new apartment:

ok, so i know it's been a while since i last wrote in this thing. i'm sorry. we don't have internet yet in our new apartment and it's a pain to sit on the cold stone benches in the wifi park down the street.

let me tell you about our place: it's pretty small - 30m2 about. it is basically a studio but there is a half wall that separates the sleeping space and the living space. it's really cute and the perfect size for the two of us. we still have a lot to do in it though because the last people who lived here took a lot of the furniture and we don't have everything we need. i am currently sleeping on the couch which isn't the most comfortable thing in the world. it's too short for me. i'm going to get a futon this weekend at ikea. we're going on a HUGE ikea run. luckily, our landlord has told us she will reimburse us for whatever necessities we have to buy (like a bed...).

tuesday night was fun. we lost power. turns out the guy before us turned off the power and didn't inform the electric company that someone new was coming in. so at about 9pm they cut our electricity. we spent the night in the dark, took cold showers in the morning and got our electricity back by yesterday morning. it was rough, not going to lie. but we survived.

yesterday was my first FULL day of teaching. i saw all of my classes. it was really fun. i made this powerpoint slide show thing with pictures and info about where i come from, what my family and friends are like, what i do for fun...basically, what it's like to be an american. they all loved it. especially the pictures of my kitties and the four seasons. they were amazed by the snow. i have some really pretty pictures of our house in the snow around christmas time and they thought it was the most beautiful thing. one of them said it looks like a movie. they are really sweet kids. i think this is going to be a really cool experience. and i was afraid that i have been planning to teach in the states and that i would suck at it. i think i'm pretty good at this though.

i think maybe next time i'll do something about music. they all want to hear me sing because i talked about when i auditioned for American Idol. maybe i'll find a couple of songs and print out the lyrics. like, maybe I could do you've got a friend - james taylor version - because it's pretty simple and it has some good vocab. any suggestions?

hmmm...what else? oh, it was my birthday on sunday (the 12th). i didn't do much for my birthday because caitlin and i moved in that weekend and were exhausted. i did, however, go to a democrats abroad party in fourqueux and sang the national anthem. oh! maybe i could teach them about the national anthem and i could sing it for them? anyway, that was fun. i ate so much food. that was the best part really.

so more about our place - we live in montmartre which is where the moulin Rouge, sacre Coeur, place du tertres, etc are. it's a really fun place but we have to be a little cautious at our metro stop because it's right in the middle of the redlight district. there are more sex shops and strip joints down the hill from us...the best is when some guy looks both ways and tries to sneak into a porn cinema without being seen...in the middle of a hugely touristy neighborhood. classic.

there is a pretty famous restaurant right outside our window called le moulin de la galette. it's really beautiful and it has a big windmill (moulin means windmill...moulin rouge is a big red windmill...get it?) on top of it. i imagine there are windmills up here because we're on top of the highest point in paris? they don't really function though. speaking of the highest point in paris, our walk from the metro to our apartment is a serious hike. it's all uphill. but, we found a little bus called the montmartrobus and it drives all over montmartre. it has saved us from passing out and/or getting soaked in the rain many times already. i love it - there are all these little old ladies who take it everyday and i've gotten to know some of them. maybe i should take a hint from the fact that i'm the youngest (by about 50 years) who regularly uses the bus. hey, i have a sprained ankle thanks to running on the cobblestones so that's my excuse. (yeah, i rolled my foot over a cobblestone running near notre dame and it made the most disturbing cracking/tearing noise i've ever heard my body make. now it's swollen like a big tennis ball and black and blue. it's getting better though - i think i'll be able to run by this weekend...in a park.)

so, i hope to have internet and a phone within the next week or so. at that point i will blog on a regular basis. mom has been bugging me every time i talk to her to write more. (oh, mom...could we change from mommy to mom? i'm getting made fun of. loooooooove you!) i love that i'm worried about getting made fun of for that but not for BLASTING carrie underwood with my windows open in the middle of paris. ok, until next time...