Hola y Feliz Navidad! I’m back in Guatemala enjoying another Christmas in one of my favorite cities, Antigua. I decided to return back this year to check out our H.U.G. (Help Understand Give) Guatemala project, and to share this beautiful country and holiday season with my family and friends.
Although I usually travel alone or have a friend meet up while I check out or create new business developments for Cultural Embrace’s program, my oldest sister, Ann, brother-in-law, Bill, and 12 years-old niece and nephew, Michael and Alexa wanted to go on a meaningful vacation during the holidays. They currently live in a town right next to San Mateo, California (near San Francisco), so they thought it would be fitting to spend the holidays sharing it with children from our H.U.G. project in San Mateo, Guatemala (near Antigua). So this is a rare, yet very special treat to have my family join me on this holiday adventure.
I have customized this trip a bit from our typical Volunteer in Guatemala week program, or our popular requested Group Travel itinerary, so we can have a family fun-packed week. We are spending the first 5 days in Antigua…one of the most charming cities in the world. It is foreign-friendly city, with cobble-stone streets filled with delicious restaurant, cafes, shops, and hotels; yet it still maintains the local Guatemalan culture (indigenous and modern) and charm.
Most of our participants take 4 hours of one-on-one Spanish lessons with our partnering language school in Antigua, and I was thrilled when Michael and Alexa agreed to take lessons during their ‘vacation’. We enrolled them for two hours of Spanish a day for the next three days which is perfect for younger children and their attention span…and they had a blast! I loved hearing that they had more fun and learned more Spanish in the first two hours than all the years that they have been learning Spanish since age 3 from day care years. And to be honest, their attitude and confidence in Spanish showed immediately after their first class, as they were trying to speak Spanish to the waitress.
Ok, I can go on and on, but it’s 7pm on Christmas Eve. I certainly don’t want to miss a meal in Antigua, as the restaurants and cafes are delicious and beautiful. And then will join the locals and celebrate Christmas by attending a service at the Cathedral located in the town square. Feliz Navidad to you and your loved ones!
Monday, December 27, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Bon Appetit- by Current Teacher in China Robin
This is just a snapshot of some random moments that actually happen to us on a daily basis.
Jeff and I are at dinner at our favorite restaurant, which translates directly to "Special Restaurant." We eat there at least 3 times a week. At first glance you wouldn't even think that this place was a restaurant, it looks more like a glorified storage shed. But this place serves up some of the best fried eggplant, dumplings, stir fried cabbage, etc this side of the Yellow River. So there we were, enjoying our meal of sweet and sour pork and egg and tomato on rice. Well, almost enjoying it. There was one very pesky fly that wouldn't leave us alone. So Jeff helps himself to the electric fly swatter tennis racket thing that the lady keeps behind her counter where you pay, and brings it back to the table. For the next 5 minutes, Jeff is swinging this thing around the room, or trapping flies underneath his deadly weapon on the tables next to us, all while the rest of China is trying to eat their dinner.
But this one particular fly proved very evasive. It was like watching some predator/prey documentary as Jeff would pause mid mouthful and swing at this fly until finally, with a might swing and a surprising ZAP! he got it. There was much rejoicing, at least on Jeff's part, as he tried to explain himself to the restaurant owner. We did get the thumbs up from the guy sitting next to us, while the rest of his table laughed it up at the ridiculous Americans.
Just another day in China....At least the zapped fly didn't land in our dinner...
Robin
Teacher
China
.
Jeff and I are at dinner at our favorite restaurant, which translates directly to "Special Restaurant." We eat there at least 3 times a week. At first glance you wouldn't even think that this place was a restaurant, it looks more like a glorified storage shed. But this place serves up some of the best fried eggplant, dumplings, stir fried cabbage, etc this side of the Yellow River. So there we were, enjoying our meal of sweet and sour pork and egg and tomato on rice. Well, almost enjoying it. There was one very pesky fly that wouldn't leave us alone. So Jeff helps himself to the electric fly swatter tennis racket thing that the lady keeps behind her counter where you pay, and brings it back to the table. For the next 5 minutes, Jeff is swinging this thing around the room, or trapping flies underneath his deadly weapon on the tables next to us, all while the rest of China is trying to eat their dinner.
