So once again, I have fallen way behind on my blogging. And you don’t have any clue what is going on with me. Sorry. I’ve been busy, and a blog is sometimes the furthest thing from my mind.

The end has begun for me.

A couple of weeks ago was my last night of babysitting. (I passed the rest of it onto Sylvana.) I plan to have dinner with the family one last time in July. That was sad, the mom and I had kind of grown close, she seemed pretty sad to be done with me.

And now I am done with the Universities here. Yay! My classes were quite interesting. I find it no coincidence that the French for Foreign Students (Francais pour les Etudiants Etranger) department in abbreviated F.ET.E. For those of you who don’t know French, fête is the French word for party. It was interesting, and I met a lot of cool people from different countries. It was a bit of a bummer that I didn’t have real French University studies, but tant pis for me.

It was still quite an experience. And now I can brag that I went to the same university as the future president of France.

Work is winding down, my last day is June 29th. I have been having fun with the kids, and man am I going to miss them. My older kids did so well on their final evaluations, and I am so proud of them. They worked really hard, and it is also affirming to me that I did the job I was sent here to do. (The evaluations were about the only thing I was responsible to, I was pretty independent in my job this year).

The job was overwhelming at first, and there were a few stress points and bummers, but now, I have nothing but good things to say about it. The kids are amazing, the teachers (for the most part) are very supportive and helpful, and everyone treats me like a rockstar here.

So, what has been going on in Paris lately?

Lots of wine, sunshine, rain, and hanging out with friends.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend came out and visited me from California. And we went to London.

I’m kind of done with London I think. It was my third time there, and really, I’m done.

One of the coolest things I saw while I was in England was Stonehenge. Wow. But, of course it didn’t go all perfectly. I had booked a trip that was going to allow me to go to the inside and actually touch the stones. And when I called to confirm 24 hours in advance like I was supposed to, they told me they had no record of me. So I wasn’t going. They offered to let me go on a different trip, but I wasn’t going to be able to go inside Stonehenge, just see it from afar.

So that’s what I did. At least I got to see it. But it threw off my trip. Oh well.

I still got to see some cool things. Other highlights included: A Jack the Ripper walking tour, a London Tour, the London Eye, the Imperial War Museum, Madame Tussaud’s, and Abbey Road.

So in the next few weeks, I will be visiting Prague and Budapest, and gearing up for some awesome trips in July. And I will try better to keep you more up to date.

On a down note, the good-byes have also started. My friends have started going home. There are some people here that I have grown close with, and it’s going to be awesome to have friends spread out all over the US.

I know, I’m so sorry that it has been so long without a blog. Geez. And I’ve been busy.

Technical difficulties, I am sorry. First off, my computer hates me. And then France Telecom doesn’t really care for me either. So yeah. And then there is the laziness factor.

In the time since I last blogged, I’ve been to Ireland, The Netherlands and Belgium, Normandie, EuroDisney, Giverny, Nice, Monaco, Aix-en-Provence, been to some great shows, made new friends, discovered some awesome new music, and been all over Paris. All were so much fun. Go check out my pictures, they speak more about my trip than anything I can compose right now.

In the mean time, April was absolutely gorgeous here in Paris. I would dare say the word perfect comes to mind. And then it snapped. Boom. No kidding, the skies opened up one night, unleashed their fury in the form of massive amounts of water, thunder, and lightning, and au revoir beautiful weather.

It’s odd, most days are really pretty, with an hour to three of terrible weather. And horrible winds. Which means trains are retarded (which is hilarious to me to say, because the French word for late is retardé), and I have been running a little late some days. Not by my own fault, which is even worse.

School and work are going good. School is more of a joke, and work is fun.

My older (10/11 year olds) finished their big evaluations, which determine their placement into the middle school. They have scored awesomely, and I am so proud of them. They have worked really hard, and now it’s time for fun. So we’ve been watching Finding Nemo for the past couple of weeks. I am really going to miss the kids.

I start my finals next week, and will be all done with school on the 30th. Wow. Done. Scary.

I have a ton of traveling coming up, and I really apologize for not keeping a better blog. I’m going to try to get back into the habit of writing a little each day. Maybe.

The pictures are prettier anyways. Go look at them, www.flickr.com/photos/argylejenn.

So yeah, my goal was to post an Italy blog right away. Whoops. I didn’t take into consideration real life when I made that decision. So, you will have to wait. But I’ll get it up. Soon. I hope.

Even writing regularly has been a hassle, I have been insanely busy with school, work, and of course, exploring the night life of Paris. So here is a blog that I started when I got home from Italy. Enjoy:

I got back from Italy Saturday night around midnight. I just went home, called my mommy, and then went to sleep. (I don’t care how old I get, sometimes just talking to my mom is a sanity check). Sunday I basically did very little. I sorted through my pictures, and relaxed. My legs really were thankful, they had been screaming at me since the third day in Rome.

Monday was right back into work and school. The weather was gorgeous, and everybody at work, the teachers and the students, were in fabulous moods. And my directrice was back! She had gone out on sick leave back in November I think, she was having some terrible back problems, that I think resulted in surgery. But it was great to see her. She has been helpful, and one of the contributing factors for my love of my job.

We were all talking about how we spent our vacation. Now we are all talking about what we are going to do on our next vacation.

Tuesday turned out not to be such a beautiful day, but everybody’s moods were still fabulous. The glow of vacation I’m sure. Although I did fall asleep in my Histoire des Idées class. I can’t help it. I was wide awake, until the professor started talking. I was taking notes. It’s funny, I fell asleep a couple of times while writing, my pages of notes are quite comic looking.

And Tuesday was also Katie Blonde’s birthday. Poor girl, she turned 21 while in France, where it really isn’t a big deal. But we celebrated anyway. We met up at our regular bar in the Bastille. And the bartender loves us. So when I had gotten up to buy a round of beers, that bartender asked me if it was someone’s birthday. I told him yeah, it was the blonde girl’s birthday. He told me to go get her, and when we got back up to the bar, everyone started singing Joyeux Anniversaire (French for Happy Birthday). And then he pulled out a bottle of Smirnoff and a shotglass. She thought that it was just a shot, and he told her no, he was giving her the bottle as a present from the bar.

Even though the bottle was shared around our little party, Katie had quite a bit of it. Yeah, that ended up not having such good results for poor Katie. But the night was fun.

Wednesday was my school day. It was really cool though, my History of Paris class went to the church of St.-Etienne du Mont. Of course I learned little tidbits of knowledge, which I loved. It was really cool.

And the teacher told us a joke, which I think I was the only one who got. She told us about why Protestantism never caught on in France. They used to not get vacations back around the time of the Reform, but they did get the day off for all of the important Feast Days of the Saints. So Protestantism comes around, and says the saints are no good. That means the Saintly days off would be out the door, therefore, the French stayed Catholic.

I was cracking up, and everyone else was like “huh?”. Either they weren’t paying attention, or (which I am guessing this is more the case), they haven’t worked here, and don’t know the amount of time the French spend talking about their next vacations.

The rest of the week wasn’t quite so exciting, and I had a quiet weekend.

On Saturday, MICEFA organized a tour of Versailles. It was amazing, we got to go on a tour of parts that are normally closed off to the public. It was really cool, and we got to see some pretty odd things, like Louis XVI’s toilet.



And the private dining room where he dined with Marie Antoinette and other court members



And an astronomical clock that has been ticking since the 1700s, and is expected to be accurate for another 10,000 years. After the Revolution, when Versailles was abandoned and plundered, this clock remained. When Versailles was empty, this clock was silently ticking away the time. Kind of odd to think about.



And of course, I was absorbing design ideas throughout the whole tour.

Our tour guide was the best part of the tour though. He seemed to believe that he was French nobility, and he was sharing with us a part of his life, and that Versailles was his chateau. It was a crack up.

Saturday night I went out with the Katies. We just stayed in the Latin Quarter area. We tried to go to a jazz club, but we missed out on getting seats in the cave, so we ended up going to an Irish bar. It was cool, and there was a little man singing. It was quite fun.

And Sunday started the cycle over. This week, on Wednesday, I went to a soiree for Young Democrats abroad in France. It was an interesting evening, and we watched An Inconvenient Truth. There are going to be some more soirees, including “Political Pub” and “Liberal Drinking”. You know I am there.

After the soiree, I went out to the Bastille with a girl Krisit, she is a MICEFA student who just got here in January. We had fun.

Except my dumbass wore new shoes. I bought these really super cute shoes,



they are actually the first pair of shoes I have bought here in France. So I wore them. I forgot about the whole breaking in new shoes thing. So I ended up rubbing my poor baby toe raw. We ended up taking a cab back home, there was no way in the world I was going to be able to walk home from the bus stop. (Cue violin music).

So yeah. School work, and insane lack of free time. Sorry the blog are so late in coming. I am still working on the Italy blog. Geez.

And this weekend, in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, I am going to Dublin! Yay!

Just a little FYI

If you come to Paris, add to your "to do" list: Get hair cut by a gay french man. I guarantee, it is an experience that you will never forget. Think about a passionate artist dancing around in a fit of passion as he is painting what he thinks will be the masterpiece of his lifetime. And then you have an idea of the treatment I got today.

Well worth the hefty price tag.

This week was the rentrée for me at Nanterre.

On Monday, I had decided to try to take a second MICEFA class instead of going crazy trying to fill my schedule at Nanterre. I am taking a Franco-American relations class. It is pretty interesting, it seems to be examining American history from a French perspective, and how the history of the US has impacted the French. It’s going to be a lot of work I think, there is quite a bit of reading that goes with it. But I think I like it so far.

Tuesdays now suck. Officially (well not in France, I don’t have the paper stamped saying so yet).

I work in the morning, and then take the train out to Nanterre. I have a little bit of time to kill, so I eat at Nanterre. The super duper €2.75 meal. Then I have class for two hours. Tuesdays are the night I settled on doing babysitting. I have enough time to leave Nanterre, spend and hour at home, and then go back out to babysitting. But I decided that’s too much time wasted. So I just go to babysitting early, and do some reading or napping. The point I am trying to make is that I leave home at 7:15 in the morning, and don’t get back until 9 at night. Bleh.

The class at Nanterre is ok, but mostly on the boring side. It is difficult to describe the class, it is basically a History of Philosophies class… but the point of the class is to examine Medieval Philosophies and ideas to see how they led to today’s philosophies. Oh man, it is boring. And life in the middle ages doesn’t interest me.

After leaving Nanterre, I went to the Fnac. I love the Fnac. It is like Barnes and Nobles mixed with Best Buy, minus the appliances. I bought a couple of books, and got tickets for a show in March. And just walked around. It’s such a great store. I think it is my favorite here, hahaha.

I bought a book called A Year in the Merde (Merde is the French word for shit). It was written by a British guy who moved to Paris for a year, and it is a humorous account of his time here. I have been laughing my ass of reading the book, because I can relate to the book so much.

I didn’t have my MICEFA class in the morning, the teacher is on vacation. So I won’t have that class until March. I slept in a bit, and then met up with Sylvana at Nanterre. Another amazing cheap meal. Haha. And then I went to class. Ecrit 3. French grammar. Woo! The teacher is pretty nice, and I learned a few nuances of French grammar that I would have never been able to pick out otherwise.

Thursday is a true day off. No school, no work, only once in a while, I might have to babysit. So it is my day to shop, do laundry, etc. It’s so funny how life falls into a routine.

I managed to shrink my plastic shower curtain. I feel quite accomplished now. It was getting kind of icky, so I put it in a sink full of bleach and hot water. Nice and clean. And when I went to hang it back up, it was 3 inches shorter. I think I stared in amazement for like 5 minutes, pondering how the hell this could have happened. It is a plastic shower curtain, it isn’t supposed to shrink. And the problem is, every shower curtain I have found to try to replace it is too short. So bathroom floor has been getting a little wet lately.

Friday was work, and now, I am on (paid) vacation for two weeks! Yay!

Friday night, Sylvana and I decided to celebrate with a couple of beers in the Bastille. We met up with another MICEFA student, and celebrated vacations. (I have class Monday and Tuesday, but no work, so I feel like the school part is a minor inconvenience).

