Once again, I’m back in France. This time, in Lyon! To keep up with me, check out my new blog…

http://www.learninginlyon.wordpress.com

So today was really easy like yesterday and though it’s not over I want to blog now so that I can go to bed as soon as I eat dinner. David and I are leaving the house at 4:30am for my 7am flight. Thank you America for having such ridiculous re-entry rules and security precautions that I have to be there 2 hours early! Anywho, I’m going to bed early tonight. Well, last night I had a really hard time sleeping. Maybe because I knew it was my last real night’s sleep in my bed here, or maybe because I knew I had to get up early again today and work the morning. Well, I learned my lesson from yesterday and didn’t even get up till 8:30 to be upstairs at 9ish.

Salome was already up when I got upstairs and she and I had breakfast together before the boys came down. The boys who weren’t up till 10ish, nor dressed and ready till 11ish hindered us from going to the park. No big deal though, we all played in the backyard.

I’ll come back to this….we’re leaving to go out to eat and I have a feeling we won’t get back till late. And then I’ll be going to bed…right then, right away.

Ok, so today was a really easy day. All Geraldine told me was that she was working in the morning till 3 and so that’s when I was working. Well, like normally I got up and was ready at 8. Well me being “bete” (stupid) forgot that it’s now summer time and the kids sleep later. So at 8am when I got upstairs no one was up. It wasn’t until 9:30 that anyone came out of their rooms. I actually ended up falling asleep on the couch from 8:30 – 9:30 because reading my book just wasn’t cutting. After breakfast we all headed to the park till lunch. When we got home for lunch David was back. He had a meeting this morning and that’s why I had all the kids. He made really good (I have no clue how to describe this but….) ham and cheese wrapped up in a potato/french fry kind of thing. It was so good!

This afternoon was easy. Noa napped and Salome and Sacha arranged their Pokemon cards (hundreds of them) into their collector’s binders. I helped and while doing this we all watched a super funny French movie “Brice de Nice”. When that ended Geraldine was just getting home and she took the kids back to the park when Noa woke up. I spent my afternoon trying to pack and do more laundry. I got it done, but it’s ugly. I’m going to go back and reorganize everything tomorrow. When dinner rolled around Geraldine cooked and the kids and I had chicken nuggets and tator tots. She and David didn’t eat till way later, so I was happy I ate with the kids. After dinner I watched a movie online and now I’m going to bed.

Well, today I only had to work a little. Completely forgetting that it was Sunday, I didn’t go to church. I woke up at 10:30 and had breakfast in my room while watching the news. The kids were all upstairs watching cartoons and both David and Geraldine were home. After showering and getting dressed I ironed for a while. I finished about 1/2 before I was called up for lunch. We had cheese crepes and after lunch Mamie and Papie came over. They took me, Sacha, and Salome to the horse races in Enghains les Bains. We dropped Geraldine off at work and David stayed at home and worked on the car while Noa took his nap. (He’s not supposed to be taking naps any more, but the kids stayed up late last night, so Noa took a nap this afternoon.

The horse races were so fun. I’ve never been to a horse race before. There were lots of games for the kids and a rodeo bull (fake one) to play on too. Salome really wanted me to do it, but it started to rain, so I couldn’t. You had to be over 12 to do it, so that’s why she didn’t do it. Sacha took a pony ride and Papie had fun betting on the horses. It was only 2 euro to place a bet. The number 9 horse won, and something I found surprising was that almost all of th horses (when their names were on the big screen) had English names like “sunset” or “pumpkin”. The words don’t exist in French. It was funny. We headed home at 4 because the kids had a playdate (with David) at the neighbors. I was invited to go too if I wanted, but I declined. David told me to go into Paris since I’m down to 3 days left, but since it was raining on and off today I decided to stay and finish the laundry.

