peace love joy

I'm so bad at this blogging thing. Sorry! So here are some random thoughts that I've had since I last wrote...

French people smell. Really bad. Seriously. It is painful sometimes. We are so spoiled with delicious aromas in the Heartland. 

I love being early. It's so nice not to have to rush from one place to the next, getting all sweaty and stressed. I'm trying to be early as much as possible and allow plenty of extra time.

I am immensely grateful for websites that let me watch tv online. I feel connected thanks to watchtvsitcoms and surfthechannel, enabling me to stay up to date on The Office and Pushing Daisies and all my favorites. 

Friends are so cool. It's amazing to me that we can become close and care about one another so quickly, and I've seen just how easily those strong bonds are formed. 

The kids at my high school are awesome. I love being greeted in the hall and chatting with them, and they even invite me to eat lunch and laugh together over funky cafeteria food. Being a teaching assistant is challenging sometimes, trying to balance the roles of mentor and friend,  

Things about America that I miss: free refills, clean free public toilets with seats, Dr. Pepper and Cherry Coke, driving in a car, flipping channels, English, Target, sale racks, things being open at night and on Sundays, people smiling and saying hello... 

Things about France that I love: public transportation, surprising people with a smile and getting a friend back, having bread and cheese and wine anytime at all, cobblestone, French, luxurious movie theaters, the Seine, brilliant sparkling Christmas decorations everywhere you go... 

 

I'm thrilled to spend Christmas with my family, and I can't wait for them to get here on Monday! Joy to the world, peace and love everybody!

thankful, even though there's no French word for it

Let's go back in time...

My 23rd birthday! I LOVE celebrating birthdays, and we do them big in the Wedemeyer/Yeaworth family, so we tried to recreate that joyous ongoing celebration even in France. On Saturday night (before my bday) my friends came over and we had Pizza Hut and coke and cider (all my favorites) and they made me a chocolate cake with chocolate bar and marshmallows melted on top! It was absolutely scrumptious and so much fun. Tuesday, my actual birthday, was chock full from beginning to end. I took the early train to school to pick up a form that I'd forgotten. Then I came back to the city and had eggs, pancakes, toast, oj, the whole shebang at Breakfast in America. So great. The day continued with shopping at H&M and then a visit to the Préfecture de Police to finish my application for my carte de séjour. Afterwards, I went thrift store shopping, and I found the same store that Kara and I browsed in for hours when we studied abroad years ago. It was such fun! That night I went out to a fancy Thanksgiving dinner with two of the English teachers from the lycée where I work. It was delish, and they even sang me Happy Birthday and put a candle in my lemon meringue pie! 

Thanksgiving is SO not the same in France. I tried to teach all my classes about it, but most were disinterested. I think the fact that there's really no word for "grateful" should have been a sign that a holiday based completely on that concept might not resonate well with French teens. Anyway, last Thursday I overslept, missed my 8am and 9am classes, and rushed right out so that I could at least be there for my 11am class. The Spanish teachers aren't usually at school on Thursdays, but I had the pleasant surprise of being able to chat with them (that helped turn my day around), and one even invited me to have tapas with them and all their friends! It's really exciting to start to have friends even outside of the other assistants, just so that I feel like a professional. ;) I had lunch at the KFC where I read some Harry Potter. (9-year-old Paul is lending me his HP books one by one since I've never read them. So far, I love them! I finished #2 today on the train home today, and I'm so excited to read the next one.) Then I had a new group of students in my atelier de la conversation at the collège, and they are so fun! Really interested in English and willing to talk. Perfect. I caught the early train home, and my friend Mary Beth texted me and we met up and had a delicious five-course Thanksgiving dinner at The American Dream! Yum. After a peaceful bubble bath, it was a magnificent Thanksgiving after all!

