. i always have to finish my meal with something sweet. and as brandon would tell you, even if i am stuffed after eating a ton of food, i still have room for dessert. i tell him i have a second stomach for desserts. :) here they dont' eat much sweets. after a meal they have dessert but it is typically yogurt or cheese or fruit (or all 3). however they do have a bag of toblerones from their recent trip to argentina and occasionally they will have one after a meal. and by one, i mean a miniature one. i guess its good for me, and i'm actually getting used to replacing it with yogurt or fruit.

well that is all for now. keep checking for new posts. i don't get online as much as i want so some posts will be noted as being written earlier. much love to everyone! stay in touch!

au revoir!

The longest day ever

Written on aug 20th:


Bonjour from France! I am here in Le Vesinet after an extremely long day of traveling. I woke up at 4:30 Tuesday morning and left for the airport by 5. The night before I was up for hours weighing and re-weighing my luggage to get it close to the 50 pound limit. The first time I weighed them they were both well over 70 lbs! I began pulling things out and packing stuff in boxes to be mailed. Finally I got them as close as I could without being 100% accurate and decided to call it a night. After arriving at the airport, I checked in and the first suitcase weighed 49.5 pounds! Praise the Lord. The second one was 53 pounds and the lady was nice enough to let me remove some items. I decided to let go of my shampoo which was a huge bottle. I took it out and immediately my suitcase was within the limit. She tagged them both and had us take them to security. I was so happy that I didn’t have to pay extra fees for overweight baggage. It was such a relief. As I was about to go through security and Brandon had come as far as he could, he asked me to text him my flight info. I opened my purse and realized I had left my phone at the house! It was so devastating. I had been planning on making my last calls to family and friends at the airport in la as well as philly. Brandon was sweet enough to check the car even though I knew it wasn’t there. However, I had no choice but to move on. I said my goodbyes and went through security. I wont go into all the details of my flights but I will say that they were fine and safe and I made it to paris without any major hang-ups..

When I arrived in paris, it was 7:30am (Wednesday morning) Paris time, making it about 11:30pm (Tuesday night) in California. My baggage arrived without a problem and I went through customs without any hassles. The family was right out front where non-flyers can wait for passengers. It was such a relief because I had a fear that they wouldn’t be there or I wouldn’t find them somehow. However, they were right there and welcomed me as if I were already part of the family.

Their home is 30-45 minute drive from the Paris airport. I was terrified to speak French at first and they were very understanding of that. I tried to answer questions in French but I wasn’t ready to be the asker. The kids were very shy and not wanting to practice their English, so we didn’t talk much in the car. Severine, the mother, has excellent English and was very chatty with me. She showed me different things as we drove.

As I said, it was still early morning in Paris. This meant that I still had a whole day to go through before it was bedtime. I knew that if I allowed myself to sleep then it would just be that much harder to get accustomed. I did manage to take a shower, which helped me feel much better. Afterwards I joined Severine and the kids to run some errands. They showed me around the town and we walked through the shops. I saw the kids’ schools, and different buildings. One thing that was very interesting was that they pointed out a church that they used to attend and then went on to explain why they stopped going and where they go now. They asked if I went to church and I said that I did. We had an excellent talk about religion and they were very interested in the differences between Roman Catholics and evangelical Christians. I was very excited to be able to open up about my beliefs so early on in this journey. I’m looking forward to see where God takes that from here. We continued running errands and went over to the neighboring town, Saint-Germaine. This is the town that my French lessons are located in and we found the building and went in to see when they begin. Severine has to call tomorrow to find out for sure because the woman there wasn’t positive. In Saint-Germaine, there is a beautiful park with gardens and trees that are absoloutely stunning. Within the park is the house where King Louis XIV was born. When you get to the edge of the park there is a great view that overlooks the whole area. I could even see the tippy top of the Eiffel tower! Boy that made my day.

