My Life ... In Pictures

So since I'm too lazy to actually blog, I'll post some pictures of my current life to just let you know I'm still alive. Although I'm quickly sinking under the piles of papers for lesson plans, class ideas for my internship, Italian verb conjugations and French novels/papers/random homework assignments, and the (hopefully!!) last bits of residency/student exchange paperwork, I still manage to find time to go out with my friends and explore Paris. So here are some pictures of my life ...

La Seine ... and an old man tanning in the 'warm' 75 degree weather

Streets of Paris ... 11th arrondissement

Baise la police ... Google translate that if you have no street cred and aren't sure what it means

Laundry!!! 

This park is literally right behind my lycée

I cooked that! (Well I had a little help, but still) And it was delicious!

We went to a bar where the drinks were named after medical terms and the drinks were served in baby bottles.
(Still not sure how those 2 relate ... )

Another sunny day in Paris ... Luxembourg Gardens
(PS. Sunny doesn't necessarily = warm here.) 

Peace

The Teacher AND the Student

So, school started, work started and my internship started. I'm a busy girl. Here's a rundown of my oh-so-exciting life at the moment. Monday: School, then internship. Tuesday: Teach all day, then internship. Wednesday: Sleep. Thursday: Teach, then school all day. Friday: Teach - but I'm off at 13h30 so I can start my weekend then. Yay!!

And since we all love pictures:

The hallway at one of my universities. (La Sorbonne) It feels like Harvard!

The courtyard of La Sorbonne - I am still in shock that this is a school.

Don't all schools have benches in front of murals in the hallway of the courtyard?

This is on the way to my school. It is on campus and that building all the way down the pathway is the Teacher's Lounge.

Go through the doors on the right and it will lead you to the campus of Lycée Lakanal.

The Parc and Château right behind my school.

This is a 'typical' lunch from a high school cafeteria in France. It wasn't 5-star, but it was DEFINITELY better than a lunch from a US high school. (PS. I did NOT eat the sausage thing).

This is one of my classrooms at the high school. It is typical here to switch classrooms regularly, so there isn't much on the walls in any of the classrooms.

That's the view towards the front. Every classroom has a platform thing for the teacher to stand on - just so that the kids remember who is in charge. :)

That's the view from the above classroom - It is the rest of the high school.

That's about it. I'll try to post most regularly since I keep getting lots of questions about it all, but for now I have to go shower and do homework. Gotta be in Sceaux by 9am ... and I am NOT a morning person.


Peace

Say Wha ... ?!?

My internet doesn't work. WTF?? I feel like I'm living in the 80s or something because at least in the 90s we had dial-up or whatever that slow thing was. (Where you had to disconnect once you were finished with your session because you were charged by the minute or something ... BTW, sorry dad!!) Anyway, so it's a little hard to write more often.

I started my internship last week - it was ok. Nothing too stressful nor too boring. It was fairly interesting and 2 out of 3 of the guys I worked with were pretty cool. Not too bad of odds.

School started today. I had my schedule perfectly worked out, but since the stupid school decided to give us a classroom the size of my bathroom at home for a class of at least 30 students, were now having issues. The professor tried to change the classroom, but the school is out of rooms. So they told her to start the class at 8 - she doesn't want to wake up that early on a Monday morning so I am pretty sure she is rejecting that offer. She is probably going to switch the day of the class. Joy. I am pretty sure that I can't do any other time she is wanting to. So, I am now holding off on buying the book because I am NOT paying for a book for a class I can't take. Lame. I have 4 more classes to go ...

I start teaching this week. Tomorrow is an "observation" day. We will see how that goes ... hopefully quickly!!!

Pray for me to get internet in my room again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... And for me to have something more interesting to talk about next time :) But at least you're now all pretty much up-to-date!

Peace

The One Where I Figure Out How Little My Commute Actually Is ...

So, I JUST figured out how short my commute actually is. It is approximate, but it is less than 6 miles from my apartment to the school I am teaching at. Serious?? SERIOUS? Yes!!! So, now I am wondering why I am even bothering to take the RER train at all. 6 miles ... That is nothing compared to what I am used to. Here is a visual for all of you visual people ...