Saturday, I took it easy. I love weekends, and laziness. Saturday night, we met up with the Katies at the Canadian house at the Cite Universitaire for a party. This was where we stayed the first two weeks, so we were joking about where our rooms were and feigning nostalgia. The party started 9ish, and we were the only people there for almost an hour. We went to find Martin, the friend who was putting on the party (he was eating, he wasn’t even at the party…), told him we were going to leave, and he told us to stay for a little while. The beers were cheap, so we said ok. We were only going to pay more anywhere else.

More people showed up, and it ended up being fun. Sylvana was bored, so she left early, Katie red had left to catch the last metro, but Katie blonde and I stuck around. We figured we could catch the night bus home. We left around 4ish. Again, I am so happy for the night busses. I love them.

So now I am getting ready for my vacation. I am going to Italy for 10 days. I am so friggin stoked! It’s going to be so much fun. So you won’t be hearing from me for a couple of weeks, but I promise to come back with stories and tons of pictures.

So I am in a considerably better mood since the last time I wrote a blog.

My sickness broke Wednesday. Thank goodness. I still am not quite 100%... but much improved. I’m still trying to take it easy. I really need to be better, and hate hate hate being sick. I have never been as sick as I have been here. It really sucks.

And I’m still waiting on the internet. Who knows when it will be back?

But anyways, back to my better mood.

Wednesday was an awesome day. First, I woke up feeling not very sick. Yay!

I started the new school semester. My MICEFA class started. As I was getting ready for school, I looked out my window, and it was snowing! It was soooo cool. And I walked to class in the snow, which I have never done, but the snow melted as soon as it hit the ground. The fifth time I have seen it snow. People still think I’m crazy for being so amused by it. I even took pictures.

My MICEFA class is awesome. It is History of Paris, and Its Architecture (the one I got bumped out of last semester), Sweet. This is a class that is totally my style. The first session, she was telling all these little odds and ends facts about Paris. The kind of stuff that makes the geek inside me giggle. And that’s the way it seems the whole class is going to be. Awesome.

After class, I met with Sylvana, and we headed out to Nanterre to pick our classes. That was an interesting process. Since I decided that I am only going to get the minor in French, I only need one class to complete that, and could take it at Nanterre. More grammar! Woo hoo, you know I love it. (Too bad there isn’t a sarcastic font; it would have been all over that last sentence.)

But I thought maybe it would be cool to take a business class there, just to see what ideas and philosophies were being taught. Hahahaha, that whole process was a joke. The business department was the exact opposite of what you would call efficient. (I’ll just leave my ranting there. I could go on, but that might detract from my better mood.) I decided that it wasn’t worth it to try to take any business classes. The process of living here has taught me what I need to know I suppose.

So I decided to take a History of French Philosophy class. It’s a time-filler. But it could be interesting. We’ll see.

Thursday, I just took it easy. I went out to Nanterre to try to figure the business thing out, which led to my decision to not go through with it. But I still was feeling tired, and considering the doctor had given me an off work order through Friday, I figured it would be best to just hang out and take it easy. Friday was the same.

And so I finished my Stephen King book. It was good, but I guess I wanted more out of the ending… oh well.

On Saturday, I went to the Basilica of St. Denis. It is the final resting place of most of the Kings and Queens of France, going back all the way to Clovis, the first king of France. It was amazing. I am sort of surprised at the wonder and awe I feel about the whole celebration of death. I mean, how many cemeteries and crypts have I been to here? But I always feel in awe of witnessing the final resting places of people who have changed the world.

Sylvana and I decided to go get something to drink at Les Deux Magots. So expensive, but worth it. The second best hot chocolate I’ve ever had. Yes, I keep track. (The first best was at this little Bed and Breakfast that I stayed in two years ago in Galway, Ireland. Just in case you were wondering.) And talk about historical awe… but a lot of Paris is like that. I know I am going to miss that when I go home.

I mean, pick any place in Paris. If something didn’t happen there, then right around the corner something did. It’s crazy. And coming from a place where an historic building is 80 years old, it is mind boggling.

As I’ve been stuck sick in my apartment, cabin fever is setting in. I am now working on coming up with a new national motto for France. Ideas that have come to mind: “France, if it’s not one thing, it’s another.” “France, We’ll show you what Murphy’s Law is all about.” Or “France, Our Goal is High Blood Pressure.”

I spent the weekend in bed. Sleeping, watching South Park. And feeling miserable. Monday when I woke up, my internet wasn’t working. I have heard stories about people being without internet for a little while. So I just went back to sleep. But it didn’t work all day long.

I needed to go to the store to buy a few things, so I figured I would go to the France Telecom store while I was out. Of course, their customer service consists of pointing to a telephone and telling you to talk to someone else. There was a lady using the phone, so I just waited (as normal). After waiting like half an hour, (and being passed by employees) the lady told me that they had another phone. Upon hearing that, without me even asking, one of the ladies working at a sales desk pulled out the phone. (Insert annoyed forced smile here.)

So then, I call the customer service number, and I missed their closing time by five minutes. I might have uttered a couple of expletives as I walked out of the store. They probably couldn’t understand what I said, so it doesn’t count.

I had a follow up doctor’s appointment Tuesday morning. More on that below, don’t wanna interrupt the flow of my story. After the Doctor’s appointment, I went back to the France Telecom store. This time, I walked up to one of the employees, told him that I had no idea what to do in the voicemail hell that was France Telecom’s Customer Service, and that I needed him to help me (how very American of me). So he got where I needed to be, told me to sit on hold, and when someone came on, to get him. Now I was making some progress.

The problem wasn’t with the internet, it was with the phone company. While although technically the same company, they act as two separate companies (which is what caused the problem… read on). So, they gave me a number to call which connected directly to English speaking operators (so much easier!), and I could do this part all by myself, like a big girl.

When I got an operator, she told me the problem was non-payment. Non-payment? What? They took my bank account info when I signed up, weren’t they supposed to take money out of my bank account? And I know the money was there. And on my statements, it did show Orange taking money. But no, this was the phone line we’re talking about, and that was France Telecom (the same company, but really two… bleh).

She asked me if I had gotten the bills in the mail. No. She read off my address, and they were missing the part about having to have my landlord’s name in the address line. Funky postal things. And then she says, “Oh yeah, it says here that the bills were returned.”

So I was a non-payer, and they shut off my phone. Um, they could have called me and asked where their money is. It’s not like they don’t have my phone number…

Here’s the “if it’s not one thing, it’s another part.” I paid my bill there, and they turned my phone line back on. But no internet.

So after playing with the modem, resetting it, plugging it into different outlets, etc., I called France Telecom. This time, I could do it from home. Well, since the line was turned off, and then turned back on, I have to wait the standard 4-5 days for the internet to be activated. Awesome.

So it’s back to going around the city for internet. Woo hoo, just like old times.

Now to the doctor’s. I went in Tuesday morning for my follow up, I am still having problems with my throat. The fever is gone (thank goodness), but I still feel icky. He looks at my throat, and is like “Wow, that is still pretty infected.” No sugar coating with this guy. So it might not be strep, it could be viral. If Friday it is still bad, then I have to go have lab tests done.

Yay, more quality time stuck in my apartment. Now with no internet.

So I’m reading The Stand by Stephen King. Probably not the right book for someone who is sick to be reading.

Sometimes I stop and think, I am in Paris. And I get a little giddy. I mean, I am here. It’s amazing. Despite all the crap I have to go through, the crap is happening to me in Paris. I love it. I’m in Paris.

This week started off well enough. On Tuesday, I went over to Sylvana’s in the evening. We were trying to decide what we wanted to eat, and I have been craving fondue for a while. So we headed back over towards my area, and went to a fondue restaurant. The great thing about living in a touristy area is there is no shortage of good food places. It was, of course, heavenly. I decided that when I go back home, I am introducing my friends to the wonderful world of cheese fondue. Look out.

Wednesday was the beginning of the decline. My day started off with an email from MICEFA saying that some class times had changed. Now the Literature and Politics class that Professor Tomi is teaching has been moved to 11:00 on Mondays. Boooooooo! That means I can’t take it, I have work then. I was so looking forward to that class, and to taking Professor Tomi again. He was such an awesome teacher.

So I will be taking a History of Paris class. It’s apparently the class that the Architecture class turned into. So I am kind of excited about that.

So back to Wednesday. It was kind of a boring day. Patrick came over and borrowed my shower, his is broken right now. And then I went to do my laundry. After laundry, I came home, started dinner, and I felt a sore throat coming on. By the time I finished cooking dinner, I was on my ass. I felt so shitty.

Thursday was a little better. I had some stuff to take care of, and getting out of bed and walking around the city made me feel a little better. Sylvana rented Zoolander, so I went over to her place and we watched it. I can’t believe I had never watched that movie all the way through before. It was so funny. Bad I know, I’m in France, and I keep watching American movies. Get over it.

Friday, I got up, tried to go to work, and couldn’t make it through the day. I had to leave early, I was feeling all fevery and achy and my throat was killing me. I called MICEFA, and they recommended a doctor who isn’t too far from me that speaks English. So I went home, napped a little bit, and then went to see him. And the diagnosis: Strep Throat. Awesome. So he prescribed antibiotics and some stuff for the fever, and told me to spend the weekend in bed. And if I feel bad on Monday, he’ll write a doctors note for me to stay home.

So that means I missed Wilson’s party on Friday, and the bigger bummer, Dinseyland on Saturday. Sylvana and I had been planning on going for a few weeks now. And the weather was friggin gorgeous on Saturday (of course, I had arranged it a while ago…).

Now I get to figure everything out with the social security. They reimburse most of my medical expenses. But I just have to figure it out. Perhaps when I’m not so doped up.

So yeah, that’s my awesome week gone sucky. Better now than in two weeks.

So I’m back at my blogging. I think. Enjoy it.

This past week has been so much fun. I kind of like not having to go to school. Hahaha. That’s all over next week. So sad.

Last week it snowed. It was an event for me. I’ve counted, and it was the fourth time in my life I ever watched it snow. I opened my window, wrapped up in a blanket, and just watched it fall. The snow melted as soon as it hit the ground, but that was 6 stories below me, so I didn’t care. It was something cool. Some people were less impressed, and kind of amused by my fascination.

In the adults’ conversation class that I teach, we were talking about the weather. We were talking about the cold here, and I talked about the weather in California. One of the ladies asked me “Do you ever get tired of it being warm all the time?” The answer to that was a big fat NO.

I miss being warm. I miss looking at the sun and feeling warmth. Here, it seems the sun comes out for decoration only. I think that might have been a contributing factor to my recent case of the blahs.

And I finally got around to hanging out with the Katies. Every time we tried, something happened to make it not happen. They are lots of fun.

Wednesday, we went out to a bar, hung out, made fun of our writing teacher, and b.s.ed. It was fun.

On Friday, Katie Red (ok, wait, I have to explain. The Katies are inseparable. There is Katie Red and Katie Blonde. Just to be clear on which one I am talking about.) texted me, and wanted to know if I wanted to go to the Louvre, and then for drinks afterwards. Um, that was a no-brainer. So we met up, walked around the Louvre for a little while, looked at the Islamic Art section, and went off to the Bastille for drinks. We went to a cool dive-ish bar I had been to before. It was awesome, the bar was open all night, and I headed home around 6ish I think. I love love love the night busses.

On Saturday, I slept. Haha. When I woke up, I decided that it was time to book my flight home. I’ve been keeping an eye on prices, and it seems that the really cheap rates are going. (Of course, now that I have my ticket, there is going to be an insane price war…) It was actually a really sad moment for me, and as I was doing it, I was actually crying. It put a tangible end to this adventure.

Saturday night, I hung out with Sylvana. We had heard about a store out here that sells American things. It’s called the Thanksgiving Store. So we went. It was amazing. I bought Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. And we bought Brownie mix. You have no idea how much I miss certain foods from back home. Here I am in Paris, surrounded by amazing food everywhere (and believe me, I love it!), but sometimes all I can think about is the food that I can’t have. Like smoothies. Oh goodness, I could so go for Jamba Juice or Juice It Up right now. And we decided to make Swedish Meatballs. So amazing. Mmmmmmm.

And then Sunday morning, we met up with the Katies and went to an American diner for breakfast. It was great. Scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes, and pancakes with maple syrup. Soooooo good. I hadn’t had pancakes in so long.

