...to be continued!

I know I have been M.I.A. once again but there is good reason behind it!  The Pretty Bird has flown and landed in St. Michel for the week....there will be details and LOTS of photos to come, so stay tuned!

Here's a sneak peak:

le maladie...

Well, nearly a month after I have arrived in Paris, I have finally contracted my 1st cold.

Oui, je suis malade! :(

I'm congested, coughing and to make matters worse, even the weather isn't on my side because it is pouring outside.  I was supposed to visit the second school I will be teaching at today, but I could barely make it to the boulangerie to buy a baguette, so I will be bed ridden today.

I have been chugging tea, orange juice and water all day because I refuse to take medication and prefer to handle this a more holistic and natural way.  I'm hoping that this will not ruin my weekend, but at this point its hard to say.  I've been avoiding communication because my French is already bad and the congestion is making it worse.  However, the plus side is that its much easier to sound out the French "nasal 'n' sound" when you're sick!

In other sad news, Steve Jobs lost his battle to cancer and passed away.  When I heard this news, I was deeply saddened by this because the optimist in me really hoped he would fully recover.  As I type this post on my Macbook Pro laptop, I can't help but be thankful for the innovations Steve Jobs has provided to a generation.  Within his wisdom he redefined how people used the computer, listened to music and communicated with others.  I hope now that he has been laid to rest, he can finally be at peace....he will surely be missed.

La Nuit Blanche

I know its been awhile, isn't it amazing how easily one can fall of track?, but I really wanted to talk about the amazing night I had las night in Paris.

Yesterday was a 2 for one social deal for me because #1 it was the birthday of fellow blogger Shelley aka "A California Girl in Paris" (HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHELLEY!) and #2 it was Le Nuit Blanche.

My Saturday night started with a birthday picnic right in front of the Eiffel Tower on the Champs de Mars.    I never used to do to picnics before but ever since I have moved to Paris I can't get enough of them! I have been here officially 3 weeks (YAY me!) and I have already been to 3 picnics around the city.  It's just nice to be around fellow assistants, expats, students, Frenchies with some good cheese, wine, sauccisson and fruit.  The illumination of the Eiffel Tower was the perfect backlight to set the perfect mood.  The weather in France has been superb this week (high 70s) so I hope to have as many picnics as possible before the cold comes along.

The second reason why last night was amazing was because I got to participate in Nuit Blanche for the first time.  It's a bit difficult for me to properly explain Nuit Blanche because my French is not the best and I didn't want to spend 4 hours trying to read and comprehend the program.  In essence, Nuit Blanche is a celebration of culture and art in Paris.  This year they focused on areas north of the River Seine and fortunately for me, 2 of the main areas of the night were around metro Pigalle and Anvers, the 2 metro stations next to my apartment.  There were exhibits and displays all over the city and they were free and open to the public.  The event started at 7pm and went until 7am, and 2 of the main metro lines were open all night long.  

All in all the exhibits were not very impressive and I would see better things in a museum but I think the purpose of the night was to show of the best of Paris by night.  It was amazing, at 3 am, people were filling the streets drinking, laughing, fighting, kissing, pissing.  Out of the more than 50 exhibits, I saw only 4 but it was great to be apart of the Parisian nigh scene and see a bit of the art Paris has to offer.  The best exhibit of the night was an installation called "Purple Rain" displayed in L'Hôtel D'Albert in the 4th arrondissement.  The installation was created by Pierre Ardouvin and was inspired by the song "Purple Rain" by Prince.  As we entered the hotel, we we each given a purple plastic umbrella and upon entering the hotel's terrace rain started to pour under the illumination of purple light.  It was the coolest thing I've seen so far in Paris! My friends and I were trying to figure out how they were able to create rain in this completely open terrace but we could not find the source.  It was such a magical moment!  Here is a short video I recorded in my cell phone:

Paris: Week 1

Well, it officially has been 10 days since I arrived in pay-reeee. So I wanted to give a brief recap of my 1st week of adventures so that you all know I'm still alive!!  I meant to write this down as they happened, but being preoccupied + still being jet lagged = not happening!

Monday was my first day of au pairing, which means I pick up Little G from school around 4:30 pm and watching him while he plays in the park for about an hour.  I take him home by metro help him do his homework and then chill out until dinner time.  Thats the usual routine everyday expect Wednesday.

(Here's Little G, sitting in a tree.)

