The Past Week

First Picture of Philippine
The back yard and the house
Lunch in the Jardin

Dear Friends and Family,

I have been a terrible blogger for the past week, and for that I would like to apologize. To be perfectly honest, things haven't been too exciting, so I haven't had that much to tell you about but I will do my best to recap what has been going on.

I believe the last time I wrote was last saturday morning, so I will start there.

The weather was awesome last weekend, getting all the way up to 30 degrees! We were able to eat lunch outside both saturday and sunday which was really amazing. I have posted a picture of our table in the back garden. On Sunday afternoon, I went to a forum in the community centre for all the activities and sports they have here. Unfortunately, there was really nothing that jumped out, and mostly everything was geared towards kids. I really need to keep looking because I am realizing that all this cheese and good bread is going to catch up to me!

This week was a pretty good example of how things are going to be from now on, because it was the kid's first full week of school. The only difference was that on Monday night, Xavier left for a work trip. He is gone for 11 days, and in that time going to Seoul, Beijing, back to Seoul and then to San Francisco. From what I have been told and from my experience, it takes about a day for every hour of time difference to recuperate from Jet Lag (aka it took 9 days for me). I wouldn't even know where to start to calculate how long it is going to take him to get back to normal!

Cecile also had a pretty big week at work, as she had to do a big presentation at a conference that was taking place here in Paris. She had a lot of late nights with clients who were here from out of town, and then she'd get up super early in order to practice for her speech.

Wednesday was Philippine's first day of horseback riding and according to her mom, she has been talking about it since May. I was a little nervous because she is 6 years old and I was told they'd be getting right on the horses that day. I then found out they were riding Shetland Ponies and was very relieved.

Probably the most exciting part of my week is that I made my first friend. I know that is really pathetic but honestly up to now, my only friends are 11 and 6 and its a bit lonely. Her name is Tarah and she is from Sydney, Australia. She is an Aupair also, for a family that has 4 kids, 2 of which go to the same school as Philippine. She is also going to be attending the same French school as me, only she speaks no French at all so we aren't going to be in the same class. On Thursday afternoon, we went together to our school and I wrote a placement test. My classes are going to be tuesday and Friday mornings at 8 am. That is very early for me, and I have recently been informed that there is a lot of snow in the winter here so I am doing my best to not think about how cold I am going to be when I have to leave the house at 7 in December!!

The school seems pretty cool and Its really easy to get to. Just one bus and 2 different metro trains. I also got to choose a subject in which to take an additional lecture, and I decided to take Art History. I am really excited, but unfortunately, school doesn't start for another 3 weeks.

I have tried to take pictures, but the weather hasn't been great since last weekend, and I have yet to figure out how to take nice pictures in the rain! I will work on it and hopefully post some more soon.

This week I have a meeting and medical exam in order to get the final piece done for my Visa. I am also meeting Dave Carter on Tuesday at the Musee D'Orsay so I am really looking forward to seeing another familiar face as well as going into Paris to see some more of this great city!

All in all, everything is pretty good here and I will do my best to get better at blogging!

Love you all very lots and starting to miss everyone a bit more too!

xoxox M

P.s. If anyone wants to send me some Peanut Butter, I would love it! I can't seem to find it here haha, they only have Nutella.