Patience...with a capital P

Dear Friends,
To share a secret with you: do not to travel to Paris in August. Worst. Idea. Ever! If you listen to me and do not do the above, you will save yourself a lot of frustration!
Kindly, Me

As I have told you people previously, today was again another day of FIRSTS! Oh Lord, will they ever stop? haha. I am a fan of the "new" or atleast I think I am...that is of coarse until I am not. Up until this afternoon I have thuroughly enjoyed creating firsts and learning and trying to be independant but today I wished I had my car, a large Dr. Pepper, a phone that did not cost me per text and warmer weather! Please!
...but I will tell you why later.

This morning I went into Paris again with Rachel to meet up with a girl that I met on Sunday at the pique-nique after church to go and visit the YSL exhibit at the Petite Palais, which ends this week. Since I rode in with Rachel I was there early and so my new friend and I decieded to meet at the metro stop and grab breakfast and then go to the exhibit first thing when it opened. It was a bit harder than we expected to find a cafe to eat some petite dejuner and once we arrived at the museum around 9:45am (the museum opened at 10am) there was a line forever long to get in to see the exhibit. Oh man.
Hi patience, my name is Kara, I am not sure we have met yet... Oh well, we will soon become frienemies over the next year or so.
We end up standing in line for about an hour a half before we were finally let into the museum. Unfortunately, during that hour and a half we were standing on the side of the museum that was in the shade, which would have been nice if it had been any other day this weekend or the last half of last week, but today it was chilly, in the 70's, and in the shade it was much cooler and with a breeze also. I was envious of where the sun was hitting during that time. One memory making few minutes of that waiting period was when a lady came and got in line next to us wearing quite the interesting outfit. Lets see, how to explain it: (my friend took a picture so many she'll post the picture and I can steal it and show you guys because i'm sure words won't do it justice) it looked to be home made as the top was well, it was a plaid fabric with dogs on it. And not just any dogs but relatively large dogs and multiples of them... staring at us, saying they would rather be elsewhere than on that ladies blouse. The sleeves on this thing were poofy and an iridesent green with a peek-a-boo slit/hole at the top, the sides of the blouse had a decoration of rope being criss-crossed down as if to tighten the blouse or maybe for asthetic affect? Oh, and I cannot forget she had a matching purse which also had a dog on it. My friend and I spent our time naming the dogs and discussing what they were thinking and feeling as we felt bad for them. The lady also had on a grey wool type skirt that had small hairs all over them and we assumed from that that she owns a dog, maybe a few, which better made sense why she would be wearing a blouse with dogs displayed on it. Hm. Interesting French people. The most fun part of this experience was that no one around us spoke English so we were free to speak as loud as we wanted and say whatever wanted without worrying who heard us. Shameful, I know. But for once, at least the only time I've ever felt this way since I got here, it was nice to be the only one who understood English (and my friend).

Once inside the museum we were entertained for about two hours going through the YSL exhibit. It was a very nice exhibit, actually. There were hundreds, I would say, of pieces from his collections, pictures, sketches, videos, etc. My friend and I decided that he was not very innovative in his silhouettes as they were all very similar, but that he changed fabrics a lot and detailing too. He very much liked bows, ruffles, and fake flowers. He was not very much into giving women a shape as most of his pieces were shapeless, but I guess that is one thing he known for. Overall, I very much enjoyed my first exhibit at a french museum.

After eating a very expensive (15 euros or about 20 us dollars) lunch at the cafe at the museum, my friend and I walked back to the Metro and parted ways. I was very exhausted and it was cold and I had nothing else to do in Paris that day so I headed back home, or so I thought. I live in a suburb of Paris and I didn't think it was THAT difficult to get where I live into Paris, but right now, in the month of August, while all the schedules are out of wack and Parisians are on vacation, living where I live has become a bit difficult to get to and from without a car. So I took the train back to Poissey where I someday will learn to catch the bus to Chambourcy (about a ten minute bus ride) but on this particular day, today, that was not as simple as it should be in the near future. I have found out that the bus does not run to Chambourcy on the weekends which means if I want to go into Paris I have to have my host family take me to the train station and pick me up. That, in and of itself, is very inconvenient because I don't like having to rely on people and asking people to plan their days around my schedule. But today I thought, no big deal, its not the weekend, the bus should be easy to take. No! No! No! I fooled myself. I arrived at the bus station around 2:30pm only to read the bus schedule (the little i could read) to find out that the next bus was not coming until 4:15pm. Ugh. I was going to mention that i was tired and cold but that would be complaining so I am not going to mention that. I went back into the train station and asked if anyone had a map of Poissy (the town i was in) because if I could find a map then maybe I could walk home, afterall, it was only a ten minute bus or car ride. I mean, it would take about an hour to walk and it was all uphill, but I had 2 hours until the bus and this would save me a few euros. No, no map! So I decided to walk around, but that lasted a short period of time as I soon got bored and decided to go sit and wait at the bus station. 4:15 comes and goes and I am becoming quite impatient by this point, Where is the bus? Hello people! The schedule says that a bus should have come at 4:15 and its now 4:30 and still no bus. Lots of other buses come and go, but none that say Chambourcy on them. At one point I even contemplated taking a bus to St. Germain en laye which was another town closeby to see if they had a bus coming sooner that would take me to Chambourcy but I decided that was risky business as I was not quite sure exactly which bus to take to St. Germain en laye and neither of my phones (us or French) were working very well or had much battery left. I finally decided to call Rachel as I knew she usually comes home from work around 5pm and if i had already waited the amount of time I had then I could wait another 30 minutes and not bother with a dumb bus or walking to who knows where. Long story short, or did I already tell you the long story, I eventually caught up with Rachel at 5:15pm at the train station and rode home with her. Home. Needless to say, I was a bit frustrated by this point and was lacking in patience.