When I finished the laundry I did my laundry so I could pack it all later. When David got home with the kids they all showered and then we had dinner. After dinner Salome, Sacha, and I played “battre” (war – as in the card game). I didn’t realize we were playing that game till at least two minutes into it. The funny thing was, the word for an ace in French is ace, but it’s pronounced “ass”. Everytime the kids would yell “ace” I would die laughing because to me they were swearing (without having a clue). When the kids had to go to bed I came down to the basement and packed up the clothes that I could. Some of my clothes are still in the dryer. I’ll get to those tomorrow. I can’t believe I’m leaving in 2 days. It’s so hard packing too because as soon as I get back I’m heading to the beach with Stephen, so I’m trying to pack things like shorts and bathing suits on the top of my suitcase, but ugh it’s so hard to plan ahead for the whole week. I can’t wait to just get home and relax. Oh, something I forgot. While packing my cousin Ashlee skyped me and we talked online for a little while. I also got to talk to my aunt and uncle and it was so great. I’ve missed my family so much this summer. I can’t wait till I finally get to see them.

I don’t even know where to start about describing my day. It was hysterical and full of so many fun things. It’s 11:15pm and I just got home a little while ago. It was a long evening, but so fun, and so worth it. Well, I got up at 10:30 and went upstairs, kissed Noa, and told him Happy Birthday. I then told him that we’re the coolest people in the house because we both have birthdays in August, and that’s the best month in the year. Salome rolled her eyes at me claiming that March was the best, but dropped the subject to give Noa his moment of glory. We had a dance party in the living room because Noa turning 4 means “no more naps” in the afternoons! He’s now a real big boy and that deserved celebrating! We cranked the music, stomped feet, and all around had a fun 15 minutes of dancing. I had breakfast again with the kids and David like yesterday and then headed downstairs to shower.

When I came back up I told them I was heading back into paris today (and was going to try to not spend any money) and they said sounds good because they were all off to the toy store to get Noa’s birthday present. Well I really wanted to go to the other Breakfast in America diner (there’s two in Paris) because they have the cheapest coffee around (and you get refills). So I headed in the direction of the BIA diner and once arriving saw that the line was out the door. I thought “ok well fine, I’ll just go to a park and read” (since that’s all I wanted to do anyway). I walked around the area and came close to “place des voges” but then guess what happened? It started to rain. Well I headed back in the direction of the diner (where there were other cafes to go to) and stumbled upon a wine shop. Needing to buy a bottle of wine as a gift for someone at home (and now being able to transport alcohol legally back to the States…since I’m now 21) went in. I talked to the man in the shop for a while and he showed me his favorites. I bought one of his recommendations and then headed back into the rain. While passing by the BIA for a second time the line had gone down.

I waited in line and was seated 10 minutes later. I kind of felt bad talking up a table for two (being alone and all) but I really wanted to read, so I sat there for a while. I explained to two French girls what cream cheese was (since it doesn’t exist here in France) once they saw me put it on my bagel. There were a lot of English speakers in the place but it didn’t bug me too much today since I was immersed in my French novel. Well after the table beside me had gone through 3 different sets of customers I thought maybe I should leave. The place was still super busy and I was really beginning to feel bad for taking up a whole table to myself. But just then as I was about to ask for the check the waitor came and refilled my coffee cup. Not wanting to waste the coffee I stayed to drink it. While drinking my 3rd cup of coffee, a really good smelling guy came in and sat at the table next to me. Y’all he smelled so good. I was about ready to tell him when another guy came in and sat down across from him. This other guy was was really handsome and I thought “these guys have got to be gay”. I eavesdropped on their conversation a little (while pretending to read my book) and realized that they not only were speaking English, but that the man sitting next to me (the good smelling one) had a funny accent. I could tell it wasn’t French, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.

After watching the handsome guy hit on the waitress I realized he wasn’t gay. However, his friend, the one sitting next to me definitely was. At one point I put my book down to check my phone for the time and when I put my phone down the handsome guy asked what my book was about. He asked in French since he realized my book was written in French, and I immediately said ‘I speak English”. Well the funny thing is, my book is called “les garcons qui tremblent” which means “the boys that tremble”. Haha. (The story is about a boy in love with a girl out of his ranking; it’s his boss’ granddaughter. She’s super rich and he’s poor.) The title, I explained to the guys at the table next to me meant that boys in love with girls who don’t speak up about their love are just scardey-cat “trembling” boys. Well, that’s how my conversation started with Joshua and Daniel (whose names I found out later in conversation) and it didn’t end till 9pm.

