Tell the world, I'm coming home.

Best. News. Ever was received by me today. I got my Russian visa. Which means I get to go home and see people I have not seen for 12 years! 12 years! I started crying on the Champs Elysee, because I was so freaking happy.

This week overall has been so amazing!

Let's start with last Sunday (a calendar week starts on Sunday in Europe, I now know some people find this weird).

Last Sunday was Fête de la Musique in France. Which is a huge festival of music, and it happens all over France. It is where artists, famous and amateur, come out and play on stages, small and large. I kind of expected it to be more musical than it was, but we did end up at Republique which where the main stage was set up in Paris. I listened to some amazing new music and had a really great pizza! The fête goes until 3am; however, I am a working woman! And also I live far and my train stops at 12am. Granted I didn't even stay that long because I just wanted to finish watching Game of Thrones season 5 (especially because people were posting left and right what was happening and I didn't want my boyfriend to have the ending spoiled for him; I've already read the books so it wasn't much of a surprise to me).

Oh yeah, and the day before we ate a lot... That was pretty much all we did:

The idea was to go into Paris for Moules Frites... but we got hungry before, and then we had to get our Moules... I mean that's why we were there. 

Then the busiest week started. 

It is the end of the year, meaning all activities are finished and progress must be shown to the parents. 

I have to admit though it was adorable!! I also loved how every time the little ones would come out on stage all they'd want to do was look for their parents and then wave profusely. 

Then came the regular Tuesday (that I will soon write about, it's turns out it's a lot more work than I thought... and I am lazy). 

Then came my goodbye party/ all nighter in Paris (as we suburbianers (?) must do when we go out for a night in Paris). 

We started off meeting everyone, going to the Seine, and drinking a full bottle of vodka and two jugs of orange juice (I say this separately because we didn't bring cups, so it was little bottle, then jug of juice). We then rejoined many other people by the Seine, and continued drinking until we all felt like dancing, so we headed out to Bastille (I don't know why I always end up there!). Because transport is usually difficult for such a large number of people, we all got split up. So while I don't actually remember everything clearly I'll just add the pictures, because a picture is a thousand words (and I have many pictures). 

After the bar closed we headed down to the Bastille Opera to jam, because what else could you do at 5 am?! Also surprisingly you meet some lovely people who could either play guitar or can really sing! Quite a lovely end to the perfect evening (or morning..?) 

This is our album cover for the new CD that we'll have out entitled: "no we won't get a hangover as long as we're jammin".

Irina and I got home at 7:30 am, and guess what we did? That's right, we went to sleep! A bed has never looked so good! The rest of the weekend was a recovery weekend. We mostly hung out, ate food, and played Monopoly... which I won... that's right I will never live this down. Monopoly, the game where you lose all your friends. 

Look at all them dolla' dolla' bills that Caro plans to give to me. 

It's ok if you lose, but I better win. 

I'm kidding... kind of. 

Paris, je t'aime vraiment.

This month has been a huge gumble of things! I have so little time left that I am constantly on the move trying to fit as many things into my schedule as I can, therefore I kept on putting of blogging as I didn't see it as "très important".

Throughout this time I have met some old friends, made tons of new friends, and did things I never thought I would do. I have also spent a lot of time by the pool, because au pairing is hard and sometimes you need a day by the pool (I am sarcastic here, I know it isn't noticeable, but I am).

Gosh I am getting all sad all of a sudden. Just thinking of all the things I have done and still need to do, I can't believe the finish is so close. But I will have some exciting things to post soon (not that so far it wasn't exciting...)!

I really love this experience and the people I've met. To laugh so hard you start crying, to sit so close to the seine you feel like you might fall, so you start looking for the closest shore that you might be able to swim to in case that happens, and of course to go so hard all night to then later fall asleep on the 7 am train trip back home. I love this city, I couldn't have picked a better family, and I couldn't have asked for better friends!

Even when the one true french "recommends" us wine that we then notice is without alcohol... and still tastes just bad rosé

And even with my fear of water, I still went kayaking on the Loing for 16km! All while sitting in a puddle of the river water for perhaps 4 hours that we were there. Notice the sweater? Yeah... it gets cold when you sit in a couple of cm of water for a couple of hours and then get out to have a picnic, only to stay in your soaking clothes. 

