Grief and grève

Well, it's been quite a while since I frequented this humble little blog... Don't really know where to begin, but one thing is certain and that is that life surely has a way of putting you on emotional roller-coasters every now and then and when you least expect it to.
Familymembers becoming dreadfully ill (thus the "grief"), but then decide to get married in a loop, yes that's definitely one way life likes to express it's capriciousness. I spent two weeks away from France in October to try to come to turns with what's going on there with the familymember's alleged health... Alas, it didn't go as I wished, that piece of the puzzle will have to remain unsolved as of now.
So, I'm back since a couple of weeks in my little au pair environment, studiously trodding along and trying my best to keep the spirits up. It's straining on me both physically and mentally, but I trudge along. If only this effing transportstrike would end! It's been going on for almost 2 weeks now. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about; the French transportpeople including metro, buses, trains and whatnot, have all decided to go on strike ("grève"=strike in French) so there is almost no way of getting anywhere. I've been stuck in my little village for almost two weeks! Well, I tried every now and then to get into Paris to go to class and it took me on average an hour and a half (normally it takes me 45 mins...). And it's mayhem!! People pushing and feeling you up, and then getting panique-attaques all over the place because of the stress. Jeez... Hopefully it'll end soon, this is getting a bit tiresome.
Whatsmore, I've been to Lille with the family, it was cold as... but nice. The Mottes had their annual reunion, there are over 270 people in that family! Not all of them were there though, luckily. We partied out in a lovely little chateau in the country and spent the night in a hotel, I got breakfast-buffet in the morning - j'adore.
Winter's here I think, you can tell when all the spiders from the garden are trying to get into your room... I like the idea of it being Christmas soon (I can go home!!), but on the other hand that means I have to finish my University-work so I get all freaked out thinking about it being December in 10 days.
Right now I'm working on a litterature piece (or rather, that's a lie, I'm rebeliously blogging), and it has taken me ages just to write one single paragraph, do I suck or what?
Will return to my studies now, they're calling out to me.
Ciao and goodbye