I got me some friends!

Yes people!  I have friends!  Finally I have met some people that I can actually hang out with, and go on little adventures around Europe with!  Some girls in my French class (which are going.....okay by the way) were talking about where they were from in our break last week.  A couple of them mentioned Utah, which meant for the rest of the lesson I was trying to see if the ring on the finger of one of the girls was a CTR ring.  It was!!! Yay, fellow Mormon Au Pairs!  I cornered her after class and asked if she was a Mormon (think she may have thought I was accusing her of being a Mormon! haha!).  Turns out she's been going to Geneva English Ward, as has the other girl that I thought was LDS in my class.  You know when you meet people that you feel like you know already?  Totally had that with this girl!  Her name is Caitlin, we got along really well, even just for the 10 minute chat we had after class.  I can see a life long friendship in the making!  Excited much?!  Now that both girls know that I'm in Gex Ward they will probably be coming out to Gex to see what it's like.  It would be great if they always came out to Gex!  We would be clueless together!

Jenny (who hooked me up with being an Au Pair out here) offered me a lift to the Geneva Ward with her family last Sunday.  I went with her and got to meet the YSA's (some people said that Gex ward is the ward with all the YSA's though, I can see that now).  It was nice to hear everything in English for a change, and I got to meet Caitlin again! Some people thought we were sisters, just because were both really white with dark hair.  Another Au Pair (Elisabeth) had her parents visiting from the States and an empty house so invited Caitlin and I for dinner.  Which was just so randomly nice!!!  Caitlin and I had a little bonding session in the car on the way to Elisabeth's.  Turns out were both art students and had pretty much the same experience with uni not being right and just wanting to take a year out.  The whole Au Pair abroad thing just landed in her lap too.  She is sooooo nice!!!  We want to do a ton of stuff together (Elisabeth too)!  See the sites that France and Switzerland have to offer and then discover as much of Europe as we can (afford anyway!)...even England for Caitlin (so be prepared mum,  I'm bringing back a friend or two)!  Plus I think they'll be a bunch of film nights happening after long days of screaming kids!

This is moi, Elisabeth and her mum and Caitlin........

Can you tell I am just really over excited to finally have met some people that I can do stuff with?!!  Elisabeth is an art student, as well as her mum having been one.  Talking about so many different forms of art with them all night has restored my faith in the art world!!  Now I am dying to actually get creative again and paint or draw......just do something!!  Shame I didn't bring any art stuff with me...that may lead to another package being sent over...eeek!  We had a great evening though, which went into the wee hours of the morning!  The tiredness hit me today.....siesta!

'The Hero's Journey' (apologies for the side view!).........

I said we talked about so many random things and 'The Hero's Journey' was one of them.  I was educated, haha!  Look it up to find out more!  It's basically how every good story (in films, books and life) is set out.  It works so well, i love it!  Think of 'The Lion King' (keeping it simple for ya!)....

Act 1........Simba becomes an orphan (literally in this case).  He is on his own.

Act 2a......He then meets some friends who teach him new things.  He grows.

Act 3.......He is found by Narla who reminded him of his duty (the 'rug pull' is here).  He goes home to fight for his right to be king.

Act 4.......He has to sacrifices himself to save his kingdom, fighting scar.  He survives and saves the day.  A hero!


Anyway!  The countryside round here is gorgeous!  There are some pictures ave to share from a little morning walk that I did the other day.  It is the best way to start my day!  Need to do it more often.

I was out before the sun had even risen above the trees (and that was after a lie in!).....

 Fields of gold..........

I did not want to leave this beautiful light, but........

....the river was calling me.......

Life in France continues to be rather good to me.  I am checking out a little shopping center tomorrow morning.....maybe a chance to look for some decent snow boots (must be prepared for what's to come apparently!).  Right now however I have a date with 'Downton Abbey'!! I am silly excited about this!! my brother in-law (genius by the way!) has hooked me up with a way to watch BBC i-player and ITV player abroad (remember me being gutted that I couldn't watch either in France?).  Now I get to keep up with the family traditions that have developed of watching any period drama on TV.  The men secretly love it, actually maybe it's not a secret?  Not now anyway!  haha!

