A couple of fun anecdotes

It's been a while since I posted anything, so I thought I'd just do a general update. There haven't been any major events lately, but a few fun little anecdotes that I think you'll like. I've really been getting a rhythm down now that I've been in Paris for nearly 2 months. I do very few touristy things these days because they're generally pretty expensive and I find I'd rather hang out in areas where actual French culture is all around me instead of places where everyone is trying to sell me a souvenir. It's been really nice. When I'm not in class or doing homework I've been exploring the area where I live which is sort of removed from all the tourists. The Moulin Rouge is sorta close, but not close enough for the tourists to overflow into my area. Sacre Cœur is relatively close as well, but it's far enough away that there are very few tourist traps around. On good days I've been walking around and exploring the area and all the little secrets it has to offer.



Once a week, I student-teach at a French private school. On Friday afternoons I help first-year English teacher Madame Benoit with a class of about 20 11 and 12 year-old boys. It's a lot of fun. They're pretty adorable, and there's something cute about an 11-year-old speaking English with a really heavy French accent. The actual teacher is French, but has pretty good English. It's her first year teaching and she seems to be doing really well. She's only a few years older than I am, and really nice. The first time I met her, she seemed a little odd, and I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. Then I figured it out. I make her nervous. At first it seemed preposterous to me. I'm still a college student, and she's a full-blown teacher; how could I make her nervous? But then I thought about it and it totally makes sense. Her English is very good, but she's just starting out teaching with a native-speaker looking over her shoulder. Any time she makes a mistake, there's someone there who knows it immediately. Pretty intimidating, right? But I totally get it. I still get nervous asking someone for directions or ordering food in a restaurant here. I've done my best to put her at ease with me, and I think we're working together well, but she'll probably always be a little shy with me.

The boys, however, are not at all nervous around me. Now that they've gotten used to me being around, they're asking me questions all the time. One of my favorite moments was a couple of weeks ago when they realized how well I speak French. Marie (the actual teacher) always speaks English to me, so I don't think she really got that I understand 90% of French spoken around/to me and can make myself understood without too much trouble. So a couple of weeks ago, the boys were being really rowdy and Marie was sort of losing control, so I stood up and told them all in French to calm down, sit down and take out their textbooks to get ready for the lesson. Well they all got very quiet very fast and stared at me like I had grown an extra head. It was sorta hilarious. Now that they know I understand most French, they're always asking me how to say things in English. "Miss Morgan, what's the English for une fête?" I'm not sure I'll ever get used to being called "Miss" or "Madame", so it's a little weird for me, but still fun. We also made a deal on the first day that they could ask me anything they wanted as long as long as they can say it in English. They're very interested in my love life. They're always asking me if I have a husband or a boyfriend, and when I say no, they all want to know why not. "You eez so pretty! Why eez zair no boyfriend?" It's pretty adorable. They've been doing a unit on superheroes and the conversation has mainly been centered around Spiderman, Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter. I have definitely earned some respect for my knowledge of all things Potter.

Money goes fast here in Paris. A lot faster than I am used to, frugal as I am. So I've been trying to find a job. I hate asking my parents for money, and if I don't come up with some source of income, I would soon be there. So for about 6 weeks now, I've been applying and interviewing for babysitting jobs. At the foreign student building where I take a couple of classes there is a huge bulletin board with adverts for all sorts of jobs designed for foreign students. The majority of these jobs are for native English-speakers who have babysitting experience. Some of them are Au Pair jobs (that is, full time nanny generally in exchange for room and board and a small salary), but a lot of them are for part-time, generally after-school or weekend care. And nearly all of them want an American or British student to speak English with their kids. So I emailed and called several of these jobs, sent out resumes, and interviewed with 5 different families over the past six weeks. No luck. At this point, I was really frustrated since none of my friends had had nearly as many interviews as I had, and some of them had gotten jobs. (There were a couple of sleepless nights and a definite flare-up of what I like to call "Middle-child-itis")

But then, yesterday (Friday). I got a call from a British-American family with 2 kids ages 2 and 4 years who just moved to Paris from South Carolina. They wanted someone to come over 2 or 3 times per week mainly in the mornings to help out with the 2 year old during the day. The lady I spoke with on the phone was really sweet and talked about how flexible she was since she's a stay-at-home Mom and can totally work around my schedule. Sounded really great to me, so I went over to their apartment Friday morning and played with the little girl (Maisy) for a little while, and pretty much was offered the job 10 minutes after I got there. So I'll pretty much be working about 2 mornings a week, for about 8 hours total with the possibility of weekend or evening jobs if it fits into my schedule. Pretty much perfect for me. Plus the little girl is absolutely adorable! I start on Monday, and we'll see how it goes.

One final story before I let you all get back to your lives. The Parisian Metro system is the most efficient public transport system in Europe. It's pretty amazing after living in Atlanta for the last 2 years, and a small town without any public transportation before that. The train system has about 15 or 16 different Metro train lines and even more buses, as well as the RER commuter train system which connects Paris to the suburbs. Pretty much without fail on weekdays, there is a train along every 2-4 minutes, and there is at least 1 metro station within half a mile of anywhere in Paris. The main downside of the system is that because it's so cheap and well used, a young woman traveling alone can sometimes be given a really hard time. There are always a lot of people around, so I've never felt really threatened, but sometimes it can be really annoying. Earlier this week, I was transferring between trains on my way home after class, and this guy stopped me. Generally I walk/ride with my ipod and headphones so people don't talk to me or I can ignore them, but this guy grabbed my arm as I was passing. So then this guy says (in French, of course) "Hey there hottie. Are you horny? You want to sleep with me tonight?" I tried to pull away, but he wouldn't let me go, so I swung my bookbag around to his face and placed a strategic kick, and was soon on my way no worse for wear, other than the need to shower like 4 times to get the creepiness off of me. The worst part was not the whole harassment thing, though. It's that this episode has permanently ruined Lady Marmalade for me. I can't ever hear "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir" without being reminded of this incident. I also would like to make it really clear that this sounds a lot worse than it was, it is not an everyday occurrence, I wasn't threatened, and there's no need for anyone to freak out. It's just something that happened that makes a good story.

Well that's it for this week. Hopefully next week I'll have a fun story about babysitting to tell.