Joyeuses Fêtes!

OK, so the holiday season is upon us and well, what ever happened to autumn? (I just had a real break in trying to figure out how to spell autumn…thank goodness for spell check!) Anyway, here is a brief… at least that is what I am saying now… overview of the last few months. In order to figure out where exactly I left off in the last blog I had to read it and suffice it to say things have changed. I am now taking the initiative to enjoy Paris.

I quit my au pair ship and now have a great studio by the Arc de Triomphe. (and if you are a Google Earth fan, check out rue Lauriston). I love where I live. My land lady is pretty awesome and I have a great Canadian neighbor. Come to think of it, maybe she is the reason I love it so much… a Canadian neighbor just like in the States. Geography jokes aside, my place is about 20sq. meters and clean and new and well-equipped. I fell in love with it right away. Here is a little story about that. The first time I went for a visit, I went up to my landlady’s apartment on the 5^th floor by elevator and then through her apartment we went to the service stairs to go up to the studio. I fell in love. The second time was the same. Then, I got the apartment (whoo breath of fresh air) and finally moved. I took my huge bag (for trip one) and realized how long 6 flights of stairs can be. That is right, 6^th floor French (7^th American) without an elevator. Thigh master anyone? Boy, after those three trips I was pretty happy to be at home. I slept like a baby and it was great.

Between quitting my au pair ship and moving I had about a month of good times. First, The MICEFA, being the awesome organizations it is, arranged a trip to Mont St. Michel in Bretagne (the west). We went early on a Saturday morning and spent the afternoon there. Wait a second, I have not told you about the strikes. Well, I guess I am striking against the fluidity of my writing, but I must make my blogs as organized as my thoughts. So the French aren’t so keen on change we all knew it, we all accepted it, some things just don’t change. Oh, but they do. There is this new president of France (no, France is not a monarchy) named Nicolas, say it with me, nee koh ah, Sarkozy, the latest conservative French president. He is trying to cut back certain benefits for transportation workers and it isn’t going so well. What I mean by that is, for a few days they stopped working and well, it became rather difficult to get around. Don’t worry, it was over in the blink of an eye. OK, so that’s out of the way now. Back to France’s up-side. So, Mont St. Michel is this crazy town in the ocean. Yep, I may be making lots of grammatical mistakes, but I mean “in” the ocean. Apparently you can only go when the tide is low. Well, it is a beautiful town that kind of looks like a big seashell on its end from afar. There is a quaint little town and as you continue up the street, you come upon a huge abbey. I am not a very poetic writer, so I am not going to try and explain. For those of you living vicariously through me, try and see it for yourself. It is amazing.

Then, I was invited very graciously to visit Grenoble over the Toussaint holiday. That is right, I barely knew what classes I was going to take and we already had a week of vacation. I took the TGV (high speed train) down to Lyon and then a regular, but still very cool, train into Grenoble. It is a really neat town with a nice atmosphere. The people I stayed with showed me a bit of their city and it quite adorable. One of the coolest parts was the balls that you can take up to the top of one of the mountains and have a look at the city from above. We went up to the bastille, which seemed like some kind of medieval fortification, and it was pretty chilly, but amazingly beautiful. Leaves… they are just so cool the way they can change color like that. Another neat thing was the street lined with pizzerias. I mean lined, at least 15 one next to the other. Cough, mafia? Cough. (Oh, my goodness, I just spelled cough wrong). I definitely recommend this town as a place to see. I really felt like I was in France and that was nice.

Since then, I have moved and oh yeah, there was another strike. I can’t remember how long it lasted, but it seemed like forever. I think 10 days or something like that. Hmm, I just thought of something to add, but I forgot. Oh yeah, another MICEFA trip, this time to Normandy. I really enjoyed the trip. We went to the American cemetery and to Omaha Beach. It was really moving. I want to put the two impressions out there, but if you know how concessives work, then hopefully you be able to tell which one of them was mine. Some people may say that Americans always overdo things and that the monument built for the cemetery is too gaudy and expensive, it is important to also let yourself be awed. The monument and the cemetery itself are extremely well taken care of and utter works of art. OK, so it is quiz time: how did I feel? Yep, (or maybe nope, but probably yep) I thought it was an amazing place well worth the money (most likely because I don’t work and don’t understand the value of taxpayer dollars). It is big, but not intrusive. Somber is what comes to mind. Nothing too extravagant and nothing that was not deserved. So, it was an amazing day and while I have been a proud American for about 4 years now, I am only more honored to be American than ever. I hope somewhere someone reads this out loud in front of a big American flag in the background. So, the bus ride home was cool and we made it to the MICEFA office alright. It must have been kind of late though because I wasn’t able to take the metro home. I forgot it was during the strike, so on a not so warm night I got to walk all the way home. I just realized that this was before I moved, so I must have messed up the chronology there. My bad. I moved just after the end of the strike.

