Brr, it's cold in Paris, but not really

Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Well I’ve been back in France for 10 days and I am back in the swing of things again. It took me about a week to adjust to the time change; those first few days of teaching were rough because I hadn’t slept much the night before due to jetlag. I was excited to give my American Christmas presents to the Weil family- some CD’s for the kids, the game of Life for the family, and a potato masher because they love homemade mashed potatoes (before they used the instant kind where you add water to powder, which is popular in France). Antoine, the young superstar, loves singing along to his Lady Gaga CD, and Thibault enjoys playing guitar along with Jack Johnson. Dorothée, the mom, also loves the Jack Johnson CD, so that one was a hit over here. The family was excited to play the game of Life but didn’t completely understand the rules after reading the directions in English, so I taught Antoine how to play later in the week. We’ve now played 4 times in 6 days :) I didn’t realize the game had been updated, but if you haven’t seen a new version of the game, you can now go gambling, buy a second house, and sue other members for $100,000. I think they tried to update it to better reflect how ‘Life’ is today, although I can’t say I foresee myself going through multiple multi-thousand dollar lawsuits in my future. Hmm, I do want to be a doctor though...
For my school kids, I brought back pennies and made a card for each student that said “Make a wish on your penny for good luck in 2010!”, basing the cards on the American saying, “See a penny, pick it up, if you do you’ll have good luck.” The older children in 4th and 5th grade thought they were awesome, they couldn’t believe I had given them real money from the US. The younger kids thought it was neat too, but didn’t realize they couldn’t use the money in France. I got many questions wondering if they could go out and buy something with their penny here in France, but seeing as how a penny is worth LESS than one centime in Euros due to the exchange rate, I think they would have trouble with that.
My bathroom got redone while I was home in the US, I was a little surprised things happened so quickly during the 2 weeks I was gone! Now I have a better shower handle that doesn’t leak, and I don’t have to worry about turning the water off in the apartment every time I leave or go to sleep- major improvement. It’s been pretty cold here in Paris, a whopping -2 C some days (which is 28 deg F, so really not that bad for us Minnesotans or Wisconsinites). It’s very cold for Paris though, and everyone is complaining. The teachers can’t believe it when I walk through the school courtyard to go from one class to the next without a coat on, even though I’m only outside for 10 seconds. I think about times I’ve run outside to get the paper or fetch the cats in weather that is -12 C (10 F), and just respond that it’s warmer in Paris than what I’m used to this time of year. It has even snowed more than once, which is really rare here. We got a few inches last Thursday and my school in Boissy St. Léger practically shut down! Rather than taking 30 min for teachers to drive to school, it was a 2.5 hour commute because people don’t know how to drive in any kind of snow, so teachers called out because they didn’t want to make the drive. Three teachers called out and the school’s director, and there is no such thing as getting a substitute teacher the same day here, they have to be arranged way in advance. If a teacher has to take an unplanned absence, usually their 25 students get split up and distributed into other classrooms, but because three teachers didn’t come in, those students ended up not having to come to school at all that day. All the classes I work with were normal, the teachers showed up on time, but the school was only 2/3 full because so many students didn’t come to school that day. Incredible, considering it was due to 2 inches of snow.
The month after Christmas is the month of ‘soldes’ in Paris, so major sales and markdowns at practically every store. Sort of like our Black Friday after Thanksgiving, but this goes on for a month and is its own sort of holiday here. Dorothée went shopping with Pauline and came back loaded down with bags, and it is a hot topic of conversation during the lunch break at schools. I’ll probably check out a few stores, but I’m scared that if I buy too much in France, I won’t get everything back to the US with my regular luggage allowance because I was already maxed out when I came over here. I’ll probably have to pay to ship some things, or pay for an extra bag on the plane. My mom is coming at the end of April so hopefully I’ll be able to send things with her. I’m a little worried because my return flight in July goes from Paris to Toronto, then to Minneapolis, and after they tightened security, I read that flights from Canada to the US were not allowing any carry-on baggage, in which case I’m screwed… I’ll wait and see. Happy New Year, hope everyone has a great 2010!

PS- I have received a total of 3 pieces of mail since arriving, and one of those things was junk mail. Feel free to send me a note to say Hi!
Justine Newhouse
88 rue de Tocqueville
75017 Paris
FRANCE

Make sure to write AIRMAIL and PAR AVION on the envelope!