Last night I slept quite well but kept waking up. There was a thunderstorm at around 4am which was very loud but I didn't get up to see if there was lightening (the shutters on the windows block out all the light so I couldn't see any without getting out of bed).
I was woken up by the children at about 9am (about the same time I woke up yesterday) but apparently today 9am was quite late... When I got up I found that everyone was out or had already had breakfast so was left to fend for myself. This wouldn't be a problem but I have no idea where things are kept! After 10 minutes of searching for bread/milk/hot chocolate powder I gave up and went to get dressed instead. I decided to just get straight into my swimming costume and stick clothes on top as yesterday I couldn't be bothered to go swimming, partly because it was raining, but mainly because I would have had to go and get changed first.
When I was dressed the children came to talk to me to tell me that it was Hillaire's 12th birthday today and that Benoit was taking them out for a drive. I then talked to Hillaire in french about Magicians and card tricks - in french. It's a good job I have google translate on my phone because we would have no way of communicating clearly otherwise!
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| A French Breakfast Bread with butter and honey, a peach, and hot chocolate in a bowl for Petit Dejuner! |
After the children had left, their grandmother (I can't remember the grandparents' or uncle's names as they are just referred to as 'grandmaman', 'grandpapa' and 'Oncle') asked if I had eaten (in french) and when I said no, she said 'But you must!' (in English!) and marched me to the kitchen to show me where the bread, milk and chocolate lived. The milk is UHT and was stored in the laundry room (or the fridge once opened), the chocolate was in a cupboard in the hall, and the bread in a tall basket on the floor in the kitchen (looks like a wash basket but thinner and taller).
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| Gorgeous view for breakfast! |
Alienor, Tanguy and Alice decided to go to the beach and invited me to join them. They were ready to go before I had finished eating though so I said I would catch them up. When I was getting ready to leave, 'Grandmaman' wanted to make sure that I wasn't needed by Benoit or Hélène so she called Benoit on the telephone to check. I tried to explain that they had gone out and wouldn't be back until later but I don't think she understood...As we arrived at the beach by around 10:15am there weren't many people there. The sun wasn't quite so hot either so that was good, but by 11am, there were lots of clouds and it got a bit cold and windy. Tanguy said that they come to Corsica nearly every summer and that this is a very cold summer for Corse. Apparently in July it is often too hot to walk on the sand in bare feet and the sea is lukewarm! It's a shame it's not like that this year!
I had a long swim in the sea while at the beach. I'm still not a very good swimmer, but I find that I can get myself about if needed. It's much more difficult in the sea though because of the varying depth, waves and current - and all the seaweed, salt and sand! I got some seawater in my mouth at one point. It is really disgusting! When I came out all the sand just stuck to me. I remember that this is why I didn't like the beach as a child... It makes it really hard to dry off because the sand is on the towel, and on you, and then it sticks to everything. I have sand in my beach bag, in the cracks of my sunglasses, flipflops, towels, and everywhere!! I'll be washing out of my clothes until October I'm sure!
At around 12 we walked back to the house. I keep forgetting to bring some money with me and every time I walk past the shop I remember about postcards! I will try to go tomorrow I think...
For lunch today, we had salad, bread, cheese, that dried meat stuff, tomato and onions, and the leftover baked courgettes. The children had pasta, a cream cheese sauce and smoked salmon. I think I would have preferred theirs!
After lunch I really wanted a nap after all the swimming in the sea, but because I hadn't spent any time with the children in the morning I felt obliged to sit with them for a while. Wandrille had a strop because he wanted to play with my phone, and then Hermine got upset because I tidied up the Loom bands (for some reason they have all claimed a selection as their own which they hide from everyone else... I don't understand why as pooling the supply would mean there was a much better range of colours to choose from. Very odd, but perhaps we would have done the same as children at home). I am still finding it very difficult to understand what the problem is when they get upset as it often seems like it comes from nowhere. Today I learned 'quel est le problème?' which will hopefully be very useful when they have tantrums in future!
My favourite phrase is still "qu'est-ce c'est?" [kes-ker-say] - what is it? I think I must say that about 100 times a day while pointing at things or repeating a word I don't know. Today I asked the children "qu'est-ce une grenouille?" which led to lots of 'crok, crok, crok' and demonstrations of hopping all around the room. (It's a frog, in case you didn't guess!) I told them that in England, frogs say 'ribbet, ribbet', but they said that was stupid and didn't sound like a frog haha.
I had a long swim in the sea while at the beach. I'm still not a very good swimmer, but I find that I can get myself about if needed. It's much more difficult in the sea though because of the varying depth, waves and current - and all the seaweed, salt and sand! I got some seawater in my mouth at one point. It is really disgusting! When I came out all the sand just stuck to me. I remember that this is why I didn't like the beach as a child... It makes it really hard to dry off because the sand is on the towel, and on you, and then it sticks to everything. I have sand in my beach bag, in the cracks of my sunglasses, flipflops, towels, and everywhere!! I'll be washing out of my clothes until October I'm sure!
At around 12 we walked back to the house. I keep forgetting to bring some money with me and every time I walk past the shop I remember about postcards! I will try to go tomorrow I think...
