Explore Euriday

I've just been exploring for most of this time.
My first stop was the Fontainebleau castle which was so cool! Every time I walk through these castles I like to pretend that I am a princess running through these halls in all my skirts. Yeah, I am becoming a princess when I grow up.

The day after that I visited Paris to meet up with some friends and eat the best falafel ever, as well as ice cream. It seems like I mostly go to Paris for the food, clearly I am here to lose weight. 

On Saturday we set off to Versailles. We drove there which didn't take very long, but finding parking was quite difficult (still nothing compares to Paris with its, literal, bumper to bumper parking. You simply bump the car in front of you and behind you, to make room for your own car). Versailles has another beautiful castle (although I prefer the Fontainebleau castle. It feels more real, more relatable, and had way less tourists). 

And lastly to end the weekend with a bang, we went to Disneyland. Although not going to lie, we were exhausted! But Disney was fun, unfortunately the Paris one does not have very many rides. You can tell it is mostly for little kids who love Princes and Princesses, rather than going on rides. 

Yes we even went on the carousel. And then Space Moutanin... 3 times... in a row... 

One Night in Paris.

This past weekend was pretty amazing, but let me first start off with my adventure this morning.

I woke up as usual, drove Leo to school, as usual, and started making my breakfast. As I was finishing cooking my delicious breakfast eggs, I went to place the dirty dishes in the sink. To my horror I found THIS:

If anyone knows me, or has experienced my reactions when spiders appear, I freak out. I have a pretty severe arachnophobia. And to find such a huge one so close in proximity!!! Well for the rest of the day I avoided the kitchen. I sat in my room, until I had to leave for my french class, with the door closed (you never know, it might makes it was upstairs, and into my room... the closed door will stop him). 

Anyways, Let's move this picture a little further up so I don't have to see it anymore. 

Ok... better. This is France not Australia... 

So this weekend I spent my free time in beautiful Paris. 

On the Friday night I headed out with the family. My host mom bought us tickets for a play. Or as I will later find out... a one man show. It was pretty cool though. I understood some things! I'd do a little happy dance in my head every time I heard a phrase I would understand it. And then linger on it, repeating it to myself to make sure I can later incorporate it in my everyday french interactions. 

Contrary to what some believed would happen, no I did not fall asleep. 

The next day I..... WENT SHOPPING. It was exhilarating. I sent many snapchats. I was very excited. And I bought 2 bags of stuff, shoes and a coat included. That is it. No more shopping... (lol #jks). 

I then went to meet a friend in Paris to go exploring. We mostly walked around as we didn't have much time to actually visit a place. It was still quit a lot of fun. I changed my pants in a Mcdonalds bathroom (I started off wearing jeans... bad idea). 

I then met up another friend with whom I went to a place called "Frog" for drinks and food. And then got wine and champagne (for 8 euros all together!!), to well... be classy and stuff. 

I lied and said I could open corked bottles... I tried... I couldn't. But we did manage to open it together. 

The Eiffel Tower is beautiful at night! 

We had a pretty awesome time at a bar called "Cafe Oz". And for some crazy reason I decided to get Jagger bombs.. Like WTF. I hate Redbull. I don't know what happened in my mind there. I then got frustrated at a waitress for not understand my awesome french when I was asking for "un l'eau! - [a the water]". We then ran into some interesting Parisian men.... or pigs I should call them. Guys in Canada will cat call, yell shit at you, but will NEVER touch you. But Paris is a completely different story. They will grab you, if you give them the chance. It can get a little scary. 

The next day we woke up with a pretty awesome sauce hangover. Thanks to 4 euro wine and champagne. We headed over to Chipotle (cause we're cool as shit) for a breakfast burrito, which was so worth the long detour/walk. 

Later I met up with another friend to explore some more of Paris. We saw many tombs of famous people that day... including 3 Napoleons. Yes.. 3. I did not know that there were three, but now I do. 

Finished the day by sitting by the river. 

FOMO is now just literally MO

*for those of you who are not familiar with the term (as I found out some people are not) FOMO = Fear Of Missing Out.

Now I don't even care about FOMO. Talk french, I don't care. But when it involved shit that I have to know, or things that have to do with my day and duties... are you kidding me! That's were I am a bit annoyed. Like how is it more important that a 9 and 6-year old know exactly what should be happening (not only because they speak french and can understand the dialect, but because they are directly told) but the 23-year-old who's duty it is to look after the kids can be left in the dark... I don't see the point of the 9 and 6-year old knowing exactly what is going on... I'd like to see them drive themselves to school.