Good night! x

The language of love?

I have now been in France for about a month!  I know time fly's!  Whilst being here I have come to the conclusion that people who have not spent time in France think French is the 'language of love'!  Really?  All those harsh tones and slurring of words are meant to be 'lovely?  It beats me!

I had my first French lesson on Monday morning!!  My first French lesson in France anyway, we''ll ignore the disastrous past lessons from school.  Although I haven't decided yet if these ones will end up going down the same road.  I'm told that the best way to learn a language is to live in the country of the language you wish to learn, so that said (along with the fat cut out of my pay every week) these lesson better work their magic.

The lesson it's self was.......interesting?  I hadn't prepared myself my the whole lesson to be in French!  Sounds silly I know!  I'm in France, in a French lesson, what did I expect?  I was thinking that the teacher would say something in English then in French, us students would repeat it and we would all know what was going on!   However the teacher spoke the entire time in French. Speaking to you as if you are already fluent.  It's their method?  Plus with a mixture of people from different country's in one class it supposedly leaves out any confusion.....other than the fact that I had no idea what word meant what?!

The lesson ended up going somewhat like this.....the teacher talks to you in French, expecting a reply...i stare blankly...she gives me an example of what she expects, 'Je Suis Fancaise'...i say 'Je suis Anglaise?', after a looooong pause.  Apparently what I said is all good, and that's the first 20 minutes of the lesson done.  Thus the lesson continues in answers of guessing with questioning looks.  It's hard to learn that way because you end up only understanding the gist of a sentence, not what each word means.

When (or if) I speak to anyone outside the class room in French, that person is gonna have to to know the exact dialogue that I have learned, if they say one word different I'll be lost!..............

Bonjour!

Bonjour!

Ca va?

Oui, ca va!

Comment tu t'appelle? 

J'm'appelle abbie

Quelle est ta nationalte?

Je suis Anglaise.  Et vous? (If I were talking to someone else besides myself I would be polite and ask them the same thing)

Ou habitez vous?

J' habite Echenevex.

Quelle est ta profession?

Je suis Au Pair.

Au Revour!

Au Revour!

I'll sound like a robot!  at least i did learn something!  Let's hope Thursday's lesson inst too different to Monday's.

I did feel like a child repeating what the class CD player was saying though.  The whole class taking it in turns to pronounce a letter of the alphabet and counting up to 20 (the counting I've got down!) was odd.  I am defiantly the last one to understand things though!  Even when the girl next to me try's to explain something in English, I have to just nod after the 10th time and pretend I understand completely, It's lost on me! Okay!  So maybe the lesson wasn't THAT bad the WHOLE time, but it certainty felt like that every 10 minutes.  I will prosper!!! Eventually!

there about 11 people on my class, and most of them were Au Pairs from the U.S. or Something like Russia.  There was an English girl from Manchester...who when I said I was from Surrey gave that knowing 'your from the south' look!  Haha!  She did then tell me she was hoping to loose her accent while she's here, like it was an apology for being northern!  I thought that was funny.  She was nice though, the one who tried to help me understand.

I really really hope that I can get to grips with what goes on in the lessons though....I don't want to start dreading them!  I really ought to get a French/English dictionary, but we do get text books in Thursday's lesson, so that may help things.  I will be practicing my ABC's till then!

Saulte!!

Voltaire voltair and alien antenna

I finally got out of the house today!  It doesn't usually bother me to stay at home, but when i left the house for church this morning i realized how good it was to break free!!!  After yesterday i needed to get out of the house.  Think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.....actually maybe it was more that my face woke up on the wrong pillow!  Not my soft squishy one, but my journal, having fallen asleep writing the night before.  I was doing everything half halfheartedly yesterday basically, plus baby sitting in the evening.  It's a good job the family have an amazing DVD collection to occupy me when a storm is raging outside!

