OKTOBERFEST!

Happy Monday, friends!

I don't know how I am functioning as well as I am this monday morning after getting back from Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany just 10 hours ago.  (Especially since I am home with two sick little boys, writing this post inbetween them still sleeping, watching movies, and napping.)  It feels like a dream, everything that happened this weekend.  It was the craziest, most awesome, fastest and yet slowest 42 hours I think we've ever had in our life.  So many things happened in just a short period of time, and even though it was exhausting and unpredictable, I don't think Val or I would have traded this experience for anything.  Here's the synopsis of our trip, broken down into time increments.  

Saturday, September 27th

5:30 AM: Wake up, quickly get dressed.  Out the door by 6:00 to drive from my house to the nearby train station.

6:05 AM: Val's car stops working in the middle of a back swiss road.  Yep, car trouble, 5 minutes into our adventure.  For whatever reason, neither of us panic, just try for a good 10 minutes to get it going again.  And we do!

500 meters later, 6:20 AM: Car stops again.  This time, we still don't panic, but are still not successful in getting the car to start.  (Let me also add that this car is old.  I'm talking, 1987 old.)  The battery isn't dead, but the car is not running.  And the train that we were aiming to make is leaving at 6:25.  This time, we try for a good 25 minutes, missing our train of course.  I try to flag down a few cars to help us, when one finally stops and agrees to help at approximately 6:42.  He doesn't speak english, but I manage to explain to him that our car is dead, and we need to get the train station, and quickly.  There is another train at 6:55, and the ride we were catching in Geneva said he could wait until 7:30, at the latest.  (We were supposed to meet him at 7.)  This very nice man helps us push the car to the side of the road, and drives us to the train station, with two minutes to spare.

6:53 AM: Get tickets for the train in a mass panic, get on the train.

6:55 AM: Train leaves, and takes us to the main train station in Geneva.

7:15 AM: Arrive in Geneva, spend a frantic 15 minutes running around trying to find our ride.

7:30 AM: Finally find our ride, hop in the car, and we are off!

*I realize up until this point that things are sounding a little sketchy.  We basically hitch hiked at 6:45 in the morning, and are now getting into a car with a stranger.  So let me explain the ride situation.  (I have no explanation for the hitch hiking.  We were determined to get to Germany, so we did what we had to do.)  When we realized we wanted to go to Munich, we looked up all the various ways that we could get there.  Because it's Oktoberfest right now, flights were outrageous, and even the train was a 160 euro round trip.  Then we found this site called blablacar.com, a ride share program.  A legitimate ride share program.  People post where they're leaving from, going to, and what time.  They are registered on the site, and people who have rode with them in the past leave comments and reviews about the driver.  So you can see who they are, their age, nationality, type of car, etc and money is exchanged electronically over the site, after the ride is successfully completed.  So we found a guy that was leaving from Geneva at 7 am Saturday morning, and another guy that was leaving Munich to go back to Geneva Sunday at 2 pm.  We booked our reservations with these guys last Wednesday, got in touch with them, and although we were late to both of our rides, we got safely where we needed to be each time, at 80 euros for the round trip, about 7 hours with stops each way.

7:30 AM-2:30 PM: Drive from Geneva, Switzerland to Munich, Germany.  There were 5 of us total in the car, we stopped about every 2 hours, and the ride was actually quite pleasant.  So despite having a rocky morning, the rest of the morning unfolded quite nicely.  It was a couple who were about 30 switching off driving.  Their final destination was actually Slovenia, not Munich, so they still had a far way off to go after dropping us off.  They were very nice, a bit hippy and out there, with dozens of packed snacks and reggae music, but all in all it was great. 

2:30 PM: The driver drops us off at the equivalent of a metro station outside Munich.  We get a ticket and hop on the next train toward the main central station of Munich, the Hauptbahnhof.  

