Amanda in Paris

My hood

2008-03-28T04:53:00.000-07:00

Pictures of my neighborhood, in and from afar...

Montmatre Moulin (windmill)

Abbesses Church

Buttes de Chaumont, looking toward the 18eme

Looking at Sacre Coeur from Buttes de Chaumont Parc

Sacre Coeur from the Pompidou Museum

couch extravaganza

2008-02-11T05:13:00.000-08:00

So a while back the "clic-clac" i was sleeping on broke. It's a bit hard to explain...but the metal parts that connected the leg part to the bed frame snapped. For a while, it was ok...i was able to prop it up and sleep on it (but it wasn't really a "flat" surface anymore :) So, when Susan decided to leave the apartment (good riddance!!)...i contacted to landlord and asked if it would be possible to get a new sofa-bed since I wanted to make the living room into an actual living room and the old clic-clac no longer functioned both as a bed and couch in its broken state. He said sure, and I found a good deal on a pull-out sofa bed on craigslist. The guy selling it was super cool (and has one of the best apartments i have seen in paris!! he was an american journalist and his family has lived in paris for a while now...his wife went to UVM! small world!) The only snag was I had to figure out a way to get it from his place (waaay down in the 13eme up to my place, waaay up in the 18eme...basically across paris!)
Now at first I thought Dragon (my landlords go-to guy here in paris) would be able to do it...but apparently he has lost his license due to too many speeding tickets (not hard to do here in Paris). So I called Octave for some advice...
Octave said he would help me! We got the Ok from my landlord to rent a moving van (landlord agreed to pay for the van, couch, and a little something to give Octave for his help). However....when we arrived at the first rental place it was closed for 2hours for lunch!!!! Ridiculous! So we headed to Hertz....who weren't ALL on lunch break! yaaay! But....apparently to drive a rental in France you have to have a credit card/bank card in your name...and Octave had recently lost his!! He couldn't drive with mine....but I could!!! Yes my friends, Americans can drive with our normal driving licenses in France!!! eeeeeek The guy at Hertz was really funny about it...he was the manager...and because I'm so awesome, he waved the fee for people under 25 (and reminded his trainee never to do what he was doing haha). He reassured i was fully covered, and everything would be ok (laughing while telling me all this). Then Octave and I set off to find our new wheels in a mystery underground parking garage. After failing to master the code a few times, we got it right and found the van...see picture above for an idea of what this thing looked like! Ridiculous. We climbed in, and immediately I realized that there was no rear-view mirror....in fact behind our seats was a wall so you couldn't see behind you at all...and there were 2 small side view mirrors. Now, I'm used to driving large vehicles (woo woo small bus license!) But usually, I can see all around me (buses have wonderful mirrors!)...so this was a new experience. Also, it was at stick (as almost all vehicles are in europe are i think) which I can drive, but hadn't practiced in quite a while....
Octave was pretty excited I was driving...he's crazy, if i was him i would have been afraid! haha
He gave me a quick pep talk....told me not to hit anything (duh), not to run any red lights (advice i kept for the most part...ooops, you'd run a few too if they were all located on the side of the street not above!), and the most important (and bizzare) was that in France the rule of the road goes that anyone entering/passing/etc from the right has the right of way! Strange....and hard to remember! So we set off...
And I did really well!! This could be due to my wonderful navigator (Octave knows paris streets like no one i know). I was a bit nervous though...Octave kept telling me to relax and correct his english....to which i told him, no way I'm DRIVING! :)
we got the couch (man was it heave!), loaded it in with the help of the guy selling it, got across town without any problems (stopped for pizza on the way too!). Rolled down the windows and blasted Jazz....people probably thought we were insane :)
Finally got to my place and in the process of taking the couch out of the van, an older, somewhat sketchy man stopped and offered to help. We were in no position to decline, so we said yes...and it was not until we were half way to the apartment door that I realized he was DRUNK! haha We stopped outside the front door and thanked the guy....who then tried to get me to give him my phone number "in case i ever have problems with my electricity or water i could call him cause he lives on the next street over". Octave told him I was fine and we ushered him on his way. Then, realizing how big the couch is and how narrow the stairs are....we enlisted the help of one of the workers who has been banging on the interior courtyard wall for the past 4 months. With our powers combined we somehow managed to get it up to my apartment. It was possibly one of the hardest things I have ever done! At one point, the worker helping us asked if it was at all possible to take it apart....yikes! But with a lot of pushing, repositioning, and only getting it stuck 3-4 times....we got it in!! yaaay
Then we returned to our van (illegally parked) to find a police officer about to write us a ticket. Octave sweet talked her into letting us go, and we were back on our way. Octave insisted that I drive our "mercedez" (yup even the moving vans are snazy here) on the champs elysees....so off we went. Octave also really wanted me to try the round about at the arc de triumph (the hardest in the WORLD i think) but to my relief, we didn't have enough time. So he navigated us back to the Hertz, we returned it in once piece, and octave drove me to babysit in his car. It was a great day...full of lots of laughs...and now my apartment feels more like a home!

