Finally made it to Octoberfest!!!

So after 4 years of trying, Michele and I finally made it to Munich for Octoberfest. What a weekend it was too. We ended up renting a car for fairly cheap and had 3 other people come with us. We left Paris at 7pm on Friday evening. It took us an hour to get out of Paris due to traffic and the craziness that is Paris driving. We continued to head towards Germany. Along the way we had 35 euros of tolls to pay while in France only. And to say that the roads weren't very well maintained is being nice. We continued with a pee break every 2 hours or so. Around 1am we arrived in Germany to find that the highway we were supposed to be taking was closed. Not only that but there was actually no signs telling us which way to go. So with a 50/50 chance, we turned the wrong way. We ended up in a small German time that was all quiet since it was so early in the morning. We drove around and ended up finding another 2 cars (of Spanish people) who were also lost. They weren't going to Munich but they were going to the city we needed to drive by. So through broken English as we didn't speak any Spanish and they didn't speak any French and very little English. Finally we ended up following them and had to turn around and go the other way. We refound our route and continued on. Around 430 am we decided we needed a break so we parked the car at a reststop and then tried to sleep in the car for a couple of hours. At 630, slightly more rested we continued on to Munich. Again, we got slightly lost while in Munich but we arrived at a camp ground that we had hoped had some spaces left. Unfortunately they didn't. So we tried to go to another one to see if they did. We arrived and decided that we had the tent and sleeping bags so let's just park the car in the parking lot and go to the festival and if we have to sleep in the car and put the tent up on a grassy patch nearby. So we did. We had quick toilette showers and then headed into the city to the festival. What a site. A huge fair packed with people. We finally managed to wriggle our way into a beer garden and thanks to our friend we found some space at a table. It was now 130pm and we finally got ourselves a liter of beer at Munich's Octoberfest! We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening having a great time, meeting all kinds of interesting people from all over the world. It was truly an amazing experience. That evening when we left the fair grounds we headed back to the car, set up the tent in front of it and went to sleep; some in the car and some in the tent. The best part is, we weren't the only ones. There were a few others who had just pulled out their sleeping bags and were sleeping beside their cars. The joys of Octoberfest!! If I were to do it again, I would definitely do a few things differently but all in all a fantastic weekend and I finally made it!!!Thanks to those who made it possible, and especially to Michele who drove the 850 kms each way to get us there and back! You rock hun!!

Thank you for reminding folks

So I know that as my time in France draws near I should be enjoying myself and remembering all the great things about Paris but every now and then something happens to remind of things that I will not miss at allonce I leave to go back to Canada. One of these such things happened this week. I have to say that usually the public transport system out here is pretty good (except when they are on strike of course). But the other day I was completely dissappointed. First my tain was late which happens so I wasn't too worried. But then as we are heading to the next stop the conductor gets on the speaker and says not to open the doors while in motion. Honestly, I didn't even think that you could do that! lol.We go one more stop and then the train doesn't move. The doors don't close and we have to wait. Finally about 15 minutes later they come on to say that there is a problem with the doors and they won't close therefore we all have to get off the train. Normally, if you were on a regular metro no problem, however, this was a regional train which meant you would have to wait. Back home, the normal thing to do would be to bring a train in to replace that one since it was only half way through its route. Not here, here we had to wait 30 minutes for the next scheduled train heading to that destination. What crap, especially at 8am on a wednesday morning. No worries, none of had to get to work or anything. Gerks!!!
The other thing, or more like the other things, that have been driving me crazy this week are the ignorant people who take the public transportation. I don't understand how you could fully fall on top of someone who is sitting in the metro and not even say excuse me!! Would it not have bothered you if someone had done that to you, oh wait. It does. I am so tired of these people who push and kick and bump into, step on toes, fall on top of other people in the metros and then don't excuse themselves. Then to top it off, someone will bump tem and they give them the dirtiest look possible. Are you kidding me?
So needless to say, when I do leave it will be a very tough moment but having to take the metro everywhere with everyone else is one thing that I will not miss. I will miss being able to get everywhere by public transport but definitely not having to do it with all those ignorant gerks!!

Sorry for the rant but I haven't it was time before I leave :)

Jimmy Buffet

So I know it is a little late but last Friday night I went to my first ever Jimmy Buffet concert. What a crazy experience. First off, it is in Paris, and concerts here are always so interesting as there is a mix of locals and visitors. This one was particularly special. Most of the crowd were american (or at least North American) and many of them flew into Paris just for the concert. I wish I could afford that. Fly to Paris one day, that night go to a concert and then the next moring fly back to America. Crazy. Anyways, me and the girls heading to a bar for happy hour before hand. It has cheap margaritas which we thought as fitting. THen we went and lined up with all the other Buffet fans and drank in the streets before the concert. Finally we entered the concert hall. It was a pretty good hall. The standing area was set up in a way that it slanted downwards towards the stage which made it easy to see the whole stage even from the back. One thing about some of the concert halls in France is that the cheaper tickets are standing room and the more expensive ones are seats in the balconies. Overall it was a fantastic concert. Lots of fun and dancing. The only difficult thing was the beer. Apparently the concert hall didn't study their audience as they ran out of beer. They had a ton of wine left but no beer. So they ended up having to buy cans and then pouring those into the plastic cups. Why they couldn't just give us the cans I am not sure. It sucked for the bartenders since they had to deal with the stupid and angry fans who wanted beer. lol oh well. After the concert we headed to a bar nearby. It was fun to see all the fans dressed up and walking down the street to the bar. I had a great time and so much fun!! Way to go Jimmy!!!