For lunch today, we had salad, bread, cheese, that dried meat stuff, tomato and onions, and the leftover baked courgettes. The children had pasta, a cream cheese sauce and smoked salmon. I think I would have preferred theirs!
After lunch I really wanted a nap after all the swimming in the sea, but because I hadn't spent any time with the children in the morning I felt obliged to sit with them for a while. Wandrille had a strop because he wanted to play with my phone, and then Hermine got upset because I tidied up the Loom bands (for some reason they have all claimed a selection as their own which they hide from everyone else... I don't understand why as pooling the supply would mean there was a much better range of colours to choose from. Very odd, but perhaps we would have done the same as children at home). I am still finding it very difficult to understand what the problem is when they get upset as it often seems like it comes from nowhere. Today I learned 'quel est le problème?' which will hopefully be very useful when they have tantrums in future!
My favourite phrase is still "qu'est-ce c'est?" [kes-ker-say] - what is it? I think I must say that about 100 times a day while pointing at things or repeating a word I don't know. Today I asked the children "qu'est-ce une grenouille?" which led to lots of 'crok, crok, crok' and demonstrations of hopping all around the room. (It's a frog, in case you didn't guess!) I told them that in England, frogs say 'ribbet, ribbet', but they said that was stupid and didn't sound like a frog haha.
Hélène asked if I could 'entrust you to the children'. She wanted me to watch them while she and Benoit went for a walk and told me that they had to go outside and that 'they will had a meal before 5pm so that they were still hungry for dinner at 7pm like bread or more bread'. In english, they have an afternoon snack but she wanted them to have a snack before 5pm... I let them play on my phone some more until about 4:30pm when I got them some bread. Hermine was being a bit of a brat and kept snatching things from Wandrille and getting stroppy, shouting at me in french - I still have no idea why. When I asked her if she wanted bread she shouted 'NON! TU NE SAVEZ PAS!', and knocked the bread onto the floor. I assumed this meant that she didn't want any so gave some to the others and didn't worry about her. She came back about 10 minutes later to discover that all the bread was gone (obviously) and then started crying and screaming (they make themselves cry and go off in a huff without telling you what's wrong, it's stupid).
After they ate, Wandrille and I went swimming in the pool. Alienor and Alice (who had been baking a cake for Hillaire's birthday) came to tell me that I had to look after Hermine too because they were going to the beach and Hillaire and Anthelme had gone with Grandmaman to the shops. I really didn't want to look after Hermine too as it's hard enough having one child talking at you in french, but to have a second that just gets angry and impatient when I don't understand... I stayed in the pool for a long time. The sun came out so I just sat on a float and sunbathed - very nice!
When I came out, I had a shower and then it was time for dinner. As it was Hillaire's birthday, the children were allowed to join the adults for dinner which they don't usually do. For aperitif is was that soup/salad thing again (still can't remember the name!) with bread. Grandmaman told me that it was greek, not french. There was a stewed leg of lamb (I think) in red wine and onion sauce which we had with pasta. For dessert it was birthday cake. The girls had made what they called a 'Piñata' cake - just a plain sponge with chocolate icing but when Hillaire cut into it, the middle was hollow and filled with sweets.
I was really tired and just wanted to go to bed so I cleared the table, filled the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen and washed up so that I wouldn't get asked to put the children to bed and could just go to bed myself after. They were all very grateful (they told me that they had hired a chef/kitchen help for this week so that they didn't have to worry about food or washing up but she resigned at the last minute!) It didn't really work though as Hélène came to tell me that the younger children were in bed, but not asleep, and to make sure the older ones went to bed as she and Benoit were driving Alienor, Tanguy and Alice to a Party a few hours away. Tanguy would have just driven his dad''s car but last week when he did that, he returned the car with one of the rear lights completely smashed up (apparently his friend drove it into a tree or another car or something when drunk... but that's not the story the parents heard!)
There are ants everywhere too! When I was washing up, there were dishes swarming with them! It's disgusting! There are hundreds in the corridor outside my room too and last night there were several in my bed which I had to kill before I got in. After I washed up, I got a cloth and tried washing/wiping them from the floor in the corridor but they were coming out of holes in the skirting board/wall/plug holes etc. and whenever I wiped up some, within seconds the area would be swarming again! Really nasty. Anne (the aunt) says tomorrow she will find some more ant killer because they are getting too much now.
I got to try some macarons et chocolats from the Jean Luc Pelé Patisserie this evening. Anne and Grandmaman told me that he is a very famous Patisserie in France and that his sweets and cakes are very luxurious! I tried a strawberry macaron which had jam in the middle. It was very nice but so sweet I couldn't have eaten more than one!
Anne told me that she thought my french was getting quite good now. I definitely can say much more and she said I am doing much better at talking with everyone much more than I could before which is really good. I definitely am understanding more, but I still can't keep up with conversations. They all speak so fast! It's frustrating because they'll be talking about something and then all laugh and I don't always know the subject of the conversation, let alone the joke! Tanguy seems to be very good at telling jokes and stories - he gets very animated and does different voices and all sorts but I just can't understand! It's a shame because I expect it is very funny!
Time for bed now. There's lots of spiders and ants in my room but there's nothing I can do about it! 3 more days to go in Corsica...
Some pictures from my trip to the beach
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