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!