Paris EXPOSed

I have decided that I should be cultured. Luckily I have a new buddy named Hannah, who like me wishes to partake in all that Paris has to offer. Thus she became my culture buddy. Every Thursday afternoon, the two of us meet up for a nice "cultural" experience. Since there's only been 2 Thursdays since the grand inauguration of culture buddies, we've only been to 2 cool expositions going on at the moment in Paris.

Our first foray into the world of artistic culture was the "Picasso and his Masters" exhibit. Despite the hour and a half wait, it was absolutely incredible. Luckily for us, it was a beautiful day outside, so we just stood and chatted to each other while we listened to the sounds of some man playing the clarinet. Before attending I never knew that Picasso took already famous classical works and would "chew it up and then spew something totally new out". What the exhibit did was place all of the classical works that inspired Picasso's paintings next to the actual Picasso painting. It was absolutely incredible. We also got to see some very interesting print work Picasso had done earlier in his career which was very different from what you think of when you think Picasso.

The next Thursday we headed over to the Musee du Luxembourg where they had a private collection of some Portuguese oil tycoon on display. It was quite small and ranged from the early 20th century to more modern artists. Some of the most interesting art I found to be some of the Pop Art. I think I personally enjoy the private art collections more than a museum because it gives you an interesting perspective on the reason why art is chosen. Often times even though art is not strike you as similar visually you can see a connecting theme in the emotions it makes you have.

So that's all us culture buddies have done so far, stay tuned for pictures from the exhibitions

I Want to Take You to a GAY Bar

My good friend in Paris, Steph invited me to come see this band perform up by Republique in one of Edith Piaf's old clubs. Sounds pretty cool to be checking out the Little Sparrow's old haunts, and it was. It was a dark club stained with years of cigarette smoke and spilled glasses of wine. The scene itself was pretty cool... well dressed women (very Parisian chic) gathered around sipping on their red wine or beer pints... very many women... in fact, no men. Other than my friend Steph's boyfriend we were all women there. So we're hanging out enjoying the cool indie scene and it suddenly dawns on Steph that this is in fact a lesbian bar. She took me to a lesbian bar. I have to say I've never been to a lasbian bar before but I think it was definitely way cooler scene-wise than any straight bar I've been to in a long time.

So Steph and I danced to the androgenous sounds of Patricia, a blond woman with a Beatles haircut in a nicely tailored grey pinstripe suit. Her voice was actually pretty incredible. When the two of us sat down to have a little conversation, some crazy man started to hit on us and Steph whispered under her breath "Grab my knee and start speaking really fast" as to prevent any unwanted advances. During our hour long conversation, this same man (the only other in the club) proceeded to attempt to hit on us at least 5 times. We continually dissuaded him with fast English and good ole fashion knee caresses.

Editor's note: Luke (Steph's boyfriend) had abandoned us for 2 hours at this point.

After the concert finished up and Steph and I got out all of our girly talk out we went in search of Luke, much to our dismay, not only was Luke talking to the man who hit on us 5 times but it appears he had made lifetime pals with him.

Overall my first lesbian bar was a success, thanks to androgynous musicians, knee caresses, Edith Piaf and some delicious red red wine.

Something Scary...

For the first time ever in Paris, I have been slightly scared walking on the streets. I was worried when I first came over because the man at customs asked me if I knew karate or judo for the area I was working in. Luckily for me, I find Les Lilas to be a nice quiet, clean suburbs and the kids to be generally nice and well behaved.

This is not the same case for Bondy, where my teacher training is. Bondy is like dirty, people push you off the bus, and everyone just looks plain mad. I took the bus from my school to Bondy and people actually got on a fight on the bus and they had to stop it.

The high school in Bondy has a locked gate which you need to get access to get in and get out. Children are basically held prisoners in the schools.

I guess it's not like walking through Grey's Ferry or Harlem or Compton (there are no guns here) but still it was a little bit scary...

Facial Oddities

My friends and I can sculpt our faces in bizarre ways.

Be very jealous of the following images, but DO NOT ATTEMPT THEM AT HOME for you may end up with that look permanently on your face*.

*This is actually how Lucy looks... she sacrificed alot to make this face

One Week Down...

As you all know, I recently started work as a English assistant in a French high school. I have to say it is one of the most amusing things I have done here. I really enjoy the kids and find them to be absolutely amusing. The school itself, has a rather contemporary design with the building settling around a sky-lighted atrium with several trees and plants. Personally I think it's a nice area and the kids are nice, but it is supposedly one of tougher areas of France. Here are some pictures from the school that I stealthfully took between classes, as to not come off as a weirdo to all the students.






