Sunday, September 25, 2011

A busy two weeks

So, I realize that it has been over two weeks since I have updated you guys about my new life in France, but I have been really busy finishing up my class, and I haven't had a whole lot of time to sit down and write a good blog post in a couple of weeks now. But, since the class is now over (I passed, but if it had been graded, I probably would have gotten an A in it) and I don't really have much to do any more, I now have time to write you guys another sprawling DJ novella. I'll try to keep it short, because there really hasn't been a whole lot that has happened since I last wrote, but I'm not making any promises. Here we go!

So two weeks ago, right after I wrote that last blog post, I started feeling really homesick and lonely. I had a couple of bad days in there (Sunday and Monday) where I just really missed my family, a select few of my favorite people, my dogs, even some of my favorite restaurants and things to do in St. Louis. I'm still waiting for my phone and TV to set up, which will help my loneliness since I will be able to call people randomly whenever I am feeling sad, and I will be able to watch French TV when I am bored. But I did get over it, and my friend Angus contributed to me feeling better, though he may not have been totally aware of it at the time, because he started crashing on my spare bed in exchange for taking me out to dinner. It was a win-win...I got someone to keep me company, he got a cheaper place to crash. It started originally because he can only stay in a hostel for a week at a time, and he had a few days to kill before staying with a visiting friend of his in a hotel for the weekend, so he asked if he could crash at my place. In total, in the last two weeks, he has probably spent 5 or 6 nights here, which is fine by me.

So during the week, it was pretty much just nose to the grindstone and getting my work done. I had a pretty bad lesson two Mondays ago, but my lessons definitely got much better with time, and after hearing some feedback from my fellow students, I realized I have a really bad habit of being self-deprecating which only serves to sabotage myself, and it definitely carries over to my lessons, making them less effective. So, I tried this whole confidence thing and relaxed and didn't make fun of myself or my lessons when giving them, and they turned out much better...more enjoyable, more effective, just all around better. Even I can tell that I have made a great improvement when it comes to presenting lessons in the last couple of weeks. I really think I got something out of this course, which is a very good feeling. And I gained a new skill, which will hopefully not only make me more marketable when I return to the States, but will help me with my direction in life as well. Plus, I made a few friends, so that's always good. Moving on.

The only dinner Angus took me to that I feel worth commenting on was this super fancy (and super expensive) Thai place called the Blue Elephant. He was craving spicy food, and I love anything Asian, so I was on board. I got the Cashew chicken, which came in half of a hollowed out pineapple, and was quite tasty. Angus got curry something or other, which was supposedly one of the hottest things on the menu, but still only barely satisfied his craving for spicy food. French people just do not do spicy like we in the States do, and I know this news may be disappointing for some of my friends who may be visiting and love spicy food. But I have done some investigating into this subject, and I have found a few things that are at least somewhat spicy. For example, they have this sauce called "harisa" (I believe) over here, which is like chili sauce mixed with ketchup, and although it still isn't as spicy as say, sriracha is, it's better than nothing. Also, we got sushi a couple of days ago, and they at least know how to do hot Wasabi over here, as it was as hot as anything I've had in the States. It is probably still lacking a bit of the punch of the stuff we have here, since I am not an expert on hot/spicy, but it was hot enough to make me cry, which is a good thing.

I know this post is already getting long, and I have barely even started yet. But I have two weeks to talk about, so it's going to probably be a little long. I know you'll read it, since you want to know what I've been up to, so stop complaining, you tiny attention span having people, you. Haha!

So one of the coolest things that has happened since I last wrote a post was going to that Techno Parade I was telling you all about. Before I came over here, I remember being bummed out that they had stopped doing Love Parade, a techno parade in Berlin, I believe, because I had always wanted to go to it, but it doesn't really matter now, because I have been to a techno parade, and it was one of the most awesome electronic music related things that has maybe ever happened to me in nearly 12 years of listening to electronic music. I will try to give you all just a brief description. It started at 11, so that's when I got there, at the Place de la Republique, which is only about a 15 minute metro ride from my apartment (not bad at all). They had a stage set up right in this big roundabout, in front of this monument/statue that has probably been there for 100s of years.

When I first got there, there weren't that many people there, maybe a couple of hundred, and I was kind of worried. The music was good though, and the small crowd seemed excited. At 1, the parade started,and there were trucks (literally 18 wheelers with DJs on the back, speakers, and people dancing) lined up all down the street. It was also around this time that the parade saw a massive population explosion, and all of a sudden, there were thousands of people there. Well, I followed the first and main truck for a few miles until the parade passed right by the street I live on. By this time, there was easily a 100,000 people there, if not more. There were trucks playing all sorts of different music, even hardcore, and I was very happy to have experienced it. The vibe was great, everyone was very happy, and the music was fantastic. Some people were following the trucks and dancing along side them, but there were also a ton of people just standing back and watching it all go by. Also, people started climbing the Bastille monument, and I tried to as well, but I couldn't pull myself up on it, so I gave up after one try. I didn't feel like getting arrested in Paris, so I hopped back over the very tall fence, bruising my arm as I went, and returned home.

Let's see...what else has happened? Later that night, I met up with some of my classmates and we hung out in the area by the Moulin Rouge, which we didn't enter (I think it's just a club now), but that I enjoyed seeing nevertheless. It made me wish I had remembered my camera, but oh well. I'm sure I'll be back sometime, though hopefully not by myself, as I have been warned not to go into this area (Pigale, the "Red Light District") alone at night. It was funny though to see all of the sex shops and pornographic movie theaters, etc.

Then this week was just a lot more school work, because it was my last week. Angus stayed over a couple more nights, but we were pretty much just studying for tests and finishing any remaining homework we had to do. We had 3 tests this week: one on grammar, one on phonetics, and one on methodology, and I scored 86%, 89%, and 98% respectively. In addition to that, my teacher said that all of my lesson plans and evaluations and written work was just fantastic, which is why I think I would have gotten an A if this had been a graded class.

