no' mandy

went to Normandy this weekend, just over night Saturday and Sunday.
Dueville but the spelling is wrong.
the kids and I got our own room.
If you know Oregon beaches than you know what I am used to and this was very very different from any other beach. I am used to wind so strong it will dry your hair in a minute but yet leaves this sticky salty touch to it... this however was calm and well it was mostly the town. We stayed in a hotel where every time I saw someone who worked there they said "bonjour madame". - i totally went gypsy and took a few bottles of Ermes perfume from the room cleaners cart along with loiton and shampoo.
Saturday night nathalie and marc went out to dinner with another couple - the wife is crazy and nathalie couldnt handle to be around her after that; she thinks her husband is out to kill her... i met him, hes really nice, he told nathalie I am amazing with their children! 100 points for him.
I got to have room service for dinner to my room after solal went to bed. my little cherib and i watched walace and gromit Curse of the Wearrabbit (16 EUROS..... "oops"). Nathalie and Marc said i can have their bottle of champiagne also. oh and i enjoyed it very much. nataniel was in the kids club the whole time so i didnt see him much. just me and my cherib.
Solal and i swam in the pool sunday morning. wow with a baby its so much fun.
it was a nice trip but i would perfer to just have solal without nathalie there cause she can be a little bossy and demanding to me and it starts to bud me after a couple of hours.
we are going again in may for 5 days. i was cracking by the time we were about to leave so i dont know how those 5 days will go. i am going to have to lay some ground rules when that time comes to nathalie.
solal has razors for nails and he will get in Kung Fu Panda mode (i curse this moive for being made as he now likes to mimic it and guess who gets hurt?). well he will hit me and then i will look at him and say no, please dont do that and he goes to nathalie and cries and says "annie clack" and for some reason after this has happend many times she still askes me "annie did you hit solal" - and i say through biting teath "no nathalie he hit me". after this weekend if this happens again i am going to bring this to her attention.
nathalie is delightful except sometimes there is this side of her that is just not logical or something. solal is spoiled and nataniel and i get the blame for everything he does.
anyway i ate very well this weekend. however i think my belly is not use to so much sea food (fruit de la mer) and well... upon arrival i was very sick and took a rose tea bath and nathalie brought me some tea.

grrrreat news;
1. I GOT MY CARTE DE SEJOUR!
this has been 7 months of hell getting this little shit and finally i can say i am legal here and can also leave the borders of france.
2. I will be going to India in July and then Greece in Agust. possibly return after this. i was planning on staying till december but i dont think i can au pair it for that long. we will see. but yes the plan is set for India and Greece.


LOVE
love
love

Oh-lay!

This is a much needed post as I have not for a long time and now see that people are confunded as to what my future plans are! Well there have been a few weeks that I have been planning to go to India for the month of august. I was absolutly sure I was going to go with my friend Mariam but now she is saying she wants to go in July which I cannot do as I am going to the south of France with the family and my lady jules may visit. So now I am in the middle.
Maybe I will go to Greece and some other places butmy lady Caitlin made a few good points of why I should go to India. I also think it would be an amazing place to go after this expierence here.
I am very spoiled with the family. However I am a little bit nervous to go that I will come back and my image of the family may get ruined... The way they spend money is sort of sickening... (I hope they never read that). I love them so much and I dont want to come back and not be able to stay with them for that reason. No that reason is not going to stop me from going to India though. I am not sure why I am hesitant now.... I am not nervous...
I am going to talk with my friend Mariam some more about it and maybe my enthousiasim will come back for it.
As of now I would like to continue in France till december and come back home to apply for a school in New Mexico for Anthropology. Leaving this summer feels premature for me to fully learn french and I have come so far and am doing really well with it. I anticipate that by the time I leave I will be pretty fluent! I hope so. For me its a slow process as I speek english with quite a few poeple and the children.
I had a dream the other night that I was trying to get home and going on all sorts of air planes and showing the poeple next to me pictures of my portland family and talking about how cool they are. So even my subconcious misses you all.
I want to see my Preston Jermiah so bad and I have been saving all sorts of things to bring home to him. I will only speek to him in French. I am so excited and anxcious to meet that little squirt.

The sun has come out here and we have been having many beautiful sunny days. Today was amazing. Nataniel (the nine year old) slept with me last night (i love this, he is like the little sibling I never had, not going to replace my nickie poo. never ever) and we watched The Neverending Story. I explained to him that this is a classic that most kids my age know about from childhood. Nick bought this for me for my birthday a few years back and it has come in handy very well since I have been here. Next I will show him Labrynth, The Dark Crystal, Spirited Away - and his others.
The Neverending Story made Nataniel more appreciative of the graffics they now have in movies.
So he and I woke up at 9 this morning.
I went on a beautiful run by the Siene as we live right next to it. Then I got ready and met my friend Christos to go to this Antiqueties market that is on an island right next to where I live. Here are some photos.
Ok so thats the only one I got of the stuff. If you know me, you know that I am in heaven when I come to these sorts of places. Call it junk but I call it treasure. They had old things from Napolean I, II, and III. My friend Christos explained to me a lot of the history in the objects as he knew french history very well. I like how they displayed the boxes. I bought a necklace there. I think it goes on for another month and I many have to return and spend a whole day there just staring at each object.

YUM. you get the whole leg! they dont show the truth like that in America.

So then I went back home cause my family was having people over for the thing they call Guttee... thats not how you spell it but its the "snack" between lunch and dinner. Its mostly cake, sweets and tea. I ate a lot of goodness. The kids and I all played outside in their lovely garden and I got bugs thrown at me till I was able to convince them to play cache chache - hide and go seek.



So now I think that traveling should be a career and thats what I should study. I shall travel for the rest of my life! Facepaint children in parks to be able to buy bread and water. No.
So anyway we will see....
I just got off the phone with Mariam and maybe the plan is that I will go to India for the last few weeks in July and then come back and go to Greece for the rest of august... ok I will post again when plans become solid.
OH ITS GREAT BEING YOUNG!!!!!!!

Oh I started pilates and some other classes that are like work out classes. It feels great. My tummy is hard as a rock!
Natalie gave me her Emiliou Pucci bag! And she let me use her Yves Saint Luarent bag today - apperently it was THE bag to have 2 years ago!
I want a pair of glasses from Robert Cavalli that are 300 euros.
Paris is killing me. Dont worry I wont buy them. But these brands and things are such a joke because you can be in style but it doesnt mean you look good and the only people who know you are "in style" have to know what the "style" is. I knew all this before I came here but there is something hilarious about Dior, Pucci... burberry... YVS. Just the names get attention or something. Everyone wears brands here.
I think I need to go to India.

ramble ramble ramble.

i love you all

Jasmine I check everyday for new blogs from you. No pressure...

OH yes also Nataniel and I started a garden in their backyard! We are going to plant vegies and flures! I am so excited.
Do you have any good tips?
M & D are coming in a month! They can check out our progress and tell me what I should do for my plot of land.

Send me photos and any love to my email!

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