The DVD wall............

There really was a storm raging outside all though the night and morning!  The wind was strong enough to lift the trampoline clean over the garden hedge and across to a plot of land on the other side of the road.  I reckon it's broken now.  The storm meant that the sun had decided after 4 weeks of constant shinning it would give my squinting eyes a break!!!  I've been missing some good English weather, which means hoodies, socks and a first outing for my coat!

I didn't have to sit in morbid silence as i understood nothing of what was being said in Sunday school today!! Yay!!!! Firstly, because there was no YSA Sunday school, so we joined the grown ups.  Secondly, because I got to wear a pair of fetching headphones (along with a couple of other English speaking people) while somebody translated the lesson into English through a microphone which fed into the headphones.  Snazzy huh!?  I know!

The alien antenna........

Of course i looked and felt like an idiot wearing the stupid thing...people looking at you like your mentally deranged is not good for your ego.  I got to understand sacrament meeting too the same way though....it's a good incentive to make me try REALLY hard in my French lessons, which start tomorrow.  I think it's my worst nightmare come true doing these French lessons.  Ever so slightly petrified is how I would describe the feeling that takes me over when I remember that i am signed up to learn French!!!!  Can I strike off No.49 'Do something that scares me' when I've taken a few?  Ah the Greta 'French test' from Monday.....A women spoke to me in French when I arrived to sign in, she saw the look of complete and utter confusion on my face as she spoke and said to skip the test.  I knew taking the test was going to be pointless!  So as I said, I am in the bottom 'beginner's' class.  It's two two hour sessions a week (Monday and Thursday mornings for me). Good luck to me with that!

Onto the little adventure of today then!  A fellow Au pair from Gex ward took me with her to visit the little town of Ferney Voltaire.  This weekend is some kind of celebration, so all the museums and gallery's are open with free admission.  Perfect for keeping the sabbath day holy! HA!  We walked around the town a little to see some points of interest, learning more about the town's founder and famous philosopher Ferney Voltaire!  Who really feels the need to name a town after themselves?!

The two statues....

The sunday market (which is of a far better class than one you would find in the car park of Asda)....

The local church......

A war memorial........

The memorial has something to do with some children getting taking away in the night from all over France?  There was another one inside the chapel too, so there has to be more to it than that.  Sounds a bit too much like the 'Pied Piper' to me though too.  However I we'll endeavor to find out the full story so that i can enlighten you all, and not think that the French base their history's on fairy tales.

Chateau De Voltaire........

And his privet chapel..........

The special commissioned painting........

This painting was the most interesting aspect of Voltaire's house, and i think it says a lot about him.  We learned (form a french girl who was obviously not comfortable speaking English, but she did a good job!) that Voltaire had this painting done as a portrait of himself in a way.  It's based on the Greek Mythology in Rome.  He is depicted as the old man in the middle with two heads as a mortal with his 'Muse', being given a crown by Apollo to make him immortal, a God.  To the right of him and towards the back his bust is being made to be put in line with the other great masters of philosophy, outside the memorial temple.  His enemy's are to the front left and his friends to the front right, being protected by somebody from the evil of the world. So all in all I got the impression that he wanted to be remembered, but not just by his family and friends, by everyone as a master of philosophy.

The sun came out after, so we could take int he grounds.........

However these bugs were EVERYWHERE..........

And finally the view from the front of the house of the garden and the alps (when its a clear day)......

Now I have sussed out this town it's on to the next one!  Don't know what one, but I'll find one!

I'll fill you in after the dreaded French lesson tomorrow!!! Eeeekkkkkk!

It really is all about the weekend

This week has been pretty uneventful!! But ill give you all the boring details anyway as promised!

