Thursday, November 22, 2012

Samedi à Dimanche, 17-18 Novembre 2012: The Out-of-Towners

I spent all of Saturday recuperating from the hike. My entire body was sore with my toes being the worst. Those shoes really did a number on them. As tired as I was, I barely slept through the night. And on top of all that, I had a killer migraine. I was not doing well to say the least. I mainly stayed in bed Saturday only getting up for lunch and tea. We had choucroute (french saurekraut) with sausages of different varieties. I tried my best to do some housework even though au pairs generally have weekends off, but I only got as far as dishes.

Sunday was a much more lively day. Though I was still plagued with a migraine and aching body, I was much more chipper with a few cups of coffee in me. The caffeine probably eased my migraine somewhat by assisting in blood flow. Caffeine is also known to facilitate the delivery of pain meds.

We had visitors all day long. First to come by was Céline's boss Carine, her husband, daughter, and two sons. They popped by to see the new house, drank some coffee on the terrace while the children played in the garden, and left. Our next visitors were one of Céline's older sisters who lives in Marseille, her husband JP, their 8 year old daughter, and 6 year old son. This family was a delight!!! I felt such good energy from them. Being around them kind of just pepped me up. I felt drawn to them! We all hung out on the terrace together, speaking in english, speaking in french, teaching each other more english and french.

I left at some point with Céline's niece to pick up the triplets from their father's house. It was during the car drive that I discovered how brilliant this child is. She had never learned english besides colors and the numbers 1-10 but I was able to get her to build on that. She didn't know the words for 20 or 30, but when I said them, she followed the pattern in her head and counted up to 100. She was also able to form sentences decently after asking me how to say certain words. This is something I'm still struggling with with the triplets but I just feel that it's because they don't have a craving to learn. I could tell this little girl was eager to know more. Wow, she totally made my day!

When the five of us got back to the house were yet more visitors. Robert--one of the guys reconstructing the house was there with his father in law and his son. They were also a joy to be around! All three 100% italian, good looking, and all eagerly social.

Everyone left by dinner time, and before I knew it, I was back to being a drab, sickly person. Well, I guess you can't always be a big ball of sunshine!!!

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