I guess it's also worth mentioning that a week ago Friday, I stayed in all night and finished my resume and applied for about 2 dozen jobs. I did go on an interview last Monday, but it wasn't really what I was looking for. They could only hire me if I had a student visa, which I would have to take a probably pretty expensive class at a University here to be able to get, and even then, all they would be able to give me is 15 hours a week. I need something more than that, so I have been looking everywhere for a job, and applying for everything I see, even if it's simply a small private lesson. My goal is to get a full-time job and then do private lessons on the side, but until I find that, I still would like to be bringing in some kind of money, so I have been trying to get private lessons going as well. I even put an ad on Craig's List last night, so we'll see what becomes of that. I am not really worried though, since I have 4 weeks to find a job, but I am going to look every day as hard as I can, since I am now finished with my class and don't really have anything to keep me busy all day.

Hmm...what else. The only other interesting thing that I did this week was go out on Thursday and Friday nights with my classmates to have some drinks and to celebrate our finishing the course. Thursday was fine, but Friday I got a little carried away, as we showed up around 6:30 at this Aussie bar to watch the Australia vs. U.S.A. rugby match, and we didn't leave until about 3am. I had a great time, and it was fun to watch the bar go from a quiet and laid-back sports pub to a crazily packed sweaty dance club, but I definitely drank more than I should have, a fact that wasn't helped by two of the bartenders being very nice, and buying me 3 shots that I didn't ask for between the two of them. Oh well. I had a recovery day yesterday, and I am feeling much better today. Tomorrow, I am going to start working out again (just running and doing push ups and sit ups), and I am excited about that. I also have other productive stuff to do, like job searching and laundry and grocery shopping, so I will be able to keep myself occupied while I don't have anything to do, hopefully.

I have cooked for myself actual meals a couple of times since I last spoke wrote a post, and I wanted to talk briefly about that before wrapping this up. I made mandarin chicken one day last week, and it was delicious. Fresh bell peppers, onions, fresh clementine oranges, chicken breasts, sweet chili sauce, and rice. I couldn't find all of the ingredients I wanted (water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, canned mandarin oranges, frozen stir fried vegetables, or terriyaki sauce), but I made it work, and it turned out very well. But what I made last night was probably the best thing I've made for myself in the month that I have been here. I made chicken fajitas with peppers, onions, diced tomatoes, rice, sour cream, this delicious spice mix and "salsa" that came in a kit I bought, shredded Emmenthaler cheese, and lentils (because I couldn't find black beans). It was so damned good, and I have enough left over that it will feed me again tonight, if not one more time after that. I took pictures, because I do that, and I'm sure they will appear on the face book account that I usually post my pictures on, eventually.

Well, I have been writing this post for over an hour now, and I know certain people are going to complain about the relationship between the frequency and the length of my blog posts, but I have been really busy the last two weeks, so I hope you can handle my super lengthy blog posts. But I should definitely wrap it up now ("wrap that gavel up, b." Chappelle show reference) because I have unbelievably ran out of stuff to say. Happy reading. Grosses bises a tous! (Big hugs and kisses to all) A bientot!

Friday, September 9, 2011

A bit of a shorter post, perhaps.

So, I thought I would update everyone on what I have been doing in the past week or so, which really hasn't been much, so hopefully this will be a bit of a shorter post, since many of you are asking for me to trim the fat and not tell you every minute detail of my life over here. Since I last wrote, I really haven't done much. Just keeping my nose to the grindstone for the most part, going to school and doing homework and preparing lessons, etc. I would like to say that I had two chances this week to teach real-life English language learners (Depline and Clautilde) and I am really enjoying the real-life teaching experience I am getting from my class. Of course, I have some things to work on concerning my lessons, but these things are all very attainable. Although I do have teaching experience, it is not experience with teaching people who are learning English, so my lesson execution and planning have had to be altered a bit, but like I said, I am really enjoying it. It's a very rewarding experience, because I can see how much these people are benefiting from my instruction while I am giving it. I will continue to improve as time goes on, but I definitely do think that having some teaching experience already has made this process easier than if I were just starting out as a teacher. For example, I already know how to write good lessons, etc. Anyways.

I have learned how to better budget my money as well, and have done much better this week to not spend money as recklessly as I had been the first week over here. Again, it's all a learning process for me, but I think I've got it now. So maybe you'd all like to know what I have been up to socially in the last week, so you can live vicariously through me. Last Saturday night I went to this bar/club on a boat called Batofar, which was fun, but we (my classmates and I) didn't go in the club part of it because it was something like 10 Euro for some guy I've never heard of, so we just had a couple of drinks on the upper level and left after that part shut down at midnight. Then, to save money, we went to the Quick and got a couple of beers, which are WAY cheaper there than at a bar or club. I think it's hilarious that you can buy beer at fast food places over here, as long as you order some food and only get two at a time (I just got some fries). Then we went to the Irish place by my apartment for about an hour, but on Saturdays it's apparently much different than during the week, and I didn't really like it, so we left after maybe 30 minutes.

Sunday I spent all day reading and catching up on homework, and Monday began my week at school again. Mondays and Wednesdays are from 2pm to 8pm, Tuesdays and Thursdays are from 9am-8pm (killer), and Fridays are 10am-1pm. Monday I just slept in, but Wednesday I went to the post office and the grocery store and to a place I had heard had job listings, but all they had were babysitting jobs and extremely part time teaching things, so I didn't write any numbers down. I did pick up a sort of "Job News" website, though, so that was good. I honestly think most if not all of my job searching is going to be done online, which is super convenient for me, as long as my internet is working. One of the girls in my class went on an interview this week, and she said they needed another English teacher, so I was going to write them a little e-mail when I am done with this.

More social stuff and then I promise I will end this one. Last night, Angus and I went to Paris Social Club to see a very well-known veteran French DJ named Laurent Garnier, and he did NOT disappoint. After pre-gaming it at my place for about 3 hours to save money (we each got a six pack of 1664 and then an additional pint bottle of beer for less than one drink at Paris Social Club), we went out, showing up around 1am. The club was very cool...a little high brow, but all in all, not bad. The people seemed to realize what a gem they have in this DJ, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. It was also cool to talk to some more French people, all of whom seemed to be extremely interested in interacting with native English speakers. I even gave one guy my e-mail address because I told him I used to be a DJ, and he said he had DJ equipment and that we should hang out sometime and mix some records...he also wanted to teach me Tractor (sp), which is a kind of new technology when it comes to the art of DJing, which I am fully down with.

