CARBIGTRUCK & St. Galmier

Younis and I are in central France in a beautiful town called St. Galmier where I lived for a year as a foreign exchange student when I was 17. I haven't been back for years. I'm staying with my host family and we are having such a nice time, especially being away from the hectic big city life of Paris, which I love but quickly discovered can be a challenge with a little one. We are in the country here, surrounded by green rolling hills and right outside is a little river and nice grassy field for Younis to run around, this is about as perfect as it can get with a 2 year old. I love spending time with my host-mother, though sadly my host-father passed away suddenly this past year and I can feel his presence everywhere. I miss him and wish he could've met Younis, I know they would have had so much fun together.

Not only is it a beautiful setting here, but on our first day, what should my host-mother bring out from the closet but a bag full of cars and trucks. Life could not get better for Younis. It's hilarious how he will play and play with his cars and trucks with such focus and then do something else for a while and suddenly shout CARBIGTRUCK really as one word. It's like he just wants to make sure the world does not forget about these important motor vehicles. Since we're in this new environment we're sharing a bed and I stay with him until he falls asleep. I don't know if it's having me nearby but he goes wild before finally crashing. He rolls around the bed, on top of me against the wall and pretty much has a massive release of all his words just shouting one after another and then all of a sudden bang, he's asleep. Imad headed back to Morocco to be with his family. Younis definitely misses Baba. When the phone rings, he says Baba and at other random moments throughout the day. We'll both be excited to see him when we get home on Saturday.

It's so peaceful here, I'll be sad to leave at the end of the week. My host-family here hosted several students from all over the world and my host-mother now volunteers for the exchange organization. This week, she has a Swiss student staying with her because she is in the process of changing host-families. She's a sweet 18 year old; however Younis has taken to calling her, along with a majority of other people he sees, little girl. I encourage him to say her name, but what has stuck now is big little girl. He talks about big little girl eating, big little girl sleeping, it's pretty hilarious and luckily she finds it funny and cute as well.

I don't have access to my computer now so will post more pictures later. I was missing my blog having gone a week without an entry! We're here until Friday then back to Paris for a night and finally back to Morocco on Saturday. Will have lots more to report once we're back of our travels in France.