Disney!

One of the benefits of working as an au pair is the fun things you get to do with the kids.  I worked for almost two weeks before I left, and the children weren't in school yet, so I spent a lot of time preparing for the new school year and hanging out with them.  I got their school books, ran errands, helped the mother shop for new shoes/clothes, etc. 

The highlight of this time, though, was definitely taking two of them to Disney last Monday!  I took the 14 year old and 10 year old there because they had season pass type things that they wanted to use again before starting school.  It was sort of rainy and the day the younger kids all start school, so the lines were amazingly short.  Normally you can wait over two hours to ride some of the roller coasters, but we never had to wait more than a half hour.  It was awesome!

EuroDisney is really just like the American Disney places: the rides have the same names, they have similar kinds of shops, and overall it's the same kind of vibe.  It's smaller though, and doesn't have as many attractions.

I hadn't been to any Disney place in many years, and I had a blast there.  I love roller coasters and for the most part the kids were fine because they wanted to do the rides in peace.

However.  These two kids do NOT get along.  It started out okay, but by the end of the day they were both super tired and upset at each other - J, the 10 year old, was in tears and wouldn't speak to his sister or even me for a while.  Both felt like we had done more rides for the other kid, and they generally disagreed on what rides to visit and in what order.  I was able to maintain the peace for the most part but the last couple were really no fun at all.

I'm hoping that once school starts and they're not constantly around each other anymore things will be better between them.  They're both really great kids and I like spending time with them individually but they're somewhat of a nightmare together!

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I'm trying to think of other news on the Paris front but am not coming up with much.

Obviously I was (finally!) able to move everything into my new apartment, and I'm completely installed there now.  I was even getting used to the 6 flights of stairs before I left.  The area is pretty much the same as where I lived before, just about a 10 minute walk away.  I now have a bigger, slightly closer market, but I'm not sure the products are as high quality as my other market. 

There are more students around this immediate area which is fun and sort of interesting.  Although it's generally a livelier neighborhood I don't hear nearly as much noise as in the other apartment - over there it was not unusual to hear people being loud until 5am, even on week nights.  That kept me up a LOT.  This is much more peaceful and quiet, probably because I live in the attic.

This is a much bigger building, almost an apartment complex, and I see my neighbors much more.  I'm hoping I can find some nice ones to ask questions: I still don't even know the code to one of the outside doors (there are two) or where I'm supposed to put the trash! 

I'm still settling into the whole au pair schedule and lifestyle, so I'm not sure anything exciting will be happening anytime soon.  I'll report as I can from my phone!  I hope you're all well, and to whoever I saw while I was here: I was glad to see you all and keep checking in here!  I haven't left forever, I promise, but it's difficult to blog from a phone.