Well, Laurent Garnier absolutely KILLED it, playing everything from Beastie boy remixes to tech-house, techno, Drum and Bass, Hip Hop, and at the end, Daft Punk, which incited the crowd into a sort of frenzy. It was at this point that we left, however, at around 4am, because Angus took the reins and realized that if we didn't leave then, I would have wanted to stay until the club closed, at 5am. But I will definitely be going to see this DJ again, as often as I can afford to, because I had a really good time...possibly top 10 all time club/party experiences, no exaggeration. I also learned that Angus is a loyal friend, because we had an altercation with a French guy who apparently told Angus that my hat made me look gay, and Angus was ready to rearrange this guy's face on my behalf. At the time, I played the role of diffuser, but that was largely because I didn't realize the guy had insulted me. If I had, I would have been right there with Angus, ready to do some damage. But that's about it for last night...I got maybe 3 hours of sleep last night, but was miraculously only a little bit late to class today, which my teacher excused. She's really very nice. Then after class today, Angus, Helen and I went to this Belgian burger place (not Quick) and ate lunch in Luxembourg gardens before we went our separate ways to nap and what have you.

Tomorrow, I am going to a big fireworks display just outside of Paris that I found a deal for on Living Social (a web site kind of like Groupon that I joined when I arrived in Paris) to reduce the price of the cheapest seat from about $40 to about $18, and I am really excited about that. I know you may say it's weird to pay for fireworks, but it's a two-hour long show, and it seems like it will be the best fireworks display I have ever seen. Check out the videos at www.le-grand-feu.com and tell me you wouldn't pay $18 for two hours of that. I think Helen and Angus may come with, and they want to maybe pre-game it at my place beforehand, which is cool with me, but I don't know how much I am going to feel like drinking tomorrow after the night I had last night. Anyways, that's all for now. I hope you are all doing well, and if you want to talk to me, I know I've given out my e-mails and maybe even my Instant Messenger IDs on here. Or you could Skype me. My user name is the same as this blog, Hydeingoutinparis. Also, I am sorry that even when I try to write a short post, it somehow winds up as 6 or 7 paragraphs. Oh well. It is still shorter than previous posts, so I hope your attention spans can hold for long enough to read it. A bientot! Grosses bises a tous! (Big love and kisses to all)

ps...this didn't fit anywhere else, so I thought I would add it at the end...I love the differences in French food, even like crappy junk food. Their candy is so much better than almost everything we have in America (except maybe Twix and Reese's), and they have flavors of chips that I would never have thought possible. My current favorite is "Cheeseburger" (yes, I said cheeseburger) potato chips, though I still have yet to try the rotisserie chicken flavored ones. And they're not a foreign brand, they're Lay's! They need to get on bringing those to the states...they are so good. They taste a lot like pickle chips, but they are so much better. And apparently they have a "Mustard and pickles" flavor as well, but those are a bit harder to find, at least in Paris, anyways.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

My first attempt at Poetry in a very long time

So, I wrote this poem the other day about coming over here, and now that I have a blog, I thought it would be fun to post it and see what everyone thinks. I spent a lot of time revising it, but I think I may finally be finished. I wanted the pace of it to be appealing, so I spent some time fixing the syllables and words, etc. I also wanted it to rhyme a little. Anyways, here it is.

                                                 Tu me manques (I miss you)

                                                 Final boarding call for Paris
                                                 finds me a mile from the gate
                                                 running hard to catch my flight
                                                 that will send me, sadly, far away.

                                                Time-jumping on a seven-six-seven
                                                puts me hours and hours ahead
                                                landing in Paris on a cloudy morning
                                                la seule chose qui manque, c'est le soleil (the only thing missing is the sun)

                                                Chasing your ghost through Paris, now
                                                a mind's eye mirror in a couple's embrace
                                                I'm haunted by the extreme misfortune
                                           of smelling your perfume dans le monde des francais (in the world of the French)

                                                Maintaining composure while falling apart, now
                                                a self-imposed deconstruction of character
                                                rebuilding myself without my dear lynch pin
                                           la seule chose qui manque, chere, c'est vous. (the only thing missing, dear, is you)

                                               This new process of self-liberation
                                               is proving itself to be exciting, but frightful
                                               my life waited forever for me to catch up with it
                                               la seule chose qui manque, c'etait moi. (The only thing missing was me)

I hope that is as decent as I think it is, and not too personal. Feel free to comment on it as you wish. A bientot!

















Friday, September 2, 2011

A Casual Friday in Paris

Bonjour a tous!

Although I must admit, at 2:15 am on a Saturday morning, I am starting to get a little sleepy, I'd like to try to post one more blog entry before I go to sleep tonight, so that everyone will be fully caught up with what I've been up to this week. This will probably be a shorter entry, since I have already told you so much, and there's only so much I can talk about. And especially since this post is only about what I did on one day, which was today. Well, one day, and what I did last night after class.


Last night, Thursday, after class, I came home and took a brief nap, got up and made myself some dinner with what little food I had left around here, and then went to the internet cafe down the street for almost 3 hours. I tried to write the first 2 posts I made tonight together as one post, and after an hour or so of typing it out, tried to post it, only to have it fail. That was super frustrating. Anyways, I left the internet cafe a little before 11, when they closed, and came back to my apartment, to read or do something boring. But I decided that I would rather walk down my street and look for a decent bar than stay in and read. I get super stir-crazy when I'm stuck in this little apartment with no way to communicate with the outside world. So I walked all the way to the end of my street, probably a mile and a half or more, to where the Bastille monument is, which is like a smaller version of the area where the Eiffel Tower is, in terms of craziness. I even thought there was a carnival down there with games and stuff, but I think it was just a creperie. But there were even more people than are usually around my part of the street, so it was interesting to watch everything going on.