But this one particular fly proved very evasive. It was like watching some predator/prey documentary as Jeff would pause mid mouthful and swing at this fly until finally, with a might swing and a surprising ZAP! he got it. There was much rejoicing, at least on Jeff's part, as he tried to explain himself to the restaurant owner. We did get the thumbs up from the guy sitting next to us, while the rest of his table laughed it up at the ridiculous Americans.
Just another day in China....At least the zapped fly didn't land in our dinner...
Robin
Teacher
China
.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
My Experience Teaching English Abroad- by Current Teacher in China Luan
My name is Luan Lierman and I'm currently teaching in China. I first came to Yantai, China in 2008 with Cultural Embrace. Believe it or not, it's already been two years and China's become my home away from home.
I graduated from College in the summer of 08' and found myself wondering, "what's the next step?" I didn't have a teaching degree instead I had an International Business degree so firstly, I wanted to improve my language ability. Secondly, where's the best place to do business? China! I went online and typed in, "Jobs in China." Well, all I could find was teach, teach, teach.
Then I saw the Cultural Embrace website that caught my eye for several reasons. It wasn't just about teaching abroad. Cultural Embrace is about travelling and learning a new culture. After reading the purpose of Cultural Embrace, I felt I not only wanted to go learn Chinese, but I wanted to learn more about China, and take a leap of faith and try out my teaching skills.
Cultural Embrace helped me with my visa process, and prepared me for what I thought was going to be a 6 month journey, now has turned into a lifetime, as though it seems.
I've had so many amazing experiences in China. To mention a few: my fiance at the time came to visit me for a month, and he decided to stay and teach. In April 2009, we had a wedding ceremony in Yantai at a nearby Christian church. That was a big event. Over 300 of our students and their families attended. We later had our American wedding back in Washington during the summer. We come home once a year. The friends we've made in Yantai are lifetime friends. Zoe and Molly...I will never forget you.
I've referred several of my friends to Cultural Embrace and they've told me how satisfied they were with the service and communication.
To wrap it up, I just want to say "live your life to the fullest!" Travelling, working, or studying abroad can help expand your world and make it a more abundent place. Thank you.
Peace,
Luan Lierman
Teacher
China
.
I graduated from College in the summer of 08' and found myself wondering, "what's the next step?" I didn't have a teaching degree instead I had an International Business degree so firstly, I wanted to improve my language ability. Secondly, where's the best place to do business? China! I went online and typed in, "Jobs in China." Well, all I could find was teach, teach, teach.
Then I saw the Cultural Embrace website that caught my eye for several reasons. It wasn't just about teaching abroad. Cultural Embrace is about travelling and learning a new culture. After reading the purpose of Cultural Embrace, I felt I not only wanted to go learn Chinese, but I wanted to learn more about China, and take a leap of faith and try out my teaching skills.
Cultural Embrace helped me with my visa process, and prepared me for what I thought was going to be a 6 month journey, now has turned into a lifetime, as though it seems.
I've had so many amazing experiences in China. To mention a few: my fiance at the time came to visit me for a month, and he decided to stay and teach. In April 2009, we had a wedding ceremony in Yantai at a nearby Christian church. That was a big event. Over 300 of our students and their families attended. We later had our American wedding back in Washington during the summer. We come home once a year. The friends we've made in Yantai are lifetime friends. Zoe and Molly...I will never forget you.
I've referred several of my friends to Cultural Embrace and they've told me how satisfied they were with the service and communication.
To wrap it up, I just want to say "live your life to the fullest!" Travelling, working, or studying abroad can help expand your world and make it a more abundent place. Thank you.
Peace,
Luan Lierman
Teacher
China
.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Teaching Writing Has Its Perks- by 2 Current Teachers in China Robin and Jeff
I asked my students to practice writing paragraphs by writing about one of their favorite things to do. I got this gem as a response.
