Sorry it's been so long since the last blog post, things have been pretty crazy here. Long story short -- my au pair job (and thus housing) fell through last weekend because of schedule conflicts with teaching, and so my last week was spent freaking out and scrambling to find another housing option. I had already moved in the family's flat in Paris, so I had to move back out again and back into Fabien's apartment last Saturday. For anyone who doesn't know, lugging heavy suitcases up and down stairs, in tiny elevators, and through the metro is super exhausting, and taking a cab (which I had to do a couple times) is prohibitively expensive (almost 20 euro/pop on average).
Anyway, after I schlepped my stuff back to Fabien's, I sent out SOS e-mails to my school principal and all the high schools in the area around my schools asking if anyone knew of affordable housing for teaching assistants. (I realized at this point that looking for a place in Paris no longer an option, as I'm out of money, time, and energy). Thankfully, I got an e-mail from a high school in St-Germain-en-Laye offering me a room in their teaching assistant housing for 120 euro/month, which is incredibly cheap by Parisian standards. I took the train out to Saint-Germain on Thursday, and was able to pay through November and get my keys the same afternoon.
The room is on the 3rd floor of a building on the campus of Lycee Jeanne d'Albret, a big international high school with a beautiful campus. I have a furnished room with lots of storage space and a big window, equipped with a counter/sink in the room and toilet/showers just outside my door that I share with the 3 other teaching assistants who also live on the floor. We have a big kitchen on the floor with a cute little table and a nice view of the campus while we eat. (I'll try to post photos soon, but I don't have a camera right now and uploading photos from my phone is proving difficult, so just try to imagine for now :P) The teaching assistants are all girls my age, from Russia, Germany, and China. The room I'm renting was free because the 4th teaching assistant who works at the high school (the English assistant) chose to live with her au pair family instead. (A choice for which I will be eternally grateful!) So far I've met the assistants from Germany (Elisa) and Russia (Yuliya?), and they are both super nice. Elisa went home today for vacances de Toussaint, our 2 week school vacation (I'm jealous she lives so much closer to home than I do!), but the Yuliya will be staying so hopefully we'll get to hang out a bit and get to know each other. Apparently no one ever sees the Chinese girl, because she cooks all her meals and eats them in her room, but hopefully I'll be able to get to know her as well. She apparently doesn't speak French, which must be hard, because as we're all from different countries, pretty much our only option is to communicate in French.
The only problem with the apartment is that there's no wireless on the floor, and there are no telephone lines either, so we can't even buy a router. The only option is to buy what's called a "surf-stick" with a SIM card inside, that plugs into the USB port on our computers. With that, we're able to access the internet using the carrier's network (like you would on your smart phone), and we can also connect to a wireless "hot-spot" signal that reaches the apartment (which is much better, because it's faster and unlimited). I bought the surf-stick today, so hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to set it up once I get back to my room in St-Germain tonight, and I'm also hoping the connection will be fast enough so I can skype and watch videos online! I've been feeling SUPER isolated without internet, so this seems like a monumental accomplishment to me... it really is the small victories :P
The apartment is located 10 minutes on foot from the train station, and 10 minutes from both of the primary schools where I teach. It's about 30 mins from Paris, and the only problem is that I won't be able to stay out very late in Paris, because the last train for St-Germain leaves Paris about 12:30am. The good thing is, this will probably make me spend less money at the bars! I'm also hoping I can find some fun stuff to do in St-Germain as well -- there are a few Irish/English pubs I'd like to check out!
Right now I'm sitting in a Starbucks in St-Michel (Paris), enjoying the wifi (I haven't had internet in 4 days!) and the heating (it's incredibly cold in Paris all of the sudden). I just had lunch with my friend Rachel (another teaching assistant) who's leaving for Corsica tomorrow with her au pair family. I'm going to have dinner with my friends Olivia and Jill tonight (more American teaching assistants) at Olivia's apartment in Paris, and then I'll probably head home pretty early cuz I'd like to finish unpacking and set up my internet tonight. I also need to stop by my friend Mary's apartment, because I left my warmest winter coat there last weekend, and I've been freezing for the past few days without it!