I’ve still got work. And a stomach virus has broken out among the kids. Great. I hope my immune system holds up. I just got done being sick. I don’t want it again. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I think I broke the blahs. We’ll see. In the mean time, I will try to keep you up on what I’ve been doing. Promise.

I have some fun times coming up.

I have been terribly slacking on the blogs. I am sorry. I know you are always excited to read about what I’ve been doing. I have caught a horrible case of the blahs, and I can’t seem to shake it.

Since I last posted a half ass recap of what I’ve been doing… a lot has actually happened.

I made it through finals!!! Yay! They were ridiculous. My writing final was really hard. It took me two hours (when have I ever taken two hours to get through a test?). I was one of the first people done. And when I went to hand the teacher my final, she looked at me and was like “Done already? I am surprised.” And not in a nice way.

And my speaking class, that was just stupid. She had told us to read a book, and our final was going to be about it. So I spent a lot of time reading, re-reading, studying, etc., and then, she asks us one friggin question about the book, that I didn’t even really need the book in order to answer.

I did like my MICEFA class. On the last day of class, we did a walking tour of the Marais. It was really awesome, and of course, the weather was beautiful. We took our time, and the professor even asked if we wanted to go on longer. So a few of us did, and we ended in the Jewish neighborhood. The history in the Marais is so incredible. And then at the end, there were three of us left, so Prof. Tomi bought us Falafel. It was soooooo good.

Now I’m on vacation from school until Feb 12. Then a new semester of French fun starts. Can’t wait (notice the sarcasm…).

As for working, it is going good. I really consider myself lucky to have been placed in the school that I am in, even though the commute is still a pain in my ass. My kids are so awesome.

The one girl who had contracted Meningitis is better, she is actually back at school. She doesn’t seem to be 100%, but considering the first news about her after the Christmas break was that her condition was grave, seeing her is such a relief.

I am still babysitting, despite my attempts to quit. The mom called me right after Christmas, and asked me if I cut it down to one day, would I still be willing to do it. So I guess I will stick with it.

It had been “warm” here for a few weeks, temperatures getting up the mid 50s. That’s over for now. It dropped to the low 40s today, and is supposed to keep getting colder. Snow is to be expected. Yeck.

And the soldes. Oh my goodness the soldes! I love the soldes! Soldes are these government mandated sales. It’s basically a big clearance sales, and they happen twice a year. I had been waiting for the soldes to buy some winter clothes. I got some stuff from the Gap (oh so French, I know), and I was really lucky, and able to get a jacket that I had wanted for 30% off. Woo hoo! And I splurged and got a Lacoste hoodie.

I really promise to try to make an effort to keep up a blog like I did before the break. I do have some exciting times coming up, I hope.

So it’s been a while since I blogged, sorry.

Christmas break was fun, my brother came out. We hung out in Paris, saw museums, went to bars, all the fun stuff. It was great seeing him.

I spent the week after he left being sick during the day, and going out at night. I’m sure I wasn’t helping my cause. But it was really nice, I just took it easy.

New Year’s was fun. I didn’t go to the Eiffel Tower, kind of didn’t want to be around that many people. I went to a party with my friends Patrick and Marie. It was a lot of fun.

Then this week has been a back to school/ work week. I was actually really happy to see my kids, and they were all great.

I found out that one of the girls in my 8 year olds class contracted meningitis, which is sad. I don’t know how severe it is, but I hope she will be ok.

School is school, and I will be glad to be done with this semester.

Due to a lot of things, I have decided to not pursue the second bachelor’s in French, and stay with the minor. It will make life a lot easier for me.

That is it in a nutshell. Sorry for the lack of updates. Now that I’m back into my real life routine, and not the life of a slacker, I should be able to write more.

This weekend was a mix of partying and attempting to study. Patrick invited me to go to a party on Friday at Wilson’s place. (Wilson is from Nor Cal). So Sylvana and I went, we were some of the first people to show up, despite my attempt at being “fashionably late.” But it was cool, and a lot of people actually started showing up.

It was a lot of fun, there were Americans, and ERASMUS students from Nanterre.

I drank just a little. And the next day, I had the second worst hangover of my life. I thought it would be clever to drink beer, red wine, vodka, and gin in one night. Word of advice: they don’t get along. They like to rumble. And they leave a path of destruction a day long.

I spent most of Saturday sleeping it off. Which sucked. I tried taking a shower, and that made me feel worse. And it was raining, which really didn’t make me very motivated to try to get up and go out. So sleep. I studied a bit, and then went to a party with Patrick. It was at an Austrian guy’s place, and it was really cool. The party was pretty chill. And Stefan (the Austrian guy) is into a lot of the same music I am. Which is cool, cuz it looks like we are going to go to some upcoming shows. Yay, I am excited!

Patrick and I left the party at about 3:30, and decided to walk home. I am always so amazed at how quiet the city is late at night. It’s like a ghost town.

Sunday was a ho-hum day. I did laundry, cleaned a little, read, and just relaxed. I’m glad this was a weekend I could take it easy. The only thing I really needed to accomplish was getting some studying in for my exam on Monday.

And thank god that test is over. It was ok, I really wish I had studied Balzac a bit more. But I think I kicked ass on the other parts. I will see after the new year. Now I have to write my paper for the class. Which means I have to read a book. I will be busy once Eddie leaves.

Yay, Eddie’s almost here! I can’t wait. I pick him up tomorrow, and then 10 days of insanity begins.

I always knew I was a go with the flow type of person. I am usually able to take what life throws at me, and come out on top. Surviving in France has more than proven my ability to just go with the flow.

For example: I am finally getting around to getting my residence card taken care of. Combination of waiting for paperwork and laziness, but I am finally doing it. So I go to the police headquarters in Paris to apply, which is what my rectorat told me to do, the website said to do, what everyone involved has said to do. So I get there, wait in line, and another line, and get told that I have to go to a different place, about a 30 minute trip away. So smiling, I say merci, and hop on the metro. I get to the other place, wait in line, and get told that since I am an assistant, I have to make an appointment to be seen at the headquarters where I was at in the first place. (By the way, this is the first time I had heard anything of this nature). I was able to walk out of there, smile on my face, blood pressure low. Going with the flow. Nothing is going to phase me anymore. God bless French efficiency.

In class Monday, the funniest thing happened. I was kind of embarrassed about it though. In my Literary History class, we were having a discussion about the Revolution in 68, and talking about the factors leading up to it, and its lasting impact on society. So there I was, making an intelligent statement about how the life of the generation of students in 1968 was so different that their parents lives, blah blah blah, when in the middle of my French sentence, I slipped out with “because” (in English). My brain was moving too fast I guess. At least it gave everyone a good laugh.

And my professor brought me in a huge packet about Camus. I had told him about my brother, and I think he brought me in everything he had about Camus. He is teaching again next semester, and I really hope that I can take his class. But then again, I still have to take my exam for his class, so I shouldn’t make my mind up yet. Hehehe. That’s next week. I am working on reviewing each day. I think I should be ok, but we’ll see.

And I finally gave money to the metro entertainment. As I was going home from babysitting on Tuesday, there were two guys dancing and rapping in the train. It made me smile, and laugh actually, so I felt that was worth something. They earned their Euro. Ha.

The French grading system is killing me. The University works on a 20 point grading scale. I did a paper for my writing class, I worked my ass off, had it checked by a French person. The teacher only made one correction, which was a relative pronoun I used incorrectly. And I got a 14. 14! Out of 20. In my brain, that translates to a C. But I’ve been told that a 14 is supposed to be good. So I guess I will go with it.

And Thursday I got my bed fixed! Yay!!!!!! Finally, I have my apartment back! Thank goodness, I was going insane.

But that’s a funny story. When the first guy came out to look at my bed to see what they were going to do about it, he came at 7:45. I didn’t think French people got up that early, let alone work at 7:45. I was still asleep. So this morning, I woke up at 7:30, prepared for an early morning bed change. Nope, they didn’t show up until 10. Figures.

And I had a fan club. In my PJs, with my hair up, not at my peak. I am scared to think of what would have happened if I had actually even looked half way decent. They were asking me all sorts of questions, and one asked me if I lived alone, and I said yes, and then they asked me if I was scared. I told them I had nothing to be scared of (but actually, I never closed my door, hoping the painters outside would run to my rescue if something happened.). One of the guys ended up asking if he could call me, and then showed me my phone number on the work order. Out of my mind, I said sure, and then he gave me his number. Thank god caller ID will warn me. I just hope I am with a guy when he calls, and have the guy answer my phone. Ha.

And then I embarked on my little adventure with the whole police thing. And as I was walking back to the metro from the second place, some guy in a delivery van pulled next to me and started hitting on me. I pulled the “I’m sorry, I don’t speak French” card. He then started to try to give me his number, in French. I smiled, shook my head, and said “no thank you”.

French guys actually are silly. I prefer creativity to creepiness.

I am feeling better. There has been this lingering cold, and lack of energy. But it’s on its way out. Hooray!

I finally fell victim to a French metro strike. It happened Friday, when I was supposed to be coming home from work. Bah. It was friggin cold, there was a cold wind blowing, and I was mad. I had to wait for almost an hour in order to catch a train into Paris. Thank goodness it wasn’t raining.

Because now the weather doesn’t care about me. It likes to rain. It does show a little compassion, and I do get some sunshine every now and then. Which I appreciate, I have learned there is a huge psychological factor that the sun plays.

On Saturday the weather forecast said rain all day, and snow in the night. Except there were no clouds to be seen on Saturday. But it was cold. Cold enough to snow had there been clouds it felt.

Sylvana and I decided we were gonna go shopping again, I really wanted to try to find another jacket or two, and some more warm clothes. And I wanted to go to the sports store and get some free weights. I have lost almost all of the muscle tone in my arms that I worked so hard for. I really want it back.

Because of all the fun stuff that goes along with having roommates, Sylvana is going to move out of the apartment she shares with Amanda. So I went with Sylvana in the morning to go look at an apartment that is owned by one of the teachers at a school where she is teaching. The teacher was super nice, and took us to a café afterwards.

Then we were off to shop. We went to Le Forum des Halles. It’s interesting to note that Zola once referred to Les Halles as the belly of Paris. It’s now a giant shopping mall. I won’t bore you with history, but Les Halles has been a shopping center in Paris since the 12th century. Wow.

In the mall, there were some Christmas characters dressed up and just wandering around. There was a giant teddy bear, and so I asked if I could take a picture. While we were taking the picture, Pere Noel came over and tried to get in the action. He was really interested in knowing if I was on the “naughty” list. It was quite funny.

Sunday was my homework/ lesson plan/ continue to recover day. Not a fun day.

And we have now decided that Paris contains “Asianese” food stores. I thought I ate Vietnamese food one night, and then we went to a Japanese restaurant, and had the same food there. Chinese food too. So it’s Asianese. The only real Chinese food restaurants are in the Chinese quarter, and those are some real fucking Chinese places.

My brother is coming in 9 days. I can’t wait. It is going to be so fun.

So yeah, some of you have noticed the stunning lack of bloggage. Sorry. I’ve actually been pretty sick. It sucks. I’ve been suffering from a complete lack of energy, and actually any sort of will to do anything. But I’m getting better. So here is a really long blog. Most of it was written before I was sick… and I promise more bloggage as I feel better.


When the weather doesn’t want to cooperate with me, it has a sick sense of humor. Sometimes it laughs in my face.

As a part of my teaching, I have the children keep notebooks with the things that they have learned. Last week, I collected them so I can look at them, and correct any mistakes the children have made. So one day I had two classes worth of notebooks in shopping bags. They weren’t light. And it decided to rain. Not only was it rainy, but it was also very windy.

Just imagine trying to figure out how to manage two shopping bags that combined probably weighed about 20 to 25 pounds, and an umbrella. My arms felt like they were going to fall off.

Of course on the days I don’t have to walk so far or don’t have a billion pounds of notebooks to carry, it is not rainy.

Like I said, sick sense of humor.

But it is cold. Under 10 degrees during the day. Which is 50 for you in America land. And in the mornings, it’s about 1 or 2. Yeah, nice.

