A Roadtrip for the books

I have now been with my Poland family for a little less then a month, and it has been a roller coaster to say the least. After hanging out with the kids and exploring Warsaw for a week we loaded all 5 of us (including 2 car seats with me squished between them) and left for a month long road trip around the Balkans. I have been on some great road trips with friends during college, but driving for hours and hours and hours with 2 kids in foreign rural countries where you cross the border and have sex trafficking signs all over is completely different. 

Our first stop: Romania. We drove for what seemed like hours and final made it to the Romanian border the first night. At the border they  decided they needed to hold onto my passport for a long time. It is interesting because at a all the borders they take my passport for however long they want to have it and barely glance at the families European passports. We finally made it to our first stop for the night and passed out from exhaustion. We spent a total of 6 nights in Romania. Though I should have been writing ever little detail down, I didn't so I'm just going to write down a few of my favorite parts. Every day we traveled to a new city to spend time looking at all of the old towns, churches, Gypsies, landmarks, and sometimes yummy, often times not very good, foods that Romania has to offer.

One of the best parts about our drives have been the rows and rows of Sunflowers that seem like they go on for miles. Every time we passed a field full of them I can't help but smile. It seems like we end up spending most of our time in the car during this road trip, but We have found ways to have fun... Oh like having Maks throw up a couple times from eating to much and the whole car getting motion sickness except for Alex who is driving up and down windy roads like a maniac. But honestly it has mostly been good. When the kids are asleep we put on a audio book, but most of the time we just sing songs, dance, eat pretzels, and play a game of who can spot the stork nests first. 

The first town we went site seeing in was Spanta and saw the amazing artwork on the Merry Cemetery. While driving through we also stopped at an old Village Museum. Apparently these type of museums are really popular in Europe, they are a village where they bring all of the old country houses that they could find to one place and made a town with them. Featuring all of the old tools, barns, and the simple way of life. It was fun for the kids to run around. 

The next day we went on a very long train ride through the mountains. We thought we were getting the best deal because when we got there there was a cart that was completely empty, but then after sitting around for an hour we learned that our train was going to be the slowest. We were suppose to leave around 9, but didn't end up leaving until 10:45. It was pure beauty riding around and through the valley, but after 2 hours we were all hot and tired. We ended up getting to the top and jumping on a different train to ride home in 1/3 the time it took to get there, but we still did not end up getting back until 16:00. 

That night we went to the beautiful town of Sighisoara for a medieval festival. We slept in a AirB&B right next to the main town square so we were blessed with the Irish/polish/Bulgarian folk bands jamming until late at night. The music was awesome!!!!!! We spent the whole next day around the town watching sword fighting, dancing and climbing the bell tower. 

Those first few days were my absolute favorite so far. We also traveled to Bucharest, which is Romania's capital, but there was nothing fun about it. The rest of the country was beautiful, filled with colorful buildings and happy people. Unfortunately Romania, like a lot of the countries over here, have been ruled by communism for a long time, so all of the building in the big cities are boring, old and look very dirty. Though times have changed it has still taken them a long time to get where they are now.

 

 

Riding on the train 

The Kajdy Family

 One of the beautiful churches

On top of the bell tower

At the Old Village Museum 

I made it to Poland

   For those of you who do not know, I am now officially an Au Pair (or nanny) for an awesome family right outside of Warsaw, Poland. Most people asked me why I decided on Poland, and it was easy for me. Obviously I love to travel and see all the tourist sites, but I love being in places that are off the path. Places that not very many tourists go... like Poland. I am living with a family in their home, eating their food, driving their car, going on all of their trips and hanging out with their children for the next few months. It's going to be an adventure to say the least.


   I have been in Poland for two weeks now, and it has been a blast! I got picked up at the airport by the Dad, Alex. He then drove me to the summer house, which reminds me of Sun Valley with tree’s, streams and the great outdoor with no shops or anything nearby. I stayed there for a week with Grandpa, Anna’s brother, Mickey, who is handicapped, and Maks, the five-year-old boy. Around 9 or 10 at night Grandma would come home from work and then leave again early in the morning. Our days consisted of taking walks, fishing, playing tag, eating a lot of yummy Polish food, reading books while Maks watched TV and sleeping. My first week in Poland was nice with relaxing while not doing much, but after a couple of days I was tired of being all cooped up in a house where the closest town is 15 minutes by car.
    On Tuesday afternoon, the whole family went to pick up Julie, the seven-year-old girl, from summer camp. She went to a performing arts camp and at the end they put together a show where they sang and danced a few songs and after we watched a few LONG movies that they put together over the week. Imagine watching six movies, which were all 10-14 minutes long, all in Polish that little kids created. It was great. But honestly they were done well, I was just bored by the end. After we packed up Julie and the car we drove to their house in Warsaw.
    I have been here for the past few days, and we have had a lot of fun. The kids are great and play well together until about 3 PM, when they start getting tired and annoyed of each other then are super cranky, and they fight and yell and scream and cry. I guess that’s kids though, right? It hard because I can adequately communicate with everyone in the family (even the extended family) except for Maks, so he starts to get annoyed with everyone speaking in English. I think that has been the biggest struggle for him so far, but we are working on having him learn English. My biggest struggle is when they all start speaking in Polish. Usually, they are just discussing things like parents or explaining to the kids what is going on, but every so often I hear my name being said or the few words that I know in Polish. I usually have NO idea what they are saying, but I know that it is about me. Sometimes they will translate it and other times I think they forget that I don’t know Polish. Everything about becoming an Au Pair is a learning experience.

me with the 2 kids, Julie and Maks.