By this point in the day, my nerves had calmed down quite a bit and I was much more willing to give my French a shot. They were very understanding and helped me when I got stuck. The kids warmed up to me as well and enjoyed practicing their English with me. Julien, the oldest, has very good English. He is almost fluent and gets really excited when he uses a phrase correctly. Pauline is 13 and her English is decent. She likes to try but sometimes forgets and just starts rattling off in French. It is funny. And the youngest, Manon, is 8. She has very basic English and is a bit shy to try it out in front of me. But I was impressed at how much ground we covered in the first day. I have already noticed my French improving. I played monopoly with the kids (the European version that uses Euros and the properties are all European cities) and that was an excellent time for us to bond and practice communicating. I was forced to use my numbers in counting money, multiplication, etc. French counting was coming out more easily than English by the end. All I could think about was how great this would be for Mrs. Wann (my French teacher from high school) to get to use in some of her classes. It really helped develop my counting and money skills.

Right now as I’m preparing to go to bed, I would say that today was a pretty good first day. But, I wouldn’t have said that a few hours after I arrived. I was not sure what I was doing and I was scared to death. I wanted to come home and see a familiar face. I wanted to cry. I was completely out of my comfort zone and scared. I guess that is where God wants me though because it forces me to put my trust in Him, knowing that he sent me here for a reason.

Tomorrow I will take the kids into Paris with Severine to do some back to school shopping. The kids start up in 2 weeks. I’m excited to go into paris. I do not have any photos yet, but will post them as I take them. Sorry this was so long. As I said, it’s been a looooong day and I had to cover it all for you! Blessings.

Prayer Requests:
• Continue to pick up the language
• Confidence in myself
• Courage to try new things (foods, driving in Europe, dealing with French sales people, etc)
• Encouragement so that I do not feel the homesickness
• That I would continue trusting God
• That I could have more enlightening conversations about my faith with the family.
• Protection

Thank you all for reading this and keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. I’ll continue to keep you posted as often as possible. Please feel free to e-mail me anytime to let me know what is going on in your life! Missing everyone!

1st Post - Background

Hi everyone! I'm so glad you decided to come visit my blog. This first post is just going to be a little bit of a summary of what I'm doing and where I'm going. I'm going to try to be really good about posting regularly. Please make sure to comment if you have any questions or anything to say.

Here goes:

Well, I fell in love with France as a kid. It started because my older brothers were taking French classes at school and were practicing with my parents at the dinner table. That is where I learned my first french phrases. I always knew that I would take french when I got to high school and that is exactly what I did. I then got the opportunity to travel to France and other countries during the summer after my freshman year of high school. After all of this I knew that I wanted to live in France. I enjoyed being there for 3 weeks, but I wanted more. I wanted to live there for enough time so that I could become fluent in the language. As I continued through high school and even college, my love only grew. Being the determined individual that I am, I never gave up my dream and promised myself that I would do it when I graduated college. I wasn't sure what I was going to do when I got there, but I knew I was going. So that brings me to today.

I graduated from college in May and I head out to France in 11 days. I have found a family in Le Vesinet that has 3 beautiful children. I will be living with them and taking care of the kids. In addition, I will be taking French classes 3 times a week. I will be over there for 11 months. I feel that this is the perfect position for me because it allows me to live in france, learn the language, live with a french family, and be around kids. It encompasses two of my biggest passions: children and france. I can't wait.

A little bit about the family:
I will be living with Philippe and Severine Tapie and their 3 children: Julien (16), Pauline (13), and Manon (8). They live in a large house in a western suburb of Paris. I will be just 30 minutes from Paris by train.

Well I suppose those are the basics. I'm really excited about this trip. However, while I am mostly excited, I do find that I'm a little bit nervous as well.

Here is what I'm most nervous about:

• picking up the language
• finding a church
• making friends

your prayers, advice, and words of encouragement are most appreciated.

check back often to see what i'm doing and learning!