A Rainy Day In Paris and the Eiffel Tower

26 Septembre 2007

Today, Liz and I were going to reattempt going back to her school, but since her teacher hasn’t made regular contact, we decided to go to Paris again and attend an informal meeting of other English speaking assistants near the Champs-Élysées. We agreed to meet with Marybeth, an assistant from Canada, near the Obelisk around 1:30pm. Since the assistants meeting was supposed to be at the same place around 2pm, Liz and I decided to go to the Champs-Élysées early and take a look at all the stores and monuments nearby. We walked the entire length of the strip which is quite long and we saw many types of shops, including my first French McDonald’s. The highlights of the “shopping portion” were: for Liz, the Disney Store (she wanted to find the French version of the High School 2 OST) and for me, the Louis Vuitton flag store. Once we had turned around to go the other way along the CE, we noticed that the time was getting close to our meeting with Marybeth. We raced to the other end of the Champs-Élysées, where the Obelisk and a large ferric wheel were located. Since Marybeth said she’d meet us at the Obelisk, we walked around it several times trying to figure out who she might be. We took some pictures of the Obelisk and the fountains that were nearby. Eventually, a young British guy named Edward came up and asked us if we were there for the meeting. The three of us stood together talking and over time, many other assistants, including Marybeth, joined us. Many people were sharing their opinions about France or when they arrived or where they were living. Eventually, the group grew to a large number, around 50-60 people, and Liz and I were hungry, tired and cold especially since it had just began to rain. We decided we wanted to go to a café or small restaurant to get something to eat. Fortunately, two other girls, Erinne and Sarah, decided they wanted to do the same thing. We were happy to have their company, especially since the group had grown too large to do anything productive. We ended up stopping at a cute café and ordered croque-monsieurs (grilled ham and cheese sandwiches) and hot chocolates. We spent several hours just talking about where we were living, what we wanted to do in France, where we were teaching, etc. It was nice to connect as a small group. After talking for what seemed like forever, we exchanged information and decided it was time to go. Since everyone determined that they still had free time, we decided to visit the Eiffel Tower, even though it was raining. Of course, we didn’t go to the top because it was crowded, but we got some excellent pictures together! After going our separate ways, Liz and I decided we were going to attempt to find an apartment for her to stay in. She had previously been contacted by a girl who happened to live near the metro station, Porte de Vincennes. Since this is only 2 stops before my own exit, we thought we might pay a house call to the girl who offered to share her place. Since Paris consists of so many streets, we ended up lost, just by wandering around the 12^th arrondissement. Frustrated that nothing seemed to be working out and after such a rainy day, Liz and I came back to the apartment, where I prepared mushroom soup and French baguette.