3:00 PM: Arrive at the Hauptbahnhof (the biggest and busiest train station I have ever seen), where we are supposed to meet Val's friend Chris at either the McDonald's, Burger King, or Starbucks.  Keep in mind that neither our American phones or our french phones are working at this point, so we can't exactly call him to see where he is.  We just decide we will try to find each other at one of the American spots.  So, we find the McDonald's, no Chris.  Find the Starbucks, no Chris.  Find the Burger King, still no Chris.  Plan B was then to ask to borrow a German phone from someone so that we could call Chris.  Ask several people, no one lets us borrow their phone!  They think we're going to end up stealing them.  I wasn't aware that either Val or I looked like thieves, so that was a bit annoying.  Plan C: Find wifi.  We had been searching this whole time of course, but had been unsuccessful.  We asked the information desk, and they point us upstairs toward a wifi lounge.  Then, as we go upstairs, we realize there is another Burger King.  Of course.   And there is Chris!  I have never been so excited to meet someone in my life.  This guy Chris is an old friend of Val's from years ago at Towson.  They actually hadn't seen each other in about 5 years, but Chris has been living in Frankfurt, and was coming to Munich for the weekend for Oktoberfest as well.  And everyone just seems to be instant friends regardless of time lapsed when you're in a foreign country together!

3:30 PM: We chat with him and try to make a plan for the rest of the day.  We decide to just change our clothes here in the train station and go straight to Oktoberfest.  We don't want to waste any time!  So we promptly head to a (very nice) bathroom/changing area (that they charge you one euro per person to use...), change our clothes, fix our makeup and hair, and are ready to go!  We were pretty proud of ourselves, considering that only took about 10 minutes.  We lock our backpacks in a nearby locker, and are off to the festivities.

4:00 PM: Arrive at Oktoberfest!  It is unlike any other outdoor festival I have ever seen.  Thousands of people packed together, trying desperately to get to one of 14 beer tents that are set up.  There are dozens of smaller tents as well, selling food, drinks and souvenirs.  There are rides and games, like you would see at a carnival.  Horses and carriages, kegs, and tons and tons of Germans wearing their traditional outfits (that we even debated buying ourselves...).  The 3 of us make a beeline for the back of the fest, to the tent where Chris' friends are.  It is so crowded just trying to walk there, but we had gotten a couple beers each before we got in, so we're pretty content.  Apparently in Germany you can drink wherever you want, even out on the street!  

4:30 PM: Arrive at the chosen beer tent, the Schutzen-Festzelt, for anyone reading who may have been before.  There are lines and masses of people everywhere, just trying to get into the patio outside the beer tent, with an even bigger line of people trying to actually get into the tent.  We get through the first line pretty easily, and then kind of hang out outside, befriending many different people, trying to get a beer, since you have to be sitting at a table to get one.  Successfully get beers, and these beers are huge.  1 liter of beer in each one, 10 euros a pop.  We hang out on the patio for awhile, just still in awe that we even made it here in the first place!  We wander, make friends, take pictures, and find a side entrance that looks like our best bet into the beer tent.  It didn't feel like we even waited very long to get in, but we found out the next morning that it was actually incredible that we got into this particular tent so easily.  

6:00-10:30 PM: Hang out in the beer tent, drinking, eating, dancing, laughing, and everything and anything else with thousands of other international strangers that are all suddenly best friends.  I've never seen so many people in one place in such a good mood.  The German beer girls are so impressive, some of them carrying up to 10 beer mugs at one time, while the rest of us are struggling to hold onto one.  People are cheering and chanting and singing German drinking songs.  It was just such an absolute blast!  Since everyone starts drinking so early in the day, they stop selling beers at 10:30 at night.  Somewhere around that time we decide we're done as well, go back to the Hauptbahnhof to get our back packs, and catch a cab back to where we're staying the night.  

11:00 PM: Arrive back to where we're staying the night with Chris' friends.  The accommodations aren't the best we've ever had, but they're free, and Val and I are flexible people who really just needed a roof over our head.  We even get an air mattress to sleep on in the tiny room with a number of other people, so we are content and pass out right away.  A truly successful day and night.  We didn't lose each other, any of our belongings, or too much money.

Sunday, September 28th

8:00 AM: Wake up, go over the night before, and view the literally hundreds of pictures on Val's phone.  Stay tuned for those. 