Oh, and while this doesn’t affect me because I am in a private school, a few of the public schools in Paris were also striking. I know that it affected quite a few people, but it seems that after about a month of striking things are settling down a bit… right in time for the winter holidays. A little note about University here, most of the universities don’t finish until the end of January, mine included. So, while you enjoy your holidays, think about those of us studying for finals. Just kidding, it is not a big deal; I certainly won’t be studying on Christmas day (being semi-Catholic I am allowed to say that). So yeah, that is that.

Oh, you want to know what I am up to now? I am actually in Chamonix visiting some family friends. Go ahead, Google earth it, it is in the Alps near the highest summit in Europe, Mont Blanc. I took the very uncool night train (actually it was pretty cool, but not exactly a good night’s sleep) and got here yesterday morning. It is so beautiful everything is covered in snow. And it is a different snow than that of Pennsylvania and California. It is very sticky… I mean it really holds together. Oh and it is very cold. I am not sure in Fahrenheit, but below 32 for sure. Paris isn’t exactly warm either, so it wasn’t too bad of a change, but still, it is cold. I really enjoy visiting with French people, I get to see how they live and the culture. Living in Paris, I live a very American life. I cook the same way I cook in the States, I hear and speak English all the time. I am really enjoying a little vacation in France. I didn’t know this when coming down, but apparently I am going to Switzerland for Christmas to visit my family friend’s family. It should me interesting. OK, so I hope I haven’t forgotten anything. I wish you all a happy holiday and above all, a great New Year! Alright 2008! I am pretty sure that there will not be a blog before then, but maybe. We’ll see.

-Kathy

PS, I will post pictures later.

Sorry

Hey guys,
So I did not know that you could only post comments if you were a member of blogger, but I changed that setting and now anyone can. This means I am looking forward to lots and lots of comments on my next blog! Anyway, I hope you are all doing well!
-Kathy

On Being Depressed

Just a quick disclaimer: even though I am going through a tough time, I am doing alright. I just wanted to write it how it is and not only the good parts.

Here I am in what some call the most beautiful city in the world and yet I cannot stop crying. I guess it is just “the emotional curve” setting in, but I really just don’t want to be here anymore. Everything is alright when I am out and about, but every time I come home I feel a dark cloud surround me… loneliness. I have never lived alone before, but I never imagined it would affect me so much. Also, the babysitting gets me down sometimes. Maybe it is that I see a happy family and I miss mine, or that the kids are little brats sometimes… but I have to keep telling myself that eventually I will have to separate from my family and that kids will be kids. It is not like I don’t get to talk to my family… thanks to the internet I talk to at least one person every few days. I guess I am just having a tough time adjusting. I only wish I could just get over because I love that I am here and while I am nervous about my classes, I am excited for the challenge.

As far as school goes, I think I finally have a set schedule. Boy, is French University fun! First, I had to find classes that I found interesting and/or correlated to a class I need to take to graduate. Then I had to go check out the boards where the schedules are posted. As a side note, I feel that France has yet to maximize internet usage. The way class schedules work for French kids is totally different than in America, not worse, different. See, you choose what you are going to study and then you are put into a track. And while there are “options” that you can follow, you are pretty much with the same people for every class, going from place to place together. And instead of making the classes follow each other, (for example at SF State, one class will be from 8 to 8:50 and the next class will start at nine, leaving enough time to get from class to class and potentially giving a nice compact schedule) the classes are on the hour, usually leaving about an hour in between classes. Back to the boards now, while looking at these boards I know that I have to be out of school by 4 at the latest because of my au pair-ship. I finally figured out what I wanted and then needed to go see the secretary of the department, who I did not have to wait too long for, but seemed bothered by me. I guess this is to be expected because half of my language prep class was based on dealing with University secretaries. So I finally feel like I have accomplished something, only to be torn down the next day. Apparently one of the classes changed the schedule leaving me scrambling to find 3 more hours of class. Then I went to a class last Thursday, Intro to Public Policy, to realize that there was no way I was going to be able to follow the lectures and understand the concepts, so now I am looking for 5 more hours. Gee, imagine my happiness! I eventually figured it out and have now been to all of my classes and think I will be able to do it. I am pretty scared of failing everything, but hey, that is what a challenge is; fear.