apartment make-over

2008-01-31T12:07:00.001-08:00

Susan decided to move out...my broken futon became more and more annoying to sleep on so i got a new sofa-couch (story to follow in another post)...so I gave 22 Rue Feutrier a make-over...and i'm pretty happy! it's really opened up now...and feels more like an apartment you can hang out in! :)

couch on the left is the broken futon (it is wired together into a couch and against a wall for a reason) and the one of the right is the new sleeper-sofa

view from the door

view from the hall to the bedroom and bathroom

kitchen nook

look at all that space!

sledding in the city of lights but no snow

2008-01-24T14:00:00.000-08:00

So on my return to Paris after 2 glorious weeks playing in the Vermont snow, I was sad thinking about how all the little Parisian kids miss out on great winter things like snowmen and sledding. Well apparently I am not the only one to be thinking of the kids of Paris...while it isn't possible to provide snow for snowmen, they have made a "sledding" area of sorts at the Hotel De Ville in the middle of the city! It is located right next to the ice skating rink (think NYC Rockefeller Center) and is pretty crazy looking! Basically I think its a slide of sorts (possibly covered with ice...it was hard to tell from where we were standing) and the little kids climb up and take turns going down on green sleds! So its obviously not as good as the real thing...but pretty awesome when you think about it! Way to go city of paris!

Ryan

2007-12-12T14:39:00.000-08:00

Here is Ryan, the most adorable 4.5 year old French kid in the world!! I babysit him 4 times a week for 1.5hrs. His father is American, and his mother is French (but speaks English really really well)...so my job is to teach him English words and play. So far, we sing "Skip to my Lou" every day as we skip home, talk a lot about how much he loves "raspberry" cookies, and play house or restaurant or cars. It's pretty sweet.

Walking home from the metro...

2007-12-12T10:32:00.000-08:00

Sacre Coeur

The "short cut" to my apartment

Christmas lights!

2007-12-12T10:10:00.000-08:00

Paris is pretty and festive these days :)

Looking down Rue Saint Charles at the Eiffel Tower

Montmatre

Inside Cafe Deux Moulins (the cafe in Amelie)

Christmas tree!

2007-12-02T04:58:00.001-08:00

Katie and I bought tiny little potted xmas trees near the metro Cité (pictured here cause it's pretty sweet looking). We bought the trees, then bought tiny little decorations at the cheap store down the street from my apartment. So, i listened to xmas music and celebrated Dec. 1st by decorating my tiny tree! (so you can understand how tiny, it is pictured with a wine bottle, hey it's France why not! :)

ROCK PARIS HAIR CUT!

2007-12-02T04:29:00.000-08:00

Katie and I went and got our hair cut at this AWESOME place on the canal near Republique. It is called "Rock Hair" and the atmosphere was great! They played sweet old school rock on vinyl, had big crazy mirrors, photography books and magazines on the table, and served me espresso and chocolate/gummy alligators....and the owner is this like 60 year old guy in a flannel shirt (at first you're like, what is he doing here...then he starts cutting someone's hair and you're like DAMN, I'll never score an appointment with someone that good!)
I told the girl I wanted layers and angled bangs and not too short. It was the first time I've had my hair cut dry...but like Katie said "that's what you always see on shows like Top Model" hahaha! The end product as you will see bellow is pretty sweet! It was a little shorter than I thought I would go, but I trusted her and I'm really happy with the outcome!
So yaaaay new paris haircut!! :)

Tired of the transportation strike....

2007-11-16T12:13:00.001-08:00

For all of you out there who haven't heard about the French transportation strike...it sucks! I feel for the guys who's pensions are being reduced and their retirement age lengthened, really i do! And I don't much like Sarko either...but i'm sick of going into the metro and it looking like the pictures below! Living in the northern part of Paris (18eme) and working in the southern part (15eme) is getting harder and harder(yesterday I had to walk to babysitting and it took 2hrs for me to walk there only to babysit for 1.5hr!)...all i want is for the ligne 12 to work...is that too much to ask?!?