Paris "commute" (just under 6 miles each way):

 California COMMUTE (about 52ish miles each way):

Not to mention that I will pay one monthly fee and that will take care of my commute costs. I can take the metro, RERs and buses as much as I want in that month! No paying for gas, oil changes, washing my car, worrying about tire pressure, traffic, parking pass, coins for the meter, parking spots, blah blah blah. And the only ticket I could get is if I forget my pass and have to hop the turnstiles to get on the metro ... the best part? I've heard it's only about 25euro - and it's even possible to get it reduced down to 5euro. (OR I could be a normal person and buy one way tickets which run about 1euro70 each). Yep, no worrying about getting a red light ticket or speeding ticket or anything that is going to cost between $250 - $450. Nope. Nada! Although, I will have to deal with crowds, stenches and being a bit less comfortable than being in my own car. And not to mention that the commute is based off of the times of the train, so I may have to wait 0-10ish minutes for it to arrive. But that's ok because I can just read a book or something ... and then continue to read it DURING the commute since I'm not driving. Yay!!!

Overall, this seems to be a really good thing! If not, well then it is just a nice break from that hell hole that we in So Cal like to call the 91 freeway where major accidents are daily (such as that time it took me FOUR hours to get home instead of 1.5 because a cement truck flipped over ...).

Oh, and I could even talk on my cellphone/text as much as I want to now - be prepared for possible Skype calls from the inside of the RER B! :)


Peace

Souricide??

Yep, we have a mice problem. Gross. Yuck. Disgusting. Unsanitary. Eww. Etc, etc.

So, now there are these little boxes all over the 6th floor (my floor). From what I understand, they are filled with poison.

Side note: The femme de ménage who lives next door to me was telling me about the marie having a professional put down the poison. She repeated the word "poison" like 8 (EIGHT!!) times to make sure I understood. *Eye contact* "poison" *INTENSE eye contact* "POISON" *more eye contact* "PPOOIISSOONN" ... "Tu comprends??" - Yeah lady, I understand. It's the same word in English. That is why I told you yeah, I get it. Sure. poison. Yeah. Uh huh. (Not to even mention the numerous times teachers made us repeat poison and poisson in school so that we wouldn't accidentally order poison instead of fish)

So all these little boxes say "SOURICIDE" on them. I find it amusing since it is a combination of the words "souris" (which means "mouse") and "suicide". So I guess we have to leave the little boxes for about 5 weeks. 1 down ... 4 more to go. Joy.


Peace

That place people call home

Well, I wouldn't necessarily call this my "home" but thats what it is for the next several months. I would prefer a place with a stove, oven, AIR CONDITIONING as well as a bed AND a couch. That being said, I have found my home in Paris. I am in the 6th arrondissement - which is pretty much my favorite out of all of them! I'm about a block from the Luxembourg Gardens and a couple blocks from St Michel and the Seine. The closest Metro stop is off of the RER B, which is the line that I will be taking to get to the school I'm teaching at. Perfect!! The place is cute, minimalist - which I'm totally good with - and clean. It is actually broken up into 4 separate rooms. None of which are connected to each other and none of which I have to share. Yay! There is a toilet in one room. A shower and sink in the next. My bed, desk, bookcase, and a bit of storage in the next. And the last one is my "kitchen". I say "kitchen" because it really isnt a kitchen at all. There is a fridge, microwave and a thing to boil water in (I have never seen one of those things before, but thats what they tell me, so I guess I'll believe them). Oh, and there are some dishes. Funny thing is, there is no hotplate. The landlady said she didn't like the fact that the ceilings are so slanted blah blah blah and basically thinks it is a safety hazard if I forget to turn it off. Gee, thanks for the confidence lady. So, I told her I'd try without it. She did also mention to me that others weren't able to live without a hotplate so they went out and bought them. She wasn't happy, but she didn't do anything about it apparently. She just seems to take them after they leave and collect them in her basement. Cool beans.

Sorry about the quality, but here are a couple of pictures:

That's my view from the window by my bed. You can see the top halves of Montparnasse and the Eiffel Tower

Couch that folds out into a bed. Pretty big. Not so comfortable.

My door is behind all those sweaters

Okay, I know what you're all thinking. 2 windows?!!? TWO?? Whoa!! Baller! And, they are double paned. Yes sir!

Peace

This one time ... at band camp ...

No, but really, the other night I was walking down the street with a few girls that are in my study abroad program. A homeless man was walking towards us and asked "Avez-vous des petites pièces?" (Do you have any change to spare? - although I'm pretty sure you knew what he was going to ask the second you read "homeless man"). And one of the girls replied "Non". As the guy walked past us he muttered "Pute". Yes ladies and gentlemen, if you deny a homeless man change in Paris, he will call you a whore.

Lesson learned.

PS. It is normal here to just ignore them and not answer at all - which is probably why he called her that. Oh well, it was funny.

Peace