Well, Joshua, (the handsome one) turned out to be 27, though he looked younger, and was American. His family’s from Virginia and he’s been living and working in Paris for the past 4 years. He’s a pastor’s son, though he doesn’t claim to believe in God anymore. Daniel, the gay one, really is gay, 24, and is from South Africa. He is working in Paris as well and the two guys are friends through other friends. Well, I told them all about me too and we really did talk for hours. They were both really nice guys and a breath of fresh air for me in comparision to all the French I’ve come in contact with this summer. We sat at the diner and continued to drink coffee till after 6 talking about everything from God, to religion, to evolution, to the Church’s perspective on gays, to living in France/America/Africa, to school, to reading (Daniel loves to read like me and Joshua just published his first book 4 weeks ago), to work/jobs, to purity, to birthdays, to growing up and getting married (Daniel has agreed to design my wedding dress for me….you know, years from now), etc. We talked about everything from here to the moon. I really think God kept me in that diner reading my book just so I could talk to both of those guys this afternoon. The funny/ironic thing is that Daniel was more open to talking about God than Joshua was. They thought it was cool that I was an outspoken Christian and so firm in my beliefs. It was funny too because normally I’m hesitant to talking about God. Especially to complete strangers. Knowing that Joshua was a pastor’s kid made me think that I wasn’t alone being the “christian” at the table, especially because he noticed my “true love waits” ring and told me that he had a TLW tshirt back in the day. But then, he told me that since college he hasn’t really had a relationship with God. It was really sad and I wanted to keep talking to him about it but finally around 6:30 we left the diner. We didn’t part ways though. I felt so comfortable with these guys; they were kind of like my big brothers for the day.

Daniel made me (not that I had anything better to do) walk a few streets over to show me where he works. He really is a fashion designer (and really does want to design my wedding dress) and while at his work I met some of their friends. He introduced me as Miss America and the girls looked at him seriously for a second thinking “really”? They then looked at me and I just said “today’s my ugly day”. Both girls laughed and then realized we were joking. I just kept thinking “man, I wish I had met these two guys back in May” (I wish I had had more friends in Paris). After seeing his work we decided to go walk along the Seine. While heading that direction we passed by this one restaurant and Daniel said “hold on one second”. He ran in to find a friend (who happened to just be getting off work right then at 7) who joined us for our walk. Once again I was introduced as Miss America. She, her name was Ruth, was also an English speaker and was from England. She was really sweet and the four of us, after walking for a little while went out for drinks. No one was hungry, so we went to this one bar that Joshua knew of where all drinks were 5 euro. It was great.

While walking there Ruth and I talked for a while. She like me, is studying French in University and has to do 6 months abroad. That’s why she’s here, though she plans to come back next year too. She was really surprised to find out that a semester abroad wasn’t a mandatory thing for my French minor. When we got to the bar I sat next to Joshua, and since Daniel was the only one that knew Ruth (prior to tonight), he sat next to her. The two of them left after finishing their drink and though Joshua and I had also finished our drinks around the same time we decided to stay and talk. It’s really funny because our conversation was all about how when we were little our parents sent us both to church camp every summer. Though his was in PA and mine in NH we both has similar memories. I felt like he really really wanted to talk about God (to another Christian) and for having just met him today, he opened up to me a lot about his reservations about really letting God back into his heart. It was an intense conversation. When Ruth and Daniel left, though I wanted to leave too to head home and eat I stayed to listen to Joshua. He asked if I wanted another drink, but knowing I’m a lightweight, I stopped after the one. He said “you’re in good hands. if you want another drink order another”. It was really sweet of him (like I said I swear these two guys could really be my big brothers) and I totally believed him, but I knew I shouldn’t drink another. Well, he walked me back to my metro and while passing a sign for a restaurant that said “best fondue in France” he asked me when I was leaving again. I told him bright and early Wednesday. He said “You have to go out for Fondue with me before you leave Wednesday, I know the best place!” I hesitantly laughed and he said “I know you’re thinking you shouldn’t because you have a boyfriend (whom I had told both boys about) but I promise it will be an unpromiscous low key night”. I laughed when he said that and said I’d think about it and then send him a message on Facebook. Well, we departed ways there at the metro and when I got home I ate a sandwich and then came downstairs to blog. I found both of the guys on Facebook (since they had given me both their last names) and I now am friends with two really cool French guys. Overall it was a great day: I met two new Parisian friends, got to witness to two unbelievers about God, and had “drinks” with friends for the first time ever (cause I’m an “adult” now that I’m 21)!