So on a more positive note, I had a really awesome weekend. Last Saturday night was La Nuit Blanche. This is a night put on by the Mairie de Paris (the city of Paris), where there are little events happening all over Paris all night long. The first place we went was the Tuilleries, the garden in front of the Louvre. There was fire everywhere. They had all these terracotta pots full of wax burning. They lined the pathway and were formed into giant balls and at the end of the pathway there was a fire chandelier hanging from a crane. It was really awesome. After that we walked all around Paris… a lot of walking happened this day, between The Eiffel Tower, Pont des Arts, and the Louvre. While we were walking around, we heard the madness of the rugby match and well, Les Bleus (France) are now in the Rugby World Cup Semi-Final, which goes down tonight against England. We eventually made it back to the Tuilleries for warmth; fire equals warm, and had a conversation with some real French people. Yay! As it was closing, we ran into some other friends from California and so we all left and happily ate some churros together. We then walked to the all night Metro, but in search for a bathroom we decided to stop by an open church, La Madeleine. Little did we know that inside there was a crazy event going on. We walked inside and everything was dark and there was this earthy new-age music playing and all these people standing on little platforms. They had these neon blue sticks and they were slowly swinging them around. There were other people just kind of walking around below. We watched in awe for a few minutes, but eventually got up the nerve to go in. It was amazing, the sticks were hollow and the people holding them would sort of choose a random person. Once you are chosen you are supposed to put the stick to your ear and the person talks to you through it. They whisper poetry into your ear and it is one of the most incredible feelings. It was so bizarre, but amazing.

Eventually I got home around 7:30 and the next day I woke up at about 2:30. I joined some friends and we went to the Musée Rodin and saw “The Thinker,” but even cooler than that, we stopped to sit on a bench and saw a bunch of balloons float up into infinity. We hung out for the rest of the day and walked around a lot (as usual). It is so much fun to just walk around Paris. So yeah, that is about it for now, as if I haven’t typed your eyes off (talked your ears off?). I guess it doesn’t really sound too good that way, but oh well. I hope everyone is doing well!

-Kathy

Never Too Late

Well, I guess it has been a while, but not too much has happened… OK, well a lot has happened, but nothing too surprising.

First, I have a home. After being kicked out of the temporary housing, I was forced to stay at a friend’s chambre de bonne (maid’s room directly translated, but currently a popular housing option for students.) I decided to become a “demi jeune fille au pair,” or part time nanny. This is a good way to get free housing. Well, free for my parents, but about 15 hours a week of my time. I went on quite a few interviews and finally found a match. I only had to stay at Kristin’s (thanks Kristin) for one night. I am now living in the 16^th arrondissement of Paris. You may be thinking, why have I never heard of the 16^th? And the answer is because nothing happens here. It is primarily residential, but nonetheless has some pretty cool things. In the northern part of the arrondissement there are quite a few embassies and a horse racing track. Also, the stadium for the French National Football (soccer) team is not too far away. Hopefully I will be able to see a match one day. Other than that, the 16^th is pretty dull and I like it that way. As usual, I don’t have any pictures up yet, but I will get them up soon. I am going to try and post some of other things this afternoon. Who knows, by the time you all wake up, I might have them posted.

