Les amies et amis

It's been busy two weeks.

I met up with a friend of mine,  whom I worked with in Malawi. I have not seen her since then for the past six years. 

I just found out that she now lives in Paris and works for the UN. Isn't it just amazing?

She was as beautiful and nice as I remembered her to be. We had a non stop two hour session of catching up, as you can easily imagine. We used to share everything with each other from work problems (we were both at the Ministry of Education) to personal (yes more the boy related things) things in life. We traveled to Zambia together and have so many funny memories. Feel free to read the entries of 2006 :). Funny enough what I remember the most is instant noodles that she used to cook for us during 1.5 hour lunch break at home, as she used to live very close to the Ministry. I really missed her!      

We were not in touch so frequently in the past 6 years, so we had to recount each other's life chronologically. Many things happened in our lives, but at the same time we are still exactly same as before. We have never imagined that we will find each other in Paris of all places!! I hope to spend as much time as possible with her during my sejour in Paris.   

In the meantime, my boyfriend had a visitor, long time friend from school, whom I also met in NY two years ago. He stayed with us on the couch bed for two nights. I drank quite a bit of sangria (in my low standard, which is getting improved!) with them.

I hope to meet up and catch up with more friends in Europe. One of the great things about working internationally is having friends in many places. The down-side is obviously not being able to see them all the time, so we need to make best of opportunities. The friend of M. FR happened to be in Geneva for work, and he took a train to come see him. He said "not coming to see him in Paris from Geneva is like being in NY at a same time but not meeting with each other" and he had to come. End surely, he had a great time walking around in the city and going to restaurants with us, I hope!      

Paris vs New York

Now that I have been in Paris for 3 weeks, I could start making some comparisons between Paris and NY. Somehow, I feel compelled to always compare it with NY. Well, I didn't spend that much time in both places, so this is nothing profound, but here are some very initial impressions:

• Paris has far less dry cleaners, nail salons and pet shops. In Paris, these are replaced by bakeries (not to mention that pastries are heavenly). Seems to have a similar proportion of pharmacies and banks. Japanese restaurants are everywhere similarly.   
• Paris seems to have more tourists. Anywhere you go, you encounter people with cameras holding a map in their hand. There are certainly many Japanese tourists. I wonder why they come in a middle of winter (sure this applies to me too!), but nothing deters them from finding time to visit France in their meager leave days. You know what? I just did a quick google search. Paris is the third most visited city in the world after Orlando and NY. So, I was wrong. I guess my time in NY was mostly spent working in the office and here entirely different as you know.   
• Rent is cheaper in Paris. We are renting a small one-bedroom apartment in one of the nicest quartier, which seems ok comparing to my tiny studio apartment on 60th St in front of a highway, which I paid a lot for but still told was a bargain. Groceries seems equally expensive. 
• Only things reasonable in Paris, in my opinion, are wine and cheese. You can find decent wine for 4-5 euros. Low end brie cheese starts from less than 2 euro. Probably not so good for cholesterol and over-drinking.   
• People start eating a baguette that they haven't paid for waiting in line in supermarkets. I have only seen this in Montreal but not really elsewhere.
• I am surprised that most of yogurt here are also 0 or low fat type. I thought French would never eat fake dairy products. 
• I am yet to find an equivalent of Central Park in Paris. I went to Parc de Luxembourg and Parc de plante. They are nice and manicured, but I like more woody, bushy sort of parks. In any case, I can't wait for spring with flowers blooming.   
• I like that most of fruits and vegetables are not pre-packed even in major supermarkets. French fridges (European) must be smaller than American gigantic ones and even with a separate deep freezer.
• I guess there is no need to mention how magical the city is. I am overwhelmed by the beauty of Paris everyday. I haven't done anything touristy yet, but I walk by monuments and squares on a way to something. I cross pont neuf to go to my yoga class.    

It's interesting to get a glimpse of life here. You see I have lived and worked in several countries, but I have spent hardly anytime in Europe. I will add more on the list!  

La vie quotidienne

パリの一日はあっと言う間に終わってしまう。先月は毎日９、１０時間働いていたのに！どこに時間が行ってしまったのだか。お休みでのんびりするはずが、なぜかフランス語のクラスとヨガに行っているだけで、気が付けばもう夜になっている。

特別な事はしていなくても、可愛いお店のウィンドウを覗きながら、学校への道を歩いたり、スーパーで食材を買って、アパートでお料理するだけで、今の所は満足。近所で買うパイやジェラートが夢のように美味しいし、パリは３６０度どこから見ても素敵で、”そこ”にいるだけで、特別だと思う。

アパートのある小さい通りに、たくさんレストランがあるので、毎週一度はそのうちのどこかを試してる。今週はこじんまりとしたクレープ屋さん（家の斜め向かい）でスモークサーモンのサラザンのクレープを頂いた。デザートにキャラメルとリンゴのコンポートのクレープアイスクリーム添え（so decadent!)も食した。その後”はしご”でそこの斜め前の、彼が前から気になっていたバーでビールを飲んで帰ってきた。このバーは近所の酔っぱらいがたむろしているような小さい個人経営な感じ。

今のところは週３でalliance françaiseに通っていて、今週からプライベートのクラスをネットで見つけたフランス人の先生に習っている。ソルボンヌの語学クラスに通う彼と、家でもなるべくフランス語で話してるけど、ついつい英語に戻ってしまう。壁にもvocabulaireのリストを貼付けてる。どこまでフランス語が上達するかな。

夜の散歩

写真日記 パリ生活２週間目

Centre Pompidou -Salvador Dali

Pompidouセンターのダリ展に行ってきました。閉館前の時間（夜の１１時までやっている）だったのに、たくさんの人でにぎわっていました。有名な作品や、NYのメトロポリタンで見た絵もあり、とても見応えのある展覧会でした。

Crêpe, cidre et teste de classement

今日は寒い中、ルクセンブルグ公園をお散歩。 気温は３度くらいで、私は帽子なしではいられない。でも街を歩いている人は３割くらいしか帽子を被ってない！南国慣れした私は、毎日、母にもらったへんてこな毛糸の帽子を被ってる。

写真は途中に立ち寄ったクレープ屋さん。サイダーを飲んだら昼間からちょっと酔っぱらってしまって、そのままクラス分けテストに行ったのです。

After walking through the Jardin Luxembourg, me and my boyfriend stopped at a cute little creperie, called La Bolée.  

I was just going to have tea with my chocolate crepe, but we ordered cidre because everyone else was having it.

This is obviously an alcoholic drink, and I went to write a placement test for my class a bit drank! It was very tasty though.

I reviewed verb conjugaisons while he was doing his home work. I have seriously forgotten all the tenses and conjugation.　

   

Petit progrès パリ生活

Registering for French class check!

Bikram Yoga class sign-up check!

Mobile phone number in France check!

Finding a japanese grocery store check!

Pas mal de progrès pour la première semaine??