On Friday I woke up early so I got the train early so I got to school early. It was nice to have plenty of time to catch my breath instead of rushing off to class. My 9am group was wonderful! They're one of my favorites: so enthusiastic and friendly, really willing to speak English and learn the nuances of the language. It is so much fun! Then I had lunch with three of my students. I was walking with my tray to the faculty room, where I usually eat with all the teachers, and all of a sudden I heard, "Katie! Katie! Come eat with us!!" What a treat and a sweet invitation! And it was such fun to chat with them. They wanna make it a weekly date! I love having kids say hi and want to chat in the hall. What a unique and marvelous position it is to be a Teaching Assistant. I'm loving getting to know people at my schools and being someone they can come to when they need a friend or smile. 

This weekend I babysat a bunch, had delicious hot chocolate at yet another adorable café, went to Hillsong worship on Sunday morning, and then had a dinner party at James and Tom's where we made homemade pasta and watched 12 angry men. So fun! Yesterday we had Breakfast in America again, and then hung out at Starbucks for a while, journalling and chatting and relaxing. After babysitting, I met up with some friends for Music Quiz, a delightful trivia night at Longhop bar. We didn't make it to the semi-finals like we did last week, but it was still a blast! Today was a magnificent day, with no tardiness and little stress. All four of my classes were wonderful. We talked and laughed and sang and joked, and I even made new friends! It's really fun to see the differences between students that are 14, 16, and 18 years old. Younger ones love High School Musical, and say so proudly, and older ones smoke and try to act like they don't love anything. But I'm having fun drawing the silliness out of them, bit by bit. Laughter is amazingly powerful. 

With soft raindrops gently serenading me, I think I'll get rested up for the the days ahead: more time with my sweet b-sitting kids, my kind Assistant friends, and my lovely home away from home. Sacre bleu, there sure is a lot to be thankful for! 

Paris holds the key to your heart

It's so nice to be getting back in the swing of things around here! Vacation was such a lovely treat, but having so much free time makes it really easy to think about home, and all the people and places that I dreadfully miss. I'd rather be out of my mind with busy-ness than have so much spare time that I start to want to go home. So I've been making the most of my freedom and deliberately spending each moment, soaking up the nuances of this enchanting city. 

During this first vacation I spent time with a new crew, and had a blast listening to their melodic English accents and commiserating about the challenges of life abroad. My blond British boys are absolutely delightful: what a blessing to have two chivalrous, hilarious, beautiful young men to spend time with, as well as their charming group of friends. We frolicked up by Sacre Coeur, dancing and singing HSM3 tunes; we saw VickyCristinaBarcelona and Quantom of Solace (so cool); we ate Chinese food and pizza and Thai food and crêpes and quiches and croques and gelato and réligieuses and so much more; and we explored the meandering streets of this gigantic yet increasingly familiar city. A special treat was that I got to have dinner with Betsy and her parents who were in town. It's so nice to be around family for a while, even when it's not actually mine - good for the soul. It's amazing that in a metropolitan ville that's home to millions and millions of strangers, you can run into a friend just on the way to a café. That's the beauty of life here: this big city doesn't seem so huge anymore.

Speaking of what a small world it is, after all... I went to Disneyland!!! EuroDisney, right outside of Paris. On Halloween four other assistants and I went and played our little hearts out in the most magical place on earth (at least on this continent). We rode on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Teacups, the Haunted House (how brave am I?!), tons of other rides, and Space Mountain 2 twice - it actually goes upside-down! We had pizza-burgers for lunch, cool idea but not as delish as it sounds like it could be, and I got my favorite treat: cotton candy! Or as they say in England, candy floss, or in France, barbe à papa. Sweetness for the tummy and the soul. It was rainy and cold and could have been a miserable day, but since we were in the happiest place on earth, we had the happiest day - wahoo!

Teaching is going well. On Thursday and Friday I had the pleasure of my first train strike... fortunately, since they're scheduled grèves, you can usually track down the schedule and see what trains are running, when and where, but on Friday everything was conspiring against me. It was raining and I was an instant late each step of the way (I literally ran up just in time to watch my train pull away), which caused me to be thirty minutes late to school - eek! Thankfully I have such kinda teachers who gave me extra grace since the trains were wacky, and overall it ended up being a fine Friday. 

