Just thought I'd update you en la vie en Paris! This might take a few entries b/c there's a lot to say!
How about a family portrait first... Parents Bernard & Nathalie, kids Mathieu (17), Sebastien (16), Domitile (14) and Guillaume (13). They live in a Parisien suburb in a gorgeous house, I have my own bedroom and bathroom! The family is SO SO SO NICE, words cannot describe, and I'm just very happy here! The whole family is very athletic and musical, Mathieu & Seb go tandem-mountain-biking every day, Domitile just got back from an intensive sailing program on the west coast of France, and Guillaume is also sailing somewhere... and they all play at least 2 instruments and sing. It's kinda insane! Oh and the dad is sailing across the Atlantic in a month, just for fun... yeah. Moving on before I make you all feel any worse about yourselves :) haha
My daily life: well I'm taking French classes, intermediate level, but I think I'll switch to advanced because intermediate isn't really challenging me at all... anyways I have class Tue-Fri 8:30-12:30 which is good because then I have the afternoons to do whatever I want, but bad because I have to get up painfully early. I leave the house at about 7:20, walk twenty minutes and catch the 7:45 train to Paris which takes 15 minutes then 15 minutes on the metro then another 5 minutes on a different line, then a 5-10 minute walk. I usually JUST make it, but the french are always late so our prof is never there anyways. After class, depending on my energy level, I go out to lunch/sightsee etc. with kids from my classes, go on organized tours/outings with the language school, or just wander around solo, or just come back to the house and chill here with the kids (who are on school holidays this week). I get free admission to just about all the museums b/c I'm under 18 which is AWESOME and discounts on almost everything else...
It is FREEEEEEZZZZINGGGG here at the moment, and I mean literally freezing. It's usually about 1-2 degrees when I walk to the train station in the morning, which actually helps me because I walk VERY fast/run to keep warm. Oh and yesterday it snowed! At 3 in the afternoon... it was insane! It got cold very quickly here, and everyone keeps saying how strange it is for it to be this cold at the end of october...
Some cultural differences:
food is obviously the biggest and BEST difference, thank god I walk so much otherwise I would have gained a ton of weight by now... with all the tempting boulangeries and patisseries etc.! I actually don't eat out that much expect for lunch some days because it's just so expensive so I try to bring food from home, but I may eat an occasional pain au chocolat after class somedays :)
mealtimes: we don't eat until 8:30 which is new for me... meals are very slow, lots of conversation, multiple courses, so salad or vegetables first, then meat and potatoes/rice/pasta, then cheese & dessert. I actually really like it b/c I'm a VERY fast eater so it's helping me to slow down a little haha... Nathalie is a great cook and I love everything she's made so far! I've also been helping her a little so I can acquire some new recipes!
transportation: i'm obviously speaking to the americans now, not the europeans haha... I have now MASTERED the Paris metro system and suburban train system, I know the different lines and directions and timing and how to get a good seat and which end of the platform to stand on, and I'm also a pro at sprinting through the station and elbowing past people and throwing myself up/down escalators and stairs to arrive on the platform just in time to squeeze into the train as the doors close, very satisfying haha. But my morning trip is INSANE, I mean I've seen car-rush-hours before but never a true people-rush-hour. The trains get so full that about half the people standing on the platform don't even get into the trains and we're all smushed in and it's just like one big race basically. We all have our different shortcuts through the station and ticket turnstiles that are faster than others etc. haha I just laugh sometimes watching people walk through the station like they're on some kind of CIA mission...
If anyone's looking for a movie recommendation: The Visitor. I went to see it last night with a girl from class, our cinema was right on the Champs-Elysees which is spectacular at night, and the movie was amazing! It was in English with French subtitles, and I tried to force myself to read the french but I just didn't have enough will-power haha. The movie's about a man who returns to his apartment in NYC after being away for a few months and he discovers a couple living in his apartment, they're illegal immigrants from Syria and Senegal who got keys from a friend who is in the "find-empty-apartments-for-immigrants-to-live-in" business... the story unfolds as the main character decides to let the couple stay and they become incredibly good friends and basically put some meaning back into this guys life. Then... dun dun dunnn, the glorious USA immigration office intervenes in their happiness and it all goes downhill from there, but that's all I'm saying, you have to see it yourself! It's an incredible portrait of the life of an immigrant and how badly the immigration system in America needs reform.
ok I'll save the rest of my update for a new post over the weekend.... I'm off to Versailles tomorrow with an au pair I met yesterday!
'a toute' as the kids say.
rach xx
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