Une année à Paris: Time for an update!

My mother recently reminded me that I hadn't written a blog post for over a month, so here's an update on my life in France!

Over the past month, I've settled into living in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a picturesque town directly west of Paris. I live in an apartment for teaching assistants at Lycee Jean d'Albret, a 10 minute walk from the RER station. The apartment is on the 3rd floor of a large administrative building, and there are 5 of us on the floor -- 3 other teaching assistants (from Germany, Russia, and China!) and a teacher from the south of France who lives in a separate apartment at the other end of the hall. We all share the same kitchen and bathroom facilities, but we are all so busy working and have different schedules, so we rarely see each other for more than a few minutes at a time! We speak French with each other because it's the only language we have in common, which is actually pretty cool because it helps me practice my language skills even more. I hope we'll have more time to hang out together in the new year, because the other teaching assistants all seem great and I'd like to get to know them better!

My room looks remarkably like my freshman year college dorm room, but it's fairly large, warm, and well-equipped, and for 120 euro/month, I definitely can't complain! The only thing I really don't like is that my window faces out onto the entrance of the high school/the road, so I tend to wake up every morning at 8am when the students arrive and smoke their morning cigarettes regardless of whether I have to get up or not!

At the beginning of November, I started working at a Canadian pub/grill/sports bar in Paris off bd. Saint-Germain in the 6th arrondissement, close to metro Odeon. I work 3-4 days/week as a server or bartender, and so far it's been a lot of fun, even though the hours can be pretty long. Nearly everyone who works there is American or Canadian (excluding Mexican and Italian bartenders, and one French waitress and another from Sweden!) We all speak English at work and that environment, combined with American football/basketball on TV almost makes me feel like I'm at a sports bar back in California :) Working there also gives me more opportunity to practice my French, as I'd say the clientele is split about 50-50 Anglophone - French. I also enjoy working in Paris, because it gives me an excuse to be in the city 3-4 days/week and ensures that I won't just stay in my warm room in St-Germain!

Speaking of warmth (or the lack there-of), it is officially winter in France. It's cold -- much too cold for a California girl like me. I have to do a lot of walking, which I'd normally enjoy, except now it tends to be a little less enjoyable given that my hands and face become icicles and my movement is usually hindered by the 120847234 layers I wear to keep from freezing! The other teaching assistants who come from places like New York or Ohio like to make fun of me, but my body just isn't used to functioning in these temperatures! Everything seems to take twice as much effort in the cold/rain -- I have to psych myself up just to go get groceries or walk to the bank! My current struggle revolves around trying to convince myself to go do my laundry... I've been desperately needing to do laundry for around 2 weeks now, but it's an ordeal that involves loading my dirty clothes in a suitcase, hauling it down 2 flights of stairs, walking 5 minutes to the bus stop, hauling it on the bus, riding the bus 10 minutes, hauling it off the bus, and walking 10 minutes to the laundromat. Followed by paying exorbitant amounts of money to do numerous loads of laundry in the TINY washers (4 euro/load), drying everything, folding it, putting it back in my suitcase, walking 10 minutes back to the bus stop -- you get the picture. It's just so not fun!!! And yes, I know... #1stworldproblems...

ANYWAY. Just to give you a mental picture of what a typical week for me looks like, here's my schedule:

Monday: Teach 10:30am-4:30pm
Tuesday: Teach 8:30am-3pm
Wednesday: Bartend 6pm-close (around 2am) at the Moose... (Since the RER (train) stops running at 12:45am, the nights that I close the bar at the Moose, I have to take the night bus from the 6th arrondissement to Gare Saint-Lazare to catch another night bus for Saint-Germain-en-laye, which comes once/hour and takes about an hour to get to Saint-Germain. As long as it's not too busy, I can generally make it to Saint-Lazare in time to get the 2:30am bus, which means I'm home by 3:30am, but if it's a busy night or I'm closing the bar on the weekend, I don't get back home until 4:30am, which is ROUGH.)
Thursday: Try to catch up on sleep, run errands and maybe do something fun in Paris :) Prepare for classes... Oh and it's my 23rd birthday!
Friday: Teach 8:30am-3pm. This week I also work at the Moose serving from 8pm-midnight.
Saturday: Usually I work during the day at the Moose (11am-7pm), but this week I have the day off, which I'm excited about because I get to celebrate my birthday with a fellow teaching assistant who turned 23 last week!
Sunday: Serve at the Moose noon - 7pm

Whew! As you can see my schedule's pretty full, but I still have time to have some fun :) The job at the Moose has allowed me to relax a little about finances, which is a big relief.

Teaching has been going pretty well lately! I've started to relax about it a big as I've settled into my schedule and gotten to know the kids a little better at both my schools. I've realized that if I relax and have fun with it (and make sure I'm prepared), the kids generally have a better time, too! It helps that most of the kids I teach are unbelievably cute and excited to learn English! While I do enjoy the job most of the time, this experience hasn't suddenly made me realize that I want a career as a teacher -- but it has made me realize that teaching really isn't that hard or scary! At least in elementary school...

I've been so caught up in getting my life together here in France over the past few months that I must admit I lost sight of the big picture of my life altogether. It's only been over the last couple weeks as I've been settling into a routine that I realized I should probably start thinking about what I want to do with my life next year! Move back home to California and get a job/go to grad school? Come back to Paris in the fall for a Masters program? Travel the world? I don't think I'd consider doing a second year of TAPIF because I feel like I'm getting what I should out of the program this year, and I want to move forward next year with the next phase of my life.

Anyway, I'm going back to the states in 15 days to spend Christmas with my grandparents and parents in Tennessee, so hopefully I'll have to time over break to consider my options for next summer/fall.

Right now I think I'll go back to trying to convince myself to go do my laundry before heading into Paris for work... but doesn't buying new underwear just sound like an easier option??

Fun "apartment-warming" party at Olivia and Sam's place in the 18th! All the people in the photo are teaching assistants.

Christmas tree in Galeries Lafayette!

Time for another Picturesque Parisian Park photo

Helping my friend Jill move out of her studio in the 18th into a cheaper, bigger apartment with another teaching assistant to the North-East of Paris, I discovered that she could see the top of Sacre Coeur from her balcony! Awesome, but still not worth the price!

At Olivia's soiree, typical Parisians with our black & white stripes...

Christmas ornament one of the kids in my youngest level gave me! I told him I'd take it back to America with me and put it on my Christmas tree, and I'm pretty sure I completely BLEW his mind.

Yummy apres-lunch dessert -- Chocolate hazelnut tartelette with fresh raspberries and (instant :/) coffee

Finally had the time/energy to go grocery shopping and made myself this delicious salad for lunch! Spring greens, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, smoked salmon, and fresh baguette.