I got a new mobile phone!! I needed something so that people can get hold of me out here, and for me to make contact with THE FRENCH! Hold the excitement though...it's a classic old school Nokia! A couple of upgrades from the amazing 3310 that lasted for years, but a big fat down grade from the i-phone. I basically went to the supermarket on Monday and bought the cheapest phone they had on pay as you go....classy huh!

Something that was classy this week was going to a sushi restaurant for lunch on Tuesday! Some people may know that i have this list of 100 things to do before I'm 30. At No.42 is 'eat sushi in a sushi restaurant'. I was absolutely THRILLED when Aurellie suggested that we go to this little sushi place in Ferney Voltaire for lunch (after a dragged out morning of waiting at the doctors for the babies check ups). I am very happy to say that the food was delicious!!!!!

I really do loooooove sushi..........

However the next day i woke up at 5am with a headache that made my head spin and needing to puke!!! i wont hold back from the gory details of it all!! Ever had that need to be sick, and know that if you could just puke then you would feel better? Well for about 6 hours i was lying on the cold bathroom floor knowing that all would fine if i could just puke. Eventually after no sign of the sushi resurfacing i moved back to the bed. For the rest of that day and the following i took a ton of drugs and drank my weight in sparkling water and herbal tea. It better have not been the sushi that made me feel that way...because i am not giving up my love for the raw fish just yet.

The rest of the week was pretty mundane. The sun has been scorching! I hide in the house as soon as the temperature creeps above 23 degrees. Can you believe that i am already reading my 6th book since i got here!? I read to the babies to chill them out. It usually makes them fall asleep, which is great! Plus i do love reading so it's a win win situation for me, haha! I have also been doing some uni research this week. I know I'm supposed to be getting away from all that while I'm here, but i figured i needed to get prepared. I have ordered about 50 uni prospectuses from Aberdeen to Brighton. When i get home at Christmas I'll have to sift through them all and decide if that is the road to go down.

I signed up to the Greta school of language in Ferney Voltaire to do a year long course in French language, which does petrify me just a bit!! I was terrible at school, and tomorrow i have to go in for a test to see just how bad i am so they can assign me to a class of my level. The very bottom level!

Onto the weekend!!! It was far more interesting because of this riding through town......

A mini Tour De France, right? haha! A riding tour of the town Gex actually, and it's surrounding areas. It happens every year i think. All the local teams (team cars and photographers on motor bikes too, like the tour) ride around Gex, for two days it would seem as they went past the house this afternoon again. The start line is down the road. I could hear the commentators talking on their speaker phones from the house...really really close!

The rambling start......

I was in the back garden with the girls and Aurelie when the first load of sponsor cars passed by, throwing gifts to the girls as they did. We hung around watching the riders do practice runs of the course, i guess, whilst picking tomatoes in the garden.

They literally rode past the back of the house......

Yet again going to church was great this week!! I think i must just get ridiculously excited to leave the house by Sunday, without the kids in tow. It would explain the Sunday high i have! The ward just gets nicer and nicer! The lovely lady from last week was able to translate Relief Society for me today. Which meant i didn't have that weary feeling already by the time YSA Sunday school came around. However...i did after that second hour! I thought i was going to have to awkwardly sit by myself in Sacrament when a lady in front of me turned around to ask if i was English as she had noticed that somebody had been translating to me in Relief Society. She preceded to tell me that her husband didn't speak french so did i want to sit with them so she could translate to us both? Heck yes!!!! So she kicked her 'first week back RM' brother off his chair for me to take his place. Later we chatted and i learned that Lucy (that's her name) and her husband and just moved here this week from England. No they are not English. Her family are all in the Gex ward, she is half French and half Switzerlandish (i have no idea what the real name is for that...you know what i mean though). She moved to England 8 years ago to learn English, and loved it so much she just didn't move back home. her husband is from South Africa. He did the same thing as her, moving to England, brushing up on the English, loved it so stayed, got converted to the church while he was there (yes i did get their whoooole back ground story...they could speak a language that i understood, so i stuck with them!). They met at the classic Britannia Ward in London and got married last year. As you can tell from all the detail i am giving you i am very excited to have some more new friends to talk to each week! She'll even translate for me again next week!

