A Year in Paris: good week, bad week

Hello Friends and Family,

This past week started off really awful but got increasingly better. I will start with the downs...

It started off monday after lunch, Philippine and I walked back to school after eating lunch at home. At some point during the 2 block walk from door to door, I managed to lose my blackberry. I have absolutely no idea what happened but I realized as soon as I dropped her off that it was gone. I walked the path 3 times before giving up and I searched all over the house even though I am sure I put it in my pocket before leaving. If it fell out of my pocket, I am fairly sure I would have heard it fall. Xavier suggested that I may have been a victim of pickpocketing, but I really don't know. I tried calling it and although it was fully charged, it had already been turned off so either way, it is a lost cause!! I was basically devastated because as well as being my easy way to connect with family friends through bbm, anytime, anywhere, the thing is also really expensive and I really do not have the extra funds to just buy a new one!

On Tuesday afternoon, I decided to go to La Defense which is one of the business centres of Paris where there are a lot of sky scrapers and people dressed looking like they mean business! There is a mall there with an Orange boutique so I thought I would go see if I could buy a new phone. Unfortunately, the man who I asked for help wouldn't even give me the time of day without Xavier there or with his identification! I was very frustrated at this point but I did manage to find a Virgin Records store that had a pretty good selection of English books. I also bought a new pair of headphones because mine recently broke so the trip wasn't completely useless. It also gave me the chance to take a couple pictures of the Grande Arche de la Defense. It is a massive building that creates a straight line to the Arc de Triomphe and then onto the Obelisk and the Jardin des Tuileries. The pictures really don't do it justice as it was too big to get into the frame!!

Lunch time at Le Grande Arche.

Wednesday was a really long day because the kids don't have school and it was the first time since being here that I spent the entire day with Philippine. Needless to say, I was wiped out and went to bed really early!

I didn't do a whole lot on Thursday because of the rain but I did manage to clean the whole studio. The bathroom and floors were getting pretty bad but now it is spotless. I also spent the day organizing my things for school. Thursday night I had a great night with the kids because Cecile is away on Business and Xavier had a dinner to go to. Philippine let me french braid her hair for the first time and I think she liked it so hopefully she'll let me again.

Miss Philippine after she let me do her hair!

Today was by far the best day of the week even though I had a really early start. I got up at 6 15 this morning and was out of the house by 7 on my way to school. I have to say though that I don't particularly like getting up before the sun and the walk to the bus stop was a little bit creepy in the dark. I found the school no problem and right away walked into a tiny little classroom crammed with chairs. There are 17 of us with 1 teacher but I think the class is going to change around a bit as people decide what level suits them best. i think the level I am in is really good for my level so I am going to stay where I am. I met a nice girl from Germany and we went together after class to get our books. I came home after that, and thank god I did because not 15 minutes after arriving home there was a knock on the door and there stood the post man with a nice big box, addressed to me!! I really wanted to tear it open, but I was able to resist and I grabbed my camera to take a few pictures. The package was from Nancy and Ted and it is perfect!! Nancy responded to my call for peanut butter as well as a bunch of other treats including 3 books that I am really excited to read. Thanks to both of you for making my bad week into a good week!

I have a love of getting mail (hint, hint) but a package filled with goodies is even better!

Hope everyone at home had a better week than mine and I wanted to say that I love you all so much!!