home again

Time has flown by. I am already coming home for Christmas. I leave in six days! Madness. Things have been going rather smoothly. I am into a nice routine with work and i finished the parisian portion of my christmas shopping which I am beyond thrilled about. For real. There were supposed to be transit strikes this week, but for some reason they were postponed or something. Awhile back I heard there was going to be a strike December 20 (the day I leave) but I haven't heard anything about that so hopefully there isn't one. Like I said, things are going well. For the most part. For some reason in these past few days, I have found myself in weird/stupid/awkward situations that I really shouldn't be dealing with anymore. I mean, they are rookie mistakes. Take yesterday for example:

1) I got on the wrong bus in La Celle St Cloud and ended up an hour late for work.

Depending on what school I go to means that I have to take a different bus. Both, however leave about 4 minutes after the train arrives. So I was standing there, waiting for the bus, and it was running late. I was supposed to go to the school that is uphill through the woods. It only takes about 13 minutes to walk it, but again, it's uphill and I have some problems with not sweating. So i opted to wait for the bus. The bus did get there about 10 minutes late, so I hopped on without checking where it was headed.

Mistake.

You see, at that stop there is a 27, 27b, and a 27c (i have no idea where A is). I needed to take 27c. What I ended up taking was the 27 and that took me OUT of la Celle St Cloud into Reuil or something. Great. So I was stuck in a random town. Which leads me to the second thing I should be able to do now.

2) Communicate to people in French.

Clearly my french accent is atrocious because it took me 15 minutes with 2 different people with me saying the same thing for them to understand.

Est-ce que ce bus va retourner à La Celle St Cloud?
Comment?
Je veux retourner à la gare de la Celle St Cloud.
C'est Reuil.
Non, je veux retourner à la gare.
La gare est là. (there was indeed a station there, however it was in REUIL).
Non, j'ai besoin retourner à la Celle St Cloud!
Vous parlez...
English
I don't speak english. They speak English.

At this point, the man drives me to information centre where I repeat my statement, which that person understands and directs me BACK to the bus where I had just gotten off.
Honestly. I need to work on my accent because all he needed to stay was "restez ici" or stay here.

I did make it into work, horribly late, and they didn't even care. So that was nice.

and finally today, this is just stupid. But

3) I tried to jump the metro gate and failed...miserably

This one I don't fully understand. So I followed an old lady and she was using a day ticket. I put my ticket in before she was through. THIS HAS WORKED EVERY OTHER TIME.

Not today.

So she got stuck. I put my ticket through again. All the while she is muttering in french to me, kindly, but incomprehensibly. So she started miming that I need to follow her through, or we need to go through together. I took a gander at both of our positions and realized it wouldn't work, but I tried it anyway.
It didn't work. and then neither did my ticket. You can't use it twice in a row at the same machine. And this is what the old lady realized before me. She started searching in her wallet to give me one of her day passes, but me, being the chivalrous girl I am, said "no merci" and made motions that I would just jump it, and commenced said process.

Trouble is, lady had gone back to looking for the ticket and was standing in the free space I was aiming for.

There was more trouble in that I didn't realize this until I was in the air. Nor did I remember that gloves make your hands slippery and make them rather ineffective at providing a stable grip for doing anything, such as hurtling oneself over a turnstile.

So I needed to abort the mission immediately mid-jump so that I wouldn't slide off and fall on my back or kick an old lady in the face.

The end resulted in my shin making contact with the metal bar, and lots of noise and general embarrassing things. But I learned my lesson. Just don't jump.
Anything.
Ever.

So those are some examples of how I get myself into trouble when I really REALLY should know better. At least by now. C'mon.

Despite these minor setbacks in becoming a true parisian, things have been great. I'm very exited to come home these holidays, but i'm also excited to know i get to come back here.

so the next time you hear from me will probably be in person!

joyeux noel

stirkes, and rioting, and public unrest, oh my!

this is more of a courtesy post more than an informative or descriptive one. it is mainly to reiterate the point that

1)i'm not dead
2)plan to be dead due to political uprisings

i am, of course, talking about the rioting that has been underfoot in the suburbs of Paris. Mainly one suburb to the north. Way north. Ile-de-France, which is what the surrounding area, or the GPA if you will, is called. It is quite massive, housing at least 12 million people.

this is what wikipedia says is the size of the GPA


just lovely. here is a map symbolizing my proximity to what sarkozy calls "unacceptable" rioting. two days of shooting at police and setting things on fire, fine. it's france. but three days? this is just rude.


so you see, it's really not a big deal. i live in the heart of paris, properly called le marais, more commonly called 'the gay district'. so as long as the riots don't shut down fashion production or infringe on anything that is 'just fabulous', i think i'll be pretty safe in my neighbourhood.