As for the school vacation, I'm planning on visiting my friends from high school who now live together in Barcelona. (For those of you Athenians reading, I'm talking about Chris Jorde and Chapman!) It's pretty awesome that even halfway around the world, I'm not too far from a couple Athenians. I'm planning on leaving for Barcelona next Wednesday (the 7th), and coming back Sunday the 11th, because I have to go back to work on Monday morning. Jorde is hopefully going to take me climbing with her buddies, which I'm super excited about because I've been missing climbing terribly since I've been here. I haven't climbed, or even worked out, since I left California, and I'm realizing that being active is really essential for me. I'm hoping to find a gym with some group X classes nearby my apartment soon, or if I'm really lucky maybe I'll be able to find a climbing gym that's not too far away/too expensive.
For this coming week and a half before I leave, I'm going to try to explore Paris, because I've been so stressed out trying to get my life in order since I've been here that I haven't done much in the way of discovering Paris. I have quite a few museums on my list (there's even a cool archaeology museum in a chateau in St-Germain right by the train station that I want to check out). I'm also going to start trying to find a second job. I'm going to look for a part-time bar-tending/cock-tailing gig in Paris or St-Germain, and I'm also going to start posting flyers for English tutoring at local high schools and universities. It would be really nice to have a little extra money for traveling, and going out, etc. and knowing me, I'm going to get pretty bored only working my teaching assistant job.
I'm going to be spending Christmas in Tennessee with my parents and grandparents, and I'm so grateful to my parents for buying my plane tickets so I'll be able to have an American Christmas :) I
think I would've gotten pretty homesick if I'd had to stay in my little apartment over Christmas break! I fly out on December 20, which is less than 2 months away!
I realized that I haven't mentioned much about my actual teaching job, probably because it's been the least stressful thing that's been going on in my life here! I actually really enjoy teaching for the most part, which is fortunate, because I've never wanted to have a career as a teacher and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it. To be totally honest, teaching English in primary schools is pretty damn easy. The kids I teach are between 6 and 11 years old, and the English they're learning is very, very basic. My biggest priority has been getting them to speak as much English as possible, because as a rule they're afraid to make mistakes and are pretty shy about speaking. The past few weeks I've been giving classes on Halloween, teaching them Halloween vocabulary, and playing the "trick-or-treat" game, which basically consists of acting out trick-or-treating. I've also given most of my classes English names, and they have to introduce themselves and say a couple sentences in English at the beginning of each class. Simon Says is also a big hit, as well as singing easy songs in English. The kids are super cute and eager to learn, even if it's hard to keep their attention sometimes in class. I'm going to spend some of this school vacation lesson-planning for the five and a half weeks of classes before Christmas break, because I'd like to be a little more organized and make sure my lessons are streamlined so that the lessons build upon the preceding classes, etc.
Now that I have internet (hopefully), I'm going to try to keep up better with what's happening in the US! I watched the last couple presidential debates, and I'm going to a late-night election night party next Tuesday that's being put on by Young Democrats Abroad France. Should be pretty exciting! My friend Jill and I attended one of their events a couple weeks ago (a live streaming of the 2nd debate at an Irish pub). It was really fun, and nice having a little piece of home here (and meeting other young, politically active Americans living in Paris).
Okay, I think this post is getting a little long, so I'll leave you with some photos.
Much love,
Kelly
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| the view from my new room in St-Germain-en-Laye! Picturesque french village (also very rich...) |
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| nice lunch spot on the seine by one of my schools...and the elusive sunshine! |
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| rare warm afternoon in Jardin du Luxembourg... love me some fall foliage |
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| very blurry photo of me and Jill watching the 2nd presidential debate late night at O'Sullivan's! |
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| The senate building in Jardin du Luxembourg |
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| Gardens across from the train station in St-Germain-en-laye, 10 min walk from my apt! |
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| flowers in the St-Germain train station! so pretty |
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| more Jardin du Luxembourg |
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| late-night in Pigalle, Moulin-Rouge! |