I have made it point to have dinner with the family every night, since it's the one time of day I feel I am bombarded with a large concentration of French at real time!  I do envy my host family's traditional dinner time.  With the fast-paced nature of our modern world, people don't really have the time anymore to sit around the dinner table.  In the US during dinner time, family members are spread through out all the corners of the house.  Sitting around a table, is now an "old-fashioned" concept no longer compatible with the current age.  It's really refreshing to be around a family that has made the decision that no matter what, dinner time must be respected.  My host mom cooks dinner, dad cuts the meats and serves everyone and the children help set the table and clean up after.  No matter how deep the children are into their computers or iPhones, when my host mom says "À table" everyone heads to the table.  I don't know how easily I can force the habit onto my siblings, but I have made a conscious decisions to instill that value into my future children.


Speaking of dinner time, or rather food...wow! what can I say, the food in Paris is absolutely DELICIOUS!!! Because I haven't started teaching and my salary right now is very limited, I try to eat out maybe every 3 days.  So far I have been to a couple of French restaurants around the 9e arrondissement, and I have been enjoying every moment.  For the most part, I try to prepare small meals at home and of course have dinner with the family in order to save money.  I love going grocery shopping so being in Paris and buying groceries has been delightful!  What I like most is the mix between small, independently owned shops and super markets or supermarchés as they are called here.  It seems that Paris has struck an incredible balance of giving people the options of something freshly hand made or mass produced.  I'm going to try to go grocery shopping at least once a week, while I am here so that I can discover new tastes and figure out what works best with my tastes buds!

 (Here's a pic of my very 1st grocery shopping trip, it's not much but it was great!)

One really cool thing I did the first week I was here (as if the Tour Eiffel wasn't enough) was to get in touch with other young international au pairs working in Paris, like yours truly.  I was invited to meet some of the au pair girls by a friend do the TAPIF program with me.  We met at metro St. Michel then bought some wine and drank it along the River Seine.  It was such an awesome night!  Any remaining anxieties and fears I had melted away just from being around an awesome group of girls who were dealing with the same struggles I was dealing with in Paris.  Now I know I was recommended not to hang around to many English speakers so that I don't get stuck speaking it to much, but I figure that having someone there who speaks the same language as you is a great gate-way to met the Frenchies (there's more behind this phrase which will be explained very soon!)  Plus the French are always intrigued by English speakers and I have my host family to practice with, so I don't worry to much.  I got to hang out with some of the girls again later and I actually see most of them a lot because they take their kids to the same park as Little G.



During the day, if I don't sleep in too late, I like to walk around Paris and just explore.  The great thing about this experience is that everything is so new and exciting for me that I probably won't be bored for a very long time!  I went back to the Tour Eiffel and St. Michel during the day time to take in what the quartier has to offer when the sun is out.  I love all of the street art and artists that fill the city, it is truly inspiring.

 . 

...stay tuned, more adventures to come!

Day 1

It is 2:45 in the morning here in Paris,  and as I write this post in my super lovely and super chic Parisian apartment, my 1st day here will come to a close.

I still can't believe it, I'm here...I'm in Paris!!!  I think the mixture of excitement and pure exhaustion is not really allowing me to understand the gravity of everything.  All in all getting here was smooth and I could not have asked for a better flight.  I was in traffic for almost 2 hours to get to Dulles airport and I was worried I would be running late. But as God would have it, I got there, checked my bags (sidenote: the really nice lady working allowed me to go over the limit without any extra fees) and went through security without any hiccups.  I flew with Iceland Air because it was the cheapest flight I could get, however the downside is that they don't serve food, you have to buy it, and it ain't cheap!

I arrived in Paris around 1:30pm and after I collected my bags to go out the exit, my host family was there waiting for me.  I got to meet Little G in the flesh.  He was very shy, which is normal when a tall-big-curly-haired-black-girl you've never met before, is suddenly your new caretaker.  We drove to the apartment and during the drive I got to see bits of St. Denis aka "Africa Central" since a crap ton of Africans live there.  My host family treated me to a nice lunch at an Italian restaurant, then helped me unpack and showed me around the neighborhood.  My exhaustion clouded my better judgement, so I didn't bring a camera with me but not to worry, many more pics of mon quartier are to come!

First Impression of Paris:
1.) Driving is NUTS here!  Traffic is so bad (especially around St. Denis) and people drive so close to each other that I can reach my hand out and slap the driver next to me!

2.) Don't believe all the hype, not every French woman is skinny.  I have mostly seen a variety of shapes around the "normal" frame.  Obviously France does not have a huge morbid obesity problem, but not every woman is stick thin.

3.) When the sun goes down, I will assume any random trail of "liquid" is piss.  There are random spots that smell like piss..et je DETESTE ça!