The kids I teach range in age from 15 - 20, and they are pretty respectful and motivated to learn English. Funnily they all call me Madame or the english equivalent of which is Mrs. I've tried to explain that I am not married and therefore am not a Mrs., but that generally ends in marriage proposals or offers to buy me a drink after school, so I have just accepted that in France I will have to be a Mrs.

Below are some lovely picture of Salle 222 where you can find me from 8:30 to 12:30 every Monday, Tuesday and Friday.


As my classes rotate every week, I won't see the same faces until the third week of class, so right now I am doing ice breakers where everyone tells me a bit about themselves and what they like to do. Some highlights from these conversations include:

• Me: What is your favorite thing to do? French boy: Smoke weed. You know, ze pot, ze marieee-juan-a.
• Me: Where would you go to in the U.S.A if you could go anywhere? French boy: I would go to ze Me-am-e for ze bitches. Me: That is not a very appropriate word. French boy: Non, Non madame. Ze bitches, the girls in ze bikinis, you know, ze bitches. I want to go to ze bitches. Me: OH! You mean the beaches!

After the ice breaker I let the kids ask me some questions about me. Usually I get the "Why are you in France?", "Do you like France?", and all the other general niceties but there have been some amusing questions such as:

• Madame, do you have a boyfriend? Yes. OK, would you go on a date with me?
• How old are you Madame? 23. Oh well, I'm 23 too, want to grab a drink?

I also asked the kids to describe me in English and one girl raised her hand excitedly and said, "Madame is leeetlle and not-fat". She is obviously getting straight A's and will not be required to do any homework.

After this, I have everyone partner up and describe how their partner looks in English. Usually the kids will ask me what the equivalent of a French word is, and I will tell them. After about 10 minutes they have to stand up front and present the partner to the class.

During one of these presentations, this French boy looks over at me and asks, "Madame, what is French for ugly" and I say "Moche", he then looks back at his partner and says "Well, then, he is ugly", which made me smile for the rest of the day.

To finish up the introductory lesson, I do a little trivia on America and then ask them who they think is the most famous American. Sadly my one class said possibly the worst American. I do not want her to be known as the American the whole world thinks of, but apparently in France, she is the most well known. Before you scroll down, think of the worst possible example of an American and see if you can even guess. I was completely blown away when I heard this.

Paris Hilton.

I am seriously saddened by this. My heart actually broke a bit when I heard it. I mean if it was George W. at least I would understand that he's a politician and governs a lot of the world's policies, but Paris. I mean, Come on, Frenchies. That's just sad.

This is the window I considered jumping out of when they said that.


So anywho, teaching is really enjoyable and highly amusing, expect pictures and more reports to come as I continue this grand adventure.

Fun with Jess and Jill

I really have all the luck in the world.

Not only am I living my dream (to live in Paris and do whatever I want) but I also have friends who live in the area. For some reason I forgot that my best friend in the whole world's other best friend lived in France with me. Luckily (all the luck in the world), Jill found me on facebook and decided to come visit me/she was going to take the LSAT's in Paris.


She arrived on a Friday and I had already planned a whole assistant in Paris get together at one of my local bars that I frequent (WOS), so we headed over there. The original philosophy was "Don't get too drunk as tomorrow night we have to stay out all night" which slowly evolved into "Let's get wasted!"... Typical me, right? This man below is Pierre. He is one dangerous Frenchman. He is the reason for drunk me.



So shot after shot, nice sober Jessie transformed into crazy drunk Jessie (not too crazy) and I began to spew unending philopsophies from my mouth...

• I'm not that drunk compared to how drunk I could be... the question really is how drunk could I be?

• Jill, how many weekends have you been here in Paris? Zero. Well you may not sleep but you'll have a good time.

Another thing I learned, Jill doesn't like Jaeger shots. She had a bad experience with a Jaeger rep and about 3 hours of vomit after.

You will see in the following picture her distaste for jaeger.


And this is her acting like she liked it...


I got us some nice girly shots to appease Jill.


After a drinking/dance fest we left to go to another bar but then just decided to crash and wake up and go to the Chloe fashion show.

The Sexiest Tantric Man Alive...

That's right everyone, I saw Sting (the Police) in concert. It was possibly the most awesome concert experience of my life. Thanks to my mom (she didn't want to go after dad had the heart attack) I got to attend the coolest concert known to man.

