What I miss and what I am looking forward to!

Just a little list of the things I have been thinking about as my semester is coming to a close...I can't wait to be home for the holidays!

- Friends and Family
- Starbucks!!!
- Madison
- Snow
- Driving
- Ian's pizza
- My comfortable bed
- Not having my cell phone run out of minutes
- How cheap things will seem compared to Paris
- The mall
- Using a dryer to dry my clothes
- Taking a (long) shower whenever I want to
- J.Crew
- American TV
- A big closet
- Snugzing!!!
- Not being asked if I am American
- Target
- Popcorn

I know there are more, but these are just some things I have been thinking about, love from Paris...

Babysitting...in another language

So as some of you may or may not know, I have been babysitting for a family here in Paris since September. I wanted to find a babysitting job to make some extra money, so I went on a couple of interview but nothing was really a great fit. Well, on the way back from Tours in September I was sitting by myself in the quad seat on the train. A family ended up sitting in these seats as well. For a while I just watched the kids interact and laughed to myself at some of the things they were doing. The little girl asked her mom for train tickets to play with (in Paris the metro tickets are really small so kids like to play with them) the mom only had a couple. I knew that I had some in my wallet, so I took them out and gave them to the little girl. She politely said "merci" and happily played with the tickets. Her little brother was getting fussy so they gave him sunglasses to play with. I had my sunglasses on and he was sitting across from me so he kept on looking at me with my sunglasses. The parents and I started talking and the next thing I knew I was starting the next day. My friends laughed so hard when we got off the train.

Now that I have been with the kids for a while I am really starting to learn their ins and outs. The family lived in London for about a year and just moved back to Paris a couple of months ago. Alexandra (4 1/2) is the oldest so she started to learn a little English, but I am trying to work with her so that she can pick it up easier when she starts in school. Thomas (2) can be my troublemaker. He of course doesn't speak any English, so I end up speaking mostly French with both kids. It is hard to understand babies in English, you can only imagine how hard it was for me at first to figure out what he is saying. Now, I have a pretty good idea, but there are still some times when I turn to Alexandra and ask her to help me figure out what he is saying.

This is such a great experience for me, first of all because I always loved babysitting and secondly, I am getting a chance to practice my French and learn new vocab words I would have never learned otherwise. Even though both of them have their naughty days (Thomas is a spitter and Alexandra doesn't want to speak English because she knows that I speak French) they are great kids. I could make the sequel to Adventures in Babysitting, just in another language! Love from Paris...

Teaching in Bondy

So for my education seminar class, there is a four week out of class section where we are placed in a school to teach English. Today was my third lesson with my class. The school is in Bondy, which is outside of Paris in "banlieue" (literally meaning suburb in French) about 20 minutes outside Paris, but in total the commute is an hour and a half. We are teaching in the banlieue for a couple of reasons, our teacher wants us to get out of Paris and see how "the everyday French live"and because these are the kids who really need a native English speaker. Their English class is taught by a French woman named...are you ready for this...France (I swear)! She is a great woman and I am sure a great teacher, but in their English class they speak mostly French. The kids in this class are in a special program called Bac Pro. What this means is that since they were around 11 or 12 years old they were picked out as being the weak students who had no chance of making it into the French University system, so they were put on the Bac Pro track. This program starts when they are around 15 years old and is a four year training program, it is like a trade school for high school students. For the most part the kids in my class want to be nurses, and in fact, at Bondy on the third floor there is a full service clinic for the students to practice.

It is very difficult to teach them English, all of the students have been studying English since they were 9, I started French when I was around 13. There are students in my class who can't even form basic sentences "my name is..." etc. I am currently in the position of rewording all my lesson plans so that the majority of the class can understand what I am saying, but that is almost impossible. There are a few students who have a great understanding of English and they help the rest of the class by translating what I am saying into French, and since I can speak French if they translate something wrong I can help them understand something they maybe didn't understand. As tough as it is to teach them totally in English, it is great because they are so interested in American culture and a lot of them want to visit or live in the States one day. The teacher was telling me that they ask her questions all the time, they think that I am not going to come back week after week. This is another thing I find so frustrating, for an early age, these kids have thought they could not succeed, that no one cared about their ability to learn. One student was telling me it is an honor to be taught by a native English speaker, and an American on top of that. I never realized that I took for granted the access to some of the best teacher that I have at UW. I am able to (almost) fully communicate in a language they have been speaking since birth, while they are hardly able to say hello and goodbye in a language I have been speaking since birth.

