Mid November: Not yet paid

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!

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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 !

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

22eme anniversaire

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!

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.