My Week in "Paradise"

My week in Saint Tropez was lovely in many ways but at times it was actually like I was actually under house arrest. The heaven I was staying in was gated and I had to ask to leave the house and schedule my coming back to ensure that someone would be home to let me in.  We were also not in Saint Tropez. We were 25km   outside of the city so I was very isolated to say the least. 

Twice, I was so bored I risked my life walking to the beach up and down a winding hill. It was in no way safe to be walked on but I was willing to put my life on the line to get a break from the kids! It was a little like being a white collar criminal. They put you up in these lovely prisons which everything you could possibly need, but at the end of the day you are still trapped, so it isn't what you want! 

In addition to feeling completely isolated, the area we were in reminded me a lot of home, which made me the most homesick I think I have ever been.  This is a good thing in some ways though, because while since being released back into society, I have adapted to back into my social life, but I am also excited to go home. I have been talking to friends about exploring San Diego in new ways! And I am returning to somewhere similar to the South of France, so it can't be all bad right?

Here are some pictures of my week! They are beautiful and I really have NOTHING to complain about. The pool was great, the temperature was high, and there were beaches! But just wait for the post after I am sent to the woods in a few weeks with  just two of the kids and the French side of the family! Talk about isolation..

My adorable Baby Gaga and I playing by the pool.

Our time at the fair

My death walk to the HEAVENLY beaches!

The dock in San Tropez

G and P

My Life..

G: Michelle I want to play with you!

Me: G, what do you want to play?

G: Let's play restaurant!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me: How about we play something else? (my mind: ANYTHING ELSE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!)

G: (very serious) Do you not like restaurant?

Two Days Later:

G: Let's play restaurant!

Me: How about you help me make REAL dinner?

G: That is not as much fun.

I have won the battle two or three times in the last few days! Let's see how much longer I can keep this going!

8 Months - The Countdown to Home

I have decided to leave the family and come home. I mean that in every sense of the word. I am moving into my house with my parents. After months of conversations with friends, the family, my family etc. I made the decision that it was time for me to head home.  The family doesn't know anything about Paris and as far as I can tell it has fallen completely out of the conversation in the last two weeks. 

So now my count down has begun. I have a lot to accomplish before I leave but I have also a great year to look back on and it isn't even over yet! I am going to miss so much about this lifestyle (aka. little work and a lot of play). I have also started to understand how hard it is going to be to leave the family. I have my fair share of complaints but at the end of the day these kids have stolen my heart ten times over! To make it worse, G has begun to make it clear how sad she is that I am leaving and that "I should stay for forever with her."  

This begins the countdown. Summer is around the corner and I have several more trips to be planned before I head back to San Diego at the end of August. I am heading to Spain and Amsterdam this week, Paris (for real this time) in June, a few more places in Switzerland (including paragliding!), and possibly Scandinavia in August before heading home. My schedule is packed and I love it! I am hoping a weekend trip in May to Rome if I can make it work.  I will also be going to the South of France twice with the family not to mention actually enjoying Zurich for the summer! 

Five Months - Putting in Perspective

After being back in Zurich for a couple of days after my epic 3 week holiday, I figured it was time to put it all in perspective. I have seen the family again but haven't quite started up the routine. Monday is just a day away though.  Sometimes I ask myself whether I can take on this job again? When the family and parted ways for three weeks, I was in need of a break.

It just get a little difficult when you often have the feeling of being walked all over and then the next second life in the house and with the family is great again. Then you wake up one morning to serve the children their breakfast and are asked in an demeaning way by a nine-year-old boy if you could boil the water for his oatmeal instead of microwave it next time. (I just about lost it..)

Then I think about how amazing my last 3 weeks were and how this job is a means to an end.  I am constantly learning so much about creating a family from an outsider's perspective.  More importantly, I spent the last 3 weeks getting paid to travel.  Again, the theme of my year "My life is not that difficult."

I am going to take these kids by storm and we are going to have so many more laughs, which will (hopefully) outweigh the frustration.  We had a great day on Friday and I think that we can keep it up! It does make it easier when Mama and Papa aren't around.  They are good kids and entertain me. Baby Gaga grew so much while she was away and is giggling up a storm now! Oh! How they grow up so fast! 

