La Rentreeeee

La Rentree: the first day of school but also an expression meaning the end of summer when everyone returns from their holidays. I blogged about it last year when I was learning about it and never envisioned myself experiencing another even though I envision myself living here for a long time. Anyways, the first week of school is nearly half over and its been an experience to say the least. It's already been a long week and I am so tired. How is it possible that I am so tired when I am working one job this week and somehow I survived and even had a partial social life last week when I was working 2 jobs equally 60 hours last week?

So, the first day of school for the kids was also a new learning day for me. Honestly, you don't need a tv or other forms of entertainment here in France when you have all the funky stuff I have that goes on in my life to make it much more interesting than any reality tv show ever could. So, my first task was to be at the kids school at 4:15pm. The mom sent me a text with the address and asked me to the meet the grandmother there so she could explain to me how the after school schedule worked. You would think this would not be so hard but apparently life isn't so easy. First, the mom accidentally sent me the wrong address. It was the correct street but the completely opposite direction, so I ended up walking about 4 or 5 blocks in the wrong direction, arrived at the address given to me and knew something had to be wrong when I looked in the door and saw a stairwell leading to apartments. Hmmm, not the kids school, I thought. So I unenthusiastically called the Mom (lets face it, on the first day, the last thing I wanted to do was to be bothering the very busy Mom at work because I couldn't find where I needed to be going). Luckily for my sanity I realized she had given me the wrong address but that also meant I needed to not only walk the 4 or 5 blocks back to the original starting point, but continue walking past the starting point in that direction for another 4 or 5 blocks. And by this time it was past 4:15pm. So eventually I get to the school which is on a street corner and was FULL of mommy's, nanny's, strollers, children of all sizes, and lots of snacks which meant a lot of nasty pigeons. I searched and searched and searched and could not find either of the 2 boys, their older sister or the grandma. Where were they??? I eventually called the Mom again and told her I had been waiting at the school for a while and had not been successful in finding anyone in the family. Fail numero uno for Kara! So (yes, this is a bit dramatized but it makes for life to be more interesting than not) there I was standing in a crowd of moms, nannys, and too many kids to account for wondering where were the people I was supposedly meeting? After another ten minutes or so of just awkwardly standing around the school on the street corner watching everyone dissipate and eventually being the only one left standing on that street corner I decided to call the other nanny and ask her what I should do. I figured at this point that they just left without trying to find me which was fine but I had no clue where they would have gone which is why I  stayed waiting to find out where to go. I mustered the courage and made the phone call in French and found out that everyone was to be at home and I should just make my way there. Whewwww!!! Ok, so I'm nearly an hour into my job at this point and I am kidless and late to work. Good job Kara! So i start making my way towards the house and think to myself, Ok, i know the way, lets just go this way. Yea, not a good idea. Unlike the streets in the cities where I have lived in Texas, the streets in Paris do not make any sense ever...they do not run in a grid form and just because it looks like its going in the direction you want to be headed does not mean it will end up in that direction. Just my luck, who knows what street I took or how I ended up where I needed to be, but too much time later I landed on at the front door of the home. The only un-frustrating part of that whole experiment in walking was that I figured out where a few more streets come together and explored a little more.
So there you have it, my second week of work and the kids first day of school... awkward!

Yesterday was much better and now I can conquer the kids school pick up routine fine by myself, so score for Kara! Today, however, is another story....its my first FULL day with the kids. You remember how French kids don't go to school on Wednesdays? And how most nannys work the whole day? Well, I am lucky that I don't have to work until 1:30pm, but that still means 8 hours with these kids in the middle of the week. Say a little prayer for me if you will. They are 'good' kids, but 8 hours is a lot when you're just getting to know them and still don't fully speak the same language.

Et voila, the stories of a second year au-pair have commenced! and there I am, waist deep in speaking my infamous franglais. It really is the spoken language here.

Oh, and life is pretty good when small things make you really happy...like 5 euro pizza from pizzahut! yes, i am slightly obsessed with pizza hut these days and the fact that every tuesday all their medium pizzas are just 5 euros. you know where to find me every tuesday! Yesterday, Maya and I met up for a late lunch of pizza hut, duh! and because we didn't have too much time and the parks were all too far to walk we decided to just walk for a few minutes until we stumbled upon somewhere interesting to sit. We walked down this one major street in the direction of a park incase we didn't find anything first and low and behold I look to my right at a random intersection and see this magnificent building just sticking up from behind some apartments and it draws me over. We end up eating our pizza next to some really beautiful and randomly placed church. So there you are for random experiences as well. Just walk a little and you'll find something cool you didn't know was there. That is my experience at least.

Anyways, the minutes are ticking and I have still so much left to do before my 8 hour shift starts! Love to you all!