I feel gross

Today has not been good. I woke up feeling even worse than yesterday. My nose is runny I have a terrible wet cough and I can barely swallow. The girls have been crazy. I know that it is just intensified by me being sick but really, the past couple of days they have been terrible. They are supposed to eat all of their food before they can get up and they have to have water or milk with lunch. They asked for juice today and I told them no. They freaked out Ir went and got it anyway and drank some then D wanted some and I told them both no, they wouldn't finish their lunch, fought, spilled food all over, well you get the picture. The girls know that they have little chance of getting in trouble for anything they do around me since I can't do anything so they just act like little monsters.
End of rant...for today

Run around the house 100 times

The girls today had a lot of energy. It's spring, it has finally stopped raining and well you know they are kids. I on the other hand feel really sick and tired today. Not the best combination to say the least. When I was little and my siblings and I were getting crazy, which was most of the time, my mother would tell us to go outside. If we said we didn't want to she would threaten us with chores. We spent a lot of time outside :) D and Ir can't go play outside we live in the city and they have no yard at all. It's no wonder they have so much energy, imagine being a kid and never having the chance to run around.

On a better note Alex and I had a great time together. We went to Baden Baden, Germany to the spas. They were glorious! Baden Baden is famous for its natural hot springs and the water was so relaxing I could have stayed there forever. Alex got a little bored. I love the way German sounds. It's very guttural and choppy and most people hate the way it sounds. It sort of reminds me of Chinese. Baden Baden is an hour away from Strasbourg by train and it's surrounded by the Black Forest. It was very beautiful. The countryside of Germany sort of reminded me of Iowa. Obviously not rows and rows of cornfields but it was split up into neat sections. Iowa from the air is rows and rows of square cornfields and Germany, at least this part of Germany slightly resembled that.

Chinese

We found a Chinese restaurant we really like here. The food is good and inexpensive and the owner is very friendly and Alex enjoyed speaking Chinese with him. The had an entire conversation in Chinese that lasted about 15 minutes and I was really thrilled to find that I understood about 80% of it. It was nothing super complex, questions like where are we from, how long they have been here and why France. It is nice to know that I can still understand some Chinese. It also made me realize how complicated French is in comparison. Conjugating verbs, feminine and masculine words, present passe compose imparfait, all combine to make one very complex language. Reading and writing Chinese is of course difficult but Alex says that there is a definite logic to it and once you understand that it makes is easier (I have yet to understand it).

In general my experience is going well. My auntie Keeka pretty much summed up exactly how I feel; she said (more or less) "some days it feels like the biggest adventure of your life and others you wonder what in the world you are doing there". She spent a year, maybe more I can't remember, in France when she was my age so she can relate better than anyone.

It's just mold on top of mold

Last week Sarah and Nolan were here visiting! I showed them around the city and took them over to Kehl to see some of Germany. We had a lot of fun together, I mostly enjoyed just talking and laughing with them. They went to Paris after Strasbourg, and by all accounts had an amazing time there. Alex and I were unable to join them there but it was just good to see faces from home no matter how short the time seems. Sarah also brought me more of my clothes from home, which means the trip back to the US next winter will involve a lot of overweight luggage!

Alex is here this week! I am so lucky that the program he chose gives him travel time. I am not looking forward to the summer when I probably won't see him at all because he will be interning in London. Well I guess I will be in Greece, so it won't be all bad :)

Tonight we were going to stay in for dinner and just fry some burgers or something simple in an attempt to save money. The grocery stores close at an insanely early hour here so we were stuck with what I had in my fridge. It turns out what I had in my fridge was inedible.
1. Moldy cheese 2. spoiled hamburger meat 3. Chicken from Alex's first visit ooo about two months ago! Whoops!

We went out for Chinese instead

2 days with Dad!

My dad was here this past weekend, he flew in on Saturday afternoon and left Sunday evening. Very brief but we had a blast! My dad is the best person to travel with, no really he is ask my mom. I have been here over two months and he was here briefly thirty years ago and I still felt like he knew way more than I do. He took me Sarah and Nolan out twice for very nice lunches. We got to try new dishes and the second lunch we ate at the restaurant in my favorite Strasbourg building. We stayed at the Sofitel in town which was nice and had a gorgeous bathroom with a huge bathtub which I loved because my place only has a shower...which is in the kitchen, not ideal.
Saturday evening we had dinner with S and E and two couples. One couple consisted of a Scottish man and a German wife, the other was a French couple. The dinner conversation switched from German to French but for me, mostly English...I am still learning. Dinner was delicious and my dad has a good time talking with people.
Sunday morning we went to church then we went downtown for the Carnaval parade on Sunday afternoon after our lunch. We threw confetti and watched as the evil said goodbye before Easter, some of the costumes were really ugly. Then dad took a train to the airport and left for India.
It was really great to see him and he teased me about my horrid French which I have been diligently studying in the days since he left :)