"My favorite thing is play basketball. Playing basketball is a very cool thing becase I think if someone play basketball well, he or she will be pimp and easy to find boyfriend or girlfriend."
A for originality.
Jeff and Robin
Teachers
China
.
"My favorite thing is play basketball. Playing basketball is a very cool thing becase I think if someone play basketball well, he or she will be pimp and easy to find boyfriend or girlfriend."
A for originality.
Jeff and Robin
Teachers
China
.
Friday, December 10, 2010
A Day in the Life of English Teachers in China- by Current Teacher in China Robin
It has been a long time!!!! I swore I would not be the person who started a blog and then quit after a month, so consider this my attempt to make up for my previous neglect.
I had a few other blogs saved but they were lost when my computer was Chinafied, but also, life here has settled into a routine so I feel like suddenly we have become less interesting :)
An average day for us consists of a quick breakfast and then a scooter ride to East campus, where we have Chinese class with the other foreign teachers and exchange students, if one of us doesn't have to teach in the morning. We are either in Chinese class, or teaching English, until 11:40. Then we have two hours for a lunch break. Usually we fill this time with our p90x workout. Our friends Van and Luan have been working out with us, which keeps me from just blowing it off everyday. We have been using Jeff's living room as a gym for some of the workouts, but for the ones where we have to do an absurd number of pullups, we go outside to the playground thing in front of our building and workout there. As if being American in China isn't enough, imagine doing a plyometric workout in the middle of campus. We literally get groups of students that walk up right next to us, and then just stand there and watch for a little while. One of Van's students told him the next day that she saw him dancing with some other Americans in the park...sure, call it dancing. Anyways, Jeff wrote about all of this already so I shall move on.
After our workout, I have to run off to class at 2. I only have to teach 2 classes a day, Monday through Thursday, so I get a three day weekend every week, much to Jeff's chagrin. Jeff teaches 3 classes on Mondays and Fridays, but the middle of his week is much easier. He teaches 2 classes on Tuesday, 1 on Wednesday and none on Thursday. I think we are getting too comfortable when we complain about having to work 6 hours a day on the busy days.
We are working on adding some extra hours to our schedule through outside tutoring. I work three days a week at a Korean school in Huang Hai, the Korean village just 15 minutes walking distance from our apartment building. I also teach another group of students at another school once a week. These outside jobs pay better than our jobs at the Institute per hour, so we are trying to live off of just tutoring money so we can save our salaries. While teaching the college students has gotten a lot better, getting to teach kids who actually understand English and who have personalities reminds me that I do still like teaching. About three weeks ago, our tutoring hours doubled so we have much busier weekends. Jeff teaches kindergarden downtown, so go ahead and picture him standing there teaching the letter "E." "Eddie the Elephant has an eggcup..." (Of all the English words, these people want the kids to know what an eggcup is....)
After we get finished teaching, usually around 4 or 5:40, depending on the day, we walk down "Eat Street" to one of our favorite restaurants and get dinner. For about $6, we can get three giant dishes that not only feed us for the night, but serve as the next day's reheated lunch. We usually get kung pao chicken, some kind of fried eggplant dish which tastes AMAZING, and a spicy shredded potato dish. Having friends who speak Chinese has done wonders for our diets :)
After dinner, we come back home and take it easy for the rest of the night. Sometimes that means Jeff sits down for four hours in front of the TV to watch Season 8 of 24 (so I get a lot of time to myself...), or we grade some papers and maybe study some Chinese. Our current favorite pastime however, is descending the 12 stairs to Van and Luan's apartment to spend the evening eating fruit and getting riled up over a game of the Settlers of Catan. The beginning of the game usually starts out pretty friendly and casual, but once we get into it and people start collecting 7 points (you need 10 to win), that is when the yelling begins. Regardless of who wins, we always leave as friends...most of the time.