Babysitting's going wonderfully, as well. I am completely crazy about the kids that I take care of, and I think the feeling is mutual. :) Georges and I have the greatest conversations. I love the matter-of-fact way in which he sees life: everything is so simple and clear to him, even when it's not the same as the reality familiar to adults. It's refreshing for me to see how honest and earnest he is. When he's happy and he loves you, you absolutely know it. When he's unhappy or cross at all, you know it, too.  Fortunately, he's generally joyful, and his playful spirit reminds me so much of Hunter (my precious cousin and best friend for life) that it makes my heart soar! It's such a treat to have a little substitute to play with while I'm so far away from my actual family. Georges looks a lot like Luke, my other wonderful cousin, so I have sweet family coming from all sides to keep me company over here. 

This weekend I went to worship at Hillsong Church, a glorious and spirit-filled house where passion and love truly reign. I'm really excited about getting involved with that family, starting with the Welcome to Church party this Saturday night. One really cool thing about this church is that it's the same group as Hillsong United, one of my favorite worship groups, based in Australia. We've sung a few songs over the past couple weeks that I've loved, but when I googled the lyrics to try to download them, they're not even published yet! So we get to experience worship songs while they're still a work in progress. What a treat. It feels so earnest and heartfelt since it's not studio-censored or commercialized... just pure, joyful, singing love to God. 

Okay, that's all for now - time to go to sleep so that tomorrow morning can be productive with laundry and a visit to the préfecture... soon I'll be a legitimate, short-term French citizen! :) 

sunday in the park with georges (and paul)

It has been an unacceptable amount of time since I last wrote here, but that's a good sign! I've been insanely busy and having so much fun. Here's a quick update of how my life has been here. 

I teach three days a week in a small town at the end of the RER D line, so it takes me about an hour and a half each direction... I'm learning to love the commute, though, figuring out the trains and buses, and taking advantage of my time to read and rest instead of frantically driving through rush hour traffic. I babysit a whole bunch, and I'm starting to really develop relationships with the kids. Today Paul misled me as to what is allowed, and we made microwave popcorn (so delicious, by the way, and such a treat over here). Ella walked in and was shocked because they hardly ever have popcorn, so we had a long conversation about telling the whole truth and being a trustworthy friend. Bit by bit, the kids are learning that I love them and want them to be the best people they can, and I'm learning how exactly to that. Paul eventually cheered up out of his guilty pout when he, Georges, and I went and frolicked in the Tuileries! We made huge leaf piles and jumped in them, played hide and seek, and laughed our butts off! Apparently, playing in the leaves is not common practice in France... boy, are they missing out on a *lot* of joy over here! 

Now I'm officially on vacation, and I'm looking forward to a week of sleep and rest and exploration and free time with sweet France friends. Every so often, we'll be walking around the city, and someone will gasp and say, "We live in Paris!" It's good to be reminded of how thrilling is this life we lead.

Gros bisous, et à bientot!

kids say the darndest things

I wanted to write a little about the precious children that I spend time with in exchange for my home here in Paris. They are a franco-american family living one floor below me in a beautiful apartment building right in the heart of the city. The four children are Zoe (14), Ella (12), Paul (9), and Georges (4), and they are amazing. Zaza and Lala (as Georges calls them) are lovely, sophisticated, typically French young ladies with pizzazz and flare to go around, but they laugh and joke with their brothers and are generally pretty level-headed and kind. Paul and Georges are incredibly unique, and today I had the pleasure of walking around Paris with Paul, just the two of us. It was fantastic because it helped me to adore him, whereas before Georges required so much attention that Paul was just kind of in the way, unfortunately. Paul is so cool! I'm teaching him how to solve the Rubik's cube and today we played piano and Wii and Life and had such a blast. We made each other laugh so hard that it hurt, and I'm so happy to be bonding with him. Georges is such a charmer. He is very much a four-year-old, especially in that he shifts instantly from elated to enraged based on seemingly nothing at all. Yesterday we were playing and all of a sudden he frowned and shouted, "You huht me! I'm bweeding!" (which, of course, I didn't and he wasn't), and it took an intervention from his twelve-year-old sister for him to say "sorry" and for us to become friends again. :) Of course after about ten minutes I don't think he remembered it at all and he was back to being my best friend and clinging to my hand all the time. Love is a beautiful thing. The other night I was giving him a bath for the first time, and he wanted the independence of putting the shampoo in by himself. Of course he got too much in his hands which then went quickly into his eyes (by the way, all parents of toddlers should purchase kids' tear-free shampoo - gentle and wonderful), so I had him screaming bloody murder for a little while. If it wasn't the suds in his eyes, then it was the water being too cold and then too hot ("it buhns!"), and you know the drill. But finally I got him calmed down and we'd wait each time until the temperature felt just right (he'd let me know by the progression of, "too cold... too hot... nice" in a very gentle voice) and slowly but surely rinsed out all that silly shampoo. My heart melted and all the frustration was washed away in an instant when he gently said, "Katie? I love you." Sometimes love is all it takes to remind us that the buhns and the scwapes aren't so important in the end. 