Commuters at Gare du Nord (i didn't take this picture...but i could have, i've seen this sort of thing too many times now)

This is what it looks like when I try to get on the metro! Today i was crushed, but at least this time by a cute french boy who then talked to me while others were pushing him into me and me into the back corner of the metro car :) (again, i didn't take this picture...i'm too afraid to enrage the crowd by whipping out my camera at times like these...and also not really able to reach into my bag since i'm being crushed by the crowd!)

Lucy and Amanda take an adventure on a Paris afternoon

2007-11-06T11:03:00.000-08:00

Lucy and I met and walked from our place into the heart of Paris...and ended up at the Palais Royal...where we took all these fun pictures! Then we managed to somehow walk in a circle and end up back at home...cause we're that awesome! :)

Autumn in Paris

2007-11-04T15:30:00.000-08:00

Matt and Greg visit Paris

2007-11-01T14:19:00.001-07:00

My friend Matt from Skidmore had been traveling around Europe for 2 months after he graduated with his friend Greg. After finding out that Paris was their last stop before heading back to the States, I told them they should come stay with me for the 4 days they were here because I have this pretty big new apartment! It was a lot of fun!
Day 1: Saturday
Matt and Greg arrive, settle in, do an amazing walking tour of Paris where they see EVERYTHING...because I have a lunch/theater date with my good friend Thomas. For dinner Greg makes chicken wrapped in ham in a cream sauce, green beans, and pasta. Saturday night we have my birthday/halloween party.
Day 2: Sunday
We start the day a little late...but Greg makes amazing omlettes for breakfast! Greg and go out in search of a store open on Sunday (a hard task in France) to buy food for dinner. We find a local butcher and produce shop open...we buy rabbit, potatoes and carrots. Then we go to Musee d'Orsay, meet Katie there, and check out the impressionist art (i looooooove that museum). Greg makes a fantastic meal of rabbit in a yummy carrot sauce and potatoes. Matt, Greg and I head out to find a cute bar in the area, only find pretty lame over priced ones open on sunday, and end up heading back and hanging out in my apartment for a while.
Day 3: Monday
Greg makes yummy breakfast of eggs, homefries, and bacon!!! The bacon was 1/4inch thick, salty and DELICIOUS! (by this time I've decide that Greg should never leave my apartment, just stay and cook for me all the time!). We head off to a day at the Louvre. Standing in line FOREVER at the Louvre...a nice man in accented English walks up to us and gives Matt 3 tickets and says we should use them because he and his family are finished. We weren't sure what to do...not sure if it was for real...but took the tickets and they worked fine!! So we got into the Louvre for free!!!! (we attribute Matt's BRIGHT yellow jacket to our luck...he was the brightest person visiting the louvre that day!) In the Louvre we wander around, see lots of art...but can't seem to find this painting that Greg has been wanting to see the entire time they've been traveling in Europe ("In the Garden of Earthly Delight but Bosch). I ask a few people...no one knows...and eventually they tell us it's not there. Having seen a lot of what the Louvre has to offer, we gave up (perplexed) and headed home to get ready for dinner and google the painting. On the way home, we walked by the Grand Palais. At home, we found out that the painting is actually in the Prado Museum in Madrid! Poor Greg...he'll just have to come back to Europe now! Then we got dressed and showered to go meet Katie and eat at a restaurant called "Dans le Noir." Now, this restaurant needs some explaining. It is a place that Matt and Greg heard a lot about in their travels. Basically, you eat in complete darkness (NO light at all). The wait staff are blind. Not being able to see is supposed to highten your other senses of taste and smell and give you a new experience eating. When I heard about this, I was obviously in!! So we went...and it was AMAZING! The only menu they were serving was the "surprise menu," so you don't know what you're eating (but they do ask you your food allergies). Our blind waitress led us into the dark room (each person with their left hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them). She sat us down, explained that we should put our napkins in our laps and our silverware to the side. Then she brought us our wine, explaining that to pour we should place our finger in the glass and stop when we felt the wine. After feeling completely dissoriented and accidentily taking all of Matt's glasses (he was across from me), I got used to the dark and it was a really amazing experience. The food was incredible....cold salmon and mango and salad, beef in a delicious sauce with cheese, fennel, and other delicious stuff, and for dessert lavender rice pudding with strawberry and grapefruit. And eating in complete dark did make the textures and tastes stand out...not to mention was fun because it was a really interesting task cutting without seeing! Then we heading back to my place where we hung out with Eiren, Stephanie, and Maggie up stairs.
Day 4: Tuesday
Last day Matt and Greg were here...as they left Wednesday morning. After a delicious breakfast medoly (leftovers and other things Greg bought at the store), we headed off to the Eiffel Tower. We walked the Champs de Mars to the Tower, got into line...then proceeded to miss the elevator somehow and walk up to the second floor of the tower (something like 600 steps maybe more...) But it was fun! Took lots of pictures on the tower...then headed down. We walked over to Trocadero, took some more pictures of the tower...then headed back toward my place. Stopped at the market and bought lots of stuff for our dinner date at Lucy and Gareth's place....we had planned to make crepes there with Lucy, Gareth, Eiren and Etienne. Then we did some laundry, hung out, and went over to Lucy's. Lucy and Gareth have the cutest parisian apartment!!! It is kind of funky and old looking, exactly what you'd want of a paris apartment! (Greg was in love with it and never wanted to leave). Crepe making was fun and delicious!! Then Matt, Greg and I headed back toward my place and met Stephanie for a beer at a cute place on the corner near us. It was fun and we had a good time.
Day 5: Wednesday
Woke up early, made pancakes...Eiren came down too. Then Matt and Greg packed their stuff and I walked them down to Gare du Nord to catch the RER B to the airport. It was a bit of a disaster at the Gare...we had problems getting tickets from the machine because they don't take US credit cards and the line for the window was REALLY long...but we got them tickets and they caught an express train to the airport. Later I would learn that all this caused some pretty tight timing to make the plane (a little close for comfort) but they made it ok. I was sad to see them go...it was a really fun 4 days...and about as exciting as my vacation will probably be. I was really glad their arrival corresponded with my vacation time so we could have such a great time!

