MY COMMUTES
For this blog post, I thought that I would share with you what a typical week in me is like here in Paris. As you can see from the map above, my host family's apartment (Point A) is pretty far from central Paris, my classes, and my internship. If I want to go anywhere in Paris, I must walk 13 minutes (0.7 miles) to the nearest metro station, Marcel Sembat, in Boulogne and then spend at least 25 minutes on the metro to get to any location in Paris. This being said, I will spend at least 90 minutes a day on the metro to get where I want to go, and to be honest, his has taken me sometime to get used to, especially given my Orange County/Pomona College background. The other points highlighted on the map are the places I visit the most- Paris 3 (Point B, 45 minute commute), the Middlebury Center (Point 3, 35 minute commute), and Planète Enfants (Point 3, 60 minute commute). With all this is mind, I do want to highlight that despite these long commutes and how sometimes I wish I lived more centrally, I wouldn't change where I live. I am having such a fantastic time here with my host family and wouldn't trade what I have with them with anyone else on the program.
MY CLASSES:
This semester, I am taking 2 courses at the Middlebury Center (one on the European Union and the other on World War 1) and 2 French literature courses at Paris 3 (one on "Voyages" and 20th century literature, and the other on African feminist literature). These courses have been much more intense and difficult than I had imagined as I have a lot of reading that I must complete not to mention many oral presentations and occasional 3 page papers. To be honest, I do find frustrated by the amount of time I have to spend a day doing homework (5-10 hours a day) as I really had hoped that I would have more time to see and experience the city, but I will say that because of the amount of reading I do each day, my vocabulary has improved, and I am to understand and express myself better because I simply know more words.
MY INTERNSHIP:
On top of all my class work, I intern 16 hours a week (~ 2 full work days) at a NGO called Planète Enfants. I decided to pursue this opportunity in lieu of taking another class + 5 hours of charity work with the hopes of improving my French, learning how a French NGO operates, and gaining more work experience. As you can see from the brochures, Planète Enfants has established programs that combat child sex trafficking and the exploitation of women and children in Nepal. While most of the staff work directly in Nepal, its headquarters are here in Paris because the founder and director of the NGO is French. At their office (which is only composed of the director, a French intern, and me), I help this organization with translations, event planning, and other necessary tasks. Even though I have started working here just two weeks ago, I really enjoyed working here.
BUSINESSES AND LOCAL SPOTS ALONG MY STREET:
Jean Jaurès, the street that I take to go to the Metro Station is (not surprisingly) filled with little bakeries, some grocery stores, and some small shops, but it is also the home to MANY hair salons. I don't know why, but there must at least one hair salon for every seven shops. So, when the time comes for me to redo my highlights, I will a nice selection to choose from!
Pictured above is a meal ("sur place") from this great, little Chinese take-away on my street.
One of the little bakeries that I visited to pick up a baguette for dinner!
MY GYM:
Pictured above is a stretching class at Moving, the gym that just 5 minutes from my apartment. Apart from running in the town's park, I visit Moving three times a week to use their facilities, but really, to take their weight and strengthening classes, which I enjoy more and are actually quite difficult!
The little cardio room.
SOME FUN LITTLE OUTINGS/ EXPERIENCES:
Dinner with Aaron: Ten todays ago, my host family graciously allowed me to invite Aaron over for dinner as we needed to purchase our tickets for our trip to Poland and Prague over winter break.
Sidenote: Pictured above is foie gras, as Muriel bought it for this occasion since we both had never tried it before!
Dinner with everyone: for this occasion, Muriel prepared the French dish, "raclette," for dinner, and the conservation was so lively that we ended up staying at the dinner for 3 hours!
Seeing 50 Shades of Grey with some girlfriends on Valentines Day!
Having dinner with Wanning's French family!
