My Arrival and First Full Day

Eh bien...

My brain is in French overdrive! Talk about immersion! The parents will speak English if I don't understand something or if they want to make something easily understood, and I speak English with the other au pair, Claire, but otherwise everything is in French and it's spoken pretty quickly! For the most part, while I don't understand 100% of what is said (probably about 50/50!), I get the basic message, or if I look confused, they'll say it differently! :) But I've immediately found myself saying little words to myself in French automatically since it's basically all I hear. It's hard to imagine myself becoming fluent, but I guess it will come with time.

I hated the nine-hour flight because it was cramped and I couldn't sleep, but there was a good movie selection, so I watched The Lucky One (which is a one-time watch kind of movie... super cheesy) and part of The Avengers. I was so glad to get off that plane! Then I had to go through security in the London Heathrow airport, where they're much more strict than at DFW. (The lady made me try to cram my liquids into a sandwich-size bag and pulled out most of the contents of my bag into a separate bin, so that it was practically impossible to be organized any longer- gee, thanks!)

I finally started to fall asleep on the second flight, but then they served a snack and I was hungry... And then the best part... the view! Omg. The view of the Alps coming close to Geneva was the most spectacular thing I've ever seen!!! I wish I could have taken a picture, but the best views were during the slow descent and I couldn't have my phone on. The mountains stretched across the horizon and they were so majestic! It was the perfect welcome to my new home!!! (Oh, and I can see both the Alps and the Jura Mountains from my house! It was too foggy for pictures today, but I'll take some as soon as I can! I can see Mont Blanc from the second story!)

Apparently, Claire (the au pair of a nearby family) was on the flight from DFW to London as well as from London to Geneva, but I had no idea what she looked like and so I chanced asking this random girl what her name was right before going through customs and it was her! haha! The mother and the kids were waiting for me, and the kids were extremely shy at first, but I'm practically best friends with little Erine now!

Today, I played with Erine, had my driving lesson, chatted with Claire as her little Marie and my kids played, and drove around Gex a little with the mom and kids. Ah, the driving lesson... mon dieu. Evidently the driving teachers are insanely strict here and most people fail their test at least once. My teacher kept tsk-tsking me when my shifting gears wasn't 100% smooth and she told me that if it was a test I would have failed and that it would be very hard for me to drive here, and so I should get an automatic instead. Talk about a stressful hour! But then get this- I drove around with the mom and she said that all I need is some practice because everyone has trouble at first, and that I'll be just fine! She also said that the teachers are so strict these days that even she would probably fail if she had to take the test again because now they have a lot of confusing questions on courtesy and theory.

Upcoming...
The kids' school starts next Tuesday, so a schedule will fall into place then. I'll have the kids all day long by myself on Thursday and Friday! Maybe next week, I'll be going to Bourg with Claire so that we can register for our residency. I also have an appointment at the bank to get an account and a debit card on the 9th, I think. My school starts on the 17th, so I'll have to take the placement test the week before to see what level I'm on.

I've got information overload, but everything is going ok so far! I'm definitely ready to go to bed, however! (It's about 11:30 here!)