So there you have it. An average day in the life of Jeff and Robin in China. Sometimes we mix it up and pay badminton (MY NEW FAVORITE SPORT!!!!!! It's just like volleyball, except that the net is lower and I have one really long right arm!) Our friends Eric, Katie and Joni all love to play too, so I think we will be half moving into the gym in the winter. And there are the occasional spa days of course, but overall, life has settled down for us. We were talking over our barbequed squid last night about how happy we both are in China. When we first got here, I wanted the time to hurry up and pass because 10 months seemed so long and I wanted to get some of it behind us. But now it is already the end of November and I know that we will be on a plane headed west before we know it. So, here we are, trying to soak it in and enjoy the adventures as they come.
Well, I had better be going. I have to teach this morning in Huang Hai, and so does Jeff. Maybe we will stop at the Korean bakery and get some lattes on the way back! The ladies are planning to go downtown to do some shopping this afternoon(knock off Ugg boots here I come!) and then we are all meeting up at Mama's, the American restaurant, for a nice long dinner of fajitas! So life is good here in Yantai.
Robin
Teacher
China
.
I had a few other blogs saved but they were lost when my computer was Chinafied, but also, life here has settled into a routine so I feel like suddenly we have become less interesting :)
An average day for us consists of a quick breakfast and then a scooter ride to East campus, where we have Chinese class with the other foreign teachers and exchange students, if one of us doesn't have to teach in the morning. We are either in Chinese class, or teaching English, until 11:40. Then we have two hours for a lunch break. Usually we fill this time with our p90x workout. Our friends Van and Luan have been working out with us, which keeps me from just blowing it off everyday. We have been using Jeff's living room as a gym for some of the workouts, but for the ones where we have to do an absurd number of pullups, we go outside to the playground thing in front of our building and workout there. As if being American in China isn't enough, imagine doing a plyometric workout in the middle of campus. We literally get groups of students that walk up right next to us, and then just stand there and watch for a little while. One of Van's students told him the next day that she saw him dancing with some other Americans in the park...sure, call it dancing. Anyways, Jeff wrote about all of this already so I shall move on.
After our workout, I have to run off to class at 2. I only have to teach 2 classes a day, Monday through Thursday, so I get a three day weekend every week, much to Jeff's chagrin. Jeff teaches 3 classes on Mondays and Fridays, but the middle of his week is much easier. He teaches 2 classes on Tuesday, 1 on Wednesday and none on Thursday. I think we are getting too comfortable when we complain about having to work 6 hours a day on the busy days.
We are working on adding some extra hours to our schedule through outside tutoring. I work three days a week at a Korean school in Huang Hai, the Korean village just 15 minutes walking distance from our apartment building. I also teach another group of students at another school once a week. These outside jobs pay better than our jobs at the Institute per hour, so we are trying to live off of just tutoring money so we can save our salaries. While teaching the college students has gotten a lot better, getting to teach kids who actually understand English and who have personalities reminds me that I do still like teaching. About three weeks ago, our tutoring hours doubled so we have much busier weekends. Jeff teaches kindergarden downtown, so go ahead and picture him standing there teaching the letter "E." "Eddie the Elephant has an eggcup..." (Of all the English words, these people want the kids to know what an eggcup is....)
After we get finished teaching, usually around 4 or 5:40, depending on the day, we walk down "Eat Street" to one of our favorite restaurants and get dinner. For about $6, we can get three giant dishes that not only feed us for the night, but serve as the next day's reheated lunch. We usually get kung pao chicken, some kind of fried eggplant dish which tastes AMAZING, and a spicy shredded potato dish. Having friends who speak Chinese has done wonders for our diets :)
After dinner, we come back home and take it easy for the rest of the night. Sometimes that means Jeff sits down for four hours in front of the TV to watch Season 8 of 24 (so I get a lot of time to myself...), or we grade some papers and maybe study some Chinese. Our current favorite pastime however, is descending the 12 stairs to Van and Luan's apartment to spend the evening eating fruit and getting riled up over a game of the Settlers of Catan. The beginning of the game usually starts out pretty friendly and casual, but once we get into it and people start collecting 7 points (you need 10 to win), that is when the yelling begins. Regardless of who wins, we always leave as friends...most of the time.