I don't think there is a man, woman, hermaphrodite, or living creature who doesn't find Sting to be the sexiest male on the face of this planet. Seriously the man wore a yoga shirt and manpri's on stage and my heart was beating quadruple time.

Outside of Sting's unstoppable beauty, I have to say the Police put on a pretty incredible show. Every single song they played was awesome and you couldn't sit down. Sting's voice has perhaps gotten better with age.

Pictures to come as soon as my mom emails me some!

Nuit Blanche

By staying awake all the night, Parisians celebrate French culture with a bit of fun...

Throughout Paris' center, all the museums, private and public art galleries and other cultural institutions offer free admission to all, with the downtown core of a city itself being turned into a de facto art gallery, providing space for art installations, performances (music, film, dance, performance art), themed social gatherings, and other activities. It lasts from sundown til sun-up and happens once a year. As this was the case, several assistants, myself and Jill decided to hit up the event in true expatriate style.


We met up on the Pont de l'Archeveque for a nice agenda planning and some wine drinking. As you can tell from the following pictures, Jill has majored in the art of drinking wine while outside.


She is in fact a double black belt specializing in the removal of every last drop.


After about an hour and a half of "bavarding", a french word that basically means sitting around and chatting, we decided to get a'moving. Off we were to Notre Dame, a convenient 5 minute walk away where we were treated to the lovely sounds of classical music for about half an hour.


Afterwards, I decided to pull a Mary Poppins or an exotic dancer, your choice, and spin nicely around a lamppost.


At this point, Mae was desperate. Desperate and cranky for a crepe. So I, the fearless leader led us to the crepe salvation, which happened to be right at the entrance of the famous Centre Pompidou. After devouring the most delicious fast food ever offered to the world, us girls headed into the modern art gallery to reflect on the deep philosophical meanings behind the artwork.

For instance, Phil and Lucy are looking into the deepness of this deep blue canvas and trying to figure out why in the world it is classified as modern art, as they could do it.



Here, I recreate the traditional hunchback Mexican bride's position for her marriage. The face represents her constipation at the thought of marriage.



This myriad of faces caused Jill, Philly and myself to attempt to replicate the pain and sorrow we saw in this one man's many faces. Please note: Philly's expressive use of teeth.


Here is possibly the best example of a modern art piece in the Centre Pompidou. You see the phallic imagery chasing the man. It obviously expresses his homophobic tendencies as he is fleeing the mean manly symbols that chase him.


Here you see Philly and my interpretation. I am the homophobic man and Philly is the phallic imagery in hot pursuit.


Once again, Jill and I were inspired by the faces of the Centre Pompidou and couldn't hold back the expressions that just took over our faces.


Here we are leaving the Centre Pompidou, at this point, Philly and Lucy will leave us for a 2 hour adventure to their home which is only 20 minutes away. Apparently this involves the wrong train and some creepy frenchmen... how typical.


After our contemporary art adventures, Jill and I made an executive decision to bike down to the Eiffel Tower. It was 3 am at this point. It took us about 20 minutes to arrive there, but it was well worth it. I think 3 am is one of the only times you can be at the Eiffel tower without thousands of other people. You get to just enjoy this massive piece of construction without the creepy keychain salespeople who stalk you around constantly begging you to buy something.




We biked back and immediately crashed, as to get to my house one must bike the dreaded hill. So needless to say, we both were about dead once we managed to go up the 6 flights to my tiny room.

Drink a beer...

There are few things the Germans do well (Vince would highly disagree with this statement). They do a very nice Christmas and pretzels, but that's about all I can think of. Some claim that they do beer well, but as I only like Guiness, you would say I'm slightly biased. Also many claim, German sausages are the best. As a vegetarian, I would say Morning Star has the best veggie sausages out there.

But after a nice 4 day trip, I can officially say the Germans do Festivals quite well. Oktoberfest is like nothing I've seen before. It's a 2 week event based on drinking huge mugs of beer. Some say Americans have a drinking problem, for the Germans drinking is the national pastime, right along side of football.

Walking around Munich during Oktoberfest is how I choose to picture Germany in my head. About 80% of the population is wearing lederhosen and dirndls (the funny Bavarian traditional outfits). No matter how many times I told myself to not laugh at the ridiculous men in man-pris or hot pants with suspenders, I couldn't control myself, it's just too funny.


