Getting Settled In!

Dustin and I have filled our last few weeks with getting settled in and pretending to be tourists in Paris. A few pictures from our new city:

inside Saint Chapelle

Our things from the US finally arrived last Monday. It was my first day of French classes, so Dustin had to take care of the move all by himself. Based on these pictures, I am pretty glad that I wasn’t there…

This is the ladder/elevator that was used to get our things to the 7th floor.

Raising up the ladder...

Here comes our stuff!

Now that we are all settled in, here are a few pictures of the apartment:

Other updates: My work permit did not arrive in time for me to take the afternoon teaching position that I was offered. I was pretty disappointed. However, the school runs an afternoon English program on Wednesdays for non-anglophone students. The program doesn’t start until the end of September. I am meeting with someone on Friday about taking a position in that program. I will keep you posted!

French classes are going pretty well, although I’m not sure how some of the people in my class can be considered “complete beginners”. My teacher, Veronique, is wonderful. She explains everything over and over until we get it. There is absolutely no English spoken, so sometimes it takes me awhile to understand what is going on. There are people from all over the world in my class: Iran, Iceland, Argentina, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and probably a few places I am forgetting. It is pretty amazing. The problem is that I can’t communicate with them. Really, the only language we all have in common is French (unless they know a bit of English). I’m dying to ask them all about life in their respective countries, but I don’t have the vocabulary to do so (nor do they have the vocabulary to respond).

We just celebrated Dustin’s 30th birthday yesterday. I made enchiladas (I have been craving good Mexican food) and we watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle from our balcony. Believe it or not, I did find most of the ingredients I normally use for the enchiladas. The supermarkets here sell the Old El Paso brand – it totally cracks me up! The only major thing I had to substitute for was sour cream. They definitely don’t sell it here.

Overall, it feels good to be settling in. I’m looking forward to getting into a bit of a routine and doing some more travelling. Next on our list: Versailles!