The sunrise thing still trips me out too. Even with daylight savings time, the sun doesn’t rise until after 8:00. Imagine if the French didn’t believe in daylight savings time… It makes getting up and going in the mornings much harder. I’m used to sunlight.

Thanksgiving was cool. MICEFA hosted a little get together for the American students. It was nice, they bought us a drink, and we brought snacks. Sylvana and I contributed Rice Krispie squares. And then afterwards, Michael, a student from Humboldt, had a get together at his place. It was nice, we had sliced turkey and cheese. Behold my Thanksgiving feast.

I’d just like to say that working hungover sucks.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, I went out with a group of people from California, most of them from up north. But one girl was from Upland. It’s strange how small this world really is.

We stayed out kind of late, and ended up walking home. The metros had opened, but we were going to have to wait 30 minutes for the first train. Or take a 20 minute walk. Some of the people I went out with live in the same area, so that worked out nice. We walked along the Seine. We were some of the only people around in the city.

Sylvana’s cousin was coming into Paris from Dublin for the weekend, so we went to meet up with him at a train station. We were talking about Ireland, and I really started getting jealous. I loved Ireland. And now we are all committed to the fact that we are going to Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day. Yay! I am sooooooo excited.

Saturday night I went to a French party, hosted by Alex’s cousin, Merlin. Lots of French wine and desserts. Mmmmmm. And it was awesome, because I was holding actual conversations in French. While not sober. I really felt like I can cut it now. Ha.

On Sunday, Amanda and I decided to experiment with doing our hair ourselves. We actually only ended up having enough time to do her hair. I was quite scared. We both want to do highlights, so Amanda got a kit from Tati (a local store) that had a cap. She put it on, and we couldn’t get it to work. So we decided to give it a go with the foils. I had never done foils in anyone’s hair (and the only time I ever bleached my own hair had me in tears). I was really scared, but Amanda was gung-ho. I figured it was either going to turn out good, or Amanda was going to never want to talk to me again.

I was nervous all the way until she came out of the shower, and told me how happy she was with it. And it looked pretty good, if I do say so myself. I think I am going to try a different store to get a highlighting kit, maybe I will do it this week. Or just wait and pay for someone to do it. I am a little scared. We’ll see.

Afterwards we were going to get crepes, but that ended up not working out, and we went to an English Pub kind of near my area. It was nice, but I left early, I had to get back home and actually do a little homework, and get my lessons prepared for the week. Sometimes it really sucks being responsible.

And since we are on the subject of working, I love the efficiency of French companies. Over two weeks ago, I signed up for the internet at my apartment. I went to the store, got everything done, got the wireless modem, and they told me that I would have internet within the week. So I waited a week, and nothing. But it’s France, so I just went with it. But by the second week, I was really annoyed. So I went to the FranceTelecom store, and they said their computers showed my line was activated, so they told me I had to call customer service. That was fun. I waited on hold forever, and when I would talk to someone, they told me that I had to call a different number and talk with someone else. Finally after an hour and a half of this, I went to the guy who had helped me set up the account, and told him that I had been on hold, and the only thing I figured out was my account was blocked, and then ended up lost in their voicemail system. So he called someone else, and found out that there was a problem with the girl before me. A week later, I had internet.

And then I just got sick. It started slow, and then kicked my ass. I have gone to work, school, and slept. Last weekend, when it was really bad, Sylvana brought me soup like a good friend should. Luckily, she didn’t seem to catch what I had. Knock on wood.

More soon. I will try to be more interesting again.

Beret count = 44.

In case you’re wondering what that is about, I thought it would be funny to keep a running count of the people I have seen wearing berets. So since I arrived back at the end of August, I have counted 44 people wearing berets. I honestly thought it would be higher.

My bed situation still sucks. I went last Monday to the Conforama, the store where my landlord had bought my bed, and they are sending someone out next Thursday to look at the bed. In the meantime, I rearranged my furniture to accommodate the pull out bed, so the apartment isn’t so horrible to get around. It isn’t ideal. But this is the way that it will have to be arranged when Eddie comes out, except the pull out bed will be able to be stowed.

On the Jenn is really mature front… in my Written French class, we read a story about a seal in the Greek Isles. The French word for seal is “phoque”. Yeah, guess how that’s pronounced… The point of the exercise was to read the text, pick out the words that describe certain things, and then reduce the article. And when the teacher started talking about the seal, she kept saying “phoque”, over and over again. And it was really bad because I was sitting next to a couple of other American students who shared my amusement. And then I caught the giggles. Horrible.

On Saturday, MICEFA organized a day trip for us out to Mont Saint Michel. Which was 4 and a half hours from Paris. And we did the trip in one day. 9 hours on the bus in a day. Ick.

But it was incredible. Mont Saint Michel is an old abbey built on a tidal island. When the tide is out, it is a part of the land, and when the tide is in, it is an island. The abbey dates back to the sixth century, and was just beautiful. Except for the tourists, it is such a peaceful place. There is a cute little medieval town on the island, and we ate crepes there.

The weather was beautiful. Some clouds, but no rain, and just a little wind. It was cold, but it ended up being ok, because there were a bazillion stairs to climb.

When we finally got back into Paris, a few other MICEFA students and I went and got some beers, and watched a Rugby match. I have never really watched Rugby. That game is insane. We watched France vs. New Zealand. The New Zealand players scare me, they are insanely buff. I really want to go see a match now.

And Saturday was the first night that my weather controlling abilities failed me. It rained as I was walking home. I figure I must have been tired.

Something interesting I have observed as far as cultural differences go is the French’s attention to detail. It really has become prevalent in the classes I am teaching. Last week, I played a simple BINGO game with my 8 year olds. I told them to make a cross on their papers. All of the students pulled out their rulers and made their crosses perfectly. It has come out in a few other things, like the students’ constant concern over whether I want them to write in pen or pencil, write things in columns or rows… very specific tiny details. One class in particular (the class belonging to the directrice) is very particular about my cursive imperfections. If I don’t do the tails just so, they let me know.

I have tried to tell them that I don’t care about things like that, it’s not important, what I care about is the fact they understand. But that just doesn’t seem to be very French. I am working on trying to become more structured in the details, I have to be sensitive to their culture and what they are used to, I just find it strange. If the kid wrote in huge printing with crayons, it wouldn’t matter to me, as long as they got it.

I also get to give the kids a test in a few weeks, and give them grades. That’s going to be a fun challenge, figuring out how to do that. I have begun reviewing things the kids should know. I’m beginning to see that a lot of the kids know the words, but don’t understand them. If I start asking them questions out of context, (for example, doing a lesson about time, and then asking them their age) they are totally baffled. An example:
Me: How old are you?
Student: My name is Amandine.

It is almost funny, but once I start really working on it, and repeating, they seem to come around.

Another thing that I noticed is the French don’t say “bless you”, (a tes souhaites) when people sneeze. I heard there is some sort of rule of three or something.

And one of the biggest cultural differences is the bisous (kisses). When saying goodbye or hello to friends, and when I meet new people, I often “fais les bisous”. This is just odd to me sometimes, because in the US, I hug friends, and shake hands of new people. But it is also pleasant. I might just kiss everyone back home. Haha. Try to start a trend.

This weekend was such a blast.

On Friday night, I went out with Tizoc and Blanca. They are students from Fullerton too.

Tizoc is gay, so we went with him to a gay bar in the 1st. (Across the river from where I live). It was so much fun. I love gay clubs. Blanca and I were 2 of only I think 4 girls in the place. It was so awesome.

As we were leaving, Blanca and I were standing by the door while Tizoc went to get his stuff from the coat check. An older guy, obviously drunk, and came up to me us and said “You know that you are in a club for boys?” We just looked at each other, I was afraid to respond, and then he said “But you both are very cute” and walked away.

And in Paris, the Metros stop running at about 12:30-1 am. But there is a whole system of night busses set up, which is awesome. There are three lines that run by my apartment. Yay for not spending money on taxis!

On Saturday, I went to the Panthéon. The Panthéon is a building in France where some of the giants of French history are laid to rest. It is a stunning building that was built to replace a church that was built in the 500s.

The upper floor was closed due to restorations. But the ground floor was remarkable. Except that there was an “art display” that pretty much ruined it for me. The “art” seemed to be someone wanting to drape something that looked like balls around a beautiful building. Needless to say, I didn’t get it.

Downstairs was the crypt. We saw the crypts of Pierre and Marie Curie (Marie Curie is the only woman deemed worthy enough to be interred there), Rousseau, Voltaire, Louis Braille (which had a Braille marker under his name, which I thought was cool), Zola, Dumas, important revolutionaries, statesmen, and heroes of the resistance, and my new favorite author, Victor Hugo.

I am now reading Notre Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame). In French. The more I learn about Hugo, his life, and his works, the more I admire and respect who he was. Plus, he wrote great stories.

After the Panthéon, we went to the church right next door, St. Etienne du Mont. It was beautiful. The church has the tomb of St. Geneviève (the patron saint of Paris) which was actually destroyed during the French Revolution, but salvaged, as well as Relics. Racine and Pascal were interred at the church, but because so much was destroyed during the Revolution, they really don’t know where now.

And after getting lost, we went and saw the Arènes de Lutèce. It was this really cool Roman arena that just seems to be hidden in the middle of buildings.

After that, we headed back to my place, and got Vietnamese food for dinner. It was soooooo good. And then we went to Sylvana’s, rented Les Poupées Russes (the sequel to L’Auberge Espagnol), and got some wine. It was fun, and right as were turning in, the girl from Spain who lives right down the hall came pounding on the door. It was her birthday, and she thought that we should go party with her.

It was quite funny, she was soooo excited because her friends gave her Tequila as a present. And she wanted to share. Jenn + Tequila = no good. I tried to explain that if I even smelled Tequila, I wanted to yak. (There are two types of people in this world; those who can drink Tequila, and those who can’t anymore. I fall into the second category.) But she kept on trying. I ended up convincing her that all I needed was a beer, it was her birthday, and I didn’t want to take away her Tequila.

And then the poor girl passed out in the middle of her living room floor. And we told her friends that it was tradition in the US to draw on the people who pass out. So they drew on her, and then started drawing on each other. It was so hilarious to watch.

Sunday was my typical homework/ lesson plan day.

But Sunday night we went out. We started the night playing pool, and then went to a Fondue restaurant. It was my first experience in a Fondue restaurant, and it was sooooooooo awesome. I loved it.

And my bed is broken. Which sounds like it has potential to be an interesting story, but it isn’t. It was broken when I came, and the girl before had rigged it so it was fine. But my landlord’s parents came on Thursday to “fix it”. The bed was supported by slats, and they put a solid piece of wood over the slats, and cut the rigging made by the last girl.

So Friday night when I was sleeping, the mattress just fell. Luckily, there is a stow-away mattress underneath, so I didn’t fall to the floor. That would have been traumatizing. Now I am sleeping on the stow away mattress until it gets fixed. And in an apartment that is 13 meters square, there isn’t much space left. I’ve had to move furniture around to accommodate it. It’s not pretty.

At the risk of jinxing myself, I think I survived my first train strike. Luckily, I didn’t really encounter any problems. A few people did. Apparently sometimes the strikes turn into a mess. And they happen somewhat often, so who knows what mess I will see in the future…

But the week has been boring. Work, school, babysitting.

Except at my school, things are always changing. Nobody showed up for my adult conversation class. So I BSed for two hours with a couple of the other teachers. And they are changing the way my classes are going. Instead of having 30 students twice a week for each class, I will have 15 students once a week. Which I think is better for the kids. There are some that really get the English, but those are also the students with an English speaking parent or something like that. I will get a chance to spend some time with the kids who don’t quite get it, and be able to help them out more.

Apparently this was caused by parent’s complaints. In the middle and high schools, the kids are in groups of 10-15 doing conversation English. The parent’s want the same for the little ones. And the district said ok. I guess there are a lot of things that happen like this. One of the teachers told me she didn’t like that they were doing that, because she likes sitting in with the class, and learning English as well. That was nice to hear.

Allison and I gave our presentation about Southern California in my Oral French class, which was actually really fun. People were mesmerized by our coolness. Or our sillyness. Allison talked a little bit about the Valley girl thing, and gave a little demonstration “Like, you know, like, oh my god, like…” and the teacher asked us to translate. Which was way more hilarious than just trying to speak like a valley girl. Because the French word for “like” is “comme” (pronounced like “come”). So here we were, saying “comme, comme, tu sais?, comme, mon dieu, comme…” it was kind of hard for me to keep a straight face. And then one of the girls from NorCal in the back was trying to help, and she said “beaucoup de comme”. I almost lost it.

