Coucou

So far, so good. Everything is going fine as an au pair. I have only been living with the French family for a few days and my French skills are already improving... as a means of survival. This family is wonderful. They are always trying to make me feel at home and the children are already pretty comfortable with me. I spent all day with just the kids. We had fun, but it was pretty exhausting at times, especially since it was the first day their mother has worked in a month (ahhh... the life of the French... why wouldn't you take the entire month of August off?). Anyway, I am learning little phrases and my throaty "R" is improving, thanks to the help of the six-year-old. Who would have thought a six-year-old would be my next French teacher. It is easier communicating with the children than I thought because their language is more simple than that of the adults. This is true except when they are all yelling at the same time, two with pacifiers in their mouths, all in French. I just have to tell them to stop and that I do not understand and then they actually take turns talking. I have all day tomorrow and Wednesday with the kids and then school starts. YES! OUI!!! I will probably have more fun stories then when I have more time to myself and have the energy and time to venture out more. 

Crystal and I met up yesterday and sat and ordered drinks with Jacques, our Parisian taxi driver friend. We then went for a nice walk around the Bastille area and tried to find a garden walk. We ending up not finding what we originally set out to find, but we found something else (another garden walk), and had a nice time together. 

Oh, for those of you not familiar with what's currently popular in Paris, "coucou" is the new casual "hello." Sylvain said "salut" (the old casual greeting) was out, and coucou is in. Once Crystal said something to me about it, it was like the gates were opened and everyone started saying it to me, even the kids! And yes, it is just like the bird.