I'm backkkkk... again!

Okay so as I've previously said... I suck at blogging. Once again, I'm going to give it another try. 

I've been in France for over a year now and I'm still very happy here. I constantly get asked if I'm ever going back and the truth is I still have no idea. I mean, yes, I'm going back, but when? Now that's a good question. I have no idea. A lot has happened. In case you need a recap or don't know. I arrived in France last year in September. I came as an au pair. I found an amazing family who has truly welcomed me and made me feel as I'm part of their family. My contract was for September until end of June, but at some point mid-year, the family asked me if I was interested in staying another year. We talked and planned things, and we weren't sure if it would all work out, but here I am... a second year. :) I remember at some point when we weren't sure if me staying a second year would work out, we were all sitting together at the table having dinner, discussing the future when someone just says "You know Ana, I can't imagine next year without you here" and then the whole family agreed and we all had a moment where we just thought to ourselves how different things would be when I had to go back. Bref *, we all agreed that we hoped things would work out and I'd stay, and so things did. 

Things that happened last year, I did a bit of traveling, but not much. It's not easy to travel on an au pair budget, but I did manage to visit Amsterdam, Lille, Bruges (in Belgium), and the Côte d'Azur (Cassis, Cannes, Nice and Monaco). I also visited a wonderful place this past summer, I went to Corsica. It was absolutely amazing! I'll make a note and blog about that vacation at some point.

During the summer, I got a waitressing job in Paris. It was quite an experience. I just recently quit the job and now I'm an English teacher's assistant at a high school.

Summer was a bit sad and lonely because the majority of the friends I made last year were au pairs and as the school year came to an end, au pair contracts ended and everyone went back to their home country. I met sooo many people. It's incredible. I feel fortunate to have met such incredible people and be able to call them friends. We all shared and experienced things, that most people just don't get. Cool thing about me staying in Europe another year though is that now I get to go out and visit some of these European friends. For example, next week I'm going to Amsterdam to visit my friend Sarah. She became me best friend in Paris and I'm ecstatic to see her again. :D

Anyway, this is me trying again at this... until next time. :)


* Bref: The French say this quite often during conversations. It means "in short, to make a long story short".

I'm gonna try this again... :D

Okay, so I really need to start using this thing… I knew I was going to suck at this blogging thing, but I really should do this for myself, so I can look back on it all.

I’ve been here about 5 months already, and I have about 6 months left. A lot has happened in 5 months, but they’re really just little things and just experiences.

Anyway, I can’t write about everything at once because I’ll die, so I’ll start with my friends and the people I’ve met. It’s amazing how international Paris is, I find it more international than Miami. In Miami we’re mostly all Hispanics, then there are the tourists, and well then that’s it (generalizing, of course). But in Paris, it’s the tourist, but also there are the Europeans, the Latin American’s, the North American’s and the Asians who either study here, are expats, or au pairs.

There’s a little thing that I find annoying, and well I guess this is just my thing… Because I’m Hispanic people are constantly trying to introduce me to other Hispanics. Here’s the thing… I’m not one of those people who need to hang out with something that reminds me of home in order to not feel sad or lonely. Yes, I’m Hispanic and I’m proud to be it, but at the same time I don’t give a fuck. That sounds mean, but just hear me out. I’m Hispanic, but I’m also American. Most of the Hispanic’s that I met here literally come from Latin America and were raised there. But in my case, I was raised on spoiled American soil. I’ve been to Honduras and I’m very aware of things, but understand I’m also not impressed by our culture. It’s ordinary life to me.

Also, I don’t like salsa dancing, merengue, or bachata. Yes, I can dance to it. I was blessed with the ability to move my hips, whatever. It doesn’t mean that I have to do it. I don’t care! Lol I didn’t come to France to meet more Hispanics and constantly talk Spanish. I’m not impressed by Colombian’s, Venezuelan’s, Mexican’s, or Guatemalan’s… coming from Miami I’ve had a piece of it all. I’m just indifferent (apathetic) about it.  By being Hispanic, yes I can relate, but I’m not impressed and I don’t care. So stop asking me to dance Cumbia, Salsa, Merengue and ect.

