Driving in Europe

Last night I drove with Jerome...and it went pretty well! A little nerve-wracking, driving in another country, and with someone looking over your shoulder like a driving instructor when you take class freshman year of high school. Haha. It was fine though, he quickly saw that I can drive a manual just fine and didn't have to worry about showing me HOW to drive the car....just how to drive in France! The laws are a little different, with no yellow lines separating traffic...all the lines are white so it's going to take some time to get used to that. There are lots of 'round-abouts' where one enters the road from the right, and drive in a circle until you want to exit onto another street. It's a little bizarre...and here the roads are like the one-way streets in the U.S. So a TINY street is meant for traffic going both ways, so basically I have to get used to pulling over to the side of the road and stopping to let a car pass...OR everyone just pulls up onto the curb and drives on the curbs. It's kind of crazy. All the cars are parked on one side of the road, and the side to park on changes on the 15th of every month. So, when driving, if the cars are parked on MY side, I'm the one that has to pull over to let a car pass me...Sounds complicated when I try to write it out. Anyways, Jerome and I are going to drive each night when he gets off work, for about 30 minutes or so, and he'll show me the routes to all the places I'll need to drive the kids...I hope I pick it up quickly and get my 'bearings' and directions and don't get lost once I'm alone with the kids. All in all, I think he was pleased with how we did....the reason it's a bit more stressful learning how to drive here, is that every direction he gives me is all in French, so I have to pay EXTRA attention to learn it all!

Yesterday I also met Kristi, the new au pair for a neighbor friend...and get this...Kristi is from BOISE, IDAHO!!!!!!! IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL!! Weird, huh?! She is 23, just graduated from a college in Wisconsin, and arrived here 2 weeks ago. We spent all day together with the kids, and this afternoon we're taking them to an indoor pool. Kristi and I get along well and as long as she stays with the job here, we will be friends and I imagine hang out on the weekends a lot, site see, and go out. It will be really great, so I hope it works out for her!

I have a few hours free this morning, so I'm blogging early. I was really tired last night and needed to get good rest, which I did. I cleaned my apartment pretty well I think and just took some pictures so I'll send those soon. I need to journal more, and continue with my reading. This weekend I think I am going to a concert festival called "Rock en Seine". It is in St. Cloud, which is about 10 minutes away from my studio! There are 3 nights of concerts, but I want to go to Saturday, at 5:00, to see Amy Winehouse! Pretty sure that's my plan....and of course Paris, here I come!!! I'm excited for the weekend. This morning I did my Pilates dvd. I wanted to go for a job but it was raining. So I def. will keep up on my Pilates on the days I can't jog. All is well!

Bisous