Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everybody! Can you believe it's 2012? because I sure can't! 2011 passed by so fast and looking back it was filled with lots of good memories and sad ones too. So much happened and so much changed that who knows what 2012 has in store for me, but hopefully it'll get better!

What I thought would be a quiet night, turned out to be a great night and I couldn't be happier! There's a group on Facebook for au pairs and there was a couple of girls organizing to meet up and go to the Eiffel Tower to celebrate. To get to the Eiffel Tower I had to take the metro for the 1st time all by myself (yes I'm a big girl now) and well of course I ended up getting lost!

I thought I would be fine and figured it was simple enough. On my way there I was being thankful for my years in Montreal taking the metro to go downtown since it made me metro-savy...or so I thought. Apparently the Parisian metro is much more complicated than I thought. I mean the whole concept is easy, same like Montreal but it has a lot more lines, a lot more stops to change lines but the most confusing part is the underground hallway to get to the metro lines. That's what messed me up! I felt like I was trapped in a labyrinth, I kept going up and down stairs and turning to different tunnels following the signs and trying to follow the crowd since they all seemed to be going to the same place.
After 20 min of getting lost because I misread the direction of the metro, I finally managed to get to the stop I was meeting the other au pairs at (of course I got lost a few times more trying to find the next metro line I needed to take hehe).

We all walked together to the eiffel tower but to our disappointment there was nothing to do. There's usually fireworks at midnight but of course the one year that I'm in Paris they decide to not have them, go figure. So we stayed a bit and walked around trying to find a good spot that wasn't too packed with people (it felt like all of Paris was at that same spot). The tower was so beautiful! I couldn't believe I was looking at it, it looked so magical, it made me feel so lucky to be here.

After 2 hours of just walking around and waiting for other au pairs, we decided to go to St. Michel to go to a bar since there wasn't much to do at the Eiffel Tower but than to look at it. After waiting for the RER (it's like a train) and walking some more (my boots where soaked, completely soaked by the time I got to the bar) we finally found a bar in the street called "Rue Mouffetard" close to the Pantheon. It was such a cute street! I loved it and it was perfect because it was full of young people since it's a student area. We went to the "The fifth bar" which was a really small bar and at first I thought we weren't going to have much fun in there but oh I was wrong.

2012 greeted us with french boys (random ones) saying bonne annee! and giving us kisses on the cheek. Then we all started dancing and screaming and just having fun. We were in the basement of the bar and everybody just started to get together and started dancing and just enjoying themselves.I'm so glad we had fun and that it wasn't boring because I find that New Years can be pretty disappointing. You make plans for so long and you have high expectations, but then the plan doesn't work, people don't agree with what to do, it's not fun etc etc. But this was the opposite and we didn't even plan anything. So next year I'm just going to go with the flow and let life take me where I'm supposed to be to start the new year.

One of the funniest (but kinda scary if you where that person) thing that happened to us is that we were all dancing away and having fun when we hear a loud pound on what seemed to be a door. Me and 2 other girls where a bit confused and wondered where it came from. It was a really loud bang so it didn't seem normal. We followed the sound and found out it was coming from the boys bathroom. We thought people might be doing the dirty, a loud dirty lol. So we just asked if the person was okay, and we got another loud bang on the door followed by even more louder and desperate bangs. This time we knew something was up and realized that the person was stuck in the toilet! There was no door nob! So we shouted to the person to wait and that we were going to go find someone to open the door. To make a long story short, after 10 min. and continuously loud bangs (I don't think the person could hear us at the beginning that we were trying to open it) the person was set free. The girls and I were curious to see who it was, wondering if it was two people doing naughty things who got stuck in the toilet (wouldn't that be funny), but guess who it was? An old man! Well not that old, but he was in his 40's. He was all sweaty and he looked so frightened and kept saying thank you to us. We gave him a big hug because we felt bad, and he just kept saying thank you, you're so nice and blowing us kisses (not the creepy kind, the one people do with their hands to show gratefulness hehe).

Then after a few more hours of partying the whole group decided to head to another bar since that one was getting too crowded (and it was so so small!) but I went home (I still have a 3 am curfew even though I'm in Paris, I need to figure a way around it!).

