Chez Moi.

Hello!

So I took pictures a while ago of my apartment to give everyone the grand tour, and it's about time that I finally put them up!  I took a little time to clean up before hand, so you can be relatively certain that it doesn't currently look like these pictures.  But you'll get the general idea.

So let's start with where I am right now!

This is my desk where I do most of my work.  The window right there gives me tons of natural light and opens all the way up, so I can get lots of fresh air too (when it's not too cold or rainy).  I also call this my study.  And the entertainment room.  And maybe the wreck room.  But it's nice, haha.

Next on the tour we have the living room/bedroom/lounge/dining room/entertainment room (yes, I have two rooms for entertaining...I'm very rich).  That's my bed that folds up into a couch.  It's actually very comfortable and is nice and large.  It makes kind of a loud noise when I take it down, so I feel a little bad for the people who live below me when I go to bed late, but I haven't had anyone down there bang their ceiling in protest, so I think I'm ok so far.  And I have two large pillows that I use too, not just those little ones.  Thank goodness.

So here is my library and wardrobe.  The picture is kind of weird because the wardrobe has a mirror on it and you can see my desk through it.  All the clothes that I have fit just perfectly into the space allotted.  It was great.  And it's nice having a full length mirror.  I actually do my hair in this mirror because I have to duck to see my head in the mirror in the bathroom.  Really essential things, obviously.

Here is my grande cuisine.  It's pretty awesome.  You can't really see it, but I have two electric burners (both of which work) on the right hand side, and a nice big sink and fridge.  It's very nice.  The cabinet under the sink is where I keep all the plates, pots, pans and cups and silverware.  It was all supplied for me, and it's mostly pretty nice.  I did just break my sauce pan, however.  Though to be fair the handle rusted off.  So not my fault.  I was lucky and found a brand new replacement for less than 10€.  So that was pretty exciting.  You can also see into my bathroom right there.  It's pretty great.  Small, but great.  Originally my shower didn't drain worth a crap so I had to shower for two minutes, turn off the water, wait for it to drain a bit, and then finish.  So that was awesome.  I called and talked to the landlord though and he came and fixed it.  So now it's great!  It's like a real American shower!  And those of you who have lived in France know what a blessing it is to have one, haha.  No offense, France.  Well....maybe just a little.

And one last thing that you should see is my "pantry."  Whatever doesn't belong in the fridge finds itself in a little spot on the floor next to the wardrobe to wait until it's called upon for dinner.  This picture was taken a little while ago, so the pantry is a little more full right now.  One requirement of things placed there is that they be somewhat stackable.  For example: I bought too much spaghetti to fit into the pasta jar (look bottom left), so I put the extra into the fridge.  This also applies to any sandwich bread I buy.  I currently have two half-loaves in the fridge.  (This happened because I went shopping without looking in the fridge to see what I needed.  Out of sight out of mind I guess, haha.)  One more interesting thing to note: Do you see that little blue and white bottle?  That's milk!  Though I don't have the same bottle there now, the milk I do have in the pantry expires January 1st, 2010.  "How is this possible?" you may ask.  Well, milk is sterilized before it's bottled here (I think).  So as long as it isn't opened, it's good for much longer.  You'll thank me for this useless knowledge some day when you find yourself in France desperate for a bowl of cereal and all you see in the grocery store is milk that's not being refrigerated.  You're welcome.

So that's the grand tour!  I hope you enjoyed yourself.  If you're in the neighborhood you'd be welcome to stop by!  Assuming I actually know you, obviously.

Oh, and here's the view from where I'm sitting right now:

The courtyard I look out on is much larger than you would ordinarily find.  It's quite cool.  There are some conifers.  I like it.












And if I look out to the left, I have this view:

Not amazing, but I can see when it's lit up with different colors, and on the top of the hour it sparkles for five minutes, and I can see that too.  So I'm not complaining.

That's it!

Back to Life.

Hello all.  The long, harsh winter of my absence has finally come to an end!  I hope you were ok without me.

Brandon left this morning to return to the Motherland and I have spent all day recovering.  This included first and foremost a three hour nap.  I then skyped with the 'rents for a while, bought a plane ticket home (Dec. 17th through Dec. 29th...let me know if you want to get together), ate dinner and cleaned and did dishes.  Everything (well...over 50% of things) is back in order.

So during the course of Brandon's time here, we visited:

the Marais

the Jardin de Luxembourg

the Louvre

the Eiffel Tower

the Arc de Triomphe

the Champs-Elysees

Notre Dame

Montmartre

Versailles

Reims

And plenty of other things I'm sure I'm forgetting.  It was a busy week, to say the least.

I know that these photos seem like I just google imaged these things and posted those pictures, but all the ones that are on here are ones that either Brandon or myself took.  I know I know: We're amazing photographers.

I'm still on vacation from school for a few more days.  I'm going to have to try and find something to do as all the other assistants are still on vacation. I can't wait until I have the funds to go and take trips like that.  This paperwork has been a nightmare.  I thought that everything was finally getting sorted out, but I was apparently mistaken as I have still received no paycheck, haha.  Whoops.....

I'll update in a little while with a more meaty posting.

Stay tuned!

Doing Paris.

So my friend, Brandon, is here right now and we've been running around the city like maniacs seeing everything!  So far we've been to the Louvre, Versailles, the Latin Quarter, the Marais, Montmartre and Notre Dame.  So that's why I haven't posted anything!