Meeting American’s, I actually haven’t met a lot, but I think that’s because in my level of French class, there aren’t a lot of American’s. They’re mostly European, and I’ve hung out with them from the beginning. It’s always nice to meet someone from back home, and who understands my stupid American humor, but like I said, I don’t need to hang out with a piece of home to not be sad or lonely. I’m not sad or lonely here at all.  

Going on the American thing, I don’t miss speaking English because I talk a lot of English… I know, bad Ana. Sorry! There are two people I hang out with the most, Sarah from Holland, and Maria from Germany. With Sarah we speak English all the time, and Maria we speak French. So I get my fix of English conversation from Sarah. And get to be good girl and practice French with Maria. 

Okay, so that’s it for this entry. À tout à l’heure!

I liked today…

I didn’t really do much today, but I still liked how today went. I think normally people would have a problem with having too much time alone or I think if they were in my situation right now, many would be really homesick. I’m not homesick. Pas du tout! * And I haven’t been. I miss my parents and friends, but it’s not a homesick feeling.

My host mom is always concerned and asking me if I’m okay because she says that the first few days before classes start can be boring because there’s more alone time, but I tell her not to worry. I’m perfectly fine. I’m in France! No complaints whatsoever. Even if I’m just sitting on a couch relaxing... I’m still sitting on a couch in France! I’ll take it! Lol

So today I opened my bank account in France.  My host mom went with me, because of course it would all go down in French. The lady at the bank who we had an appointment with knew very little English and some Spanish so she asked me which I would prefer and I told her it was her choice. She went with Spanish because she says she knows it better. It was her first time opening a bank account for someone so her co-worker was there to help her. Overall, it went really well and it was cool. In order to make deposits, I’ll have to do them in person, but they were all very personable, even with a foreigner like me. They were really nice. The lady would say things in French with my host mom and I would pick up on some stuff, but she then would tell me in Spanish. She said she enjoyed practicing Spanish. I told her that anytime I come in to make a deposit, we would practice it together. Anyway, I’ll be getting my bankcard sometime next week. I can’t wait for it because it will make purchasing things in France soooo much easier!

I got in touch with my French school. They kept sending me emails reminding me to take my French placement test online, but I already took it twice! I emailed them asking them if I had to do it a third time. They got back to me and said that they found my exam results and for some reason they hadn’t received a notification. I’ll be taking my oral exam tomorrow and after that they should let me know what level I fit in and I can then choose the days and times of my classes! Yay! I’m so excited. I’ll also probably get my student ID tomorrow. I can’t wait because then this means I can get the ImagineR Navigo (which for those of you who don’t know, the Navigo is a transit card). ImagineR is for students, but I need my student ID card in order to get it.

I drove again today, all on my own this time. It went very well. I went to Carrefour to buy some more hangers… (lol, my host mom would think I’m crazy if she knew). My host mom gave me some hangers, and told me that if I needed more to tell her. When I told her I needed more, she did so. Then she noticed I still needed more, so she gave me more. She asked me if I still needed some more, but at this point I was feeling embarrassed that I told her no, but truth is Yes! I did need more, but I didn’t want to tell her, I figured at some point I would sneak away and secretly buy some more. So I finally got to do that today.  I also bought a kind of duffel bag so that I can use to travel on weekends. I also bought some other random things. The other awesome thing I bought was the fruity Mentos gum that I was obsessed with last year. I even brought some back with me to the States, but it didn’t last long. We don’t have it in the States and I don’t know if we ever will. It’s just sooo juicy and good. I’m a gum addict; don’t judge me (my mom would not be proud of me right now).

