I have been working as normal, making food, walking kids to school, driving to gymnastics and tennis and all sort of other stuff. The kids were pretty stressed out there for awhile because both Pauline and Julien had big exams at the end of the year. But now they are all done with school and it is finally summer vacation. Julien just left on Sunday to go to New York for 2 weeks to practice his english. Pauline left as well, but went to Ireland. and Manon leaves this week for horse camp or something. That means all the kids are going to be out of the house for a week and a half. Technically, i am done with my contract with the family. My last day was actually just this past Friday. I am going to stick around and help out when the 2 girls get back, but other than that i am finished. It feels weird. It's crazy that a year has already gone by. But anyways, what else have I been up to lately? Oh, I just had 2 friends come to visit. Rikki and Kyna, 2 of my best friends from high school days. They came just last week and were here for about a week. We took a weekend trip down to Corsica and had an amazing time. Here are some pictures at the end. We took a train down to nice, then hung out in Nice for the day and took a Ferry that night over to Corsica. We hung out for a couple days then flew back into paris. It was absolutely beautiful, with water so clear and blue. It wasn't too crowded either. We bought cheap rafts and floated in the water every day. it was a much needed vacation. It was really great to have my 2 friends here. We had a lot of laughs and funny experiences and made great memories. Thank you girls for coming to visit me!
Friends in Paris!!!!!!!!!
We stumbled onto the Tour de France in Monaco- it was pretty cool!
Our "ferry" which was definitely more like a cruiseliner.
On the ferry heading down to Corsica:
watching the sunrise on the beach...
corsica shot from a train:
Beautiful picture taken by Kyna:
The first area we were in, Ile Rousse:
The water was so clear and pretty-perfect for relaxing on the beach:
So yeah, thats what has been going on. You may be wondering, "okay, joelle, so you are finished with work, when are you coming back to the states?" Well, i'm glad you asked. even though i am done now, I will be sticking around for a few more weeks. My flight back is set for August 20. I have been invited to go along as a nanny on vacation with another family that i babysit for. They are american and are going to the south of france for 5 days or so. They are taking me along to give the adults some time away from the kids. I'm really excited about it That will be in the end of July through the 2nd of August. AFter that, I'm just sticking around for kicks. Actually my reasoning is that when i was looking for tickets, the prices dropped drastically on the 20th and i couldn't afford to buy the expensive ones. So i'm going to stick around and do some babysitting and hang out with friends. My host family will be leaving on vacation the 31st of July so that means i have to leave the house too. I am going to be living with another American family that I babysit for for 2 weeks and then after that I'm going to stay with my french friend tatiana for the last week. Here is a picture of tatiana:
I guess I probably haven't told you guys about her yet either. She is someone I met at my church in Paris. She has become my best friend here and it has been such a blessing having her around. She has helped me so much with my french, but besides that she has just been a great friend. She has introduced me to a ton of other people, which has been great because I was having such a hard time making French friends. I feel so connected now and know that my experience would not have been as positive had I not met her. Thanks tati! She is actually going to be coming to the United States to visit me for awhile and is even going to come to my mom's house with me for thanksgiving! We are both really excited, but especially her because it will be her first thanksgiving. Ideally she would like to come live in the states for a year and work so that she can improve her english. She wants to start a wedding planning business in France and would like to come work for one in the states to learn about the business. I have been trying to help her find an internship or something, but we aren't having much luck. But anyways, she has been wonderful and I am so grateful to have her as a part of my life.
So yeah, I guess that covers enough for now. I can't say i'll write more soon, because we know how bad I am at this blogging thing. Oh well. I will try to write again before I head home. Thank you everyone for your emails, your prayers, your comments, everything. I'm more likely to write when I know people are reading this. Hope everyone is doing well. Feel free to post questions or things you would like me to address for another post. Much love from Paris, on Bastille day! (oh yeah, i'm having a grand bastille day celebration tomorrow, so i'll post pictures and write about it!)
