Courtney in France

Changes, AGAIN

2011-08-19T02:17:00.000-04:00

Hey guys!

I'm still in Paris, but I am blogging about lifestyle design + creating your own rules for lost twenty-somethings.

If that interests you,

find me at www.rulebreakersclub.com!

Welcome to Courtney in France!

2011-05-05T14:25:00.001-04:00

This blog recounts my adventures as an English Teaching Assistant in Paris.

If you're a current or prospective assistant, reading this blog is a great way to learn about the program. However, there is so much to share that I didn't share on my blog.

If you have any questions about my experience or the program in general, please do not hesitate to email me at Courtney@filleamericaine.com. I adore connecting to people who share my passion for French culture and would love to hear from you!

Consider visiting my current website: www.filleamericaine.com, where I write about culture, language, and lifestyle... with a heavy French influence. I even have some tips for moving abroad.

I think you'll find even more useful information there! I look forward to hearing from you!

Bisous,

Courtney

New Blog

2010-09-09T20:21:00.003-04:00

Hey, y'all. This adventure is over, but you can check out my new blog at www.americourt.blogspot.com which will be full of observations as a repatriated American. Enjoy :)

And my even better site, www.filleamericaine.com, which launched May 1, 2011.

America the strange

2010-09-08T11:22:00.000-04:00

Dear faithful readers,

As most of you know, I have successfully made it to the States, something that has been both exciting and difficult for me this past week. I'm still in the process of setting myself up here in Michigan, but I am eager to begin blogging again once things become a bit less hectic! Don't lose faith, I still have plenty of things to say, haha.

Love lots,

Courty

2010-08-30T11:16:00.000-04:00

Cher Paris,

MERCI.

Paris is DEAD

2010-08-19T10:45:00.000-04:00

There is quite literally no one in this city. Okay, that's a gross exaggeration, but let me put it this way, I had to walk to five (yes, FIVE) different pharmacies today before finding one that was open. I was about to give up after number four, but something inside of me told me that it's not physically possible to have no open pharmacies in a city. Where are these Parisians getting their perscriptions?! Oh wait, they're not... they're all on vacation in the south.

This week has presented me with a strange combination of laziness and stress. Did you see that damn ticker on the left of this page? TWELVE DAYS left in Paris. That's it! I figured with two weeks to go I should probably start packing my stuff. I wanted to make sure that everything that I have accumulated in the past year (which is an astonishing amout of affairs) would fit into my four suitcases. Moving is always an unpleasent experience, made twenty times more so when constrained to Air France baggage restrictions. When I checked the Air France website I learned to my dismay that I am only allowed to check two suitcases, which means that my lovely backpack will be hanging out in Paris until I come back to get it.

I read an article in the New York Times today which discussed the newly accepted life stage of "emerging adult", a stage that one goes through during their twenties. Apparently us new millenium twenty somethings like to put of adulthood as long as possible in the self indulgent hope of "finding ourselves"-- or at least that's how someone put it. We don't want to get jobs, spouses, have children, or buy houses. Apparently we just want to move to Europe and have a glorious, soul-searching helluva time. Given my current lifestyle, I had to laugh while reading the article.

Though I can't lie, sometimes I wish I had less choices as far as careers and graduate school programs are concerned because the world of endless possibilites is extremely exhausting, and it's hard to deal with all of these choices from across the Atlantic. Sometimes I think it would be easier to live the traditional way and spend no time figuring out who you are... but then I remember how much I have profited from this year abroad, how much it has changed me, and how boring life would be without more similar experiences.

a little somethin' somethin'

2010-08-03T15:31:00.000-04:00

28 days-ish. Currently in Bretagne enjoying the best crepes in the world. I ate lobster and oysters for the first time. Enjoyed the lobster, not so much the oyster. These next 28 days are going to go by so fast. This most incredible, LIFE CHANGING year is about to end.

I'll update about vacation more when I'm, well, not on vacation. I feel far too lazy right now!

Sorry for the neglect!

2010-07-23T04:06:00.001-04:00

It's been more than two weeks since I last updated, and if anyone cares, I am deeply sorry for my apparent laziness, I've just been enjoying my last couple of months here!

Next week is my last week working full-time for the American family because they are moving back to America after four years in Paris. Then I'm off to Britany with the coolest and nicest Parisan lady ever... her and her son are in Philedalphia right now and she just sent me a text message to say "Hi from America, Courtney!" I'll definitely have to stay in touch with her. I'm also trying to upload a super cute video that I took of her son while he was playing with blocks. It may or may not work.

Boy oh boy could I use a break from this city... especially after the kind of week I had, which was filled with personal dilemmas about a job in Paris for next year (which I decided against), and a failed attempt to watch the Bastille day fireworks at the Eiffel Tower (and by failed I mean that I listened to the fireworks from the back of an ambulance... don't worry, I was the support rather than the victim and everyone is o.k.).

To top off my experience with French beaurocracy, I'd like to remind my faithful readers that after TEN months in this country I have not yet recieved any information from the social security office about my medical insurance (which I was supposed to recieve within the first three months in France). Secondly, for some insane reason I decided to attempt depositing cash into my bank account at my bank (the exact branch where I opened my account) at 4:00 on a Wednesday. I so innocently believed that I would encounter no problems doing so, but apparently (and with no explination) it is not possible to deposit money into my bank account at 4:00 on a Wednesday, or so I was told by the bank employee who looked like he was counting down the minutes until the end of the day and his next cigarette. Ulitmately, I would just like to say that I have yet to have a successful experience at the bank!

Hmm, what else has happened since I last graced this blog with recounts of my adventures? Oh, I watched the World Cup final between Holland and Spain at the "Fifa Fan Fest" by the Eiffel Tower. It was NUTS. There were people everywhere and my minor case of claustrophobia definitely reared its ugly head. When the game hit overtime we decided to walk away from the crowd and ended up sitting in the middle of the road outside of a cafe to watch the rest of the match on their flat screen tvs. About 30 people joined on the street, and every so often we reluctantly let a car pass by. Finally Spain won and we went home! Go Spain!

So I've uploaded a few pictures from work and sitting in the street (don't think the video of the cute kid worked but maybe I'll try again later). Oh, and FYI I was waiting on a metro platform and I saw the guy who plays Natalie Portman's blind boyfriend in the movie "Paris t'aime". My first spotting! I'd much rather see him than Lindsey Lohan.

Sorry I've been neglecting you, blog! But now that I'm not living the fantasy life of 12 hour work weeks and sticking around Paris (aka no traveling) and all of my friends are leaving one by one it makes things seem less interesting. Saying goodbye to Alexis last week was hard because her and Julie were my first and closest friends here and now they're both MIA. I'm starting to get really excited to come home!

Hot tamale: the Parisian chaleur

2010-07-02T14:32:00.000-04:00

The passing of time has given me a painful whiplash. During the third week of June I suddenly became busier than I have been since before graduating from college. My 50+ hours-a-week of nannying and babysitting is making me loads of money, and is thankfully keeping me busy enough to not spend it all (though I did take advantage of the twice-a-year sales that started on Wednesday). My babysitting skills have become in such high demand that I may start raising my prices! And I'm digging the benefits: moms giving me old purses (as in really chic French purses) and buying me Bisquick and syrup in Belgium.

The heat. The heat in Paris is an unbearable 90 degrees. If it weren't for the four showers that I take every day I'd probably have already died of heat stroke on the metro. Speaking of which, I feel like I'm descending into the depths of Hell every time I enter the Metro's mysterious underground tunnels. I spend a couple of hours a day trapped inside of the barely ventelated train cars drowning in a pool of my own sweat and smelling the pools of sweat and overpriced perfume coming from other passangers. Welcome to the city of love.

Any freetime I've had I have spent trying to make the most of these past two months and taking naps to catch up on sleep (oh, and avoiding the metro). A couple of nights ago, us Paris leftovers went to a bar on a boat in the river to celebrate our friend Marni's last week in Paris and to say goodbye.

I plan on spending this fourth of July weekend recuperating from a long couple of weeks, watching football, and celebrating the birthdays of two of my close friends, Kelsy and Jen!

Here are a couple of pictures from when I took the girls who I nanny to a park in Boulogne (just outside of Paris) on a beautiful day!

GOOOOOOOOAAAAAL!!!!

2010-06-24T12:49:00.000-04:00

USA WINS! So proud of my country's team! I watched this game live in a bar full of Algerians.

2010-06-20T11:46:00.000-04:00

I love this city. This city frustrates me, stresses me out, and has even given me gray hair (no, I'm not kidding, I've plucked at least a dozen of those little buggers out of my scalp since the new year. They are all shorter than my normal hair, the exact length they should be if they started growing when I arrived in France in September), but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this city. I love how, depending on the day, I either feel like I live in a small town or one of the most miraculous cities on earth. When in the neighborhoods in which I live, work, and spend free time, I always see the same people, the same dogs, the same grocery store clerks, even the same homeless people. While the regularity is comforting, I enjoy that whenever I go outside of the places I know by heart I find the most fascinating things. For instance, last night I walked past an old 16th century hotel on my way to work, but I always see the same black woman on the subway singing "Heal the World" and "One Love". She wears huge silver hoop earrings. Maybe the next time I will give her some change because she actually sings pretty well, and I'm a tough critic.

I will have a break from the city during the first week of August, when I will go to Britany with one of the mom's I work for and her son (the one who understands English but only speaks French and looks like Dennis the Menace). They are taking me to their country home on the beach for the week. I get to see a part of France that I have never seen all the while being paid to do it. Fabulous!

So I'm happy that I could take a break from my new obsession, World Cup Football, to update my blog. The French team is a complete mess, and the U.S. got robbed by a horrid referee, but I'm having a blast watching!

Mid-year crisis

2010-06-11T14:43:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure how it became the 11th of June so ridiculously fast. I suppose this is what adulthood is like, lots of time passing very quickly and the feeling that you're not sure where it went. Though, in reflecting on the first half of 2010 I have realized that it has already been an eventful year. Even though it's been over a year since I graduated from college, I'm still used to measuring my success with grades and the quality of my term papers, but I guess those methods are a lot more concrete than measuring with lessons learned and experiences..uhh... experienced.

But ladies and gentlemen, I have officially taken the plunge. Last weekend I acquired my plane ticket back to the one and only Detroit, Michigan for September 1st (my little brother's 19th birthday). Despite the two-and-a-half months that I have left with this incredibly dynamic adventure, I must say that I'm not entirely sure that it will give me enough time to mentally prepare myself for repatriation. I will, however, have no trouble with seeing those smiling American faces that I miss so dearly! I plan to immediately dive face-first into a plate of greasy Mexican food. I had a dream about nachos and soft tacos a couple of nights ago that still has my mouth watering.

Today, though, marks the beginning of a very special European experience: the opening day of the World Cup. With a new appreciation for "foot" I hope to actually follow the tournament, not because I wish to become a die-hard football fan, but because I fear for my life if I don't know how "Les Bleus" are doing... though no one seems to have much faith in them this year. I'm also afraid I won't be able to carry on a conversation if I have nothing South African-oriented to say.

But I can begin working towards that goal another time, because as girls we are, tonight Jen and I are ignoring the football match and sharing some wine on the river bank. Maybe it will be less crowded? Or is that wishful thinking...

No matter... the weather is beautiful and life is good!

I love when...

2010-06-04T14:44:00.006-04:00

J'adore when the subway doors let out their "doors are closing" alert signal and a couple of lucky latecomers rush through, just in time to miss the final clenching. If the victorious latecomer is foreign, they will sit and grin in amazement at their skills for the next couple of stops. If they are Parisian they will continue looking pissed off as if to say, "Putain! How dare the metro doors close before I'm ready to board!"

On the other hand, I also love watching people miss the subway completely. In that case, the victory is all mine!!!

Babysitting, repatriation, denial, lack of euchre players.