à la bibilothèque

this video sums up my life here in paris pretty succinctly. almost exactly in fact.

enjoy

strikes, je les deteste

France is still paralyzed by strikes. Wait. That is not correct. It's not fully paralyzed, just severely maimed so that crawling is the only method of movement and staying still is not an option. During the last strike in October, I didn't have to go to work because transportation was shut down almost entirely. This was better because it was only two days. It's been a week now with barely any service. Now I have been fairly lucky in all this. The two lines I have to take to get to the train station for work are working relatively well. My train has been almost 45 minutes late on a couple of occasions, but never once did I fear for my life. Until last night.

I am, of course, exaggerating. But it was a pretty intense situation. I went to a concert last night in the north of Paris. As a sidenote, it was the band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and they were fantastic. So I arrived in St. Lazare, the train station, from work. I was in the north already, so I didn't really think it was a problem to get to the concert. I had to make two transfers to the venue. With the first train, I lucked out. I jumped on a crowded train immediately with no waiting. The second train was another story. I got to the platform and it was pretty full. It was about 6:30 and I needed to be somewhere for 7:30. No big deal. Tons of time.

no.

the train came around 6:50. It was packed. Sardine packed. I'm second from the front of the platform, so I figured I was getting on. After 2 minutes of people just trying to disembark, all of a sudden what felt like a vacuum or a strong undertow overtook me and i got sucked away from the doors. Instantly, the train was packed. A metro worker came around to manually close the doors because people were hanging out. That train left, and I was still on the platform. Stupid me didn't check the actual address of the venue; i just knew the metro stop where I was meeting missy and phil. so walking wasn't really an option. i waited another 15 minutes and a train came. This time, I was getting on the train regardless. I ignored the fisticuffs going on near the other doors because people were fighting to get on and off and just maintained my focus on my goal; cramming myself on this already crammed train. So i jumped on and was barely in. Luckily, I got some help from the 10 other people that come on behind me so I was wedged in nicely. I am not exaggerating about the close proximity. This is what I was able to do whilst waiting for my stop.

1)Feel the physical motion of breathing from the man behind me.
2)Have my cheek pressed against a strangers face because someone was holding the pole in such a way that I has incapable of movement
3)Feel the ass muscles of the man in front of me flex continuously

Far too intimate encounters for the first meetings. I mean, I didn't even get dinner first.

At last, I did manage to get off the metro with fairly little hassle. It was probably similar to what it would feel like to be conscious during the journey through the birth canal. But i did get free with my person intact. Early too somehow. We managed to have 15 minutes to eat tasteless paninis in the rain before enjoying the opening act of very heavy french metal-rock, and having ourselves some expensive pints.

The concert was quite amazing. The actual place was wicked, and I had a really good time, despite a brief loss of consciousness. They played most of my favourite songs and they were really good live.

here is a picture of my boyfriend. I haven't gotten around to telling him yet though. i think he'll be cool with it if i tell my family we're soul mates and tattoo his name across my chest. who doesn't love crazy?



I will also add this picture phil took, because i think it looks cool. you should always do things if they make you look cool.



and those are my adventures with Parisian transit strikes. hopefully i will not have any more to tell. but i strongly doubt this.

to sarkozy, and the unions i say this:
je vous deteste
you flippin' asshats

strikes, ahoy!

this is just a quick post to say the trains are going on strike. again. starting tomorrow evening. hopefully it will extend until friday because i don't feel like working. ever.