I like how sometimes I find things out because I am already half way through doing it, or I am told "Allez"... And then people are surprised when I ask "sorry, where are we going/ what are we doing?"

Ughh.. Maybe I am just so miserable because I am sick. Like actually I have some kind of cold. I blame it on stress, but I don't know if there is such a thing as a "stress cold". Well I just invented it! I just want a little getaway somewhere. Well I do have a Netherlands trip coming up... but that's in October.. that's a bit too far. I need one now, to re-energize and get my sanity back. Or just something to perk me up. And stop freaking crying to my friends and family back home. Again I've only been like this, this week. And most of the people I complain to blame it on me feeling like utter crap... they may have a point. Well we shall see how things go. I am going to go take a nap now. Or watch proposals or some other sad shit that makes me cry... why do I do this to myself!

I've got these Feelings for you [Paris]

I got to spend 2 full days in Paris on Tuesday and Wednesday. I explored, I met such awesome people (even I am impressed with my luck), and I walked a lot.

My first day I met up with my German friend. Well met up almost more than an hour late, thanks to my awesome not-so-french parking skills. Heres the gist: I arrived at the parking lot of the train station only to see that it is extremely packed. Like if you try to venture inside you'll probably be bumping cars. Parking lines don't mean anything in France, people will park everywhere, including the curb, and in the middle of the parking lot - like actually they make an extra row in between the designed parking on the sides. So I gave up on my dream of bumper to bumper parallel parking and decided to park on the street (along with some other wise drivers). Turns out we were all not so wise, as at the end of the day all of us had parking tickets...

Anyways so I missed the train, but fortunately was able to hunt down my friend. We visited the Saint Chapelle first, which is a church, and then we ventured into a legislature building that wasn't a touristy area at all, there were people working and security everywhere. So we left pretty quickly realizing how much we stand out in our casual clothes and most of the workers wearing robes and suites.

My friend then had to leave to pick up her kids, while I decided to go to Montmartre to visit the Sacre Coeur.  Little did I know that this area of Paris is a "preferably-dont-be-alone-in", so I got harassed by a group of guys right before going up the stairs of the Sacre Coeur. Even worst, today I saw a news article saying that on Wednesday a police officer was attacked by these scammers who stand outside of Sacre Coeur! Some people can just go fuck themselves. So anyways after being groped by one of these guys, my mood wasn't necessarily in a great touristy, explory mood, but I made it all the way here so I forced myself to explore the church. I am glad I did. I met a friendly 50-year-old New Yorker travel who was very nice to me, and we talked about some other nice places in Paris and about his travels. I bet he didn't get fondled by the fucking pigs. 

The next day I went back to Paris to meet another au pair. Fortunately for me he has been in France for longer than I, and he speaks french. 

Our first, and impressive, stop was the Abercrombie and Fitch at the Champs-Elysees (forget the accents). First you walk through this huge golden gate, into a hedge maze. Then as you approach the store there this half naked "model" whom you can take pictures with. Then once you enter the store it is dark, except for the lights above the merchandise and everything looks gold. Don't forget the perfume they spray through the vent system. 

Continuing down the road we saw a street performer....

And then climbed the Arche de Triumphe. 

And then climbed up the Notre Dam. I pretty much got my exercise for the week climbing all these stairs and walking around Paris. 

Mon Paris

I am so good at driving standard now, I may as well be in one of those "please do not attempt, professional driver" commercials. Hey BMW or Mercedes, if you're looking for a driver, call me up. 

I have finally made it into Paris. It is definitely a very nice, Europian type of city. But I cannot say that I wish I lived there. For me it's like Toronto, I am fine with visiting the big city, but I am glad I do not live there. 

The first day I visited was with my host mom and the youngest girl, Leo. We sat in traffic for a lot of the time, but it was still such a wonderful trip. I am very glad I do not drive in Paris. I am too much of a “Canadian” driver to survive there (i.e I’d let people pass, wait for people to let me in). Also road lines do not exist in Paris, even if they do, no one follows them. And pedestrians everywhere! It’s like “I am human, cars can’t hurt me”… seriously bud??!

Leo and I catching bubbles.

