Babysitting and Castle Adventures

Wow the past two weeks have flown by ! Sorry I have not had the chance to write to you ! Classes are going well and keeping me busy. Last weekend I spent catching up on work that I had put off while my family was here and also catching up on rest because we are in the final count down now !! Only four weeks left until I am back ! Holy cow has time flown !!

I have started babysitting for the director of the international program here once a week so that she can have some extra time herself. She is a single mother as well as dedicated teacher and director so I am very excited about the opportunity to give back to her for all the hard work she puts in for us students and it is great getting to know her better. Her son is named Olly, is almost two and one of the cutest little boys ever. While I am watching him we play games and watch movies in English because she wants to raise him bilingually. It is really interesting because he usually responds in French, although he mostly understands me in English (sometimes I have to repeat in French). So that has been a fun addition to my week !  

Yesterday I went on a mini adventure to a small town called Amboise with my friend Min. Our plan was to see the château there and Leonardo de Vinci’s house then take a train over to another beautiful château nearby. We ended up seeing a bunch of our friends there because the CIDEF excursion was also spending some time there so we toured the château and Leo’s house with them before getting lunch together !  It was a great time ! The château was stunning and included a chapel where Leonardo is buried !! That was very cool to see. His house was awesome too however a lot of rooms where closed to the public so we enjoyed his gardens the most because a lot of his inventions were on display there.

Once they left, we headed back to the train station to get a ticket over to Chenonceau, the other château we had planned to see, however there were no direct trains and the only one would get us there had a long layout and we would have arrived after it closed !! So we just bought a ticket home… We did have a really great morning though plus we were exhausted so it was nice to be home a little earlier even if we didn't see all that we had planned.

This week I have a couple tests so wish me luck ! Next weekend will be fun though because I am going on the Normandy excursion AND a German friend from the September class is coming back to visit for the weekend so that will be great to see him !