So it is time to start anew. I have 7 more months living and working in this environment.  I am going to start off the new year (not with resolutions I will forget in 10 days) with a new spirit and enthusiasm with the kids.  I have 7 more months of adding new cities to my list (and maybe revisiting some from the past).  I also really want to explore Zurich more.  I have gotten stuck going to the same places over and over again.  I am also going to start taking French seriously again.  It is going to become a bigger priority in my life.

So these aren't resolutions but I am ready to take on this new year with full force! 2011 will be conquered!

J'ai laissé mon cœur à Paris

So I don't actually know how to say this in French but Google (love) translated my title for me! It says "I left my heart in Paris." I will need to go back as often as possible until I can find it!

I am going to skip the complaining about the trip because whenever I say my complaints out loud, well, it just sounds silly (as my Dad reminded me yesterday). My life is not difficult; work brought me to Paris. (This is going to be my new life mantra..)

It snowed in Paris this weekend and quite hard. Mama C was shocked. It apparently rarely snows in the city and very rarely as hard as it was snowing. Lucky me, the snow followed me to Paris!

On Saturday evening, I was allowed out for the night to explore on my own.  The skies had cleared so I started walking. I had done a bit of research on places to go and things to see but really I just wanted to walk. I started at Notre Dame, which was gorgeous. I arrived just in time to see the beginning of Saturday night Mass (sorry Mom, I didn't stay). It was indeed a gorgeous church.

Joan of Arc 

"St. Joan of Arc (1421-1431) Born in Lomaine, burned
alive in Rouen as a heretic and a witch. The decision
to rehabilitate her reputation was made in this Cathedral. 

I thought this was an interesting fact! One of the few women we ever hear about in religious history!

Then I continued to weave through the streets of Paris. I didn't exactly know where I wanted to go end up but I stopped and got some Vin Chaud (hot wine) which has popped up as a (not so) tasty treat around Europe. It was disgusting and I did the unthinkable and threw away a glass of wine.

I continued to walk and look at the shops and every building I walked by made me fall in love with the city even more. It had a lively personality and the diversity was extremely apparent. It reminded me New York City in a lot of ways, only everyone speaks French, and the buildings are notably historical instead of tall!

This is one of the main government buildings. 

This is possibly a fact I should know or at least researched before departing to Paris but I didn't know where the Eiffel Tower was.  I also felt too silly asking. I figured it is tall and must be visible throughout the city. I will just stumble upon it! I was wrong. I eventually asked for a visitor's map at the metro and had of course been walking the wrong way!

I turned around and started the trek. Since it was a lovely 2-3 degress out (35 F) I figured I would walk there. I mean how far away could it really be...

About 2 hours later, I was getting closer. So close I could see more than the top of it! I got so excited I stopped and ate dinner! Now, I loved this city a lot, but sitting at a restaurant alone in Paris, is not a pleasant experience. I recommend grabbing to go because people stare with so much sadness when you sit alone. It is the most romantic city in the world for a reason, I guess.

Then I made it to the Eiffel Tower. There are so many things around the world that we see pictures of growing up and when you see the real thing it is a let down in a weird way. This was not one of them for me. I loved it! I thought it was absolutely gorgeous.

Sorry, I really LOVED it!

Just as I was leaving, I was thinking, I did think it sparkled more..and before my eyes it did! It was absolutely gorgeous! 

My Dad is completely right..my life is just not difficult..frustrating and exhausting perhaps, but not difficult! 

I woke up early on Sunday morning to catch free day at the Musee d'Orsay.  It is much more manageable with the time that I had free before we left. I loved this museum. The archeticture itself made it amazing not to mention the amazing artists who have their work on display.  Now a large portion of the Van Gogh and Monet collection is at some other museum somewhere in the world.  They had everything mixed up a bit which was really interesting. They combined much of their Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art (this makes me sound oh so smart..right?) since they were missing portions of each. 