10:00 AM-1:00 PM: Head back to Oktoberfest to see it in the day light, with a more sober view.  Have some crepes, buy some souvenirs, walk through a few of the beer tents to just see what's going on.  Despite it being 11 am on a Sunday, there are still loads of people out and already drinking.  We stop in one tent to have a final beer and it's still crowded and hard to find a seat!  Leave the tent, have a final German bratwurst (had one the night before too, you jealous Shawna?), and it's time to find our way back to the train station to where we're meeting our next blablacar ride.  

1:15-2:15 PM: The chaos, again, of trying to get to our ride.  Chris helps us figure out where we need to go and how to get there, and then we say goodbye to him.  He was the best host we could have ever hoped to have (and this wasn't even his city), hopefully he comes to France to hang out some other time.  We take a train from the Hauptbahnhof to a station two stops away where we have to switch trains.  Wander around trying to find the second train in the direction that we need to go, and we do.  The monitors show that it is coming in 7 minutes.  Seeing that we have 7 minutes, I'm sure that I have enough time to go and find a vending machine for a snack and drink.  Find said drink, but then can't figure our way back to the right platform.  End up running down the up escalator, which is truly tough, and miss our train anyway.  I repeat: we ran down the up escalator, and still missed our train. Have to wait another 7 minutes.  Finally get on the train, ride the 11 stops out to the suburbs of Germany, and find our ride.  Coincidentally, the girl who had rode with us on the way to Germany was also riding with us on our way home!  Her name was Anna, a girl originally from Spain, but who had spent the past 5 years in Beijing, and was now living in Geneva.  Super nice girl.  We meet our new driver, a guy named Laurent, and begin the trek back home.

2:30-9:30 PM: Drive from Munich to Geneva.  Only stop once, but encounter traffic a few times, which makes the trip seem pretty long, not to mention that we're exhausted by this point. 

9:30 PM: Val's host dad picks us up from the train station, since we had to leave val's car on the side of the road Saturday morning, and now don't have a way back home.  As it turns out, the car is not dead.  Apparently, when the car is cold, you have to use the starter in this car to get it running.  What we did not know though is that after you get the car going and drive the car a couple kilometers, you turn the starter off, or push it back in, or whatever.  We did not know this, and too much gas got into the engine, causing it to temporarily stop working.  Anyway, we try to get back to my house, but find that the gates that separate France from Switzerland have closed, preventing us from getting in.  I kid you not.  There are actual gates in some parts of the countryside that close between 10 PM and 6 AM, preventing you from getting through.  There is of course a main entrance point on the highway, but we were on the back roads, and had gates stop us at not one point, but two.  I felt so terrible for the trouble to just drive me home, turning a 25 minute drive into about an hour, but at about 10:45 I finally got home. 

I feel like this weekend will definitely go down as one of the best during my year here in Europe, and a collection of memories that i'll have forever.  Definitely something that anyone who likes beer, festivals, and fun should experience at least once in their life!  I had heard my dad talk about it before, and try to explain how incredible the whole production is, but it's hard to understand until you are actually there.  Like I said before, it still feels like a dream that it actually happened.  We are a couple of lucky girls. 

PROST! (Cheers!)

Cours de francais et voyage a Lyon

Excellent news.  My french lessons have finally started! 

I feel like I have been waiting forever for this day!  I don't even know why I was so excited to get back into the classroom.  I guess because I am only going to pick up so much french by listening to the boys and my host parents, and I haven't disciplined myself enough to properly study french on my own.  I mean, I have a little.  I can get by.  But today was our first "lesson" and all went well.

There were about 25 of us or so, a whole bunch of girls and one boy!  Everyone went around and introduced themselves and there were people from all countries with all different nationalities - english, spanish, american, french, swedish, hungarian, italian...so cool!  I coincidentally sat down next to a girl who turned out to be from Richmond, Virginia and went to Virginia Tech; what are the odds?!  Our instructor was incredibly nice, a native french woman who also knows english, italian, and a bit of spanish.  Of course, like every other proper European.  It was a casual day of just getting to know each other, but our teacher did speak mostly in french.  We'll get split up based on prior french knowledge and experience next week, but for this week we are just getting to know each other.  

Besides Val and I, there were about 4 other american girls.  The one I sat next to, one from Texas, a loud, funny girl from Mississippi, and I think one other that I didn't formally meet.  So thats exciting!  I also sat next to a Swedish girl named Sara and across from a Hungarian girl named Christina, who are both learning french as a third language.  It is still so fascinating and impressive to me.  

