As of January 28th, I have been here for four months already. I can’t believe it. Where did the time go? Also, where did my motivation for more frequent blogging go?
Anyway, I’ll spend this blog updating you all on my last couple weeks and my adventures!
A few weeks ago, my friend from Torrance, Melissa, came to visit me in Paris! I took the Friday off and took a semi-early train into the city, to meet her at the hostel. The whole weekend with her was great! We got a chance to catch up, reminisce about our last time in Europe together, and do a lot of sightseeing and we even saw the Louvre (which was free for me, thanks to my new education card! the best thing I’ve ever gotten in my life) That Friday night, we obviously had to go have at least one drink together! So we met up with my friend from Chauny and her friend and found our way to a bar called “Au Rendez-Vous des Amis”, which was so perfect because we were all friends (amis) and we were having a rendez-vous. We had a few drinks at the extremely crowded bar, made some friends, and headed home.
Then, Saturday morning, we slept in late and walked around Montmartre, recovering from a semi-late night, but went to sleep early in preparation for the next day at Disneyland!!! Disneyland was a lot of fun, the only downside was that it was really cold, and riding the rides in that kind of weather is really not pleasant. We survived though, then headed back to our hostel, where there was a gathering in the lounge of a bunch of Americans who were on a trip. They introduced themselves, and invited us to hang out with them. Pretty soon, there were about 20 people–people from the US, England, Argentina, Chile, and Russia–down in the lobby, talking, laughing, and getting yelled at by the hostel worker for being too loud. It was so much fun, and Melissa and I didn’t make it to be until about 3am, which was unfortunate, seeing as we both had to wake up the next day at 6 to make it to our train/flight.
We said our goodbyes groggily that Monday morning at the metro station–she went to the airport, and I went to Gare du Nord. Of course, the train I planned to take was late, so I would have missed my connecting train, but I wasn’t worried because there was another one about half an hour later, which went straight to Chauny and would have still taken me back in time for classes. It was about 10 minutes late, but still, not a big deal. I thought my trains being late was the worst of my problems. Boy, was I wrong. 30 minutes away from my destination, the train stopped abruptly, and a few seconds later, there was an announcement that the train would be stopped for an indefinite amount of time. Great. I texted my colleague to tell her that I wouldn’t be back in time for classes, and proceeded to wait 2 1/2 hours inside that darn train, until we all got off the train and had to take a bus back. I later learned that the problem was due to a person throwing themselves on the rails. After recounting my tale to various students/colleagues at the school, they sadly told me that that sort of thing is far from unheard of here in France.
So, I have officially experienced everything out of the ordinary regarding the trains here in France–in only four months.
Next trip to Paris: January 27
I took Friday off again to take a very early train into Paris where I went to meet my friend, Missy, who was here for a film festival! (she’s really great, btw, and you should look up the film she produced, Shoot the Moon). She was staying at a hotel near the Luxembourg gardens–with the lead actress of her film, in fact–and we started the day off walking around there, then walking to the Musée d’Orsay, then to lunch on the Champs-Elysées, then to Montmartre to check out the Sacré-Coeur at sunset, then to the Marais district to meet one of Missy’s friends for dinner, then to the the Tour Eiffel to watch it sparkle. We didn’t get back to the hotel til midnight, at which point, Missy and I decided it would be a good idea to go out. I honestly don’t know where we got the energy. We walked to an Irish bar a couple blocks away from our hotel, and let me just tell you, going out with Missy is possibly the best experience you could ever have. By the end of the night, Missy knew the names of every single bartender and every other patron in the place. She was making friends left and right and introducing me to them! The bar was open all night, and so that was weird, coming from the States where bars absolutely must stop serving alcohol at 2am. But this one was open til 6am, and we left around 5, dead tired. Finally, after being awake for 24 hours, I made it to bed around 6am.
The next morning was brutal when we woke up at 10am. The girls had a train to catch to get to their festival, which I helped them get to, just to spend a little more time with them. That night, I finally made it back to Chauny around 730, where I fell asleep almost immediately in order to be ready to wake up early the next day.
My favorite part of having Missy there was the time we were in the metro and I was trying to figure out how to get to the next place, but I wasn’t paying attention to which metro stop we walked into. I asked the girls if they knew where we were, and Missy shouted, “we’re at SORTIE“. Sortie, of course, means exit. I died of laughter.
I woke up around 7 to take a train to Compiègne with my friend, Marshall, where we were picked up by the people we spent New Year’s Eve with, and headed to Versailles. I had been meaning to go there every single time I go to Paris, but I finally made it! And it was so beautiful despite the fact that it was absolutely freezing. The palace was incredible, and even though it was Winter, the gardens were still breathtaking. Coming from Los Angeles, I have never in my life been excited for Spring, because seasons don’t really matter, and I only care about Summer. However, I actually am this year. I’m so sick of the cold, and I’m ready to see some green–flowers, trees, grass…anything! I must go back to Versailles when things start to look more green, and when I can stand outside without complaining. Anyway, after visiting the château and the gardens, we drove back (and I fell asleep in the car) to Compiègne and enjoyed some crêpes and hot chocolate before Marshall and I took the train back to our respective towns of Chauny and Noyon. I was pooped. Just as the weekend was ending, I found myself out of energy. But somehow, I mustered up the energy to prepare for classes the next day.
In other news, here’s how life is going in Chauny:
I have been getting more involved in teaching–I have been actually leading a couple classes in Physics (in English). It was really daunting at first because the teacher actually wanted me to lead the class, and also because I had to teach Physics. I am absolutely horrible in science. It went fine though, and the next three weeks, I’ll be working with another class in Math, which I’m semi-nervous about as well. In another English class, I did a presentation on Harry Potter, and today, I gave a short lesson on Animal Farm.
I’m really enjoying Chauny lately, especially since I’m getting my bearings, and making sure I take advantage of everything I can and staying busy. Just last weekend, I went to St. Quentin, where I stayed with my friend Justine and had a movie night. It’s also our tradition to go to St. Quentin every Wednesday for thrifting at our favorite place called Emmaüs, which is basically a giant Salvation Army. It’s great. I found a pair of Raybans for 1 euro there a few weeks ago, if that says anything about the gems you can stumble upon. Last week, we went thrifting and then headed to the cinema to see this movie called “Ma Première Fois”. It was really cheesy, but still fun to see a movie in French and laugh about how dumb it was. This week, Justine and I are planning on seeing the Artist, which I’m really excited about!
To sum up: Chauny is great, I’m enjoying myself, I have friends, my French is still improving, and I keep falling more and more in love with Paris.
she was an american girl 