PICTURES...not in chronological order....

Gareth making crepes

Crepe making...

waiting in line to enter the Louvre...i love Greg's laugh

Matt and Greg with the Grand Palais in the background

View from the Eiffel Tower

Another view from the Eiffel Tower (Matt has most of the pictures as my camera battery was dying...so there will be more eventually from the Eiffel Tower...with all of us in them!)

Eiffel Tower from Trocadero

View of my neighborhood (Sacre Coeur) from the window of the Musee d"Orsay

Yummy sausage, tomato and cheese appetizers that Greg made before the rabbit

The master, hard at work in the kitchen

Katie with her delicious rabbit

Close up of the rabbit meal....yummmmmy!

Birthday Halloween Party!

2007-10-31T10:41:00.000-07:00

So France, in honor of my birth of course, has a 2 week holiday! Ok, so it's for "All Saint's Day" and my birthday happens to be the same day... :)
Well this is all good, but most of my new Paris friends have taken advantage of this time to go places...London, Scotland, around France, back to the States...so we decided to celebrate Halloween AND my birthday a little early this year and have a little "fête" on the Saturday night before Halloween. Now it just so happened that my friend (and former Skidmore Intermerial dodgeball teammate) Matt and his friend Greg who had been traveling through Europe for 2 months arrived on Saturday to spend their final days in Paris at my apartment. We threw together some costumes...and all my Paris friends arrived, for the most part, in costume! (Gypsy, Definition, Artist, Devil, Dog, Annie Hall...) A good time was had by all! And we even had candy corn (thanks mom!)

Highlights from the Party:

The Festive table

Rachael and Becky...or Annie Hall and a black dog

The Conestoga High School kids!
(Greg, Katie, Matt)

My thrown together pirate outfit...not too shabby matty!

The girls in costume
(Eiren, Rachael, me, Stephanie)

Skiddies unite!!
(Katie, me, Matt)

my new French friend Guillaume (he's a fellow history nerd...and because he's french not in costume)

Me and Greg...because he and Matt arrived at my place from Spain that morning, they were also not in costume....or "American tourists" if you will :)

The party at its hight

Apartment...22 Rue Feutrier Paris 75018

2007-10-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

My door is at the bottom right (closest to the edge of the photo), our widows are the 1st floor windows (right above the door)...and yup, that's Sacre Coeur behind it in the top left, what can i say it's a nice walk home at night :)

my "room"...since this photo was taken I have fixed the "leaning problem" that started to happen. But that's my area of the sejour!

aren't my curtains pretty?? (they are technically shower curtains hehehe)

Our bathroom after I bleached the crap out of it...it was a little moldy (Ash, wish your mom had been here to help! :)

The laundry machine/Susan's bedroom

(note: the blue handle is just stuck on their for show...i broke that...but it's in the process of being fixed I hope...cause the last time it took FOREVER for me to get the door open with pliers! What's more scary than thinking ALL your clothes are wet and locked in the washing machine and you don't have money to buy new ones...NOTHING, that's what!)

