The magnificent month of March!

This week went well, the girls were very good and the weather was perfect! The month of March is going to be awesome. I leave on Saturday to see Alex for one week. My dad is going to be here, only for two days but still it's going to be so great to see him!! My dad is to blame for so many things about myself, my love of France and how gullible I am, just to name a few :) Sarah and Nolan are coming!! Then after they leave Alex will be here again, as you can see I am really looking forward to the next couple of weeks!!

Are you sure?

I went to a cafe/study place today on a friend's recommendation. The place was fine cheap no big deal, it was however on the very end of one of the tram lines and then some. I got there studied for a long time and left at 10:15. I know the tram stops running at midnight so I wanted to give myself plenty of time to get back. WELL actually some of the lines or part of some of the lines stop running before midnight, the one I needed included. I spent one hour and forty five minutes walking home in the rain....perfect

This and That

I can't believe the week is already over. Alex just left for the airport and I feel like he just arrived, blah. The good news is that on Saturday I am going to go visit him!!!!! I am really excited, he is in a tiny tiny village in Italy called Paderno del Grappa, it is somewhat near Venice.
We went to Basel, Switzerland which is about 1 hour and 15 minutes away from Strasbourg. We went to the zoo and just walked around a little bit. We ate lunch at the zoo and I accidentally got two meals and it was VERY expensive. Switzerland is one of the most expensive places to live in the world plus it was the zoo cafeteria which automatically means the prices are ridiculous. Basel is located on the Rhine and borders both France and Germany. What we heard was a mix I am assuming a local dialect. However everyone also spoke French so we were able to manage.
I had my medical exam in order to get my carte de sejour which is my long term residence permit. The exam consisted of people taking my weight, height, asking if I was updated with my shots and then I had to get the famous French chest exam haha I had already read about the whole experience beforehand so no surprises there. I also got to keep a copy of my x-ray which is absolutely enormous and I have no idea what I am supposed to do with it...souvenir?
E and S invited Alex and me downstairs for a formal dinner which was very nice and quite grownup feeling. The meal was complete with five courses including a cheese course:) The cheese and the desert was the only French part of the meal. In fact the whole time I have been here I have had an actual French meal maybe twice. The family is Greek so we eat Greek food. Anyhow the meal was good, and it was nice to talk to E and S and they got to know Alex a little and liked him as well.
The next day S and E showed us around the Council of Europe which is where they work. S is a human rights lawyer and E works on a committee in the council. The buildings are not too impressive but what goes on there is something that really interests me being an international studies major and wanting to go to law school. The court of Human Rights is the big branch of the Council of Europe and basically it allows any citizen to sue their government if they feel their rights have been violated. Of course this carries with it the problem of all IGO's, enforcement. The idea is beautiful and suits idealistic me just fine.


Also I found a church I really like here. It's called Trinity International and it's and English speaking church, quite similar to a church back in Cedar Rapids called New Covenant except much smaller, about 50 people. I have only been there once so far and I won't get a chance to go back for a while since I will be gone the next two Sundays but the people were friendly and the music was good.

OOO and thank you for the mail, I LOVE getting it! I got a letter from my mom, auntie Kika and Uncle Bruce, and Ipa!!!

Karneval

Today Alex and I went to Kehl, Germany. It's very small but super close to Strasbourg, as in they run on the same bus lines. We took the bus from my place to the border and walked across the pedestrian bridge to Germany. We got crepes (on the French side) with nutella and whip cream, delicious and messy, perfect! S had told us earlier that Kehl was having their Karneval so we got to see that which was awesome!!! Everyone was dancing and drinking and basically having a good time, also lots of people were dressed up in costumes. I tried a German beer that had an apple flavor which was incidentally the best beer I have ever had but then again I probably only liked it because it didn't taste too much like beer :)

The photos are of us on our way to Germany, Karneval, the streets of Kehl covered in confettie and us on the pedestrian bridge. My camera is old and cheap so the pictures aren't that great quality wise.

Valentines Day

Alex got here safe and sound on Friday night! I made it to the airport without some poor guy having to take pity on me :) On Valentines day we were planning on going to Switzerland but we slept in too late and just walked around Strasbourg instead it was a nice day and lots of people were out and about. My French is so horrible but slowly getting better; we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant for dinner and instead of French we just relied on Alex's Chinese...much easier that way.

The pictures are of the Spanish Embassy, the enormous cathedral in the city center, some dude singing outside the Cathedral and one of my favorite looking buildings in the center.

Frustrated

Even though I am getting used to the girls, I am still very easily frustrated by them. Perhaps it's just a lesson in patience that I need, or maybe it's them, I don't know but this week has been horrible with the girls and great otherwise. I am enjoying my surroundings learning French and meeting people.
The girls on the other hand have been quite difficult. The grandparents are still here (they leave on Sunday) and the girls are horribly rude to them which I find inexcusable. I frankly don't want to see the grandparents go, they make my job a lot easier. It means I can go earlier because they are there and the grandma cooks everything so I don't have to do that, not that I would be cooking E does that when the grandma isn't there but things are just smoother because they are always around if I need backup.
The girls are supposed to finish everything on their plates for meals but they don't and this has become a thing of constant tension between us. They eat what they want and talk in French while I constantly remind them to keep eating. Then they switch to English to tell me no they won't and then get up and leave the table...this is really frustrating.

Some days I wonder what I was thinking


*UPDATE*
This afternoon was better. I have to keep reminding myself that these are kids I am dealing with here, be patient :)

Also Alex gets here Strasbourg in about 2 hours!!!!

You are American, NO!

Generally I find it offensive when people automatically make assumptions about me based off of my nationality but today I laughed out loud

I was walking towards the girls tennis club to take them to Greek in the direction of the Council of Europe
random creepy guy: "vous êtes la plus belle femme française que je jamais ai vu" "you are the most beautiful French woman I have ever seen"
me: "pardon moi, je suis Americain et j'ai un petit ami" "I am American and I have a boyfriend"
random creepy guy: "You are American, NO!" he literally started to run in the other direction



The picture on the top is from the back of the Court of Human Rights and the picture on the bottom is another European Union building.

That's my sidewalk!

Everyone parks on the sidewalk here...I was almost killed by some crazy maniac when he careened up on the curb to nab the little piece of sidewalk I was so unwittingly claiming.

E and S have been back from Cape Town for the past week and everything with the family is still going very well. I am really starting to get to know the girls and we are enjoying each other. From time to time I need to remind myself to slow down. Part of the reason I became an au pair was to take a year off from my studies and job etc. and I guess I am so used to being busy that it's hard for me to slow down and enjoy the scenery.
If you think about being an au pair is really a precarious thing for the au pair and the family. They are essentially asking some total stranger to come to their home and be responsible for their children. The au pair travels to another country trusting that the family won't be insane slave drivers. I am thankful that I chose this family. E is very sweet and we get along well. S is polite and makes sure to ask me how my classes are going. The girls well....you know they are a typical pair of little girls, the good and the bad :)

My Computer

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. My computer this past week got a virus. The really horrible kind that make it impossible to even log on. When this happened I basically had a meltdown but thank goodness Alex was able to talk me through it :). That very same day I finally got my package in the mail with all of my books and my pictures!! I looked up computer stores on the family's computer and found one about two blocks from my home, which I thought was odd since I live in a very upscale neighborhood that is surrounded by embassies and such, no stores really. I went there and I either couldn't find it or it doesn't exist sooo that stunk. Then I went to a different one much farther away from my home and after wandering around for a bit I found that one too and it was closed, closed as in it didn't look like it was going to be open for a very long time. Also the neighborhood was a little sketchy. After that I walked to an area I was familiar with and just prayed I would find a computer place and I am not kidding when I say that literally when I turned the next corner I saw one!
This store "PC Gold" was very tiny and smelled really strongly of cigarette smoke, but at that point I didn't care at all. I know very little about computers to begin with and even in English I know only a handful of computer related words so you can imagine how limited my computer vocab in French is, in fact it consists of one word "ordinateur" which is computer. So I ended up saying to them something along the lines of "mon ordinateu est malade" which roughly translates to my computer is physically sick like with a cold or a fever. Thank goodness that broke the ice the guys in there just started laughing and then one of them asked if I spoke English. They spent several days working on my computer but finally it was fixed yesterday!! The wonderful thing is they only charged my 40 euros for the whole thing. To give you some persepctive on how inexspensive that is: S had some guy come look at his computer today to do something minor and charged him 100 euros. They had my computer for days and had to do a lot of work and charged me 40 euros.
Every day I am discovering how generous people are.

Dancing

Last night I went dancing with my flatmate Simona, her boyfriend Christoph, and a friend of theirs Florika. I had a blast, probably the most fun I have had since I have been here. I felt guilty though, Simona and Florika are Romanian and Christoph is Bulgarian and they all three speak French, I was the only one who is most comfortable in English but yet that's what they all spoke. I told them to speak in French and they kept just switiching to English for me to include me, more motivation for me to dilligently study my French. Florika is a doctor and she moved here from Romania for a French man who sounds like a complete jerk, the kind of guy I would tell me friends to get rid of and to top of it she can't practice medicine in France until she goes through a mountain of bureaucracy so she's in Strasbourg with a medical degree and sitting in an apartment all day waiting for some jerk. Blah I hate that. I really enjoyed her company and we both needed a night out.
Talk turned to politics, American politics, not because I directed it there, they all were just interested. Listening to their stories makes me feel so naive and young. Christoph grew up in a Communist Bulgaria and left without looking back and has been in France since '93. Florika grew up in Communist Romania and her family had to endure a lot of hardships under that regime. I grew up in the midwestern US and have never wanted for anything. I don't feel guilty so much as blessed and hopeful that the sacrifices they have made will pay off for them.

The dance floor was a blast! The bar played classics like, Respect, Thriller, mixed in with a little Jay-Z and Rhianna. I am not a good dancer, actually I am pretty bad but I had fun and didn't care. We talked to a bunch of people all through the night and I found out later that two of the guys knew right away that I was American just by the way that I danced, turns out they were American as well, and you could definitely tell by the way they danced. I knew the second they walked into the room they were Americans. The way they were dressed and carried themselves is something I recognize all too well from my fellow college students. It was nice to talk to fellow Americans and exchange stories.
I really don't mind that people can tell I am American, it's not something I am embarrassed about and certainly not something I would apologize for, despite current sentiments. At the same time I don't want to be an idiot American bafooning her way through a foreign country culturally insensitive. I love the way the French women dress, which will most likely be something I try to copy, but other things like the rudeness I will probably not pick up, I am from the Midwest afterall:)

Uphill but one month down

Mail is the most wonderful thing in the world. I got a letter and a package from my mom in the mail this week and they made me feel spectacular! My new life here will force me to appreciate the small things more because my days are much simpler and slower. Getting letters always makes me miss my grandma because she used to write me long letters no matter where I was in the world she always wrote me and prayed for me.
This week in general has been much better than last week. D and Ir are getting used to me and me to them. They aren't horrible kids they are just testing the waters seeing how far I will let them go. D is the older one and she is very competitive and strong willed. She likes to play sports and do anything that involves competition which is fine with me because I am not very competitive at things that I don't love, which would be every sport :). When I tell D to do something she likes to sweetly ask Ir to do it for her and then when I tell her she can't do that she asks, "why not the job is getting done isn't it?" Haha yes, yes it is. Ir is the younger girl and she is more careful. She loves to play card games with me they require a different type of skill than sports. Ir also is more sensitive to her surroundings.
The girls parents are coming home today which will be nice for them but I am sad to see the grandparents go. They have been nothing but loving and kind and the grandma cooks such wonderful things! However I will see them this summer when we are all in Greece.

Everyone I have met here has been so kind. The family has been so welcoming and open. My flatmates regularly ask me how I am doing and are genuinely interested in helping me transition since all of them are from other countries as well. People in the stores are helpful if a bit standoffish compared to America, which I actually like. People on the streets have stopped and helped me with directions when I have been standing with a map wishing I could read it. It could be because I am a young girl by myself and I look completely vulnerable. Or it could be because people in general just want to help others and when exposed to those in need we rise to the occasion no matter how insignificant it may seem. This isn't to say that I haven't experienced the right in my face "Ca va?" (how are you) from random creepy French guys, or had one million people budge in front of me in any type of line, or had the, "oh la la, vous etes americain (shakes head in a disappointed way)".

My French classes are going ok. I am finding that I am beginning to understand a lot more of what people are saying to me which is great, except that most of the time I have no idea what to say back to them, and it takes me a couple of seconds to comprehend what they are saying so I usually just look pretty stupid, but hey I am fine with that. My goal in my conversational class this week is to uuumm actually say stuff. I know that sounds a little repititious is conversation class I should be involved in conversations...but mostly I just sit and try to grasp what's going on.