So there you have it. An average day in the life of Jeff and Robin in China. Sometimes we mix it up and pay badminton (MY NEW FAVORITE SPORT!!!!!! It's just like volleyball, except that the net is lower and I have one really long right arm!) Our friends Eric, Katie and Joni all love to play too, so I think we will be half moving into the gym in the winter. And there are the occasional spa days of course, but overall, life has settled down for us. We were talking over our barbequed squid last night about how happy we both are in China. When we first got here, I wanted the time to hurry up and pass because 10 months seemed so long and I wanted to get some of it behind us. But now it is already the end of November and I know that we will be on a plane headed west before we know it. So, here we are, trying to soak it in and enjoy the adventures as they come.
Well, I had better be going. I have to teach this morning in Huang Hai, and so does Jeff. Maybe we will stop at the Korean bakery and get some lattes on the way back! The ladies are planning to go downtown to do some shopping this afternoon(knock off Ugg boots here I come!) and then we are all meeting up at Mama's, the American restaurant, for a nice long dinner of fajitas! So life is good here in Yantai.
Robin
Teacher
China
.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Climbing Machu Picchu y El Fin...-Final Entry by Current Teacher in Chile Caroline
After some extensive thought on the matter, I have decided that it is impossible to say "I climbed a freaking mountain!" without appearing as though bragging. After even more extensive thought on the matter, I have also decided that I don't care if it looks like I'm bragging, because I did in fact climb a freaking mountain and I'm pretty darn proud of myself. It was, without a doubt, the hardest physical thing I have ever done in my (rather sedentary) life.
The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is not for the faint of heart: it took us 4 days to hike about 28 miles up into the clouds. Some of the people in my group had run marathons before, and they said that this hike was in a lot of ways harder than a marathon (mostly because of the I-can't-breathe-in-this-altitude thing). I even found out that Katie Couric tried to do this hike and failed, which makes me more awesome than Katie Couric.
The first day was definitely the easiest day; it was mostly rolling hills (which is called "Peruvian flat" by the locals). The only bad part about the first day was my brilliant idea to buckle the chest strap on my backpack (which was set to the tightest setting) right after I climbed a hill, in order to take some pressure off of my back. Turns out that doing this almost immediately cut off all the blood that was pumping to my head, causing me to come pretty darn close to passing out. In addition to seeing some really pretty white lights, I was wobbling worse than Lindsey Lohan leaving a bar. Luckily, there was a vacationing doctor in our group that just happened to be right by me when this all this went down, so I was well taken care of.
 |
| Dead Woman's Pass. Those tiny dots in the middle are people. |
The second day of the hike can only be described self-inflicted misery: 5 miles straight up to an altitude of 14,000 feet via the appropriately named "Dead Woman's Pass" and 2 more miles straight down. I basically spent the entire first part of the day regretting every decision that got me to that point, while at the same time hoping that sweet death would spare me from having to take one more step up that bloody mountain. Miraculously, I eventually made it to the top of "Dead Woman's Pass" (named for the mountain formation that looks like a very well-endowed lady taking a nap) without actually becoming a dead woman myself. The rest of the day was completely downhill to camp. I'm not sure if it's because my body was just so happy to not be going uphill anymore, but this downhill business turned out to be my forte: I rock-hopped my way down that mountain like a mountain goat and was the first one in my group back to camp that night!
Day three wasn't a bowl of giggles either; our guide Jose called it "The Gringo Killer" since the entire stinkin day was nothing but downhill on stupidly steep Incan steps. All my zeal for going downhill from the day before disappeared about 2 hours after we left camp that morning when my knees decided that they hated me. On top of everything else, there was some never-ending rain that made the whole day a broken ankle waiting to happen (luckily I had my trusty Gandalf walkin stick to keep that from happening). On the bright side, we saw some really excellent views and some Incan ruins. Even so, when this day was over my body hurt like I had been stabbed by a thousand spoons.