Now I have to just convince myself to keep going to that class. There are only two factors in my grade for the class. The first is my presentation, and that is now done. The second is my final exam, which will be about a book that we aren’t even going over in class. The teacher doesn’t even take attendance. But I am going to try to be good. It’s just hard when it is my only class on Tuesday and Thursday.

The weather has been strange. It got friggin cold. One morning on my way to work, the temperature was just 35 degrees. Yikes.

And then it became beautiful. The days are sunny. A little on the cool side, in the high 50s.

The meteo said that there was supposed to be rain all week. And I said I think not. I find it hilarious that there hasn’t been any rain. Once again contributing to my theory.

And I’ve been splurging on food. Mmmm.

This week, while I was doing my laundry, I decided to go to my local bakery and get lunch. I had a piece of Quiche Lorraine, and a brownie. I swear I felt my eyes roll back in my head. One morning when I went to school, I went to the bakery there, and had a pain au chocolat. Fresh from the oven. I love French food.

And I am in love. With Gunther. If you have no idea what I am talking about, go to www.gunthernet.com. I always have had this strange fascination for uber-cheesy things, and Gunther definitely does it for me. Amanda first introduced me to Gunther when we first got here, and he just keeps getting more awesome the more I check him out.

I’ve been enjoying my vacation from work. But on my real day off, after the Halloween party, I had to meet up with a classmate in the afternoon to go over a presentation that we were going to do on Thursday. I even cut hanging out with Sylvana and Amanda short Wednesday night so I could go home and practice and all that. And of course you know what happened. The teacher called in sick on Thursday. Argh.

It has gotten to be friggin cold here. The weather website says it’s in the 40s at night. I don’t know about the day, but sometimes it doesn’t feel like much more. I am so thankful that it hasn’t been raining. The only thing worse than being cold is being cold and wet.

Speaking of cold and wet, I also now know that I need to buy candles. Saturday night, right after I got out of the shower, the electricity in the entire apartment building went out. So I was stuck with wet hair, no heater, and only moonlight shining in the one window without a curtain. The only thing I could think to do was curl up in my bed so I could try not to freeze to death. By the time my friend called, I was zonked out. Oh well.

Sunday was the first Sunday of November, so that meant free museum day! I decided to go to the Louvre. It was awesome. I was expecting there to be a ton of people, but once I got there, I waited in line for less than five minutes. Sweet.

I saw the things you are supposed to see at the Louvre… La Joconde (The Mona Lisa), The Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory. Photography is now no longer allowed in some parts of the Louvre, so I couldn’t take pictures of La Joconde, the other DaVinci’s I saw, and the paintings by Gericault and David. Oh well. It’s not like there aren’t 85673027584902584932 pictures of these paintings out there, I just kinda wanted to add my own to the collection.

I have seen most of the paintings when I’ve been in Paris before, but I have learned about the history and things, I can appreciate them so much more.

It cracked me up that there was a guided Da Vinci Code tour. And of course I had to go to the inverted Pyramid. I read the book too, I’m a dork.

But what was almost more awesome was the fact that the Louvre used to be the Royal Palace. And the French Royals knew how to do things. The design, the style, the architecture, it was all so incredible. The floors were so intricate. I could have walked through that place empty and still been satisfied.

As I was leaving the building, it became incredibly modern. The lower floor of the Louvre is now like a shopping mall. Complete with Sephora. And soon, a Starbucks.

Ah well, now it’s back to work. Waking up early. Ick. 7 weeks until my next vacation. And my brother is coming out for Christmas. I am so excited, yyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. I crack myself up.

On Monday, my History of Literary Paris class walked around the area near my apartment. It was really cool, we got to see some neat places. We saw the famous cafes of the Saint Germain area, Les Deux Maggot, Le Lipp, and the Café de Flore,

and right by there was where Sartre’s mom lived. I also saw the places where Racine and Oscar Wilde died.

I found out that Picasso lived in an apartment two blocks from where I live.

And one of the coolest things we saw was the remains of one of the first walls surrounding Paris in 1200. Yes, 1200. It exists in an underground parking structure, a block from my apartment. I feel special, because I would have been protected in the wall.


And once again, we had gorgeous weather. It was a little cold, but it was sunny, no rain. We even got treated to a rainbow.

And Tuesday was quite a day.

I had my medical exam so I can get my residence card here. It’s funny to me, but they require you to get a medical exam to see if you have any communicable diseases before they let you stay here. However, you have three months to do it in. I have been here for two months already. If I had TB, they would be screwed.

The exam was quite interesting. I had to get a chest x-ray, and that was an experience. They put me into this little room, and I was told to strip from the waist up, and then someone would come get me. So there I was, standing topless, waiting for the door to open. At first modesty came over me, and I was covering myself as I was waiting. And then I thought “how many boobs have they seen today? It’s no big deal”. So when the lady opened the door, I decided to just strut. I think she thought I was crazy.

And once again, it was the attack of English. It says American on my paperwork and before anyone had talked to me to see if I even knew French, they started speaking to me in English. I still kind of feel offended, and I do answer them in French, even if they keep talking English to me.

Everything was fine, I got my silly stamp (the French love their stamps), and headed off to class. From class, it was off to Sylvana’s and Amanda’s for partying!

The Halloween party was so much fun! I decided I didn’t want to spend any money on a costume, I prefer to eat. So I used a bedsheet for a toga, and was a roman goddess.

It worked out awesome. We cut some ivy and made head thingies. Sylvana was originally going to dress up the same as me, but the sheets weren’t quite working out for her. So she dressed up as a gypsy.

It was sooooooooo much fun. I love Halloween.

Sometimes I feel like going to Sylvana and Amanda’s is like running the gauntlet. First, the metro line that I connect to is usually jam packed. So I have to shove myself into a full car. Then, I walk up a little bit of a hill, and then I have to pass through the guys trying to get me to buy a friendship bracelet. Once I have successfully broken through that bunch, I have my option. I can either cram into the funicular with 34 sweaty and smelly tourists, or climb 222 stairs (yes, I have counted). The next stretch is another little bit of walking up a hill, and then breaking through the line of people who want to draw my caricature. When I get to the door, there is a small set of stairs to climb, and finally I have made it. My reward is French TV and wine.

This has been an odd week. The kids started their Toussaint vacation on Wednesday, so I only had to teach Monday and Tuesday morning. I only had each class once this week. I went over Halloween with them. Halloween isn’t that big of a deal here is France, but the kids were really excited to learn about it.

Toussaint is All Saint’s Day, November 1st. It is where Halloween came from (All Hallow’s Eve). It is a national holiday in France, and the schools take a week and a half off to celebrate. Unfortunately, not the Universities. They only take the one day off. One day is better than nothing though.

And I found out, cursive is mandated in the elementary schools. All of the children have to write in cursive. So of course, the directrice (directrice is the word the French use for Principal) wants me to use cursive whenever I write anything. First of all, I barely write in cursive. It’s easier for me to write in printing, plus I think it is easier for other people to read. I happen to like my writing. Secondly, do you think French cursive is the same as American cursive? Of course not. So after spending my last class on Tuesday being constantly corrected by the directrice (she is my last class on Tuesdays, she is a teacher on top of being in charge of the school), she gave me a book that has all of the French cursive in it. I get to practice it during my “vacation”. Great, I feel like I am in elementary school now too.

Last week, in my oral class, the girl from Mexico presented her country. Keep in mind that my French speaking class is composed of only non-French people. There are 6 Californians in my class, and the rest are Europeans. The 6 of us were just drooling when she was talking about Mexican food. I am not sure anyone else understood. They were looking at us like we were crazy. We were looking at them like they didn’t know what they were missing out on. We were asking if she found any good Mexican restaurants here, and she said she found one, but she forgot what it was called. We made her promise to tell us next week.

And this week, I made the best discovery yet. I discovered the Monoprix by my apartment. Think of Target mixed with Vons. And that big too. I felt like I discovered Christmas. It’s funny how excited I got as I was walking through the store. So much variety of food. (I guess it is important to explain that the markets I have been shopping mostly in two markets. One is smaller than an average 7-11, and one is about the size of a produce section in a typical Californian grocery store. ) I have choices. I don’t know if I can explain my euphoria without sounding like a complete nutcase.

I’m supposed to get my first paycheck this coming week. It’s an interesting situation, because normally people don’t get paid at the end of October, but they give us the choice of getting most of our money advanced to us. I got all of the proper paperwork taken care of. But the way things have gone up to this point, I am kind of expecting it to not be there. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

So here is my week in review (complete with tons of pictures):

Teaching is going well. I’m surprised at how far back the students are from where they are supposed to be. So I am only doing lesson plans from week to week, so I can gauge how much they know in comparison to what they should. I don’t think there is any sort of test that I can devise. I’m getting more settled into the job though. Trying to learn French names is a bit difficult, and I am butchering these poor kids’ names. They are really nice about it though, and are helping me along.

The neighborhood around the school is super nice, the houses are really cute.


When I got to the bridge for the train, I saw a truck who didn’t pay attention to the details of clearance. I was laughing out loud.


School is school, there isn’t much I can say about my writing and speaking classes. They are nowhere near as awesome as the History of Literary Paris class.

Nanterre is right outside of the city of Paris, and the campus is supposed to be modeled after American campuses.


So I guess you could say that my weekdays tend to be on the boring, real life-ish side. School, work and babysitting.

This weekend, Sylvana and I decided to go to the Père Lachaise cemetery. It was quite interesting. There are four cemeteries in Paris, and this by far is the most famous. The cemetery was opened in the early 1800’s. In order to attract people to want to be buried there, they moved the remains of Molière and Jean de la Fontaine to the cemetery.


It then became “the place to be (buried)”. 19th century families all wanted to be buried there, and they all tried to outdo each other when it came to their final resting places. One thing that I have noted, everywhere, is the extravagance with which the French do things. Whether it is their palaces or their final resting places, it seems the bigger the better.

We walked around, and saw the gravesites of such famous French people as: Abélard and Héloïse, ,
Jacques-Louis David (he was Napoleon’s painter), who was exiled, and not allowed to return to France, even in death. So only his heart is interred at the cemetery, in his family’s plot. ,
Honoré de Balzac ,
Eugène Delacroix ,
Théodore Géricault ,
Amedeo Modigliani ,
Edith Piaf ,
Marcel Proust ,
Gertrude Stein (who’s residence I had just visited earlier in the week) and Alice B. Tolkas (her partner). They were buried in the same plot, but their names were engraved on different sides of the headstone.
Mademoiselle Rachel ,
Allan Kardec (the founder of the philosophy movement “Spiritism”) ,
Oscar Wilde (who’s grave and monument were gifts from a devoted fan, and where it is tradition for women to wear lipstick and kiss his grave)
and the Rothschild family crypt.

And of course, what trip to the Père Lachaise would be complete without a stop by the grave of Jim Morrison? The grave is barricaded, and there is always a guard by the grave. (It’s funny, not to diminish the goodness of the Doors, but there these other artistic “giants” in the cemetery, yet Jim Morrison’s is the most popular, and cause of problems.)


There were also several monuments built for the soldiers from different countries that lost their lives in the two world wars, and also monuments built for the French citizens that died in the Nazi Concentration camps.

One of the more interesting, but not publicized landmarks was the Mur de Fèdèrès, where fighters of the Commune (who were also responsible for the fire that destroyed the Hôtel de Ville) were captured by the French government, lines up against the wall, and shot.

And then this one just kinda creeped me out. It reminded me of Return of the Living Dead.

Walking around the cemetery was interesting, and also kind of sad. There were a lot of graves that were in ruins, it looked like some had been smashed. And a lot were become ruin status, overrun with grasses and moss. Some crypts were filled with trash. People probably spent a ton of money to secure their eternal spot amongst French giants, and it is in ruins.

More and more I am becoming convinced of my ability to control the weather. It never rains whenever I want to go out. It started sprinkling just a little when we were at the cemetery. I told Sylvana to give it just a minute, it will pass. Lo and behold, it stopped, and five minutes later, the sun was out. Coincidence, or cosmic powers? Time will tell.

