So, what do you do everyday?

This is a question I get a lot from people back home as well as people here in France. Most people can gather what Patrick does in a day since we moved here so he can teach in France. As for myself, it is a little different everyday. I will try to break down into how I spend my time day-to-day.

Typically, I get up around 9 or 10 in the morning, which is amazing for a variety of reasons. First, anyone who knows me knows that I love sleep so it has been great to average 9 to 10 hours of sleep each night. This pretty much happens most nights except when it is too hot in our room or when my bed becomes unbearable to sleep. Second, I am very rested so the rest of the day I have a lot of energy. When we first got here I tried to get up every morning with Patrick but that lead to 2 to 3 hour naps in the afternoon, which messed up my sleep schedule.

After I get up I either: a) eat breakfast with Patrick; or b) shower then eat breakfast with Patrick. About the time either of these tasks are finished in addition to any picking up of the room/kitchen it is noon. Now in the United States I would go run errands for 2 hours and then eat a late lunch but France shuts down in the middle of the day so I generally check my email, read, or plan out the rest of my day. At around 2 to 3 I run errands around town or get ready to go to my French tutor. After I come home, I get on the Internet for about 4 hours in the afternoon. This is usually when I get to talk to all of you online. After internet, Patrick and I make diner, get ready for bed, read, and then go to sleep around midnight. This is my day in a nut shell.

I realize that this is not a lot, but it takes up a lot of time. I am sure many of you right now are rolling your eyes at the fact that I just explained a typical Saturday or Sunday for most of you minus a few activities. However, everything in France takes longer. To get to the store, shop, and home from the store takes a couple of hours. Try to visit two stores or markets in one day and it takes the whole damn day. For example, I made pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving (this was a lot of fun and I will write about it another day) which was a three day or more process. You see the French don't have canned pumpkin so we had to make it from scratch. Saturday, we bought the 5 lbs or so of pumpkin at market and then walked home with it. Monday we spent 4 hours, yeah 4 hours, steaming and processing the pumpkin in a food mill since we don't have a blender or electric hand mixer. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I baked pie. Why did it take so long to bake four pies? Well the oven we have access to can only really bake a pie at a time. Since I am still a novice at French, I thought I bought pie dough that had two sheets a package but it was two recipes in the package. I didn't have my dictionary with me so it was a guess. I could do a lot more in a day if it didn't take me 5 whole days to do a task that should take no more than 3 hours.

Just add a few trips around France and to other countries, dinner with other assistants and hikes and that is a complete summary of life in France for me. I would like a job but only if it was for a few hours a week around 2 to 4 hours a week. However, right now I am just focused on learning French especially since the applications for graduate school are finished. I am enjoying not having stress and each day as it comes. I realize that I am 100 percent lucky to live this life. I have my moments of missing home a lot and miss having a job; however, this time of reflection and rest has been great(more on that topic later).

Much love,
Molly