week 13
13 weeks in france!
quick recap
I moved to a small town in the Doubs region of France at the beginning of August to be an au pair. The parents are “E” and “A”, and their daughters are “e” (5) and “a” (3).1
work
au pair
This week I worked Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Thursday and Friday were both full days from 8:30-7:15 on Thursday, and 8:30-6 on Friday. “a” was sick both days and spent lots of time sleeping, so “e” and I just hung out and did lots of different activities (mostly involving unicorns) while she was asleep, and played calmer board games, read, and did some drawing when “a” was awake and feeling a bit better. On Saturday I spent a few hours with the girls midday while their parents went out for brunch. “a” was feeling a bit better, and it was good to see her as her usual, higher energy self.
english teacher
Sine I was in Madrid on Monday and Tuesday, I taught my classes from the academy where I used to work, even though my students were still all online. Nevertheless, it was fun to go into work and see my former (and I guess still current) co-workers in person. On Wednesday night, after a full day of traveling, I had a 1:1 class for an hour that I really wasn’t looking forward to. However, my student had great positive energy and I ended up finishing the class feeling way better than I did when I started :)
free time
On Monday, I went for a run in Retiro before work. During a break in my work schedule, I went to one of my favorite cafés in Madrid called Trama. It’s an Argentinian café that I first discovered about two years ago, just as they opened. It was located on my walk to work from my first apartment in Madrid, and it was (and continues to be) a great third space for me in Madrid. I also went to my favorite running store in Madrid and bought a new pair of sneakers. The owner of the store ran the Boston marathon at the same time I ran the Madrid marathon last year, and it was really nice to share our experiences with our individual marathons.
On Tuesday, I broke in my new sneakers and ran to a smaller park/track where I used to run a lot in my last few months before leaving Madrid, and then got an NYC-style bagel. After work I had a pincho de tortilla for lunch and wandered around the city a bit before meeting my friend and former roommate to get our nails done. Then we met some other friends at an artisan pizza shop for dinner, and after I met up with different friends for drinks. It was a really nice way to end my trip :)
On Sunday afternoon, I went to Geneva. My host family was going there to take the girls to a “Jungle show” and I tagged along for the ride. In Geneva, I met up with a friend and we went for a 10K run along the lake with her dog. It was fun to run with someone and chat, and we talked about signing up to run the Geneva marathon in May together. We’ll see if that actually happens! Before we left for Geneva, “A” told me that “E” went to get a swing set for the girls and we needed to meet him on the way to Geneva. We drove about 30 minutes to meet “E” and help him load the swing set into a trailer, and then we left the car with the trailer in a parking lot off the highway to come back for on our way home. It was a pretty funny and semi-chaotic detour, but I think it will be worth it and the girls will really enjoy their new swing set!
photo dump
I am using initials for the names of my host family members for privacy purposes.
What an interesting week you had! It must’ve been wonderful getting together with your former roommate from Spain & catching up.
Curious, do local parks in Doubs have swings and other fun amusements for children?
The Geneva marathon — were you able to find out about the route to see how hilly or flat it is? I think that sounds fantastic! I hope “e” feels better soon.
I love your photos especially this week of Lac Léman from your 10K.