Oh! I got a side job! On Wednesday’s I will teach a little girl English. She’s 11, and she’s the sister of Lucas’ best friend. Lucas had his best friend over yesterday afternoon. The little boy’s mom met me, and well she later spoke to my host mom and asked if I would be interested in teaching her daughter English. My host mom seems to have figured me out already because she said yes before she had even told me about it. Of course, when she told me about it, I said yes. It should be easy, the little girl actually wants to learn English and she’s in her second year of English classes at school. I’ll see on Wednesday what she knows, and from there figure out where to start. I’m excited. Lucas mentioned that he would like to learn English from me, but I told him that I try, but he never seems to want to learn. He then said that we need to make a game so that it’s fun to learn. He says he doesn’t want to learn from a chalk board, and I totally get him.  Today we played with Legos. Yesterday we also played with Legos and it was fun. I’m still a little kid at heart. His mom thanked me for playing with him, saying that he was really happy and that it also makes her happy. Dude, playing Legos is fun for me. So today we played Legos again, we’ve been making castles with guards and super cool stuff. He’s got quite a collection of Legos.

At some point today, I asked him if he wanted to surprise his mom with an English sentence today. I taught him to say “Thank you mom! Dinner was delicious”. He learned to say that, and then he also surprised me by trying to say in English “Thank you for playing Legos with me”. I was totally caught of guard and thought it was adorable! He didn’t say it perfect, but he attempted it and I understood what he was trying to say. That’s what really matters. He even asked me to correct him! <3

As always, we had another awesome dinner. We just have the best and fun conversations when we’re all together. It’s really nice. I’ve never been used to sitting together as a family. We don’t do it very often in my house in Miami, but here it’s very common and I absolutely love it. I would love to say that I’ll try to continue doing this when I go back to Miami, but I know the schedule with my mom doesn’t always permit it. She comes home so tired from work that all she wants to do is lay down on the couch and relax, and I don’t blame her at all!

Anyway this has become too long of a post. I’m going to cut it off here.

*Pas du tout: Not at all

Random observations:

Not many people have iPhones. Actually my host father asked me if everyone has iPhones in the US, and I responded that for the most part, yes. And if you don't, then you have another type of good smartphone. Which pretty much is true. And if you don't have either of these, you're planning on getting an iPhone or some badass Android.

On the iPhone talk. Most people who do have iPhones are the younger crowd. Like my age. But the other thing is that many of them don't have phone covers. It's so weird for me! I don't understand why?! Lol everyone back in the states has a Lifeproof cover, or Otterbox or some other form of protection. Nope, not here. I've seen so many without any sort of protection on their phone, or just a decorative cover. Not something that would actually protect your phone from a fall.

I've yet to see a cracked iPhone so I guess maybe they're just more careful with their shit than we are.

Second observation... the way French men dress. HOT!! <3 I observed this last year when I was here, but I just can't help to bring this up. They wear good shoes. Not those sneakers or sandals with socks our lazy American men wear. And their good outfits just make these guys look handsome as hell. Lol. I'll make an attempt to be a creeper and take pictures of these well dressed men I'm talking about. Like today, I couldn't help but notice the well-dressed and handsome fella that sat in front of me in the metro today. ;)

This Crazy Fun Weekend

On Saturday, I met up with my friends from California, D and H. Here's a little background on them, I met them last year at the Bals des Pompiers in Paris. We had some fun and exchanged information. After Bals des Pompiers we tried to hang out again, but never did because I was busy with school or traveling to other countries on weekend. Anyway, we stayed in touch via Facebook and Instagram. They came back to Paris for the summer and well I'm here now. Unfortunately, they leave in a few days and well I just got here so we've made some effort to meet up now. Considering we only hung out one time before, I think we get along great! There's no animosity between east coast and west coast (haha!)

So I hung out with them on Thursday last week. We had breakfast together and walked around Paris. They showed a nice free view at L'Institut du monde arabe and then this crazy and insane maze at le Jardin des Plantes. 

Place du Commerce

Anyway, on Saturday there would be a crazy metro party so we decided to go together. We met up in the afternoon at a free music concert at Place du Commerce in the 15th arrondissement. There was some good music, and D wanted to watch a band she was familiar with Erevan Tusk. They were really good, so was the guy group before them but I didn't get their name.