Anyways, I just got a good vibe from the class and am truly anxious to get to learning more, and being able to practice more at home with Sophie and Andrea.  

In other news, Val and I did not make it to Munich this past weekend (maybe this weekend!) but did go to Lyon!  Lyon is the third biggest city in France, but conveniently located about an hour and a half from us.  We each took the train from our towns and met at the train station in Lyon.  While we were a little lost and confused for maybe the first couple hours, we eventually got where we needed to be and had an awesome day.  I attempted to ask for directions a couple different times, but mostly we just followed maps and road signs and used our decent senses of directions to get around.  

We found both of the rivers the flow through Lyon, the Rhone and the Saone.  We spent a bit of time in Vieux Lyon (old towne Lyon) which was adorable.  We went into Musee Miniature et Cinema, a very cool little museum.  The first half was dedicated to actual props from various American and British movies.  The second part of a showcase of miniature sets and designs by artists, one in particular who's work was amazing.  Here are some pictures:

 Costume from Planet of the Apes.

Wand used in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

And I know it's hard to imagine, but these little scenes that look like a normal sized shop and restaurant are actually miniature!  Like, they could fit into a shoe box. SO cool.

We also made the trek to see the Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere.  You could take a bus up to see it, but Val and I hoofed it uphill on the cobblestone roads for a good 25 minutes so we could get a good work out in :)  The view was absolutely AMAZING and made the tough walk totally worth it.  Plus, the Basilica itself was awesome.  I mean, I've heard everyone talk about how beautiful the churches in Europe are, but you don't really understand until you go and walk into one yourself.  It was stunning, and the picture below does it it zero justice. 

We also found the part of Lyon where all the high end shops are, and a lot of cute restaurants.  We wandered into this one that we really liked, that normally I would have loved to stay at, because they only serve coffee, drinks, and dessert.  My kinda place!  But we were both starving and wanted a real meal, so we found another restaurant, and ended up sitting next to this nice couple from Toronto, Canada.  We had some wine and pasta, and before we knew it the day was over and we were heading back to the train station. 

Since it is a pretty big city, we definitely didn't hit every spot we wanted to.  There's a large, famous park that I still want to see, and Lyon is also known for its wonderful murals, and there is a mural museum that we want to go to next time.  We also didn't get a chance to eat in one of the local bouchons to get a traditional meal, so those things will all have to wait until next time.  We definitely want to go back, after some other places have been crossed off our list.  But definitely a great first trip!

Time to get the boys from school! Au revoir. :)

The Boys

I realized recently that I haven't talked much about the boys I look after, which, after all, is the main reason I am here!  

James and Matthew are twin 3 and a half year old boys.  Despite being identical twins, they are incredibly different.  Physically, the only way to really differentiate them is that Matthew has a scar above his left eyebrow, but it's not even very obvious.  The differences are all in their personality. 

Matthew is outwardly sweeter and more affectionate, and is 90% of the time a better listener than his brother.  He prefers red, and at least one article of clothing he wears every day is likely to be red.  He has a vast collection of cars, trucks, and motorcycles that he prefers to play with, and is pretty good at riding his training bike.  Side-note: I first saw these bikes back home when I was babysitting for my Wednesday family (I don't know if you're following or not, Steele family, but hi if you are!).  They basically look like a normal two wheeled bike, except they don't have pedals.  So kids learn how to practice their balance on these two wheels before adding pedals...seems pretty smart to me.  These must be a relatively new invention.  Anyway, that's what my boys have too.  

Matthew is also a bit more hesitant and cautious than his partner in crime.  Apparently at school as well, he is always a bit more skeptical of new things and situations.  While he likes to play and goof off, he is just more calm. 

James, on the other hand, dives right into most things.  He is always getting into something, not as likely as Matthew is to sit and read on his own.  I have more difficulty getting him to listen to me, and have to dole out much more sternness with James then with Matthew.  James likes blue and green, and loves animals.  His favorite collection of toys includes every type of jungle and forest animal figurine, and he knows the name of each of them in both french and english!  He is quick to be affectionate also though, especially when I am dropping them off at school and picking them up in the afternoons.

