Souriant

Salut!

Not much new to update you on. Began class on Thursday, with Madame Céline Garelli, where I'll have class every day from 12-2! It was fun to finally be back in the classroom learning new french and implementing what we already know. It's a tad easier than I hoped for, but hopefully she's just starting off light and it will get more challenging. It's also different than I anticipated, in that I thought we'd be taught in English, but we are taught in 100% pure French, as I'm not sure our teacher even knows a lick of English. It's good...it's enriching and challenging..makes you really learn! I enjoy speaking in French and learning daily how to do so better. I just think it's a beautiful language...beautiful enough for me to follow it here!

After class on Thursday, we ran around the city to find our books. Crazy to textbook shop in Paris. To buy my textbooks here. Because I'm studying here. And go to school here. And live in Paris. WILD. Grabbed a quick lunch with Ash, then back to the apartment to gather my things before my interview. Headed off to my interview at 5, which went well! They asked a multitude of questions, ranging from how I would handle different scenarios to why I would like to work with children. I left unsure of how the outcome would turn out, but they said I'd hear by Friday as to whether or not they'll hire me. Came home, ate some dinner, had a fun run around the city and down the Seine with the roomies, and when I returned I already had an email from the company saying that they were pleased with the interview! So I basically was accepted/hired by a company who is the middle man between me and the families, as this company does all the grunt work of hiring people, doing interviews, background checks, etc. and the families go through the company to find nanny's. So I've now been accepted to this company and now can choose which family to nanny for that fits my schedule best! Wahoo! I'm a french nanny! Exciting.

Friday was an early morning, off to take our phonetics placement test. Phonetics lab is something we'll have for 1 hour per day, every other week. So for example, week 1, I'll have phonetics lab from 10-11 AM on Monday, Tuesday, Wed, Thursday, Friday. Then week 2, I won't have it at all. Week 3, lab every day of the week. Week 4, no lab. Etc etc. It's a lab created to help with one's pronunciation and speech of the french language. Sounds very very fun...I'm looking forward to it! Then of to the AIFS office for some things, lunch with Lauren and Ashley and a fun, small cafe that I've grown fond of lately. They have delicious crêpes, paninis, and inexpensive diet cokes...yikes. I'm a sucker for those. Then off to adventure on foot to find our class! After going in the wrong direction, a rude french lady completely bashing Ashley's drink out of her hand, and 25 minutes later, we somehow managed to successfully stumble upon our class. Excitingly, along the way I looked around and realized I recognized this place. Turns out, my classes are only about 2 blocks away from where Anne lives, the sweet lady I had dinner with on Sunday night! Fun fun fun.

Friday after class, Lauren, Thérèse and I ventured off to find this cool dance school one of our AIFS advisors had told us about. Lauren and I have been dying to find a place to take fun, random dance classes while in Paris.  It was the COOLEST place, called Centre de danse du Marais, and they offer a plethora of classes-including Salsa, Tengo, African dance, Modern dance, etc. Very very cool place and hopefully a successful option! Then we did some venturing around the city, finding fun vintage stores and french equivalents of goodwill's, but here they like to sell racks and racks of fur coats for 15 euros...

Then I left to head back home and meet up with Nat and Ashley! We ate some din din and hopped on the Metro to head to the Louvre for "gratuit" (free) entrance into the museum for those under 28 on Friday nights. I know...how cool are we. Three 21 year olds heading to a museum on a Friday night..but it was legitimately amazing! Great choice. Really enjoyable being there with lower crowds and peaceful to admire artwork as the people filtered out at the later hours and one would find themselves in a whole gallery of the Louvre by themselves. There's something to say about being in the Louvre with low crowds and minimal noise. Very serene and different, compared to the hub of the city outside the windows. And lovely TriDelta sisters, sad I missed formal, but wouldn't have traded where I was for anything. While you all were dancing the night away, I was standing in front of this work of art admiring it...

And seeing this beautiful sculpture of Venus...

And this statue of Athena...

And this amazing stone artifact that originally decorated the exterior of the greatest Athenian temple, the Parthenon...