Erevan Tusk

At this music event, I couldn't help but notice the cute and adorable kids. I still don't want kids, but seriously all these little European kids are freaking adorable! lol Is there no such thing as an ugly kid in France? I have yet to see one. Not kidding, even H and D agreed with me. There were two little girls who looked between the ages 6-9, one with a Dior bag and the other with a Louis Vuitton purse. Those girls have no idea how lucky there were.


Fast forwarding to the evening, at D & H's apartment an old friend of theirs from their French program last year met up with us. He just recently arrived in France. He'll be studying in France for 3 years. He's a little homesick, but I told him he needs to suck it up! We're in Paris!!! No time to be sad. Seize the day!!!

We were all hungry so we went in search for something to eat. We found a little food place near the metro stop where everyone would be meeting up for the metro party. D and I shared a delicious cheese pizza. We both agreed that it's great to live in a country where they have great cheese because this pizza's cheese was the bomb-fucking-diggity. After eating, I realized I was sober, and thought "holy shit, we need to buy alcohol for the party". 

France is a beautiful place, but another beautiful thing about this place is that there are no laws against open containers. So we bought two wine bottles. At the metro meet-spot we met up with D & H's friends. We also met some new people, cool and weird. lol

Around 9:30pm we all start to descend to the metro platform. We were a pretty big crowd. Really big! This party would take place on line 2, starting at Avron.

Here's a picture of the crowd waiting for the metro

At this point everyone is very tipsy, socializing and having fun. Waiting for the metro to get there. At this party I met H and D's good friend Pablo. He's French and a real cool guy. He hates talking English, but he does nonetheless, but he also speaks Spanish which he prefers to speak over English. 

The guy who organizes the music brings speakers onto the metro so there is music playing. We were all dancing and singing. We ride one whole metro line which last about an hour to an hour in a half. Every time the metro would stop we would stick our heads out and yell at people to join the party. Some people would run out and get on another part of the train to meet new people.  

For this ride of the trip, we were in the back of the train and it was soo funny to see people reacting to what was going on. No one said anything. Some just looked at us as if we were crazy and others just laughed.  I don't know where we got off, but it was near the Arc de Triomphe. We hung outside and more socializing went on, a few of us had to pee so we peed somewhere between trees and bushes.

I think cops did arrive at some point, but they didn't do anything, they basically say "Hey! go away. Go somewhere else." So, of course we got back on the metro and took another line to another place.

Drinking wise, I had cut myself off earlier, because for those who know me, know very well that I'm a light-weight. But in the metro everyone is drinking and passing bottles so I might have forgotten that I had cut myself off... Whoops! Anyway, California girls were absolutely amazing and helped me out! I don't know how, but I came around from my weak and stupid stage and came back in time to party on the bridge Passerelle Simone-de-Beauvoir. 

Once on the bridge, there was more music and we all danced. Dancing was fun. There was old school hip-hop. There was some reggaeton, and just a lot of variety. I remember dancing with a couple guys and it was just fun. The guys I danced with were really cool, it was literally just dancing. No creepy and grinding shit that Miami guys try to pull. I hate dancing with guys at a club in Miami, because they basically grab you and expect you to rub your ass on their dicks. Excuse me! No! I just want to actually dance! So I danced with these two guys and it was just innocent dancing and they actually really knew how to dance. 

I danced a lot with D mostly, because that's what we girls do. At some point D and I were just laughing and dancing when some guy dressed like... like... I have no fucking clue what he was dressed as but he looked like a mad scientist. He kind of looked like "Doc" from Back to the Future with really bad teeth. Anyway D and I are dancing and he starts talking to us and at some point he goes "Yeah girls! Shake your ass, I'm a pervert!" D and I were like "Wtf?!" No that shit does not work with us and D tells him to go away. He tries to play it off and say that he was only joking but in between English and French I tell him it's too late and that he needs to go away. Lucky for him, he obeyed. 

So there were people breaking dancing. I remember a little mini, very mini mosh pit broke out. Haha! Some adorable guy tried hitting on me. Obviously it didn't work out for him, and he had no chance, but I was very flattered.