The second important thing that happened is my education. Yep, I am getting schooled here in Paris. I had a preparatory language class for four weeks, which started and ended between blogs, my bad. It was pretty good. The best part was definitely the field trips; we got to go to Fountainebleau (on left), a castle not too far from Paris. In this picture it seems to me like Fountanebleau should be floating on clouds. We also got to see a really cool museum about the history of Paris, the musée Carnavalet. We also got to see one of the opera houses (on right) and it was amazingly detailed. Frankly, I prefer the simplicity of design, but I guess when it comes to décor, “if you got it flaunt it.” Anyhow, I have pictures of all this and will try and get them up if I can win the battle of man (or woman) vs. machine.

Also, I had my first real class today at my university… which if you were all wondering is l’Institut Catholique de Paris (The Catholic Institute of Paris). Yeah, I am going to spend the year chillin’ with the priests-to-be. But I want to finish this week before I start ranting about how hard my classes are, so more to come. So yeah, that is about it for now and I hope you are all well!

-Kathy

Hey Everyone,
So just a little update. I have not died or fallen off the face of the earth. I have actually written two new blogs, but I haven't been using my own computer for the internet lately and so I have not posted them. I will try and get them up by wednesday. Still, no pictures, but I am working on that too. Well, I hope you are all doing well!
-Kathy

Faire La Touriste

One of the great new things that happened since I last wrote was the realization that I am alright in French and will be able to get around. This came to me when I went to open a French bank account. This does not sound very difficult, but in fact, since I was the first one to inquire for a bank account, the banker did not know what to do with me. I was lucky enough to be able to communicate with her what I was and that there was an agreement with my program. I in turn was able to understand all that she told me about banking in France. They are so strange here. You pay to open the account and keep on paying monthly. There is no interest on savings and well, that is about all I can think of that is different, but still kind of funny.

At the end of the meeting I asked where I could buy hair ties and was so ecstatic to understand the directions that she gave me. Although, where she told me to go, there were no hair ties, but an excellent adventure ensued. I went first to a “magasin de beauté” and was looked at like a crazy person after asking for the “elastique,” the ladies just sort of stared at me and I know they were thinking, “zees gurl ees crazy, vat does she sink… hair ties and soap go togezer???” OK, well maybe not, but they did tell me to go down the street to Saphora and ask there. A few short steps later I find myself in the uber-chic Saphora, sweating and grungy, asking a man for the long seeked “elastique.” I guess I did not realize that I was in the perfume section, when I asked he said “stique, I have never heard of zis parfum, who ees eet by?” I explained to him what I was looking for and he sent me quickly upstairs to find bundles of hair ties that const 3euro for five, definitely out of my league of hair ties. Finally I walked into the heavenly Monoprix (I wish I could put the sound of angels singing as you read this, but I guess it is too soon) where I found everything I needed for the afternoon, shampoo, hair ties bread cheese, it was awesome.

So when the epic adventure was over I sat on a bench and ate my bread and cheese as people stared at me thinking, “What is she doing eating bread and cheese without a knife?” If had had the telekinetic powers, I would have told them that I have only just arrived, but I feel that even then there would be no sympathy.

That turned out to be a lot longer than I thought it would, but oh well, reading is good for you. The last time I wrote I talked about going on a walking tour with a few girls. Well, this indeed happened. It was a Fat Tire Bike Tour Free Walking Tour and it was amazing. The tour guide was funny and pretty informational. I got to see all the big things to see in the center of Paris; Notre Dame, Le Pont Neuf, L’Institut Francaise (where 40 Frenchmen write the dictionary every year), and we ended at the Champs de Mars, which has an excellent view of La Tour Eiffel. It was so cool, the last times that I have been in Paris I did not really know that much about the history, but this time it seems like every little monument has meaning. This past year at University I took a class on the French Revolution and it is amazing how relevant all the places here are to historic events. The enlightening tour was about three and a half hours long and after having lugged my computer around with me for the last few days, suffice it to say that my back was a little sore.

I had gone on the tour with a few people from my hostel, so after as we walked back to the hostel we grabbed a bottle of rosé and drank it while sitting on the banks of the Seine. (How Danielle Steel-like).

