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???

...and so it BEGINS!

The countdown has officially begun!  I have exactly 30 more days until I move to Paris and I couldn't be happier!  Before today, I was way too lazy to keep track plus a 30 day countdown is easier to mentally cope with than a 75 day countdown!

(I made a countdown calendar and stuck it to my wall as a reminder to myself and everyone else!)

To be honest, I do hope these last 30 days don't go by tooo quickly because there is still a lot that most be attended to before I board the plane, one of which is going head-to-head with all five of my lenders (we'll see how that goes).  Plus there are shopping trips that must be made, weddings and baby showers to attend and many many many goodbyes.

random tidbit....

So after a fantastic workout at the gym, a thought came to me as I was washing off the gallon of sweat I had accumulated, I have decided to add a couple of new featured posts to my blog.  Because I really want to force myself to take this blog seriously (step 1: makeover, check!) I need to spice things up and increase my viewings.  More details are to follow, but within the next 30 days you will see some "featured posts" relating to things that I am either passionate about or interest me.  They may or may not directly correlate with travel but this blog is a hodgepodge of things that I like.......so stay tuned!

Update #3: A much needed facelift

Hmmmm, if you have been following my blog, you will notice something slightly different about the appearance. ;-)


If you are new...

Welcome to the new and super-fabulously improved 

"The Traveling Pretty Bird" Blog!!!

After reading numerous blogs with beautiful layouts, I was starting to get jealous that everyone else seemed to have a nice looking blog but I was still using the carbon stock provided by blogger.com.  Even though I was jealous,  because I am "artistically challenged" I did not even know where to begin to make changes.  Well, thanks to the inspiration and advice from fellow blogger I Fly A Star Ship, I have finally personalized my blog to make it unique to me.  When I saw the finished product (after a couple of hours of OCD-like tweaking and nit-picking), I had to give myself a pat on the back for creating something beautiful I could whole-heartedly and proudly call my blog (yes a bit sappy for a blog...but hey, it's the little things in life).

so.....out with the old.....

new month....new look....oh the possibilities!

Update #2: Housing

J'ai bonne nouvelles!!!

Ok so ever since I found out I will be teaching in Fontenay-sous-Bois, I've been on a mad scramble to find housing, cheap housing.  Assistants in my program will only receive 750€ per month after taxes, so I knew that my budget will be tight and I knew that would only be able to pay max 400€ per month.  I knew from the beginning that a better and more economical choice for me would be to work as an au pair. So I set up a profile with three different online au pair agencies.  After numerous emails, hopefuls and flat-out rejections, I found a good fit!  I will be the au pair of an adorable little 8-year-old boy who I will call "Little G".  My job will mostly be to watch him after school everyday and help him learn Spanish (porque yo hablo Español tambien!).  Little G comes from a wonderful family and he has a super-mom so I'm really looking forward to working with them.

And the best bit.....I get my own FREE studio apartment!! Oui, madames et monsieurs, my housing crisis has been adverted!!  I will be living in Montmartre aka "Le Bourgeois Bohême" (well, technically I'm still within the border of the 9e arrondissement, but I'm only 2 blocks away from the Sacré Coeur soooo I'll still consider myself a future Montmartroise!).   This is a complete dream come true for me because not only do I get to live in Paris and only have a 30 minute commute to my teaching job, but I get to live in my dream location!

I have been in love with Montmartre ever since I watched the movie "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie".  The movie depicted Montmartre as a whimsical and enchanting village, a bohemian tavern with hints of bourgeois chic.  And although it has a much-to-be-avoided red light district, I am sooo excited to embark on my journey in my new home.....less than 2 months to go!

I can see it all now.....

....drinking un café au lait at Duex Moulins

  

...hopping on a train at the Abbesses metro station.

.....I can hardly wait!

Update #1: Teaching

Wow! It's been so long since I have given a proper update, where do I even begin?

.....so much has happened in the past few days and I'm so giddy with excitement, I hope I don't forget anything!

Ok for starters....

As you all know, I was expected to teach in l'académie de Créteil but you are probably thinking "Ok, so where in the academy will you be teaching?".  Well thanks to the help of a very resourceful Spaniard, I was able to find out well in advance that I will be teaching in a commune 5.8 miles east from the center of Paris called Fontenay-sous-Bois.

I will be teaching elementary school students (or ecole primaire in French).  However, there's slight confusion with my placement.  How? Why? Well when I emailed my contact person (le conseillere pédagogique) she told that I would be teaching in 3, yes THREE, different schools!  Naturally I was initially bummed by this news because I've been a teacher before and one school is a lot to handle let alone three!  And to make matters more frustrating, le conseillere would not give me the names of the schools (mais c'est la France!)  

The part of the commune where I'm teaching is pretty dull and boring looking, loaded with concrete buildings.  Fontenay-sous-Bois neighbors Vincennes (to the west) so the areas closest to Vincennes are very nice, but the other areas.....kinda poopy.  But I'm not complaining because I was given this great opportunity and I'm not passing it up, let's be real...it could have been way worse.  Besides if worse comes to worse (aka if some shit goes down), I can always utilize the punches and kicks I learned in my kickboxing class!