Even with regards to food, they are different.  James is a much better meat eater than Matthew, but Matthew loves vegetables.  They have their fruit preferences, cookie preferences, etc, but I typically try to feed them each the same thing so they learn that they don't always get their favorite things and need to learn to try everything. 

They are both adorable, but have already taught me a lot about patience...Being 3 and a 1/2, they can quickly go from play fighting to real fighting in approximately 3 seconds, and it seems like each day someone has a new scrape or mark on his face.  So we definitely have our highs and lows every day, but I guess that keeps things interesting, right?

Hopefully this video works too...from when we made some cookies last week:

More notable things about this week:

I have made some friends!  Other au pairs in the area that seem great.  I had lunch with a few in Annecy on Tuesday, most from England.  Two of them will be in my french classes as well, which finally begin this coming Tuesday, the 23rd.  Thursday, one girl who lives pretty close, just 15 minutes away, had me over for lunch (and pumpkin pie for dessert!)  This girl was Canadian, and so nice, felt like we clicked right away!  Unfortunately, she is only here until the end of November :( She has already been here since January.  Regardless, it has felt really great to make some connections with people my age. 

I'm not sure when I discovered this, might have been over a week ago, but the IHeartRadio App works abroad!  Basically this just means that I can listen to my DC/Baltimore radio stations through my phone, which makes me feel a little more connected to home!  I had missed my dose of the Kane Show every morning, and my Commercial Free Tuesdays on WMZQ.  Need to stay up to date with all the music that comes out so i'm not too behind the curve when I come home!  However, there are so many American songs that play on the radio here.  I probably hear "Shake it Off" at least once a day, so this Taylor Swift fan in France is pretty happy. 

I also downloaded one of those programs so that I can watch my shows abroad!  Just in time, since Grey's Anatomy, Parenthood, and the Voice all start next week!  Already caught up on the Biggest Loser, too.  It's a little blurry, but I can deal.  I like watching TV here at night sometimes, (and there are even some American shows) but most of them I don't understand much of yet, so I'm happy to have my American shows accessible.  

It doesn't look like we'll be going to Munich this weekend.  Too expensive, and it would logistically be difficult.  No worries though, because I will find somewhere else to go closer!  Now that I have mastered the manual driving and figured out the train system, the possibilities are endless.  Stay tuned.  :)

xoxo, J

Tree Climbing

Salut (hi), everyone!

Another good week here, nothing too new to report except that Valerie has now arrived!  For those reading who don't know Val, we've been friends for many, many years since we were little Girl Scouts.  She was the one who kind of sparked the idea for me to be an Au Pair in the first place, since she spent 6 months as an Au Pair in Australia last year.  As soon as she heard that I was going off to France, she decided she might want to do it again...one thing led to another, and now she is an Au pair about 45 minutes away from me!

I went over to see her and meet her host family on Saturday.  She is living in another small countryside town called Lovagny with beautiful views a bit closer to Annecy.  Her host parents are lovely as well, and they invited us to go "tree climbing" with them and some of their colleagues on Saturday afternoon.  Translation: a high ropes course and zip-lines!  It was super fun, mostly similar to courses I have done before in other various places except for one thing.  They gave us a safety briefing after they hooked us into our equipment and showed us how to use everything...and then they left us alone to go off and swing from these zip-lines through the trees alone!  You know how at every type of these places in the states you have people at each point guiding you throughout the course, hooking you in and telling you when to go, where to step, etc?  Not here.  They just trust that after they show you how everything works, you'll be able to do it yourself!  You're wearing a harness, and they show you how to attach yourself, and then you're off!  So you really can go at your own pace, have fun with it, go faster or slower depending on if there are other people around you or not.  We went through 4 courses, each one becoming increasingly difficult, and a zip-line that got increasingly longer at the end of each course.  Such a blast.  And by the 3rd and 4th course, it really was challenging!  And I did take a pretty decent fall at one point and was pretty happy to have that harness.  Two lovely bruises on the insides of each of my arms.  And lots of bruises and scrapes all over our legs from the brunt of the whole thing.  Worth it though.  It was right on Lake Annecy, so of course we had awesome views from up in these trees and it was a perfect day, like 70 degrees. 

