Touch Down to Earth

So, finally, a week without crazy international mishaps, cultural cross-border day-trips and random Italian suitors proposing marriage... And what happened? I got bored. Of course I did!

After several weeks of being in transit-mode, I've finally touched down, in this small French village to the south of Lyon, population: 3,000, twenty-somethings: 0 (figures approximated). My job: to spend the day keeping two au pair children adequately amused and spend a couple of hours trying to teach them English as well. Not rocket science. It's no wonder that spending 24/7 in one house and no visible way out started to take its toll by the 3rd day.

http://www.palmerstation.com/history/0515/signpost.html

However, after a chat with a good friend and discussions of the possibility to go and visit someone in Lyon, things started looking up. In fact, after I decided to have a more sunny disposition towards how things were (and adjusted my sleep pattern), things were indeed a lot better. We've managed to get in a daily walk to the boulangerie in town: a small task, but no mean feat, and a time out of the house that does us all good. We also took several trips out in the car this weekend, with me driving, which ended in a solo journey into Lyon and back on Sunday evening! I'm not going to lie, I was a little terrified of going by myself, with the prospect of getting lost and truly having no idea how to get home again. But I had a trusty little SatNav (although in French, bien sûr), and the family phone for use in case of emergencies, and, thankfully, it didn't come to that. I even managed to get in a bit of parallel parking (heck of a lot easier in a Peugeot 206 than a van, I can tell you!), and made it with plenty of time to make it to the church service I had been aiming for, despite a minor deviation en route (turns out SatNavs sometimes aren't as easy to follow as I thought).

So, on the whole, not a terribly exciting week, but one that I can appreciate all the same. With fourth year quickly approaching it's actually rather good to have a bit of preparation time - I've been getting out the Spanish Grammar books, oh the excitement! And with more and more people returning to British shores ('end of year abroad' statuses galore), things are starting to calm down a bit. Perhaps it is time to touch down to earth. Well, until the next trip...