Sorry, I know I’m a day behind with these blogs. My computer was being screwy yesterday so I shut it down and let it rest for a little while. But let’s see. Friday, yesterday, was a busy day. I had to get the kids ready again in the morning, which meant gettting up at 6:30 and being to school with everyone dressed, fed, and ready by 8:30. I took the kids to school, and when I got back I had two hours to do nothing. I had already done all the laundry the night before, so I decided to go back to bed. I was so grateful for that nap! At 11 I got up for good, and went back to the school to get just Noa. Sacha and Salome were eating in the cantine since it was Friday. Noa came home with me and we had lunch. After lunch I put him down for his nap, and while he was sleeping, I ironed all the clothes that had been washed the night before. (Guys, I really don’t think I’ve ever met a mother so anal about laundry. Everything gets washed after being used just once. Like pajamas, towels, etc. It’s bizarre!) Anyway, I finished up everything just about the time Noa woke up. And just about that same time, Geraldine came home.

I feel bad for her when she has the morning shift at the hospital. She leaves so early in the morning and when she comes home in the afternoon, she’s such a good mom. She takes the kids to the park instead of making me do it. I think if I had a nanny, and I had just worked for the past 8 hours, I’d make my nanny take my kids to the park. I’d stay home and rest for an hour or so, and then do dinner and everything else at the end of the day. But nope, not Geraldine…she does it all. Work, park, dinner, baths, etc. Everything but laundry! (haha, I always have so much laundry to keep up with. It never ends.)

Well, after she left to get the kids from school and then off to the park, I was free. I had the rest of the evening off. I decided to go to a really nice secluded (public, I think) garden that I found the other day near where the church is. I thought I’d spend my afternoon reading or writing. I really love to write, and I really love being somewhere foreign to me because it prompts me for a lot of poems and such. Being away from home is good inspiration to write. Anyway, on the way to the garden, I ran into Carol with her kids on their way back from school. She told me that that morning she had talked to Valentina and she was inviting all the nannies “chez elle” (to her house) for a movie that evening. Carol told me we were all meeting at the front gate of the park at 8 and then walking to Valentina’s house. She asked me if I could join, and I said “bien sur, pourquoi pas?” (of course! why not?).

It was about 5 when I made it to the garden and found a bench high enough up a hill that I had a clear view of Paris in the distance. I couldn’t see the Eiffel Tower, it was blocked by a tree, but I could see Sacre Coeur. I spent my time writing postcards to friends and a really long letter to my boyfriend. Haha, he’s going to die when he gets it. It was so long. (It’s a good thing he’s an English major too and enjoys reading as much as I enjoy writing.) Well, when I finished with all the writing, it was about 7. I decided to head home and eat before I left for the park at 8. To my surprise and contentment, Geraldine had dinner just about ready when I got home. I thought I was going to have to just make a quick sandwich or something to be able to leave on time, but nope…I still got to eat with the family.

When I left the house and met up with Katja and Valentina, we waited a little while for Carol. After about 15 minutes we left; we guess she couldn’t make it after all. When we got to Valentina’s house, my mouth and Katja’s mouth dropped. Their house is huge. It’s literally a chateau! I’m not even joking. Her family is out of town for the weekend visiting the grandparents so Valentina has the house to herself. That’s why she hosted the “soiree” with the girls. When we first got inside she gave us a tour of the house. 25 rooms later, we were finished. Apparently Valentina invited us all over for dinner and a movie, but Carol failed to mention to me about dinner. It’s ok, even though I had eaten with my family, I ate again with the girls! (I had to uphold our “fat” American stereotype ) And I’m so happy I did because when you put three girls in a kitchen together, you’re bound to make a delicious meal!

And it was just that. I can’t even remember everything we ate. But Valentina said we needed to eat a lot, because if not it would go bad this weekend while the family was gone. So we made two different types of pasta, one was a ravoli with chevre (a really good French cheese). And hearing Valentina (a native Italian) say ravoli, made my night! It was so funny. I made her repeat it over and over. It was just like out of a movie. We also had a corn and tomato salad (served freezing, of course), mozarella sticks (but not really, they were circles, and filled with another cheese as well), plenty of bread, beer and wine (which was strange having both), and lots of strawberries for dessert. Everything was so good. I felt like a real adult. I don’t know if it was because of the alcohol, eating on the back deck of a real chateau, having great (foreign/cosmopolitan) company at the table, or just very exquisite (unAmerican) food. Anyway, it was a great evening.

After dinner, we all sat at the table and talked for a long time. Valentina told us that in Italy, people mix beer and Coke as a drink. Katja and I had both heard of rum and coke, but not beer and coke. Valentina made us try it (not me though, I gave up soda for new years….and I’m sticking to this resolution…I’m determined!). We talked about differences between Italy, America, Germany and France and I feel very educated now on more countries in Europe. We talked about differences in holidays for a long time. And we talked about bread and cheese for a long time as well. I told them I didn’t know all the differences between all the varietys of bread and cheese and they laughed and explained them to me. I told them that Americans just don’t eat cheese and bread like Europeans do; never seperate and after meals.

After dinner we cleaned everything up. It was 11:30 by this time. We were having such a good time and knew no one had to work in the morning, so we still decided to watch a movie. We ended up watching “Gangs of New York” (an American film) because it was in the drawer with all the parent’s DVDs. We had coffee and water along with chocolate cake and really good chocolate covered shortbread kind of cookies (I don’t really know what kind of cookies they were, but like shortbread is the best way I know how to explain them.) The movie was good. A little long, and a little too bloody for my taste, but nonetheless entertaining. It was tough watching familar actors like Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio in French though. When the movie finally ended it was almost 2 am. Katja and I walked home and decided that we’d take the boys (Zoe and Salome have the same birthday party to attend all afternoon) to the park together tomorrow. (If I didn’t rain…)