2010-05-31T17:53:00.004-04:00

I wrote this blog entry by hand while babysitting. Don’t worry, the baby was asleep and it was 11:00 at night:

Since Lawrence went to sleep I have been spending my time reading one of the thousands of old books sitting in perfectly messy piles around this very chic Parisian flat on boulevard St. Germain. The family who lives here treats me very well. The dad is a Midwestern American just like me, the mom is French. Lawrence, while he understands everything I say to him in English, only responds to me in French. Sandra, the mom, is very laid back and sweet and asked me to come with her and Lawrence to their house in Normandy for a week in August. Nothing is for sure yet, but I hope it all works out!

Apart from my sporadic babysitting gigs, the atmosphere is slowly changing in Paris. The streets are significantly more packed with tourists—none of which seem to know how to use sunscreen, which is evident from their farmer’s tans. Most importantly, the people who have become some of my closest friends over the past eight months have begun their slow repatriation to the good ol’ U.S. of A.

Me, I think I’ve adequately stated that I’m not ready to deal with that yet. Actually, I’m in some serious denial that this whirlwind of a year will ever end, mostly because I haven’t even taken the massive step of buying a plane ticket home. From watching my friends wrapping up their Parisian adventure, I have learned that I must accept the fact that there are things in this city that I won’t be able to do before I leave, but that’s okay because I’ve got three months left and I’m sure I’ll be back someday soon!

The beginning of summer weather and the toll of eight months in a foreign country has also shown me the things that I miss about home (besides family and friends which I hope is obvious). I miss being able to print unlimited amounts of personal documents at GVSU computer labs, having all of my own belongings (which are currently boxed up in my mom’s basement), private transportation (only because of the recent accumulation of unpleasant stenches on hot days in the métro and a lack of ventilation), being around people who know how to play euchre, being able to see stars at night (or any non man-made form of nature for that matter. Sorry Paris, but square-shaped trees and imported farm crops on the Champs Elysées is not going to cut it), and barbeques.

A plus!

Ruckus

2010-05-17T04:39:00.011-04:00

Bonjour, folks... due to a busy schedule accompanied by an overwhelming lethargy I have not properly updated my blog in the past couple of weeks, nor have I taken the time to organize the photos that follow. They are from Lauren's visit in Paris!

Courtney and Lauren at Big Ben

Courtney and Lauren at the Tour Eiffel

Courtney and Lauren at Versailles

Courtney and Lauren at the Moulin Rouge!

Courtney and Lauren at the Notre Dame of Paris cathedral

Kelsy and Courtney at the "Refuge des fondus" restaurant in Montmartre where they serve wine in baby bottles to avoid paying a tax on wine served in glasses.

Quoi de neuf?

The month that has passed since I finished teaching English at Jean Mace has been very dynamic to say the least.

I have had two of my good friends come to visit me, Sarah and Lauren (at separate times), I went to London for the second time, and I have been a babysitting machine... juggling work with four families. Babysitting in Paris has actually been much more lucrative than my teaching job.

Working with all of these kids has made me think a lot about second language acquisition. I find languages so fascinating... and it's so important to start learning a second language at a young age because after a certain age you can no longer learn a second language to the same capacity that you can learn a first language. This leads me to believe that us adult language learners will never become truly bilingual.

In the meantime I'm working on getting in with the nannies of Paris. I met this Filipino nanny who was BFFs with Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis's nanny and got to meet them last weekend. I don't mean that I want to BECOME a nanny, I just want to get in the inner circle. I'll have to learn some nanny street cred.

Last week I had the opportunity to spend some time with the three American girls who I will be babysitting full-time in July. They are fantastic! The family, the parents of which are American diplomats in Paris, drove to the American base in Belgium and bought me some American groceries unavailable (or way too expensive) in France: peanut butter (of which I now have plenty!), pancake mix, syrup, taco seasoning, and bagels and cream cheese. YUMMY!

Anyway, the girls are super independent, responsible, and smart which I believe is going to make the month of July much more pleasant for me.

Il y a un an

2010-04-30T06:41:00.003-04:00

Realization:

I have changed so drastically in the past year since I graduated from GVSU I can barely even wrap my mind around all of the things that have happened to me. As my dear friend Sarah told me this week during her visit, that means that I am doing this whole European adventure thing the right way.

News:

I landed a babysitting gig for the month of July which was the final piece of the "How to stay in France through August" puzzle. Tomorrow Lauren arrives, and next week we go to London!

Closing thought:

I remember sitting on the plane on the way to Paris last September wondering "Who will I be when I am sitting on the plane on the way back to America?" Though this adventure still has some steam left, I am already amazed in the difference between that girl and this one.

The week's happenings

2010-04-22T10:35:00.001-04:00

Prepare yourselves for a really stupid metaphor (or simile I suppose):

This week I feel like a hot air balloon whose ropes have been snipped and is merely floating around in the sky without an anchor or a purpose. I'm going where the wind takes me, baby!

I warned you it was bad, but it’s the only way I can find right now to accurately describe my sentiments.

I also find myself using weird terms like “sentiments”. Normally I would refrain from the word sentiment to avoid sounding like I used the “find synonym” button on the word processor, but it’s not my fault! The French language has set-up camp in my brain and has taken my English hostage. AIDEZ-MOI!

So finally, after seven plus months of living in this city, I became self-motivated enough to visit a couple of museums this week. On Sunday, I spent the afternoon writing in a bustling and sunny park at Chatêlet (not a museum, I understand, but definitely some world-class people watching).

On Monday, I took advantage of my age and country of residency (national museums are free for European residents under 26 years-old) and visited Monsieur Napoléon Bonaparte at les Invalides. I learned quite a bit about French military history (by my own choosing, might I add).

On Tuesday, after my first spring trip to the open-air market by my apartment, I went to the musée Carnavalet (also free entry), which stuffed me full of nonsense about the French revolution.

Yestearday, after babysitting two non-English-speaking kids who live in spitting distance from la tour Eiffel, I wandered to the NYU in Paris “campus” because I am interested in applying to their “Teaching French as a Second Language” program. The campus consisted of a townhouse hidden in a garden behind a building and is ridiculously adorable.

On my way to the campus, an 80 year-old Parisian man stopped me on the street, told me I had a nice smile, and then asked me to sit and have a coffee with him. He seemed pretty harmless and so I said “oui, pourquoi pas?” During the next twenty or so minutes I endured his stories about old Paris and about how he used to own a famous café called “L’Ombibus” in Montmartre (the neighborhood where one finds the Moulin Rouge, Sacre Coeur, and all that jazz). He was difficult to understand, but I enjoyed his stories nonetheless.

On today’s menu: article writing and apartment cleaning. Nothing worth talking about, but the weather is beautiful, I’m in a Bobo café, and the overall mood in Paris is good. I couldn’t ask for more.

Entering the Abyss

2010-04-16T07:32:00.003-04:00

Bye bye Jean Mace!

I felt so incredibly sad when leaving the school after my last day of work this morning. I didn't realize in the slightest how attached I had become to those kids and the teachers. They were all so cute and sad today, and it really meant a lot to me. I was there to teach them English, but they taught me more French and enriched my experience here more than they will ever know. Yes, I did waste a lot of time inside of that building... but I'm realizing now that I learned a lot in the process. Maybe it wasn't a waste of time after all.

So that's all I had planned for life after college... now what? This is a weird feeling...

Stay tuned.

The End of Life as a Teaching Assistant

2010-04-12T16:08:00.009-04:00

I have not been feeling very funny or witty lately, so I apologize for my recent lack of anything remotely interesting to say. Actually, I did spend time writing a new post a couple days ago and then accidentally exited from the screen, consequentially losing all of my hard work. It was a big bummer mostly because I was entirely too lazy to type anything else until now.

I suppose a lot is new, though maybe the reason I haven't been writing or taking pictures as frequently is because most things have become so normal here. I have made the official decision to try to stay here until my visa expires in September, and I have been a busy little bee looking for babysitting gigs to keep me afloat until that fateful time comes.

This is my last week of work at JM! The principal gave me yellow roses last week, and one of my classes collectively wrote me a poem in English that has nothing to do with me. This is what it looks like:

(You can click on the image to blow it up and read the poem. It's quite hilarious, actually, and was written by what would be the equivalent of 2nd and 3rd graders. It was pointed out to me that at the bottom someone had written "A love you" and erased it. These kids are priceless.)

In other news, I really hurt my foot this weekend and could barely walk until today, which was good because I had to babysit this afternoon at the park. Speaking of which, I have found quite a few babysitting gigs to keep me busy this summer. I'm still not sure how this whole living-on-a-whim-in-Paris thing is going to work out, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will because I know in my gut that it's what I need to do. I'm just not ready to leave this country yet, and when I do, I know I will just be trying to find a way to come back.

My dearest friend Sarah is coming to visit in two weeks for a few days an I can't wait to have her here. And then in the beginning of May miss Lauren will be coming for a visit. I'm so excited to share Paris with her that I made a spreadsheet breaking down the days and what we are going to do for each part of every day that she is here.

The most boring tidbit of news that I have to share is the fact that I have been taking the bus instead of the subway more recently, and I must say that it provides much better views of the city. I mean, not that complete darkness complimented by intermittent florescent lit white tiled tunnels isn't interesting, but I happen to prefer ground-level.

No sooner is the rage of hunger appeased than it becomes difficult to comprehend the meaning of starvation. It is only when you suffer that you really understand.

-Jules Vern

Remembering...

2010-04-04T20:54:00.006-04:00

It's been a sobering weekend. Today I learned that a boy from my high school class died in a fire, and even though I didn't know him that well, it really bothered me. It made me think about the loved ones who I have lost. Sometimes I need to think about them to gain perspective...

RIP Fred, Grandma Rosie, Grandpa Johnston, Uncle Mike and Renden.

Your loved ones miss you every day.

Poisson d'avril

2010-04-01T16:28:00.002-04:00

This morning when I woke up and realized that it's the first day of April a couple of things came to mind:

Excitement that warmer weather is hopefully around the corner. (But seriously, Michigan, what's with the 80 degree weather this week? Is this some cruel "haha you thought you were getting away from the cold by moving to Paris" joke that the Universe is playing on me or what? FYI: It's freakin' cold here!)
Aggravation that I had to pay a whopping 109 euros for my monthly public transportation card this morning. Bye bye newly deposited paycheck...
Fear from the sudden realization that I only have two weeks of work left and that I take the GRE in less than two weeks!

When I arrived at JM this morning I kept getting paper fish stuck to my back by the children. I eventually associated this with the fact that today is April Fool's Day, and that coloring fish and sticking them on people must be the French way of celebrating that. They're called the poisson d'avril, and it might be one of the stranger traditions I have encountered in the past seven months.

In the theme of "holy s*** my contract ends this month", I decided to remind the principal and all of the teachers of this fact. The principal had no idea what I was talking about, and one of the teachers seemed so horrified that I'm leaving that she promised to tell the inspectrice that she absolutely needs me to stay for another month and is going to try to get my contract extended. We shall see...

In the meantime I have found some extra work, though it wouldn't possibly be enough to support me without finding something more substantial. I'm pretty determined to drag out this whole living in Paris thing as long as physically possible, though I'm sure my recklessness will have some adverse effects on my financial situation. Oh well... when in Rome, n'est-ce pas?

Last night we all went out for Julie's 24th birthday. Alexis and I kidnapped her and dragged her to see the "How to Become Parisian in an Hour" show that we've all been hearing about. It's a one-man show where the guy makes fun of the differences between tourists (mostly American) and Parisians. It was entirely accurate as well as hilarious. Julie even got pulled on stage!

Corsica: the short version

2010-03-30T12:26:00.006-04:00

Back from a sunny and extremely lazy weekend in Corsica! We didn't have much time there to enjoy the landscape, but here is what we did see in Ajaccio:

A cathedral facing the Mediterranean. I might actually go to church if I could walk out and see such a fantastic view.

The birth home of Napoleon Bonaparte. One of the coolest places I have ever visited. The house is beautiful and I learned more about the Bonaparte family than I ever intended on knowing.