So today’s my birthday! Yay! I’m 21! I got up at 10:30 and after going to the bathroom a minute later the kids were at door giving kisses and saying “Bon Anniversaire Ereen!” Salome even drew me a card. She’s so sweet. Actually, the boys did too, but they didn’t finish theirs until later in the morning. When I went upstairs to make my coffee and toast David was singing “happy birthday” in English. It was so funny because he was yelling and so out of tune. We all had breakfast together (well David and I did). The kids had already eaten, but were still in the room. The rest of the morning was spent in pjs with Salome burning her a CD of American music off my computer. She really wanted my “cool English songs” before I left. At noon Geraldine got home from work and started baking a cake. She said it was for Noa’s bday though (which happens to be tomorrow). At lunch we all ate together outside. It was really nice out. We had chicken and coucous with really good sauce. When we finished it was just me and Salome at the table talking. I didn’t realize she was distracting me. Geraldine, David, and the boys came back out a minute or two later and sang Happy Birthday, once again in English, and presented me the warm cake right out of the oven (which I believed was for Noa). It had 17 candles on top (Geraldine said it was all the candles she could find in the house.) and it was so good! It was covered in confectionary sugar on top. She handed me two envelopes. The first had 300 euro (my July paycheck) and the second had another 50 euro (for my bday). She said she would have bought me something but she didn’t know what I would like. She figured this way I could spend my day off shopping. I kissed her and said thanks. Y’all I love my French family! They are too nice.

I left the house about 1:30 for Paris and knew exactly what I was going to do with the money. I headed to Montmartre (where Sacre Coeur is) and found the street of artists. I found one after searching forever whose work I really liked and asked her to draw me. She took over an hour doing my portrait, but it turned out great! So many people walking by said “wow”, “it looks great”, etc. It came to 40 euro, which I knew, but that’s what I wanted for my bday. I know have a priceless souvenir of my 21st bday in Paris.  The only thing is she marked the date on the bottom as July 31st and not August 1st. Oh well. It’s not the end of the world. The other thing is, she wouldn’t let me smile. I had to keep a still face. The picture still looks great, but I feel like I look sad in it. Today definitely wasn’t a sad day.

When I left I headed to the Royal Palace Gardens (just for you mum) and took a few pictures. Next I went to a cafe and ordered an “American coffee”. It was so good. I bought a pair of sunglasses, just like Geraldine’s very chic Chanel ones for 10 euro. (Mine obviously are not from Chanel.) On my way home, I saw a man wearing a Red Sox hat on the metro, and not only was he wearing their hat, but also a Red Sox tshirt. Is today my birthday or what. It was so nice seeing that. All you ever see is Yankees’ stuff here in Paris. It was nice to see a little Boston today. The man and I talked for a good 10 minutes on the metro. He’s French but he lived in Boston for 3 years a while back. His English was good and his little son that was with him was so cute.

