Beginning on Saturday I’ve had an absolutely wonderful week. Last Tuesday I moved into my beautiful new apartment - and after an hour of signing papers and having a million things explained to me (most of which I understood-ish) I was handed the keys. My amazing friends helped me move all my stuff (it only took 3 people 1 bus trip). Razu survived the bus ride - he didn’t even get that upset. I think he’s adapting just fine to traveling - I also realized that this was our 5th move in 11 months. I think we’re getting quite good at - if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to move any of the big stuff - so I slept on the floor for the night. Wednesday my responsable helped me move the big stuff and I was all settled in. I cooked a little thank you dinner of Fajitas for my amazing friends - I couldn’t have done it without them. We all enjoyed it immensely (many thanks to Seamus for bringing the cooking sauce from Ireland and to Troy and Mom and Dad for the mexican seasonings) the dinner was almost as good as home. Thursday was back to school and my classes were mostly tortuous - a week off definitely didn’t do much for their English. Although, I did have my first one-on-ones with my BTS students- and I was both horrified and amazed. I had one student who literally had no idea what the article was about or anything that I was saying. After 10 minutes of drawing pictures and acting things out she finally said she understood and was able to say a few fitting words, but not much. However, both of my other students did phenomenal -- I had picked a really hard article, and they both did a great job interpreting it. Thursday afternoon didn’t go so well however. My old apartment belonged to the school - and I had mistakenly assumed that I could borrow the mattress that I was loaned and had moved it to my new place. Well, I got a nasty, screaming phone call from the director accusing me of all kinds of nasty things. To make things worse I had some drama with my old roommate. I promised that I would return the mattress Friday - but I didn't really have any idea how I would pull if off. Friday I was feeling a bit tense, however my classes really cheered me up. I had one of my favorite groups as well as a new group who were all very sweet. Friday afternoon / evening was a mess - but I did manage to return the mattress along with an apology letter. After all the drama I was so ready for the weekend.
Well - on Saturday Seamus, Caitlin and two of her friends who were visiting from Canada and I went to Paris! It felt so amazing to be back in the city of light. I had forgotten just how much I love that city - the buildings, the streets the feeling. I’ve always thought that Paris feels really alive - like when you walk you walk with the beat of the city - and I was so happy to discover that it still feels that way. We had such an amazing day - I was the only person to have visited Paris in the group, so I got to act as tour guide. It was such a wonderful feeling to be able to give them a great taste of Paris and witness their reactions to the beautiful city (thanks Paris summer study abroad). There were so many things that we didn’t get to do - but we did see most of the big stuff along with some of my favorite parts of the city. We started off at Notre Dame and even climbed the tower (which I had never done) and it was so cool!
I absolutely love cathedrals and the views of the city from the top are absolutely phenomenal!
It was so much fun to see all the big monuments of the city as well as the cathedral up close - the grotesques were so amazing to see up close and personal.
After we descended Notre Dame (and all felt a bit dizzy) we headed over to the Deportation Memorial - but missed seeing it by 10 seconds - it had just closed for lunch (2 minutes early) but we did get to see the outside and talk about Paris during WWII. after that we walked along the Quai for a bit - took a photo of the best view of Notre Dame - and then visited Shakespeare and Co. (which they all loved!).
After that we headed up toward the Sorbonne through the Latin Quarter, had a look at the outside of the Pantheon and searched in vain for my favorite restaurant - La Geuze. I knew I was in the right area, but we were all too hungry to keep looking on every corner. We walked through an outdoor market (so cool!) and stopped in at a Brasserie for a quick lunch. I had French Onion Soup and we all shared a pichet of the wine of the month (which was soooo good). Afterwards we hopped on the metro and headed for the Eiffel Tower. The reaction was so wonderful - Caitlin literally squealed and I was grinning from ear to ear.
Seeing the Eiffel Tower always makes you feel like you are really in Paris - so cool. After gawking for a bit (we decided not to go up because it was raining and quite windy) we headed for the Louvre. Our two guests didn’t want to go in (it wasn’t on their must see list) so we looked at the outside and the I.M. Pei pyramid and then walked through the Tuileries and up the Champs Elysées to the Arc de Triumph.
After a few photos we hopped on the Metro again and headed toward Place du Republic to find a specific store for the Canadians.
After some shopping success we popped into a Café for some coffee/tea/hot chocolate. I had a café viennoise (amazing!). We had originally planned to go to Montmartre, but we were all exhausted and had a train to catch in 2 hours. So we decided to go back the Eiffel Tower to see it twinkle (which is worth it!). On the way we walked down the Rue Cler and admired the adorable street and its shops. We waited for a few minutes and then watched the tower burst into a thousand little twinkling lights.
Such a wonderful day - and so wonderful to be back in Paris. I can’t wait to go back and see all the things that I missed - the art in the Louvre, the Orsay, the Picasso museum, the Chagal ceiling in Opéra, a reminiscing trip around the Bastille not to mention actually finding and eating at La Geuze as well as gelato at the place where it’s shaped like a rose (yogurt flavor here I come). I really wanted to shop on the Rue Cler and picnic under the Eiffel Tower as well - but there’s always next time.