That night, we went and had dinner in downtown Annecy, and then found an Irish Pub to hang out at!  Even more exciting than the Belgian beer was the amount of English speakers we befriended!  Annecy ends up having a good amount of locals and tourists, but we met a lot of people, mostly from England, who work on ski resorts nearby, teach english, pick grapes on local farms...all sorts of people!  We were the only Americans, which I think people also got a kick out of.  Sunday we went back into Annecy to cafe hop for awhile.  Trying to enjoy as much of the nice weather as we can because it's going to get cold pretty soon.

And my last quick note - Oktoberfest begins in Munich, Germany this Saturday, and we are thinking about going for the night.  So, if anyone reading has ever been and has any tips, please let me know!  The main issue for us right now is figuring out the best way to get there...it's about 5 hours away.  Flights are too expensive, and even trains are a bit pricey.  Neither of us are too keen on the idea of driving, but we'll see how we feel by the end of the week.  There's a pretty legit rideshare program over here, so we're hoping that might come through and we could find someone to drive us!  Fingers crossed.  When again are we going to live 5 hours from Munich during Oktoberfest?!

Miss everyone! 

A great "first" week

So, we have just successfully completed our first week of our fall routine!  And I am in such a good mood about it. Here's how things work:

7:00 AM - Sophie and Andrea leave for work.

7:15 - Wake the boys up, get them dressed, then fed. 

7:55 - The 3 of us are out the door, headed for school. 

8:15-3:30 - The boys are at school. (except for Wednesdays, 9:00-12:00)

3:30-7:30 - Get the boys from school, play time/activity of sorts, bath, dinner. 

7:30ish PM - Sophie and Andrea get home  from work.
8:30/9:00ish - Dinner for the 3 of us, boys are in bed. 

So yes, that means that I have from roughly 8:30-3:30 for myself, except for Wednesdays.  Not this coming week, but the week after, my french lessons will start on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  They're a little less than an hour away, so by the time I get there, have my lesson, have lunch, drive home, that will take up most of my day.  So, that really only leaves Monday and Friday as my "free days".  So I can do laundry, exercise, clean up around the house, bake, whatever I please on those days.  It's a pretty good deal!  

Alongside of the regular challenges that have already been presented, a couple new ones surfaced this week.  Yesterday, I wanted to make cookies with the boys celebrating them completing their first week of school.  I looked around the kitchen for what I thought were items that were in everybody's kitchen: measuring cups and teaspoons.  The whole idea of baking with the metric system had not even crossed my mind yet.  (I mean, I know they use the metric system.  I've been driving and following directions in kilometers and meters.)  But I could not find either of those things, later to realize because they don't own those, because you do not use those when you cook with the metric system.  Duh.  Feeling discouraged, I went and just bought a box of cookie mix at the grocery store, thinking that would suffice for today.  The only things I needed were an egg and 80g of butter.  80 grams of butter?  What the heck does that look like?!  I googled it, and it turns out that 80g of butter is equivalent to about 1/3 of a cup.  Great!  Oh wait, we don't have measuring cups...so that was a fun little guessing game.  The cookies turned out fine regardless, and everyone enjoyed them.  The boys enjoyed helping me make them, so I want to make them from scratch with them next week.  I just need to figure out how to do it with the metric system.  

So, this morning, I started looking through some of the cook books in the kitchen.  They have one really cute one for cooking with kids.  I was looking through it and there are a lot of recipes that seem easy enough to master.  (Aside from the fact that the recipes are in french and use the metric system, it should be a piece of cake...)  