 |
| Yeah. It was amazing. |
The fourth day began at the very un-Caroline hour of 3:30 am. This was the day when we hiked the final stretch of the trail to Machu Picchu. The first part of the hike wasn't bad at all and was filled with some of the most amazing views of the sun rising over the mountains and the cloud forest. Eventually we stumbled upon the final "Gringo Killer" which was basically a rock wall with tiny steps straight up. Finally, we made it to the "Sun Gate" that faced Machu Picchu over a valley. I would be lying if I said that pure exhaustion and relief didn't make me shed a few tears when I saw Machu Picchu for the first time. When we finally reached Machu Picchu, we took some time to do the obligatory photo shoot and then had a two hour tour of the city. There is no way that anything I could write would do the place justice, so just believe me when I say that you should go if you ever get the chance. Probably the only down side of my time at Machu Picchu was the overwhelming amount of tourists; it was like an ancient ruins version of Walt Disney World. I immediately resented the lot of them for being well dressed and showered while I was smellier and sweatier than a hobo.
A side-note on camping: I don't like it. Give me a shower and a Holiday Inn and I'm a happy Caroline.
After I got back to Iquique I only had a week left before I would take a plane back to Santiago. My last week was spent saying goodbye to all of the friends I met, bonding with Mateo, and having the most awesome going away ceremony thrown for me at my school. They even gave me my own school uniform! The kids were really sweet and gave me lots of little goodbye notes; I can honestly say that I will miss them and am so glad that I was able to be there to help motivate them to learn some English.
Saying goodbye to my host family was especially difficult. I gave them all some little Texas gifts that my wonderful family sent me from home, and they were super excited (especially my host dad when he was introduced to a beer koozie for the first time). I even gave Mateo a festive holiday sweater to add to his closet, as well as an enormous doggie biscuit in the shape of Texas that said "Woof, y'all" on it. He seemed pleased. I will definitely miss my host family and my wonderful co-teacher Isabel; they welcomed me and cared for me like they had known me my entire life.
I caught my plane back to Santiago on the 24th to attend the closing ceremony of the English Opens Doors program at the United Nations headquarters. Now that the program has officially ended, I have moved into my buddy Melissa's apartment in Santiago until December 7th, when I fly back to Texas. Melissa and I are planning on doing a little travelling to the towns surrounding Santiago as well as a 5 day trip to Mendoza, Argentina next week. I will be doing a final post after that to let you know how awesome it is :-)
I've uploaded all of my Machu Picchu pictures and my going-away pictures from Iquique to my online photo album. You can see them by going to http://carolineenlaciudad.photoshop.com/. Enjoy! Until next time, here is the philosophical question of the day:
Why do they call it a TV set when you only get one?
-Caroline
Teacher
Chile
P.S. - To those of you feeling sorry for me for missing Thanksgiving, fear not: I brought the turkey-lovin' down to Santiago! Melissa and I bought a 10 pound turkey (which was pretty difficult to find) and named him Juanito. We bought all the stuff to do my grandmother's fantastic recipes of dressing, broccoli with olive butter, pan gravy, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Since neither pre-made pie crust nor canned pumpkins exist in Chile, the pie was really a labor of love. In the end, everything turned out delicious and I got to share my Thanksgiving traditions with 3 Mexicans, 1 Colombian, and a Chilean. They loved it!
 |
| Juanito gave his life so that I could have my Chilean Thanksgiving. Gracias Juanito! |
.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Great- by Current Au Pair in France Stephanie Pratt
Sorry it's been so long, I have no excuses except that I'm just living. My computer was broken though for a little while, but I think even if it was fixed I would have been distracted. Distracted is the perfect word for how I feel. I can't concentrate on anything because I have so many thoughts swimming around my head right now.
Unfortunately I'm still dealing with awkwardness in the house but I think I'm the only one who feels it. There are just some things I don't understand I guess. I feel uncomfortable sometimes but I think I'm just having trouble letting myself be seen in anyway other than as an employee which is not the point of the placement. I'm getting better every day at opening up to this wonderful family and I think that they are starting to see my efforts to connect with them.
