Well, dear blog, I am back.

I haven't posted here in so long. And so much has happened since I last wrote anything. I have been to Switzerland, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, London - all in the last month! I cannot express how thankful I am for the experiences that I have had so far in Europe.

I am having such a wonderful time with Adele and Heloise. Even if I am having a horrible day and all I want to do is curl into my bed, the girls have a way of making me forget everything that made me upset and cheer me right up. I feel so lucky that I get to be with them. Their English is slowly getting better. The other day Adele told me, "Je veux ham" (I want ham). So, they are starting to put English into their sentences but I am looking forward to the day when they actually form whole sentences in English. I was thinking today that people must think we are such a crazy threesome, though. They speak to me in French and I reply in English. We have some very funny bilingual conversations.

Something I knew before was that, with kids, it takes much longer to do a task than it would if you tried to do it by yourself And with twins, it takes even longer. They get twice as distracted. They get twice as resilient. They get twice as energetic. Who knew it takes an hour and a half to bathe two three-year-olds? (That is including the time it takes to create a new song that persuades them to actually get in the bath and once the bath is over, convince they can't run around the house naked for the rest of the night). But, even though tasks take twice as long, my purse gets twice as dirty, and the laundry basket gets full twice as fast, there is twice as much love to go around. I will never get tired of the girls saying "J'aime toi!" (I love you) or "Je voudrais faire un callin avec toi" (I want to cuddle with you). These girls mean so much to me and I am so glad that they are a part of my life.

pinterest

in case you are interested, I have a pinterest now. Feel free to follow me :)

http://pinterest.com/madisenclark/

i miss home

the line to get into abercrombie and fitch. really??

10 things i have learned about paris

1. the eiffel tower really is as cool as they say it is
2. razr scooter is a common mode of transportation. as is segway.
3. men are frequently seen sporting their babies in baby bjorns
4. no one judges you if you walk around eating a baguette...or two.
5. you are fashion forward if you don't brush your hair
6. no matter how many times you wash your hands, the smell of the metro doesn't go away.
7. you never know who is having a bad day because everyone looks mad all the time
8. everyone speaks english - so don't badmouth the service, the rude waiter will understand.
9. keep your friends close. keep your handbags closer.
10. paris really is more beautiful in the rain

i have trained them well

tour on a bateau mouche

There's never a bad angle of the Eiffel Tower

My fellow tourists

Notre Dame

 

Smallest building in Paris

yes, this is another picture of a + h but they are so cute!

bathtime

Normandy

This weekend I went to Normandy with the family and we had a fabulous time! We celebrated Valerie's step-father's birthday on Saturday evening with about 30 people and had a blast. It made me really miss Clark Family gatherings! There was so much love in the room and I felt so lucky to be a part of the family this weekend.

my little dumplings

Finally!

les fleurs

a great way to start a french morning

A fresh start in Paris

The transition with my new family has been wonderful. They have taken such good care of me and I am now living the life that I wanted to find in Paris. Here is a view from my apartment:

I now spend my afternoons with two adorable 3 year old twins. They just started school and I am speaking only English to them so with all the changes in their little lives, I have not been their favorite person. But, after a few days, they seemed to have warmed up to the idea of me spending every afternoon with them :)

Adorable little angels!!

Another move...

On Wednesday, I moved  out of the Koskas house. I had such an amazing time with the children, Barbara and William and I will definitely miss them.

Now, I will be spending my days with two adorable three year old twin girls, Adele and Heloise. I will be living in a chambre de bonne on the seventh floor (with a view of the Eiffel Tower nonetheless!)

Jour six

For those of you who may be interested, I love Paris. As I mentioned earlier, the first couple of days were awful. I wanted to come home asap. But, as things begin to settle in, I have since discovered how wonderful Paris is. Granted I have only been here a few days, what I have seen has been great. I have had a great time with the family that I originally moved in with but, I think I will find myself happier with another family and will be moving on Wednesday. So, hopefully I can get settled in there and officially begin my new life in Paris.

Nothing like photobooth to pass the time...

Jour un

My first day in Paris was quite awful, honestly. I basically cried all day. I missed my friends, my family, Starbucks, PCC, I even missed seeing fat Americans in drive-thru lines. I wondered why I thought it was a good idea to ever leave Seattle, land of beauty and perfection (or so it seemed as I wiped my tears away). I told Lauren that I was coming home asap. The family I am staying with picked me up from the airport and, I will blame it on the language barrier, was not welcomed with open arms. The family has four children but I will only be taking care of the younger two (ages 10 and 5). The parents have not been very open with me and I rarely see them. Needless to say, it seemed as if this was about to be the beginning of a very long year. We had family dinner together last night so that seemed to be something that would get conversation going and perhaps cause these academic folks to break a smile now and then. Nope, guess I need to bring out the big guns with these ones. Overall, it was a very lonely, sad day.

Off to Paris!

So, I recently signed up to live in Paris for a year. Sure, sounds like fun, I have always wanted to go to Paris! But now, with bags packed, an empty room and a worried mother, I wonder if I have made the right decision. I mean, I know I have, but it's scary. The feeling I have been having is that of numbness. I can't really be going to live in Paris. Only really cool, fashionable, adventurous people do that. So I guess I need to figure out how to be that person very quickly. I realize that I will have to say "see you later" to my friends and family that I love very much. But, later in this case is much later than any other trip I have ever been on.
Who knows what this trip will bring but I am so exited to see. I hope that I get along well with my family that I am working for and that they can teach me wonderful things about the French language and culture. But, I also hope that I can share a bit of the American in me :) I am excited for the adventures I am going to have, the food I will eat, the fashion I will see, the people I will meet. But, there is so much unknown and it is hard to get excited for that. I honestly have no idea what the next year has in store for me. So, basically, they year is a huge gamble. But, I am ok with that. That's what being a young twenty something is all about, right? Here's to Paris!