I have learned so much from this experience, I really like the class I am working with so I decided that I will stay on for a volunteer basis next semester as well to continue working with the class. When I was talking to France to see if that was possible she almost jumped up and down, her and I are working together to form a English club where the students can come and practice their English. So next semester I am looking forward to getting that off the ground while still teaching a couple lessons a month to my class, it should be an interesting semester! Love from Paris...

Graduation

Exciting news...I will be graduating in December! I just got all the details figured out this afternoon. I was looking around on the UW website and I noticed that the Letters & Sciences graduation date was December 21st, the day after I get home. I, of course, missed the deadline; but after calling a bunch of people from UW I am able to walk in the ceremony! So, I ordered my cap and gown and I am now all ready to go. I am going back to Paris next semester so technically I will not be done until the spring, but I will miss the spring graduation so this is the only time I am able to walk in a graduation ceremony. Just wanted to let everyone know the exciting news! Love from Paris...

Spanish Experience: Barcelona

We ended our whirlwind Spanish tour in Barcelona. Barcelona is such an interesting city because it is in Cataluyna, a primarily Catalan region. Many true Catalans want to actually secede from Spain and become their own country. They have their own constitution, although Spanish law still rules supreme, as well as their own flag. One more interesting fact about Barcelona before I go into details about my trip, they are actually trying to outlaw bull fighting, and they are very close. This year is supposed to be the last season of bull fighting in Barcelona, so we will see what happens.

Anyways, we again bused from Valencia to Barcelona. The ride was absolutely beautiful, it was almost completely along the Mediterranean coast of Spain with beautiful views of the sea. When we arrived in Barcelona we found our hostel and settled in. Our hostel was right off of Las Rambla, one of the main drags in Barcelona. We did a little bit of exploring in our area the first day but nothing too exciting.

Friday we woke up and split into two groups; Laura, Margaret, and I headed to Sagrada Familia. Okay another quick history lesson...Sagrada Familia was started by Gaudi (known for his mosaic works) in 1882, and the construction is still going on today. Gaudi designed the church knowing it would be not finished in his lifetime. Towards the end of his life, he donated all of his money to Sagrada to continue constuction (during the Spanish Civil War and WWI the money was not always readily available for construction). Gaudi in turn moved to a small shack right outside Sagrada Familia. When he died in 1926 the church was not near complete, right now there are 8 main spires, when Sagrada Familia is complete there will be 18, each representing one figure important in the Catholic Church. Construction has been able to continue through private donations from those who want to see it finished as well as admission to enter the church. The goal is to have Sagrada Familia finished by 2026 to mark the 100 year anniversary of Gaudi's death, although most believe that will be impossible as there is still so much work to be done. Interesting huh?

After Sagrada Familia we met up with the other girls to head up to Olympic Park. Since Barcelona had the Olympics in 1992 they have kept most of the Olympic structures and created a museum. The Olympic Park is on one of the three main "mountains" (really bona fide hills) surrounding Barcelona on all sides. We were able to take the metro most of the way, and there is a cable car to take you to the very top but it was 12 euro, we decided to walk! The Olympic Park was really nothing special, the views were nice though. We also visited the former German Pavilion during the Worlds Fair in Barcelona in 1888. One of the friends Katharine worked at home designed by the same architect in Illinois so that is how she knew to visit this Pavilion in Barcelona.

Saturday was a great day, we woke up and headed out to the Gaudi park. On another hill in Barcelona this park was amazing! Tucked away was this little mosaic village that Gaudi had created, the colors were incredible! I took a ton of pictures of the mosaics close up because I just thought they were so beautiful. Late Saturday afternoon we set out on a great adventure: a guided bike tour of Barcelona! Let me tell you, the saying its as easy as riding a bike, not true! Try riding through the streets of Barcelona next to the crazy European drivers! The tour was three and a half hours and took throughout the city. Our guide was from San Francisco and really knew a lot of interesting things about the places we stopped to check out. It wasn't just the usual facts which was a nice change. All and all it was a great tour and well worth the money.

Sunday we finally left Barcelona to head back to Paris, but not before stopping at the Contemporary Art Museum near our hostel. There was a really powerful photographic exhibit about the WTO riots in Seattle, very interesting. After 10 days of traveling throughout 3 cities we were all exhausted and happy to be returning to our own rooms! It was an incredible trip that I will remember forever! Love from Paris...

