About Me

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Centre, France
I'm a Canadian travel addict. After Travelblogging during two world tours, I'm settling down for a nanny blog during this year in France.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Run with the Rhythm

Almost as soon as I arrived here, Juju started pushing me to get involved in some sort of group to get me out of the house and into the community. Not that she needed a break from me, as I'm pretty good at making myself scarce when Baby L starts making a racket; but having been an au pair herself in younger years, she feared I would feel isolated from spending weekdays alone at the house while the parents and boys were at work and school.

I rebelled a bit at first, feeling shy about my strange Anglo-Quebecer French (for which I occasionally get teased) and preferring, anyway, to savor my own moments of discovery on the trails and roads that surround the house. A month and a half of solitary wandering was about as much as I could take, though, and after a week of homesickness I decided to join up with the town running group.

Bright and early this morning, after shuttling Big L to his dentist appointment, Juju dropped me off at the runners' meeting point and I fell in with the group of 40+ year-olds for an hour-long run. Once I realized my initial worries that people wouldn't like me, 1) because I'm not French or 2) because I'm younger than they are, were unfounded, I found the group atmosphere refreshing and encouraging. The entertaining banter, positive attitude and friendly competition to win occasional "sprint rallies" reminded me of what I'd been missing in all my solo adventures.

I was already reveling in the pleasure of being a team member when I noticed one more thing that you can't reproduce when you're running on your own: rhythm. After 10 kilometres of muddy trail running, we finally found ourselves on a paved road, jogging our way back to the starting point. I was in the lead group and we had all ceased being chatty after the last exhausting sprint. Our thoughts turned inward, we were silent except for the steady inhale-exhale of our breath. I was thinking about how hungry I'd become and what I would like to eat when I got home, when suddenly I heard it - thump, thump, thump, thump, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Steady and in sync, our group had fallen into step and into breath and we were making a meditative music with the rhythm of our running.

I was only tuned into the rhythm for a few minutes before my thoughts turned back to snacking and getting myself up the last endless hill; but the moment gave me such a feeling of Runner's High that I made a mental note to blog about it this evening. At that moment I also felt a connection with my fellow runners. Despite our different backgrounds and ages and interests, for a few minutes we were all doing the exact same motion at the exact same time - we were practically one, or at least, for the non-spiritual, we were all making one sound. Who knows if we'll be able to recreate the rhythm the next time we run, or if it will be with the same people. One thing I do know, is that I'm hooked on this group and will be making a weekly activity of running with the "oldies."

Friday, November 28, 2008

I'm Poor but I'm Free

Juju and L-Daddy work hard at their jobs. As a result they take annual vacations, have got a nice house, loads of cars and an in ground pool to play in during the summer. Part of my job is to keep the house organized, especially to clean up the mess the kids make in the few hours they spend here between coming home from school and going to bed.

Most people would look at all this stuff and aspire to own something like it someday. But while I've definitely benefited from the nice things that surround me here, I've been questioning lately whether all the sacrifices we make for this kind of ownership are worth it. Despite the general Western motto of "work hard, play harder," a lot of people seem to work hard, then work harder.

As a traveler I've met plenty of people on "playcations" (extended breaks from work and life in general). They're a pretty happy, optimistic subset of people who've dropped out of the rat-race to be this and own that. Of course, you don't have to be a traveler to have that attitude, but I've met a lot of non-travelers who are trapped in unsatisfactory jobs or life situations but can't see any way out.

They hate their job but can't leave it. Want change but won't move. I guess you can't blame them for being afraid of the unknown - on my side, I'm afraid of falling into the daily grind they can't escape from.

I haven't saved a lot of money in my last few years of travel around the world. I can't afford to buy a house or stay in fancy hotels, buy expensive souvenirs from the places I visit or eat in fancy restaurants. But what I've sacrificed in material gain, at least I can say I've made up for in perspective. For the wealthiest countries I've visited contain some of the least happy and most stressed out people; and the poorest countries have shown me just the opposite. Of course, I'm not talking about abject poverty - that's just no fun, no matter where you live - but I think there might be happiness to be gained from doing without all this comfortable "stuff" we covet so much.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Mid-Life Retirement

I'm finding it really hard to find an appropriate beginning to my blog, since I'm a bit new in the daily blogosphere. I've written my share of Travel Blogs but those always revolve around stories and this one is just about my daily life in rural France.

Maybe that's a good starting point for this...What exactly am I doing in rural France?

Now, there are two kinds of answers I can give you. The practical one is that I'm taking a year-long sabbatical with some family friends who are graciously letting me live with them in exchange for a little help keeping the house and kids in order while the parents work their busy jobs. Hence this blog being called "Zee (The with a little French accent) Au Pair (French for nanny)."

On a transcendental level I'm rationalizing this year as a retreat from concerns of everyday city life; a kind of early (and temporary) retirement without a pension plan or the onset of arthritis. Instead of waiting until I'm old, I'm taking this year to indulge in leisure activities and reflection all while experiencing life in a new country. Ugh, that last sentence makes me sound like some sort of holistic fruitcake; basically, I'm just indulging my urge to do nothing, while making it look like something.