Sunday was a mellow day (nothing’s open on Sunday’s - so its always a nice day to just relax and rest). Monday I went shopping for furniture (sleeping on the floor was getting really old) and had quite the adventure. I wanted to get a mattress, bed frame, bedside table and desk - as well as some pillows and an oven. After a 45 minute bus trip I found myself at Conforama - essentially the smaller version of Ikea. I had to wait for about 30 minutes for the store to reopen (ah, the French lunch break) and then spent about an hour shopping. I finally decided on what to get and went up to the little desk to make my purchase. I had originally planned to rely on delivery, however I was informed that the next delivery would be on Saturday (I simply couldn’t sleep on the floor for that long) so I protested a bit and the sales girl finally suggested that I could rent one of their trucks and drive all my stuff home for a fraction of the cost of delivery (awesome!). So I paid for all my stuff and headed to the back to rent my truck and pick up my stuff. At this point I was absolutely terrified - not only is driving in France completely different than driving in the States, I really can’t drive a standard and almost all cars here are standards. But what was I going to do? I just planned on going for it and stalling out a lot. Well, I didn’t really have to worry because they refused to rent the truck to me because I didn’t have a French driver’s license. All I could think was SHIT! So after waiting for a while, I decided to ask my a friend of mine who has a car to come to my rescue. He, being the amazingly nice guy that he is, said of course and showed up an hour and some later. However, it was really obvious that all the stuff wouldn’t fit in his car. So he started talking with the guy, and he finally said that my friend could drive the truck and that he would give it to us for free since I had received conflicting information and since I had been waiting so long. This absolutely blew my mind, because it was SO un-French, but I couldn’t have been happier. Well - what a ridiculous trip. The truck was huge - kinda like driving a semi. He and I laughed and laughed - it was just so funny to be driving this giant thing on the tiny French streets. I was really relieved that I didn’t end up having to drive the thing - I couldn’t imagine that I could have gotten it to shift or anything (he was convinced that they didn’t rent it to me because I’m so tiny - I think it was because I’m not French -- and besides, I would have totally driven that thing if given the chance). I finally arrived home with all my stuff 6 hours after leaving home - what a trip! Seamus came over and helped me to build stuff - but we didn’t have the right tools, so we couldn’t really do anything. At least I had a mattress though. That night I was talking to my friend Caitlin and discovered that I had received a box from my aunts and grandma! So nice! They sent me a nice little halloween box full of my favorite candies - taffy, jelly belly’s, dots and M&Ms! And a beautiful handmade scarf! Also a little bag full of treats for Razzy - which he loves. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so excited about breakfast - this morning he almost killed me when he tripped me so he could get to his dish.
Yesterday was my first day of the week (I never have class Monday) and I had a great day. My kids were in such a good mood and really on the ball. I had students create advertisements for specific prompts that I gave them - and some of them were phenomenal (one was particularly awful - a group drew a naked lady to sell a laptop -- they were supposed to create an ad for a desktop, and, you know, keep it classroom appropriate). I had one group that was so funny, that I actually laughed til I cried - as did some of the students. For my afternoon classes I asked them to create a tall tale. I told them the story of Paul Bunyan and how he created the Grand Canyon and asked them to make up their own tall tale for a geographical feature in France. They were amazing! One group did the Eiffel Tower (which they said was originally a bridge so that the two sides of France could visit each other), one group did Mont St. Michel (which was a giant’s home) and one did the Massif Central mountains (which they said were sleeping hermit giants). It absolutely blew my mind! I have some amazing students and I just love getting to work with them! I also taught my students Eenie Meenie Miney Moe - they thought it was hillarious! One kid laughed so hard he cried - and then after I asked them to repeat it, I laughed so hard I almost cried. To hear 8 french kids saying Eenie Meenie Miney Moe over and over - it was so cute! They kept saying it over and over just grinning. I even heard one kid saying it as he walked down the hall. I also practiced some tongue twisters with them, and they really got into it. After a few in English, one student asked if he could write a french one on the board for me to try. I said, 'of course!' (you take enthusiasm whereever you find it) and the kids had a good laugh at my accent. Even though it wasn't English - I was glad that they could see that it's ok to try to speak, even if you don't sound perfect. Afterward we tried Peter Piper - but it was way too long and the bell saved them from having to try. I think I'll do some more tongue twisters, it's a really good way to work on the accent - and fun too. Last night my friends and I went out for dinner so I could thank them for all the help they've given me. After wandering around forever, we finally settled on Don Camillo - an upscale pizza place that makes very French pizzas (as in creme frache and potatoes with bacon) it was delicious and nice to have a night out with great company.
Today was a day off for us all - it’s Veteran’s Day and the whole country is on break. So Caitlin, Jennifer and Seamus came over and helped me to build all my stuff - I was really getting tired of boxes all over the floor. After 4 hours we had built a bed frame, desk and bedside table. The bed frame took the longest - and as soon as we were done we discovered that I need to buy a little metal box spring thing - because my mattress sags to the floor! I really wish I had known that when I still had the truck to get everything home... But the good news is that my apartment now looks like a real place! I have a desk and a bed and I finally was able to unpack my suitcase! Amazing!!! And! I got paid! Now I have actual euros to my name and can stop eating pasta every night!!!!
All in all, an amazing week. I absolutely love my apartment and my friends and feel completely content. This whole experience has taught me a lot about myself - it turns out I have a backbone and I’m a lot more resilient than I think. I love it here - I love that I live here - I love being a teacher and I love my new French life. I can’t imagine a better place to start my life in the ‘real world’. Oh France, je t’aime.