When I finally got back to the hostel I decided it was time to go to the Cité Universitaire, where I will be staying for the next week or so. I packed up all my things and trust me; there are a lot of “things,” and trekked to the RER station. As I was walking I could see the people looking at me and imagining e falling over and being stuck like a turtle. Unfortunately for them this dream was never realized, although I was unsure of the situation as I approached the steps to the station. Luckily, as I was teetering at the top ready to just fall down the stairs hoping not to break anything a voice came to me. “Avez-vous besoin d’aide?” the mysterious voice demanded and before I knew it he was taking my bag down the stairs and I was thinking, “Oh my God, please don’t take my bag, please don’t take my bag!” and he didn’t; he simply waited for me at the bottom and I thanked him and he went on his way. I made it onto the train and could hear the fingers being pointed at me. Yes, I can hear these sorts of things; people in France wear a lot of leather. Just kidding, but I definitely heard one woman say she thought I would fall when the train started and after not falling, I looked over at her and said, “good thing I didn’t fall.” Oh boy, was I being witty!

I made it into the dorm and found out that my roommate is a girl from school that I know from the French Club, so all is good. I went back into town to have some dinner and finally crashed later that night.

Yesterday I went and got my first baguette, it was nice and baguette-like and very tasty. Sadly enough it broke in half in the transit from the boulangerie to my dorm, but it was still yummy. Elaine and I ate breakfast in the park and watched all the runners go by. Later that day, the group met with the MICEFA lady and the International Programs inbound coordinator for France. We saw where our classes will be held for the next few weeks and then went on a beautiful boat tour around Isle de la Cité. It was beautiful and the lighting was amazing for pictures. I would post some of them today, but I seem to have forgotten my camera cable. Note to Mom and Dad, could you look in my room for it and maybe send it to me? Pretty please? Anyhow, so this pretty much brings us up to date, and in only one and a half short pages. I hope everything is alright stateside; secretly I have always wanted to say that, stateside. I’ll talk to you soon.

-Kathy

C'est Parti

OK, so I got to Paris alright. My travels were long, but well worth it. I got to see some family in Houston, which was nice and a little humid. My flight from Houston to Paris was with Air France and I have to admit that was the nicest flight of my life. Not only was the airplane food good, but there was a choice of movies and they gave out free headphones (not that I needed them, but the gesture was nice).

Also, while I was sad to be leaving the US and friends and family, my worries were tamed when I met a nice couple from Paris. They really showed me that living with the French was not going to be that bad (probably even great). The woman was Mexican, but spoke both French and English and her husband was French and spoke both French and Spanish. It was great; they even let me have the window seat!

I took a taxi from the airport to my hostel, BVJ, in the Latin Quarter. The taxi driver was really nice and we talked about his being from Chad and many other things on the ride into the city. I know that most people don’t talk to their taxi drivers, but I find it difficult not to when so far as I have found, they are very interesting people from places that I have never been (hopefully that will change soon).

I guess I forgot to mention that it is very rainy in Paris now. Apparently it is unusual, but it still kind of stinks. Yesterday in my mad effort to stay awake for the day (to avoid jet lag), I took the metro to go and see the office of the coordinators for my program, MICEFA (I would put the words for the acronym, but I can never remember them). There, I was able to send a few emails to notify my arrival (with a bit of difficulty adjusting to the new keyboard… only a few keys are different, but it is still hard; I almost signed my name Kqthy.) and also got a bit of a head start on setting up things for my stay. The people were very genial and I was happy to see someone who at least new who I was even though I had never met them.

At this point it had stopped raining so hard so I decided to walk back to the hostel, because I had time before the room would be ready. This may have been a bad idea. I started and walking and before long it was raining again. Luckily I had my rain jacket, but I still decided to stop at a café and have a beer (isn’t Europe great for underage drinking?). I then continued my trek back to the hostel and it continued to rain even harder, but I got to walk along the Seine and see the Isle de France. It was amazing; I finally realized that I am actually here. After all the applications and waiting and telling people, I finally made it. YAY! Once I got back to the hostel I made it a few more hours, but at 8:30 (20h30) I gave in to the sleepiness. I went to sleep without even eating dinner and didn’t wake up until morning. This morning I met some girls at breakfast, a Peruvian and a Swiss and while communication was not exactly easy, it was fun. I am going to go sight seeing with them tomorrow and will hopefully have some pictures.

So, here I am now, using Paris’ free WiFi system, writing this message and seeing the sun pop up behind the clouds (a mirage I am sure, but wouldn’t it be nice?). So I guess that is it for now (as if I didn't write a ton), but more soon!