after a disaster of a night with eléanore, today was somewhat better. she made a face at me when i greeted her at her school, tried to walk home without holding my hand until i made her wait too long that she gave in, and snuck a glass of orange juice behind my back after i told her that she couldnt eat anything else before her shower. BUT. it was better than the tantrum of a night yesterday. this whole au pair thing is anything but glorious. and the whole language-barrier thing is not exactly helpful.
ive found my book- harry potter et l'école des sorciers- to be a great aid. whenever she doesnt listen to me, either by walking away, not changing her clothes, or generally being annoying- i would proceed to read my book, and eventually she would realize that i could care less how long i need to wait for her and she would come over to see what the heck is so interesting. im pretty proud of that tactic. for fun, we did things like, see-how-small-eléanore-can-write 'maman,' see-how-well-stephanie-can-pronounce 'maman,' 2-square in the living room with a sliding haphazard rug, pretend-eléanore-has-fallen-asleep-and-mock-freak-out, and tie-this-string-into-a-really-big-knot. i know. it was absolutely thrilling. but there were no tears, so i left quite elated. and as a reward, i treated myself to not just a baguette for dinner, but a baguette with an apple and diet caffeine-free coke. what a night.
some other interesting happenings of the week:
-i discovered an interesting french radio program that consists of people calling in and giving personal ads, leaving their phone number and desired type of person to respond. its like match.com. only french. only better.
-at the france/austria game [which was awesome], i ate french 'fast food' --those donuts with nutella and carmel by far outdid any super pretzel ive ever downed. and part two of that night, i learned that the worst job in the world by far would have to be the people who sit right next to the field the entire time, but stare at the crowd, never the field, as if theyre searching for the Golden Snitch [ive been reading too much HP]. they will do this until someone- or two people- actually gets rowdy and then they have to get up and chase them down. WORST JOB EVER.
-when i said 'oui' to someone on the metro, im pretty sure they didnt immediately know that i am not french. it was a pretty proud moment, considering most people know im not french before i even open my mouth.
-somehow, ive yet to figure out how, one must always hide the fact that one is going to or from exercising of any sort. i did see one woman wearing a wool coat and scarf over her leggings and tennis shoes [i felt like i caught her in the act of exercising itself!] but i cant pull that off because i would have nowhere to put my wool coat and scarf since i run outside in public spaces. i even saw someone going into the doors of a legitimate gym and... i would have never guessed they were about to do anything more active than walking. ill just have to suck it up, being the sweaty american on the metro, returning from an awkward run around the city streets.
-a text love-message from an unknown sender caused me to be more overwhelmed than one might expect, as it was written in french AND bad spanish, making my language neurons basically throw up their hands in exasperation. as if one foreign language isnt enough, thanks.
-if you dont smoke, you must be holding your breath 24/7. and therefore are dead. so you do smoke. you cannot not smoke here. because everyone does, and whether you like it or not, you will inhale, first-hand or second-hand, some sweet sweet nicotine. [breathing through your sleeve surprisingly does absolutely nothing to filter the air.]
and some pictures from the past couple weeks...
vineyards at nitray:
st malo/mt st michel
annnnnnd FOOD
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