This is the first recipe I want to try.  I love breakfast foods and it only has 5 ingredients, so I figure it's a good place to start:

Barres de cereales banane-raisins

150 g de beurre

150 ml de sirop d'erable

125 g de raisins secs

2 grosses bananes écrasées

375 g de petits flocons d'avoine

(Banana-raisin cereal bars: butter, maple syrup, raisins, mashed bananas, oats)

So I can understand how to measure out milliliters, because we have one large measuring cup that shows milliliters, and ounces, on it.  But I was still really confused about measuring the grams.  I asked Andrea, and he answered "you use a scale, of course!"  Oh, of course.  But then it made sense.  He showed me the small food weighing scale that they have.  You weigh the bowl, or whatever you're going to put your ingredient in, then measure the bowl with the ingredient, and then subtract the difference, so you know exactly how much you have there.  It seems a bit tedious to me...but that is the metric way, apparently.  I assume maybe if I buy just a stick of butter, the conversions will be on the paper, the same way that it shows 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 on the butter paper in the US.  The raisins and the oats I should be able to measure out easily enough.  I'll have to enlist some assistance from google translate to make sure I follow the directions properly, but I think I'll try to make these in the coming days. 

Also, on the teaspoon/tablespoon front, this is the equivalent:

c. a c. = teaspoon

c. a s. = tablespoon

For example, the recipe may call for 2 c. a c. d'extrait de vanille (vanilla extract)

Challenge #2: Dropping the boys off at school and attempting to communicate with their teacher/other parents.  Obviously, it is a french school.  98% of the people around me are speaking french.  And I would say that at this point I can understand about 33% of what they are saying.  I did luckily meet another woman who is British!  She heard me talking to the boys and started talking to me in English.  So, if I ever need to ask something important, I can probably have her translate for me to the teacher.  Because until my french improves, it will be a bit difficult to communicate with their teacher.  So far, so good though.  The boys and their teacher have seemed happy each day I have picked them up.  

On a different note, I was however able to effectively walk in to the nearby beauty salon and make an appointment to get a pedicure speaking only french!  Sophie told me that there are two places in town to go.  This one, is owned and operated by only one woman.  It is a small studio with only one room.  I made an appointment for Monday, and can't wait.  Even though it will cost me 35 euro as opposed to the 25 dollars I am used to paying, I don't really mind that much.  I am beyond excited, not to mention in desperate need of a beaute des pieds.  The other salon apparently is even more expensive!  It is bigger and has more employees and space and what not, but if this woman turns out to be good, I think I'll stick with her.  We'll see!

And in my final piece of news to share, I have officially eaten at a French McDonalds!  There is one about 20 minutes away.  I went on Thursday, more out of curiosity than actually wanting McDonalds.  It is inside a mall, and both different and the same as one you would find in the US.  

• It was clean.  Very clean, and at all times there were people shuffling around bussing the tables.
• You had to use a code to get into the bathrooms, they were otherwise locked.
• There were two counters, one for your typical food ordering, and another for ordering coffees, pastries, and other desserts.  At the food counter, they had everything you would expect from Big Macs and fish filets to wraps and salads.  But at the dessert kiosk, they not only had coffees and lattes, but croissants, macaroons, cheesecakes, etc!  
• There were about 6 little walk up kiosks that you could use for easy ordering, and then go and pick up your food at the counter instead of placing your order in person.  The kiosks also had language options, so you could read the menu in french, english, spanish, or dutch.
• My chicken nuggets and french fries tasted exactly the same.
• I had the worlds cutest caramel macchiato, pictured below.
• It was packed!  Granted, I was there at lunch time, but people kept streaming in wanting their Big Macs.  People all around the world love McDonalds. 
• It was ridiculously expensive.  7.50 euro for a 6 pack of nuggets, medium fry and medium drink.  I probably won't go back any time soon for this reason alone, but I am glad I got to see what it was like!

It was a good week!  

xo, Jillian

Things I miss.

I have been in France for exactly one month.  What?!  That went fast!  (Okay, two weeks were in Spain, but you get it.)  I am up before the boys, but after Sophie and Andrea have left for work, so I have a few quiet moments to myself.  

Being here for a month already, I feel as if I can now talk about things I am missing the most from home.  The list is not too extensive, and yes, I do realize how lucky and fortunate I am to be here, and none of these make me want to actually come home yet, but there are a lot of things that I wish I could just take from American and plop right here into France. 

These are listed in no particular order.

