Pokemon, Origami, Enemies, & Fireworks

     Well to start off, thank you all for reading my blog. Also thank you to everyone who voted last time on my little pole to the right of your screen. I still don’t know what to write on thought because I didn’t get enough votes. Also, everything I write about in my blog comes from daily letters that I send my family. The sometimes get more information than what I put in my blog. If I miss something, or need to explain something more don’t hesitate to ask. I fixed the comment settings and anyone can now comment as long as you change the “Comment As” to anonymous.

I am lucky to have friends who will give me a
copy of the French Book of Mormon

     This week has been very rainy, and it’s not a rain that I’m use to either. It’s a warm rain, yet very wet. I have never carried an umbrella before I moved to Paris, but since coming here I have an umbrella on me at all times.

     Due to the rain my down-time this week mostly consisted of doing homework, watching TED talks online, studying French and watching the LDS Conference online (yay! for new ages of missionaries).

     A year ago I was planning on going on a mission when I was 21, and since I’m only 20 I had lots of time to decide. Now I find myself a year older than the new suggested age and I feel sort of old. For those of you who know me really well, you know that I plan my life 5 years in advance, but right now I’m not planning out my life. I don't know what I will be doing in a few years. Everything has changed for me. Now I see the little things that I might want to do on a daily basis rather than what I would like to have done in the next year. One thing I know I want to do is go into an old bookstore in Paris and find an old copy of Pride and Prejudice. I will let you know how that goes.

     The language is coming along. I now understand most all of the basics and want to learn more because I like piecing it together. It's like a giant game of matching. I need to figure out the pattern and also remember where everything is so that I can complete this puzzle. It's coming along much better now though. Il est très bon!

Sara and me at the Louvre at night

     I met a guy who is an au pair (or as my mom calls them “Nanny-man”). He is from Germany. He was telling me about Christmas in Germany and how beautiful it was. Some of the other au pairs want to leave Paris for Christmas and New Year’s. I’m staying in Pairs. I want to see how the Parisians celebrate Christmas.

     Aimée always wants me to tell her stories from home. She has a very good memory and keeps up very well. She is always asking if I have any enemies. I always tell her no, but she continues to ask if I have any enemies. "Hello Olivia, How are you? Did you have a nice day at school? What did you learn? Did you make any new friends? Did you make any enemies?" It makes me laugh. I guess that can be the quote of the week.

Who knows? Maybe I have a
career drawing Pokemon? :)

     Daniel loves Origami. I can't believe the time we spend looking at origami. I'm quite good at origami, and I'm not sure if he likes doing origami or likes me to make them for him. I make sure that he makes everything by himself. At least now he wants to do simpler origami, which is good for me. He was starting to pick really hard designs. 

     Playing with the kids yesterday I discovered a hidden talent of mine. I am fairly good at drawing Pokémon. Daniel would give me one of his Pokémon cards and ask me to draw it on a paper for him. He loved them so much, and I must say they weren't too bad. He had me draw four different Pokémon for him. Then Aimée wanted Pokémon as well. Oh what a day. 

     Daniel says the funniest things at dinner, but they aren’t always very good for dinner time. It’s always interesting to see who will break first Cecile or Alain. They were trying not to laugh (I was trying not to laugh). But at the same time they wanted to let him know that he shouldn't be playing with his food, etc. at the table. His latest trick: Picking up two clementine peelings, holding them like a mustache and saying “I’m Inspector Cluzo!”

I draw them, and the kids color them. 

     I walk a lot. One day, I went from my apartment to the Eiffel Tower, to Invalides, to the Louvre, and around to the LDS church. I like walking. There is a lot to see. On this particular day, I was walking around I saw a big group of girls gathering at the bottom of the bridge. After further investigating I found that the band One Direction was coming out at the bottom. I stood there for a moment to see if I could see them come out, but since I was meeting Sara for lunch I didn’t stick around for very long. I did take a few pictures of all the people though.

They were here, but I didn't see them. (Sorry McCall) 

     In my class this week we had a different teacher and he was wonderful. I learned so much from him. He was really funny. He kept calling us the babies of French since we were learning the basic French. In French the word for "Maybe" is peut-être (put*eT) and the word for Potato is pomme de terre or pom terre as the French say it is (pom*ter). They sound very similar when spoken. One of the girls in my class kept saying Potato instead of Maybe. My teacher thought that was so funny he called the girl Pom Terre for the rest of the class. She thought it was funny to.

      I met up with Britney this week and we had Sushi. We talked about how lucky we were to live this way. It’s nice because after we walked over to get the kids from school (her kids go to the same schools). Aimée really seemed to like Britney. 

I want to live in Montemartre

     It was Alain's mom's birthday and she was turning 70. They took her out to dinner, and I decided to go to Montmartre so that I wouldn't just be sitting around at home. I tried to see if anyone wanted to go with me, but it was too short of a notice so no one could go. I went by myself. It was sort of lonely, but they were having a big party by Sacré Couer and there were lots of people around. I sat for almost an hour on the steps watching people go by. I knew they were going to do fireworks, and decided to wait to see them. It was a good idea because they were the best fireworks I have ever seen. My Mom would have been scared because they were quite close. They had music and dialog, which surprisingly was mostly in English. I'm glad I went. I have decided that if I want to do something, I was going to do it even I didn’t have someone to come with me. I'm going to experience as much of Paris as I can.

     I was really nervous at church today. I know that giving a talk next week and I know I'm not ready for it. I could feel the dread of my coming talk and it was ruining church for me. When I told Sara, she said she could sit down with me and help. So that is what we did after church. She helped so much. Not just with preparing me for the talk, but with the whole French language. I understand French so much better now, and I think my speaking will improve drastically now. I was worried that she was bored with helping me, but she told me she liked it because by having to teach it, then it was grounded in her head more now also. So it was a win-win for both of us. I feel so much better now.

     I can’t express how happy I am, and how incredible my life is right now. Even when I’m having a hard time with something, there is always something great that comes along. I am truly blessed. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and I will see you again next week.