September 23, 2010
I arrived in Paris early yesterday morning and took the train to Lille today, where I'm now spending the night at the house of an English teacher I'll be working with.
Things have gone really well so far. Yesterday was a beautiful, 70-degree day in Paris and to beat the jet lag, I walked around with one of the people I stayed with and we had some interesting moments. We went to the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, one of my favorite places in Paris, with a great view of the city from the northeast. We had a couple of adventures walking back to the apartment in Belleville - we hung out in a private community garden by accident, thinking it was a public park but they let us stay. There are these great gardens where they grow food and flowers and teach kids about it :) Later on the walk, we stopped into a tiny shop that lets you bring your own container to buy olive oil and the guy working there made us try different olive oils with a spoon, without asking us to buy anything. It was Wednesday afternoon, so kids were off from school and it was a really nice, relaxing atmosphere in the city. I basically stayed up for 30 hours and then had a long night's sleep.
Today, there was a MASSIVE general strike, something like 1 million or so people in the streets through all of France. It was supposed to be mostly the transport workers, but the big issue right now is the retirement reform, raising the age from 60 to 62 and accompanied problems, so many unionists, radicals, students, etc. were out again, after the last one 2 weeks ago. Only half the long-distance trains were running, but I was only delayed by an hour so I did OK. Another teacher I'm working with met me and we went to the Lille city center - La Grand Palace - to have lunch and walk around. While we were eating, the strike demonstration came through the main street right outside our window and it was HUGE - it really seemed like the entire city was in the street, very boisterous and rowdy. The teacher I'm staying with decided to go on strike too, so he met us and the three of us hung out a bit. We saw his wife in the march as we were eating :) Afterwards, I went back to his place and met his wife and two small kids, age 25 months and 13 months - they are very sweet, interesting and well-behaved. I will be staying two doors down with younger people in a colocation - roommate situation - as a Couchsurfer starting tomorrow and they maybe can help me find an apartment also. I like this neighborhood, residential but vibrant.
I haven't been so active in finding a place recently, but I will be this week until I have to go to school to start observing on Oct. 1. I may or may not start actually teaching before the 1.5 week Toussaint vacation at the end of month, but I will first observe and get oriented. I really like both the teachers, they are super nice and helpful and I feel comfortable with them. Everyone I've met so far has been great and I've gotten to speak and hear a good amount of French. I feel calm this time around, not so intimidated and overwhelmed (yet!) I'm excited about getting to know Lille - it's much smaller than Paris, with only two train lines in the city itself, so it's very manageable. I still love Paris, but I've forgotten the beauty of getting to know a whole new place to live - it's why it's so hard for me to stay grounded! The weather will be gray, drizzly and foggy, but I think it's lively enough, so it will be just another thing to get used to. I'm going to look at a bike in the basement tomorrow, so hopefully I can make that my main form of transport soon.
So tomorrow I will explore and in a few days, I should have a lot more things settled. As of now, things are good.
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