Some chick enjoying the sunshine. Unfortunately she is still too pale to allow this picture to be shown in it's color version.

Other important parts of our trip included eating scrumptious pizza, drinking wine from Ajaccio, and learning how eggs are created inside of a chicken. I'm pretty sure I won't be eating any for a while!

Parisians in the Sun... and the Kitchen

2010-03-24T13:52:00.006-04:00

The weather in Paris (and from what I've heard, in the rest of the world, too) has been absolutely stellar. I have spent so much time outside-- even if it means leaning out of my bedroom window (remember, no screens)-- because I want to soak it all up. The Parisians really come out of the woodwork when the sun starts to shine. They are no longer stuck in their ridiculously small apartments. The cafe terraces are all bustling with chain-smoking, coffee-drinking Frenchies. Everyone seems to be in much better spirits... ENFIN!

Today I attended a cooking class with a few friends. I really want to learn how to cook (as of right now my cooking skills are limited to adding fresh vegetables to a frozen dish), and taking a cooking class in Paris was one thing I have had on my to-do list for quite some time. We spent a half-an-hour cooking the meal, and then spent about an hour eating our creation with the two other ladies in our class. It was SO much fun and I learned several useful cooking tricks from the chef.

This weekend: La Corse! Julie, Alexis, and I will be leaving for Corsica on Saturday morning and are returning on Monday evening. I look forward to sharing the experience with you all..

2010-03-21T12:53:00.004-04:00

I'm not using facebook for the time being so please contact me through my blog (by leaving comments) or by sending me an email at johnstco@gmail.com if you would like to get in touch. I would love to hear from you!

Munich, March 2010

Munich and back to Paris

2010-03-17T09:12:00.002-04:00

Visiting Munich this past weekend makes more than 12 cities, 5 countries, and 2 continents visited in the past three weeks and I must say that I am fatiguée and very glad to be back in Paris where it is sunny and beautiful (no, I’m not joking). It’s actually warmer here than on the Côte d’Azure. Weird.

Alors…

I went to Munich for a few days to visit my childhood best friend (and twin), Sarah, who lives there and works as an Au Pair for two little kids. We had fun hanging out, catching up, soaking up the culture, and engaging in both profound and superficial conversations. She’s going to come to Paris at the end of April to visit so that I can share this city with her as she shared Munich with me.

On Sunday we visited Dachau, the first concentration camp in Germany and a model for all other camps during the Thrid Riech. Ever since taking a class entitled “The Holocaust” during my Freshman year at GVSU I have wanted to visit a concentration camp (a weird desire, I know), because I feel that it is a place that everyone should see before they die. While there, it’s difficult to wrap your mind around the significance of the events that transpired only sixty years ago, and it’s amazing how close the camp is to the center of the town of Dachau.

All that remains of the barracks are their foundations. While we walked through the camp I was constantly stunned by how systematic the whole thing appeared to be, from the changing rooms to the gas chambers labeled as “Showers” to the fact that the Nazis had all prisoners write postcards to their family members telling them that all rumors of their disappearance were false and that they were doing “just fine”. To say the least, a place like that really makes one think about the future of the human race, and the uneasy energy in the air doesn’t exactly encourage positive thoughts…

But I’m back in Paris now and ready to finish up my last five weeks as an English Teaching Assistant. This week especially I have taken note of just how much my French has improved since I arrived here in September, and I must say that I am quite proud of myself. I will continue to work hard on that vocabulary, though! I have to profit as much as possible from being here as I can.

Today I trekked to the Musée d’Orsay (for free !) and spent some time walking down the Seine taking in the (somewhat) fresh air and absorbing the sunshine. Spring has finally arrived… I think.

Bienvenue en France take two

2010-03-09T08:43:00.005-05:00

All I have to say is that I couldn't be happier to be back in Paris after two weeks of traveling all over the world (4 countries on 2 continents). I was skipping with joy when I got off of the plane at "Chuckie-D".

Vive la France!!!!! I never want to leave.

***

There's just something about life here that makes me feel more... alive. Super corny, I know. But what can I say? My life has been super corny lately. I'm an American girl living Paris for crying out loud.

Visiting home was, uh, *thinking of an appropriate adjective*...I don't know. I definitely had fun, but everything there just felt so dreadfully normal. Sometimes I feel that I could spend all day doing absolutely nothing in Paris and still feel a sense of accomplishment, though this feeling had started to dissipate towards the end of February. I mustn't forget the bad moments that I have experienced here. There have been some really bad moments, moments in which I haven't even been able to recognize myself. It's been a painfully wonderful experience, though, and I wouldn't change any of it. Not one bit. And if anything, my trip home gave me a renewed passion for my life in France. It all feels fresh and novel like it did back in September.

It's so easy to fall back into old habits when at home for one week even after six months of living abroad. I hate that. I've spent a lot of time changing myself and I don't want to be dragged back into life before France. I'm never so proud to be American as when I'm not actually in America. Weird, isn't it? Thinking about living in the United States after this program ends scares me to death, but living in Paris forever is about as possible as socialized healthcare in the United States (sorry for the political comment but it seemed outrageously appropriate).

But I think it's important to take notice of the moments when you feel really, REALLY happy, and to try to figure out why those moments made you feel that ecstatic. And let me just say that I felt really, really, REALLY happy when I stepped off of that airplane at Charles DeGaulle and said "Merci, bonne journee!" to the flight crew. I nearly cried with joy. This inefficient, judgmental, bureaucratic nightmare of a country makes me so, so happy, and I am more than ready to take on my last three months here. So I'm sorry, France, for hating on you so much a few weeks ago. I suppose I just needed a break from you. Everything in moderation, right?

Stay tuned...

La belle France.... An International Road Trip

2010-02-27T16:30:00.020-05:00

Okay, so... this past week my wonderful friends Alexis, Julie and myself embarked on a road trip in France. It was the most spontaneous, adventurous, versatile, and wonderful trip I have ever been on.

We started in Paris (of course) and hit the following cities/towns:

Montresor (a small medieval town with an amazing Chateau and a beautiful view)
Bordeaux
Saint-Emillion (wine making region of Bordeaux for a wine tasting tour and a tour of a 8th century underground church!)
Biarritz (surfing capitol of Europe)
San Sebastian, Spain (adorable Spanish city on the Atlantic)
Toulouse (lively city in the south of France)
A small town north of Toulouse with prehistoric cave paintings!

Atlas is opened and we're ready to take off...

Chez nous: Chateau in Montresor, France. This is the little blue machine that made it all possible...

Cheateau in Montresor. When we arrived the curator said "Let me open the Chateau for you girls". It's the first, but hopefully not last time that anyone has said that to me!

Group shot in Montresor...

These pictures are out of order, but this is on Monday morning in Biarritz, France. We were so happy to finally see the ocean after spending so much time in rainy and cold Paris!

We couldn't have been happier when the sun came out in Biarritz on Monday. We ate breakfast outside at a cafe facing the ocean. Life is good :)

My purse posing for a picture on the rocks in Biarritz.

San Sebastian, Spain. The sun sets on one side of the island and not the other.

Top Secret photo from our top secret personal tour in San Sebastian. We couldn't have picked a better hotel!

San Sebastian, Spain.... do we have to go back to Paris? Really?

My first dry martini.... holy strongness! Took us about 2 hours to finish one drink.

San Sebastian, Spain.

After climbing a mountain because the Funicular is closed on Wednesdays. The Spanish aren't much more logical than the French... but we still made it to the top for the view.

Hotel de Ville in Toulouse, France. Some of the most beautiful artwork I have ever seen...and it's in the city hall? Unexpected!

City Hall in Toulouse, France. I told you it was beautiful!

Driving up the side of a mountain in the south of France. Pictures cannot capture how absolutely amazing this was.

A little town built into the side of a mountain in France.

2010-02-19T13:38:00.007-05:00

I must say, this was one of the most productive weeks I've had in quite a long time. It was fabulous.

Though I knew it would happen, I had my first article published on the website for which I am writing for my internship and it was a big boost of self confidence. I would write about the weird things that go through my head all day if someone would pay me for it, but apparently I'll even do it without pay... because I just did.

I also studied a lot for the GRE, cooked dinner with miss Kelsy on Monday, attended my Convo group, went to a Mardi Gras celebration, saw the movie "Valentine's Day", celebrated Alexis's birthday at a delicious Italian restaurant right next to the Tour Eiffel, oh yeah... and I worked a little, too.

As of four hours ago when I left the ugly green gates of Ecole Primaire Jean Mace I am officially on a two-and-a-half week vacation. Tomorrow Alexis, Julie, and I leave for our road trip through France! We barely have anything planned for our trip so it is going to be an excellent adventure. Hopefully this adventure will include cute French villages, wine tasting in Bordeaux, sunshine, Spaniards, delicious food, and great memories. With my road atlas of France in hand I am ready to take off!

Caitlin and me at dinner

Tim holding Flat Sylvia for her Eiffel Tower photo op in front of the restaurant.

Birthday girl Alexis and the ginormous Parmasean cheese wheel!

The adorable Alana and Lauren at dinner

5 month mark

2010-02-15T08:34:00.002-05:00

It's official... I've been in France for five consecutive months!

Now I realize that Parisian apartments are known for having loud neighbors (as are any big city apartment buildings), but I'm quite positive that the people living above us are the loudest, rudest, most annoying neighbors that ever existed. They stomp around, move furniture, scream, run, yell, all day and all night long... and they don't even have small children. Just this past weekend, while the parents were out of town, one of the kids decided it would be okay to have a raving 15th birthday party starting at 7pm and ending at 8... the next morning. It sounded like the party was going to come crashing into my bedroom from too many stomping stilettos. And this was at 7:30 in the morning. J-C went up there twice to tell them to be quiet and take off their footwear, but this was at midnight, so it clearly didn't work.

Instead, the little brats actually had the nerve to type a note to post in the elevator saying "I am celebrating my 15th birthday with a big party so please excuse the noise." I have some choice words I'd like to use with them, but instead I am going to keep my blog PG-rated and take my anger out on them by buzzing up to their apartment at all hours of the night whenever I feel like it. It's too hard for me to express my anger in French anyway... so I'll take the passive-aggressive route instead.

Deep breath.... anyway...

I've never been away from home for this long, and I recently fell off of an emotional cliff caused by a myriad of events in all aspects of my life that left me feeling unmotivated, uninspired and useless. The fall was pretty painful and it made me realize that I really need a break from this whole ex-pat experience thing. It's starting to make me act like a completely different person, and though I realize it's all part of the experience, all of that change is a little overwhelming right now. Sooooo I've decided to go back to Michigan for my second week of vacation (the first week of March) for a little rejuvenation. Just having that ticket in hand has already made me feel much better.

Je me pleinds: S.O.S.

2010-02-13T13:47:00.002-05:00

I live in what I believe to be one of the most incredible cities in the world. I have an excellent web of friends who I have come to consider my family here. The weather, while it seems cold and miserable, is ten times better than that of Michigan. (I think I’ve just accustomed myself to the winter here and now I don’t know how I’ll ever manage in Michigan again. Hopefully I won’t have to.) Also, I see incredible things on a daily basis. But quite frankly, I am feeling very homesick right now! I have got to cut myself some slack, because five months in a foreign country is quite a remarkable feat, and definitely the longest I have ever gone without seeing my mommy, my doggie, or my house. It’s hard to tell if it’s just the winter blues or something more, but though just last week I was having nightmares about leaving this country, right now I need nothing more than to get out of it. This city is driving me coo coo crazy and I cannot wait for vacation. Everyone seems to be at each other’s throats and the novelty of being in France has definitely worn off. Ugh, I feel like I’m constantly complaining! One day at a time.

Needing some love from home to keep me going...

The Super Bowl

2010-02-08T15:01:00.002-05:00

The Super Bowl. The first things that come to mind when I think of this cultural phenomenon are greasy food, beer, commercials, lots of yelling, and above all, a great game of football. While I wouldn’t even begin to describe myself as a fan of professional football (I tend to prefer college football, but even then I wouldn’t consider myself a connoisseur), as an American I have been raised to appreciate the importance of Super Bowl Sunday.

