Quick Bits, May 2011

I'm still working on my Edinburgh post for you all to continue with my Spring Break chronicles, but I thought I'd pause in your regularly scheduled programming for a quick update on life in my last few weeks in Paris.

I leave three weeks from today, but make a 3-day stop in Iceland on the way home. Need to get on booking a hotel/hostel....

It was so hard going back to school after Spring Break. So hard. Especially when my professor who cancelled class decided to schedule a make-up class- for Friday morning. Bleck. But I made an exciting discovery over the course of the week as well: I can read French! As in, actually sit there and fully comprehend an article, with all of it's tenses and nuance, from start to finish. Granted, it takes me a lot longer than it would to read the same article in English (something I could scan in 15 seconds in English takes me maybe 2 minutes in French), and I do of course still have to look up the odd vocabulary word. But I'm properly reading French! I am also finally getting to the point where I can listen to and speak French without having to consciously translate everything. I wouldn't dare claim to be fluent, but I think I may very well be approaching proficiency. Wheeee!

I was also able to help a girl learn about adverbs and adjectives at my volunteer position- the same day that we worked on them in my own grammar class.....

Today was absolutely excellent. The Central Folk took an organized trip to Giverny, about 45 minutes outside of Paris. Giverny is where Claude Monet lived and worked for most of his career. His house has mainly Japanese art inside, which has a historical explanation but was still odd, but the gardens. Oh my goodness the gardens. I will have a full post on the visit at some point, but just know that today, I walked along the famous water lily pond. No blooms on the lilies at this point in the year, sadly, but it was GORGEOUS.

I've scrapped my plan to take a day trip to Geneva next weekend. When I first conceived of the idea a month or so ago, I was worrying about only going to a few countries while over here. Now that the time is upon me, however, I am far more worried about not being able to fully enjoy the rest of my time in Paris! It is so lovely out now, and there are so many picnics I still want to have! I've located an available rooftop for the evening picnic my foyer-mate Vanessa and I want to have, and I have several girls who are amenable to at least one more picnic along the Seine, and under the Eiffel Tower. Probably also a return visit to the Bois de Bourlogne. I need to watch the sunset at Sacre Coeur, and get another crepe! I haven't had one in probably two months- it's an absolute travesty. I need to see Elise at least once more before I go. And I need to pass all of my finals. Psh, details.

Finally, I leave you with a picture I stole off of another girl's Facebook. It is probably the only photo that exists that proves that I indeed swam in the Mediterranean while on Spring Break. This one's for you, Daddy:

Random Tidbits

Just thought I'd swing by and give you guys an update on some upcoming travels:

• Doing a whistle-stop tour of the South of France this weekend. Dad, I'll make sure to at least dip my toes in the Mediterranean for you!
• Spending my first three nights in Scotland roaming about the countryside with Clarissa. Scottish highlands!! And then almost a week of wandering around the capital of Scotland, seeing castles and listening to Scottish accents. I'm a happy girl.

And now a bunch of random pictures, because I feel like I've been neglecting you...

The alligator I made at my benevolat. Yay for Friday being arts and crafts day!

The extremely suspicious statue in the Tuileries

Little motorized sailboats in the Tuileries

If I'm getting my monuments right, I believe you can see straight down the Champs Elysee to the l'Arc de Triomphe from the Tuileries

This is one of my favorite pigeons thus far

The Louvre Palace/Museum, complete w/ Pyramid

The Seine

Benevole a Paris

Thought I would update you all on my volunteer activities here in Paris. I wasn't aware when I signed up for my program that the "Service Learning" was mandatory, but it's actually turned out to be pretty cool. It's not really what I would choose to do with my Friday evenings, but I'm coming to enjoy it.

We are all assigned, in groupings of 2-3 of us (Central Folk), to various community centers in the poorer neighborhoods of Paris. I myself am in the 19th arrondissement, in Belleville. Which appears to be Chinatown. It's a heavily immigrant neighborhood, emphasis on the Asian influx. All of our centers involve working with children.

[Side note: I forgot to mention this in my London updates, but there is an incredibly large Middle Eastern influence in London. Part of it was probably just the area I was travelling through, but I don't think I have ever seen so many hijab and business signs in Arabic in my life. I wonder what the history and politics are behind that?]

I have been assigned to a good age group- 7-9 years old, mostly girls. This makes me incredibly happy, because at this age, they are still cute and easily cowed by authority, but they are old enough to have a sense of reasoning and logic. They haven't learned how to gang up or be malicious yet. Working with kids always scares me- I always feel like I don't have the knack for it. Generally I attribute this to always being the baby in every situation. I'm still not a Kid Whisperer, but as it turns out I'm not a Kid Repeller either!

I help them with their homework for about an hour. This is where I appear to have my knack with kids, if I do indeed have one. Somewhere along the line I seem to have picked up the concept of "teaching." I don't just give the kids answers, I show them why, and new tricks. Thus far, I can claim to have taught one girl the concept of subtraction (in French, than you very much), and another girl the concept of 100 cents in a Euro. It took about ten minutes of me going through various examples (and they were probably very annoyed that I wasn't just confirming their correct answers), when suddenly the light of comprehension would explode onto their face and they would suddenly rush through and finish everything else, beaming. There's a bit of a high that comes with that. I guess the program director has noticed, because apparently he has already given my program director glowing reviews, when normally they say nothing or offer critiques.

After homework, the kids play for the rest of the time, and I sort of watch to make sure nothing goes wrong, and chat with other benevoles.

Benevole: A volunteer. Etre benevole: to be a volunteer, or, essentially, to volunteer. 

There is one guy who tends to volunteer on the same day as I do who is great fun. His name is Daniel, and he is a retired grandpa type who is an absolute sweetheart. He speaks very little English, but my French is improving, and he is very good at adapting to my level, so we are able to hold quite lengthy conversations with relative ease. I continue to get little thrills whenever I realize that I have successfully functioned solely in French for a length of time- at the end of one of my language classes, or after an hour-long conversation with Daniel about travel- where we both had been, where we would like to go, the wall in Mexico, etc. 

I have just passed the 1/3rd of the way through mark, and it is amazing how much my French has improved. I find myself using all of the grammar and vocabulary I learned at Etole (the little language school we were at for the first month) without a thought. I can follow my history class (though I do a little double-checking online in English later). I still have a long way to go, but I'm starting to feel the effects of total immersion, the way I wanted to before I came. It was so frustrating, the first few weeks, when nothing was happening. Now, I still have twice this amount of time to go, and I've already come this far. I sometimes have to consciously stop having my mental conversations in French, because I realize that whenever it is I have them, I will be someplace where they speak English. As it is, my mind has gotten used to the fact that everything is in French now, and automatically gets to work on translating anything that comes into my mind as potential speech (i.e. imagining future emails, future conversations, etc.). 

So, nothing too exciting from a tourist standpoint, but some nice little personal victories. I hope to update you soon with some plans I am making for Scotland, once they become more concrete!