Just 2 weeks left. Just wait, exciting posts coming!

 

It just hit me I have 1 month left.

I haven't written anything since last time just because I haven't found anything too exciting to write about.

Unless people want to hear that I am stressed about doing visa's, getting everything done in a short amount of time, and freaking out that I have to leave in a month!

But I will do some arbitrary posts about au pairing. Should be fun.

So a bit ago I was going through this boredom stage, especially when the girls have been on vacation, so I decided to do something different (especially because I haven't posted a video in a while)... I decided to "try acting". But not actually.. this is sort of embarrassing, but I seriously don't care anymore. I put hard work into this! With all the hair flipping that I did to try and get some volume in my limp, straight hair.

Enjoy!

Sam Smith - I'm not the only one

The gist.

So I've rewritten this blog several times and I change my mind on what to write every time. This past weekend has really been one of a kind, not always in the best way. I found out some things about myself I never knew, for example just how angry one persons stubbornness and childish ways can really get me (enough to start causing a scene in a restaurant, good thing it was all in Russian).
But I won't be writing about it here. I've vented to the people that are close to me, and I feel like it would be really out of line for me to write about another person, because who knows, maybe they were having a bad day. So we'll skip to the good stuff!

My dad came to visit me this weekend in Paris. I had such a good time being a private tour guide for my dad, showing him around the city and taking him to places he wouldn't have known without me. I made him try snails (which he then ended up ordering at almost every cafe we ended up in), he took more than 1000 pictures (he was such a tourist with the camera! Selfies everywhere), and we drank a lot... like A LOT of wine.

I started to ruin the selfies, because that's just what I do.

Did I mention there was a lot of drinking that weekend?

My fam jam was also away this weekend, so every time I'd come home from spending the day with my dad, I'd arrive to an empty house (except for Igloo the dog), which really creeps me out. Not many people know this about me but I am really afraid of the dark, and of being along in a big, old house. So I decided to invite my friend to come stay the night with me. Then turns out my friend from north of France had come down so I invited her over too. Then we figured why not invite our Parisian friend and show her what it is like to live it up in the country.

Let just say we got real deep with our conversations, and played one of the most hilarious games that is made for children.

Then we got into the conversation of sleeping-arrangements.
Turns out no one wanted to sleep with me.... because I am a creeper when I sleep.

Every time someone stays the night with me I warn them that I tend to talk in my sleep. Little did I know, I don't just talk in my sleep;
The first time Irina spent the night at my place I had woken her up because I was prompted up and staring blankly at her. She began to calmly explain to my sleeping self that she is here out of invitation and perhaps I have forgotten who this is. Turns out this was enough for my sleeping self that I turned around to lay down and began laughing hysterically. I know... I know... Creepy..
So this second night she spent the night, I jolted out of bed and began rearranging things in my sleep.
We concluded my little sleeping outbursts are due to the fact that I had been drinking both nights, and perhaps that was the cause of my restless sleeps. I asked my boyfriend about these episodes and he said he has never noticed anything like this.... but then again he sleeps through his alarm clock (which is so annoying considering I can usually sleep later than him, but I still wake up to the horrible sound). At least it is something weird and interesting I learned about myself...

This past week I also had to say goodbye to une nouvelle amie who I met here. It is saddening that I did not get to know her as much as I thought I would, and that she had to leave so suddenly. However, it does give me reason to finally visit 'murica! The last picnic we enjoyed as a full group:

You thought there would be people here? Yes.. well so did I... then I realized it wasn't me who took pictures of our faces, but I did take pictures of our food... priorities. 

However I do have this picture of us enjoying drinks after the picnic (not all of us are present though). 

The rest of the week I have spent a lovely time celebrating my host dad's birthday:

Taking long romantic walks with the dog:

It looks like he has no head... but I assure you he does. I just found it hilarious how he was rolling in the mud. I found it less hilarious when he ran up to me all wet... so I ran away... he thought I was playing tag... I wasn't.

