Has it Already Been a Month?

Oh boy everyone, I have already been here for a whole month! Can you believe it? Neither can I! I feel like it has flown by, it still feels like I just arrived…and yet at the same time it feels like it has been a month.

These past two weeks have been pretty busy. Last week I observed some classes and finally got to start working with my students. They are awesome. They are the same as students in the U.S. yet different at the same time. They are well behaved/polite although they do the normal chat during transitions etc. They have had a lot of fun asking about life in the U.S. like; “is it like the movies?” “Are the parties like the movies?” etc. It’s fun getting to know these guys and I love their excitement to work with me. Most of them are volunteers, so they want to work to improve their English. This is good, since they are more excited about this than others might be. I have 1 group of post bac students (18-20), 9 groups of high school students (between 15 and 17) and 2 groups of 12-14 year olds. So far I know they like to play games! I did a game this last week this is similar to “headbandz”. They got a kick out of this game. They loved having to get the person with the word on their head to guess the right vocabulary word. Even the older kids had fun. I’ll probably use this in my future classrooms.

Last week I also started 2 of my 3 “tutoring” jobs. Tuesday evenings I will be working with a 7 year old boy, Maxime. He loves the Minions, tennis, swimming, and football (aka soccer). Every other Friday I will be working with a 17 year old boy, Alexis, who loves History (I was overly excited about that)! Maxime is just learning the language. This will be a challenge, since I haven’t had to plan lessons for younger children before. Alexis is planning on attending University in the U.K. I am working with him to improve his pronunciation and ability to express his opinions on various current events (this is basically what I will do with most of my students at school). After the Toussaint holiday I will also start babysitting/tutoring a 4 year old girl on Monday and Thursday evenings. It’s going to be busy for the next several months, but it will be worth it to earn the extra money.

 I love the buildings here in France. This is in Neuilly-sur-Seine 

Puteaux City Hall

Now that I’ve actually been working I haven’t been going on as many excursions around the city (although it is the Toussaint holiday for the next two weeks..so I will do a little more exploring). Last Friday, before my tutoring session with Alexis, I went to La Défense; the business quarter of Paris. While there I found a Chipotle!! I was so excited, I had to eat there! I first took a picture and then headed in. They asked me if I was American…I’m thinking a lot of Americans take a picture before going in. It tasted pretty good and they had Dr. Pepper! I may have been more excited about the Dr. Pepper than the food! I also caught a glimpse of l’Arc de Triumphe from the metro stop near Alexis’ home. It was cool to see it lit up for the night. I didn’t get the best picture, but it’s not the best quality.

 Grande Arche at La Défense

 Chipotle at La Défense!!

La Défense

L'Arc de Triumphe from a metro stop

Last weekend, I caught my first cold virus here in France…yay?! (I hope you caught the sarcasm) It has been a rough week with this cold thing I have. This virus has given me quite a bit of homesickness as well some extra culture shock. It’s definitely different being sick away from friends or family. Not that I ever really ask to have someone take care of me, it’s nice knowing they are there to help if I need it. I also discovered that you cannot buy cold medicine at the grocery store here; you have to go to a pharmacy. It makes me miss Target…or dare I say it, Walmart? I miss the idea of getting everything I need from one store instead of several different ones. I’m glad that I finally got to the Pharmacy though; the pharmacist gave me some awesome medicine that has day pills and night pills (kind of like Dayquil/Nyquil). It’s been helping a lot. However, I have lost my voice. I’m not sure I’ve ever had laryngitis before (or at least not recently).  So I have been drinking quite a bit of herbal tea to help with that. I’m hoping that this first week of my holiday will help heal my voice and body heal more.

Today I did risk exposing others to my nasty virus and joined some other teaching assistants at le Café des Chats. This is a Café that has cats that live in the restaurant!! They were so stinking cute! The restaurant had delicious hot chocolate and croque-monsieur! This was probably the most food I’ve had in several days, but I’m glad I went. It was fun to hang out with some other assistant and play with some cats. I loved it! Seriously, whoever came up with this concept is a genius!

le Café des Chats

 Kitty!!!

 So many adorable cats!!

I just wanted to stay there all day!

For my second week of the holiday I’m heading to Switzerland to visit my friend Sharice and her family. I’m looking forward to seeing her and mountains! Then the week after the holiday ends my sister Rachel will be here for a visit! I am really excited for that too!

Until next time friends!

Things I miss from the U.S.
• Dr. Pepper
• Cheetos
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
• Target
• Central heating

Again if you want to send me any care packages/letters (hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink):
Jenny Whiting
2 rue Guy de la Brosse
Chez Mme. D’Andrea
75005 Paris, France