oh, and some students are on strike. i'm not sure why. but it means that sometimes the universities are shut down and they sit on rail lines to prevent trains from coming in. oddly enough no one ever seems to know why all this strike stuff is going on. and no outlets seem to be reporting it, but everyone knows when the strike will start. i need to find my way into this underground french information centre so i know whether or not i need to be waking up at 6:30 on friday morning. maybe it has something to do with being able to understand and speak french...

here's to hoping sarkozy keeps pissing off the union heads

Bordeaux

Well, it’s back to work for me today. The vacation is over. France has random holidays all the time, which works out well for me. We just had a week and a half off. I didn’t do a whole lot. From Sunday to Tuesday, Missy and I went to Bordeaux. It’s about a 3-hour train ride. The ride there wasn’t the greatest. It was early in the morning and there were screaming children the entire way. Also, this old woman stole my window seat and I didn’t have the balls to tell granny to move it. I am out of practice lugging a backpack, so we set out to find accommodation immediately upon arrival. We found a hostel following some signs. Our hostel mate was a Scottish girl who grew up in Germany. She was quite nice.

Our first day in Bordeaux, Missy and I wandered around the city. Once you get away from the train station and a bunch of sex shops, the city is quite nice. We wandered around downtown and booked a wine tour for the next day. There was a little festival going on, so Missy and I were able to go on a Ferris wheel! And we had a giant chichi, which is a deep fried sugar stick. Mmmm healthy.

On Monday, as I said, Missy and I went on a wine tour. We went to a region close to Bordeaux called Blaye. We went to two chateaus. The first one explained to us how the wine was made. It was in English, but I still didn’t understand half of it. Then we got to taste both white and red wines. The price was a little out of our league to actually buy the wine. We don’t normally go above 3 euros (yes, it’s that cheap here). The second chateau was nice as well. The woman there explained to us about the vines. Then we had some Merlot. Again, it was out of our price range, but it was tasty. We got to see a lot of the French countryside. It’s really quite different from anything I’ve ever seen. Really pretty and picturesque.

On Tuesday, Missy and I again, as we did Monday morning, walked down the supposedly longest pedestrian shopping street in Europe. It was a bit dodgy near our end, but gets quite posh once you get more near the classy part, or the ‘Bourgeois’ part as our internet-setting-up French fellow described it. That day we went to St. Emilion. The train station is literally in the middle of nowhere (you will see in the pictures I’ll put up). So missy and I basically had a St. Emilion photo shoot walking in and out of town. It’s a pretty walk though, and it’s not that far. St. Emilion is a medieval town, much like Eze, which I visited in the south of France my first time around. It seemed more authentic though. We wandered around taking pictures, and we went on a tour of the underground monuments. The tour was in French but the guide spoke every language imaginable, so he would break off sometimes and explain it to us in English. Oh! My favourite part of the trip! Missy had read that the bell tower in the centre of town gives a nice view of the surrounding countryside. We couldn’t find a way in, so we asked at the information centre if we were able to go up. The guy hands us the bloody key to the ancient tower and charges us each a euro, telling us to lock the door behind us. So Missy and I were able to climb and play in this ancient tower by ourselves. It was quite bizarre, and possibly the best thing ever.

So it was a nice little break for us to get away. It did make me miss Paris though. I really love this city. We have no immediate travel plans, but Missy keeps talking about England, so we’ll see. Also, I’ll be home in no time. I get back on December 20, and I’m there until January 9th. I can’t believe how fast this is going!

Till next time

mes collèges

I believe I’ve been here almost 4 weeks now, and I feel like I’m finally settling down into a routine. I’ve been at both of my schools now for a couple of weeks each, and I now know where most things are and how to get to them, which is quite key.

I work at two schools in the region of La Celle St Cloud. They are both collèges, which is basically a middle school. The kids are aged 11-15. Victor Hugo is my main contact school, and by far my favourite. They are always helpful, and laidback. Plus, it’s really easy to get to and the teachers are all nice. The students at both schools are just as I expected them to be…a slightly disinterested, highly fashionable mass of hormones that generally listen and rarely understand anything that I say. On the whole, it’s pretty good.