crepes and cocktails

France is absolutely delicious! It's so fun to be able to walk down the street and have your choice of freshly baked pastries and crepes. Mmmm... Also, chocolat chaud is one of my favorite things about rainy days in Paris, like today. I think I'll go sip on one in a bit.

Yesterday we had our orientation day, where all 400 or so assistants from my académie met at a university an hour outside of the city. We listened to French people trying to explain complicated clerical processes in broken English, and it left us even more confused than before! But we ate a scrumptious free cafeteria meal and met in smaller groups in the afternoon to talk about life in the classroom. Then they helped us all open a bank account! Thank goodness, because it is insanely difficult for an American to do anything official and businessy here, there are so many documents and things required. 

I've been babysitting and living in this sweet studio apartment for a little over a week now, and it's wonderful! I have a mezzanine/loft place where my bed is, and I also have a living area with a sofa and even a little kitchen! A bunch of my assistant friends are still homeless and kind of desperately seeking a place to stay, so Chez Katie has been a popular place for people to crash for a night or two. This evening my girl Katie from Cali and I are gonna cook dinner for a little group at my apartment, and we'll watch Friends or some fun American movie to keep us laughing. Tomorrow is my first official day at school/work, and I have to get up pretty dang early to get there in time. It will be a Friday full of teenagers and school and then little kids and babysitting, but then it will be another weekend in PARIS! Life couldn't get any better.

Katie's home - time to have a snack and go window-shopping!

pareeee, the place to be

I officially live in Paris! Today my friend and I hung out in Melun where I had a scrumptious pain chocolate and then I packed up my valises and hopped the train to the second arrondissement, my new home. It is thrilling. This city is SO vibrant and vivacious, with all sorts of people everywhere you turn. I love just sitting and kinda listening, letting the waves of sounds and languages gently wash over my ears. I moved all my things into the really cute studio apartment that's one floor above my awesome family's apartment, and then I went to a cocktail/lecture sponsored by Vanderbilt! One of my new friends from Trinity International Church actually grew up in Knoxville and went to Vandy for grad school (what are the chances!?) and he told me about this sweet soirée. So tonight I got all prettied up and headed just down the street to spend a few hours schmoozing with my new friends (alumni that are mostly my parents' age, on a one-week exploration of Paris, as well as some folks who live in the city of lights permanently/for now). Okay, my computer's about to die, but I'll write more soon. Overall, life is grand and fabulous! Amen.

la vie est si belle!

Oh my goodness, what a life! 

I spent the weekend in jolie Paris (whee!) exploring and having a grand ole time with my new friends. The other assistants that I've met so far are fantastic. One girl even let me stay with her in the city, so we got to stay and play even longer! I went to the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Montmartre and Sacre Coeur, the Arc de Triomphe, and so much more. We watched the Tower, which is lit up a beautiful blue right now, sparkle twice, while eating a delicious Nutella crepe. We ate yummy Thai food and went to a cool tea room and saw some breathtaking churches. What a delightful weekend.