And I feel accomplished, I finished Les Misérables. It was a great book, and of course it made me cry at the end. Now I need something new to read. Anybody want to send me something?

Wednesday begins the Toussaint holiday for the little kids. Oh yeah, a week and a half (paid!) vacation from teaching. Unfortunately, the University isn’t so kind. But I am so excited.

Apparently I’m retarded. People have left comments on my blogs, and I have said nothing about them. I wasn’t ignoring you, I didn’t know they were there. Ooops. I will try to check on that more and answer. Sorry.

Teaching gets better a little each day. I have no clue how to tell what the kids really know and what they don’t. It’s kind of like trail and error for me. I don’t want to be over their heads. My 10/11 year old class today didn’t know the alphabet. Which they are supposed to know, according the “official French standard”, by the end of their first year. But it’s coming along.

Next week is Halloween, and I only have each class once (instead of the usual two seesions), because they get a week and a half vacation for Toussaint. I am so excited to do Halloween activities with the kids.

Today for my History of Literary Paris class, we walked around Montparnasse. It was really cool, we saw cafes and theatres and buildings where writers, painters, and other artists lived in and frequented.


It was an area frequented by John-Paul Sartre, and we went to the Cemetery of Montparnasse and saw his grave, where he is buried with Simone de Beauvoir.


We also saw cafes that were frequented by Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and saw from a distance the café where the two writers first met. (It’s the café with the red sign).


We also snuck into an apartment building and saw (from the outside) where Gauguin and Modigliani had their studios.


Along the same courtyard, the artist Pascin lived. After his death, his wife killed herself by jumping out of the window into the courtyard.


We also saw the Carrefour Vavin. This area has four incredibly famous cafes where artists gathered: Le Dome, La Rotonde, La Coupole, and Le Select. If they were an artist, famous, and in France in the first half of the 1900s, then they probably hung out there.



I am in awe of the historical places I visited, just in three hours.

Our professor is so sweet. He is giving us a ton of information. I asked him if we were going to be doing much with the Existentialists, and he said no. I explained to him that my little brother was studying philosophy, and was interested in Camus, for example. He said that although he wasn’t going to cover it in class, he would bring me a paper with information about different important places. He knows a lot, this class is turning out to be awesome.

And the weather was awesome for our field trip. Pleasant and sunny. I think someone talked to the one responsible for the French weather. Thanks for arranging that.

Well, this has been quite a week.

The job is going well. It is hard trying to feel out the kids, and where they really are at in their level of English comprehension. Some of them know the words, but they have no idea how to use them. Like numbers. The little ones know the English words, and can count, but when it comes to quantifying things, there is trouble. So I am working on it. It’s like that with a lot of different words. The older ones know colors, but when I ask them to apply it, it is hard for them. It will probably take me a little while to feel them out, and really make progress.

School is good. The classes are going to be interesting. I am so excited about my Literary History of Paris class. And I thing I am going to learn a lot from my Written French class. Like practicing my verbs. I am not sure yet how my oral class is going to be. For the time it seems like I am above the level in my speaking abilities, but I could just be fooled. We’ll see.

This weekend was awesome. On Friday night, I went to Amanda and Sylvana’s. We decided to get Pizza, and rent a movie. Alex (Amanda’s boyfriend) bought a DVD player, so we can watch movies. We watched a movie called Caché , by a French filmmaker named Haneke. It was the kind of film that would make David Lynch’s brain say “ouch”. There was a lot of political symbolism in it, so if you decide to watch it (which I do recommend if you like unconventional things), I would definitely try to understand the French-Algerian conflict.

On Saturday, it felt like we were all over. We started to night near my place. Nell, who is another girl in the MICEFA program, was having a little get together at a bar for her birthday. So we started there at about 6, to take advantage of the happy hour specials.


Then we met up with Alex, and went to one of his friends house for some wine before we went out. And then we went to this Chinese food restaurant. It was pretty awesome, because there was a wedding reception that was happening there, and it felt like we were the only white people in the room. The best part was the had a Chinese singer, and she sang La Bamba. It was a truly international experience.

The food was awesome too. Me and Sylvana had spring rolls, which were incredible, and I had sweet and sour pork.

But Sylvana started to not feel well, and wanted to leave. I didn’t think it would be a good idea for her to go home by herself, so I went home with her. I ended up crashing there for the evening.

Sunday was just a boring day. I went home, and worked on my lesson plans for the coming week. It is hard to plan lessons while I am still feeling the kids out, but I am working on it.

The mornings are a bit strange to me. I have to leave my apartment at 7 in the morning on the days I teach in order to get there a little early so I can prepare for the day. The sun doesn’t start to come up until 7:45. It’s still dark. And all of the restaurants along my street are receiving their deliveries, so it’s almost like I feel like I am seeing the backstage going ons to the city.

It’s also just odd to me for it to still be dark that late in the morning. Winter should prove to be interesting.

And to help with my train rides, I would like to take this time to restate my love for my iPod, and the awesomeness that is iTunes. I got sucked into Grey’s Anatomy back home. And now, it is on iTunes, so I don’t have to miss out. And Desperate Housewives. So I download them on Monday nights, watch Grey’s Anatomy on Tuesday’s train ride, and Desperate Housewives on Friday’s. It’s like I have tricked myself into looking forward to the train ride.

And I feel like I have control over the weather. I have figured out the key to stopping rain, and that is keeping my umbrella with me. The only times it has rained since I got stuck in that downpour coming out of McDonald’s have been when I am inside, or I forgot my umbrella. It has not rained at all when I have had my umbrella with me. Winter will be an interesting time for me to prove my theory.

The seats in the Metro stations aren’t made for short people. They only serve to make me feel shorter. Sitting in the seats, my feet dangle. I thought of my tall little brother, and how much he would love to see it, so here are some pictures of my dangling feet.



I still get giddy about going to the bakery every day or ever other day and getting fresh bread, and sometimes desserts. This week I got a brownie. It was awesome. Not the most French dessert, but it was a dessert in France, so it counts.

La rentrée

Well today was the rentrée for me.

The rentrée is the time in France where everybody comes back from vacations and goes back to life. It is also used to signify the first day of school.

I started working today. Anybody who knows me could have guessed that as soon as I got with the kids, my anger at the situation disappeared. The kids melted me I guess.

My first class was the 8 year olds. They were so excited to begin the English classes (they actually cheered when the teacher told them that I was there to teach them English). And one of the girls was saying things like “She’s pretty”, and even called me elegant. That’s where the little ones are so awesome. I began with doing introductions, and they sang a song for me (their teacher had taught them a simple hello song, just for me, it was so sweet).

The 9 and 10 year olds were great too. They were all well behaved. I started the first class with them as a chance for them to ask me any questions they had about the United States, California and myself. Part of what I have to teach is culture, and I felt that this was a good way to break the ice, and kind of get their questions out of the way. I have learned that being from California has made me somewhat of a goddess here, and I wanted to get past that in the first session. It also made me feel really good that they asked me questions in French, and I was able to understand them, and answer them, and they understood me. It was a nice affirmation.

The teachers were all really nice, and I have a feeling that I am actually going to like it. They have been really welcoming and supportive.

I left the school smiling.

The school reminded me of a French version of Alta Loma. The kids were almost all white, with only a few exceptions. But they were all well behaved, and excited about learning English.

And from teaching I took the train straight to school. My schooling is going to be spread out over two schools. My MICEFA class will be at Paris III, which is the same school where I did my orientation. But I am actually considered a student of Paris X, which is Nanterre, where I will be taking my language classes.

Today was my MICEFA class, the History of Literary Paris. The teacher was really nice, and it seems like that class is going to be fun. We won’t be going into Victor Hugo, which kind of bummed me out. (The professor said if I wanted, I could do my final project on Les Misérables. I think I want to actually read another book, I am not quite sure that I am ready to conquer Les Misérables in French.) But we will be going into the surrealists, which I am excited about.

Next week our class will be in Montparnasse, where we will be going to cafes and areas frequented by Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre, not to mention countless other great authors, painters and artists.

Even though it isn’t the architecture class, I am excited about it.

Things are looking up.

I finally had a crepe today, and it was a bit heavenly. A crepe with Nutella. Mmmmmmm. And the other day, I bought a Frasier from the bakery. It’s some sort of crème cake with strawberries and I don’t know what else except for a lot of sugar. But it was quite awesome. I love the food here.

The last week seems so far away. I had another half day of training, and met a really nice lady, Sandrine. She has been super, and I guess you could say she has taken me under her wing. She is the one who is responsible for coordinating the adult programs, but she has gone far above and beyond helping me with that, and I am so grateful for her.

She went with me on Friday morning to the school I will be teaching at, and helped me with getting my schedule set. There are some problems with the schedule that has been give to me, and she has helped me through my frustrations.

On Saturday morning, she offered to meet with me to get my first lesson plans started, and help me with ideas for activities and other lessons.

This whole teaching thing seems a little overwhelming to me right now, it is a bit more than I bargained for. But once things get going, that’s when I will really know. All I know right now is how things seem. And it seems like a lot.

It is a nice change of pace to go to work in the suburbs. The commute is a pain in my ass, and something that I am still a little upset about, I mean I will be traveling one hour each way, but there isn’t anything I can do about it, so I have to look to the bright side. (Thank goodness for iPods.)

The lifestyle is so different, and the cityscape is so different. It’s very quiet. But apparently the area I will be teaching in is an affluent suburb, and the parents are quite picky, and a little too over-involved in things. Sounds like my experience working at the Y in Alta Loma. And the parents there loved me, so hopefully things will be familiar.

I start teaching Monday morning, and as it stands, I will have 2 classes of 8 year olds who have never had any English classes, 2 classes of 9 year olds (who have had one year), and 2 classes of 10 year olds (two years of English). And then I will have one hour of an American culture driven conversation class for teachers on Fridays. I will be teaching Monday and Tuesday mornings, and all day Fridays. That is if they decide not to give me to more classes on Thursday mornings in an attempt to drive me insane.

Speaking of things that are crazy, Saturday was the Nuit Blanche (White Night, which cracked me up to no end). The premise of it was that Museums and churches were going to be open all night from 7pm to 7am, with different art displays, and it was going to be coordinated by quarter. So the plan was going to be to meet up at Sylvana and Amanda’s, drink a little, then head out to the Marais, because it appeared they had the most going on.

Hahaha.
We started out at Sylvana and Amanda’s. It was really cool, there was a little fair type thing that was going on around the Sacre Coeur, where they had different booths set up where they were selling wines and breads and cheeses and things from different regions in France. We checked that out a bit, bought some bread, and then went back to their apartment, and had some wine.

Amanda’s boyfriend and his cousin came over, and we hung out. And time kept passing. Supposedly we were going to meet some of Alex’s friends in the Marais at about 10:30. 10 came around, and nobody had an inclination of going anywhere. So Sylvana and I decided to go.

We started in the Marais, near the Centre Pompidou. The line was sooo long to get in, so we decided that we would pass. We went to a church that was nearby. It was interesting to say the least.


After we left the church, a guy Sylvana knew said he was in the 5th, and wanted to meet up. So we said that we would meet with them at the Fountain at Saint Michel. Silly us thought they meant they would be there. We waited about an hour for them. I think Sylvana felt bad about just leaving without them, and after miscommunications, they finally showed up. Drunk, and with beer in hand. And the mission to find more alcohol.

I got bitchy. We waited an hour for them. And they were being rude. So I said we were going to go. And they could call us. We never heard from them.

And the art displays we saw just weren’t that interesting. It was three in the morning, and my Nuit Blanche had been a letdown, so we headed back to my apartment.


We made the decision that events like this were small groups, with like minded people. The more people involved, the more complicated, and ultimately, disappointing.

Sunday morning I slept, and then met up with Rachael (the assistant that graduated from CSUF and who knows my friend). We met near the Eiffel Tower, which was actually the first time this trip that I have gone near there.


We went over our lesson plans, and shared ideas that had been given to us by different people. She is having a hard time because she doesn’t speak French very well, and so she is being overwhelmed in that sense. I told her that any time she needed help to call me. We are going to work together probably every week on our lesson plans. It has always seemed to me that creativity inspires creativity, and if two of us are working together, we could probably come up with some good stuff.