Well, I hope everybody's new year started great, it gives you a bit of a boost and hope that this new year will be full of good moments.

French Showers

So I finally arrived to Paris yesterday! I can't believe I'm actually here, it feels so weird. I woke up this morning and looked out my window and couldn't believe I was waking up to this city. Well technically I'm not in Paris but I am in a suburb that is right across the peripherique so it's super close.
I arrived yesterday around 11:30 am even though my flight was supposed to have arrived at 8:30 am. There was a 3 hour delay in my flight, it was supposed to leave at 7:55pm but it ended up taking off around 11:30 almost midnight. But alas I am here safe and sound.
I'm happy with my family, the mom is super nice and sweet and the kids are really cute, they seem to like me.
There's not much to tell since I didn't do much yesterday, except that I found out that I will not be taking a very comfortable shower for the 7 months I'll be staying in. The shower is so inconvenient! I don't know why they make them like that, maybe it's why people say that french people don't take showers so often (I know it's such a big stereotype).
The shower doesn't have a curtain, it just has this glass that is next to the shower head, it doesn't even cover the whole shower so water can easily fall out of the shower. Then there's the shower head it is not attached to the wall. It's those types of shower that has a handle, but the spot where you can place the shower isn't on the wall so it sprays the water all over your body, no I have to hold the handle and put it on top of my head! It was so hard to take a shower! I had to put down the shower head put some shampoo on, and then get the shower head again and hold it over my head with one hand and then rinse my hair with the other. Then I had to do the same for my conditioner and body. It was also annoying because I got cold in-between those moments where I put the shower head down to shampoo my hair and so on. Plus I felt really exposed since the shower felt so open.
I'm probably going to have to figure out a system on how to properly take a shower and take short showers since I don't want to get so cold!

Anyways I'm gonna go take a nap,I am so exhausted even though it's just 2 pm here. Last night I went to bed at 8 pm! I cannot remember when was the last time I went to bed so early, probably when I was in elementary. But I woke up 2 times in the middle of the night, full of energy lol. I need to rest now so I don't start passing out again when we go to the champs elysees later on to see all the pretty lights they decorate the champs in.

Money, money, money

Wow, I never realized how much money this trip would actually cost me. One of the reasons why I decided to be an au pair was because I thought it would be the cheapest way to get to live in a new country and travel. Okay, maybe it still is since I don't have to pay for food or rent, but I never really realized how many other expenses I would have, and these expenses are just to GET there...imagine how much more I'm going to spend once I'm there?

I think I'm going to make a special page on this blog for au pairs (or whoever is thinking of becoming an au pair) where I'm going to write down all the expenses I've had so far, just so they can take all this into consideration before they take their decision of becoming an au pair. I wish I could've found a site before that could tell me how much it was going to cost me to do all the paperwork and stuff, so I could've maybe saved up for that.
I will do that page as soon as I figure out how to do it hehe.

Besides that, I've been making a list of the essentials I need to bring to Paris, I think this will help me when I pack. But there's so many (okay maybe not that many, a few) things that I need to buy before I leave. They're small things like power adaptors, a new toothbrush, face wash etc, but the money starts accumulating.
Wow I sound so cheap! It's not that I'm cheap, in fact my dad always tell me "You have an expensive taste", it's just that I've been money conscious since I don't want my parents spending too much money on my trip and well I want to save my money for once I'm there. Also my dollars don't buy too many euros. For example, if I want 200 euros I need to take out 280 dollars! So therefore I want to spend my money wisely since I know it won't buy me much once I'm there (sad face).

Anyways, I have to go pack (yes I have been procrastinating telling myself "Oh you can do it tomorrow, you have time!") and get it over with. Even if this rainy weather is making me want to stay in bed and watch movies all day long.

Visa...check!

So my visa arrived yesterday thank God! I'm so happy that it only took ONE week, yes ladies and gentlemen one week compared to the 7 weeks I waited for the au pair contract,which personally I think requires less work than processing a visa. I mean the contract was the simplest thing ever and the stamp wasn't even clear enough! But that doesn't matter anymore because I'M GOING TO PARIS!!
Wow, I can't believe this is actually happening! I have my host family, my ticket, my visa all I need now is to pack and I'm ready to go!