I also have dirt in my socks because I was gardening with the girls just now. This is my first time gardening, I hope something grows. 

The parisian lifestyle.

It seems like every time people hear that chocolate is not my favourite thing, people start freaking out. Some friends will hear it for second, third, fourth time and will still be shocked! Guys it’s ok… it’s not like I don’t like ice cream! (but don’t get me started on chocolate ice-cream… that stuff is gross!!)

So this past Wednesday I finally saw the old railroad and the plants that are built around it. It’s somewhere near Gare de Lyon… but unfortunately the name has escaped me… something to do with “promenade” and “plants”. I’m sure if you type those words and “railway” you’ll see what I am talking about.

It was a lovely walk with some lovely friends.

We then got the idea to stop by a chocolatier and grab some fondue. Yes I know… after my schpeel in the beginning you’d think “why is she having fondue”… I ate the fruit, dipped in tiny amounts of chocolate, contrary to my friends. It’s not like I detest chocolate – unlike the chocolate ice cream – I am just not a person who would ever go out of my way to buy it, or crave it on a regular basis, or get excited when it is around.

The Thursday following we had an incident with the little one who got a migraine! I took care of the little one as best as I could, even after she vomited in my car twice. But I really couldn’t care less; I just wanted her to feel better (which she did after a little nap!).

The Friday was our potluck dinner with a couple of friends. I spontaneously ended up staying the night in Paris and stayed with the best hostess! My friend and her husband were so lovely to us, giving us pyjamas, flippy-floppies (Havannas I think they were called?? Most comfiest flippy-floppies… totally ordering them online once I get back home… apparently they are all over Brazil, why have I never seen them in Canada???), breakfast, and just a wonderful, comfy sleep! Oh and then we were treated to a wonderful stroll through the Citroën park (or citron as I like to call him… which I was pointed out by my friend is a joke the French have towards the car anyways… so I was being French without even knowing it!).

After all that I arrived 45 minutes late to meet another friend due to me being an idiot and getting lost on the metro, then taking the correct line only to realize it’s last 5 stops (mine was the 5^th) were all under construction and the train wasn’t going to stop there. So I had to take extra time to take 3 different lines to get to the destination! Quite frustrating.

My friend and I pretty much ended up getting lost in Paris (actually not even Paris, we ended up way outside of Paris), but checking out a lovely park. Then we figured why not check out the Vincennes castle only to be severely disappointed by it.

Then after spending more than 24 hours in Paris I ended up going for some drinks with other friends were we discussed the beauties of tinder.

Coming home was a bit of a drag, after spending so much time in Paris. It was really lovely to see how convenient it is to live right in the center. However, I wouldn’t change my girls just to live in the city center (I heard Parisian families can be a little crazy…).

Oh during my run through the metro trying to get to my friend I ended up ripping my bag as I had stuffed it up too much and it got very heavy. I tried to pull a Lina and make my bag the Hermoine bag…. But clearly my bag fought back. I tried to sew it back today but do you know how difficult it is to sew through thick leather!! The needle went through my skin 4 (+?) times! I stopped counting after blood was all over my bag and the needle… It was getting ridiculous. But I did a half-ass job of it, and at least the handle is staying…for now.

On the Sunday I met my friend up in the city near-by to take a walk through the forest, which was a great chill day after a so much time spent partying it up in Paris. My wallet and I really deserved the break.  

I'll have chips with that.

Starting from the time that I sat down in the eurostar and the man that sat beside me right away said "Hello", I felt like I wasn't in Paris anymore. Let's face it, no french person would randomly say "hello" to you unless they somehow knew you, or they had to due to customer service duties (which aren't the best as we have learned with the internet incident).

Arrival in London was splendid! I tried out couchsurfing for the first time as some people were really recommending it, so I figured, why not. My host was so wonderful! He met me right at the train station and then knowing I like Harry Potter took me to platform 9 3/4: 

Yes I wore Slytherin, because I am a herpetologist (no I don't study herpes, and yes I have heard the joke many times before.. and still continue to hear it from certain someones... continuously... ) and therefore I like snakes.

First meal in London was an obvious choice. Also the cider was so delicious! If only we had cider like this in France. 