Rugby! Fete A Lire!

2007-10-21T11:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the World Cup of Rugby, hosted by Paris. England played South Africa....and to celebrate Susan and I decided to go meet a friend of her friend at a bar/restaurant near Les Halles to watch the game. Cynthia (my new Chinese friend, the cousin of my Qufu friend) also called me and decided to meet us with 2 of her friends! Now, I know nothing about Rugby...but it's fun to watch with passionate fans and the players are cute...
Susan's friend's friend (AKA Bert) was really nice...and Cynthia's 2 friends (a Chinese guy from Jinan!!! and a Chinese girl from Shanghai) were super awesome! We had a great time chatting in 3 languages...French, English and Chinese! It made for some interesting sentences and lots of laughs. I hope we all get together again soon!

Then Susan and I caught the metro home...only to be surrounded by a bunch of old drunk Scottish rugby fans celebrating the loss of England to South Africa. They noticed that we were laughing at their jokes and then decided to include us in their hilarious banter. One of them decided to "speak Scottish" so we couldn't understand...but I understood enough to know that he was saying something about us being "sexy" so i laughed and they got a huge kick out of it and told everyone I could understand Scottish. Then an Australian Ruby guy got on the train, and proceeded to sing a funny...and obscene...song about Ruby...and the hilarious Scottish guy that said we were "sexy" in Scottish covered my ears so I "wouldn't understand" and hear the "bad" words! It was hilarious!! For all the fans of the movie Old School out there...A drunk Scottish man in a kilt gave me earmuffs on the metro!! AMAZING! :)

Then today Rachael sent me a message and randomly invited me to go to a presentation/lecture by a bunch of authors as part of the Fete a Lire at the Memorial de la Shoah. As it turned out...they were all authors of various works about the Holocaust/World War II...which is right up my alley (yaaaaay history nerd!). Rachael had no idea, but we realized that we both have a strong interest in Holocaust lit and so have made plans to return soon to the Memorial de la Shoah (a museum/library/center for everything Jewish/Holocaust oriented). I'm psyched! The lecture/round table was really interesting...and I especially loved this older author who wrote a memoir about his experience as a young Jewish boy in Fascist Italy. He was really interesting, not as pretentious as some of the other authors, and spoke French with a delightful Italian accent. It was great to find connections in their work and discussions to my classes with Matt Hockenos at Skidmore (especially the class I took on Nazism, Fascism, and the Radical Right...and my thesis on History and memoir). After the presentation, Rachael and I bought books and had them signed...I bought 2: "Pour Violon Seul: Souvenirs d'enfance dans l'En-deca 1938-1945" by Aldo Zargani (aka my favorite) and "Recits d'Ellis Island: Histoire d'errance et d'espoir" by Georges Perec and Robert Bober (Bober was also on the panel, and was one of my favorites). It was a great afternoon...I feel content and cultured now!

A Chinese morning in Paris

2007-10-14T05:47:00.000-07:00

Today I met my little Chinese friend (Charlie's) cousin! Her name is Qin Zheng Ran. She isn't from Qufu...but she's from Shandong Province, went to undergrad in Jinan...and is now doing her masters in Chemistry here in Paris!! She is super sweet and we had a fun time chatting and walking around by Sacre Coeur. And...I've been invited to eat Chinese food with her after she finishes the English exam she is taking in November! I'm sooooo excited!! :)