When I got home I showed my family my portrait and Salomé loved it. She said “c’est toi..tellement!” (It’s you…really you!) She was so cute. David was in the process of making fruity cocktails for their dinner party and Geraldine was getting prettied up. When their dinner guests arrived, David called me outside and handed me a glass of champagne for the toast. They all toasted (like 8-10 people) for me, for my birthday. It was so sweet. When dinner rolled around…not till after 9, I ate with the kids inside (there were two extra kids tonight “Laurice and Sage”). I didn’t mind though. I liked having a low key night. Overall it was a really fun birthday. Yay, I’m 21!

Pictures: My cake (what’s left of it), card, and portrait. Picture of me is at the “butte” of Montmartre.

This is going to be a super short post. So yesterday (day 87) was a good day. I had the day off so I decided to go into Paris. Since it was the last day of July it was the last day to use my “carte orange” (prepaid metro pass). I didn’t know what to do and it was super hot, so I decided to go to the movies. There’s this one movie, “le premier jour du reste de ta vie” that I keep seeing ads for and last week when I went to the movies with Katja I was hoping to see it, but we didn’t. So yesterday I decided to go see it. I don’t think I’ve ever gone to the movies alone. It was weird at first, but then, after realizing just how many people in the theater were there by themselves, I feel like such a loser for not having friends. But I really don’t. All my nanny-friends have gone home It’s ok though…I’m leaving soon too. After the movie I just walked around for a while. Paris seemed super busy. I don’t know why though, it was just a Jeudi (Thursday). I ended up going to a cafe and ordering a glass of wine. It was a first for me; normally I order coffee. Well, I got a glass of wine and read my book for a little while. The waitress, though she was my age, kept calling me “madame” and not “mademoiselle”. It was funny. I felt really old. When I got home I did some laundry cause no one else was home.  Everyone went to the pool in town because it was so hot. We had dinner around 8. After dinner, the kids stayed up for a while, but I retreated to my room and watched the movie “Closer” online. When that finished I went to bed.

Today was really easy. Because I ended up babysitting while the adults went out to dinner, I didn’t have to work this morning. They told me to once again sleep in; that they wouldn’t need me till lunch. So when I couldn’t sleep through all the noise any longer, I finally got up at 10ish. Tata was packing all the suitcases that had to leave with them and it was a lot. The kids were all upstairs eating breakfast and watching cartoons when I went up to get coffee and toast. When I got upstairs not only was my family there, and the additional 5 extra, but also Tonton Manu, Tata Rebecca, Elise & Baptiste, and Mamie & Papie. Everyone was at the house this morning to say goodbye to Tata, PH, LC, AR, and JA. Their flight was at 4 and they left the house at 1:30 with David after everyone had lunch.

For lunch we had chicken nuggets…actually I take that back. That’s what the kids had. David made me a huge tomato and mozarella salad. It was good, but it was too much. When lunch was over everyone left. Really, everyone, including David and Sacha (who brought them to the airport) and Geraldine (who went to work). It was just me and Salome. Noa was home too, but he was already down for his nap. I had to wait till Anna, the cleaning lady showed up so I could leave the sleeping child with her while I walked Salome to her “stage” (day camp). When I got home Anna stayed for probably another 2 hours cleaning and doing the adult’s laundry, so I ended up spending time downloading a lot of French music for my Ipod. I want to go home next week but still have little things, like hit French songs on my Ipod, to remind me of France when I miss Paris.

David got home around 4 with Sacha and they watched a movie on the couch while I continued to do stuff on my computer. When Anna left, David left shortly after to pick up Salome from camp. When he got back I had both boys packed (with pockets full of snacks and hands full of frisbees and soccer balls) and ready to go to the park. The deal was (which changed since yesterday) that David would take the kids to the park and I’d stay and “fais le menage” (clean) while they were out of the house. It was so peaceful having them gone and no one home while I jammed to the new songs on my Ipod and cleaned. They all got home at 7 and David made dinner while I finished the laundry I was doing downstairs. The kids took showers so it was super easy. No one, me nor David, had to do bathtime tonight. For dinner David made the kids this good-smelling stirfry, and he and I had huge salads loaded with teryaki chicken, lots of chunks of cheese, veggies, and of course lettuce. It was so good.