I started walking back and stopped in for a few pints at this Irish bar I found called Corcorans, which was fun. They DJ was mashing together American and British popular music from the past, and I was enjoying this bit of familiarity. I picked up a little journal with information about all of the English, Scottish, Australian, and Irish bars around Paris, and I may want to check some of them out, if only to find a Newcastle and watch some sports. Although, the beer I had at Corcoran's, called a Kilkenny's, I believe, was pretty similar to a Newcastle, so that made me happy. Also, the bartender told me that these types of bars are hugely popular in France, and among the French as well as the people who are of the nationality that the bar celebrates. I found this to be interesting. Anyways, I left at about 1 and walked home. I didn't want to get drunk, I just wanted to have a few pints and see what was going on around my neighborhood as far as good bars go. There were other once, but they seemed too be a little more "upscale" than what I was looking for, though who can really tell, since so many French people seem to try to dress as nicely as they can as often as they can. Anyways, moving on.


Today we only had class from 10am until 1pm, which will remain my schedule for the entirety of the class. This is a very nice way to end the week, and I know I will appreciate it more and more as the weeks start getting longer and more intense. In class, we had a quiz, which is only for our benefit, not for a grade, on what we have been going over so far this week as far as teaching methodology is concerned. For some reason, this morning I was totally out of it (I think the last of the jet lag was finally leaving my system), and the wording to all the questions confused me, but I shared a lot of my answers with the class, and my teacher said I was on the right track with everything. I must admit that I haven't been keeping up with the reading, but I will have lots of time this weekend to go over everything I have yet to read, which I plan on doing, now that I am caught up with all of my internet obligations. ;)

Also, to update the job situation and staying in France, the coordinator over here just wrote me another e-mail with resume and cover letter advice and forms, and she wants me to fill them out and send them to her, so she can help me with them. She also gave me a bunch of websites about the legalities of working in Paris and everything, which is very comforting. It's good to know that she is going to do everything she can do to help me realize my dream, and it's also a good feeling to know that I  can begin working on finding a job now, instead of waiting until the class was over, and then spending up to another whole month looking for a job while staying in an apartment that is costing my dad a fortune. I am much more confident about this whole process now that Julie has proven to be so willing to help me, and such a good resource. It fills me with indescribable joy that my long ago abandoned dream is finally coming true, and that I seem to be turning into the person that I was always meant to be, and doing all of that self-actualizing psychobabble stuff. :)


So after the quiz, we talked about how the lessons that Helen, Brian, Sarah and I presented yesterday went, how we ourselves perceived them, any critiques our classmates had, etc. Then we watched videos on a bunch of different methods for teaching English to non-English speakers. I was a bit late to class today, as I took a different metro stop that Sarah said was closer and got a bit lost, but that's not why I was late, since I was allowing myself an hour to do internet stuff before class today, and planned on arriving an hour before class started, since it looked like my best chance to post blog updates would be at school. Luckily, that has proven to not be the case. Thankfully, Sonja was forgiving about that, but still...damned "crack book" is never a good reason to be late to class. She did get a little mad at Brian, Sarah, and I, however, when we took an extended coffee break in the garden, just talking about everything. But Sonja didn't remain mad at us the rest of the day, which was good. She doesn't seem to stay mad at people for very long, which is something I appreciate, but I still don't like upsetting her, which is something I have already done a few times. :\ Oh well. I think things will improve now that I don't feel so out of it any more.


So, after class, Sarah, Helen and I went to that Italian place I already told you all about where I got the delicious eggplant wrap with cheese and ham and marinara, and took it back to the garden outside of our school so we could eat and I could check my internet stuff some more, just in case I couldn't do that when I got home, and then Sarah left to go hang out with Michael, her boyfriend, and Helen went back home to nap. I totally sympathize, though...I could have had a nap myself, but Brian and I decided to do something much more fun, starting with an extra-special treat for me.


He took me somewhere that was on his way to school every day, albeit seemingly several miles from our school, which he said he knew I would enjoy immensely, since I seem to keep talking about how much of a nerd I am and have already been seen sporting Harry Potter t-shirts on two separate occasions in the week since I've been here. Enough suspense. He took me to a SUPER awesome Comic book shop, which I didn't even know existed in France. It was a little like Star Clipper in the loop, with a lot more than just comics: figurines of just about everything imaginable, plushes (they had angry birds), and all sorts of random stuff that was devoted to all things nerdy, like pac-man mugs and replica wands from almost all the characters in Harry Potter. I unfortunately couldn't find Ron Weasely's, but the rest of his family's were there, including Percy's. Let's just say I was in complete heaven, and it showed. Brian said I had the exact reaction he wanted me to have, and I simultaneously thanked him for showing me this place, and cursed him because I will probably spend a decent amount of time and money in this store...though of course, I will keep it within reason. If you are interested in looking it up on line, it is called "Album Comics."

I only bought one thing while there today, but I think it is a very practical purchase. I bought the first book of Scott Pilgrim in French, and even though I already own the whole set (or, two be fair, half of it) in English, I rationalized my purchase thusly: I am absolutely obsessed with Scott Pilgrim, and therefore, know the books almost line for line. Since I have it almost memorized, I figured it would help me improve my French, because I could just look at anything I didn't know and just remember what they say in the English version. But I cannot over-emphasize how excited I was that they had Scott Pilgrim in French. That totally blew my mind. I even asked the guy at the counter if Scott Pilgrim was well known in France ("Est-ce que les livres de Scott Pilgrim sont biens connues en France?") and he said that yes, they were. I am still happy about this fact.

Anyways, moving on. After that, Brian and I stopped in at a very pretty local church (though I don't remember what it was called), ignoring the beggars at the entrances and continuing inside briefly to look at the stained glass and take some pictures.


After that, we went to the Louvre for about an hour and a half. It was pretty cool, but I sort of found out how very specific my interest in art is by wandering around the Louvre for so long. For example, even though I said what I wanted to see the most were the paintings, I guess what I really meant was that I wanted to see newer, non-religious paintings, and paintings that I was familiar with. I did see La Jocund (The Mona Lisa), but I had already seen her once before, so it wasn't as big a deal as it could have been. I also did see a few that I recognized, but not very many. The huge, wall sized paintings were pretty cool, though. What I found myself to be really interested in, though I had no idea of this at first, was all of the Egyptian stuff we somehow stumbled upon. Sarcophaguses, artifacts, tablets with Hieroglyphics on them, etc. I was also very interested in all of the Medieval castle-looking structures that we found in the basement. I was even more interested, in retrospect, in all of the statues that we looked at first, even though I said at the time that I found them boring and just wanted to see some pretty pictures. ;) All in all, it was worth the 10 Euro admission price, and I will surely be back, hopefully to check out some of the paintings that I consider myself to be more interested in, and especially since we probably only saw 1/100th of what is in there.

