i'm back

but not for good...yet!

So i apologize for lacking in updates recently. but its not my fault. you see, when i live in chambourcy (the middle of nowhere, cow town, the boonies, zone 43, however you want to look at it) i had lots of time. I would take the kids to school, have 2 hours of doing nothing, then take the bus to french class, then come home and have 2 hours of doing nothing, then pick up the kids and take them to the park, at 6pm i would be done working and either go into paris to keep my sanity or enjoy more alone time until dinner and then more alone time after dinner. you see, my life was simple and low key. well, life has changed...i have moved, i have a different family, a different living situation, a different everything...

I moved a few weeks ago. Time has been FLYING by so it feels like just yesterday but really its been almost 2 weeks ago! So the Friday I moved I think I almost lost it. I almost lost my sanity! But I am glad I didn't because the almost 2 weeks since have been amazing! So I am now in the middle of my summer job! Insert KARA ACTUALLY WORKS NOW! At my last job I worked around 10 hours a week roughly. The past almost 2 weeks I have worked every single day except for 1. Yes, I am having to adjust. Anyways, I moved to a cute little (but big for me) apartment next to the Arc de Triumph on the 2nd floor american (1st floor European) of a great builiding. The family I work for lives on the 7th floor American (6th floor European) and there are 3 elevators right outside my door. That is something to be jealous of if you are Parisian as not all building have elevators...those that do are to be coveted. I had no clue what the apartment would look like before I moved and put all my stuff in but I am happy with it! Its just a shame that I will only be living in it for 3 weeks before I have to move again. :-( I will have to post some pictures later. The sad part of the story is that this apartment is internet-LESS. No phone or internet all summer. Thats why I am giddy with excitement to have internet for a few hours. I have a good friend who lives literally across the street from me right now and she has lent me her keys for the day to come to her apartment to use her wifi so I can catch up on all my american tv shows and update my blog and stalk people on facebook.

So, lets back up a bit... unfortunately because so much time has lapsed my memory and desire to recap every last minute of the last few weeks is not very high, I apolgoize, but I will tell you, Eurodisney lived up to every expectation I had of it and much more. I went with some friends, the same crew that was in Vannes a few weeks prior (Kyle, Adrian, Christina and me) and it was so much fun. Adrian was able to get discounted tickets from a student of hers and so we all went one wonderful Saturday. We were there for the opening of the park and stayed until after the doors had been shut. We wanted to snoop around the hotel on property, is that so wrong? haha. We had so much fun it was unbelievable how fast time flew. We were like little kids in a candy shop, because thats basically what it was. We did everything we possibly could in the 32 hours the park was open that day and really made some wonderful memories. I enjoy my friends company so much and I was so happy to spend more time them. You see, the last time I went to eurodisney was last fall (November or dec, I can't remember) and it was miserable! I cried the whole time because it was so cold and I just could not stay warm, it snowed heavily and then the temps rose so the snow turned into slush adn it started raining and it was just was not a pleasant experience. This time it was completely the opposite as the weather was wonderful! sunny but not too hot and not too many people just yet and just the right group of friends to spend the day with! Oh, and that day was the anniversary of Michael Jackson's death. We found this out because they had a video thing you could go see about him and the announcers told us before we entered. Random bit of info.

So the weekend I moved was a whirlwind. It was Christina and my last weekend together as she moved back to the States while I was in Romania last week and we had already decided long before that we would be spending the whole weekend together regardless. And thats just what we did. She had a bag of her stuff sent over to my house in CHambourcy before I moved so her stuff was moved with mine so when she arrived at my new apartment it was as if we had moved together (except her stuff was a lot less than mine). Our friend Kyle was in Paris still for some work and so he spent a large portion of the weekend with us as well. Actually, I think he spent the whole weekend with us. It was such a fun time. We cooked in my new apartment (Christina and Kyle are excellent cooks and I was happy to sit back and eat whatever they chose), we visited the Rodin museum as that Sunday was free museum sunday, we had a picnic at Les Invalides, we cooked some more, went on a river boat trip down the Seine at night, explored my new neighborhood and just enjoyed the time we had together. I love weekends like this (Except for I don't like having to say goodbye for good) because Paris is such an amazing playground that its incredible that I get to live here. Incredible.

Monday morning (after I moved Friday evening) my new family and I (minus the husband) left for Romania, bright and early! I just got back last night from spending the last 9 days in Romania. I want to get some pictures from the Mom's camera to post here on my blog, but we had a blast. It was a different experience to say the least. To go from barely working and barely being needed to having to work around the clock in another country for 9 days straight. I am exhausted! It was an up and down trip, some things I enjoyed and others I didn't, but all in all, it was a great trip. Romania is interesting. Its a way different culture than anything I've ever experienced. Well, if you want my honest opinion it reminded me a lot of America in some ways and not in others. The people there are on the obese side, eat very heavy meals, larger portions than France, and the kids are a little more unruly then in France, and it just reminded me of American beaches (the one we were at), but the food was different, the beach atmosphere was different and obviously the langauge was different. Most people there speak English as well so I didn't have a whole lot of problems communicating when I needed, although the lady I work for speaks Romanian and we were with her cousin and her cousins daughter who live in Bucharest so they of course speak Romanian and English. I really missed Paris, I missed my friends, I missed being able to choose my meals and when I would eat them, I missed having space (as we shared a hotel room the whole time) but I was happy to have a week of not having to spend a single penny, being able to go and have a beach vacation (because Paris does not feel like summer as its cold enough to need a jacket and overcast and rainy) and not have to pay for it or worry about the details of the trip at all. I just showed up and did as I was told and enjoyed the experiences for what it was worth!

I will have to spend another blog telling about my new family and how the dynamics are soooo different from my last family! Not a good or bad different, just a different that needs adjustment. But you know in all of this I am learning a whole new level of patience and I am happy to do this. Patience in being more flexible than I ever thought I needed, patience in that I work with a 2 yr that is a hand full (a cute handfull), and patience in having to learn that work is actually good for you! This last year I have had to learned patience in all different types of circumstances so I welcome a new type of patience.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this little update! I don't know how often I will be able to update this blog this summer as I don't have internet in my apartment and I leave for the south of France for a 3 week trip in a little over 2 weeks but I will do my best to stay up to date. Tomorrow is Bastille day (France's independence) and I plan on celebrating since I was on a plane to Romania on the fourth of July. If I couldn't celebrate my favorite countries independence then I am going to for sure celebrate my second favorite countries independence. oh yea!

Hope everyone has been enjoying their summer so far! I now have space to have friends to visit so book your flight soon!!!! haha. I miss you all dearly, so much right now actually! But hopefully in the near future I will have internet to go along wtih my freedom of living alone which means skype dates and phone calls to be more frequent!

Love, me