We went sailing one day on the lake by the summer house

Fishing on the river with Grandpa and Maks

There are beautiful views everywhere here!

While we went on our daily walks at the summer house we became butterfly catchers.

Becoming a true Parisian

Now that I have been out of Paris for a little while, I realized that when you are there conforming to their Parisian lifestyle is the key to a great trip. I put together a few of my favorite things that I learned over the past month. 

To be a true Parisian while traveling in Paris, you need to …

- Learn a few words in French… if you walk into a bakery or a restaurant saying “bonjour” you will have a way better experience. Learning “hello” “please” “thank you” “pardon” “may I have” and “goodbye” goes A LOONNGG WAY in the eyes of a Parisian.

- Dress like a Parisian. And by that I mean don’t wear your short Free People or cute Jcrew shorts. You are telling everyone that you are an American and want to be looked at/touched/cat called/pickpocketed. [Quick story: I was doing my laundry and decided to throw on my one pair of jean shorts just to walk the 2 1/2 blocks to the laundry mat. On my 3-minute walk, I was cat called, honked at, grabbed, and glared at by a few people. The cat calling may boost my confidence for about half a second and then you look at the guys and realize they are gross fat old men 99% of the time. And that was the first and last time I wore shorts in Paris.]

- But seriously dress like you live in Paris. Fun fact about Parisians: they always wear pants. If it's 95 degrees outside most people will be wearing jeans with a shirt/blouse/tank with a winter coat thrown over their arm or in their bag. They are always cold. Buy some cute summery scarves and you are golden.

 - Learn how to swipe your Metro pass without opening your bag to get it out. The first few days we (mostly me) would continuously hold up everyone in line to get home or work or wherever he or she is going at that moment. It sucks, and it makes all the Parisian annoyed at the stupid American. You can swipe your pass through anything. After learning that I always knew where my pass was in my purse, and it was an easy swipe to get through quickly.

- Do not use big bills to pay for small things. I think this goes almost everywhere in Europe, but if you have a 50€ chances are most people will not have change for it or will not take it even if they do have change for it. I have had times where I am buying something for a few Euros, and the cashier won’t even take my 20€ … UGH, Annoying.

- Do Not Smile. Okay, well you can smile, but not towards anyone. If you accidently do smile towards someone, do not show your teeth while you are smiling at them. In the French culture smiling with your teeth is a sign that you are interested in them and may or may not want to go home with them if you catch my drift. ;) On that note, don’t look at people when you are walking around. Most people in Paris enjoy keeping to themselves. Parisians do not look at people. Parisians look through people.

- Do not eat the Chinese food. When you walk around Paris, there are a bunch of little restaurants that have yummy looking Chinese food. Do not be fooled by the delicious colors and smells. The TWO places that we went to over the month both turned into hot messes. Learn your lesson from me. The food has been sitting out all day. Not good.

- Hang out on the Seine. True Parisian grabs a baguette and some cheese and a bottle of wine or two (if that is your thing) and hang out on the river. Some people bring their guitars, but usually you are there to laugh, hang out and make memories. It turns into a party late and night, but it is something everyone can enjoy.

A group of us going to the catacombs one afternoon

Pasta dinner in our Apartment

There is the Mona Lisa... everyone comes to see this small tiny painting, but there are so many more AMAZING art pieces in the Louvre.

The day I ditched class

     It started out like every other day. Mia, Taylor, and I were running late (but still on time) like usual. As we left the apartment and walked to the metro stop, Mia told us that she forgot her lipstick. A few seconds I realized how bright it was outside and that I had forgotten my sun glasses. We all paused and after a short second decided that it was a sign.  We needed to go back to get those crucial things to get us through the day. On our walk back to the apartment, we remind each other how later we were going to be and decided it probably was a good day just to miss class altogether.

     After brainstorming for .2 seconds, we all agreed that we wanted to go to the Louvre instead. Once we got there and got our #basic Starbucks we made our way to the line. (Fun fact: if you are a student and have a student ID you get into the Louvre and other museums for free!) After we had got inside, we spent about 4 hours exploring about 1/5 of the museum. Imagine looking at old painting/statues/carving/bowls and other random artifacts for 4 hours. We were all tired and got a little hungry, and if you know me you know that as soon as I get hungry it is vital for me to eat within the next few minutes or else I turn into a cranky hangry monster. We left the Louvre and walked around to find lunch and settled for a gross (high-end) food court. 

     After eating our nasty old Chinese food, we walked to the Opera. If you pay a few dollars, you can walk around the inside of the Opera building. If you look at the pictures below, that obviously don’t do it justice, you will see that it is breathtaking. On the top floor you can go into one of the balcony booths and see the stage, in other parts of the building you can see rooms filled with books, old costumes, dance studios, and a balcony to get the full effect of the building. It was so worth it.

    Once we finished our self-guided tour of the opera, we started to make our way home. We had walked 12 miles (Thanks, IPhone health apps) and only had a little time to rest up and meet our class. See, our class had a night field trip to the Louvre later on that same evening. Obviously we knew that, but in our head going to the Louvre sounded way more exciting in the morning. Once we got to the Louvre for the second time that day we decided to explain to our teacher our "confusion" about why we missed class and went to explore the museum … again. After two more hours, we were burnt out. The 3 of us went back home and passed out until we had to get up for class the next morning.
Even though we missed our class, I felt that I learned so much more than I would have in class that day. Isn’t that what studying abroad is about? Learning not only in the classroom but also in the beautiful city that we are only living in for a little while.

nothing goes better with a Starbucks then a selfie right??

One of the coolest parts of the Louvre is napoleons apartment.

Inside the opera

"hey look, I am holding the Louvre"

On the roof where we ate lunch