October 16, 2005
I know that my last entry was very much a cry of homesickness. I know that my mom told me that she didn't know that I was that miserable here. I'm not. I'm really good here, I just miss home. I try to keep busy because when I have idle time to think, I usually start thinking about home and everyone there. So, for the last entry, I'm sorry, but it was 100% true in how I miss home.
Luckily, my bosses realize when I start to get homesick and assign me a task or something to occupy my time. This past week has been okay. I have been working about 10 of the 12 hours that I'm supposed to work because there are times when the teachers don't want me to come into class because they are holding a test or prepping students for their BAC (kind of like the HSPT, but you have to pass this in order for university placement). So, lot's of stress.
Let's see where I left off because I didn't get to the internet cafe this past weekend. I don't remember anything happening on Wednesday or Thursday, it was probably a typical day of work followed by a few walks and then dinner, watch a movie and sleep. Friday night, I went home with one of my bosses, Brigitte, to baby-sit for her for the night. She has a 6-year-old daughter named Valentine. When it comes to little kids speaking french to me, I completely understand them. It's something about both of our limited vocabulary and how little kids talk slowly and repeat words when they are telling stories. Brigitte lives in St. Georges les Bains, which is a beautiful village outside of my city and it's on a mountainside, so you see the entire valley. When we arrived at her house after picking Valentine up from school, she and her husband decided that it would be good to take me for a walk to see the entire village. It was definitely different from my supposed city life. Everyone was more friendly and open to meeting "the american." Valentine is a very obedient little girl but she was not strictly raised, she just likes paying attention to rules. During me and Brigitte's walk, Valentine was peddling away on her tiny bicycle, but at some points would have to stop when the road got too steep.
After coming back from the walk, Brigitte's husband had made dinner for everyone: hamburgers, carrots and something else, I can't remember. When dinner was finished I was told to make myself at home, use the internet if I wanted, watch tv, just to do something to occupy my time. I decided to put Shrek 2 on in French for Valentine to watch although she only had 45 minutes until bed. 45 minutes later, when I said it was bedtime, for the first time ever in my baby-sitting experience, she went upstairs and went to bed. Afterwards, I went on the internet for a little bit, just long enough to connect on AIM and start conversations, and I got kicked off. I didn't know the password to get back on, so I started cleaning dishes and just tidying up. Not long after, my boss was back and it was around 10 pm. She said I didn't have to wait up until they got back and next time I can go to sleep when I wanted to. So I went to sleep.
Saturday, I woke up around 9 am and they wanted me to watch Valentine while they ran some errands. So we went to the park and I sat down and watched her as she raced around the paths as if she was in Nascar. After about 2 hours in the park, they wanted to go to the food store and I came with, because I had nothing to do on the weekend. It was nice to see some of the insight on what kind of food the French buy and eat. I learned what cookies are better deals and that flavored syrups can be bought to add to a glass of water. We went back to their house for lunch and I ended up getting a little carsick on the way home. I don't really think it was the crazy roads with enough room for one lane but it's actually two, I think it was more so the strong coffee that I had for breakfast. Lunch was fish, that cabbage salad stuff we have at home and couscous. I'm sure it was really good, but my stomach was really upset so I couldn't enjoy it. After lunch I had to walk Valentine to her friend's birthday party down the road.
I went home before dinner and made myself a mess of food. Although it tasted good, the french people in the kitchen weren't impressed by my spaghetti, sauce and frozen veggie mix. I thought I was being clever boiling my pasta and vegetables at the same time, but I got some strange looks.
Sunday, I went to the bus depot early in the morning in order to get back to their house because they were going to bring me on a road trip to St. Martial du lac, which is in the Ardeche mountains. I got to the house and Valentine was sulking because she didn't want to go; she wanted to stay home and watch TV.
It was about a 1.5 hour drive to get there. We had a picnic by a cute lake. The point of the trip was to look at a house to buy to go to for summer and winter vacations. At the picnic, Valentine decided she was going to play on the nearest jungle gym and just as her parents said to be careful, she tripped and fell into a mud puddle. She got up, brushed off her legs and then realized that she had fallen and burst into tears, which in turn made her parents and I burst into laughter. I remember doing that so much when I was little. I wasn't physically hurt after a fall, but my ego took a beating. Anyway, the picnic was good and the house was cute too, a little too old-fashioned for their liking, like having to get water from a local spring in order to cook or stuff like that. I was surprised that it was only 100, 000 Euro, but I guess houses here aren’t like houses in New Jersey. After looking at the house, we went back to their house and had a steak dinner with fried potatoes and white beans.
Pictures from Sunday