So, it was quite interesting to experience (or not experience) Super Bowl Sunday from inside my Parisian apartment. Honestly, I hadn’t really realized it was Super Bowl Sunday until about 11pm when I checked my Facebook before going to bed and saw a flood of status updates about the game. “Oh yeah!” I wandered to my living room at midnight when the game started here and saw my roommates, J-C and François, attempting to sing along to the National Anthem. (Let’s just put it this way, they begin the song by singing “How far can you see?”).

François was wearing his Reggie Bush jersey (I hope it’s obvious why all French people watching the bowl rooted for the Saints) with his trendy pajama pants. When the game started he started eating his Super Bowl snack: Toast pieces with Nutella. The cultural warp caught me so off guard that I had to take a picture.

Now, I only watched the first quarter before going to bed (it was 1am by this time), but I did take note of the subjects that the French sportscasters talked about during the game. One of the sportscasters had played in the NFL, and the other one kept asking him questions like “There are so many players on each team. Does it bother them that they don’t all get to touch the ballon (football)?” or “What’s the Heisman trophy?”

Fantastic.

Smorgasbord of topics

2010-02-06T07:58:00.007-05:00

This Past Wednesday:

While I always have the best of intentions for my day off right smack in the middle of the week, I usually end up spending Wednesdays sleeping in until noon and then spending the afternoon sitting around the apartment. Eventually I make my way to the supermarket before it closes at night. This Wednesday (and the last one), however, was much more fulfilling.

I woke up at the horrendously early hour of nine o'clock to prepare myself for my GRE Math tutor at 10:00. I have made so much progress in math since I started with my tutor, and on Wednesday morning I even defied my book by finding a mistake in their answer section. Rock on! After my tutoring session I stuck around the cafe to work on my internship. On top of my grueling 12 hour/week work schedule I am now writing articles for a website 10 hours/week. So far it has been a great excuse to hang out in cafes and people watch.

Of course, shortly after diving into my work I received an invite to go ice skating at the Hotel de Ville outdoor ice rink. I accepted. Skating for the first time in two years on crappy rental skates was... a challenge, but I also had a ton of fun and I hope to return again for another round.

On Wednesday afternoon I met up with Kelsy at the Pere Lachaise cemetary so that she could snap a picture with Jim Morrison. Mission accomplished. Oddly enough, there was a group of Frenchies standing next to his grave looking quite somber. I found this strange. Were they seriously in mourning? C'mon now... We had a fun time gossiping while walking through the cemetary (weird, I know), and the weather was pretty great. Thank you again, Paris, for your lack of snow and your moderate temperatures.

Wednesday evening Kelsy and I trekked to a Chandaleur party with some buds from our Tuesday evening conversation group and stuffed our faces full of crepes and cider. Yum yummy yum!

Travel Plans:

Julie, Alexis, and I have been busy finalizing our plans for our February vacation, and I am getting ready to go visit my dear friend Sarah DW in Munich next weekend. Call us crazy, but for our February vacation we are renting a car for a week to drive through the south-west of France, then coming back to Paris, hopping on a plane to Sicily and spending the second week of our vacation in the "warmer" Sicilian temperatures. I am also hoping to make some progress on this whole Italian citizenship thing. Did I mention that I'm eligible for Italian citizenship?

Mumbo Jumbo About Myself:

All in all, this sejour in France has passed far too quickly. I have already been here for almost five months! I still have very mixed feelings about the end of my stay (even though it's a good four months in the future) and while part of me wants to stay here forever, the other part of me knows that a) setting up camp in France is practically impossible, and b) I actually miss some things about the United States. I can't believe I just admitted that. On the contrary, on two occasions this past week I woke up in the middle of the night bawling my eyes out. Why? I had dreams about returning to the U.S. and I was so upset that I actually started crying in my sleep. Seriously... what could possibly be so scary about the U.S. that the mere thought of returning there has me in tears? That's just embarrassing.

I've got 4 months to figure it out, but I'm hardly going to dwell on it. I have plenty of distractions...

Love,

Court

Productivity at last!

2010-01-30T09:36:00.004-05:00

What a productive week it has been! The weeks accomplishments included completing mundane chores, studying for the GRE, attending my conversation group, visiting the Orangerie with Kelsy, and booking plane tickets to visit my dearest Sarah DW in Munich the second weekend in February.

I also managed to have my work schedule condensed. Now that I have done so, it has made my time at work a lot more productive, making me feel more energized. Yeah, it's kind of a pain to commute 1.5 hours in each direction for only an hour of work on Tuesdays, but it's better than sitting around bored out of my mind! Silver lining, right?

Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but on Thursday one of my favorite teachers that I work with pulled me aside to tell me that she thinks it's my destiny to become a teacher. She said that I am dynamic with the kids and they seem to love me. Then at lunch she told me that one of her 8 year old students approached her and said the same thing (without the elevated vocabulary and in French of course). This really caught me off guard. First of all, I have never wanted to be a teacher; and second of all, I had never with children until this past summer. Though it was during that time when I realized how hilariously entertaining kids can be. Quite honestly they used to scare me, and I was never sure how to appropriately talk to them, but now I really enjoy being around them. So my lack of interest in becoming an educator really has nothing to do with the children, but more to do with the system itself. Too much bureaucracy, too much pressure, and too much stress. It's the kind of job that invades every aspect of your life, and it seems like these teachers never stop working, whether it be on lesson plans, grading notebooks, or some administrative work. Every day of teaching is filled with peaks and valleys, so I suppose(as with any career) I must decide if the peaks are high enough to outweigh the valleys.

Only 3 more weeks until the next vacation! But let's be honest here, my entire life is one big vacation...

London!

2010-01-25T13:52:00.008-05:00

On Friday I went to London to visit my pops. 'Twas a long day. Let's see... between my commute to work and my trip to London I rode on a total of ten trains on Friday. I must say I'm a wee bit sick of trains, though I prefer riding a train for 40 minutes to work over driving 40 minutes any day. Though the underground trains in London must have been built for elves because they are so small you can't even stand in them.

Overall it was strange to spend the weekend in an English speaking country. When I got onto the tube and bumped into someone I let the words "Pardon, excusez-moi" slip out of my mouth

instead of "Excuse me" (is that even what we say when we bump into someone in English? I can't remember anymore). Then, when the server brought me my dinner at the bar I said "Oh,

merci beaucoup!". I'm a fool.

So here are some pictures from the weekend:

In other news...

I have learned a lot about myself this week. The best way to really learn a lesson is to learn it the hard way. Let's just say I've got a lot of really good material for my tell-all memoirs when I'm old. We'll leave it at that because I'm not old yet. Forever young, right J-Z?

Optimistic like always,

Court

The Big Picture and Sore Feet

2010-01-19T09:46:00.006-05:00

I hate paying attention to detail. I'm a big picture person, and when it comes down to tedious tasks... peace out. Follow through has always been a challenge for me because I always find a new, more exciting idea to become attached to when the previous one begins to become mundane. For new years I made a resolution to work on following through. Maybe I'll even end up committing to an idea for more thant five minutes, but let's not get too ambitious here. I have got to quit giving up on projects 3/4 of the way through, but sometimes I just can't get myself to philisophically justify paying attention to detail when there are bigger fish to fry.

But, there is one passion of mine in which I obsessively pay attention to detail, one thing that I find myself doing whenever I have a moment to spare, and that is writing. When it comes to writing I am a perfectionist, always reorganizing, editing, and analyzing the most minuscule stylistic things. (I hate that I just used the word things, for example, but I couldn't think of the word I wanted to use and I'm sure you won't judge me). I could write and edit all day long. (Shout out to the FMCWMA for allowing me to earn money by doing what I love for a short amount of time). So if writing can conquer my inner detest for details, maybe I should pursue it as a career. Why couldn't I have become obsessed with investment banking or nuclear physics? Of course I would be predestined for the most inaccesible career on planet Earth.

Baaaa.... anyway...

The past six days have been mentally exhausting. I've walked a mile in a pair of shoes that I would rather not walk in again. Ever. Where did I even get these shoes? I never thought I'd have shoes like these, but everyone else had them and they seemed fun and exciting. Maybe a little too exciting. Now i have sore feet and I want to channel my anger by taking a nice long run but I didn't bring any tennis shoes to France (I figured it'd be a great excuse not to exercise. "Whoops, forgot my tennis shoes!").

But things are looking up! I had a lot of fun this weekend despite events that inspired my shoe analogy. I went out with Alexis on Saturday and we hung out at our friend Alex's apartment, learned a whole new meaning for the Tour de France (and consequentially will never be able to think of it the same way again), and saw my old high school pal Kelsy who is now in Paris for a semester abroad.

This week my goal is to keep busy and really dive into my 20 hour/week study schedule for the GRE that will last until March 10 (dooms day), and on Friday I am going to London to visit my dad while he's there for business! Hooray English speaking countries!

4.5 weeks until the next vacation...

xoxo Gossip Girl

(That's for you, Jessie)

Day 124

2010-01-16T04:46:00.002-05:00

I've officially passed the 4 month mark! Four months ago I was freshly in Paris, and four months from now I will be done with the program... yikes! (bikes)

It's been a whirlwind, that's for sure, and every month has been unique. We've already been back to school for two weeks (five more weeks until the next vacation), and it amazes me how quickly time passes, but at the same time, these past few days have felt like an eternity. Hopefully a nice productive yet fun Saturday will break me out of that rut!

Tuesdays are the worst days of the week, and not because they're the longest day. In fact, Tuesdays are the shortest work day of the week for me. The problem is, for the last two weeks, I have spent my Tuesdays from 8:45am until 2pm sitting in the fluorescently lit teacher's-lounge without anything to do. I walk to the classroom with which I am supposed to work, and the teachers all say "Sorry, I don't have any plans for English today... we'll talk later", but then a whole week rolls by and it happens all over again. It sucks. Luckily I have maintained an optimistic spirit, and the silver lining of this situations is that I have six hours to study for the GRE without distractions. How lucky is that?! Who wouldn't want to practice reading comprehension and algebra all day?

Oh, and last Tuesday the principal brought champagne for all of the teachers to celebrate the new year.

Next weekend I might visit London because my dad will be on a business trip there. After four months in France, it would be strange to visit an English speaking country... especially one where I am clearly still a foreigner. Going out to dinner and ordering in English? Speaking to a shop assistant in English? Does that really exist?!

The travel bug has bit me with a desire to get out of the city, so I look forward to making vacation plans. Some friends asked me to go to Prague at the last minute (called me on Thursday night at 11:30 when they were leaving the next morning at 7:30), but I had to decline because I work all day on Friday. Boo! Soon we will be making plans for our next vacation (two weeks in the middle of february), and I feel more than ready to go on a big European tour.

philisophical rant about complacency: welcome to adulthood

2010-01-09T07:13:00.006-05:00

For quite some time I haven’t felt like “myself”. Okay, so I’ve been through a TON of life changes in the past year or so. I don’t know, maybe graduating from college and moving to a foreign country can perturb one’s fundamental life balance? But regardless, I’ve put on my detective hat in an attempt to discover why I feel so different.

The Courtney I’ve always known has felt anxious for something to happen. I always felt uneasy if I had nothing to do, and I always had eighty-seven things planned a year in advance. I used to worry constantly about the future, trying to picture myself in some clear cut lifestyle.

Then… something happened. Perhaps it was one of those shocking life changes or maybe the French have infiltrated my brain with their “everything in life is for pleasure” attitude, but when I first sat down with my 2010 planner to mark down all of the exciting/mundane things I’d have to do this year (as an organizational freak it is one of my favorite things to do), I realized as I was flipping through the pages that I have not a damn thing planned.