1. My normal coffee/coffee routine: Sometimes, back home, when I couldn't sleep very well, I would think "it's okay, just 3 more hours and you can reward yourself with coffee." I love coffee.  I love my Keurig.  I love Dunkin' Donuts.  I love a normal 8-10 ounce cup of black coffee sweetened with creamer and splenda.  I never thought it was a huge request.  Until now.  We have a version of a Keurig, and it does fine (it leaks a little), but mostly we brew cappuccinos and what not (I know what you're thinking, poor me, drinking cappuccinos and caramel macchiatos every day...) but sometimes, you just want what you're used to okay!?  And silly me, I thought I would enjoy it too.  I love these little drinks, yes, but frequently I just want a normal cup of coffee.  These are my new normal I suppose.  I'm going to look for regular coffee at the grocery store this week, even though you're only supposed to brew 6 ounces at a time...

2. Jazzercise/a normal exercise routine: First and foremost, I miss my jazz girls SO much!  I know you ladies are following along with my journey, and your support and encouragement means the world :) But secondly, I so miss having a routine to my exercising.  I mean, I was working out almost every day!  Sheesh, I was sometimes there twice a day!  Thus far, I've been trying to run (okay, mostly walking...).  I mapped out a 5k route, and the scenery is nice, but I just get so bored.  I've been accessing Pinterest like a crazy woman trying to find more home workouts that sound appealing.  I have a couple yoga tapes that I do enjoy.  But nothing is jazzercise.  And more than that, I just miss the feeling of community and togetherness that jazz brought.  I love being a part of a group that is encouraging and enthusiastic and generally cares for everyone that steps through those doors.  Can't wait to dance with you all in December :)  But also, if anyone has any workout suggestions, music playlists, creative ideas, I'd love to hear them.  I gotta keep doing something to combat all these carbs!

3. My parents/family: I truly think I miss my parents and family more now than I ever did when I left for college.  Maybe that happens when you grow up a little, or maybe it's because the distance is considerably farther, but regardless, I miss them a lot!  I was reminded yesterday when talking to my mom that I'll miss Halloween and Thanksgiving this year, and that made me pretty sad.  I'll attempt to channel that sadness into doing fun things with the boys though to teach them all about those Holidays, because of course they do not celebrate either of them here.  But, Sophie and Andrea did inform me that there is an American grocery store of sorts in Geneva!  I can't wait to go.  Besides apparently having an entire isle dedicated to Thanksgiving, I bet they also have...

4. Peanut Butter: I walk through convenience store after rest stop after grocery store looking around for one of my favorite foods.  And do you know what I see each time?  M&M's.  Snickers.  Milky Ways.  Other delicious local chocolate.  But not one of these places have Peanut Butter or Reese's.  Which is really a damn shame because of how good some of the baked goods are in France, they would only exceptionally approve with a little dose of peanut butter.  Thankfully, my parents have sent me a package that I can finally pick up at the post office today containing that wonderful substance.  CAN'T WAIT to have a PB&J for lunch!

5. Cindy: For those that don't know, I own a lovely 2012 white Nissan Sentra, named Cindy.  (I guess I only partially own her...she won't be paid off until the very beginning of 2018, but who's counting...).  Besides the fact that she's a great, reliable, gas efficient car, she's also an automatic car.  Something I took for granted, until about a month ago when I started the process of trying to learn how to drive a manual car.  By this point, I can do it.  I can't say yet that I can do it particularly well, but I can get from point A to B.  And boy was even getting this far a struggle.  But please do not put me anywhere near a hill.  (And I hope you are enjoying driving my car, Dad!)

6. My friends: It's an unfortunate realization that I've recently made that the majority of my friends and I will probably never live in the same city again.  While I can make new friends, I don't particularly want to.  But we've all taken different paths and ended up a lot of different places.  And it's wonderful to have places to visit, but it's also sad to think that a lot of friends, both from grade/high school, college, and ASP, I only see a handful of times a year, if that.  Special shout out today to Shawna and Jackie for the once a month letters they wrote me with fun tasks to do each month while I'm here.  I just read the second letter.  Love you both so much, and I will complete the first one this Thursday :)

I think these are all pretty normal things to miss, right?  You can let me know if you think I'm crazy.  Who knows, maybe some of these will even pass.  Or maybe things that I haven't even thought of yet will surface.  Only time will tell.  Until then, please know that so far this journey is wonderful, I am learning new things every day, and I wouldn't trade it.