It looks like my career in France is over now. Yesterday was my last day at work as a nanny for the French family I have been working for for the last 1,5 years, and today is my first day of the maternity leave. I cannot believe this day actually came. Or of course it was about to come, but it feels so weird that from now on I don't go to work and see those lovely kids I took care of. Officially living with benefits instead of a salary. We won't be moving out of France for at least some more months but it looks like we might move soon enough for me not to return to work here anymore. I will stay at home with the baby also after the 16 weeks of maternity leave.
Working with kids had become more challenging for a few months already. I remember thinking in December how I can manage with my growing belly for 3 more months... I have told the 4yo big brother many times that I cannot run with him anymore but otherwise we have played and lived quite much like before I was pregnant. However, I started to notice that sitting on the floor and going around for the after-school activities made my body tired and sometimes hurt when returning home. So I was also looking forward to this day when I can relax more and be at home for dinner before 8pm. Nevertheless, it doesn't change the fact that it was sad to say bye to my employers and their absolutely adorable children and give back their home key yesterday evening. At the moment I don't feel like it, but it will probably be weeks or even months before I see them next time. Unless if I get bored staying home alone and I randomly take a metro to say hi. I will also miss the views that I saw daily on my way to work and back. I have to say I quite liked watching the buildings for those few metro stations that the metro was not running underground.
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Passing by some of the most famous
sights in Paris every day. |
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| The 4yo learning to understand the metro map.. |
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I was so touched by the cards I got from the French family.
The 4yo had even chosen to start coloring with green and orange
because he remembered those are my favorite colors. |
The spring here has been rather quiet otherwise. Covid and the restrictions have limited our free time possibilities but at least we have been able to enjoy the weather when it was very warm for a couple of weeks in February. We even went for a picnic with H in the floral park a bit outside Paris. Not so many flowers were blooming yet but thinking about Finland that was still covered with snow, it felt nice to warm up in the sun light and breath some fresh air. Celebrating the Lunar New Year in the middle of February ended up being quite small for us even though it is a big thing in Vietnam. We bought some Vietnamese food from a Vietnamese market H found out about and I got us some peach flowers from the Asian district. A couple of weeks later we gathered with some of H's friends to have a bigger Vietnamese meal together. It always keeps me amazed how many different things Vietnamese people like to cook for one single meal. But I definitely don't complain. :)
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| in a Vietnamese market |
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We even had snow for a few days here. But the negative
side of that was that all the playgrounds were shut. |
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Being treated well by Vietnamese friends. (Though I have to admit
that I was not too keen on trying the gelatinoided mushroom-porc.) |
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| The floral park just outside Paris |
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| Daffodils were one of the few flours blooming yet. |
So from today on I stay more at home and prepare for the delivery - that hopefully won't happen for a few weeks still. We have taken already 5/7 of the prenatal courses that are offered in France for free and next week I will have the last two of them. We have been lucky to have a midwife who can speak English and so few participants on the same lessons that she has been able to translate almost everything for us. Intensive listening for over an hour in French would ben quite a challenge for both me and H. We just have to cross our fingers to have English-speaking staff on the delivery day, too. Until that I try to learn some important vocabulary in French just in case. Having a third lockdown starting tonight won't affect my life too much since I plan to take it easy for the next weeks. Except that I might not be able to see my friends that much even though I now have more free time to do so.
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| The prepare class for birth |
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I have to start taking walks every day now that I won't be going out
for work anymore. Luckily the parks here offer nice blossoming. |