After dinner I helped Salome clean her room. I didn’t really want to but David said “Erin will help you. She’s a real university student. She can help you make you desk look like a real student’s desk.” (Since next year/next month she starts sixième (middle school)). Well, then Salome got all excited for my help, so I couldn’t help but help her. It turned out to be really fun. After about 45 minutes though of going through everything piled in her desk drawers and yelling “garde ou poubelle?” (keep or trash?) David came up to tell her she had to go to bed. Well that was at 9, and it’s now 9:30 and I’m done blogging. I’m pretty sure I have tomorrow off since we changed around today’s schedule and I’m super excited. I haven’t had a day off in a week.

So today was a decent day. I got to sleep in since we stayed out so late last night and David and Geraldine felt bad that they had overworked me this weekend. So when I woke up at 10:30 it was amazing. David was in the process of taking all the kids to the park and as soon as they left the house was peaceful. Tata, Geraldine and I were the only ones there. The sisters worked on lunch while a took and shower and got dressed. When I finished the kids still weren’t home, so I started in on the laundry. The cousins all leave tomorrow. For good. And they all had dirty clothes not only still left over from camp, but from this past weekend at Disney. Tata didn’t really care if I ironed their clothes, so long as they were washed. So I washed all their clothes and then folded them today. It took me a while.

When the kids got back, lunch was served. We had frozen pizza, multiple types, and they were all good. After lunch Salome left for her stage, Lily and her mom left to run some errands, Noa took a nap, Jules stayed upstairs and watched an “adult” movie (something PG 13) and I took the remaining  3 downstairs. Like usual, Amelie demanded “High School Musical” so that’s what we watched. When that movie finished I couldn’t bear to watch another movie, so I went back to doing laundry from this morning while the kids watched their second film (Peter Pan). At some point Noa woke up and came downstairs and joined the 3 others. At 4:30 David left to go pick up Salome from her stage and I gathered a bunch of water bottles and snacks for the park. Mamie came over to help with the 7 kids at the park. So when David got back with Salome we all left; Tata, Mamie, and me. David had to do something on the computer so he stayed at home. He joined us later though.

At 7 we left the park and bathtime was what followed. David cooked dinner while I gave the kids baths. Tata helped me with the baths, and Mamie helped David with dinner. Dinner was so good tonight. We had pork chops, really huge ones, with salad, and pasta. Oh, it was so good. When dinner was over I immediately went back downstairs to finish the laundry since I was pressed because they’re all leaving tomorrow. I also wanted to finish the laundry so I could blog about this weekend, but to my surprise, at 9, David told me that he and Tata were going to pick up Geraldine up from work and then go out to eat. They said it would be fast; just eat and come back. I said ok. Well this meant I had to put all the kids to bed, and I succeeded. Except Noa. He was still awake, but peacefully watching a movie when the adults got back at 10:30. I finished up the laundry by 11 and now I’m blogging. David told me that tomorrow I only have to work for a few hours in the afternoon when he takes everyone to the airport to leave. So I get to sleep in tomorrow. Yay! Well, it’s 11:30 and I’m off to blog about this past weekend now. I wanted to blog about today first though because it was fresh in my head.

Ok, so this weekend was really fun. I didn’t think me, a 20 year old, would have fun at Disneyland, but I did. Really. Where to start? We left the house Saturday morning and spent the hour roadtrip jamming to Christophe Mae in the car. It was really fun. I got to have an hour long conversation with Geraldine, and I think that’s our first really long chat we’ve had. It was nice. When we arrived we went straight to the resort. We stayed at “Davy Crockett Ranch” which was super cool. We had log cabins in the woods. Since the whole family came for the weekend, we had two log cabins next to each other. They weren’t anything too special, just log cabins, but the grounds that they were on also had a pool (a huge one), a petting zoo, a park, running and bike paths, a couple Disney stores, a “saloon”, a restaurant, etc. After dropping off bags we headed to the park to meet up with the others. By now it was lunch time, so the sandwiches we had packed we devoured somewhere inside the park itself. Disneyland was really cool. Though I didn’t care to get any of the character’s autographs like all the kids, it was still fun to watch the kids get as excited as they did about each Disney character.