And it’s not that I have nothing planned for 9 months in the future that’s strange, it’s that I don’t even have any plans for February, March, April, May, June, July, or August. Nothing. People ask me when I’m coming back to the U.S. I can’t even tell you a month let alone a day. I mean it people, I HAVE NO PLANS FOR MY FUTURE.

So I tried to sit down and make a list of "life goals". I couldn't even do that. I don't really want anything right now. Miss never satisfied doesn't want anything? Blasphemy!

But… here’s the really scary thing: I don’t care! I'm 22 and I have all doors open for me. Not a bad situation to be in.

After a few weeks with this inexplicable feeling, I found a word to describe my situation. It’s called complacency.

Herein lies the problem. I feel completely A-O-K with the fact that I have no future plans. But then I worry that I should be worrying more about my future. I’m worried that I’m not worried? Are you serious? Will the worrying ever cease? Don’t people search a lifetime for complacency? Or is that different from happiness? I worry that my complacency indicates a lack of inspiration and motivation. Of course I would be the one to move all the way to France to become uninspired and complacent.

So my question to you:

Is complacency a good or bad thing?

Bonne Année!

2010-01-01T07:17:00.003-05:00

Here's to hoping the next 10 years will be fantastic!

Last night's reveillant (awakening of the new year) followed a rough day. Wasn't feeling so hot at all yesterday, but I managed to sleep it off before the celebrations...

The greatest part of NYE was finding that there was a THIRD layer of chocolates in my fancy box of French chocolates. I thought they were gone and I was going to throw them away until I picked up the box and realized it was unusually heavy. It can't possibly be true, can it? And indeed it was! God bless the French and their sneaky 3rd layer of chocolate!

We ended up celebrating the first moments of 2010 in a stairwell in a line. Can't say I've ever done that before! But I had a great time celebrating the new year with Julie, Alexis, and Emily. We danced to a lot of 80's music and then ate Pizza at 5am in a little pizza shack where we encountered a lot of hungry drunk Frenchies who were overly delighted to practice their English with us. Perhaps a New Year's resolution of theirs? If so, they're off to a great start!

Tonight Mel and I are going to see the Mozart Opéra Rock! Great way to kick off the year, no?

Meilleurs voeux for 2010!

Noel in Paris

2009-12-26T05:46:00.009-05:00

White Christmases are severely overrated. I prefer a sunny Christmas!

The first week of vacation has been pretty great, not that my work week is so difficult, but hey, who doesn't like vacation time?

This week Mel and I searched for the American grocery store in Paris-- aptly called "Thanksgiving"-- because we needed to buy some goods for Christmas.

Holy overpriced Macaroni and Cheese!

I thought that stuff was intended for poorer families and college students. You'd definitely have the blues if you spent 4 euros on a box of it (about 7 dollars). I'd love to know what kind of Americans are so homesick for a box of the blues that they're willing to dish out that kind of money for a little taste of childhood. Though I suppose there are some curious Europeans who wander in there thinking it's an American delicacy, which it is when it costs less than two bucks!

After purchasing the necessary cooking items, Mel and I purposefully lost ourselves in the Marais.

Dead birds that I couldn't resist takinga picture of to share with everyone else.

We found lots of very cute boutiques and several places that we'd like to revisit once the SOLDES begin in January.

For those unaware, the SOLDES (sales) happen twice a year in France. Once in janvier and again in juillet and they last for about a month. Imagine black Friday for a month, and you've got it!

Once we tired ourselves out we sat down for some falafel. I'm slowly becoming obsessed with falafel.

On Christmas Eve Mel made stuffing and I helped her make sugar cookies to bring to JC's family's Christmas party that night.

Finished cookies!

Both the cocokies and the stuffing went over well with the Frenchies, though I hardly recognized the stuffing when it was so delicately and perfectly placed in a small portion on my plate. I went back for seconds.

JC, me, and my new friend Petunia

We arrived home from the party around midnight and decided that we couldn't wait to open our presents, so we put on some Christmas tunes and dove right in!

On Christmas day we put ourselves into coffee/cocacola/chocolate comas and had a "True Blood" marathon on Mel's computer. I didn't leave the apartment once and it was a fabulously lazy Christmas. I even got to talk to my family for a little bit on skype.

Paris sous la neige

2009-12-21T11:41:00.009-05:00

Paris on December 20, 2009

A white Christmas? Don't get too excited. A day later and the sand on the streets used for traction is the only evidence that it snowed at all.

View from the kitchen window:

View from the kitchen window:

View from my bedroom window:
I'm wondering how that smart care will fare in the snow...

Also...

An ornament that I bought at the Christmas Markets in Strasbourg:

And Mom, you bought me this chocolate for Christmas... just so you know ;) I ate the white one on the top right and it was DELICIOUS!!!

4 days until Christmas!!!

Joyeux noel

Never wanting to leave...

2009-12-14T09:11:00.005-05:00

Things are really great on this side of the Atlantic...

Though it's quite chilly outside, no snow to report. Though I hear that when it snows in Paris it's absolutely beautiful... we'll see about that. I'm not exactly a huge fan of snow.
This is the last week of school before Christmas vacation.
I had a good weekend... and it's still the weekend for me ;)
Successfully started studying for the GRE math section (not that this is particularly fun or exciting, but I'm proud of myself for my self-discipline).
The sun is shining.
Christmas is in 11 days!
I've been in France for three months already...
And we can't forget the fact that every day I look out my window and see Paris.

I won't travel for Christmas break because I waited a bit too long to finalize my plans and the prices skyrocketed overnight. It's probably best that I save my money anyway. I have plenty of things to do in the city of lights, and now that I know that I can visit any national museum for free, I really can't complain of boredom ever again!

Here are some pictures of the Louvre at night:

The Beauty of Life as an Immigrant

2009-12-09T06:28:00.000-05:00

Before leaving for France, I remember thinking that the thought of moving to Paris frightened me much less than the thought of moving to New York City. I couldn’t figure out why. Three months in Paris later and I still feel that way. In fact, I feel much more at ease doing a lot of things in France than I do in the US.

For example, I talk to strangers on a regular basis (such as asking the poster-replacement-guy on the street if I could have the old posters), take a train for an hour to work 3 days a week, traveled to another city alone for a weekend, and attend a weekly conversation group. It sounds so silly when I put it into words, but I can’t honestly say that I would have done any of these things in the US. It’s a lot harder to step outside of your comfort zone when you have the choice, and it’s much more fascinating not to have the choice!

Moreover, daily life in France seems much more enchanting. On my hour commute to work I have the fortune to enjoy some of the most amazing people watching in the world, at the grocery store I have a whole new selection of foods (though I have slowly found my favorites), and I know that any contact I have with another individual outside of my cozy apartment will be in French, and not English. Maybe it’s just the vagabond in me (others feel extremely happy never leaving their home town), but I love and embrace change!

Of course, the minute I open my mouth and say something to a French person, I know that there’s a 80% chance that the following dialogue will occur:

“Oh, you’re not French, are you German? English?”

“No, I’m American”, I always respond

“But you speak French so well! I’ve never spoken French with an American before!”

While I find this very flattering, it’s frustrating to have this conversation every time you open your mouth to a French person. Fortunately, if I speak to a French person in French, even if they try to respond in English, when I continue speaking French they will always speak French to me. Also, the adults have been much more gracious than the children. The kids at school make fun of my French like it’s a sport, and the adults tell me my French is great… which I’m sure is because as an adult they understand how hard learning a second language really is.

Ultimately, I have concluded that I feel more daring in France because, though I get by with the language, I am not a native speaker, and so there is a lot less pressure on me to get things right. I have the language barrier excuse on my side (which becomes my best friend in certain situations), but I also think that people take an interest in talking to me because I’m unusual. In the US I think I’d act the same way towards a foreigner…

A nice samedi afternoon

2009-12-05T06:38:00.004-05:00

There's not much better than a Saturday; am I wrong? The sun is actually shining, something I haven't seen too much of in the past week, and despite the colder temperatures, I just keep thinking about the even colder temperatures that I left behind in Michigan... and the snow. I really love that it hasn't snowed yet. From what I hear, when it does snow Parisians can't handle it. After 4 years in West Michigan and 18 years in East Michigan, I think I've had my fair share of snowy winters, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be one of those people who miss snow. I guess we'll see!

Work is going well. The kids are obnoxious as usual, and I have been speaking to them a lot in French, which is technically against the rules. The thing is, I like practicing my French with the kids, and they respond to me in a more positive way when I speak in French to clarify misunderstandings (so far). The program expects a lot out of people who have no training in the education field and no teaching experience. If they want us to be such great teachers they should probably reorganize the program a wee bit. Oh well, I'm doing the best I can.

Though I don't believe that money can buy happiness, the stress one feels when in deficit makes for a painful existence. Since the government paid me last week I have been in much better spirits (not that I was in bad spirits before, just that I no longer feel guilty for going to the grocery store). Overall I've been very happy this past week! Things are going well!

On today's agenda?

post office
cleaning
searching for a new pair of boots (I had to throw my 15 euro boots away in Strasbourg because the soles fell off, ha! So now I'm going to invest in a nice pair).
making a haircut appointment :)

Happy Saturday! Joyeux samedi!

To Christmastown and back

2009-12-01T11:13:00.006-05:00

I've been more or less absent from the internet world for over a week. It's difficult! I depend on the internet way too much. Our cable box exploded (not literally, don't worry) about ten days ago which leaves the apartment phoneless, internetless, and cable tv-less. Our new box should arrive in the mail any day now...

ANYWAY!

Here is a photo from Assistant/French Thanksgiving. It wasn't quite like at home, but it was really fun and great to taste some comfort food for a change! I made a green bean casserole that I thought was going to turn out gross but was gone in about 2 minutes flat.

Field trip to the Louvre

On Friday (Nov 27) I accompanied a class of CP and CM1 kids to the Louvre (this would be the equivalent of first and second graders in the US). For insurance reasons I had to go to the school in the morning at 8:45 even though (a) we weren't boarding the bus until 10:00, and (b) I live in Paris already. The trip to paris via bus should have taken an hour and a half, but because of the bouchons on the highway (bouchon = cork, but the French use it for a trafic jam), the trip took three hours. We arrived back in Paris at 1:00pm.

Touring the Louvre with nineteen 7 year-olds was... fatiguant. Our tour lasted an hour, and I spoke about 6 words of English: black, blue, white, star, bird, painting. The rest of the time I was busy yelling « rangez-vous » to the kids so that they would stay in order. They listened to me about ¼ of the time.

Despite my complaints, I must say that it was a very educational experience for me to see what a field trip is like from the other side (and in a foreign language)!

Rewind a few days...

The weekend before Thanksgiving I was feeling a wee bit restless. Because I've been pinching pennies (or Euro 1 cent coins) for a while now (surviving on help from gracious family members, which is what I was thankful for on Thanksgiving), I haven’t really had a chance to leave Paris in some time. Julie, Alexis, and Alana mentioned an interest in traveling to Strasbourg (east of France on the border with Germany in the Alsace region) to visit the famous Christmas markets. I jumped on the bandwagon because it was exactly the kind of « girl trip » I knew I needed.

(Oh, and le gouvernement français finally paid me, so I'm feeling more or less on top of the world right now.)

See Strasbourg on map below

Strasbourg: Capitale de Noel

Sooo, on Saturday afternoon I took the train all by my lonesome to Christmas town. Every day I become more and more impressed with the tasks I find myself accomplishing here in France. I can already see a massive improvement in my willingness to approach strangers while speaking French-- something that I'm not sure I have ever really felt comfortable with in English. The biggest lesson I've learned is that if you put yourself out there, things will happen more easily.

I met up with the girls in town on Saturday evening. We walked around the marchés, took pictures of the HUGE Christmas tree, and listened to some Frenchies attempting to sing English Christmas carols. I think Strasbourg is the most charming city I have ever seen! I felt like I was in Disney World the entire time.

