Images valent mille mots

I'm going to Berlin to see my sister tomorrow and there will be a full posting on our adventures in Germany (hooray for beer!) But, I uploaded a few pictures and decided to just create a little post with some photos for you guys to see how it's going here!

This is the courtyard to the apartment I share with JoHanna. Our apartment is the one with the white shutters on the left. It's small but we love it and the area we live in is central, fun, and very safe!

Speaking of JoHanna, she's the ginger in the middle. I love me some gingers :). The other girl in the picture is Jessamyn who is also an assistant and is an au pair in the suburbs. We took this when the weather was still warm and we could sit near the Seine and drink wine and picnic. 

This is the fish market I pass on the way to the Métro every day. One of these days I'll stop in and get some fresh fish for dinner. They even have sea urchins! I'm not sure how one cooks sea urchins .. but maybe I'll find out some time!

This is the back side of Notre Dame from Pont Marie. It's really beautiful in the afternoon sun. Paris really is a gorgeous city. Come visit me and see for yourselves!

FWOTD: se promener (v.): to walk

La Petite Americaine

This was my first week of actual school and orientation. Mostly it was just being introduced to the class and telling them about myself. The looks on their faces when I said "I'm from Chicago" ranged from completely shocked to befuddled. Most of them have asked me if I'm a Chicago Bulls fan. That seems to be the only thing they know about Chicago. The students are great (so far), most of them look older than I do, and all of them are fascinated that I came from so far away to teach at their suburban school. During the introductions, I was asked a few strange questions and gave a few strange answers. So, some of my students think that I ran over Barack Obama's dog with a stolen car and had to flee the United States. Others think that I have six boyfriends. And others are convinced that I aspire to be a prison guard one day. The levels of English range from barely comprehensible to close to fluent. I also find it very interesting that I've been asked in the classroom about my political affiliations in the United States and also what my opinions are on certain issues. It's pretty taboo at home to ask these sorts of questions, so I've been put off guard a few times when these questions are coming from my students.

During one of my lessons, I was asked to help a girl correct her exam. The writing portion consisted of a political cartoon about illegal immigration and the paradox it poses for Americans. So, the girl I was helping has a sentence that went something like this "The potty tasks of the housekeeper were..." and "The other woman in the cartoon asks the housekeeper to do potty tasks". After a few seconds of befuddlement, I realized that the girl meant to write petty tasks. When I told her what she had written, she was mortified and explained to me that her friend had told her that "potty" meant small or unimportant. It was my first experience with mis-translation and it was quite amusing.

I've also overheard some of my students in the hallways referring to me as "La petite Americaine" (the Little American) or "Chicago". My name is very difficult for the French tongue to pronounce. When students were asked to write my name on the board, the majority of them wrote "Christine", which seems to be the closest translation to Kirsten that the French have. They've all been trying very hard to get the pronunciation right, but having them call me Mlle Crowhurst might be even worse.

In other news: I found an apartment and am rooming with a girl from Wisconsin. It's in the 5th arrondissement of Paris (which, from what I gather at the other teacher's reactions when I inform them of where I live, is a VERY coveted area). I'll write more about the location and post pictures of our new place as soon as we're 100% settled.

FWOTD: langue (n.): language

Une fois un blaireau, toujours un blaireau

It's two weeks until I officially leave for Paris. I wasn't planning on writing another blog post until I arrived, but I can't think of a good enough reason NOT to write this post. As many of you know, the Teaching Assistants in and around Paris (for the most part) are responsible for finding their own housing. This is nerve-wrecking as many of the landlords in and around Paris are not comfortable with leasing to Americans (or foreigners in general) which shrinks the available housing pool for all the assistants who are arriving around the same time as each other. So, I'm trying to exhaust all ideas in the search for an apartment.

Fortunately, this lead me to find out that there is a Wisconsin Alumni Association chapter in France (most of the members are in or near Paris). After e-mailing the provided contacts about possible tips for finding housing and standing out as a lessee, one of the alumnus very generously offered for me to stay with her for a few days until I found a place on my own. The outward hospitality and graciousness of the Badger alumni on behalf of a recent grad inspired me to write this post. I know that many people from their various universities swear up and down that theirs is the best or at least "better than yours". I respect their loyalty to their universities, but I have to say, even as an alumnus, Wisconsin continues to outdo itself and inspire me. 

Not many people would blindly take a recent college graduate into their home solely with the knowledge that this grad went to Wisconsin and is moving to Paris to be a Teaching Assistant. Even fewer people would offer to additionally pick this alumnus up from the airport so that they don't have to lug their bags around the Metro or pay for a cab on their meager income. After graduating in May, I knew my time as a Badger would never really come to an end, because as they say "Once a Badger, always a Badger", but this experience was a realization of the interconnected web that are the Wisconsin Alumni and how fortunate I am to be a part of such a widespread and proud group. I'm hoping one day I'll be able to pay it forward in as big of a way as this Badger helped me.

For those of you who aren't Badger alumni, I hope this post at least inspires you to believe that there are decent, kind, and wholehearted people left in the world and you really don't have to look too far to find them. And if that point didn't get across, well, just watch this Badger video* for laughs anyway.

FWOTD: Blaireau (n.): Badger

*-video contains vulgarity, not appropriate for children or my mom (sorry).