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
This week, school pickup went really smoothly and “a” didn’t cry at all which was great. I think she’s finally getting used to me, and this week I feel like I bonded more with both girls. We had some sweet moments reading and playing together.
On Thursday night, the parents went out for dinner and I put both girls to bed. They both wanted me to lay with them while they fell asleep, but since I can’t be in two places at once, I ended up putting them both in “e”’s bed, and then transferred “a” to her own once they both had fallen asleep. While this worked really well, I probably shouldn’t make it a habit because they should be used to falling asleep in their own beds.
When I was a kid, I always made my babysitters sit with me for ages while I fell asleep, and now I get my “return bread” (a translated Russian expression meaning I am now on the other side of my previous behavior), which is funny to think about.
free time
during the week
I went for my first trail run on Monday! I just went to the trailhead where I started a hike I did a few weeks ago, and ran a small section of it to test things out. While the trail was muddy and challenging at times, I really enjoyed it and am excited to continue. Unfortunately I didn’t make it out for any other trail runs last week, and it’s supposed to be pretty rainy this week, but I’m hopeful I’ll find a time to go for at least one trail run this week!
On Wednesday, I finished work around 3 and then went to Lausanne to do some bouldering. It was really nice and I’m excited to try to keep going to the climbing gym a few times a month- it’s another sport/hobby I really enjoy :)
This week, I finally had to figure out switching over to a French cell service provider, instead of using my Spanish roaming. It was fairly straightforward to get set up, however I ran into an issue with my French data roaming not working in Switzerland. I had to make a customer service call to the French provider, and it was difficult to use my French to explain the issue, but eventually I got them to understand me and it started working (although at one point the agent thought I was telling her it wasn’t working in Africa, not Switzerland- I have no idea where that misunderstanding came from haha).
over the weekend
On Saturday morning I got up around 7 and drove about an hour into Switzerland to meet my friend Maria (the Spanish au pair I met last weekend), and together we hiked about 15 miles from Corseaux to Cully and then back on a nice loop trail. We walked through lots of vineyards and along many paved paths/roads, rather than through woods. The views were stunning and it was a very enjoyable walk, although it got quite steep at times! Afterwards, we jumped into Lake Léman for a swim, and then went to a Chilean festival for Chile’s independence day in Lausanne. It was cool to speak Spanish and eat Chilean food in Switzerland, and we had a great day!
On Sunday I had a chill morning, and then went to the gym before meeting up with my friend Cassandra (the French girl I met at run club) for a drink at an arcade bar. It was fun catching up with her- we always have interesting conversations comparing different elements of French culture and language to English language/U.S. culture, so it’s a fun cultural and linguistic exchange. The bar had lots of fun games and a trampoline park, so I’d love to go back with “e” and “a”.
photo dump
I am using initials for the names of my host family members for privacy purposes.
What a fantastic week both in your work and your free time!