I wanted to stop and talk about the weather briefly, in case anyone is interested. It is very variable, and strikes me kind of like St. Louis weather, with maybe a bit less humidity. Today, for example, was very hot, and people were sitting around the fountains outside the entrance to the Louvre with their legs in the water, to cool off. But this looked like common practice, since no one was stopping them. Today was another day that made me realize that I won't really have to do much extra exercise while here to stay in shape. Walking around for 5 hours with a 50+ pound backpack (I took my laptop to class to access the internet) will surely help me stay trim, and if I want to buff up, I will just do some push-ups and sit-ups. There is a gym just down the street, so apparently this is not strictly an American phenomenon (Tom, whoever else wanted to know about that), but I will be so busy with school the next few weeks that I don't think I'm going to worry about it until I have a job and am settled in and everything. After leaving the Louvre, Brian and I walked to the metro, where I stopped twice along the way. Once was so I could buy a cute print of the Eiffel Tower for only 2 Euro (It was between that or one of my favorite Art Nouveau prints, which I will probably purchase the next time I am out that way), and again for some ice cream, since I thought it would help my still-uneasy stomach. The good news was that it did help, and between the ice cream, the good dinner, and finally re-hydrating myself, I am happy to report that the sour stomach is totally gone.


After getting home, I napped a bit, went to the Monoprix for some groceries that will probably last me the whole week (I also finally bought a big bag to carry my groceries in...they charge you extra for plastic bags here), came home and made maybe the most delicious dinner I have ever made myself, and then spent the rest of the night updating this here blog and managing my Face book accounts and e-mail accounts. I think I did really well at the Monoprix though, and though I spent like 35 Euro, I will probably have food for the whole week, and therefore won't need to spend much more on eat-out food or more groceries until next weekend. I even brought a little notebook, wrote all the prices down, and tried to find the cheapest brand for everything I wanted. I felt like a grown-up in training. Haha!

Anyways, I should probably wrap this up so I can go to bed...tomorrow's plans include getting up in the early afternoon (probably), finally registering at the American Embassy, doing some laundry, typing out my resume and letter of interest for the on-site coordinator here, and then going to Batofar in the evening, to listen to some Funk, Soul, House, and Drum and Bass, apparently. Of course I will let you all know how it is, and I will probably take tons of pictures. I should say before I go that Batofar is more than a club, it's also a restaurant and a non-electronic concert venue. They even show movies there sometimes. It sounds really awesome, and I know that admission tomorrow night is free. Grosses bises a tous!




Birthday Shenangins and Information about my Class

Bonjour a tous! (Hello, all!)

 Finally, I have some time and a cooperative internet to do some blogging, so you all are going to get a two-fer, if not a three-fer. I do apologize, but hopefully doing several posts in one night will make up for my relative silence the past few days. :)  Anyways, moving on. 

I am glad that I will have a more reliable internet connection soon and a free land line, or at least that's what my lanlord is telling me. He set everything up on Monday, and here it is Friday night and everything is still in the process of registering itself and setting itself up. But when it all gets set up, it will definitely make it easier to stay in touch with friends and family. I must admit, I can't wait for the TV to work, because I am dying to watch some French TV (I think it will be a great learning tool) and also to surprise people with random phone calls. I don't understand how it works, but I will have a land line that can call any number in the U.S., including cell phones, for free. I will also have a number, so that people can call me here, and maybe even leave me messages. But for now, the internet and Skype will do just fine. :)
Anyways, I suppose now is as good a time as any to tell you all about my birthday craziness. Let me just start by saying that I think I have made some friends over here, that's for sure. I will tell you about my class after I tell you about my birthday festivities. After class on Tuesday, I got home about 7pm and took a brief nap, since the night before I didn't sleep very well and got maybe 4 or 5 hours of sleep total. Today (Friday) is the first day that I have been feeling like I have my bearings...people say it usually takes about a week to catch up with your jet lag, and they are telling the truth. Anyways, on Tuesday, I met up with my classmates at 10pm by L'hotel de ville, which is like the French...Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter reference), kind of. Ha! I asked some French kids what it was, and they told me it was the place where the minister works, etc. Does France even have a Minister? I thought they just had a president. Maybe they meant the mayor of Paris, or something. This is probably all information I should know, huh.

Anyway, I met up with 4 of my classmates (Angus, Brian, Sarah, and Helen) and Sarah's boyfriend, who lives in France with her, and we went to a little bar called Stolly (like Stoli) or something like that. It was run by Canadians, who were rather nice. Everyone was buying me drinks, and I only paid for 2 drinks for myself the whole night, I believe. I did kind of drink a lot, but it was my birthday, so I felt it was appropriate, regardless of what day of the week it was. We stayed at Stolly until around 1:30 or so when they were closing, and I unfortunately spent a good deal of the night ignoring the people who had gotten me so knockered in favor of talking to this charming young French couple outside who were very nice and were willing to have a conversation with me and help me practice my French, while I helped them a bit with their English. They were called Claudine and Timothy, and needless to say, I was super excited to finally have a chance to have an extended French conversation with local French people.

The people in Paris aren't really rude, but they don't really spend a lot of time talking to people they don't know. It would be weird, for example, to strike up a conversation with someone randomly while on the Metro...and besides, I would be too self-conscious to do that anyways, since the Metros are always crowded and I don't really want 30 or so French people hearing my shitty French and judging me. I'm sure I will get over this in time, though. I did apologize for ignoring my classmates at the bar, but they were very understanding, saying that it was my birthday and they knew how excited I was to talk to French people. I was drinking everything, though. By the way. Probably 3 or 4 pints of beer total (if not a bit more), 4 shots (including one bought for me by Helen, who told the bartender to make me something dreadful...it was god-awful, and I nicknamed it the "fire breather," because it consisted of Tequila, Tabasco sauce, and Sambuca), and a cocktail called the "Cobain No-brain," which I couldn't resist because of the name, which consisted of vodka and sprite (maybe) and cherry liquor...quite tasty.

