Happy New Year! Bonne Annee! Joyeux Saint Sylvestre and all the rest! After returning from the Alps back to Paris with a clear head and tired thighs, I have had some realisations. My daughter Lili is not liking Paris. I knew from the beginning that this would not be an easy transition for her but I was hoping that by the Christmas break, things would have started looking up for her. And I know that it's not too late. She is doing well in school, although she is extremely anxious about going and doesn't talk a lot in class. She understands a lot of french but she's scared to make a mistake when she speaks. At home, she can put together a sentence without breaking a sweat. Mme. Panzani, her teacher, is nice and very charismatic. But as we all know, sometimes our charismatic leaders can turn out to be a little bit scary and very intimidating sometimes. She has friends and is social but she never has anything positive to say about being here. She always talks about going home or going to California. Again, I know things can and hopefully will turn around for her but in the mean time, it's hard... on all of us. As parents, we would do anything to make it better (except, of course, send her home) and we spend a lot of time and energy trying to do that. As for Noa, although she seems perfectly happy here, she likes to mimic Lili's behavior, so then we have to hear it from her too. I've also realized that sending your kids to a bilingual school means exactly that, it's bilingual. There is a lot of english. In fact, all the kids are expected to speak english after the first grade. This is part of the reason it's hard for Lili to find kids to speak french to, they all speak english and most of them do it very well! We definitely didn't want to send them to public school but it would be nice if there was a way for them to practice what they've learned, which is really a lot! Our plan of attack is this: We're looking to hire someone, like a tutor, to talk and play with Lili so she gets more comfortable opening her mouth in class. You would think it would be easy for us just to find some french kids for her to play with. But for whatever reason, it's not as easy as it seems. We did try to sign up for some classes at the community center because we thought she could meet kids through that but it turns out people sign up for these classes in June, so we never even had a chance. I've also realized, for a number of reasons, that it would have been nice if we could have stayed for 2 years instead of just one. Don't freak out, we're not going to stay (I don't think... no really, we're not). We're only just now getting the hang of how things work and settling into our new big city life. We're starting to figure out who we like and want to spend more time with. The girls will just be getting really comfortable with their french by the time we have to leave. And there is so much to do, so much to see and just not enough time! I still think it's great that we have this opportunity to come, even if just for one year but I think it's a little sad that we can't stay for two. I know we still have 6 months left and we've only just reached the halfway point but it feels like the second half is going to be like a slide into summer. Like we spent the fall climbing up the ladder to the top and now the ride down is going to be so quick. I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining because, believe me, I still think it's great that we are here but if you really want to get to the heart of What's that smell, you need to be able to accept the bad smells as well as enjoying the good. (The photos posted are of Chloe getting ready for our "party" on New Year's Eve. She was super excited!)
