Laundry and other things

Alex left really early this morning. We had to be up at 4:30 to catch the tram to the train station in order for him to catch a 5:20 train to the airport (we checked the train times the night before, lesson learned). We made it just in time and said goodbye at the train. There were no romantic giddy Audrey Hepburn "Hello and Goodbye" endings it was just sad, as it always is saying good bye.
E and S are going to Cape Town for a week and a half so E's parents are here from Greece to be with the girls along with myself. Her parents only speak Greek so we have to rely on the girls to translate for us when needed. I am not worried about E and S leaving, the days are so scheduled that there won't be any time for emergencies and I already have it all down, almost :) The grandparents are so sweet and just like my grandparents. The grandmother is soooo short and cooks delicious things and is very motherly and really makes me miss my grandma who passed away last spring. It is nice that Ipa and Grandpa are still healthy it makes the pain of losing people softer.
Today I did laundry. I have been here two weeks today and I have been avoiding it. My clothes and things are still good haha! But I desperately need undergarments. The washing machine here is TINY, so I could barely fit those things in one load and then there is no dryer. I have to hang dry my things in the common room on my floor which is fine except that I washed all of my socks and underwear so I have only what I am wearing until those things dry and at the rate they are going it might be a couple of days.....perhaps a trip to the monoprix (general store) will be neccessary tomorrow.
Now that Alex is gone I have to buckle down and meet people. I am lucky that my flatmates have all been very nice and gone out of their way to meet me.
I got a package from my mom today, she made me a calendar with sayings and things it was so nice to see something from home! Although I am now worried about my books and contacts that I sent myself before I left because they are still not here...

Thanks Steve!

I am in the process of packing, it is not going very well at all. I have a lot of stuff, my brother and my dad came and helped move all of the big things so now I have piles of junk lying all over the apartment. The problem is that after this year is done I am not sure what my plans are. Alex and I have discussed spending six months in China and then possibly going to law school in NYC. If that is the case then I should just leave a bunch of stuff here for my roommates that I won't need and my mom doesn't need, dishes, lamps, t.v. stand. BUT if I come back here after France and if I go to law school here then I should keep all of this stuff because I will have to buy it again if I don't. If I do decide to keep it then I have to figure out where I am keeping it, how it's going to be stored etc...

As exciting as my dishes are, moving on to something even more interesting; I went to the post office this morning to send my books over to France. I have to take them because they are books for my online classes and for my thesis that I will be completing overseas. They weighed 47 pounds. I KNOW ridiculous, that's about as much as I am allowed for one of my big suitcases. So I sent them to France and it was $100, but if I had taken them with me on the plane I would have had to pay overweight fees and all of that jazz which would have been more expensive. The guy at the post office was a sweetheart and helped me figure everything out and laughed when I came in hunched over from the weight of my backpack. It's amazing that one person can turn your whole day around!

Last night I went to start the dishwasher and I realized that we are out of dishwasher soap but we did have regular dish soap. So I used that instead, that was a mistake. This morning my kitchen was full of bubbles.

The beginning of goodbye

I heard from the family I will be staying with in France and they finally got the papers for my visa! As soon as I get them I have to go to to French Consulate in Chicago and get them approved. Up until this point the thought of me going overseas for a year and leaving college life for good has just been something that I have enjoyed thinking about but the reality of it all is just beginning to hit.
My boyfriend leaves for London and then Italy after that, tonight was the last night I get to see him for a while. Hopefully he will be visiting me in Strasbourg soon. My friends Kristen and Justin threw a surprise going away party for Alex and everything is just snowballing.
It feels like things are spiraling into something I can't seem to stop. I don't just mean going to France. I am saying goodbye to my undergraduate years. Even though I will still be taking courses online it won't be the same and I won't ever be coming back to Iowa for class. The next time I am back in the states will be for Kristen and Justin's wedding and after my year in France I will have law school. I am growing up *sigh* it feels good to know that I can make decisions for my life based purely off of how I envision my life to be. It is scary to know that the responsibilities will keep growing.
I am anxious right now about saying goodbye.

Getting Ready

I finished my last final this morning! I am done taking classes on campus at the University of Iowa. It feels good. In roughly two and half weeks I will leave for Strasbourg, France to begin my adventure as an au pair. The family I will be living with is originally from Greece. Their jobs took them to Strasbourg, where they currently live with their two daughters.
My job will be to watch the girls speak English with them, help with homework, take them to their activities, etc. The two girls are the same age as two of my little sisters which will be nice because that means there will be no diapers, they have a very good grasp of English already because all of their other au pairs spoke English as well, they will be able to help me with my nonexistent French.
I guess I should answer a lot of the common questions I have been getting:
1. Why do I want to be an au pair?
I first found out about au pairs through my dad during my freshman year of college. We had been discussing my being restless and wanting to travel. Since then I have played around with the idea. I almost became an au pair for a family in Switzerland, and by almost I mean I had bought the ticket and had my visa. But things fell through, probably for the best. I have always loved to travel and as the daughter of a "self-declared" Francophile it's really no surprise that my first trip overseas was with my best friends to France. I fell in love, how typical! I would like to experience French culture first hand, I would love to learn the language, and I really enjoy being around children, so hopefully being an au pair will be perfect for me.
2. Why are you going to France if you don't speak French?
Well I love France....and I really wish I knew French. I am very nervous about not knowing the language. I will be taking French courses, it's required by French law for au pairs. I will keep you updated on that whole situation.
3. What is the living situation going to be like?
The family lives in an apartment and in the top floor of the apartment buildings are studios. They own one of the studios and that's where I will be staying. It's just one room but it will be my own space where I can relax when I need to by myself. I will have a key to their apartment and I will be able to go down there whenever to watch t.v. eat my meals, etc.
4. Are you nervous?
I think that just in general I am nervous about the whole experience. I know a lot of people go overseas as an au pair and expect something totally different than what they end up getting. I have been trying to be realistic with my expectations of the job, the family, the culture shock. Whenever I travel I always get very nervous right before and worry about whether or not I am making the right decision but I have yet to regret a trip *knock on wood*. Also my visa still hasn't arrived haha go figure,thank you French bureaucracy. My flight leaves in two and a hald weeks, hopefully I will be on it.
5. Will you get homesick?
Before my trips I always think that there is no way I will be homesick. I love to travel, I like airports (except for the Miami one where mice were scampering around), wandering around makes me happy, I enjoy my being alone. Then almost immediately after I leave I get dreadfully homesick. I constantly think oh wow mom would like this, dad told me about this, the kids would die if they saw this, and with such a huge family it wears on me. So yes I know I will be homesick, there's no avoiding it I suppose.

Hopefully I get my visa soon!