2 of the shots were bought for me by the bartender, who was very cool...actually, only one of them was for me, but he put out 6 shots and said they were for me for my birthday, and I drunkenly thought they were all for me. I did two of them right in a row before he stopped me to tell me the rest were for my friends. But he got a good kick out of that, said he liked my style, and even told the other bartenders about it, who also got a kick out of it. By the time the bar was nearing closing time, I was completely amped up, and Angus made jokes the next day in class about how before we left the bar, I just looked at him and pointed at him and then back at me and said something like "You and me, we're going to the club." Like THE club, like there's only one. Haha! Speaking of the club, we are all going to a club tomorrow night called Batofar, which is apparently on a boat somewhere in Paris, which sounds pretty epic to me. :D

I wish I could tell you night ended here, but it did not. After the bar closed, we passed a Quick, which is like Belgian fast food, and I ate my first fast food abroad, which I regretted all day the following day. It was good at the time, but I have had acid reflux all day because of it (or maybe it was that "fire breather" shot I did), and France is really weird because you need a prescription for stuff like antacids...you can't get any of that over-the-counter...so I just drank a bunch of water and some milk Wednesday and tried to feel better, though it didn't really work, and I only just tonight (Friday) started feeling better, for whatever reason. I think it was partially due to dehydration. Anyways, another source of amusement to Angus was that apparently my French was tapped out for the night by the time we got to Quick, since I had spent so long speaking in French at the bar, and I ordered a (in a very American accent) " 'hamburger' avec cheese." I was honestly sort of browning out by this point, so I don't really remember saying that, but I don't put it past myself. What I do remember is that I was in great spirits, and seemed to be thoroughly entertaining the people around me, which by this point included another girl, Lara, a friend of Sarah's from Holland or somewhere. After that, we went back to Sarah and her boyfriend's place and watched you tube music videos for a bit, since the Metro had stopped running and Angus and I wanted to sober up a bit before heading back to our respective places. We left Sarah's around 3, and Angus and I split a cab for about 10 euro apiece, which was WAY cheaper than the cab I got at the airport. I had an interesting conversation with the cab driver, who was from the Cote d'Ivoire and spoke very little English, about how America is more interested in starting 100 wars than taking care of it's own problems, etc. At this point, even with a big effort, my French was still very broken, but I got my point across, and was able to understand him fairly well, despite my condition. Quelle miracle!

That's about it for the birthday, though...got home at about 4, messed around for about 30 minutes before bed, and slept for about 4 hours before getting up and showering and putting on some nice clothes
and going to school. Apparently Helen and I had made an agreement when we were all making plans after class that we were going to dress up and kill it on Tuesday night, and I instead opted for my Deathly Hallows t-shirt and a pair of shorts (which I regretted anyways, since it was colder than I expected it to be), so I promised I would dress up the following day...luckily, I did much better than I thought I was going to do on Wednesday, and was very alert until the end of class. It took 2 coffees (the school has this little coffee machine that dispenses 4 ounce cups of very strong coffee for only 50 Euro cents), a Kit Kat, a TON of water, and a Coke, but I stayed awake and alert all day, and today actually went by fairly quickly.

I suppose I should tell you about my class, now, so you know what's going on and everything, and who all of those people are that I just told you all about for several paragraphs. The class is just me and 8 other people, mostly younger than me, but a few who are a bit older. There are 3 other Americans: Brian, who is 33 and married to a Swiss woman and has 2 children and is kind of like me except a bit more relaxed and scholarly...he even looks a bit like me. I sometimes find him interesting, but in class, I sometimes find him a bit annoying since he likes to digress a lot, though I can tell we are going to be good friends, and he reminds me of my friend Dave, because he's very much a know-it-all kind of guy, but in a harmless sort of way. :) Then there is a middle-aged guy who's name I can't remember who is from West Virginia, and a girl named Stephanie from Minnesota who is 23 years old and extremely shy. After that, there is Angus, who will probably be one of my best guy friends in class if I don't annoy him too much...Angus is my sister Liz's age, and from Australia...I seem to amuse him, and he has said he enjoys my sense of humor, which can apparently sometimes greatly rememble British humor, like on Wednesday when Brian stopped the teacher and said he disagreed or something and I just looked over at Angus and said "shocking," in a very British accent. Haha! After that, there is Sophie, a British girl who is 21, Helen, an Irish girl who is also 21, Nori, a married Japanese guy who is 31, and Sarah, a girl of Belgian origin (I think) who is about 25 and who will probably be my best female friend. She's super laid-back and easy going, and is definitely not a girly girl, which is nice. She's actually the one who suggested we hit up Batofar this weekend, and she also is nearly fluent in French, so I can use her as a resource if I need to. Now that you all know all about the people in my class, maybe I should say something about the class itself.

It's not too bad...semi-intense, but we take lots of breaks. This week, we went for 6 hours on Monday, 7 hours on Tuesday, and 8 hours Wednesday and Thursday, but Fridays will be a breeze, as we only have class from 10am-1pm, I believe. Hooray for starting the weekend early! Unfortunately, starting next week, it starts to get super intense, and we will all be going to class for 9 hours Monday and Wednesday, and for 11 hours Tuesday and Thursday, and it will stay this way until the end of the course. But at least Fridays will remain short, from only 10am-1pm, so that’s a bit of a blessing. As far as the course work itself, it is all basically just a review for me…we have had handouts to read this week about lesson planning, classroom management, what makes a good teacher, various teaching methodology etc. Even some the subject matter, like Grammar and Phonetics, are little more than a review for me, and since I love Grammar and Phonetics and language and everything, all of the information about Grammar and Phonetics that I have learned over the years has basically remained in my head. I feel have a lot of useful stuff to add to the class, since I have real experience with teaching and most of these people don’t, and I feel really valued as a student, so that’s cool. 

