My life makes me jealous of MYSELF!

So I think by now most of you know that I found a family to take me in under the pretense that I will lead and guide their children (they will probably teach me the most). Everyone has shown such excitement and for the past little while my Boise/facebook peeps have said "I wish I had done something like that before I . . . (fill in the blank with: got married, went to grad school, bought a car, had a kid). I think those are really odd statements because I think if they hadn't done any of those things most of those people would do the same things they were doing in order to meet someone to marry, go to more school, buy a car, or start a family. Needless to say, I don't like statements of regret and projection because most likely we would make the same choices over again.

Anyways, that was a little sidetracking on my part. My family consists of two teenagers! I KNOW! I never expected this to be the case and it freaked me out at first. In fact, a few months ago it freaked me out so much that I turned down a family with teenagers and switched agencies to get a different perspective. After a little process of maturing and changing my mind, I decided to be more open to opportunities. On a mere passing of chance, I ended up applying to, talking with, and contracting with the EXACT same family that I had turned down a month or two ago. Does anyone understand how that happened? I don't really, but I am going with it.

My family lives in a small village outside of Turin. I looked up their address on google earth . . . when people say they live in a small village outside a big city in Italy and that they have no neighbors but can afford an au pair it means they live in a huge house/villa.



The kids are 15 (boy) and 13 (girl). They are also have a 30 year old son in Canada, I don't have to babysit him. Because of their ages, I will mostly be teaching them english (don't ask me how) and driving them to all their different activities. I don't really start working till the afternoon. I hope to make some village lady friends who will teach me all of their secrets of cooking. My neighbor grew up in Italy and he said that once the women around know I am on my own, "you will get about 20 more grandmas and mammas" that really made me feel good.

I am starting to learn Italian. I forgot how hard another language can be, but I really love it so far. It is fun to speak. I feel like me and this country will get along very well, but I have to stop daydreaming and just wait and see!

The parents are great. The dad speaks english very well, the mom is shy "but only in english". She is a psychotherapist (yeah, that is part of why i thought we would get along). I think the dad has his own business.

Now, the food. The food in the northwest area of Italy is very similar to France. Lots of butter and TRUFFLES. Now, if you have never had truffles, they are weird at first. But let me tell you, they are worth the hundreds of dollars that they cost a pound. I encourage you all to buy truffle oil at the grocery store and drizzle it over pasta, or look up another way to get it for much cheaper than buying the actual mushroom. Anyways, I have to go to work, but let me know what more you want to know! LOVE LOVE LOVE

m.jean