Today I kinda had a small panic attack about me going, well it was more like me telling myself" What are you doing?!You're going to go crazy watching kids 5 times a week!". I actually started having second thoughts, I started doubting my patience for kids (I love kids, but well we all know how energy-draining they can get!) and wondering if I would even survive that long. But don't worry I'm going through with it, it's too late to back out now, besides I know it's normal to have those second thoughts/worries.

I actually can't wait to see the kids, they look so cute in pictures and the mom keeps telling me how they're always talking about me, which makes me want to see them even more.
One thing I am not excited about leaving, and that I am dreading, is packing, oh how I hate packing. I also hate 2 other things that come with packing: the feeling you get when you think you forgot something and can't stop thinking about it the whole trip & unpacking.
Urgh unpacking, I get so lazy just thinking about it. I'm not joking, every time I come back from a trip my luggage remains untouched for like a week. It just lays in my room and I know I only have to take the clothes out and put them away, but for some reason I get too lazy to do it. I eventually do it either because the luggage is taking up too much space in my room or because my mom has started nagging me about putting it away.

Worst part of all of this is that these 2 weeks are going to be FULL of packing and unpacking. On friday we're moving to our new house so we have to pack everything that's in the apartment (I should already have started packing but obviously I have procrastinated). Then we have to unpack our clothes PLUS all of the boxes that were in storage for 4 months.
Then I have to pack 7 months worth of clothes for Paris and I have no idea how to do that. I did a terrible job at packing for 4 months (from Canada to Texas) since I didn't wear half the stuff and I didn't bring enough "light" sweaters" making me wear the same 2 sweaters all the time when it got cold. To my defense I really thought it was going to be hot all the time, but it actually got quite chilly.
Then I have to pack for Houston (we're spending Christmas over there) and then once I'm back from Houston I have to unpack and then I have to unpack once again when I'm in Paris.

Packing is some kind of science, no really. I mean everybody says "Pack half as much clothing as you think you'll need..." but I'm going to Paris! One of the world's fashion capitals! I don't want to be wearing the same things over and over again. I mean I get it I will have to because I can't bring my whole closet with me (if only I could) but I mean I already got tired of not having a lot of variety of clothing here in Texas and it's only been 4 months, imagine 7? I know I can always buy stuff there, but I'm expecting myself to be poor since that's what every au pair seems to say. Besides I want to spend my money on traveling.
Also I think it's going to be hard to pack for Paris because I need to bring clothes for 2 different kinds of weathers hot and cold. It's going to be cold maybe like half the time I'm there, but the other half is going to be summer! So I have to find the perfect balance.
Then there's the fact of the weight limit, stupid weight limit! This means I can't stuff my luggage until it's about to explode. So even if I don't bring a lot of clothes, I can't bring a lot of heavy stuff ( I was thinking on bringing body lotions, shampoos etc. so I wouldn't have to spend on that over there, I figured it'd be cheaper here in the States). I also want to bring some picture frames for those moments where I'll feel home sick, but 1-they take up space 2-they weight more than clothes.

I think it's going to take me a week to pack for Paris. I'm sure there's a strategy for packing, and I am determined to find it! I will let you know how it goes and share my strategy with you (if I manage to find one). It's probably going to involve a lot of planning and taking out all my clothes to see what comes and what doesn't (not that it'll be a problem since I already have to put everything into my new closet either way). And I got a secret weapon....my dad. My dad is so good at packing and making things fit. I have no idea how he does it, but he manages to find a way to make everything fit. I can pack and unpack and pack and unpack as many times as I can't trying different ways of putting everything in and I will still not manage to get everything to fit, but my dad does.

Well it's late, I'm off to bed. One last thing... Countdown: 15 days!

Flight...check!

SO I finally made a decision after what seemed to be forever! Wow, I know I'm terrible at making decisions but I never thought it would take me so long to decide on something so simple like this! When I finally told my dad my decision about going to Montreal for the summer (and therefore I would have to arrive to Montreal before going to Paris to have a round-trip from Montreal-Paris), I thought the rest would be a piece of cake, that we only needed to select the flights and that's it. I was so wrong.