I really did enjoy them being mixed together. It did make it interesting to wander through that section of the museum.  There was also a bit of the beginning of photography which I also really enjoyed. It was a great way to spend my Sunday morning! 

I then headed to Angelina's for some African hot chocolate, which absolutely amazing, and a lemon tart (that I just finished eating) and my 20th croissant (I am only being a little sarcastic).  

The museum with an awesome elephant and the line that I fortunately did not have to wait in.

This visit to Paris will be one of many in my lifetime. It has become my latest inspiration to continue to learn the language, which I can only guess will make my Parisian experience even better!

Founy Ceritres

I will write about the tours soon but I just thought I would share my work for the night with you. I sometimes (often) feel out of place living in someone's home. I feel like that kid that is always there...just there...

Tonight was not one of the those nights. When I showed up (walked up stairs) for work tonight Mama C and Papa B were both home, which hasn't happened in a week is seems. So my first thought is, "Cool, looks like I am unnecessary tonight!" This was actually nice.  I just sat with P & G for awhile and then held Baby Gaga.

Dinner was ready and I started to feed Baby Gaga so I was on the couch and joined the table a bit late but there were some joking around.  Even though I wasn't sitting at the table with the family and actually working, I felt more like part of the family than I think I ever have.  It was just natural.

We chatted about Thanksgiving, Papa B made some comments about other family members...etc...it just was a very smooth dinner.  The best moment was when Baby Gaga made an amazing "Whoooohoo" sound! We all started cracking up!

After dinner, I cleaned up and then G was putting on a show with a bunch of stuffed animals. We all bought tickets, got our (invisible) popcorn in G's shoes.  Then made our way to our assigned seats.  The show was called Founy Ceritres (translation: Funny Characters).

The show was hilarious! G had a serious of bunnies, bears, a frog, and a dog. It was interactive and the audience (us) were often asked questions One of the polar bears actually said "I am going to bronze myself over here." G is a just so funny!

Then the kids were off to bed in a good mood. It was just a good night on the job!

Ironing

So I knew that Mama C was a little crazy about her ironing coming into this job. She was actually the one who told me he was a little crazy about it! I spend a couple of hours a week ironing the family's clothes. Now you are thinking, that is nice, to always have your clothes ironed before they are put away. Right?

I remember ironing my school uniforms in middle school because I would leave them in the dryer for a day or two, and well, going to Catholic school having wrinkled clothes is some sort of sin. Ever since then the idea of ironing...well it just didn't exist. I had an iron all four years in college that got lugged from room to room..home and back to school..year after year. I didn't open it once. I had a resident borrow it once..

When I had my grown-up job last year, I would occasionally iron a shirt or pair of pants when I was meeting people on the Hill (sounds fancy!) or the boss was in town but for the most part ironing was still not one of my "chores."

There are things that should be ironed. Dress shirts, dresses, the occasional t-shirt when you forgot about your laundry in the dryer..

Things that are ironed in this house:

Terry-clothe towels
Face clothes
Sheets
PJs
All shirts
All pants
Sweatshirts
Sweatpants
Leggings
Dish towels
Baby clothes

...You get the idea..if you wash it..it get ironed

Now, we have a wonderful woman who comes twice a week (TWICE A WEEK) to clean the house. She is in charge of ironing the nicer clothes, sheets, and towels (she also LOVES babies and their clothes so she ASKED if she could iron Baby Gaga's clothes...she is a doll!)  Mama C understand how ridiculous this is but still ensures that everything that comes out of the dryer is ironed but knows where to draw the line with her aupairs or something like that.

The last aupair ironed P's boxers. This is something I have refused to do. I just fold them and put them away.  I think that this was (oddly) noticed and now the boxers go directly in the socks box (which thankfully is not my "to be ironed bin").  I figured in the beginning I would play dumb if she said anything about them not be ironed. Fortunately, I won that battle.

I will video chat with people or catch up on TV shows when I need to get ironing done. It isn't so much the actual ironing that is bothersome, but the fact that I am ironed a 6 year old's PJs just seems a bit ridiculous! I think that 99% of people can agree that somethings just don't need to be ironed...even if you are paying someone else do it..