After church their was a big much and mingle, i guess you would call it. This meant that i had the awkward 'sit down at the YSA table to say hi to everyone moment, followed by me eating in silence as they all have a good chat. In French.'. okay so it wasn't that bad really! A couple of the girls said hi to me and then Lucy saved me by coming over to eat at the same table. I got a lift home with one of the family's I mentioned last week. They are Italian, apparently i will also be learning that language too while I'm here!

Cho!

P.S. I shall let you know how the 'French test' goes! haha....it will be abismel!

A little haven in Gex

Gex is my new favorite place!  Not only can I actually pronounce and spell the word, but it’s only 5 minutes from Echenevex (which is where I reside) and there is an amazing ward there!!!!!

I am so glad that the church is incredibly organized.  So much so that wherever you go in the world to attend church, it will always be the same.  The same lessons being taught in the same format.  The same songs get sung, just in another language perhaps.  People with the same beliefs and morals are there.  People who are willing to help a complete stranger and welcome them in with open arms.

Jenny, who set me up with the job here, set me up with a lift to church.  This young couple (Sarah and her husband) picked me up and took me to church.  Sarah introduced me to the Relief Society president (she is already getting me on the visiting teaching list), who introduced me to her lovely sister (kind of reminded me of my mum).  She had just come back from being on holiday in England with her husband.  Miss Jane Austen provided us with something great to bond over!  She then translated the opening exercises to me (as I am in a French speaking ward, I’ve taken the plunge guys!) before she had to go.  Then I was left to my own devises!  After three hours of listening to French and trying to take in what’s being said you can develop a bit of a headache!

After the Y.S.A. Sunday school (yes the ward is big enough to have their own Y.S.A. Sunday school!  About 120 people attend every week, a lot of them work for the church somewhere in the area, so that’s why there’s such a good sized ward there.) I got introduced to some fellow Y.S.A. to sort out institute, which is held in Geneva, starting in a couple of weeks.  It sounds tricky to get to, so I’m going to beg for a lift from anyone!!!!  Apparently there are a few other English speaking Au Pair’s that attend Geneva ward, because its English speaking, but one is close to me…possible lift me thinks!

Most people in the ward speak English really well, so that was good for getting to know people.  Everyone is really nice though!  Never had so many people be so nice and welcoming to me when I’ve gone somewhere new.  One of the Y.S.A.’s who I chatted to for a while, and sat with me in sacrament, already invited me to go out next week for his birthday gathering with a bunch of the Y.S.A.’s.  The Y.S.A. rep (he’s from Canada, French side I’m guessing) was great in setting me up with what’s going on and when.  Even one of the missionaries, who tuned out to be American, talked to me for a bit, telling me that ‘yeah the first couple of months will be really hard with the language barrier, but it will get better and just suddenly click!’  Even went as far as to give me the missionary number so that I could ring them if I had any trouble with the language or anything.  Well nice huh?!  Made me feel better about that!  But what is it with girls being the last people to get to know you when you go somewhere new?  Points go to the guys for being so nice today!

I now have a bunch of numbers and e-mail addresses so I can keep in contact with people.  Looks like I will be able to be a real part of the ward while I’m here. 

Sarah (who drove me) introduced me to a couple of family’s who will be able to give me lifts to church every week.  Fantastic!!  One family lives across the road from me and the other drives through Echenevex to get to church every week.  Both lovely family’s, with girls who are in Young Women’s…one of them even came out with ‘you have really beautiful eyes’ when I was talking to her mum!  Love her already!

A great start to church in France!

Amen!