Ma Vie

Bonjour à tous! I hope everyone is doing well. My life has been pretty uneventful since Laura left. I’ve just been going to school to work with my students and working with Greg. Plus what else would I do when I’m avoiding taking care of adult things (i.e. finishing my taxes [I’ll get to that later], calling about stuff). So this will probably be more of a rambling type of post.

 Some pictures from one of my classes: Pictionary - catagory - movies : E.T.

 Some pictures from one of my classes: Pictionary - catagory - movies : Harry Potter

Some pictures from one of my classes: Create a comic strip. 

Here is the story - a girl is jumping up and down on the trampoline and falls off and is injured. Then she gets run over by a car and gets more injuries. Then her friend (boy) who she likes comes over and he suggests they go to the amusement park. They go on the Ferris Wheel and she gets sick. Boy is grossed out and says "bye" and runs away. Girl chases boy. Boy falls, girl helps boy up and says she likes him. He says he has a girlfriend. She is heartbroken and goes home to eat popcorn and ice cream. The End. (My students crack me up)

I’ve been really enjoying my time with Greg. He is such a happy kid and I love getting to know him better. I already knew he loves Star Wars and playing soccer I can now add that he likes; Geronimo Stilton (a book series about a mouse who is journalist and adventurer), Legos, and Justin Beiber (seriously, especially his “new stuff”). His birthday is coming up on Valentine’s Day. I’m not sure what to get him! I haven’t had to buy presents for a kid in awhile…probably something Star Wars will do. This kid is so full of energy and loves to climb on things and have fun (even after he knocked out his two front teeth).

Greg (on the right) with his friend Alex at the park. They are monkeys.

I am friends with Alex's babysitter on Facebook. This is a few messages between Greg and Alex.

Besides school and Greg I’ve had a pretty quiet couple of weeks, mainly because of a sprained ankle and a cold.

Before I sprained my ankle I did join the girls at Cat’s house to make cupcakes and hangout together. On 24/1 we got supplies to make cupcakes and headed to Cat’s to make them. We made lemon cupcakes, with raspberry jam filling, and vanilla frosting. They were so yummy. It’s always fun to get together with the girls and talk and watch Netflix. That night we watched “Sister Wives,” mainly because Kayla had never seen it and we were talking about polygamy…I don’t really remember why though…it was a fun evening with friends.

 Yummy lemon and raspberry jam.

On 26/1 I was walking to the train station on my way to school. I must have tripped on the sidewalk and rolled my ankle. At first I thought would be fine, since I could still walk. It wasn’t until I got to the train and was sitting that I realized that it was probably sprained; since it hurt just sitting. So after school I stopped at the pharmacy and got an ace bandage and came home and stayed off of it with some frozen peas until I had Greg…that was basically my next few days.

On Saturday 30/1 I did venture into Paris with the girls to celebrate Kayla’s birthday, with brunch. We went to a restaurant in Le Marais called Breakfast in America. They had real American breakfast food, similar to diners in the US. They had omelets, pancakes, sausage, bacon, breakfast potatoes, and breakfast burritos. The other three had breakfast burritos and I had blueberry pancakes with sausage and scrambled eggs. It was really good. After we finished our brunch we walked around Le Marais and then stopped and got cheesecake at Berko, this time I got Oreo Cheesecake (so good). After cheesecake we went to this store called HEMA…best way to describe it is if Ike and Target had a baby…haha. They had lots of cheap things that you one doesn’t necessarily need (just like Target and Ikea)! After the store we all made our way home. We were all wet (because winter in Paris = rain for days) and I was ready to get home and rest my ankle.

 Breakfast in America - blueberry pancakes, scramble eggs, sausage - I was so happy!!

Oreo cheescake from Berko

On that Sunday night I started to feel a sore throat come on. Monday morning I woke up with a lovely cold (good thing I was already stocked up on cold meds and cough drops from Sharice’s family). This cold was definitely not as bad as my cold back in October…maybe my body is getting used to the germs of the metro? I wasn’t the only one who was sick this week either; Kayla got sick before me, then Amanda started getting sick later in the week. So we have isolated ourselves from each other; we did not want to get Cat sick or anyone else. Plus we were all too tired to do extra things…at least I was. So all I’ve done this week was school and Greg (who I’m pretty sure is the reason I got sick). It’s been pretty boring. I’ve been working on adult things like taxes (ugh taxes) and looking to see if jobs for next school year are being posted yet (no such luck with that, yet). I’m not really looking forward to taxes this year…it seems that I made too much last year, plus I’m no longer a student…so my tax return isn’t going to be as big as I wanted/needed it to be. Plus filing foreign income makes it so I have to pay extra to file. It is rather annoying. *Side note, did you know that the US is one of only like 3 countries who make you pay taxes based on citizenship, not on residency…thanks for that America…

Anyways, I think that I am finally over this stinking cold. So tomorrow I’m going to hopefully see Cat. I’m going stir-crazy not being able to do too much. Today, I’m just cleaning and will maybe go for a little walk later. I still haven’t explored much of Le Vésinet; basically I know how to get to Greg’s school, the train station, Monoprix, and home…I should figure out what is around me more.

Some random pictures from ma vie

 A little lake near me in Le Vesinet

 La Defense - Arc de Triumph

 La Defense - Grande Arc

An apartment building across from Cat's apartment. I love the buildings in Paris. I would love to live in one with a balcony.

I hope you all are enjoying these updates and I know you guys will be excited for my next holiday adventure in 2 weeks; we’re going to Rome, Italy for part of that break!! Keep on reading!