Riding the rides was also fun. It felt really good to be needed. Needed in a sense where the parents didn’t want to do all the rides, so the kids would beg me to come along. And needed in a sense also because when they’d get scared or scream they’d cling to me. I love that feeling. Though I don’t really like to think of myself growing up and getting older, I did like being one of the adults this weekend. After hours at the park we headed back to the hotel. We decided to go to the “piscine” (pool) and that was great. All the kids loved it because it was equipped with a waterfall, slide, huge bridge, whirpool, numerous hottubs, and more. You could tell it was new. The only thing that bugged me was that there were a lot of English speakers. Not Americans, but a lot of British and Irish people. I guess this is the place for Europeans to come to since the only other Disneyland/world are in the US.

When we finished at the pools we took showers there and got dressed to head to dinner. Dinner was included in our resort package, so we ate both nights at the Saloon. It was fun. It was a buffet and you could get as much as you wanted as many times as you wanted. The food was good, and after eating (outside) there was a magic show for the kids. By now it was close to 10pm. The magacian was really good and he called up a ton of kids from the audience. Also, next door to the Saloon was autograph signings and each hour a new Disney character would come and do autographs and pictures. I did get sucked into getting my picture taken once with the kids and Pluto. I think it was Pluto, I can’t remember.

When we got home from everything it was probably after 11. The kids, having been on the go since very early, and deprived of naps, were exhausted. I was too. I was so happy when Geraldine said “don’t set an alarm. When we get up, we get up. No big deal.” I loved hearing those words. The kids didn’t wake up till 9 on Sunday and that was great. I got dressed an found breakfast on our doorstep. Apparently we had already paid for breakfast ahead of time, like with our dinners, so it awaited us both morning on our doorsteps. Our neighbors were super loud though each morning. My family got into a lot of fights with them about the noise level. P.S. Our neighbors were the other half of Geraldine’s family (that was a joke). But we could hear everything going on in the cabins on both sides of us. But each morning they got up before us and started breakfast outside on the deck and that woke me up. But no big deal.

After breakfast we headed back to the park for day two. We spent the morning in line after line for ride after ride, however, on some rides we got to skip the lines because of Paul Hugo having a broken leg. He had this special “handicap pass” that Disney gave him and he was allowed to have up to 4-5 people accompany him. So, often times a bunch of us got to skip the lines. It was great. Plus, Disney gave him a wheelchair so he didn’t have to use his crutches all day and that was great because he’s only 8 and didn’t use up the full adult size wheel chair, so it ended up serving as an extra stroller where we could throw another kid on his lap. So, with the two other strollers we brought and the wheelchair, we had a total of 5 kids sitting and the 2 big ones walking. It wasn’t always like this, but when the kids got tired, it was great having all that extra room.

After our morning of rides, more autographs, and pictures with characters, we watched two or three parades. The funny this is, they sang the songs in English. The Disney songs exist in French because all my kids new the songs, but at Disneyland, the characters sang them in English. My kids were amazed I knew the words, and even Geraldine said “wow, you’ve got a good memory from when you were a kid”. Of course, I didn’t know all the songs, but the choruses I could at least sing along with. For lunch Sunday we went to “Infinity and Beyond”. It was the Buzz Lightyear Restaurant and it was really cool. It was super dark to give it an outter space feel. We had burgers and fries and I had to help David order everything because the person behind the counter was English (British). (…I think Disneyland Paris would be a fun place to work because they need people of every nationality (speaking all different langages) working there because people from all over the world come to visit it. Plus, it’s be great for me because I’d still get to use my French everyday, as well as stick to English some. Just an idea that popped into my head for next summer!)

Ok, I’m going to stop here “pour l’instant” (for the moment) so I can go to bed. But I’ll finish this in the morning since I’m not working till the afternoon.