Spanish Experience: Valencia

After our three days in Madrid, we headed by bus four hours to Valencia. The city of Valencia is considerably smaller than Madrid and Barcelona and right on the Mediterranean Sea. Our hostel was right off of one of the main plazas, although when we first arrived we went a round about way of getting there so when we realized how close we really were it made for a good laugh. Hillary has a good friend studying in Valencia so after we arrived and settled into the hostel we met her for dinner and to show us around.

She had heard there was a great little bar that had paella parties for international students on Tuesdays, it ended up being right by the hostel. The deal was if you bought a drink you could get a plate of paella for 3 euro. The woman who worked there must have really liked us, because she brought out huge plates of Valencia paella, it was out of this world (Amy, you have to learn how to make this, I really think you would love it)! Since it was a long day of traveling we called it an early night because we knew we wanted to wake up early and go to the tourism office.

Valencia has two big attractions, the first is the Bioparc that we visited on Wednesday. The Bioparc was great because it is a free range zoo, this meaning that all animals enclosures are natural and they co-habitate as they would in nature (with the exception of the lions and leopards). If it was allowed we would have been able to touch the animals, that is how close we were to them. We of course chose the day to go that must have been the Spanish kindergarten day to go to the zoo, because there were school groups everywhere! All in all even with screaming Spanish children it was a really fun time. That night we had read some reviews about a great tapas restaurant.

Valencia's other main attraction is the Arts and Sciences campus near the beach. A famous Spanish architect designed these five really modern and cutting edge buildings to house different things in the arts and sciences. We went to the Oceanographico (pretty much a bonified aquarium). It was a pretty standard aquarium but the architecture was awesome! We ended up sending a long time at the Oceanographico, my friend Margaret got a huge grasshopper in her hair, getting it out was quite memorable. After the campus of Arts and Sciences we went to the beach, for five girls from states with no access to the ocean we went crazy. We were jumping up and down in the sand, taking pictures, and walking barefoot into the freezing cold water. The Spanish I am sure thought we were insane for wanting to go into the water. Katharine thought she might bring her bathing suit and go all the way in, but after how cold it was, that quickly changed.

All in all Valencia was great, it was the most laid back of the three cities, mostly because it was the smallest and quaint. I would definitely consider going back to Valencia. Love from Paris...

Spanish Experience: Madrid

This is the first week back after our fall break, it is a little difficult to get back in the swing of things! During this fall break my friends and I took at 10 day trip across Spain, we started in Madrid then traveled to Valencia and ended our time in Barcelona. I think I will blog about the trip in parts because if I just did one big entry it would be long and I am sure everyone would get bored!

We flew to Madrid on Halloween, there were tons of people in the airport dressed up in costumes (a little strange I am not going to lie). We arrived in Madrid late and took the metro to our hostel. The area was great, it was right off a main plaza with great shops, restaurants, and things to see. Finding the hostel was the hard part! The sign was so hidden and small none of us could really figure out where we were supposed to be. Finally Margaret spotted the sign and we got to our room. Since it was such a long day of traveling we decided to call it a night and rest up for the next day. At around 3am our roommate came in after a night out. The room we stayed in had six beds so we knew there would be someone else staying with us. Wouldn't you know, it was a guy; and even stranger one of my friends Katharine knew him, however strangest of all...he is from Palatine! Thankfully he was really nice and patient (I can't imagine being a 20something guy and having to room with 5 girls and one bathroom)!

Saturday we got up and went to the Prado, the grounds were very impressive. I wasn't the biggest fan of the museum, they housed a lot of religious art which is not my favorite, but there is also a botanical garden on the grounds that we explored. We also did a lot of walking around and exploring the city. Madrid was a bit disappointing, it is just a big dirty city (with not nearly the charm of Paris). Although Saturday night was one of our better nights in Spain. We were walking into the hostel when a British man stopped us. He explained that every night local Spanish people take foreigners out from all the big hostels around the city. We decided it would be a great thing to try. So the 5 of us met this great Spanish girl named Hilda who took us out around Madrid, there were other people in the group as well including people from Manchester, Canada, and Brazil. It ended up being a great time, we danced the night away!

Sunday was another museum filled day, there was a really interesting temporary art exhibit about WWI going on, it was one of my favorite exhibits from our trip. The way they set it up was great, there were not only pictures and paintings but quotes and poems in 5 languages painted on the walls of the exhibit.

There really isn't much else to say about Madrid, I don't think it was as great as we were thinking. Stayed tuned for Valencia and Barcelona! Love from Paris...