It was definitely a learning evening, and one of the most in-depth history lessons I've learned since arriving. There will be more Friday night Louvre excursions to come...no shame.

The Louvre

Saturday we arose in excitement to go find supposedly Paris's largest food market, only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Within walking distance, we were off in the chilly morning temperatures for fresh food, flowers and bread. Sadly, as must happen a handful of times to everyone who travels abroad, we were unsuccessful and finding this local attraction. Slightly defeated and cold to the core, we headed back home, stopping by the local Picard on the way to gather the food we had failed to find fresh. Ate some lunch, then gladly slipped into the slumber of my first nap in Paris. It was DELIGHTFUL. Woke up, and off to see Zirafa in french, a new movie that has recently come out. In suit of our luck for the day, it was yet another unsuccessful trip, where we went to somehow wasn't even showing the movie at all...So back home we head yet again. This left time for necessities, so I did a lot of cleaning of the apartment, picking up my personal things, and some laundry. Then went on another lovely run around the Seine, showered, dinner, and off for the night with Ash and Nat! We went to go find an art/music festival on rue du Rivoli that Ashley had found. It was SO COOL. It was about an 8 story building of artist's studios, where each floor of studios was different and personalized by the artist. It was open to the public, and the artists had work displayed for one to look at, buy, or you could watch some of the artists while they worked and displayed their passion on a canvas. It was very low-key, laid back, as one would typically picture artist studios who are trying to make a living in Paris, but while living life to the fullest. They served wine in plastic cups at the entrance and there was not one inch of wall on the winding staircase that was not painted, decorated, or covered in graffiti. It was awesome. Just to see the unique people and passions, skill and their ability to translate their talent onto canvas, whether through paint, needles, pencil, etc. Then we went to the first floor, where we sat for about 45 minutes and listened to a BEAUTIFUL classical concert of violinists, cellists, and pianists. It was perfect. One of those "Ahh now I feel like I'm officially in Paris. Life is good." moments. So surreal, so magnificent and precious to the ears.

Looking down the spiral staircase of the building 

Decoration on the walls and door of one of the studios

Like I said, every inch contained art

I really liked this artwork on the wall

Mmm

...our dreams of cracked glass.

Successful night, and one my favorite since being abroad. First feeling of finally being a local. Felt wonderful to be in the Parisian environment.

No Hillsong this morning, as we had a not-so-pleasant meeting with Madame, our "host" mother, but basically our landlord. Not even worth discussing on here...all that matters is that we're here and living in Paris! We spent all afternoon working diligently on our homework, which somehow took us a total of around 3 hours...craziness! It's not hard, just feels like busywork and a review. Wish it was more challenging. After feeling so cooped up inside, the 3 of us decided that we needed to get some fresh air and go for a run. We took a new route that had been recommended to us from a friend downstairs. Towards the Arc de Triomphe, around a couple streets, and cut off on another rue that has open parks. It was lovely. So we ran. And kept running. And running. Thinking that we'd just take a different path home. We were so wrong. We somehow arrived at Musée Marmottan Monet, a museum we had traveled to with AIFS last week which had taken us 20 minutes via metro to get there. Oh my. So we turn around, keep running in another direction, only to arrive at Trocadéro, yet another destination we had arrived at for AIFS events via metro rides. We finally had to stop and ask a precious elderly lady to point us in the direction of avenue Marceau. After many twists and turns and map consulatations, we somehow managed to arrive back to home sweet home. After we found ourselves and our location, I realized it was actually quite an enjoyable run to see the city and get a strong exercise in.

Now off to bed for some early morning things, including the heating guy coming to fix our broken heater in our apartment...you think I'm exaggerating when I say we're literally freezing, I'm not. Lunch at the quaint cafe, class with Madame Garelli, and then actually another new class of Architecture in France from 3:30-6. Quite excited for that one!

French word I'll leave you with today: "Songer" which means to dream, to reflect, to muse, to think--so "Songe à ton avenir" means "to think of or consider your future".

Hope all is well wherever you each are in this world.

Bonne nuit!

PS...shout out to Natalie for helping me with the word for the day. Aren't my roommates just the greatest...? This is what below-freezing, chilly nights in Paris will do to your face: