It has been a month since I left Vernon. A month since I was belittled, punished, and cornered by someone much older and apparently more adult than me because of my decision to leave. And I’m happy.
I miss M, P, and M since they were part of my life for the last few months, but I’m happy to have moved on to something that is much better for all of us in the long run.
Now, I live in a small city called Cusset, which is a two minute drive from Vichy and an hour away from Clermont-Ferrand, which is the big city in Auvergne. I’m still taking care of three kids, E, R, and Kylo Ren (sometimes it’s Luke Skywalker. As a former Anakin Skywalker, I’m proud he’s my son, but my grandson… yikes), and they are so sweet and well-behaved. And happy. They watch TV and listen to music from this century. The kids have chores to do, like putting away their laundry and keeping their rooms clean. I get to teach them English and play games and help make dinner, which has been really fun because they like me. That is to say, nobody has held a knife to my throat yet (thanks, Moyen Pamplemousse, aka P, my loving seven year-old in Vernon).
Being here has been so much fun because my host parents are interested in taking me places and talking to me about things, instead of telling me what to do or interrogating me about subjects I have little knowledge about. Like, this weekend in Vichy, there’s a huge festival celebrating Napoleon III and my host dad brought me the program so that I can go and learn more about it tomorrow and Sunday. I’m super excited!
Last week, we went on vacation to a ski resort called Avoriaz, which is incredible. You go everywhere in one-horse open sleighs because there is snow absolutely everywhere. I ate really good food in the Alps. I even learned to like Reblochon de Savoie, the nastiest cheese known to man when melted on top of pasta and onions. It’s really good with potatoes and lardons and cooked onions. Tartiflette is just good. I took the girls, E and R, ice skating, which was super fun because they’re just fun kids. Then, I took all three of them to the swimming pool.
I hate the swimming pool.
When we got back from Avoriaz, I went with the kids to their grandma’s house, which is up on a mountain in the country. She has two swimming pools, two donkeys, and two pygmy goats, which turned out to be the most terrifying things in the world when you’re sitting in a pasture with them and you can’t move.
Last Wednesday, Kylo/Luke was playing with his cousins in the donkey/pygmy goat pasture while I was with my host grandma, host mom, and two teens of family friends drinking our after lunch coffee and enjoying ourselves, when we hear screaming coming from the pasture. We looked out the window to see what was going on and saw the kids running away from the goats, so we laughed a little until the screaming got louder. At this point, I set my coffee down and ran out to the pasture with the other young adults and tried to hop the fence. I am not tall enough to hop a fence with ease, so R, who was really just trying to help, pushed me over the fence. I found myself face down in the pasture with a ridiculous amount of pain coming from my ankle. I rolled over and sat up, but could not move while the goats were on a rampage. They really just wanted to play, but it was a rampage from my point of view on the ground. So, I just sat there, knowing the goats could come by at any second and really hurt me, but I could do nothing but sit there. I was finally able to limp over to “save” the kids from the goats and I decided to look at my ankle when everyone started screaming my name. A goat was getting ready to butt heads with me.
I also hate goats.
But I am truly enjoying my time in Vichy because I’ve found a family I click with and who encourage me to enjoy what the city has to offer.
No comments:
Post a Comment