The sites of Paris

So since I am not working much right now, (and by much I mean at all! lol) I decided to do some sightseeing. I am trying to get in everything I have wanted to see for the past 3 years and been putting off. So today I went to the Catacombes and quarries. Let me just start by saying I wasn't really sure what to expect. I mean I know it is a bunch of bones and such but had no idea how many. So first you go down these spiral stairs (for a good 5 minutes non stop). I def got a little dizzy. Then you read a couple of plaques talking about what the underground quarries used to be and then how they were turned into catacombes b/c the quarries under the left bank of the river caused so many problems with the cemeteries that were above them. Then you walk down a winding tunnel with very little light for about 10 minutes. Then you get to a door that above it says "Stop. Here is the Empire of Death" (that is the translation anyways). And then there are the bones. And not just a few but millions and millions and millions. They are just stacked all the way along both sides. Every now and then there is plaque that will say these are the remains from such and such cemetery. Basically what they did was remove the remains from the cemetery and smush them all together in an area of these underground quarries. It is crazy. And then you walk for a good 20 mintues through the winding paths of these remains. It is quite humbling actually. By the time you get through it all, you realize that despite what your belief of what happens after life may be, in the end your body is no more. The bones were just there. Like no big deal and all stacked on one another. Some of them were famous people or at least well known people of France but you would never know which ones because they are all burried there anomonously.
A couple of tips of anyone who may be planning to visit this somewhat depressing but definitely interesting site. 1) Don't wear open toed shoes. Because it is underground, there is water that drips from the ceiling sometimes and there are puddles so be careful. 2) If you don't like the dark or get anxious in it, a flashlight might be a good idea (could help with photos too as no flash is allowed). 3) It is probably a site that is better to visit with another person but overall is definitely worth visiting. Enjoy!!!

Back in Paris

So again, it has been awhile. I swear, one day I will get better at this :)
The rest of the summer was great. Lots of fun, some interesting events at work, good times with friends, but all in all a great time home!! So now I am back in Paris. The flight was long and had some interesting events. For example, when I got to the Toronto airport security the guy saw my Western sweatshirt the guard scuffed at me. I told him I had also gone to another university and he said that his son goes to Western. It turns out the boy didn't do so well his first year! lol After my long flight to Warsaw I had to go through security again. This time, the guard looked at my bottle of buckleys medicine. He didn't believe it was medicine so made me take some there at the security! lol Can't say I've ever had to do that. Another hour wait and then a two hour flight and I finally landed in Paris. I got home and had to wait for my landlady to come home. I sat in the hallway with all my stuff. She came home about an hour later and I got into my apartment and started to unpack. I had to bring up some boxes from the storage. I unpacked a little and then headed to bed. The past week I have spent catching up with friends here, getting my bearings again and enjoying the beautiful city!! To top things off I went to a concert on a boat last night and tonight I am going to watch an Opera at a movie theatre! lol More details to come!!!

Being back home in Hamilton

So I have been home for just over two weeks now. Things have been pretty crazy and super busy too. I flew home on a Thursday night and then went to work on the Friday morning! It is nice to be home but as usual a little weird. I am starting to finally get back into the swing of things. This summer (or at least so far) has made me really wish I could get settled into a real routine. Get a real job, a place to actual call my own! lol It is nice to see my friends and family though. It is weird though as most of them are starting to move to places just outside of the city but still close enough. Work is keeping me busy. I am happy to be back at the camp again and getting super excited for the camp to start!!! Our numbers are a little low, but I can't wait for next week. The campers show up on Tuesday and I am looking forward to a summer of fun times. As usual it will be stressful and sometimes frustrating but in the end it is the best part of my year!! Yes I know, some of you who are reading this will chuckle at that comment as I do complain about it throughout the summer but once the summer is over, I miss it. So it is worth it!! So here is to a great summer of fun, campers, hot weather (like the 33 degrees it is supposed to be on Tuesday! lol), family, and more fun!!

