The Goodbye Party

It has been a week of goodbyes for me, but I realize that for most au pairs (and Saint Tropez in general) it is a week of hellos. Les gens, ils arrivent! It's still not officially summer here, but every day it seems like there are more and more people in the streets and the traffic gets worse and worse. But I don't have to deal with that anymore because I'm done!

TOMORROW Ricky is arriving and the day after the kids will leave. Then Ricky and I will have a couple days to ourselves here before we head off to Paris and then to visit Kathy in Austria and then back to Nice before we fly home. I am very excited, I've missed him so much.

But this weekend was my goodbye party. I had a bunch of the girls over (Luisa, Eva, Nathalia and Alexandra). And we had a cookout in the apartment while Tom was in town watching some football game. Nathalia prepared some amazing Brazillian food and caipirinhas.

Then we went out in Saint Tropez and met up with some other au pairs. Annika and Freida came because it was their last weekend too. We also met some new au pairs and overall just enjoyed each others company. Like every weekend, I intended to stay out all night but by 4am I was exhausted and getting cranky. So we headed back to the house and called it a night.

I feel like a bit of a poop for cutting it short, because I wish this part of my time here would never end. Well sort of. I can already tell I'm getting sick again (comme d'habitude). But I'm so glad the rest of it is over. Hopefully the next few days won't be too bad and I can enjoy some beach time with Luisa or something like that.

I'll miss everyone I met here so much. Isabelle, Luisa, Nathalia, Tom, Kathy, and yes I might even miss the boys. You just get so used to one way of living it seems like it will be impossible to go back to the states and jump back into my old routine. I guess that is part of growing up though. The more things change the more they stay the same? Maybe that's the wrong cliche.

I'm not really excited to go home. I think because I'm constantly waiting for a new adventure. That's how it's always been. I'm not one to let myself sit around and be bored. I will jump at every opportunity I get even if it ends in complete catastrophe. Going home seems like the anti-adventure thing to do right now because I have no idea what's next. Will I just sink back into city college and never leave Sacramento again? Or will I get the guts to fly to New Orleans for Tulane? Or will I purposely miss my flight and just stay here forever and get a job at Lacoste or something (LOL)? Whatever I decide to do, I know I will make the most out of it, always look on the bright side and find a way to make it into the greatest adventure of my life.

But before I do that, I do have some legit adventuring to do. Paris, Austria, JE VIENS!