And Rachael is really cool, so yay, I have another friend in Paris.

The weather here is now cold. I don’t know temperatures, but it is cold. I bought a scarf. I have never before worn a scarf. I made fun of emo kids in California for wearing scarves, because come on now, is it ever that cold?

But here it is. And the winds are chilly. So scarf it is. It has rained a bit. Where I live the wind doesn’t blow too hard, but up on the hill where Sylvana and Amanda live, it blows hard. At least it didn’t rain on the Nuit Blanche.

I’ve been reading Les Misérables (but in English). I bought the book back in January I think, and had started reading it, and the first 75 pages were incredibly difficult to get through, and the story just didn’t seem to move. So I had given up on it. When I went back home with the whole visa fiasco, I decided to bring the book back with me. I mean, I did go to the Victor Hugo house, I might as well start reading more of the Parisian hero.

And I have really gotten into the book now. It is awesome. It is long, but good. The stories are intricate and well fleshed out. I really have grown to appreciate Victor Hugo’s way of storytelling, interjecting his opinions of life, spirituality and politics. And his humor. Indeed, in his book, Victor Hugo says “To err is human. To loaf is Parisian.” I spent 5 minutes laughing.

I think that I have decided not to buy food at McDonald’s ever again. There have only been two times that I have bought food there while in Paris, and both times, the internet didn’t work. All of the other times that I have gone to use the internet and not bought anything, it has been fine. Go figure.

Call it laziness, but I had a really long day, and needed to use the internet, so I just stopped by there on the way home, and decided that I could eat while surfing. McDonald’s didn’t think so.

Fortunately, the Haagen Daaz store next door offered a low speed connection, so not all was lost.

I am hoping to my own connection very soon. No more crashing icky fast food restaurants. Although I do have to admit, the McDonald’s here are way nicer than the ones that I have been to in the US.

September was a month of beautiful weather. It was pleasant most days, mostly sunny, and nice temperatures, I only ever felt hot in the Metro stations, after climbing 48975892375984352 stairs and cramming into cars with as many people. But it has definitely turned. It went from being 20 degrees during the day to being 14 degrees overnight. The rain started, and it is cold (for my wussy California self anyways). I can’t wait for Winter, yippee.

The nice thing is, sometimes in the afternoon, the clouds break up some, and there are some really pretty sunsets.


I finally started my training for my teaching. I am so lucky that the French love me. The rectorat that I work for decided that not only am I going to teach little ones English, but I am going to spend one hour of my two hour lunch (yes, they take two hour lunches) on Fridays teaching teachers English. And I get to help plan at least two seminars, one in January and one in February.

The first day of the training/orientation was quite a doozy. Because I got placed in a city way the hell outside of Paris, and the “central school” is even further, I had to travel over an hour by train to get there. And then we spent 4 hours in the morning filling out paperwork. Yes, just paperwork. And that is not counting the time I will be spending later this week actually filing it at the appropriate offices.

And then we spent the afternoon going over lesson ideas, and did an actual lesson (but we were taught to count to ten in Latin). It was cool, and it gave me some ideas to use later on.

8 hours of keeping up with someone in French, and then a lesson in Latin makes for a tired Jenn. And then I had to go babysit. At least that is pretty easy.

It’s strange to be a continent and an ocean away from home, and then end up working with people who know people that you know at home. I know a guy who does Electronic music, and there was a girl that works for the same rectorat as me that was wearing one of his pins on her bag. Turns out she knows him, and she actually had gone to Cal State Fullerton a couple of years ago. Wow.

I think it has been said that the French are a little more sexually liberal than the Americans. That is true.

You want evidence? Well, there is the condom dispenser in the University cafeteria

(you think I could make one up like that?), and then there is this ad plastered all over the Metro.

It’s kinda just icky to me.

Well, I learned the hard way to always have an umbrella with me. Even if it is sunny and clear when I leave my apartment, and I plan on returning within the hour.

On Saturday, I had walked to McDonald’s, to check my email, and check on my Dodgers (mark my words, they will win the World Series, mostly because I am not home, that’s my luck…) It was sunny, and nice. I even decided to just put on flip flops, stick my computer in my bag, and go. Hahahaha. I spent about half an hour there, and I go to leave, and it is raining. Not too bad, I figured I could probably make it home fast enough to not worry about my bag getting too wet to soak through to my computer. And then all of the sudden, WHOOSH, it just started pouring. I took cover under the overhang of a building, but that didn’t help the splash up from the ground. It poured super hard for about 15 minutes, and once it started letting up, I decided to head for my apartment. The rain got really hard again once I made it to a little side courtyard near my apartment. I was able to take a shortcut through there, and was pretty sheltered. The rain had stopped by the time I got back to my apartment. But my jeans were soaked. Luckily, the rain never got past the first layer of my bag and my computer was safe.

But lesson learned. My umbrella is always with me now.

Saturday night, Sylvana and I went to a party that was thrown by a girl who used to be a teaching assistant, and was supposed to be a mixer for this years assistants. It was kind of lame. But I did meet a few people who seemed cool, including a girl who SCUBA dives. She was talking about some of the great diving around here, so I gave her my number and email address. Hopefully something will come of it, that would be cool.

This Sunday was the first Sunday of the month, so that meant free museum day. We decided that we were going to go to the Musee D’Orsay. Wow. The Museum was a converted train station, and housed mostly French art from the 1800’s. You know what that means, Impressionism! I was in heaven. I cannot even describe how incredible these paintings are in person. I was standing in front of a Van Gogh, not looking at it in a textbook. It gave me a completely deeper appreciation for the paintings, and I am in love even more. And there were, of course, Monet’s. And paintings from Degas, Renoir, Pissario, Boudin, Manet, Cezanne, and that is just the more famous. The painting “Whistler’s Mother” is normally housed in the Musee D’Orsay, but it was on loan to an exhibition in Tokyo.

And I discovered a new artist (well, new to me) who just absolutely astounded me. Eugène Carrière. His style is amazing. His portraits look ghostly, I just fell in love with his style. They featured his work with Rodin sculptures, apparently the two artists were friends and worked together.

One of the more amazing things about being a year long tourist here, is I can spend all day in a museum, and not worry about the other things I am missing out on. I spent all day at the Musee D’Orsay, and could easily spend another. I got to see most of the works on display there, but I would not mind seeing them again.

Monday, I went and actually enrolled for my classes. Which was quite an interesting experience. I showed up to the office listed on my paper, told them which classes I wanted, and they wrote my name on a piece of paper. I guess that means I am enrolled. I am a little leery, because it was easy.

So my classes all start next week, and I start my set of meetings for my teaching job tomorrow. It will be all new experiences, but I am really looking forward to them. With my umbrella in my hand, of course.

P.S. I think Flickr hates me. There are way more pictures from the Musee D’Orsay. Just wait. I have to get a chance to sit and let them all upload. I thought they did, but apparently I was wrong.

I’ve got to work on posting more often. Cuz man, these are long. Sorry. Here goes:

Man, this has been a busy week. Last week, one of my brother Eddie’s friends from his summer job called me to tell me that she was in Paris, and wanted to see if we could hang out. Thursday ended up working out. It was also Amanda’s birthday. So after I picked Evelyn up from the Metro station near her hotel, we went up to Sylvana and Amanda’s.

We pre-partied there for a bit. Amanda’s boyfriend Alex had a bunch of his friends come over. We drank a little, and Sylvana had made Pico de Gallo, which made my heart happy. We fianlly made our way out, we walked down the hill to a club. After dancing for a little bit, someone decided we should go to another club, and we tried to go to the dance club at the Moulin Rouge, but they wanted 25 euro per person to get in. We all agreed that since the other club was free to get in, we were going to go back there.

Finally around 4, we decided to leave. Some of Alex’s friends offered to drive us home so we didn’t have to get a cab. That meant a hike all the way up the hill, and halfway down again. And Evelyn wore heels, so they clicked the whole time, it was pretty funny.

Friday was my first bad legs day. Maybe from the hike up and down and up and down Montmartre, or just everything catching up with me, but I could barely walk to the bathroom without my legs killing me. I spent most of the day watching movies, laying in bed. I did have to make a trip to McDonald’s to get the last minute details settled with my trip back to the US. The stairs sucked just a little, and I was happy to make it back home and put my legs up.

On my way home, there was a smoothie shop that I had been avoiding. I finally gave in, and got one. If you come to France, do not be fooled. Do not buy smoothies here. It made me cry. Almost as much as the so-called Mexican food spices.

Then there was the quick trip home. Oh man. Nothing about getting this whole paperwork ordeal settled has been easy.

Let’s start with leaving Paris.

I took the train out to Charles de Gaulle airport. My itinerary from Orbitz gave no indication of which terminal I was leaving from. So at the train station, there was an information booth. I asked the lady there, and she had no clue which terminal Lufthanza flew out of, so she said she thought it was Terminal 2. I took the bus to Terminal 2, no sign of it at all. I finally asked someone at a ticket counter, and he told me to go to Terminal 1. So I get onto a different bus, and head off to Terminal 1. Then everything came to a standstill, nobody was moving. Turns out, some idiot left a bag on the bus, and you know what that means, bomb scare. So we had to sit and wait until the police came, took the bag, and blew it up. After half an hour, we finally got going. You may ask, why didn’t I just walk to Terminal 1? Mostly because it was about a mile away. And there is no pedestrian access way.

So yay, I finally make it to terminal 1, about 1 and a half hours before my flight. I wait in line forever, and about 45 minutes before my flight was set to leave, they pull me to the front of the line. And then, the lady told me that there was a problem with my ticket, and that I had to go to a different desk for them to sort it out. So I went to the ticket desk, and she asked me why the lady sent me there. She’s French? I dunno. It took almost 20 minutes for them to sort it out.

I guess I should just be happy it got straightened out. I don’t know what happened, they never spoke loud enough for me to hear. Now I was on my way to the security screening.

By the time I got to the security screening, my flight was boarding. Of course the guard at the screening wouldn’t let me pass by everyone, he said I had to wait. So I did, and thank god I made it, but they closed the door not even 5 minutes after I got on.

That was the worst of it. There were some small problems transferring in Germany. But then it was a looooooooooooooooooooooooong flight from Frankfurt to LAX. And I really didn’t get too much sleep on the flight. I did watch cheeseball movies though.

On the flight home, I started getting really excited about actually going home. About being in California, and seeing my family.

My parents picked me up with my brother, and we went to the Dodger Game. And I got a calendar, yay! Not sleeping had started to catch up with me, and then there was a huge fire in Venture which had started to set off my allergies. But I was still happy to be at the game, and happy to be hanging out with my family.

After the game, I went home, slept in my own bed. Which was nice. My body was a bit confused, I kept waking up starving. But I got up in the morning, had breakfast with my grandma, and told her some of my stories.

I then met up with Crystal and Mikey, and had lunch with them and my brother at Chili’s. It was awesome, but my stomach has shrunk so much, I barely was able to eat much. But it was soooo good. And it was so nice to be able to spend time with Crystal and Mikey, and of course my brother.

I conned a field trip to Victoria Gardens, and we went and saw Brandon. And then we went and did a little shopping, and I stopped by Macy’s and saw Jeff. He looked good, that was really nice for me to see.

And after all the running around, I went back home, and we were having a family barbeque. My mom made her potatoes, but sadly I had to pass for fear of my stomach’s reaction, and had steak and cantaloupe and garlic bread. That was heavenly though.

I went shopping with my mom, and got Mexican spices, yay! And a couple of other things (my crack, aka Orbitz bubblemint gum).

And then it was to bed. I didn’t want to completely exhaust myself on this trip, the worse thing I could do is wear myself out and make myself sick.

Monday was the day that I came home for. We went out to the embassy and I got my stupid visa. It took like 15 minutes. I guess when I have to fly 28 hours for something, I want dancers and clowns. Or at least jugglers. After getting the visa, we took Eddie home (he lives less than a mile from the consulate), and I got to see his apartment. His bedroom is bigger than my whole apartment. It’s ok, I’m in Paris, so I win.

The flight home was pretty uneventful, but my allergies were getting worse. I think that that going from Paris to California to Paris and spending all the time on the plane was just too brutal for my poor sinuses.

