3 Months In Paris

What a roller coaster it has been in such a relatively short time. I’ve discovered so much about myself emotionally, explored new places, got terribly ill, made peace with my inevitable death, recovered, read new books, met new people. I missed home so much that I cried, I loved it here so much I vowed never to come home, I blurred entire weekends with too much wine and spent too many consecutive days binge watching The Mindy Project and Community.

Here are some of the more recent highlights:

• I did a Christmas-based lesson and I asked my students what Santa Claus eats. Terrifyingly, one student immediately answered “Reindeer.”
• During another lesson with students who are just (barely) grasping the concept of “my name is ____” one of the boys in the front was answering everything correctly and quickly. Not thinking he could understand, I said “Man what the hell how are you getting all of this” to which he responded in perfect English, “because my dad is Australian.”
• I saw two people shake hands on the street the other day, and my first thought was “I’m witnessing a drug deal.” That’s how infrequently you will see that here. It actually looked strange to me. I also saw someone buying a 5th of vodka at the supermarket and assumed he was an alcoholic. Really, these judgments are completely unfair – I’ve just never seen anyone buy anything other than wine at the supermarket. Maybe I saw someone buy beer. Once.
• My weird/rude/suspected ebola-ridden neighbors moved out! I can now flush the toilet in the middle of the night if I want to! Sweet, sweet freedom. They were my only neighbors, so along with being able to flush, I can also blast music as loud as I like, sing (poorly,) leave the door open and take over the hallway, and throw parties.
• I helped some of the teachers prepare for their English certification exam, and realized something pretty incredible: The best way to communicate with them so that they understood was to explain it to them in French. Which means I speak better French than they do English, and our mode of communication relied on it. It was an extremely fulfilling experience that I will not forget, especially since the youngest one there was at least 10 years older than me.

xo à bientôt