I am not joking, I think it took us 2 HOURS to pick a flight! I never thought booking your flight would be so complicated! I don't know if it was because of my indecisiveness or because my dad just likes to make things complicated (he would probably argue against this comment, but I assure you my dad likes doing things in a specific way). In the end, we ended up buying 3 separate flights! (now you can see it got complicated huh?) I'll try to just briefly tell you how we ended up buying 3 separate flights, but short-story telling has never been my forte....

Since my dad travels a lot for his work ( when we lived in Montreal, here not so much, but he's starting to travel more now) he gets a lot of air miles, one of the perks about traveling for work I guess. He had air miles with 3 different companies : Air Canada, American Airlines and Delta.  We compared prices/air miles (if you didn't know, when you book your flight with air miles you also have to pay something extra, how much depends on the flight. I think it's for taxes of something like that), and in a way it was better if we separated my flights. Okay, maybe one of the flights was unnecessary, but I really wanted one in specific because I would fly to Montreal non-stop on the 27th (arrive around 7pm), and I would get more time in Montreal before I left to Paris on the 28th. So my awesome dad said okay, but that I had to pay the difference (because there was another option where I could have a round trip from Montreal and Texas, and it would've been cheaper, than 2 separate flights). But I think it will be worth it, I know it will be worth it, so I said yes.

In a way, this decision about taking so many different flights ended up being more expensive on the money side, but on the air miles side we saved up around 10,000 air miles AND we ended up using air miles from different companies instead of using up all the air miles from one, so we still have some air miles in all of them which I think is good.

So I will be traveling to Montreal with American Airlines, from Montreal to Paris (and back) with Air France (Delta) and from Montreal to Texas with Air Canada.

I am so excited to get to go to Montreal before I leave to Paris. I feel like I need to be in a familiar environment, back to the place where I lived for so long,because I miss my old life so much. It feels like that life was so long ago....  I don't know why but it feels weird when I think about how I lived in Montreal... I can't really explain the feeling and I don't know why I feel that way since I've only been away for 4 months (then again those 4 months felt like forever).

I can wait to get off the plane and out of the airport to feel that cold winter air. I can already see the snow sparkle at night, hear the quietness that can only be found in the winter... Words cannot describe how amazing those things are and how beautiful it is if you stop and just look around. I get happy just thinking about it.
That's one of my favorite things about traveling back to places you call home, the feeling you get when you finally step on soil and smell that familiar air, see familiar surroundings. You might ask yourself what is up with her and air? Well, it might sound weird but I think that air from different places have a different smell (I know it's weird). For example when I used to travel back to Mexico for the summer and Christmas, once I stepped out of the air port and saw all those mountains that I grew up surrounded with and breathed in the air, I knew I was back home.

I think I'll be getting the same feeling when I get to Montreal and I can't wait to be back home....

'Tis the Season

To be Jolly fa la la la la, la la la la. At least that's how we're supposed to feel right? I've become awfully aware to how people get all into the Christmas spirit and perhaps it's because of all these Christmas cd's (Justin Bieber's, Michael Buble...) being promoted all over, the commercials talking about getting your Christmas shopping done, and the Christmas specials on TV (wow, I think I watch too much TV). Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Christmas, in fact I love Christmas, it's just that I feel like I'm not being as spirited as others seem to be. I wonder if there's something wrong with me? Or maybe people are just going over the top with Christmas? But I think I know the reason why I can't get into the spirit of Christmas and I'm sure that every College student will agree with me on this one. I think I didn't get into the spirit because when Christmas time comes around, that also means finals. Yep, finals. I mean who can get into the holiday spirit while your stressing about passing and wondering how you're going to get all your studying done in time? Even if you try to get your Christmas cheer on before finals, it's kinda hard because the last weeks of the semester are usually filled with last minute assignments.
But now I'm done with my finals (when I got home I did what I like to call the "free dance" which mostly consisted in me dancing and chanting" I'm free, I'm done, no more school!") so now I can finally start to get into the Christmas spirit, and Justin Bieber is helping me with that. I love his new song "Under the mistletoe, so much that I'm even considering in buying the album (yup, I'm a belieber and I don't care what ya think!). The song is just so cute and he's adorable. Want to know what my sister told me today? It went something like this...