I did receive sort of a bit of disappointing news on my first day of class,when my teacher said it may be very difficult to remain anywhere in France to teach when my class is over due to certain Visa issues and stuff, but I wrote a pretty angry e-mail to on of the coordinators over here, and she basically told me that with persistence, anything is possible, so I'm not really worried about it. Since I want it so badly, I know I will do what it takes to make it happen. :) Also, about midway through the week, our teacher, Sanja, sat Brian and I down after a break and basically told us that she is happy that we both know so much about the subject matter, but that we should actually try to participate in class a little less, since she feels like the others were getting a bit lazy and no longer thinking for themselves. She just said that if we gave others a chance to speak and offer their opinions, they would get more out of the class. Gotta love being told that you know so much and are so vocal that it's actually detrimental to the class! Haha! :)

But anyways, one thing we were doing this week that was totally foreign to me was learning Croatian, which we are doing more to teach us the methods we will be using to teach English to non-English speakers than to actually learn it. Since most of our students will speak almost no English, they will feel like we did when we were learning Croatian this week, since our teacher wouldn’t speak in English for that hour or so we were learning Croatian. And surprisingly, this method proved to be rather effective, at least for me. At first, it was little more than frustrating, like playing Charades in a foreign language, but as the days went by (we were only doing it this week, Monday through Wednesday), I found myself retaining more, being more engaged, and being able to understand more and more of her explanations, which were only done in Croatian. I told her on Wednesday that I almost wish we could keep learning it, since it sounds so cool and is so different than anything I have done before. But that’s about it as far as class goes so far…Thursday we observed a real life English Language learner being taught by someone at our school, and I also did my own lesson on Thursday, which I had time to prepare for in class, and even though I winged it by looking up a lesson in class and copying it all down and printing out the necessary materials on the spot, Sanja still said it was very good, so I think I'm on the right track. The class does seem pretty intense, but I definitely like the challenge. 

I have been eating very French this first week, by the way. This is something that I aim to curtail though, since I spent a lot of money on food in the first week of being here. I plan on doing this by cooking in and going grocery shopping, which I did tonight. Although I spent like 50$ on food at the Monoprix, I got enough to last me for probably the rest of the week, and will only have to buy more food minimally, or when I just can't resist. Tonight I made my first genuine self-cooked meal at my apartment, and it consisted of pasta shells left over from the previous tenant cooked up with some store brand, bottled bolognese sauce, a little bit of store brand hamburger, and some shredded Emmenthaler cheese, completed by a baguette, a small salad, and some diet peach tea. I don't know why I feel like telling you all about what I've been eating, but I do, so here goes. For lunch on the first day of class, Brian and I split a loaf of Stollen (sweet bread), a small package of turkey (4 slices), and some little baby bella cheeses that were sort of like provolone…I don’t know what they actually were, but they were soft and flavorful. We also both got a beer, and all of this ran us about 3.50 apiece. 

On Tuesday, a bunch of us went to a Vietnamese restaurant down the street for a birthday treat, and I got lemon grass chicken, which was pretty good, and at only 8 Euro, not too bad on price. Wednesday, I splurged a little, too. Got a delicious pastry for about 1.50 Euros that I ate on the metro ride to school, then got an awesome hot dog (translation: “hot-dog”) and stinky cheese Panini on my breakfast break and just had a soda and a kit kat on my lunch break. For dinner, I had a meatball foot long from Subway.Thursday and Friday, I had Beignets on the way to school (chocolate on Thursday, Apple today), and on Thursday I had a baguette, split some cheese and turkey again with Brian, and had another beer for lunch. For dinner, I made grilled cheeses with Emmenthaler, tomatoes, lettuce, and mayonnaise with those Monster Munch chips, and for lunch today, we went to an Italian place, where I got this thing that was like an eggplant wrap with ham and cheese and marinara all over it, for only like 4 Euro. Tonight, I had the delicious pasta dish. So now you all know what I've been eating for the past week. I hope you didn't find that to be too boring. :)

Well, that's about it for this one, and even though it's almost 2 in the morning here, I don't have anything to do tomorrow, and think I might be able to write one more tonight, if my internet connection will allow it, about what I did today after class (hint: the Louvre is involved). I hope you all have been enjoying reading this! Grosses bises a tous! A bientot!

Mon deuxieme jour a Paris! (My second day in Paris)

I know I haven't written a blog post in a few too many days, and some of you, most notably my brother Tom, who apparently has a link to my blog on his phone somehow, are getting a little antsy to know how I am doing in this, the greatest experience of my life. I do apologize for not being more forthcoming with my adventures, but my internet connection at my apartment is still rather unreliable, and stopped working altogther on Wednesday night at about 10:30 local time, right before I was setting up to write another post. And then, I wrote this all out again last night, at an internet Cafe, and for some reason, it didn't send it, and I couldn't save it, since I was on a public computer. C'est la vie, je pense. I finally wrote my landlord an e-mail about the internet situation, the TV situation, and the phone situation, since he set it all up on Monday and it has not finished setting itself up yet, and he came out today (Friday) and dropped off the internet key I was using at the beginning. That, plus whatever traces of internet are in the apartment because of the other thing he set up, have left me with an internet that does all right. Anyways, I should tell you all that I am doing well and am thoroughly enjoying my first week in Paris. I think I have figured out the Metro system, and am actually starting to enjoy my morning commute to school. The last you heard from me, I was frustrated by a metro misadventure, so why don't I pick it up there, where I left off.

Sunday afternoon, after getting home from the Metro at 1:30 and taking a "heavy duty" melatonin that knocked me out for 11 hours straight, I did end up getting up and going to the American Embassy, but it's closed on Sundays, so I instead decided to stalk the Eiffel tower for about 3 hours. I got the obligatory shot of myself in front of it, and took the stairs to the 2nd level. Taking the stairs is pretty cheap. Only 3.70 Euros...taking l'ascenseur (elevator )to the top is something like 15. Ridiculous.