Not only do they drink it in large quantities at this festival, but the whole "opening ceremony" is a parade of kegs. People (including myself) line the streets of Munich in hopes of seeing their favorite kegs drawn into the festival grounds by either huge Clydesdales or oxen. Sometimes floats filled with Bavarians (you can tell because of the lederhosen and dirndls) drinking the huge mugs that are associated with Oktoberfest. After an hour of watching kegs and kegs of beer go by, Vince, Josi, the Sablowski's, and I ventured into the fair grounds.




On a side note, I was given a lovely Bavarian beer drinking hat to wear during Oktoberfest, I personally think it was Vince trying to tell me I am a witch, albeit a Bavarian one.

Oktoberfest is not just tents and tents filled with beer guzzling Germans, it's an outdoor carnival, with hundreds of games, rides and food vendors (all of which cost you either an arm or a leg, rollercoasters take both) AND tents and tents filled with beer guzzling Germans and tourists.So with money in our pockets (our pockets being Vince's two pockets on his jeans), we decided to try out some rides since the beer tents were already full and there was no space for 6 people to sit together. The first thing we did was the Devil's wheel. From the name you would think it was scary, but in fact it was like I was on Ninja Warrior. You sat on this disk that spins quickly and tried to be the last one on it. For the first time in my life, I was an American Gladiator. The disk spun so quickly you would get sick to your stomach if you didn't focus on a part of your body. Once the spinning of the disk itself had knocked off a couple of the competitors, the moderator then lowered a giant swinging ball onto our heads to try and "knock" us off. Now, you are not only clinging to the spinny disk thing but you are also trying to not get your face flattened by a huge swinging ball. FUN. After a severe trauma to my nose and desperately struggling against the circular momentum pulling me away from the center, I was defeated.
Whatever, I wasn't the first off so it doesn't matter. If they couldn't get you with motion sickness or huge balls in your face, the last resort was trying to lasso you off. This was how they captured Vince. He wasn't able to get the rope off once it was around his neck and was pulled off. That left, the ever valiant Josi trying to be number one. Sadly after one too many giant ball in the face and ropes under her butt, Josi was taking down. Causing our clan of six to stumble out of the Devil's wheel and go eat some delicious sugar coated toasted almonds.... mmm.

After 2 rides on the swings (one gave you a view of all of Munich, we decided the beer tents were too crowded and to try and go to one of the halls in the city which is basically the same thing, but not as touristy) After one giant beer and too much meaty German things (did I mention that I am a vegetarian), the adults (Susan and Ralf) decided to go to the hospital (Susan was having an allergic reaction) and we decided to go to another beergarten (I was having a beer reaction). Part of my Oktoberfest goals included being thrown over Vince's shoulder and carried around. Well it slightly came true as I was on Vince's shoulders saying HALLO (with a German accent) to random Germans on the street.

Needless to say, Oktoberfest was well worth it.

I just discovered how to use italics if you can't tell.

Back in Paris...

Although leaving the states and the comfort of my parents and boyfriend, it feels really nice to be back in my second home that is Paris.

I am happy to be back with the girls and even happier to be back in my little corner of Paris. It's nice to have fresh bread at the entrance to my building and even better to have my Kremly available at all times.

The only thing Paris is missing is my family and friends. I guess it would be the perfect place to live if only I could transplant around 50 people here also...

I guess that's life though, trying to have 2 homes 3,000 miles apart.

At home with the boy....

After an adventurous three weeks with my parentals at home, my lovely boyfriend was arriving in North Wales after about 5 months of not seeing each other.

For the first couple of days, I let Vince adjust to the change in time by playing lots of Rock Band. The first weekend he was here, several family members came over and we were able to impress everyone with our mutual Rock band skills (mine being the guitar, his the drums), we were an unstoppable force when combined with my mom's singing skills...

The first Sunday, Vince and I left on an adventure down to Washington to get my visa, which was surprisingly very easy and hassle free, especially since the French were involved. After about an hour filled with a trial sit down in the park (we ended up leaving because of mosquitos) we decided to head down to the beach.



We arrived in Cape May (thanks to the Cape May-Lewes Ferry) about midday so we had at least a good 3 hours on the beach, where I proceeded to get paler (sunscreen) and Vince proceeded to get burnt (lack of sunscreen). Once we had had enough (I was hungry) we (I) decided to leave and go meet up with my friend from high school, Lauren.

