In other news, I have been lagging on my blog updates this week, sorry! So, I will backtrack, beginning with yesterday and going backwards. I had another wonderful afternoon with Stephane and Kate (family friends from Paris/Brussels). Stephane was back in town and his birthday was a couple days ago, so we went to brunch with two of their other friends. We went to Cafe Charbon in the 11th and it was a really cool cafe with such a wonderful atmosphere and delicious food! Not a typical American brunch, but nothing here is what I'm used to, so in French terms it was great! They brought out 3 heaping baskets of baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, raisin rolls, muffins, etc. Then for the main course I had yogurt, salad, a soft boiled egg (which you dip buttered bread in), grilled veggies, mozzarella cheese, salmon, and a fruit cup. It was a ton of food, but all delicious, and it brought my total to four consecutive meals involving fish, and I'm still not sick of it! Stephane also ordered a pitcher of margaritas to celebrate, but when they were brought out, we all raised an eyebrow. Not only were they white, but they were frothy. We determined that they must have been made with lemons instead of limes (they had huge chunks of lemon rind in them) and we think egg whites were added for the frothiness. They were quite interesting, but good nonetheless! A nice walk home along the canal ended the lunch date for me, as I wanted to get home and talk to my brother before his first day of college today!! Later that night I met up with my good friends Ally and Ellie (although she's British so it sounds like Ally and Ally). Ally was on mommy duty ALLL weekend (since Thursday morning) because the parents were in the south of France for a wedding, so we decided she needed to get out of the house for some "adult-time". We met up at our new favorite hangout, a 1920's English speakeasy cafe/bar in the 8th (in the same neighborhood as all the Embassies...talk about businessmen and security!) We decided three weeks was enough time to make us desperately crave an American burger, and this is the perfect place to enjoy one. We splurged, went for the double cheeseburger, all of us (with the convincing of our friend Lauren who is a waitress there) and it was so worth the weeks worth of calories I consumed. It was a little taste of home topped off with a wonderful night with friends. Oh and lucky me, not only are these two girls my closest friends here, but they also live right in the 10th by me, a nice 10 minute walk from my house :)
Saturday was quite the long day for me. I worked in the morning, babysitting Alice and her 5 year old "English speaking" cousin who really didn't speak nor understand any English whatsoever. It was an interesting morning, but not bad by any means. Later that afternoon was Alice's 5th birthday party...oh man. Surrounded by 10 French-speaking, screaming 5 year old girls, I just about ripped my hair out. Luckily I didn't HAVE to be there according to the parents, but I did have to be there in order to be a good nounou (nanny), so I went. Alice is very into playing dress up and just about half of her closet is full of princess outfits, etc. While she desperately wanted a Little Mermaid costume for her birthday, it is impossible to find in Paris, so I settled for a bedazzled pair of wings and matching wand, and lucky me, I won the best present award. Instead of opening it, taking a look, and tossing it aside to open the next present, I actually got an "OOOOHH mommy open!" and she put them on right then and there. GO ME! The day ended with me babysitting yet again, 7:45-midnight while the parents went to the theater...long day.
Friday night was what got me through the week, as we had our "au potluck" planned for that evening. We invited a few of our au pair friends over to Ally's house for a potluck in which everyone had to bring a specialty dish of their country, state, etc. We had girls from Canada, England, Germany, Finland, and Austria. Unfortunately, the food was not as representative as we had hoped. We had Mexican food (from California of course), garlic shrimp from Canada, Lemon cake from Germany, pears poached in red wine from England, and Flan from Austria (although it's technically French). Hopefully the next one will be a little more cultural in terms of food, but it's quite difficult to find many ingredients here (for example, I had to go to an American store to get black beans, which cost 3.50 euro per can!!) However, we did have plenty of wine so all was well.
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| Au Pair Potluck, from left: Sarah (Germany), Katharina (Germany), Sara (Canada), Nadja (Finland), Lauren (England) |
I have been battling a cold all week, but my body finally succumbed, so I felt like crap for the latter part of the week. But, I am back to my normal self now and ready to begin a new week! I'll write back soon, or at least as soon as I do something exciting :)
Oh and I'm going to Poland for my birthday! wooooo!
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