Hey I’ll fix the Internet for you!

Not! Wtf man… we waited a week and a half for a guy from the company to come in, look at the damn thing for 20 minutes only to come to the conclusion he can’t fix it… well buddy, looks like I can do your job too… how much do they pay you to tell people you can’t do anything?

Anyways, still internet-less, but at least the neighbours are so lovely to let me use theirs. However, being the person that I am I don’t want to bother them on a daily basis… so sometimes I just stand in front of their house with my cell phone (probably looking likes a freakishly suspicious weirdo…) trying to get some internet access to let my family and boyfriend know I am still alive…

So this past weekend I took a long road trip to Metz (north of France; right next to Luxembourg). It was about a 4-hour drive through villages and rivers (so a much nicer drive than on the straight, boring highways of Ontario). It was lovely to see a friendly and familiar face here in France (and have a person to share some of the conflicts that I may have run in to – i.e the constant staring from French people whether you are a weird looking human or not… nobody discreetly stares… they just do and you know it, and even if you stare back right into the eyes, they don’t care, they’ll continue staring…). We decided to go to the Vosges mountains to try/ learn snowboarding. While on my first try I was a bit nervous and scared, I seemed to have gotten the hang of it by the end. And interestingly enough, I think I prefer it to skiing… I mean it’s just so much easier! 

The trip was quite entertaining as well, we happened to lose gas on the way up the mountain at which point we had to neutral it back down to the village to the first (and most likely, only) gas station. For the most part of the weekend we ate, drank, and caught up on lives in France, which was just so nice and relaxing compared to the energetic environment am I almost always surrounded by at my host families house.

Anyways that is all for now, I should probably leave the neighbours house… who knows how long the Internet will be out… I don’t want to overstay my welcome/ get on their nerves with my constant coming over. Back to the front yard I go… kidding… kind of.

One week to go... and the heat is finally back!

Until I am home!! How exciting. 

I am extremely grateful for my time here in France. I have a wonderful host family, I have great people to spend the time with, and I can eat all the cheese I want (cheap wine is also a plus, but I don't want to look like an alcoholic)!!! 

This week has been an up and down week. Our water tank thing broke so we had no heat for 4 days and no hot water for 3. Turns out the cold makes me kind of cranky. It's really not fun. I'm already what you call a cold-blooded human (and please don't pull the "but you're Russian" crap... Something happened and all the "cold-immunity" genes just cancelled out in me OK! I am cold all the time. The only time I am not cold is when it is MORE than 25 degrees... yes sometimes when it is 20 degrees I wear a light sweater... deal with it). 

Then on my day off I figured I'd go to Paris (as I want to get as much Paris in this week as I can), only to return home after 30 minutes of being there, because no one was available to let the plumber in. 

So I've had to be at the house for pretty much the entire week because first it was the roof guy on Monday, then it was the plumber from Tuesday-Thursday, which kind of suck for my last full week in France, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do. And really I'd rather spend 4 days at the house, then another 4 days with no heat just because I'm too selfish to stay home to open the door for the plumber. Also the family is just so nice, that I wouldn't want to do that to them either. 

I've got 2 full days of work left! I babysit tomrrow and I've got the kiddos on Monday, and Tuesday morning! How crazy is this?? The time went by so quickly. But I bet my time back home will go by even faster, and before I know it I'll be back writing about kids, france, and cheese. 

"Oh baby it's cold inside"

What a great day to have the heating in the house break. I am literally sitting beside the space-heater my host parents gave me to put into my room. At least I have the warmest and most comfiest bed in the world, but it does make getting up for work and school quite hard.

Anyways this weekend I went out into Paris with some friends. Our genius plan was to take the last train in (at 11:30ish pm) and then take the first train back home (6:12am). Which means we spent more than 5 hours at the club. Thank goodness they served food till 3:30am! I got to my friends house at 7:30am, at which point we just crashed and slept in until 1:30pm. I don't know how often I could do these nightly excursions into Paris, but it was fun. I overdid it on the snapchats... 

Oh and this happened today: 

And then there's igloo in the background, enjoying the "powder". 

Leo (the little one) told me: It's like Canada

A winter wonderland.

No matter how cold or snowy it is, I love going outside. This weekend was one of my favourites so far in Edmonton. We didn't do anything extravagant but it was so much fun.
First we went for a walk in a near-by park and this happened:

I got really close to this chickadee to take these pictures, but then there was a lot of standing like this:

                   
                   

BUT THEN:

To say the least I was very excited that the chickadee finally landed in my hand. It was a pretty wonderful moment. 

Then there was a day of skating. Can't say I enjoyed it THAT much. This is because I'm not the strongest skater so the whole time I was just terrified of falling down. Still it was a nice day to spend an evening. 

My boyfriend is clearly more fabulous than I am. 

Today we leave to Calgary to see friends as well as go skiing! I am very excited. I love skiing. I am much better at skiing than I am at skating.