Things started dying out and well we also started getting hungry. We went in search for food, but stopped by H and D's apartment... I don't know what happened but we ended up not getting food and just falling asleep. 

D gave me a comforter and with that I made myself a bed on the floor. 

Our beautiful sleeping arrangement

 We woke up in the afternoon the next day and made some delicious crepes, très délicieux!

Jet Lag... not cool!

My friend Bismarck told me he's waiting on my post about jet lag, and well it's not very interesting but here it goes. Before this trip, never had I ever suffered from jet lag. I don't know why, but last year when I was here it didn't happen. And I remember when I went to Hawaii back in high school, I also didn't suffer from it. But this time... oh boy have I felt it! Whoever knows me well, they know I can sleep like a bear. When I sleep, I don't just sleep, I hibernate! Not kidding! I don't know if it's me getting older and becoming a responsible adult or whatnot, but sometimes I just don't hibernate like I used to. lol

Anyway, the day before my flight to France, I stayed up packing and packing and packing some more. Basically I only got two hours of sleep because then I woke up early to go for my last 8 mile walk/run with my friends at Rickenbacker. 

The way I saw it, the lack of sleep the night before meant I would pass the fuck out on the plane. So on this 8.5 hour flight, I slept about 7-7.5 hours. Good job in my opinion! When I arrived in France it was 8:30am and I felt very well rested. At some point I got tired... perhaps around 5pm (France time), my family said I could take a nap, but no... I wanted to stay awake and get used to a normal schedule. I did go to sleep early, around 9:30pm.

That night I woke up at 2am, and then forced myself to sleep. I woke up again around 5am, and then finally at 6:30am when my alarm went off. After I dropped Lucas off at school and I came back home and finished unpacking. I got a little tired, so I allowed myself to take a little 30-45 min nap. But no! I was so tired or jet-lagged... I don't know, but that 45 min nap turned into 2.5 hr nap! I was afraid I wouldn't be able to fall asleep at a reasonable time that night, but seeing as my body is crazy when it comes to sleep, I did manage to fall asleep at 10pm that night. The next night, I once again would wake up at a crazy time, only this time it took a lot of effort to make myself go to sleep, and then when I did go to sleep I woke up at 5:30am from a terrible nightmare. It was one of those terrible ones that I woke up crying from it. Not cool. I didn't force myself to go to sleep at that point. I just stayed awake since I was going to wake up in an hour anyway. 

When there's any down time, I do get a bit tired, but I immediately force myself to do something so that it can go away. I did a little bit of research and according to Wikipedia:

"The condition of jet lag may last several days until one is fully adjusted to the new time zone, and a recovery rate of one day per time zone crossed is a suggested guideline."

So this means 6 days for me. Sounds about right. I'm coming in at day 5-6 and my sleep is getting better. I went to sleep around midnight last night, and woke up on my own at 9am. So yay! 

There ya go Bismarck. My boring post about jet lag for ya. ;) 

First time driving in France

Today I drove in France for my first time ever! I was a wee bit nervous because their roads here are a lot smaller and they have different driving rules. My host mom freaked me out yesterday when she started to explain the rules and she told me about how you have to give priority to the right. It's weird to explain, but basically if I'm on a certain road, they don't have a stop sign, and neither do I, but somehow I'm just suppose to know to stop and give them way... It's weird. 

So today my host dad asked me if I would like to go on a car ride with him. I would drive and he would show me around and explain some of the rules. So yeah, I'm not going to go into all the rules, because they're hard to explain if I'm not showing you. It's not exactly difficult, but it is a little different and well I'm just gonna drive extra cautiously and probably slow down and stop at intersections even if I'm not suppose to. 

My host dad says I did really good, and after a little I did feel better about driving. But once again, I do know I'm just going to be really really cautious. My host dad also realized that there are a lot of right priority streets in this town. He hadn't really realized it before, until now when he had to explain it all to me. He says in some other town it's easier because they have more street lights. So yeah... that's that.