I got back home here in Paris, and took a little nap, and then went to babysit Christopher. And then back home. And bed. Wednesday was pretty much wake up, babysit, and then come back home. Sylvana came over for a while, we watched DVDs and hung out. I felt too icky to drink (what is that?). Then sleep.

Thursday I had to go out to Nanterre to take a placement test. Intermediate. Of course. I get no chance to actually speak French here. Everyone wants to talk English to me. But apparently everybody is placing in the intermediate. So I guess I don’t feel so bad.

I am still exhausted, Friday I can be a bum. I just have a few things to take care of in the afternoon. My sinuses are still screaming at me.

The past couple of days have been “administrative days”. Getting the paperwork taken care of for enrolling in the University has been fun. I’ve completed step one. Or maybe two (three?). I don’t know. There have been so many forms I’ve filled out that it’s hard to keep track. The French love paperwork.

I had to go get I.D. photos taken, for the Student ID card, and those I can get for fairly cheap at a Photo Booth in the Metro. Cheap, but horrible. Oh well. At least the picture I have for my ISIC card is hot.

I also got my bank account set up. The lady at the bank was super nice, and really helpful. She came in speaking English to me, and said, “I can either speak in English or French, which would you prefer?” I told her that I wanted to do it in French, I wanted the chance to practice, and to learn the words appropriate to their banking system.

I’m also making sure that I have all of my paperwork in order for my trip home, I really don’t want anything to delay me or keep me from getting everything taken care of. This paperwork thing has been such a nightmare. I will be happy to finally get it over with.

On the upside, I get to spend a little bit of time with my family, and briefly see some friends. And the Dodgers. Yay! Thank goodness that I am able to sleep on airplanes, otherwise, I don’t know how I would survive the coming weekend. I think it works out to something like 28 hours of flying in 4 days. (It would be shorter, except I am going through Germany).

I am a little bummed today though. Nancy at MICEFA has been hounding me for three days to drop the Architecture class and take a History of Literary Paris class. She said there were so many people signed up for the Architecture class, that I am better of waiting for Spring. I was really looking forward to the Architecture class, that was really something that I am super interested in, I am not too into Literature, but it involves field trips too, so I am going to give it a go. Plus, if someone is insisting on something as much as Nancy was, there must be a reason.

My babysitting job is continuing to go well. Today Christopher’s mom came home from her business trip, and we were talking. She was being super nice, telling me that she wanted me to think of them as my second home in France, and that if I ever had any questions or problems that I am more than welcome to turn to them. That was really nice to hear, and it made me feel good.

I finally found a Laundromat around my apartment; it is the next block over. I did my washing there, but since drying is 1 euro for every 10 minutes (drying was free at the Cite), I decided I can be patient and have things hang dry in my apartment (it was quite a maze getting around wet clothes hanging everywhere). There was a guy who came in the Laundromat, and asked me where I was from. When I told him I was from America, he acted like he fell in love. He told me that he wanted me to come to his house and have dinner with him. I told him I was sorry, I had a boyfriend. (Amanda’s advice: “You always have a boyfriend”). He asked me if I was sure, that it would make him so happy to dine with me, but I told him I was sorry, I didn’t think my boyfriend would like it. It was quite funny. My wash finished, I threw everything into my bag, and almost ran home.

And every weekday is trash day here. I have been sleeping with my windows open, because it has been quite pleasant at night. At 5:00 in the morning, the concierge takes the trash out, and rolls the trashcans over the uneven stones. And then at 6, she washes them out with the hose.

I don’t know if I have explained this, but my apartment is on the 6th story (5th floor in French terms), and facing the courtyard. The noise rises in the courtyard, and I think it gets louder as it comes up. I hear everything, and it sounds as if it happening right outside my window, not 5 stories below.

The little things that happen are quite funny. Everyday is a new adventure; some big, some small.

Sylvana and I were comparing the way of life here in Paris with how things are in California. Things are different, that is for sure.

And Sylvana is a fan of Mitch Hedberg. Awesome, my little quotations will not go completely unnoticed here. Everyday is an occasion to quote Mitch, even here in Paris. For example, the escalators weren’t working in the Metro today. I giggled, even though I got strange looks. I could go on, but I won’t.

On Thursday, I went shopping, close to my apartment. Yay! There is a supermarket two blocks from here, and the best part, they sell Old El Paso Mexican food spice packets. Fajita mix! And cheddar cheese. There are just some things I need for comfort’s sake. However, every thing is too good to be true, and they don’t sell tortillas. The lady I asked didn’t even know what they were. Tomorrow, my quest is to find tortillas. Someone told me that the Monoprix by Paris III has a Mexican section. I cannot wait to go check that out.

I was supposed to go to the Erasmus party, and since I wasn’t supposed to babysit, we were going meet up beforehand, and doing a little partying before. So after shopping, I went back to my apartment, and took a nap.

After my nap, just as I was going to jump into the shower, Christopher called me to tell me he was going to be late. I told him that I wasn’t supposed to babysit him today, his mom was going to be home (at least that was what she told me last week). He told me that she got her times mixed up, and she was coming in at 11 at night, and not in the morning. So I told him I would be there as soon as I could get there (the trip takes about 40 minutes).

So much for the Erasmus party. By the time I would get back, get a shower and get up to Amanda’s, it would be too late. Next week I guess.

I think I mentioned earlier the amazing view from the babysitee(?)'s house:


The babysitting works out pretty nice. Christopher is a good kid. He has a tendency to try to not do his homework, but then again, so do I.

His mom explained to me that when he was little, he had some ear infections that went undetected, and as a result, he was mostly deaf when he was little. But he had learned to read lips, so nobody noticed. He had to get eardrum transplants, and now he can hear fine. But he has to go to the Doctor’s each week for treatments; I am not sure exactly what they do. On Wednesdays I babysit him from 1-8, and his appointments are Wednesdays at 3, so I go with him.

I thought we would take a bus, his mom had told me that it was a little bit away. But Christopher decided he wanted to take his scooter, and he happened to have an extra one. It was about a 15 minute ride each way. It was fun, except for the whole uneven sidewalks things. Thank god I didn’t fall, that would have been embarrassing.

I didn’t really have any homework, so going home, I decided to take the bus. There is one that runs pretty much from where I babysit to somewhat close to my apartment. It was a cool ride. Sure it took more time that normal, but it was far more interesting. It went through some of the suburbs, through Paris, a little along the Champs Elysees, and ended at Invalides.

I took the Metro the rest of the way back to my apartment, and just decided to catch some sleep. I was just about to fall asleep when it started pouring rain, and a thunder and lightning storm started, right over my building it seemed. Half of me was expecting a lightning bolt to come in through my window. Other than that, it was pretty cool, I actually like storms like that, as long as I am inside and dry.

Friday was my last day of grammar class. Hooray! Not that it was horrible, but it was. But I am done. Mme. Anrig took no exception to being mean and long winded. Oh well.

I talked with my babysitting job, and she wasn’t going to need me to babysit Friday, so I went to the bank, I need to get an account set up. Since there was so much uncertainty with my paperwork earlier, it wasn’t exactly a priority. MICEFA has an agreement set up with one of the banks in the area, and they are super helpful with getting students set up with accounts. (Once I have a bank account, I can finally get the internet set up at my apartment.)

I also found a store that sold tortillas, and so I decided to go back to my apartment and make fajitas. Cooking is somewhat of a challenge, I have a microwave and a cook-top with two hotplates, and not enough counter-space to use them at the same time. But I got the chicken cooked, and got it going with the spices. And someone had left a sponge ruiner here (I guess I should call it by its positive name, cheese grater), so I didn’t have to buy one of those.

Finally, my fajitas were ready.

No wonder the French hate Mexican food. The “fajitas” tasted more like chicken with cheap barbeque sauce. But I still ate them. Indeed, I will be buying my own spices on my trip home.

Speaking of my trip home, my parents are taking me to a baseball game after they pick me up from the airport. Yay!

I ended up going to Sylvana and Amanda’s apartment; we drank wine, and watched cornball American movies. Nobody has a DVD player that will play movies from different regions, and we are all scared of messing up the ones on our computers.

Walking to their apartment, I got some ok pictures. I didn't have the right camera with me...


On Saturday, the day was mine. No obligations, meetings or classes. It felt kind of strange, that has only happened a couple of times since arriving.

So I decided that I would wander the Marais, which is the area across the river from me, and a little to the west. I decided not to take the Metro at all, I just wanted to walk around, and enjoy the journey. My goal was to eventually hit the Church of St. Chapelle, Victor Hugo’s house, and the Picasso museum.

I should pause here and say that this weekend was the Jours de Patrimonie. I don’t quite understand the whole thing (this would be an awesome time to have internet access), but from what I understand, different museums and landmarks do special events, and government buildings that are not normally open to the public allow visitors. I think the point is to encourage the natives to get out and be tourists. But I could be wrong. Nobody ever goes into much detail about it.

I made my way to St. Chapelle, which is near Notre Dame, and it is closed due to the special weekend. Blah. So onto my next destination, Victor Hugo’s house.

I start walking towards there, and encounter a protest. People were protesting the low wages in Paris, but the high cost of rent. There was a heavy police presence, but it seemed to be peaceful.


I continued walking, and came across an area where they were working on restoring a tower. It was really something, they had an exhibition set up, showing how they were doing each part, and how they were working to replace some of the carvings. I even got to watch somebody carve a stone for a little bit.



I then walked on, and I was getting closer to where the Victor Hugo house was, I heard loud music. I decided to check out what that was about. It ended up being the beginning of the Techno Parade.

Wow. It was literally a parade celebrating Techno Music. It was so very interesting to watch. There were trucks going by with different DJs, playing their music, and people walking along, dancing. I fast-forwarded the parade, and ended up at the Place de la Bastille, which is where the infamous prison used to stand. There is a monument erected there, but commemorating the victims of the July Revolution of 1830. (I’m sorry, I’m really trying not to turn this into a history lesson, but come on, it’s Paris…) People were all over the monument dancing. It was insane. Someone was passing out booklets, and it said that the Techno Parade is recognized by the police of Paris as a political event. It was very cool to watch, and I participated a little bit in it.



I then finally got to the Victor Hugo house. It is located in the Place des Vosges, which is where I had gone the weekend before with MICEFA. This is where he wrote, among other works, Les Miserables. It was beautifully decorated, and again, the awe of the history overwhelmed me.



After that, it was off to the Picasso museum. The Picasso museum is in the biggest house in the Marais, known as the Salt House, because it belonged to a guy who got rich off of the salt trade.

The Picasso Museum was really cool. It outlined his work in historical progression. Some of his work, which resembled “typical” artwork wasn’t anything fascinating, although was waaaaaaaaaay better thank anything I could produce.

However, the artwork that is of his signature style was amazing. He did more than painting though, he did sculptures and models and other forms of artwork. It’s little wonder his work is so popular, it really is art, and creative.



After the Picasso museum, I really felt like I had a day. My legs felt it too. But I decided to stick to my decision and just walk. It was really nice. I went straight for the river, and then walked along the banks of the river until I got to my bridge.

I am starting to really take ownership of parts of Paris. It’s my street, my arrondisment, my bridge. Soon it will be my city.

I got back home, and just wanted to rest. I stopped off at the boulangerie, got some bread, and went up to my apartment and made some dinner. Chicken and potatoes and corn and bread. Mmmmmmm.

The rest of the night I just took it easy, put my legs up so they could recover, and contemplated what I would do the next day. Thank god I bought the Frommer’s book before I left, it has been a great starting point and idea giver.

On Sunday, I kind of just decided that I wanted to take it easy. With the whole Jours de Patrimonie thing, I ran the risk of not being able to do what I wanted, and Monday will be another free day for me, so I decided to just wait until then. And Sylvana called me and told me that their plumbing went coo-coo, and asked if she could come over here and use my shower. So at least I don’t feel so bad about deciding to be a bum.

Besides, I needed to really spend time working on making my apartment more like a home. Every time I’ve thought about doing it before, I decided sleep was more interesting.

I know you’ve been waiting… here are pictures of my apartment.



And at night, I get to see this


So I am having fun... getting to know things better, exploring and settling in.