Liene V.

I’ve just moved to Villennes for a year as an au pair, and so far, I’m liking it quite a bit. It’s a small town, with maybe one little main street with a couple banks, La Poste, a bakery, a small supermarket, a library, and a couple cafés/restaurants, but outside of that there’s a fair expanse of lovely houses (everything from reasonable to extravagant), and a number of fields (the one across from our house has retired horses and some maybe-fruit trees). It’s a very peaceful little place, and while I think most of the exploring will be of houses, not things to do, I enjoy being here.

I spent two years in Vermont at Marlboro College, and it’s worth it for the lack of billboards alone. Beyond that, it was wonderful to have real seasons, and anywhere you go in October is just breathtaking. I miss it constantly.

Once upon a time I was ten years old and in the fifth grade, and I went on an exchange to Invercargill for three weeks. I was still afraid of taking too many pictures (this persisted for years afterward) — I don’t even know where the ones I took are anymore — and I was a bit too young to have the energy to take everything in, because I was spending most of it on keeping track of myself.

Someday I hope to be inexplicably rich so I don’t have to worry about things like “vacation time” and “supporting myself with an hourly wage.”