For my first dinner I had Tartine Flambée. It consisted of:

● dough (or ½ of a baguette)

● melted shredded cheese

● crème fraîche (the most useful cooking ingredient in the world and it does not exist in the US.. it's like sour cream but thicker)

● lardons (like little pieces of bacon that also don't exist in the US but are in almost everything here)

● mushrooms

● onions

I fell in love with this food immediately. I even bought myself a dish towel that has the recipe for tartine flambée as a souvenir.

Another regional delicacy found in Strasbourg (and I mean EVERYWHERE in Strasbourg), is vin chaud (hot wine). It's basically like hot sangria.

On Sunday we went on the boat tour down the river, had brunch with Julie's old French roommate from Georgetown, and visited more markets in the Petit France quarter. The other girls left on Sunday night, but I decided to stay until Monday because it was actually cheaper that way. I had a wonderful time wandering around the city by myself!

I've been in Europe for 78 days already!

Mid November: Not yet paid

2009-11-19T13:06:00.000-05:00

Another week almost over!

At this point I’ve been in Europe for over two months, and I’m feeling quite settled-in. I’ve accustomed myself to “normal French life.” My “normal French life” includes a lot of Sudoku (easy level only), lots of time familiarizing myself with the RER D (regional train that I take to work), reading Direct Matin (the FREE metro newspaper), feeding Baba what’s left on my plate after a meal, copious amounts of Activia yogurt (vanilla flavor), hanging out with assistant friends on any day of the week, 85 cent baguettes, and budgeting.

BUT! One can never predict the events that will unfold during a day in Paris. At least once a day I will start to smile uncontrollably. It just hits me. I live in Paris. I LIVE IN PARIS. Sometimes I have a hard time believing it myself. I’ve had these smile fits while exiting the metro station, walking home with bags of groceries, reading the free paper on the train on my way to Corbeil Essonne. It’s such a great feeling!

One of my favorite things about this city is that almost every new friend I have made I have met in a haphazard way. It has always been when I have decided to get off of the couch when I’m tired and go out and do something. And get this… I’ve actually ran into people in Paris who I know. I see Alexis at the train station every once in a while, I saw another assistant on the same metro car as me, and I’ve met people at a conversation group who know other friends of mine. Today I was getting on the train to work and I saw a face coming dangerously close to mine. It was another assistant, Roberto, who was coming to greet me with the French bisous. It’s a small world after all!

School is going well—at the moment. I really enjoy being around the kids. They still treat me like I’m a celebrity, and that makes me feel good. They’re not quite as intimidated by me anymore. This is both good and bad. It’s bad for reasons of discipline. For instance, if I yell at the kids, I have to speak in English, and they take this one of two ways: (a) What is this lady saying to me? I’m scared! Or, more commonly, (b) What is this lady saying? It’s hilarious!

I have one student in particular who finds everything about English absolutely hilarious. It’s as though someone starts to tickle here every time I open my mouth. I find her absolutely frustrating. She also happens to be the student responsible for pulling the fire alarm on Tuesday, though she claimed she “fell into it”.

Last Friday I was inspected.

My advisors came to my school to watch me teach and give me advice. They ended up infuriating the teachers at my school and upsetting the balance. Now my schedule is probably going to change and I’ll have to work all day Friday. Boooo!

Untitled

2009-11-10T12:29:00.000-05:00

It’s been a tough couple of weeks. I’ve had to face some personal deamons while working more than I’ve had to since August doing a job that I don’t feel qualified to do (in a foreign country nonetheless). But I’m not complaining because I feel that I am dealing with what is difficult and being one-hundred percent honest with myself. Listening to your gut isn’t easy, but it’s the right thing to do. Oh, and I get better at the job with each day that passes.

Last week was supposed to be vacation from Monday until Wednesday, but I accepted a position doing a stage in a high school because a) I need the extra money, and b) I wanted the experience. I’m so glad that I did it ! From this experience I learned a little about French high schools, made a new friend, and learned how to command the attention of a class of 15-19 year-olds for three hours at a time. Overall I’d say that French high schoolers are the same as French elementary students, just a lot taller and a little sassier, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

On the last day of the stage we showed the students part of the movie Zoolander and ate twix bars. I had some of my students act out scenes from the movie—an activity that they found hilarious. Apparently Ben Stiller as a male model is funny even if you don’t understand English. It was one of those rare moments when I feel really proud of American culture. We make such funny movies !

One thing I have been wanting to do while in Paris is attend a French-English conversation group. I had been looking for a good one, but all of the one’s I had found had entrance fees. No thanks ! So one reason I am really glad to have met Victoria (the girl who I worked with at the high school) is because she informed me of Tempo Tea Time. It’s a FREE conversation group that meets every Tuesday evening for two hours. The first hour of conversation is in either English or French and then you switch to the other language for the second hour. I went last week and had a great time. I met a few British girls who are in the same program as me, one of them even works in the same town I do ! I think that from 8:30 until 9:30 last Tuesday night was the most I have spoken French since I got here almost 2 months ago !

2009-11-08T11:19:00.001-05:00

It's been a very very very very very long week. I promise I'm not avoiding you!

22eme anniversaire

2009-10-30T09:11:00.018-04:00

I had a really great 22^nd birthday!

In the morning Ryan, Mel, J-C, and I went to see the new Bruce Willis movie, Surrogates (or as the French call it, Clones). It was a decent enough movie to hold my attention. You really can’t go wrong with a Bruce Willis movie… in my opinion. When we got home we all played a rousing game of McDonald’s Happy Meal version of French Trivial Pursuit. The questions were things like “Where is the Great Wall?” I won!

In the afternoon Ryan and I went on a little touristy adventure to tahe Opera district. I wanted to get out of the apartment, but I also didn’t want to spend any money so we went to the Galleries Lafayette (a huge French department store… and I mean HUGE). We didn’t do any high-end shopping, though. Instead, we made our way up to the rooftop viewing deck on the “8^th floor” (yeah, you only have to go up 8 floors to get a view of the whole city). Despite the sun being directly behind the Eiffel Tower, and the fact that you could only see from one side of the roof, the view was fantastic.

Once back on ground level, we walked around the district and eventually ended up in the Jardin des Tuileries. Fall is so pretty! The leaves have all become a gorgeous shade of orange and red, and I love crunching the fallen leaves while I walk. It reminds me of walking to school when I was a kid. Awww…

When we got back to the apartment Ryan and I watched an episode or two of Arrested Development. Ryan downloaded the entire series, and we happened to finish the last episode yesterday. I’m pretty bummed about this, not only because I think the show is absolutely genius, but also because both our cable and internet are currently en panne so there’s not much else to watch. Seriously, French TV has limited enough options when you DO have cable. Now the only thing on is “Mon incroyable anniversaire” (My Super Sweet 16 dubbed in French). Though the people on the show somehow seem less idiotic when you can’t understand everything they say…

ANYWAY, for dinner Ryan and I went to a restaurant in my neighborhood called Inédit that Mel had recommended. It was grrrreat! I had grilled salmon with green beans and curry sauce (this was quite adventurous for me), and Ryan had rognons de veau. We knew that veau, meant “veal”, but he didn’t want to know what rognon meant until after he had finished his plate. When we got home we learned that rognon means kidney. Ryan ate kidneys for dinner.

At home a cake was waiting for me! So we ate some cake and I received a much needed, European friendly curling iron and some Sudoku books, which will be excellent for my commute to work and back.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! Our internet is back on now (I wrote this blog entry on Microsoft Word while it was down).

Vacances!

2009-10-27T05:41:00.007-04:00

Yay, vacances! Too bad I'm completely broke so I can't travel, but here are the positives: (1) I live in Paris, (2) Ryan is broke, too so we have each other! (3) I live in Paris, and (4) I live in PARIS.

Today I think we're going to meet up with another assistant in Chinatown, since chinatowns all over the world are known for being CHEAP!

It would be fun to have a scavanger hunt in Paris. All it would cost is the price for a daily metro ticket (or free for most assistants who already have a monthly pass... free being a word I use loosely since it cost me 111 euros).

So this past weekend Ryan and I treked over to the west side of the city to find the Statue of Liberty's much smaller twin sister.

A boucherie, poissonnerie, fromagerie, and boulangerie (I think) all in a row!

Didn't mean to cut out Ryan, I swear!

There she is! Ryan has better pictures from when we walked up to the statue (my camera died).

Practice with the self timer!

Taking Bosley for a walk... she saw a pidgin and was no longer interested in having her picture taken.

This is a picture of my bedroom.

Lunchtime at JM

2009-10-22T11:22:00.000-04:00

Start time: between 11:45 and noon

First comes some sort of salad dish.
Lunch consists of some sort of meat, egg, pasta, or other main dish with vegetables and is eaten with a piece of bread (always a baguette). The bread is always set on the table rather than on the plate.
Fork in the left hand, knife in the right. No switching!
Water is the only beverage consumed while eating and is poured into tiny glasses.
Constant chatter-- complaints about parents scheduling doctors appointments during school and the like.
Finish up that bread with a piece of cheese and wipe up your plate.
Done with food? Time for one out of two daily yogurt servings. Natural with a packet of sugar tossed in or vanilla flavored. Activia is the most popular. Go digestive system!
Now for the fruit. It's October so I see a lot of clementines, pears, and apples... bananas too.
Everyone has a yogurt and then fruit. I ate my banana before my yogurt and received weird looks.
Lunch is done, time for some coffee or tea! Oh and a piece of chocolate... hooray!!!

End time: 12:30... still an hour left of lunchtime!

Today a grève: Welcome to France

2009-10-20T14:21:00.003-04:00

There are some very wonderful things about socialism in France. For instance, I have had health care from the beginning of my official residency. Downside? I have not the slightest idea how to access it because I do not have my social security number nor my carte vitale (the French « credit card » of medical information that you take with you to the doctor). It's no big deal though because the pharmacists here have much more freedom to prescribe medications than in good ol' USA, so if I need something I can more than likely get it regardless.

I will not bore you with the details of how many hours I have wasted trying to figure out how to get my social security information. The best advice I've received on how to deal with any sort of stressful situation in France? Sit back, have a glass of wine and some delicious chocolate and don't worry about it. I'm trying!(Another great thing about France is that you can buy a delicious bottle of wine for only €2 (about 3 USD)-- probably the least expensive thing in the whole country). Apparently the government will send me everything I need to know via snail mail...eventually.

Example number two of socialism at its best: the attitude towards work in France. We French work because it allows us to live a comfortable life and contributes to society... oh and it helps us to finance our luxury items (like dog grooming which costs upwards of €60 in Paris). This laissez faire attitude is great when you are the employee. Hardly anyone ever gets fired from their jobs and most people pick a job and stick with it for life (the French take this so seriously that when France telecom recently started going capitalist and telling their employees that they could relocate or lose their jobs they took it as life or death. Seriously. So far 25 have committed suicide and it is all over the news).

The downside? How about when you go to a café and ask for a coffee and the waiter says « non ». He's not working for tips so what does he care? But as long as you can master that whole sit back and relax thing you really can't go wrong in la belle France!

This brings me to my original point. This week is apperantly some type of socialism week in France, so the train companies decided that they would celebrate by doing what the French do best: faire la grève (go on strike). What tickles me about this strike is that they publicly announced the start and stop times. Oh France, you're so cute with your grèves.In preparation for a horrific commute to work I gave myself 2 ½ hours to get to work. It only took me 1 hour (it usually takes over an hour). What?! Oui.

So I arrive at 9:15 and have class with Monsieur Lelong at 10h:15, the directrice tells me that Monsieur Lelong is out sick today so I need to prepare the whole gym lesson in English. No problem. I have a whole « Head, shoulders, knees, and toes » lesson planned out including a game of « Simon says » at the end of the class if the kids are good. I walk up to the classroom at 10:30 and the directrice appears. « You wont be working with the kids today because you are not allowed to work with a substitute teacher » she tells me, « you can use this time for preparation. Preparation for what exactly?So now its 11:45 and here I am « preparing » for class that I don't have until 3:00.

Am I stressed about this? Nah. I'm trying on this whole relaxed attitude thing. In fact, I've taken a nap almost every day that I've been here. I've hardly ever purposefully taken a nap in my life.

