not quite sure

...where to start...

I am sure my life cannot be that interesting, but I continue to get lovely letters and emails and comments about how people (mainly family) really enjoy reading about my life here so, alas, i continue to let you know my deepest and darkest secrets about surviving in Paris, and doing in style!

Since last week I have been going nonstop (as I feel is nearly ever week) as the French had yet ANOTHER holiday. I understood before I moved here that the French received a lot of vacation time (6 weeks on average) every year, but I never thought about how many national holidays they also received. After a 13 day holiday I was spent. I was physically and mentally exhausted from going and doing and seeng and visiting (poor me, right???) that I was excited to get back to a normal schedule, but I have come to learn that normal is not a word I should include in my vocabulary anymore. The very next week (this past week) was yet another holiday. One day for French kids and most adults received two days off work. I received 1.5 days off work and spent it, you guessed it, in Paris!!!

This week on Wednesday was Connect group (also known as my bi monthly Bible study) and instead of doing our regular Bible study, it was a party and instead of just any lame-o party, it was a Raclette party! I just love Raclette and I love Raclette parties! They are so fun and so fast paced and so intrusive and so personal and I just love them. I have really come to love this group of women that I get to spend every other Wednesday evening with and this week was no exception. Surprise though, my friend Lisa, who I am going to spend Christmas with in Vienna, came out of the wood-works this week as well. She has been staying busy doing other things and I hadn't seen her in close to a month and she came along to the party on Wednesday. It was so lovely seeing her.

Wednesday night Lisa and I stayed at our friend Hope's apartment. One of my friends who lives by the Arc de Triumph. We always have good times (and sleep well) when we stay there so I look forward to that as much as I do the Bible study! My friend Hope, if you don't remember or I failed to mention, is from Uganda and she and I share our love for meat with every meal and fried foods so we get along very well! She usually has meat waiting for me at her house whenever I come over, knowing that I crave it all the time. (Don't judge, I am Texan and the only fried food I can find here is McDonalds and that just doesn't suffice when I am craving TexMex).

Thursday I had the day off and have been ITCHING to get out of Paris. Paris is great but there is so much so close to Paris and so much at my fingertips (and I have been reading some blogs about traveling on the cheap and just traveling in general which has helped in my desire to expand my horizons) so I was determined to leave Paris. I decided on Fountainbleau. Ha!
I will tell you the pros and cons of going here:
1. It was COMPLETELY free because of my PassNavigo. Because it is in the Paris region and it was a school holiday, I have complete freedom to travel anywhere with my metro card, therefore not only was the 50 minute train ride free but so was the 15 minute bus ride from the train station to the chateau.
2. Because I am considered a French student (thank you visa in my passport) I have the ability to enter most museums and cool places for free or at a discounted rate.
--the only thing I had to pay for this day was my lunch and I don't think thats so bad for a day trip!

Cons:
1. It rained like crazzzzzy all.day.long.
2. It not only rained, but it was windy sideways rain that made your umbrella pointless.

All in all, it was a great day and an exhaustingly long day. It doesn't help either that it feels like midnight at 6pm because the sun sets at 5:30pm these days creating the feeling of tiredness way too early. The chateau was beautiful and I took an audio tour which helped in understanding all that was there, otherwise it would've just looked like a bunch of rooms with old furniture or paintings. Fountainbleau is a chateau that should be as famous as Versailles but for reason is not. Maybe because it is not as close? But it has been lived in by many kings in the French history books and is quite a bit larger than Versailles and has an amazing garden like Versailles (although I wouldn't really know about it because it was raining so hard there was no way I was wanting to soak myself just to see a garden that you couldn't even see through all the rain).

Friday night was fabulous as I met up with an au pair I might have mentioned previously who I met through church, was born in Texas (not raised though :-( ) and lives not even a 5 minute drive from me out in the boonies. We hung out at her apartment and ate croissants and chocolate and watched Dirty Dancing Havana Nights. Fabulous movie. I haven't had a night like that in a while and it was just what the doctor ordered. A night in with a good movie and a good friend and some good (but not so good for you) food. :-)

This week a new au pair arrived in my town. That seems like pointless information, but the host mom of this new au pair knows me as she is friends with my host mom and lucky for me, we ran into each other at school one of the first days of this new au pair. Long story short, the host mom asked me to take her to Paris this weekend to show her around and help her out as she is new and hasn't met anyone and doesn't know her way around. Honestly, I was not excited about this... I usually stay quite busy, and even though helping new people is my favorite thing to do, I just wasnt in the mood. But the more I thought about it, the more I had a desire to take her out regardless of my selfish feelings as I know what she's going through and how lonely it is in the first couple of weeks and how much it would've meant to me had someone done the same thing to me. Anyways, I invited this girl to come hang out Saturday and so we did. Come to find out she has never been to Paris, which makes showing her around rather easy, just hit up all the famous things and show her how to use the metro. Unfortunately for her, the weather was absolutely awful. It kind of half rained the whole day and was windy and overcast and just plain not fun for being out in. We managed though. I even invited my friend Lisa to come along and her and Lisa got along great. I think it worked out perfect as German is both of their native languages so it was nice to have the ins and outs of her new country explained to her in terms that were more easy to understand.

Ok, for the sake of this blog post becoming a chapter book I will leave you there! The weekend is not even half over and it only gets more interesting as the rest of the weekend held dinner parties, sunday morning Church and a knitting party. And ALMOST missing my bus for the second week in a row... but I will write about that tomorrow maybe?

This weekend has been another fabulous one but another exhausting one as well so I am hopefully off to bed early.
Oh and some thank yous:

Thanks Memom for the very pretty Thanksgiving card you mailed and THANK you Valerie for the Halloween card you sent me. I loved them both and REALLY love receiving mail. It's like Christmas Day every time i get a card or anything the mail!!!

Love you guys,
MEEEEEE