I did find this kind of hilarious.

On my first day in London we explored the west side. Specifically our goal was Abbey Road. You'd think it'd be easy. Not so much when I have no phone that can utilize internet in another country and when my friends phone has no battery. However there are maps everywhere in London! Making things very helpful. However, not so helpful when you end up in the middle of Abbey Road and pick the wrong end to go down... only having to turn back around to the middle and continue on in the other direction. Thankfully we did find it! And obviously tried to impersonate the Beatles. 

It's like John Lennon is looking right at me... I can't even spot the difference. 

Then we decided it would be better to take the bus home rather than walk the however many kilometers we walked to find Abbey Road. So I had to get my Oyster card (unfortunately no seafood was provided with the purchase). 

On my second day I went exploring all by myself. I ended up visiting the British Museum first (which was my favourite out of all of them!) and then took the bus to the Natural History Museum. Throughout my trip I took the bus a lot as it was almost 1 full pound cheaper than the metro and I got to see more of London that way anyways, oh and the traffic of London. I was also always terrified the bus driver will hit the person in front of us... it's like they've never heard of the "one car distance in between every stop" (more like let's see how fast I can brake). 

Darwin was the most fascinating thing I saw at the Natural History Museum. Otherwise the museum was structured mostly for children... and oh god... there were so many children. I guess as an au pair I shouldn't say that... but when it comes to 30+ children in each room you enter, even Mary Poppins would be overwhelmed. 

I laughed out loud at this. Why does DNA look like an old scrunched up tissue? 

After a day of exploring 4 museums, 2 castles, 3 parks, and being hit on very aggressively by random old men....funny story, I was sitting in Hyde Park just eating my lunch when this guy just comes up to say:

Him:"wow so beautiful, can I take pictures?" .... 

Me:"No." *continues to eat sandwich*

Him: "I am a photographer....blah blah blah" He continues talking and I trully stopped paying attention thinking maybe if I look really deep into my Kobo he'll go away... I was unpleasantly surprised it didn't work when I hear

Him:"Can I sit down?"

Me:"It's a public place, so yeah you can sit down, but I'll be on my way"

Him:"Well can I take your number?"

Me:"Sorry I'm not from here"

Him:"do you have whatsapp?"

Me:"That doesn't exist in my country"

Him:"well then what about just your number"

Me:"again, I don't have a number. I'm not from here. I moved here and I never got a phone"

Him:"Oh so you are sure then you have no whatsapp"

Me:"No. I have to go to dinner plans" *gobbles rest of her sandwich as fast as possible and runs away BUT not before he takes my hand and kisses it!!* It's ok.... I had my hand sanitizer. 

The next day my friend suggested I go to the SkyGarden where I can see all of London for free... free you say? In London, yes please. Then I continued exploring the rest of London. I mostly headed to explore the East and around the Thames.

I came upon Tower Hill which was this awesome looking castle. I really wanted to go in and I figured no matter how many pounds it'll be I'll still buy the ticket (thinking it would be around 10 pounds). NOPE. try doubling and then add another 7... yup that's right it was 27 freakin pounds to get a ticket! So when people say London is expensive, yes I agree. But when people say Paris is the second most expensive, I really can't believe you. I can pass a weekend in Paris (no shopping) seeing most of the touristy areas (including museums and castles) for about 30 euros (food included and wine).... but to pay 27 pounds for just one ticket??? Seriously London... That's a bit over the top. 

Instead I went up Tower Bridge because I wanted to see the glass floor and all the history behind the bridge. 

Finishing my exploration day at Big Ben. 

So after 2.5 days I saw about 90% of London, made new friends, and saw very old friends (try 14 years of not seeing each other), I can say that I spent a good holiday in London. 

Some places definitely brought back some memories of when I used to live in London, but most things I have really forgotten and it was great to relive them again. It was also really delightful to have people ask me where my accent was from! Also so many of the British people would tell me how funny I was... I've clearly found my audience.

Back to Paris I went: taking the midnight train for drinks this weekend and fun times of creepy men following you around Bastille.... good times.

A 3 in 1 blogpost.