Now Pasteur, the other school, is a bit of a different story. It’s alright I guess, but it has its…drawbacks. Now I don’t mean to sound disrespectful, but the main teacher I work with there is nothing short of a bitch. She is not nice to the students, makes me JUDGE their English, with them standing alone in front of the class (honestly, if I can understand what they are saying, that’s all that matters), and makes remarks about me not working. I don’t think she understands that I’m an assistant and have no actual teaching experience, and that learning a language does not mean perfection, but enough to communicate with others. Anyway, she is terrible. Sometimes she is not insane, but when she is, it’s not a good day. Also, the school is not at all convenient to get to. There is no direct bus, and to get there the fastest way, I have to walk uphill (and this is a steep climb) through a freaking forest. However, I think I have mastered the bus system so that I will always just be on time, which really, is good enough for me.

Aside from that rant fest, I really don’t mind it. The French education system is fairly different from Canada’s but I’m getting used to it. We have a holiday coming up starting Saturday for almost 2 weeks! Unfortunately for us, they have scheduled our medical visits (I can’t WAIT to see what that entails) right in the middle, but I think Missy, Kevin and I are going to try to visit Spain for a little bit. We shall see.

Everything else in Paris is going smoothly. We’ve had two weeks of beautiful weather, and hopefully this trend will continue aside from today.

Until next time,
Keep fit and have fun.
©KG™

photos

hé kids

i've created a link to my photo site. it's on the right, handily under the links section called "my photos". i have developed an aversion to posting on facebook right now, so if i post photos, that is where they will be.

The only ones up are just some more of the apartment (by popular demand: aka joyce) so it's not too exciting at the moment. When you first click, it will say there is no content in the folder, but click on the sub album called "our apartment", and voila, pictures will appear.

enjoy

grève SNCF

One of the things one must do when living in a foreign land is to try and experience as much of the culture as possible. Lucky for me, tomorrow I will be experiencing something so typically French, it basically makes me an automatic citizen…I will be getting a day off work due to a transit strike. That’s right. It’s my very first strike as a French employee! I feel like I’ve finally arrived. I have been waiting for one as I have been told that striking is as French as baguettes. I didn’t actually think it would arrive within three weeks of being here, but here we are. So tomorrow I’m going to sleep in and watch the thousands of cars and people that will be cramming the streets below, as they still need to get to where they are going because Paris doesn’t stop, only it’s transportation does.

Le sigh. God bless the French.

Le début

Salut et bienvenue! Here it is, my first post from Paris. I have been in the country for almost two weeks now, but I didn’t have any time before now. It has been hectic, let me tell you.

The first week was mainly fixing our sleep patterns (we did not sleep on the way over) and trying to get some paperwork done. See, this takes awhile, because they like to send you away to send you back to send you away again. It is lovely. I still don’t have a bank account, but I can’t get that if don’t have other things, and so the circle goes.
This week was quite busy. I was at the school for at least 4 hours Monday, Tuesday, and Friday and with a two hour commute both ways, that adds up to a lot of time. Add a day and a half of training, apartment hunting, sharing a room with four other people, foraging for food and trying to find sleep, there wasn’t a whole lot of time to do anything else. Monday and Tuesday of this week were especially hard. Missy and I were searching for accommodation together and we had just been officially declined from two apartments, and hadn’t heard back from countless others, and if we did it was too expensive or in a sketch neighbourhood. Also, my bank card was not allowing any withdrawals, or anything, so money was starting to get tight.

BUT our luck turned around on Wednesday. I had been in contact with this one agency that I found on craigslist, but the apartment was only until February and the agent seemed reluctant to arrange a meeting so that we could see the place. On Wednesday though, the place was still available and we came to have a look and FELL IN LOVE. It was perfect. The owner said that a lot of people had been looking at it, so we thought we might be rejected again. So, when I got the call on Thursday morning that the place was ours, it’s safe to say that the word ecstatic did not do my mood justice. And when she told us that we could have it until May with the possibly of extension, well, you can imagine how I felt then. So here I am, in my two-room apartment on the seventh floor (without an elevator!) but a view that is too good to be true. Look, there’s Sacre-Coeur, the top of the Pantheon, the Montparness Tower, the towers of Notre Dame, and if you lean slightly out the window at night, the Eiffel Tower. Not too shabby for two Canadian Anglophones for just two weeks in Paris.

I kid. We know we are lucky bastards.

I have also started teaching, but that will be another post.
A bientôt