We're having a great time though.  Rick Steves has been our faithful companion telling us how to skip lines and avoid crowds.  What a lifesaver!

I'll post as soon as I get a chance!

Peace.

Playing the Parts.

Ok everyone, I'm here.  Sorry for the delay.  I've actually started teaching lessons, so it's not that I'm being lazy.  Though the fact that I've recently come across the last season of The Office probably isn't helping.  I've been going through them like it's crack cocaine.

Anyway, back to teaching.  I'm feeling more like a teacher now, which I really like.  It's a great feeling when someone sits there and listens and talks to you, and then leaves knowing a little more about something than before they came.  So far I've taught lessons on the American education system, religion in America, and New York City.  They've gone really well.  These lessons were all for 15-16 year old kids.  They were very attentive and were very interested.  They're actually pretty cute kids when they listen and ask funny/interesting questions like a kid during my NYC lesson: How big are hamburgers in America?"  So, things are going very well on the "actually doing what I'm here to do" front.  And the teachers I'm working with are great: very supportive and try to help me however they can.

For the New York City lesson, I found this story where different New Yorkers journaled about what they did during the day, just to show them what actual people that live in the city do every day.  So we read about this 8th grader, Carly.  To summarize her fascinating day, she wakes up, eats cheerios for bfast, goes to school, goes to bagel world with her friend, goes home, goes to bed.  So I had the class read the story line by line and then we talked about it afterwards.  They didn't know what a bagel was, so their teacher explained to them quickly in French what it is, and I did my best artistic rendering of a bagel on the board (complete with hole in the middle).  As soon as they saw the picture they all immediately shouted "doughnut! doughnut!"  We said that it's kind of shaped like a doughnut, but it's not sweet, and it's heavier.  So they accepted that and then we kept talking.  At the end I asked if there were any more questions and someone asked what "cheerios" are.  I said that it's a cereal you eat for breakfast that's small, round, and has a hole in it.  Easy enough, right?  False.  They shouted "Bagel!  Bagel!" and pointed to my picture on the board.  Touché kids, touché.  It was fun though.  It's cool to be the only American at school though.  Everyone says, "Hello Peter" in the hallway.  I try to respond with the less-rigid sounding, "hey guys, what's up?" and get blank stares in return.  One thing at a time, I suppose.

When I'm outside of school, however, I definitely try to blend in.  I think I'm starting to fit in better and better when I'm out on the street.  I'm really learning my way around, so I don't really need to pull out my street map as much.  That helps.  I must be doing something right with the way I dress too.  I was walking to church on Sunday and I saw these two ladies standing on the street corner walking slowly and looking around a lot.  They seemed a little lost.  I walked by them and one of them looked at me and said in a very quiet, timid voice, "umm...excuse me..."  And I, without thinking, responded in English, "Yes?"  She looked at me kind of surprised and said in an American accent, "Oh...do you speak English"  I smiled and said, "yes I do."  "Oh wow, you speak really well!"  "Umm...thanks" with a slight chuckle was my response.  I gave them directions to the Eiffel Tower and then said goodbye.  They responded with a "merci," and were off.  I still don't know if they realized I wasn't French.

This makes me wonder if I've developed some sort of accent since I've been here though.  To date, I've had one Chinese woman and two Canadians tell me I have a Canadian accent (when I speak English), and then the other day I was at the social security office and I was chatting with this lady in French, and she told me I have a German accent.  So I don't really know what to believe anymore.  I've never been told I have an accent ever in my entire life.  Except an American one.  So yeah...that's something unexpected.

Last Friday I went out with some of the other assistants to the steps of Montmartre.  We brought snacks and wine and just chatted for a while.  I only knew about half of them before going, so it was great to extend the circle, as it were.  After it got really really cold sitting on the cement steps, we headed down from the top of the city and joined a French saucisson party.  Saucisson is sausage.  Yeah.  That's just not something I understand.  You literally get some friends together, and there's about six or seven different types of sausage, and you cut off a piece, stick it on some bread, and chow down.  I don't get what it is with the French and sausage, but I went with it.  The French people there were really cool and the two groups actually mingled quite a bit.  So that was encouraging.  It remains to be seen though if I'll ever see any of those Frenchies again though.  I talked to this one girl for a while in French, she was really cool.  She's a social worker, so it was interesting to see how it's different than social work in America.  There was also this one guy I talked to who had lived in NYC for a year, so we went back and forth between English and French.  I told him if he ever wants to work on his English to give me a call.  We'll see.  (Photo courtesy of Sarah.)

Anyway, so we left there around 2 or 2:30 and I had to take the stupid night bus back home.  The bus finally came (after waiting 20 minutes) and I got on and got dropped off at the closest stop to my apartment (about a mile away).  So I had to walk back.  Luckily it had finished raining for the night, so I made the best of the long walk home by putting in my iPod and dancing down the street the whole way back.  Great end to a great day.

Ok...I need another hit of The Office.

Before I go though: Shout out to Hannah P. for the new job.  It was great catching up the other day.

Peace!

Bad boys bad boys.

I'm sorry everyone.  I've been neglecting you.  I was going to write an entry earlier today but instead went to church, planned (part of) a lesson for tomorrow, went to a concert, and ate dinner with a friend while watching The Office and Psych.  So it's been a very productive day, but, I still have two and a half lessons to finish.  I will leave you with a picture from this weekend though.

I will update before too long, promise!

Merci de votre compréhension.