Every day

This week has been pretty boring. I have stayed in and worked on homework and French and that's about it. I am going home at the end of April to take tests and before I take those tests I need to have the work completed, I am behind. By default I have only spent 5 euros this week. I still have 40 euros in change but at least I am saving money.
D and Ir always ask me about my home and my siblings and my life in the US. I was explaining to Ir the concept of states (their last au pair was from New York) and she pretty much understands it, they have different regions here in France as well. Then she asked me "Is Canada a state as well?" :)
Today I picked up the girls from school and we ate lunch, which was cold raw salmon, fresh cucumbers and tomatoes with salt (yuck), and plain yogurt (yes very healthy), afterward they played a little and I made their beds. E came home and was surprised to see the beds made and said "oh Joy you don't have to do that X will". I am certainly not being overworked here. The most "housework" I ever do is putting our dishes in the dish washer when the girls and I are done with lunch. At dinner E does it. I am so lucky that I ended up with this family. Also, I am very thankful for X she is amazing!
I think the most exciting thing that has happened to me this week is that I finally figured out how to correctly use the washing machine. I used to pull the clothes out of the washer and they would be soaking wet, I literally had to ring out each article of clothing several times before I hung it up to dry. Well today I did laundry and went to freetranslation.com and typed in what was on the washer. Turns out I had been pushing a button that stopped the washer before it reached the last part of the cycle. Who knew?
Tomorrow my dad comes!!! E and S are throwing a dinner party for him which is incredibly kind of them, the dinner will be fun, E and S always invite very interesting people.
Also Sarah and Nolan come tomorrow as well! They will be here until Wednesday and then they will train over to Paris where hopefully Alex and I will be able to meet them for the weekend!

Whoops

I am in the Charles de Gualle airport on one of the computers here. You pay at a machine and you get a certain amount of time to use the computer. The machine takes bills up to 50, which is great because 50 was all I had. I bought 5€ worth and watched in dismay as the machine spit back 45€ in 1€ coins. I was amused as I listened to the chorus of French people around me chuckle, it's nice to be back!

Rome again then home again

On Thursday evening Alex and I caught a bus to Padova and then a train to Rome. On the train we met an older Italian man who owns a small private international law firm in Rome. He travels regularly to Brazil and the other BRIC countries. He was very pleasant and interested in what brought us to Italy. He lives near the Pantheon in Rome, which is a really nice area. I was impressed. We arrived in Rome after 2300, our hostel was about 2 blocks from the train station. The area around the train station isn't the greatest, it's not dangerous per se but a little sketchy at 11pm. We were on the street of the hostel and some lady came up to us saying "Joy Chung Joy Chung" I was pretty freaked out, but it turns out it was the lady who runs the B&B we were staying at. We were pretty late in getting there so she was headed to the train station to meet us. She was fantastic and the B&B was awesome. Hot water, beautiful room, filling breakfast included in the price, and it was all very inexspensive. It was much nicer than the place we stayed at in Rome the last time we were here, that place was a little bit creepy.
Since we had already been in Rome we didn't feel like we had to run all over the place to see everything which made the trip awesome and we still ended up seeing a lot of sights. We saw St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican. We walked around the Colosseum area. We saw Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and the Spanish Steps at night which was better than in the day. the weather was perfect the entire time we were there, 50 and sunny! I had Gelatto three times and I still want more. We were reluctant to leave.
We took a train back to Venice Saturday night. We ate at a little pizzeria which was not at all touristy and deliscious. We were probably the only non-Italians in the place, but it was packed and the food was cheap and good, nothing better ;) The Italians next to us asked us about ourselves and how we ended up in Italy and what we thought about our travels.

The pictures are of me and Alex at St. Peter's Basilica, at the top of the Spanish steps, and a picture of the Palantine

The Good Earth

I was reminded of one of my favorite books this week, The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. The book chronicles the life of a Chinese peasant pre-Mao era. The author has written other books as well but in my opinion she doesn't caputre the attention of the reader or the spirit of her characteres as well as she does in The Good Earth. In one part of the book the main character wakes up and thinks to himself "there is a luxury in living". The rest of the book goes on to describe how he and his family depend on the earth for their livlihood. The book is excellent. This past week I felt exactly like that! Every single day has been fantastic.
I arrived in Venice last Saturday and Alex was able to meet me at the airport. We took a train back to Paderno del Grappa where he lives. I stayed in a very nice hotel, incidentally the only one in the surrounding area. I got to meet all of Alex's friends and everyone was very friendly and easy to get along with.
Paderno is very small probably less than 1,000 people live there. Alex is studying there with a program called CIMBA and there are 140 students there. I probably saw less than 20 Italians, even so the local Pizzeria was deliscious and Paderno is in a valley surrounding by beautiful mountains. I had a very relaxing time there.