I am so bad at this! I write all these blogs in my mind but when to comes to writing them I just find other things to do.... like youtube exercise videos that make me hurt the next day. So instead of posting two different blogs in one day, I am going to do one but title them within the blog post.

Night Bus Adventures

So last Wednesday I was in Paris to visit a friend and happened to stay fairly late. I also happened to get lost on the metro and ended up going the wrong way on my way to the train station.... twice. Then one of the metro lines I was on suddenly stopped and I had to get off and switch trains. Inevitably I missed the train I wanted to take but with all my confusion I made it with 7 minutes to spare for the other train (clearly I got lost for a while, it was late and I was tired after our nightly shenanigans)! Then to my surprise the train happens to stop at the first station and everyone just starts getting off because, surprise, train is no longer running, the busses are taking over. So because I obviously wanted to get home I got on the bus. The guy beside me started to be sort of creepy when we got to my stop asking me where I live and et cetera. Let's just say I got to my car pretty quickly after that. 

Welcome to Paris in the Summer time

So I hear Canada is still pretty cold... that sucks. Good thing I am in France. 

This weekend I had to pack lightly as a friend and I were going to spend the night in Paris. In my attempts to stuff everything into my little purse/backpack I ended up breaking the little zipper thinger on the bag... good job me. This whole zipper problem has happened to my pants (haha yes I am getting fat on baguette and cheese, whatever make your jokes) but seriously I have been through 2 pairs of pants and two purses with broken zippers now! What is going on in the world! 

So on the first day some friends and I went to this food tasting thing. I must say it was delicious, but some items tended to be on the expensive side for the amount of food they were giving out. Well either way, it was fun. 

It's like Lady and the Tramp but with a hydration fruit juice.

Irina and I then headed over to the friend with whom we were later staying at, as we had a dinner being prepared for us. I know we are just the luckiest people. 

Dinner was lovely! It also included one and a half bottles of wine, and beer so you know it was good. After judging my music taste and showing us that our new "dj" can do better we headed out to Pigalle for a bar and then a club. The club was quite interesting as at first there was a live band playing. As my french friend pointed out one of the guitarists looked exactly like Tyrion Lannister, while the second Daario Naharis - the second actor (clearly we watch too much game of thrones to be seeing these characters now in real life). 

Daario and Tyrion in their true environments.

Well after a good laugh and dancing we headed home. Where our poor friend (who is over 6 feet) slept on the tiniest couch while we, two small girls, slept on the bed. I believe we had the better deal...

In the morning we had slept through half of our day by waking up at 11:30, then by the time we made breakfast (including french croissants and pain au chocolate... because when in Paris you do like the parisians)

We could see bits of the tower from the window... so you know we are fancy.

Then we headed out to explore the area bumping into a couple of shows, a museum and the fountains in front of the Eiffel Tower. Where we decided to have our own private photo shoot! 

"I believe I can fly"

She doesn't need to believe, she can fly.

The spectacle in front of the Eiffel tower was quite amusing!

Then we headed out to meet some more people very close to our train station (and next to Jardin des Plantes which is starting to be very beautiful compared to the last time I visited when it was mostly bare trees... oh and kangaroos). 

We figured 17 minutes would be plenty to get back to our train station and take the train on time.... oh how wrong I was. We sprinted half way to the train station, got lost in the train station (the trains had changed it's track) and then missed it by a millisecond!! We got down as the train started to pull away. So frustrating!! 

Jam Session in Paris

If you don't know me very well, I love to sing. And so Irina and I found this event in Paris that we went to last night that was simply titled "Jam Session". We were so glad we went, it was such a wonderful experience. I got to sing two songs! And the other singers were just so perfect! Even if you aren't a singer really go check out these jam sessions. It's like going to a concert, but we just took over the basement of the bar, set up a mic and speakers, and people just sang either their own stuff or covers! It was so perfect. Reminds me of the times back home when we would just set up a campfire, have a guitar, and just sing (side note: I've noticed Bohemian Rhapsody is almost always sang during these campfires... QUBS oh the good old days of field research and waders). 

Oh yeah... pizza was totally involved too.