Oh, and as I wrote at the top, this is the very point when I wish I had my car, a large Dr. Pepper, and a phone that did not cost per text or phone call. But I can only dream of those things right now. haha. And i do.

I love, and i know i write this every time, but I do love where I am and what I am doing but today I was totally frustrated with whole situation. The situation of the Parisians being on vacation right now so everything is off schedule and or closed down (ie the buses), the fact that thre is a huge communication barrier between myself and anyone else I come in contact with, and just flat out not knowing my way around. If I had been in the US, I would have known someone to call to come pick me up, I could've driven myself and saved all that frustration of having to rely on public transportation, I could've asked around to find out how to get to my town by walking or been able to better communicate with someone on where to find a town map... but no, I couldn't do any of those things because of all of the differences I am encountering being new. I am trying really hard to blend in and adapt and be flexible, but some days it would be easier if everything wasn't so new and so different from what I am accustomed to. C'est la vie, as the French would say!

Tomorrow is a new day, thankfully, and I am looking forward to it. Rachel does not work on Wednesdays so she normally has a full day planned with the kids of going to the library, going to the parc, and doing fun stuff like that so I am looking forward to spending more time with Rachel and the kids and getting better acquainted with my surroundings and the culture while in the company of someone who can be my crutch when I need it. I think tomorrow will be a good dose of just what I need to get past the last half of today and the emotions it arose within me. I am very blessed to have Rachel and Vincent, as they have been very understanding and patient with me as I learn, and very willing to help me learn.

Well, so I don't end on a down note making everyone feel bad for me because thats not what I want, I just need to dump my long and exhausting day somewhere, I wil leave you will the very end of my day. My time with my kids! They are presh.ous. I have not spent a whole lot of time with them yet so to them, I am still so new and so fun to be around, haha. They become very energetic and hyper when we play together which is becoming exhausting because they are a lot to handle at times, but in a good way. But they are so adorable and fun to be around. I am slowly learning more about each kid and I am loving their differences. Clemence, who is 4, she loves to cuddle and be held and hug and kiss. I will thuroughly enjoy that as the French are not typically very affectionate people and I miss that about the US. Also, she finds everything funny and laughs all the time, and her laugh is contageous. Even when she is doing something bad and thinks its funny, I find myself having to look away otherwise I will laugh also, not because what she is doing is funny, but just because of her laugh. haha. Antoine, who is 6 years old and about to start the US's version of kindergarten, is the smartest 6 year old I've ever met. He reads, and very well! His parents have told me that they did not teach him in school last year but that after learning his letters and such that he was just so eager to learn to read and write that he taught himself. I have asked him to read a few books  to me (in French) and occassionally I've asked him to pronounce words so I can try and mimic them and he is just very smart and usually knows how to read everything. His parents were telling me that they might have him skip a grade to keep him from being bored in class but that has yet to be determined. He is also a very silly boy who loves to laugh and he has a very contageous smile! Both the kids have great smiles and it brightens my day to see them! They are learning English pretty quickly, in my opinion. For the small amounts of time I am with them and the small amounts of english they are learning, they are catching on quickly. They are required to say yes and no and thank you and hello and goodmorning and goodbye and goodnight to me (not the french sayings). One thing I am just absolutely loving about these kids is that even though there is a huge communication barrier, they don't seem to care one bit! Clemence will sit in my lap and just talk away and I might catch 5 words in a matter of 5 minutes but she doesn't care... and Antoine is the same way. They talk to me and don't seem to mind one bit that I don't know what they are saying, and when I talk to them, they think it is funny to say "yes yes yes yes yes yes yes" all the time. haha. Anyways, I know these little stories are ten times better if you were to see them in person so I apologize if its not that interesting. One day I will take a video and post it because its that funny, to me.

I hope everyone is doing well! Enjoy a slice of colby jack cheese for me today. I actually have a blue box of Kraft macaroni and cheese on my desk waiting for a rainy day when I just need a taste of home, I have a feeling it won't be too long before I"ll need a dose of that! In the mean time, I made my way to the post office yesterday and mailed 12 letters so look in your mailboxes in the coming weeks. I have about 5 more on my desk that need to be mailed and even yet, a few more left to be written so bare with me as I write each and every one of you! I love you all to the moon and back!!!

PS. I apologize for the typos. I do not have the energy to read through and spell check everything so just act as though this is perfectly written and read on...haha :-)