4.) Constantly hearing French will be a skill I will have to get used to.  Today I felt like I could only understand maybe 1 or 2 words during a conversation.  I will try to enroll in some cheap French classes.

5.) I love all of the open air markets that are available.  Everything looks super fresh!

6.) Elevators...what are those?

I ended my first day with a midnight visit to the Eiffel Tower, which gave me the opportunity to ride the metro fr the 1st time .  My friend went with me to the tower but I took the train back by myself.  When I first saw it, I started to cry, it is so beautiful and is a structure that epitomizes Paris, it is truly a dream come true to be able to see it.  And the light show? FANTASTIC!!  Here are some pics form tonight:

T-minus cinq....

Well, the week has finally arrived!  I have exactly 5 days left until I leave for Paris.  I have been running around nearly breaking my skull trying to buy last minute assorted items like clothing, medications and other nick-knacks, that I haven't really been giving the actually journey much thought.

Packing is probably one of the biggest annoyances I have ever dealt with.  I really don't want to over-pack because the fees associated with packing over the weight limit is no joke and NOT cheap!  But I'm conflicted because I am a US size 12/14 and with all that I've heard about French women being extremely skinny, I am concerned that I won't find clothes to fit my curvy frame so I want to bring enough that fit me and look très chic.  And then there's the issue of shoes.....ohhh shoes, I love all of my shoes and I wish I could take them all with me, but sadly I can not.  Other teaching assistants have advised me to only take 3 pairs of shoes......yeahhhhh not sure that is feasible for a shoe fiend like me!

(Discalimer: these adorable suitcases are not mine ;-)

As with any major life change/ transition, I have been experiencing a lot of "pre-departure anxiety".  This anxiety has made me very nervous about my journey, but I supposed these are all normal feelings.  Recently I have been waking up in the middle of the night contemplating what awaits for me in Paris.  I'm really excited about seeing Le Tour Eiffel  and all of the museums but, and yes there's a but,  I am not looking forward to being reminded that I've only taken a year and a half of French, when people try to converse with me and I look utterly baffled and confused.  Back in January, I wrote about how badly I needed to practice my French, but nearly 8 months later, I have yet to crack open my French book.  I failed so badly at keeping this promise to myself it's comical.  But it's not completely my fault, I had to work full time and went to school part-time so I was way to preoccupied to practice.  I'm hoping to take a refresher course at L'Alliance Francaise, and like everyone says hopefully the French that I've learned and forgotten will "all come back to me".

But nervousiness, fear and anxiety aside, in just 5 days I'll be here......

...how wonderful is that!

Click, Click, Snap?

...decisions, decisions.  I hate making them and wish someone else would put me out of my misery and decide for me.

With less than 20 days to go before I leave for Paris, I came to an outstanding realization....Mama needs a new camera.

My 5 year old Sony PowerShot 870SD that I purchased my sophomore year of college has run its course and now its time for a much needed upgrade! I love photographs and I admire the process of photography but for once I want to be the person behind the camera taking great pictures instead of the person in front of the register dropping serious dough on some nice pictures.  I figured my fast approaching European excursion would be a great opportunity to upgrade to a DSLR photography as well as truly make photography a hobby of mine.  I have been admiring the image quality and "artsy-ness" of DSLR cameras for a while now.  The problem is I don't know how to properly use them and $600 is wayyyyyy to much money to speed to use the camera's automatic setting.  Plus, I don't know how to use Photoshop, nor do I have l'argent to buy it...so that's out of the question.

I like DSLR cameras because if used properly with a good eye and good composition, you can capture the pure essence of a moment in time.  I love photography, because each story tells a story, for example, this picture was taken by my very talented friend Beth Fortson.  I've seen photos that have ignited a passion in me, made me feel happy, sad, angry...a wide variety of emotions.  For me, I feel like there is a rawness that little point-and-shot cameras can not express.  Sure, you can get pretty and clear shots, but sometimes I crave more than that.


But another issue for me is the size.  Good grief, those things are chunky!  Because of my inexperience, I am not used to holding a heavy camera, so a special camera bag is needed.  Well, me being the research whiz that I am already found an alternative to this issue:

Voila! Ultra feminine and super fabulous camera bags that actually look like women's handbags! These particular bags are from Kelly Moore.

But it gets even more complicated; what do I do when I just want to go out with friends to a bar or a club?  Hauling a big $600 camera would not make because there's nothing artistic about being completely inebriated with your friends in a dimly lit bar plus there's the concern of losing it or breaking it, so a point-and-shoot will do.

grrrrrr....I just don't know what to do! Should I replace my poor PowerShot with another point n' shoot or should I take a bold step into the world of DSLR photography???