my parents' departure also started the devouring of the treats they had brought me. hot tamales. thin mints. goldfish. american goodness :) i even shared some!
friday i really didn't end up doing much of anything. i was invited to the study at the library. but when i wasn't updated with what time, i didn't really follow up and so spent most of the day by myself. not that i'm complaining. sometimes having a day to yourself isn't such a bad thing. and i got some homework done anyways.
friday night i knew i'd be staying in because i knew saturday would be a big day. see it was my host sister's (caroline) thirtieth birthday on saturday, and the party was going to be held at my host parent's house. aka where i live.
but i did get to help my host mom make little cakes for the party! they really reminded me of those brownie bites that you can buy at trader joe's. i'm always trying to ask if she needs help making dinner or lunch or whatever, and usually she just responds saying 'tu es vraiment gentille', so i was super excited when she actually wanted my help! i mean it's not like i was doing anything else that night, and it was fun :)
saturday was the big day. by the time i came downstairs the couches had already disappeared. oh yea, they cleared out practically EVERYTHING so there would be space for dancing and mingling. i'm not even entirely sure where it all went. i helped move some bigger chairs upstairs and bring fold-out ones downstairs. then ended up on balloon duty. it turned out it was a lot easier to simply blow them up the old fashioned way than use the tool that was provided. after the house was basically ready for the evening's festivities caroline headed home again and it was time to rest up, pretend to do hw, whatever.
now i'm sorry i don't have any pictures from that evening (maybe i'll manage to get some from my host parents later), but they would be rather amusing. wondering why? well let me start my explanation by saying that the theme of the party was "blonde attitude". which meant, that if you weren't already a blond, you were expected to wear a blonde wig. i have to say i really dodged a bullet with this one, because although there were a couple nice wigs, most of them looked pretty bad. i don't think i've seen that many people in platinum blond in awhile, especially not in france! i loved though that for once if there was blond hair all over the place, people couldn't necessarily look straight at me!
so i felt a little awkward at the beginning of the evening because of course i didn't really know anyone. but i loved how my host mom would make a point of introducing me to some of her closest friends that were there as "ma petite americaine". marc-philippe introduced me to his roommates and i hung out with them for a bit too. i began to feel much more comfortable once i no longer felt like i would be standing by myself the entire night. others tried to talk to me too, some in broken english which i thought was fun.
about halfway through the party there was a slideshow of pictures of caroline at all ages, and some speeches were made. i thought it was all very sweet, and some of the pictures amusing of course.
then more dancing with a mix of french and american music which meant i actually knew some of it. and of course a break for some cake. one raspberry and one chocolate.
i had a lot of fun partying it up with my host family and their friends and was so glad that when the party came to a close at around 4am i didn't have to worry that the metros were closed or finding a cab, but simply head upstairs to bed! what a great night :)
i managed to get a few hours sleep that night before i heard banging on the door a little before 10am as caroline and her husband guillaume came by to help clean up. and they brought louis! i decided i might as well head downstairs and help with the process since i was awake. with good teamwork the house was back to normal in time for lunch. i ran upstairs to take a quick shower and came downstairs in time for food. a couple of the guests from the night before came over for lunch as well.. not sure what was particularly special about those two so that they returned and others didn't, but who knows.
after lunch most of us hung out in the jardin and relaxed. the guys were all playing with louis and i wanted to join in! i didn't though, and i think i ended up even falling asleep for a minute because next thing i knew almost everybody was inside again except for me and my host dad who had apparently fallen asleep on the grass. i decided to head upstairs and take a nap in my bed when caroline and veronique asked me if i had seen some envelope they were missing, after which i began to help them search. i somehow ended up back downstairs again instead of upstairs sleeping, but it all worked out for the best since caroline decided i should watch louis while the rest of them finished cleaning up and packing up the car!
i'm pretty sure i got to hang out with him for like an hour! i tried to get him to walk since he is getting so close, but it would appear that he is like me and isn't going to start walking early. man can that kid crawl fast though! he's so cute, and best of all he loves me :)
i think caroline even suggested me babysitting sometime in the future. she asked something about me knowing how to put him to sleep and i said i have no experience but i can learn quickly, at which point my host mom interjected and said she just needs to show me! so maybe i'll be babysitting at some point? i don't really know. but if they ask, i would be happy to help out.
it was a lovely weekend spent almost entirely at home with my host family and speaking french.
i love my french life :)
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