On another thought, I went on a vacation not too long ago at the end of October. I went to Berlin, Koln, to Brussels and back to Paris. It was AMAZING. In Berlin I got to see an amazing exhibit on Hitler at the National Museum there. In Koln I walked to the top of the Koln Dom. Why? I don't know but after a 97 m hike up the tiniest whirliest stair case my legs were shaking and I could barely walk. It was worth the hike though and it was an amazing view in a beautiful church. In Brussels I went to see a friend's band play, did I mention I was with my friend the whole time? No? Okay well I was with emmie; she's best friends with my best friends older sister. She lives in Berlin, and since I moved to Paris it made sense to meet up at least once. Anyway, so in Brussels I went to see a band on Halloween, dressed up as Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. I unfortunately have no pictures of me in my costume. But I did a photo project and tried to take a Polaroid of every gas station we stopped at. I got back to Paris November 1st, and now I've been working, floating around, going to school and day dreaming of my next excursion to London.
I warned you I feel distracted, I'm changing subjects now. Paris has been wonderful to me and I'm looking forward to this Friday evening. I found some good clubs and bars that play actual music and not ONLY techno. Thank goodness. Tonight me and my friend Lindsey are going to do the twist and maybe shout. By shout I mean invite these French boys we meet that are new to Paris as well. Oh la la Paris has so much to do. I wish I was just a little closer to Paris. I have nothing to do until tonight. I'm tight on money so I can't go entertain myself by shopping and it is almost not worth it to go into Paris, come home to eat and get ready and go back. That is easily and hour and a half of just travel time. Le Vesinet is beautiful but come on the only young spot is closed right now to be re-modeled. Just my luck. So my options are to browse through expensive old lady stores, browse through the monoprix, go to a park and freeze, eat (but I shouldn't because I'm bored or spend the money) or sit at home. I chose sit at home.
Well, look at these pictures now.
Stephanie Pratt
Au Pair
France
.
Unfortunately I'm still dealing with awkwardness in the house but I think I'm the only one who feels it. There are just some things I don't understand I guess. I feel uncomfortable sometimes but I think I'm just having trouble letting myself be seen in anyway other than as an employee which is not the point of the placement. I'm getting better every day at opening up to this wonderful family and I think that they are starting to see my efforts to connect with them.
On another thought, I went on a vacation not too long ago at the end of October. I went to Berlin, Koln, to Brussels and back to Paris. It was AMAZING. In Berlin I got to see an amazing exhibit on Hitler at the National Museum there. In Koln I walked to the top of the Koln Dom. Why? I don't know but after a 97 m hike up the tiniest whirliest stair case my legs were shaking and I could barely walk. It was worth the hike though and it was an amazing view in a beautiful church. In Brussels I went to see a friend's band play, did I mention I was with my friend the whole time? No? Okay well I was with emmie; she's best friends with my best friends older sister. She lives in Berlin, and since I moved to Paris it made sense to meet up at least once. Anyway, so in Brussels I went to see a band on Halloween, dressed up as Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. I unfortunately have no pictures of me in my costume. But I did a photo project and tried to take a Polaroid of every gas station we stopped at. I got back to Paris November 1st, and now I've been working, floating around, going to school and day dreaming of my next excursion to London.
I warned you I feel distracted, I'm changing subjects now. Paris has been wonderful to me and I'm looking forward to this Friday evening. I found some good clubs and bars that play actual music and not ONLY techno. Thank goodness. Tonight me and my friend Lindsey are going to do the twist and maybe shout. By shout I mean invite these French boys we meet that are new to Paris as well. Oh la la Paris has so much to do. I wish I was just a little closer to Paris. I have nothing to do until tonight. I'm tight on money so I can't go entertain myself by shopping and it is almost not worth it to go into Paris, come home to eat and get ready and go back. That is easily and hour and a half of just travel time. Le Vesinet is beautiful but come on the only young spot is closed right now to be re-modeled. Just my luck. So my options are to browse through expensive old lady stores, browse through the monoprix, go to a park and freeze, eat (but I shouldn't because I'm bored or spend the money) or sit at home. I chose sit at home.
Well, look at these pictures now.
Au Pair
France
.
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