L'entrée

Week 1

The first week in Paris, it has gone by pretty quickly and I've got quite a bit to say.

Living:

The house is nice, my room is big and my flatmates are nice, so I can’t complain there. However they are always busy, so we rarely ever see each other, which is not what im used to – me and my housemates did everything together last year at university, but it’s quite clear here that that’s only going to happen on the weekends if at all.

As for my hostess, I like her as a person but I really don’t like her as a landlord.  Perhaps it’s the language barrier or something but I feel sometimes that she’s treating me like a child and I won’t have it. For example, to get my attention, she only comes to the stairs and then shouts  (yes shouts) CHARLES, CHARLES, CHARLES, like she’s my mother and that I need to arrive immediately. Well she’s not my mother, and I don’t have to listen to her. Also she says things as if they are rules – like come unload the dishwasher, don’t do this, don’t do that and it’s testing my patience. I feel better that she treats everyone like this so it’s not just me, it’s just her personality. The only reason I haven’t  said anything yet is because I haven’t even been here a week and she is really a nice person when not being a tenant and so I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt for the moment.

However, if things continue, in the NICEST way possible, I will make it clear to her that although I am a tenant in her house, I pay for my room and am not her son. So - don’t treat me like a kid, treat me like an adult because I am one and we will get along fine. Otherwise we will have issues, but I would rather we got along. Capiche?

Challenges:

- Obviously there’s the language barrier, but its more than just that, people don’t really accommodate for you as much as I had hoped. At work (working as an English language assistant) – even my English co-worker speaks to me in French, and like im her equal, not as someone who barely understands what she’s saying lol.

Makes it harder to make myself understood as people don’t like waiting for me to finish my sentences, often try and finish them for me with a bad outcome. Same for social integration, cracking jokes, making friends, or just being my usual self – someone who loves talking, well it makes life that much harder.

Unfortunately this stupid language thing applies to everything, sending a post, opening a bank, registering at school. I know it must be like this at the start, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it :-)

Travel:

 I live outside paris so getting to work takes me about an hour – that’s to one school, the other is bout 40 mins. But im not too bothered bout dat yet, well i dunno, I might be in the future but I haven’t really started work and it’s only four days a week so I don’t know. There’s a bus just outside the house that goes to the metro so that’s cool.

However, if it’s about travelling around my town then that’s another story – all the simple things I want to do, like go shopping, or go to the gym, or mainly join sports clubs etc, all the locations are really close – too close to make a bus waste of time, but not close enough so that going by foot becomes an absolute mission. For example, to go to football training today– I had to walk there and back – took me an hour. No point getting a bus because it wouldn’t help.

So I really want to get a bike, but they are ridiculously expensive, went to the shopping centre and the cheapest one I could find is 120 euros. Also, I don’t want do anything yet to commit myself to my current location like buying a bike, coz i mite move if i don’t like it here once i start work.

On the other hand, my landlord’s son offered for me to use his bike as he has a car and a motorbike which is great! But it’s broken, and asking him to fix it well it’s awkward, so im not quite sure to handle that yet, especially as I hardly see him and whenever he gets home he’s tired anyway.

- However the most troubling thing I’ve found so far, which i wasn’t prepared for at all is not being a student! For the first time in my life im not a student and its very, very, very different. I don’t get student discount on anything, I can’t meet people at my university, and I can’t use university facilities. So add that to language barrier and joining clubs as an adult is STUPIDLY expensive, like 150 euros for the year (and you have to join for the year straight up), travel cards cost twice as much, making friends and meeting people just went up a few levels, especially when you don’t know where on earth you’re supposed to go!!!

Now, that might have sounded like I’m having a bad time, but I’m not, I just needed someone to vent too. In retrospect, i’ve only been here a week and all by myself ive:

- Completely explored my town

- Gone to my school, met all the teachers there, registered etc

- Opened a bank account, got social security number, got a travel card

- Met a lot of people by going on various 3 hours walks (no im not joking) exploring the town

- Been to basketball, football and table tennis training sessions, made friends, made myself known

- Got a potential job offer in Opera (apparently really expensive place in Paris) where they give up to 200 euros in tips daily – YES PLEASE

- Completely familiarised myself with the travel system here, bus, train, metro so I don’t need a map or aid anymore

All this in 6 days, you might say I’m proud of myself.

As for the rest of my week:

- Wednesday, got a party for all the assistants in paris, then dash back for basketball training, then head out for drinks (hopefully) with this Canadian guy i met here who’s keen to speak English but who doesn’t mind me speaking French to him

- Thursday, meeting at my school to discuss my role and working hours, renew my resident permit,  meet some friends in paris, dash back for football training 8-10 pm. Head out again for Erasmus (foreign students) night with someone i met here.

- Friday, recover.

So all in all, i don’t think I could have done more since I’ve been here and I think i’m going to like France.....a lot  :-)