2007-10-12T13:32:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty good day...had a full day of "teacher training"...which was pretty useless (they made me sing "the hello song"....it goes "hello, hello, hello what's your name? hello, hello, hello! My name is _______, my name is _______, hello _________ hello ________ hello!"....yeah it is pure evil and gets permanently stuck in your brain!) But I met a bunch of cool new people (all assistants) so that was cool.
Then I babysat Ryan...we played house and I got him to remember the words "sun" "moon" and "raspberry"...then his mom came home and he went crazy-hyper and started climbing all over me :) goodtimes
Then I went to the cocktail party at the Skidmore Center, which was fun! Saw Gils!!! And finally connected with Patty which was awesome! (Patty, my french prof from Skidmore for all you guys who don't know her). She is teaching in Paris for the semester...so I can't wait to see her again and have a coffee or something!
Then I came home and decided I should figure out the washing machine...and that's when things went bad...i put pretty much all the clothes I have in there (cause they are all dirty)...then turned the dials I thought would turn it on...well a light came on but nothing happened...then i tried to open the door and it was locked....then i proceeded to freak out that i broke it and all my clothes were stuck inside...so i pulled a little harder...and the i broke the handle off!!! ahhhhhhh disaster! but i got it to start...i think it is actually washing my clothes (i hope) and that i'll be able to get them out when it is done (i think with some pliars i can get the door open). I hope maybe...maybe i can superglue the handle back on...cross your fingers...cause i'm not sure what i'll do if it can't be fixed.
In addition...susan broke the handle off our fridge the other day too! (what's with us and handles???) but she managed to fix it with super glue...

well that's all for tonight....need to rest up to watch the big rugby match tomorrow night (France v England!!! should be CRAZY!!! allez les bleus!!!

I heart French 4.5 year olds

2007-10-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

So I started my new babysitting gig, which is a supplement to my regular teaching job (i only teach 12hrs a week...and the pay isn't great so every little bit helps!)
I am babysitting for a nice couple who have 3 children (2 are older and take care of themselves after school) but 1 is only 4.5 so my job is to pick him up at school 4 days a week, give him his after school snack, play with him, and try to get him to speak as much english as possible.
His name is Ryan and he is probably the most adorable little 4.5 year old I have EVER met!
Why do I love 4.5 year old french kids, you might ask? Well to start, within 30mins of meeting the little guy he told me in a very serious voice that he loved me and that I was very beautiful. YES! this is exactly what I need after being in China for a year where everyone told me I was beautiful and then coming to France where I'm not as special/a rock start. It appears that I am a rock start to this little guy, and i love it already!
Today we played a game with colors and I sang him the Itsy-Bitsy Spider while he died with laughter mimicking the gestures that go with the song. He also tells me the most ridiculous stories in French (often more than once). He is really smart and has quite an imagination. I think this will be fun!

Teaching is going well. Now I have taught all my classes once and it's not too bad. It's much harder to maintain order when trying desperately to scold little kids in a language that is not your 1st...but some of my classes are really great. They get so excited about everything...writing their names, having a "what's your name-my name is" competition, or doing TPR gestures like Jump, Eat, and Spin. It's fun...a lot of work...but good overall.

So besides starting to get a cold...things are going well.

Here we go again...

2007-10-08T14:55:00.000-07:00

So another year post graduation begins...and this time you can find me far away from China (sniffle sniffle)...in PARIS, FRANCE!!! (weeeeeee!)
I am here doing a 9 month stay in Paris, teaching as an assistant in 2 ecoles primaires (elementary schools...my kids are around 8-11 years old).
While I thought some things were disorganized in China last year...France confirmed that ANYWHERE (even if they think they create bureaucracy) can be disorganized and a little crazy!
Finding an apartment in the beautiful "city of lights" proved to be a seriously difficult feat! After not speaking French for a year (and still at times lapsing back into Chinese when speaking French) I dove back in and immediately started calling EVERY landlord posting an available apartment in our budget (which is REALLY small thank you French gov't). It was hard, stressful...and i really don't want to relive it through this blog...so suffice to say, I had a real life experience this time...and in the end succeeded in getting a pretty nice place in the 18eme (Montmatre AKA the area where Amelie takes place). Sacre Coeur is literally in our back yard pretty much...and it is a super cute area! The apartment is a 2 room place with a bathroom. I am sharing it with a girl named Susan (also an assistant and from Boston). As she is married and her husband is coming to visit, i graciously gave her the bedroom and am in the process of making myself a little nook in the "sejour" AKA living room/kitchen. It's not so bad actually....i like not living alone and this is the only way I could afford that. Also, above us in almost an identical apartment live 2 other assistants who I LOVE named's Eiren and Stephanie. So it's going to be a fun year I think!

And now what you've all been waiting for...PICTURES!

Nuit Blanche...a night where Paris stays up LATE/all night....metro runs late, museums are open late, and there are lots of shows and things to see. We headed over to the Tuleries and took in the sights. It was really beautiful...lots of torches and lights!!

ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!! not only was it Nuit Blanche...but the French Rugby team pulled off an amazing victory over the All Blacks (New Zealand maybe...??) and people were going CRAZY!

My New place (so far, we are still putting things together...it's only our second night!! 22 Rue Feutrier, Paris 75018!!!