You cannot go to Paris and not take a photo with the Eiffel Tower

The second day I went back to Paris by myself. I survived the train ride and metro. I think of this as a great accomplishment. I attended an au pair picnic where I met lots of Canadians. Clearly my French skills will only improve if I hang out with lots of people from my own country (and their not from Quebec). It was so refreshing to meet people though! And some great people as well. I then went exploring with some of the girls I met.

I do not care how cheesy this is, I am so doing this. 

On another note, I know Paris is expensive and all, but 20 euros for a burger and fries…. That’s just excessive. Looks like when I go to Paris I better bring some food with me, because on my salary, I won’t be eating out very often.

Back to Paris tomorrow!

BFF4F4F4F

Now imagine reading the title with a valley girl accent, and a 12 year olds attitude.

I am hopefully going to meet some other au pairs soon; and I don't have to wait all the way until my french classes start (Sept 16). 

I am going to an au pair picnic tomorrow in Paris (this should be interesting). I have also met a couple of girls that live in a near by city so I'll see how things go there too. 

For now I haven't much to write. Other than everything is going well, I am just exhausted at the end of the days a lot. I also find that I have the hardest time with the dog rather than the kids. The kids at least listen to me. The dog does not. I am not very used to a dog that doesn't listen/ does what he wants no matter what. I am used to well behaved (like really well behaved) dogs at my place that won't run away from you while you are driving out of the front gates, that won't run away from you when you have to lock them up in the house when you do need to drive out of the front gates, that won't run away from you when they have something they shouldn't in their mouth, and finally, one that will not steal food right from the table. Well he is cute, I'll give him that. 

360 blisters and unfortunate selfies

I had the day off today, so I decided to do some exploring in Fontainebleau. It is a larger city close to where I am living. According to many of the locals (and the tourism center place) this is a big place for many English people to hang out due to a bilingual schools thats there (or something like that). I personally didn't hear much English. I heard some Russian though...

The drive up to Fontainebleau was very nice, but then I see that huge 3 lane roundabout and I get butterflies in my stomach... I am a bit nervous. I just hope I don't have to stop in case I stall in panic. However, all went smoothly (I should give myself a bit more credit/faith in driving, turns out I am actually not that bad). Unfortunately I got off at the wrong roundabout exit and ended up in the heart of the city in the manual car. Which again went very smoothly and I finally reached the parking area I wanted to.

A beautiful parking job, if I do say so myself.

My first stop was the castle and the castle gardens.

I asked these two girls to take a picture of me at the top, only to later find out that she took pictures of me going up and down the stairs as well... so now I have 2 pictures at the top.. and like 6 of me running and up down. Maybe she didn't understand my french, or maybe she wanted to capture some candid shots for me.

Crazy face I was referring to in the previous blogpost. For your future reference/ if you want to copy: big smile (preferably that is unnatural and hurts your cheeks), eyebrows lifted or just one eyebrow lifted (be aware if one eyebrow is lifted then it looks like you are judging people), eyes wide, to go with the eyebrows - this should come naturally. 

Are these trout? I am not sure. But they were huge, swimming in the green, murky water in front of the castle. 

Did you know that in France a coffee with milk is not just simply "cafe au lait". Its specifically called "Nosette" (or something like that). But their cups here are so tiny! Where is my Venti White Chocolate Mocha??? I think I am too poor for Europian Starbucks, considering I am poor for Canada Starbucks, but screw it I feel special cause I have a gold member card. 

I visited an English book store, that was over priced, and had a deceiving name. When they say "English" book store, they mean all the books and authors that are British, so I didn't really find anything. 

I took an interestingly sketchy path to cross the road, because there was no roundabout sidewalk for humans. It was either take this path, or risk getting hit by a car. 

I had also stopped by a bakery that everyone kept raving on about on the Fontainebleau touristy websites. It was quite delicious, and lovely. I'll probably go back there again... clearly so I can keep a slim figure. 

I took about 5 hours of exploring (and about 2.5 of those hours wandering around in circles cause I kept getting lost - great sense of direction, I know). My feet were killing me, and turns out they were bleeding and just quite lovely overall (but they looked so cute!). I blame the cobblestones, they hurt my feet so much! Those crooked, convex-ed stones with little holes in between the stones! At the end, with every step I took, I had to try to keep a straight face... don't show the pain Ana. I am pretty sure I looked like a weirdo too, trying to just over some larger cobblestones, and avoiding them all together sometimes (which resulted in walking on the tiny cobblestone-less areas of the sidewalk).