First day of School (for the kids)

Once again, today was not really spectacular. This morning I woke up and began helping to get the kids ready for their first day of school! Generally, kids can be excited for their first day but that was far from my house this morning. Tears over the fact that they got dumb teachers or didn't have their best friend in class basically sums up the vibes of the day.

Learning the routine of the family is really stressful for me! I think I am just so afraid of making a mistake that I make myself crazy. I am the youngest au pair that my family has had (the others were college grads) so that adds more pressure for me, but I just have to remember that this is nothing that I'm not used to. Breathe, Julia.

Basically my routine for tuesdays is as follows:
Wake up kids, feed them, help get dressed, walk to school at 8
Do my own thing...
Walk back down to school at 3:20 and pick up the two boys.
Snack/Park sometimes
Help with English homework
Play games/read in English
Do some chores if I need to (laundry, dishes..)
Take them to sports if need be
Showers, pajamas around 7pm
Help with dinner or make dinner if Delphine is working

And then I'm on my own time until the next morning.

That is just for Tuesdays. Every weekday is different......Yay.
Wednesdays are half days, so I only get 8:30 to 11 to myself and then I'll be in full on nanny mode for the rest of the day.

The rest of the weekdays consist of different sports/activities for each kid thrown in at different times and then it gets REALLY confusing. But, once again, just one day at a time :)

Let's just say, I can't wait for the weekend!!!!!!

But to end on a happy note, my host mom hosted a coffee gathering for some of the moms of students at their International School this morning and I ended up tagging along. Another au pair went with her host mom so I decided to join her. (I ordered my tea in french, once again. Boom.) Anyways, Hayley is about 2 years older than me and is from London. I love her accent!  She was an au pair in Austria for 6 weeks but had an awful experience. 3 kids in "nappies", as she called them, and not-very-nice parents. I would've died. But she made her getaway to France and loves it here so far. She is so outgoing and funny, I think we are going to be friends! Us au pairs have to stick together. Basically the very few who speak English here and ones who can relate to difficult days.

Then Delphine introduced me to 3 other moms who were actually from Seattle. So cool! They consider themselves coffee snobs and so I cannot really relate but hey, they are a little bit of home. I'll probably never see them again but it was nice to say hi!

Hayley and I talked about how different France was from the UK and how I think its different from the US. We decided that nobody has as much free time as the French. They have 2 hour lunch breaks and can sit in cafes and stare at people. In the UK and America, it's like we never have time to sit and be still for more than 2 minutes. Even then, we're always thinking about something to get done. And the parents actually sat and ate breakfast this morning. That was a weird sight for me. I never see adults eat breakfast before work or school. Like an actual breakfast. Not just a cup of coffee or toast on-the-go. Like an actual breakfast! Sitting at a table. Huh, I can get used to this!