Before getting to the Eiffel tower, I stopped and got a ham, cheese, and tomato crepe that was pretty delicious. I was going to go to the Monoprix before my outing, but I wasn't that hungry at the moment and I was getting a little stir crazy again and decided it was time to try the metro again. This time, I did it without incident. Well, I can't say that, exactly. There was a minor incident, but I figured it out and fixed it quickly. I was on the right line, but going the opposite direction that I should have been going in. No big deal. I didn't even have to change lines to get to where I wanted to go, which I thought I had to do, originally. Tres simple!

I also stopped and got a ice cream cone (I felt I deserved it after my ordeal last night) from a very nice and charming young Frenchman who had converted his car into a portable ice cream stand (I took a picture). We chatted for a bit, in English and in French, and he served me a very good, home made chocolate and strawberry ice cream cone. It was sort of like gelato, and I loved it.
I guess I should spend a moment talking about the atmosphere surrounding the Eiffel Tower. I would say that the Tower is like a madhouse among madhouses, since that whole area of Paris is just nuts because there are so many tourist attractions in such a concentrated area. I thought my little neighborhood of Paris was busy, but this area of Paris was simply insanity. There are people everywhere taking photos, the lines to get up to the stages of the tower are stupidly long (except the one that's for stairs only...imagine that), and there are also little food stands and souvenir stands everywhere, in addition to all of the dudes who look middle easterners who are selling Eiffel Tower replicas. It's almost like a carnival atmosphere, and it's definitely an energy you can feel. There's even a little carousel across the street, and there were two street performers that had a crowd of people around them when I got there. One was break dancing, and was actually pretty good, but the other one was just doing some pretty basic pop-and-lock stuff that I learned how to do like 10 years ago. Yawn. I tipped the break dancer like one euro (or maybe less) and snapped a few photos, and was on my way.

I also sort of got hustled by a gypsy lady before getting on the stairs, but I only have her a few Euro, so I'm not too worried about it. She had a clipboard that I thought was like a sign up sheet for people who wanted to help orphaned Parisian youths, and I was going to sign up, but than I realized she wanted money. I had a lot of stuff in my hands (Camera, water, map) and she acted like she would hold the camera for me. Instead I gave her the map and in incredulous look. DJ 1, Gypsy 0. So she pointed to something at the end of the form (she never talked, which I guess sort of spooked me into giving her money, in a way) that said something about money. I sort of realized I was getting hustled, so I said all I had was change, and she shrugged and accepted it. DJ 1, Gypsy 1. Uh-oh. Then, she pointed to something on the other side that said something like "7 euro minimum donation," and I gave her another incredulous look and said that was all I had, even though I had probably 10 Euro in my wallet. She gave me a pleading look, I gave her a flat American stare, and she turned and walked away. DJ 2, Gypsy 1? Either way, now I know how they try to get you, so I won't let it happen again. Which, by the way, since then, I have had girls come up to me and try to pull the same scam on me twice. I just say "Absolument pas." and keep walking. Anyway.

So I walked the 650 or so stairs (not exaggerating in the slightest) to the second level and I walked around a bit taking pictures, and then I walked back to where I had gotten off the metro, some 3 or so miles away, and took some more obligatory photos...of me in front of one of my favorite fountains in Paris that I remember from my first trip here, and one of the many obelisks that are around Paris. I have to say that even though a lot of my walking was probably because I wasn't yet familiar with where I was going and everything, you still walk a whole lot in Paris...enough to stay fit without doing any sort of additional exercise, that's for sure. On Monday, after walking so much my first two days in town, my legs, knees, and feet were killing me, and by Wednesday evening I had worn a HUGE blister into the back of my right heel...but, I did this to my heel while walking around probably the most beautful city in the world, so I guess I shouldn't complain, huh. ;)

So after the Effel Tower, I walked back to my metro station, which seemed forever away from the Eiffel Tower, and came back to my apartment. Then, I went to Monoprix, but it was closed...I guess they close early on Sundays because it wasn't even 9 and they are usually open until almost 10. But I made due, using some olive oil left over from the last tennants as butter in my pan, and made some Turkey Croque Monsiers for dinner tonight. My first semi-cooked on my own meal in France! I took a picture. I also took a picture of breakfast because they sell these little mini strawberries here that are just adorable, but unfortunately, way too expensive. I have wizened up in subsequent Monoprix visits, but more on that later. They also sell chips that look like little Pac-man ghosts, kind of, called "Monster Munch." And they come in ketchup flavor (I LOVE ketchup chips), but I have yet to find anything but ham and cheese, plain, and BBQ flavors. Oh well. I also bought these delicious cookies that are like two big circular buttery wafers with chocolate in the middle called Prince. Yum! I don't know why I feel like updating everyone about the food and what I'm buying from the grocery store, but I do. I have been enjoying noticing the dfferences between things here versus things in America. :)

Someone needs to update me about what's going on in the U.S! I heard we swept the Brewers this week, and I definitely need details about that (who did what, etc) from someone dear to me. Do we still have a chance at the playoffs? How many games are left? How many games behind the Brewers are we? I also heard the Rams are kicking ass? Someone tell me what's been going on! Am I to assume I am St. Louis sports team's bad luck charm? Also, I'd love to know just general news about the U.S, or St. Louis.  Politics? Big, interesting crimes? What about that hurricane that was supposed to knock the Eastern Seaboard out of commission? What new movies are out that I should look out for? What's the top-grossing film in the U.S. right now? I know I could just check this out online, but I'd rather hear about it from someone I hold dear. Also, if anyone ever wants to e-mail me, feel free to do so at either kingofvibe@gmail.com, or davidjohnhyde81@gmail.com. I check them both as frequently as I can. Also, if I know anyone who still does AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo Instant Messenger, please let me know, so I can know to keep those turned on more frequently.

I know this one is super long, but I have at least two more to right, right now, if the internet keeps being cooperative. I feel like I owe you all lots of blog posts, since it's been so long since I've written one. I expect to have probably 2 more finished and posted tonight before going to bed, since I'm not going out tonight, but saving myself for tomorrow. More on that in a later post, though. I hope you all have been enjoying reading this blog, and I hope you have time to read 3 mini-novellas tonight, because that's what you're going to be getting. Gorsses bises a tous! (Love and kisses to everyone!)