Tomorrow marks 2 weeks. My life has totally been turned upside down. France is considered a “Western,” 1st world country – but oh how different it is. CULTURE SHOCK. It’s real. I figured I would have it when I went to Russia, but well, it’s RUSSIA. But France? Pff.
How wrong I was.
Thankfully, I’m adjusting. This week I felt confident enough to venture into Paris and explore. Just so we all understand, I live in a suburb. “Technically” I’m not IN Paris. But I’m 20 minutes (by car) to the Eiffel Tower. As far as I’m concerned, I live “in Paris.”
Moving on.
My initial exploration started with finding church my third day in France. What an adventure. I arrived at the tram station to realize the machine only takes coins. So I returned home… My host family kindly gave me tickets and wished me luck (again). I switched from tram to metro and found the church building, no problems. At church they gave me a translator because my French isn’t up to par yet.
Returning home proved to be more difficult. My last ticket (from metro to tram) didn’t work. So I tried buying a ticket. I found out later, I bought a ticket for a train instead of the tram. There are 3 different colored machines, I went to the yellow when I should have gone to the blue, and the green is for the RER (also a type of train). And if that wasn’t confusing enough, in Paris there is the Tram, Metro, RER, Train, and Bus. It’s nice to have so many options, but IT’S SO MANY OPTIONS. I did the math today and realized I’ve been spending 2 Euros extra each time I’ve gone to Paris because I took the RER instead of the Metro. Okay I’ll stop rambling now. Anyways, I ended up walking over a hour to get home because I fail at public transportation.
I was very intimidated after this experience, and all last week I stayed home unless my family took me to Paris. Thankfully, I had a placement test at my school in Paris on Monday. I was forced to break out of my comfort zone – which did so much good for me. Also, another au pair explained the whole public transport and machine color difference.
Now to delve into the “exploration” part of this post. This last sunday, I went to Saint Germain-en-Laye for lunch with a friend and her family. Charming town, delicious food, and wonderful company.
Then there was my visit to Notre Dame. My language school is less than 2 minutes walk so I will see this beauty twice a week. 🙂 🙂 🙂
There’s a chain of bakeries named “Paul.” It makes me so happy.
And just two days ago, I attended an “au pair meet up.” Since we all move here knowing no one, we form groups on Facebook and organize get togethers. We gathered outside the Palais Garnier (Opera House) and walked to the Galerie Lafayette. The Galerie Lafayette is a massive mall with a rooftop lounge area. We ate snacks and enjoyed the view. At one point, a bunch of Asians literally surrounded us and just started taking pictures. Absolutely the most spontaneous and funniest thing I’ve done in Paris thus far.
Today I’m just chilling at home. Worked on the blog, and now planning upcoming trips! I’m entering my Instagram posts into a contest to win a free trip with BusAbout. Pray for me. No, I was serious. Pray for me. Please.
If you read this to the end, I applaud your attention span and love for me!
Tomorrow I have a rendez-vous in Paris so stay tuned.
-Paul