We spent the night with Lauren, her fiance Ryan and their baby Gabriel. The baby was adorable and an absolute pleasure to see (he also slept soundly during the night). It was so nice to see Lauren.

We then headed off to Avalon to meet up with my Aunt and Uncle and 3 cousins to spend the night at their place. It was nice to get some time with my cousins as I don't get to see them too often. I took them to a local arcade where I helped the two boys win some cap guns and the little girl a Webkinz.

We said goodbye to Avalon, and were off on the next stage of our adventure: Baltimore. We arrived mid afternoon, about an hour after my parents. That night Vince and my Dad were going to a baseball game and my mom, cousin and I were going to go to dinner and shopping. Leaving the boys in the capable hands of my Aunt and Uncle, Mom, Cousin and I journeyed over to the shops right on the main harbor, where Stephy was able to find a lovely trench coat, and I found some cute J Crew Ballet Rain Flats. Afterwards we ate a delicious seafood filled meal, dropped Stephy off and then crashed back at the hotel room.

The next morning in Baltimore, Vince and I managed to wake up relatively early to go to the Body Worlds Exhibit. SO COOL! If you get a chance you absolutely must do. It basically is a display of real human bodies which a German professor plastified. From the exhibit you get to see the importance of each muscle, nerve, organ, etc. in the body. It's really incredibly interesting.

Once we finished with Body Worlds, Mom and I went back to the hotel to take naps and the boys went to get hamburgers. Upon waking we headed over the Bicycle, a nice restaurant in the "Fancier" part of Baltimore, where we all had an extraordinary 3 course meal. Vince and I then took a half an hour walk home where he whispered romantic nothings into my ear (haha).



The next morning we had to leave Baltimore, but not without a little aquarium fun! We got to see cool sharks and stingrays and poison dart frogs. One of the coolest things was when they fed the stingrays!

After 5 days of living out of the car, Vince and I were glad to be at home for a couple of days. We hung out with my family, visited friends, and had an all around nice time. It was quite spectacular getting to spend 2 weeks with my boyfriend.

First Day Blues

School's finally started and after highly anticipated and anxiety ridden night of waiting for my first class, I woke up at about 6:45 to start my journey to my school. It's about a 40 minute commute door to door to the Lycee, but I have to switch at Chatelet onto a new metro, which during the morning rush is a bit jammed.

It's one of the first mornings I saw the Manet's before 4:30 pm, and it seems they, like me, aren't especially morning people, BUT Raphy was kind enough to buy me a lovely brioche suisse from the boulangerie which really made my morning.

After my lovely commute with all the stinky parisians on the metro, I arrived at the lycee to... an empty classroom. I thought maybe students like their adult counterparts are all on the fashionably late side. I waited til 8:45 (my class starts at 8:30) and still no students. Finally I went down and talked to my responsable who informed me that one teacher forgot to inform 3 of my 4 classes of the day that I was there, so basically instead of 4 classes I had ONE. And the one class I DID HAVE only had 3 students out of 12 show up.

The three girls I did have were quite nice and we had a nice class where I got to talk to them one on one a bit.

Luckily with the extra 3 hours I had at school I ended up getting all my administrative stuff done which includes my direct payment paperwork so that I will be paid end of October instead of November. I also have my own cubby hole, photocopier password and log-on ID, it's like I'm a real teacher...

I guess as they say in Paris... metro, boulot, dodo for this one right here...

High Anxiety

Tomorrow, I teach. 12 teenagers at a time. 1 hour of conversation. Nothing but stressful, right?

Well I hope the teaching gene does in fact run in the family, as I will be a teacher for the next 7 months of my life and I hope it goes as well as I want it to.

So I guess what I am going to do for tonight is look past the anxiety of teaching tomorrow to the fun of going out to play tomorrow night with all my new and old friends.

WISH ME LUCK!

My New Love

I did something crazy today.


I bought a bike. She's a beaut. White with black and pink accents. She's a liberty Lady and she's all mine.

After checking my email, I received a message from my CS group saying they were desperate to sell their bike (live about 10 mins from me) for a lovely sum of 60 euros.

It's a lady's bike and it came with a cute black basket and a nice U shaped sturdy lock.

As soon as she handed over the keys (to the lock), the weather changed and it was a downpour. So my first ride with my first love was during a maelstrom... up a huge hill... but we made it together because of the power of love (thanks Celine Dion, I now understand exactly what you were singing about)


So if anyone has any awesome ideas for her name, I'm all ears... right now I am considering Penelope...