Sister: "Have you seen Justin Bieber's new video?"
Me: "Nope"
Sister: " Well there's a girl in the video and she got paid $30,000 to be in the video and she got to kiss Justin 25 times! I would've done it for free!"

Me too sis, me too. Some girls are just so lucky. Anyways, now I have Mariah Carey's song "All I want for Christmas" stuck in my head. No wonder Christmas songs are so popular, they're so catchy!

Now for my au pair news... I went last friday to Houston to apply for my visa and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they won't take forever. My next step is to pick a flight and I don't know what to do. Since flights are so expensive at this time of year, we decided to use air miles. The problem is, that my dad showed me an a flight option where I would travel the 27th to Montreal stay there for the night and leave around 7 pm to go straight to Paris (the reason why I would stop in Montreal is so after I'm done my au pairing I can spend a week or 2 in Montreal over the summer before coming back to Texas). But now my dad found another flight where I can just travel straight to Paris from Texas and it costs less air miles. Now I'm torn, I don't want my dad to use a lot of his air miles, but at the same time I really got excited about getting to go to my beautiful Montreal before I left to Paris, even if it was for just 12 hours.

Urgh, I need to decide soon! We need to pick the flight before we loose it. Decisions, decisions, I really don't like them. This year has really been my "Decision Year", and I'm terrible at taking decisions!

Cyber Monday...

Otherwise known as my bad luck day.Today was a terrible day, okay I might be over exaggerating but for a person like me, who stresses over the little things, it was a bad day. 

It all started at 1 am. I was on Macy's website looking for a watch. I'm not really a watch person but I figured that since I was going to be in France picking up the kids, taking the bus/metro/train I would need to know the time constantly and sometimes taking out your phone is just too long since for some reason its always ends at the bottom of your purse, plus it would be a cute accessory. I had finally found the perfect watch, a DKNY white leather watch with little crystals all around. It was simple but elegant at the same time and best of all it was at 29$!!! The original price of the watch was $95! At first I couldn't believe it, a DKNY watch on sale at 29?! It was too good to be true, but alas it was there and it was on stock. I told myself "I have to get it NOW" but I decided to hold off the purchase until the morning to make sure I really wanted that watch/ if I actually needed one. But how could I not want it?? It was white, with crystals AND 29$! 29$!

So I was in school when I decided to look at the watch I had fell in love with by the time I woke up in the morning, but to my surprise...I couldn't find it! I keep looking and looking and turns out, it was sold out! I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT! I wanted to cry! I was so upset at myself for letting this amazing shopping sale go by! WHY MACY WHY?? I fell in love with the watch and then bam, no more watch. It is so depressing, I learned my lesson…never hold off something when you can do it that moment.

The watch

Fast forward to 8 pm, I was getting out of my government class and put my laptop(which was in its case) on top of my binder and as I was trying to fix my purse strap, my laptop just flew off (more like slipped off my binder) and landed on the ground. I of course right away screamed "OH my God" and right away picked it up. I didn't freak out as much as I thought I would and I wasn't really worried since it landed flatly on the ground. I got home and inspected my laptop, to my surprise it was safe and sound nothing wrong…until I checked the back corner (where the screen opens) and there's a small (but huge to me) dent! It was dented towards the inside so I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to open up my laptop. I slowly tried to open it just to hear the scratchy noise the dent was making as it rubbed the bottom part of my laptop. Oh God why me? But thankfully in the end its not so bad, I can open my laptop, my laptop still works and you can't really see the dent unless the laptop is closed and you look at that corner. Of course to me this is going to drive me crazy since I have an obsession with having all my belongings in perfect condition, that meaning : no scratches, no dents, no nothing. I must admit this obsession makes me get so annoyed and angry at myself because I'm always freaking out about the small things (ehem like the watch situation and my laptop) and it gets so tiring. I need a break from my own self, how sad is that?

You can't really see it, but it's dented! I swear

So that was my day, I was left with no watch and a dent in my laptop, oh and now I'm stuck studying for my science final,fun.