Vive la France!!!!!

Lille: take one

2009-10-19T07:16:00.009-04:00

This past weekend I rendered a visit to Ryan in Lille, France! I left Paris by train on Friday at 4:30pm and arrived in Lille at 5:45. I was welcomed by Ryan and a sea of black pea coats.

Here are some pictures from the city on Saturday:

Ryan's chicken and curry sandwich

My chicken sandwich! The first time I've eaten chicken in over a year. SO GOOD!

Sitting by the fountain in Lille

Walkin' around town

A cute flower shop

At an international organic farming market

Drinking tea and cappuccino at an adorable salon du thé in Lille

More to come later about dinner in Belgium!

Officially left 1 month ago!

2009-10-14T09:43:00.009-04:00

When asked the question What did you do in France? I will reply "I got caught up on all episodes of Sex and the City and became obsessed with the show Gossip Girl." Oh well, I love these shows so I'll forgive myself.

October 13, 2009: Marché

Mel, Baba, and I went to the marché yesterday. I finally found some brown boots (only €15 or about $20 ) and some delicous strawberries.

October 14, 2009: Promenade plantée

What do you want to know about?

2009-10-12T04:27:00.002-04:00

The 3-and-a-half day weekend has made my brain turn to mush. In this blog entry I'm probably going to do a lot of babbling. The thing is, I have been studying French language and culture for many years, and so there are certain things about France that do not shock/amaze me like they would someone who did not spend their college years as the president of French club. I want to know what YOU, my readers, would like to know about life here. Please write me some comments with your questions about my life in France! This blog is a 2-way street-- I want to keep in touch with you all.

Routine?

Work
Though I wouldn't say that I came to France because I was dying to teach English to children, that is what I am being paid to do, so I might as well discuss my job here. I've been in Europe for about a month now and I have barely started working. In two weeks we have
the vacances de Toussaint and I won't have to work for a week and a half. Excellent!

As far as I can tell, I will be working Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays (remember, a maximum of 12 hours a week). As far as the job itself is concerned, the children love to talk to me. I'm not sure how long this will last. Right now I am the new and exciting maitresse d'angalis, but I fear that they will eventually begin to treat me as they treat their other teachers-- with disrespect. The teachers are all great, and now that they know my level of French, they are not afraid to talk to me.

Socializing
Luckily, being placed in Versailles and living in Paris, there is no shortage of assistants to meet. I feel that I have made some really great friends. Yay me! On top of that, it's nice to have people around at home. I know a few assistants who live alone or with strangers, and they don't seem to be having the same stress-free experience as me. Alexis, Julie, and I even made some French friends. They are guys, but don't fret, they are not creepy... thank God! I enjoy hanging out in a group of people. Also, Alexis lives very close to me (a 10 minute walk), so we have *attempted* to run errands together. Today we're going to the social security office and then to see a movie!

Visiting Ryan!
I haven't seen Ryan since he left Paris 2 weeks ago. It wasn't really possible before he found an apartment. Now that he has somewhere to live, I plan on visiting him in Lille this coming weekend. I'm excited to see him and to visit a new city :) Train tickets between Lille and Paris aren't too expensive, and I hope that we can see each other every 2 or 3 weeks. We are having very different experiences so it will be fun to share stories!

Other things I've been doing:

grocery shopping
graduate school research/ studying for the gre in paris
going to the market
watching tv
cooking delicous food/eating Melanie's delicious food
trying desperately to improve my French
eventually I would like to make a list of the ridiculous bureaucratic nightmares that I encounter
on Wednesday I am going to the coiffeur

All in all life is pretty... normal.

Bon Anniversaire Maman!

2009-10-07T03:48:00.004-04:00

Today is my mom's 50th birthday! Happy Birthday Momma!

I didn't feel completely out of my comfort zone until Monday. On Monday I got to wake up at 6:00am and take the métro to Corbeil-- the town in which I will be teaching-- for the first time. It was a dark and rainy day. "That's Paris," you say, but it had been sunny and beautiful every single day until this Monday. What a strange day it was, and it absolutely must be documented. I must warn you now that I found it difficult to stay focused while writing this story and as a result I have inserted many digressions. I hope it is not too hard to follow...

First of all, I completely screwed-up what should have been a very simple commute by getting on the métro going the wrong way... twice. Somehow, though, I managed to make it to the Corbeil train station on time.

(Side note: as I was typing just now my computer decided it wanted to become a French keyboard and typed the previous sentence as such: So,ehoz; though; I ,qnqged to ,qke it to the trqin stqtion on ti,e:... I digress. I didn't know my computer was smart enough to become French, but why would it choose to do this while I am clearly writing in English?!)

Anyway! At the train station I met Alana (another English language assistant from Toronto who is very nice) and my Conseilleuse pédagogique, Françoise, (the woman in charge of making sure I am well integrated into the school). We hopped into François's very French car and drove around the medieval town while Françoise blabbed on and on about the town's history in French (mind you, it is before 9:00 in the morning and I had only had a cup of instant coffee in the morning so my brain was not ready to focus on computing a foreign language).

After a stop at the administrative building, Françoise took us to the Picasso elementary school where Alana will teach. When we arrived the directrice (equivalent to an American principal) of the school offered us coffee and cookies and we chatted about assistant life for what seemed like a couple of hours. During this time as well as the rest of the day I started to realize that Françoise is the type of person who likes to (a) make comparisons between people, (b) talk about people after they have left the room, and (c) appear as though she is much more nurturing and caring than either of the previously mentioned characteristics permit. Otherwise, everyone at Picasso seemed nice enough, but it was not my school, so I was a bit anxious to see what JM would be like!

JM elementary school. It's a "temporary" building next to the lot where they plan to build the real Jean Macé elementary school. This temporary structure has served as the school's primary building for many years, I learned when Françoise pointed this out when we arrived. She kept saying things like "This school is not as innovative as Picasso!" in a sarcastic tone, suggesting that it was JM's fault that they didn't receive the funding for video conferencing. I had a feeling we wouldn't be sipping café with the directrice for 2 hours at my school...

I met the directrice, and she is very excited to have me at the school. Françoise and the directrice, Monique, took me to the teacher's lounge for lunch. The teachers were sitting at rectangular tables arranged in a circle, and they looked stressed as they tried to eat lunch and prepare lesson plans during their 2 hour lunch break! When they saw Françoise walk into the room with me and the directrice they did not look pleased. In fact, they had no idea that I was coming. WELCOME TO FRANCE!

So the teachers and Françoise proceed to have a 20 minute spat about why I was there and how frustrated they are that they have to fit me into their already hectic schedules. Don't worry though, I could tell that it wasn't a personal attack, but seriously... I came all the way to France and they have no idea what to do with me.

The teachers gossiped with me during recess (they are all very very nice AND funny) and told me why they detest my conseilleuse. They made me feel very welcome in the school, though I'm still not sure exactly what I'll be doing there. I read the story "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" to the students (7-9 years old) during one of the classes and they found me absolutely fascinating. Their English is very basic, but the brave ones like to come up to me and say "Hello!", which sounds more like "ello!" and ask me what my name is. It's amazing how something so easy for me can be so interesting to them!

I feel that there is so much more going on, but I can't possibly write about all of it. I have met so many interesting people this past week!

Dear friends,

2009-10-04T09:07:00.001-04:00

Show me some love and write me some comments.

Orientation and French TV

2009-10-03T05:33:00.003-04:00

I suppose on this Saturday morning I could take some time to make a record of what I actually *officially* came here to do... and that is teach English to Frenchies.

Though I have not yet taught a class or even been to my school, I did have orientation on Thursday and Friday which went well except for the whole getting ridiculously lost in the suburb of Evry thing. No big deal... I was with 2 other girls (because getting lost in a group is somehow more comforting than getting lost alone), and we eventually made it to our orientation.

At orientation we filled out a ton of paperwork, took a long lunch break, and then learned some more about our job. On the second day of orientation we basically did the same thing. I met lots of other assistants and they are all quite nice!

Last night Francois and I watched the French version of Next-- you know, that horrible dating show on MTV? Yeah, they have a French version. I realized that if I can grow to understand what people are saying on that show I will be very impressed with my French comprehension skills. Then we watched the French version of Survivor, which is actually called something else but is JUST LIKE SURVIVOR. Unfortuantely my man Freddy was voted off the island.

V_ LT_ _R_

2009-10-01T14:58:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I learned that only the rejects of the French population play "La Roue de la fortune!"... the French translation of "Wheel of Fortune". There's a Vanna-like woman and everything.

When I turned it on I figured it was just another French tv game show that I wouldn't understand. And considering the fact that I fail miserably at the American version, I wasn't really expecting to understand any of it.

So the clue for the first round is "écrivain" (author), and the board says "V_LT_ _R_". Everyone playing the game seems completely distressed. Seriously? Now I would never claim to be a French literature guru, but seriously?

"It's VOLTAIRE, you fools!" I shouted at the screen.

On the next round the contestants all failed to remember the first name of the artist Monet. "Is it Jean?" one of the girls asked in French.

I think I'll be watching this show more often.

Oh, and today I had my first day of work.

Alone in Paris

2009-09-29T17:41:00.005-04:00

Today I spent my first day alone in the city of lights and had a fantastic time. I can't even begin to explain how fortunate I feel to be here...doing what I want to be doing...in such an amazing place. I mean it's actually gotten to the point that the Eiffel Tower is boring to me. Someone needs to knock me upside the head because I've become too snooty. Maybe it's because I went there 3 times in the past 6 days? But in all seriousness, every adventure was unique and well worth it. I just don't want to go back anytime soon.

Everyone left me! Wah!

KK and Jizzy left yesterday afternoon after eating some delicious pizza from the hole in the wall joint a street over from my apartment. Every time I go there the guy gives me free stuff. First Ryan and I got free mousse au chocolate and yesterday we got a free coca cola. Score.

Ryan left a few hours after the pizza fest, but Anne Marie was there to keep me company which was good. We went to the Eiffel Tower and ran into someone she knew from GVSU!

This morning I took Anne Marie to the train station to send her off to the city of lace making. I hope she buys a nice hankerchief or tablecloth.

I kept busy today, though. I am watching Melanie's dog, Bosley, and so I took her for a couple of walks. I also cleaned the apartment, dropped some documents off at the bank, grabbed some stuff at the grocery store, and made jokes with a man in the elevator. It's way more fun doing these things in French.

Tonight I went to an Assistant gathering and met a lot of Versailles assistants at this one assistant's appartment. A couple girls live really close to me in Paris and even work close to me outside of Paris.

At this moment I am VERY excited/happy to be here. I feel like I never want to leave! I'm sure that once the novelty of the program wears off I'll feel differently, but as I said, I feel SO fortunate to be doing what I WANT to be doing.

Visitation week

2009-09-27T11:51:00.011-04:00

I've had a few visitors lately and it's been fun to seem somewhat knowledgeable of the city... My Dad came last Thursday. We saw the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame... and we even had lunch on the Champs-Elysées.

"That thing is as big as the Starship Enterprise" -Dad upon seeing the tower.

And right now Krista and Jessie are in Paris!

Story of Berlin, bitte

2009-09-22T17:55:00.012-04:00

After a five day trip to Berlin filled with kilometers upon kilometers of walking, delicious food and drink, and a very clean hostel, Ryan and I returned to Paris this evening. Germany, or at least its capital city, really grew on me, and I even learned quite a few German words (potential 3rd language?)!

Despite the fact that I had a TON of fun in Berlin, I must say that it's good to be back in a country where I can understand more than the 100 or so words that I learned in German.