Today I stayed in Le Mée and let my feet rest. :) Then I went to the collège (middle school) where I'll be teaching and met with the principal who was so kind and friendly. The process of figuring out what hours I'll work and coordinating between the collège and the lycée (high school) is ongoing, but we have some semblance of a schedule set up. Now the question will be whether I can babysit in exchange for a studio, which is what I hope to do.  I met with five families last week, all of whom were wonderful as can be, but one of which stood out to me the most. They have four lovely children and a Pomeranian puppy Oona, and I felt like a part of their family from the first moment that I walked in the door. We'll see in the next few days whether me living and working with them is part of the Plan, and in the mean time, it sure is fun to dream about!

I am madly in love with peanut butter. It is my American best friend, aside from Betsy and Tiffany and Matt and Leah and all my actual American friends here. No matter what's going on or what's going wrong, I can have some PB and all is right with the world again.

Another pretty awesome part of life here so far is the church family - three, actually - that I've found. Not only do I have Trinity International and the American Church, but on Friday night I went to this rockin worship service at Hillsong, the same big family that makes my favorite worship music in Australia! It's such a blessing to be able to walk into a new building in a foreign city and immediately have a warm, loving family. So wonderful. 

Okay, time to tidy up my room (where I'm staying temporarily... I'll let you know as soon as I have a more permanent plan), and get ready for bed. Amusez-vous bien, et à la prochaine!

la vie en rose

I'm here!

I've been in France since last Wednesday, so I'm finally writing to fill you in on the past few days. At first it was so hard to be in this strange land (tiny village with no Americans and no kind smiles or friendly younger folk), and I really wanted to just go home immediately. Thankfully, though, I'm feeling much better and more comfortable, and I'm even getting excited about the year ahead! 

On Sunday I made a bunch of friends, one of whom is another assistant Jen. We met up in Paris on and commiserated about our struggles and frustrations over a delicious cup of chocolat chaud. Then we went to the American Church in Paris to look at postings for housing and childcare opportunities. I went to the end of the contemporary worship service there, and it was wonderful. Afterward I met several kind people who befriended me immediately, and the young adult social stuff there will be a fantastic way to make more friends. I had a muffin and a coca with Martine and her daughter Valérie, which was such a blessing. Valérie is "handicappée," so she is 34 years old but can't really eat or verbally communicate or walk by herself. Martine and I chatted about life and the Church and Islam (which she is a big fan of, despite her ongoing love for Christianity - really interesting conversation), and then she drove me to Trinity International Church. My new home away from home. They were so kind and friendly and warm - the very family that I'd been missing since I got to France. I even met a man who went to Vandy for grad school! Most of my friends are young married couples, which is so fun because they have babies! I went to the train station to head home, but I ended up waiting at the wrong place for an hour. Apparently, on Sunday nights the trains there don't go to my tinytinytiny town, or to the town next to mine, where my new friend Nicolas was heading. Eventually we got to the right station and on the right train, and I made it home safe and sound. 

Today we explored Melun, the town next to Le Mée sur Seine, and I bought a cell phone, got a little hostess gift for the teacher that's renting me a room while I look for a long-term place, and we ate at McDonald's! It warmed my soul, and it's actually a really different menu from our American MickeyD's. The "grand" coca is like a small in America. No wonder...

I'll start teaching on October 1st in Le Mée sur Seine, about an hour southeast of Paris. Until then I'm looking for a place to live, preferably in or nearer to the city. Ideally I could get a room in exchange for some baby-sitting hours, so if you know of anybody in need or any openings, let me know! I'll keep you posted as plans firm up and as things start really getting into gear. (Also, I'll soon post a photo of me actually wearing a beret, but for now, you can imagine.)

Merci, et à bientôt!

here we go...

I'm almost ready to leave America for a while. I have one day left to take care of business, and then I'm off to France! I'll be teaching conversational American English to teenagers for the year. I'm thrilled, and really excited about the adventure that is to come! I'll keep you posted, and you feel free to do the same.