First Full Day

So, it finally happened: Lise told me she wanted her old au pair back. I'm not taking it personally, and she's back to wanting to play with me 24/7, but I knew it was bound to happen at some point!

Basically, she doesn't have school on Wednesdays, so yesterday was our first full day together. The morning was good (drawing, watching music videos, High School Musical 2 and 3), but as soon as she was supposed to get ready for her first swimming lesson, she told me she didn't want to go, came downstairs to my room, and wrapped herself in a blanket while curling up into a ball (literally, a ball).

I didn't do anything except insist that she should really go so that she didn't waste her parents' money, to which she grabbed the phone and walked outside to the trampoline, where she had a very long conversation with her mom (she told me afterwards her mom said she didn't have to go, but obviously the phone conversation would have been much shorter if that were true). Anne sent me a text saying not to worry about it, and that Annick, Lise's grandmother who lives nearby would be coming over to talk to Lise. Then Annick and Lise exchanged some angry words, which didn't have any effect on Lise, and then Lise and Juliet yelled at each other for a while in French, until something finally clicked and Lise willingly changed inter her swimsuit really quickly and was ready to go. Lise, Juliet, Juliet's friend and I ran/scootered over the pool really fast because the lesson was already starting.

So that was good, as if there had been no argument in the first place. Except that when we got back, Lise wanted to look at pictures of animals on my computer (something we had talked about doing earlier in the day), but Lise had already been kind of bratty about the snacks, so I told her that we couldn't use my computer because it was rude of her to act out and make her grandma come all the way over to the house for the second time that day. So then she yelled that she didn't want me and that she wanted Lindsay back and went inside. And then within 20 minutes it was totally fine, and we were playing nicely again. So yay, I guess. It was a long day though.

Today, since she does have full days of school on Thursdays, I met up with Lewis (Lise's love interest Lucas' jeune homme au pair, who's English) and we got macarons at Pierre Hermé, which is supposedly considered the best macaron place in Paris by Parisians. I got an olive oil and vanilla one, and it was excellent.

Then we went to a specialty foods store (I found my filtered coffee!) and then to a cafe he likes, where we ordered a drink (I don't remember what their name for it was), but it was served cold and it was special because they let it drip for 24 hours before they serve it. So that was interesting.

Lise's teacher is sick so apparently tomorrow she doesn't have to go (I guess they couldn't get a substitute?), so she has another day off, but her friends will be here all day so that's good.

I'm having a great time -- today was good because I got to sample some of Paris, but I've been too exhausted to really explore so far, so I'm looking forward to more days like these. HOWEVER, more than anything I wish I could be home today because my chapter of the sorority is having formal recruitment (when I was deciding whether to be an au pair or not, missing helping out with formal recruitment was one of the biggest cons on my list, I'm kind of an AEPhi nerd), and I love my sisters and recruitment so much that it's kind of killing me to be so far away from them. But they'll do fine, and I guess I'd rather be in Paris than stuck somewhere else away from them, so c'est la vie :)