On the first day of Berlin travel we woke up at 4:30 am to catch a cab to the airport. Boooo... but we had no travel problems-- save for the drunk man who sat next to us on the plane and would NOT wake up when we arrived. I literally had to shake him. An old french man on our flight kept telling me "Donnez des bisous!". I said no thanks. Soooo a couple hours later we were walking through Mitte and took some pictures at the Brandenburg gate. A lot of WWII drama went down here:
Oh but I forgot to mention that the first thing I did in Germany (well the 2nd... the first thing we did was miss our train from the airport to Berlin, but had that not happened this other thing would not have been possible) was eat German Potato Salad (Kartoffelsalat):

We went to the Pergamonmuseum on the second day of Berlin travel, but I promise I wont post any boring museum pictures here. After climbing up the Pergamon steps we went to an Austrailian restaurant and drank our first German beers! (Mine was actually British... whoops).
On the next day (I think), we decided to go to Checkpoint Charlie. WRONG! The line in the museum was terribly long... so we walked past it and went to a less popular museum instead. I am only a little upset about this because I DID get a picture of me with one foot in East Berlin and one foot in West Berlin:
On that same day we also made it to the East Side Gallery (the remaining kilometer or so of the wall that is full of political artwork). Some guy was nice enough to take our picture without running off with my camera:
For dinner we went to Pratergarten! It's a beer garten and restaurant that was near our hostel. I am still drooling over the food 3 days later. This place was your quintessential German shebang.

On a side note, there were 3-4 year old children riding bicycles without training wheels on the playground at the beer garten (yes, a playground at the beergarten). I found these children quite talented!

I'm getting lazy now so all I'm going to say for this picture is that it's in front of the Berliner Dom on some grass.

The End!

Brasserie

2009-09-16T10:43:00.009-04:00

We went to a Brasserie for lunch. The leaves are changing colors!

Then Ryan bought a cell phone, and apparently if you find the same item at another store for less they will reimburse you for the difference and buy you a bottle of champagne.

arrivée à Paris

2009-09-15T05:19:00.002-04:00

We made it without a glitch. Our flights worked out perfectly (and how often does one say THAT?!). Our luggage all fit in the car and we had croissants for breakfast. I'm going to do my best to avoid le décalage horaire...

The ticker says "1 day until Paris." I'm freakin' out!

2009-09-13T01:12:00.004-04:00

I'm speechless. What a fantastic and exhausting day! I was almost dreading going to the Michigan game because I have a ridiculous amount of packing to do before Monday morning (day of departure), but boy am I glad that I went! We had so much fun, and it was probably one of the best football games I have ever been to (excluding the triple overtime Michigan- Michigan State game I saw a few years back). I will miss those Wolverines!

Ever so slowly the reality of the coming days is setting in, and as the title of this post states, "I'M FREAKIN' OUT!" I'd say it's a pretty accurate expression of how I feel.

My suitcase weighs far more than the 50lb weight limit, and I feel like I just keep throwing things in it on a whim. It took me 20 minutes to realize that I absolutely do not need the pair of black pants that I haven't worn in 3 years. Why do I even own those?

Sleeping probably won't happen for a while because of the adrenaline, but that's what 7 hour plane rides are for, right?

Technical problem= not my forte

2009-09-11T23:07:00.002-04:00

Vista users cannot see the pictures on my blog that I post using the older operating system. I have no idea why, but if you are reading this and you think to yourself "well duh.. it's obviously _________", please let me know how to fill in the blank!

3 days

A Very American Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-07T17:04:00.012-04:00

One week from today, should all travel arrangements go as planned, I will be boarding a plane in Washington DC... destination PARIS.

This weekend was, on my part, quintessentially American, and in an effort to avoid packing I am going to write ALL about it.

On Saturday my brothers and I went to the opening UofM football game against Western Michigan. It was a blast. UofM killed Western 31-7, the weather was gorgeous (as always on that first football Saturday), and we took a lot of fantastic pictures thanks to that 10x zoom on my camera. Next weekend I'm taking Ryan to the Notre Dame game at the Big House! Go Blue!

On Sunday we traveled to Lansing for Connor's belated b-day dinner. (I'm not sure if that is a uniquely American activity, so I apologize for the lack of consistency in my blog). ANYWAYS... I then drove to Grand Haven to attend Ryan's going away party with his family and ate a lot of delicious peanut butter brownies (certainly unavailable in France).

Though I'd have to say that the most American meal consumed this weekend was my 4:30 dinner on this fine Monday afternoon. Well first I wandered into the kitchen and began munching on Ruffles potato chips before scooping myself an extra large bowl of mint-oreo cookie ice cream (yes, it does exist). Of course, I felt somewhat unfulfilled after this sugar rush so I microzapped a single serving frozen pizza which I consumed with a side dish of Wendy's french fries and Heinz tomato ketchup. To top it all off, I washed my meal down with a nice cold Coca-Cola straight from the can.

Delish!

Pre-Departure: Bureaucracy at its finest

2009-09-01T12:01:00.004-04:00

It still may be a bit premature to frequently update a blog for a trip for which I have not yet left, but as long as I have some free time (and believe me, I have PLENTY), I might as well keep updating about trip preparation.

I have finally had my first encounter with French bureaucracy:

The next step in trip preparation is to contact my corespondent at the school at which I will be teaching. Preferably this should happen via e-mail. Problem? I have no idea how to find contact information for my school or for a specific person at said school for that matter. With some help from Ryan, I emailed the académie of Versailles to ask for a contact person. Four days later a woman emails me the snail mail address for some sort of administration building in my region. Really? I have two weeks until departure and I am supposed to send a letter in the mail to ask for the new contact information for my actual coorespondent?

I love it!

Okay, so it's not the craziest thing in the world (though it would be extremely simple to fix this confusion by creating a directory of contact information--including email addresses-- or by providing contact information on the assistant's contract, but c'est la vie... right?), but it's precicely the type of issue I have been warned about, and I'm excited to recall more of these adventures once I actually arrive in the country.

13 days!

Some links on Berlin travel.

2009-08-07T07:26:00.003-04:00

I love reading the New York Times' travel blogs. Here's one on Berlin! Also, Ryan posted this link on my wall about a pool ship (you'll have to see the picture) near where we are staying.

I recently went to Texas to visit my cousins, and now I'm home and it's August! Next weekend Ryan and I will go to Chicago to apply for our visas at the French Consulate and I will spend some time in Grand Haven. Hopefully I will see some good friends!

Corbeil Essonnes

2009-07-25T13:34:00.003-04:00

Corbeil-Essonnes, France

Arrete de nomination!

2009-07-24T21:40:00.004-04:00

For weeks now, I have been checking the mailbox every day-- and sometimes twice a day-- as I eagerly awaited the arrival of my "arrete de nomination" (the document that would inform me of the legth of my contract, the age-level I would teach, and my exact teaching location).

Today I received my "arrete de nomination" in the mail, and I think it was one of the most exciting moments of my life.

Printed on that famous abnormaly long European paper was a lot of unfamiliar French words, but I did manage to comprehend that I will be teaching in Corbeil Essonnes, which is about 40 minutes outside of southern Paris by the RER B trainline. My orientation begins October 1!

The circled area is the general location of where I will be... relative to Paris, that is. But isn't everything measured by it's relativity to Paris?

Anyway... it feels great to have at least some more information about what I have gotten myself into. Now it's time to plan a day trip to Chicago to apply for my visa!

Paris Apartement

2009-07-19T12:18:00.002-04:00

The apartment where I will live with Mel and J-C.

Must see list for Berlin

2009-07-19T11:34:00.007-04:00

This weekend Ryan and I composed a list of the things we would like to do during our 5 night stay in Berlin from Sept 17-22. I have made every item on the list into a link to a website about that place (mostly from wikipedia).

Here is a map of the places we plan to visit!

We will stay at the EastSeven Hostel and the 36 Rooms Hostel which *fingers crossed* both look like incredibly nice hostels.

In no specific order:

Berlin Zoo and Aquarium

Checkpoint Charlie

Brandenburg Gate

Reichstag

Alexanderplatz

Holocaust Memorial

Charlottenburg Palace

Potsdamer Platz

DDR Museum

Technical Museum

The Story of Berlin Museum

Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum

Berliner Dom

Eastside Gallery

KaDeWe department store

The 1936 Olympic Stadium

Tiergarten

Watch the Berlin Marathon

Pratergarten Beer Garden

Hotel Adlon Berlin (where MJ held Blanket out the window)

Pergamon

Employment

2009-07-16T20:37:00.010-04:00

I have been working for a few weeks to save money for my trip to France. I happened to find a job that I absolutely love. It really makes the time fly by!

I've been looking at pictures from my last trip to Europe, reminiscing about those fabulous memories and becoming more and more anxious to make new ones :D

Lyon, France 2007

Cannes, France 2007

Beautiful Eze, France 2007

Ryan eating crepes in Nice, France 2007

Sacre Coeur Paris, France 2007

Article about Paris Bistros

2009-07-05T21:37:00.001-04:00

Alive and Evolving: The Paris Bistro

Frugal Paris

2009-06-27T22:25:00.000-04:00

Frugal Paris-- NYTimes

What would you miss?

2009-06-25T15:32:00.000-04:00

What I will miss about the American life:

Being able to do simple things like ordering a pizza without dealing with a language barrier... though that isn't always true here, either!
Living close to my family and friends
A sense of urgency in customer service
Meijer
BBQs (though becoming more popular, there's nothing like an American BBQ)
Griffin's games and Michigan football games
Peanut butter
Smiling and saying "hi" to people who I pass on the street
Fully functional and (relatively) sanitary public restrooms (toilet paper included)
My puppy!
Thursday nights on NBC: The Office and 30 Rock
Barack Obama
Long hot showers for free

What I look forward to in France:

Not having to drive or pay for gas
Escaping the West Michigan Winters
Delicious, decadent, food perfection
Surrounding myself with beautiful architecture, history, and culture
Not tipping at restaurants
A regular salary and paid vacations!
Being employed in general
Having the ability to easily travel to some of the most amazing cities on earth by train
Using the metro daily
Ameliorating my French
Making lesson plans and teaching English
Wine, cheese, and baguette picnics
Espresso
Learning my way around the city of lights
People coming to visit!

Six weeks of paid vacation

2009-06-19T22:10:00.001-04:00

Did I mention that I'm never coming back to the U.S.? Better get my share of one-stop supermarkets, peanut butter, driving, and tipping 20% at restaurants before I leave!

These are the dates of my paid vacation (I can't get over how great that is):

October 24- November 6
December 19- January 4
February 13- March 1

Wait... why are you in Europe?

2009-06-15T13:22:00.001-04:00

Courtney's reasons to flee the country:

What else do you do with a French degree if you're from the Midwest?
The natural tendency of us young twenty-somethings to think we know what's good for us.
France wants to give me money and health insurance.
Boredom?

Here is a little description of the program that I am participating in from the French Embassy's Cultural Services website:

Teach English in France! The French Ministry of Education and the Cultural Services at the Embassy of France offer approximately 1,500 teaching assistant positions in French primary and secondary schools as well as, in various French teaching colleges –the "Instituts universitaires de formation des maîtres (IUFM)". This is a truly unique opportunity for young American citizens to not only gain valuable teaching experience but also spend between 6-9 months in France or in one of its overseas departments ("DOM"). It thus facilitates the mastery of the French language through linguistic immersion while allowing, at the same time, for a privileged insight into contemporary France.

Basically, I will be getting a stipend every month (which should be enough for survival) to act as a teaching assistant in a French school in the education academy of Versailles.

Clearly I'm excited. I mean, I have a countdown at the top of this page to the very second that my plane departs from Detroit Metro (like a plane would ever leave at the scheduled time anyway). But it's a good thing that I have a couple thousand hours until then because I have a lot of preparation to accomplish in a short amount of time.

Here's a picture of my shiny new luggage:

And so it begins

2009-06-11T12:55:00.003-04:00

I promised that I would create a blog to record my travels abroad (in Europe), and because I bought my plane ticket this week, I figure it's a decent time to start.

Current travel plans:

9.14.2009
Leave for Paris from Detroit Metro. Layover in D.C.

9.15.2009
Arrive in Paris

9.17.2009
Fly to Berlin for 5 days

9.22.2009
Return to Paris