Watched a movie with Ethan Hawke

So the family I babysit for is connected in the film industry out here. The husband is a director for a small company out here. Through his work he has made friends with many actors and directors and such, plus the fact that he can speak English is a big bonus for those in the industry that don't speak french but are in France for filming and such. One of said friends is Ethan Hawke. He was in town the past few months filming a new movie and Sebastian (the husband) asked him if he wanted to present a film and have a discussion about it with the audience afterwards. So being the family's babysitter, and Sebastian knowing that I have an interest in film, he invited me and a few friends to come to this film presentation. So Saturday morning at 11am, me and two girlfriends went to a small little theatre in Paris and waited with the rest of the audience for the showing of Point Blank (a 1967 Lee Marvin film) to start. As a guy was explaining that after the film we would be able to discuss the film with Ethan, I happened to turn around and look towards the door and who should pop their head into the theatre but Ethan Hawke. We made full eye contact and I even got a little smile :) I then told my girlfriends who also turned around and smiled at Ethan, and then of course giggled. It was quite clear that we were the north americans in the room! lol So Ethan presented the film and then he went and sat in the balcony of the theatre and we all watched Point Blank. It was actually a really good film and I really enjoyed it. Then afterwards Ethan came back to the main level of the theatre and sat up front and did a question and answer period for a while. It was pretty neat to sit there and discuss the film with him. It was interesting to hear another actors perspective about the acting within the film and on the film as a whole. Afterwards, Ethan was a sport and signed some autographes and even took some pictures with people. It was quite a quaint little event and a pretty cool experience. Gotta love having random connections like that :)

Boys II Men Concert in Paris

So this may sound silly to some of you but I went to the Boys II Men concert on the weekend. Too be honest I was a little sceptical but it was actually a really good concert. I had a lot of fun and knew more of their songs than I had realised! Lol They did an amazing rendition of Lonestar’s Amazed. (Which it turns out was offered to them by their record company but they didn’t think it was good for them at the time so they passed it up. Too bad, since Lonestar made it a number one hit and got a Grammy for it! Lol) They also did some the Beatles, the Four Tops and even Aerosmith. The odd thing about the concert was that it was in Paris and although most of the crowd were French, the band spoke maybe one or two words in French and that is all! They also did a lot of speaking in English; you know explaining their songs and such, which must have been frustrating for some of the French people, especially those that don’t know very much English. They even did an explanation of the song Mama and told people to call their moms on their cells and hold them up to the stage, they even took a few of the phones closest to the stage and sang into the phone. Again, may not have meant very much for those who don’t understand English! Lol But the funny thing was, and I think someone forgot to tell the band, but the following morning was France’s mother’s Day!! Quite fitting if you ask me. They also did another song which was a love song and then handed out a dozen roses each to the crowd. But the thing that amazed me the most was that anytime they would ask the crowd to sing along and hold the microphone out over the crowd everyone would sing the song in English and it sounded amazing. There was one point were they sang the entire chorus and it was perfect English. You would never have known that it was a mostly French crowd.

Just my luck - mor about Portugal!!

This trip has been full of randomness, in a really good way. First, when I arrived on the Thursday it happened to be the only night of the week that the bull fights are on. I am not a supporter but it is a very honoured Portuguese tradition that I wanted to experience. (I will describe it in detail in another blog for those who are interested). Secondly, on the day I went to tour one of the castles in the city, there happened to be an extreme bike competition that actually went through the castle grounds. They rode down the stairs and did jumps off one of the walls. It was pretty cool to see. Thirdly, despite having booked a bed in a 10-bed dorm at the hostel they said there was a problem so they put me in a 4-bed dorm but charged me the same price. Not bad. On top of that, they didn’t put anyone else in my room despite quite a few people being put in the other 10-bed dorm on the same floor. So I had a 4-bed room all to myself. Fourthly, my second last night Lisbon’s football (or soccer) team “Benfica” was named League Champions for 2010. I am not even sure how to explain the festivities of that night. People crowded the streets wearing the teams’ scarves and jerseys, there were people hanging out of their cars with flags and signs, floats, double-decker buses filled with people, etc. There were people honking and screaming and climbing street lights and statues everywhere. At some points the entire crowd of people, children, elderly, teens and adults, would all jump up and down, chanting. Of course, I didn’t know exactly what they were chanting but the words campeao and nos sumes were repeated a lot. With my French and English I was able to figure out that they were chanting “We are the Champions”. It was pretty clear. There was a semi-truck bed that had a DJ and lights and sparkles and people were going crazy. It even had a fireworks display. It was such an amazing thing to witness and to be in the middle of. There were hundreds of people filling the square where we were. It is indescribable and something I’ve never seen before and will never forget. And finally, despite the difficulties it caused, it is pretty cool that the Pope arrived in the city where I was and drove past where I was staying.
Overall an amazing (and much needed) trip!! Thanks, Omas and Bucky!!

Volcano and the Pope

It seems odd to have these two in the same sentence but they both caused major problems for my return from Portugal back to Paris. Luckily I was still able to catch my flight out of Lisbon but it was iffy for awhile there. As of Sunday all flights out of Lisbon were cancelled. So I started looking into other options. Basically at the time, my only option was to take a train to the French border then catch another train up to Paris. Might I just add that it was going to cost me 67 euros from Lisbon, all through Portugal and Spain to the French border. Then it was going to cost another 97 euros from the French border to Paris. I knew the French were greedy but really?? I can cross 2 other countries for 2/3 of the price to not even cross the whole of France. Anyways back to the travels themselves. So this 2hour train ride left Lisbon everyday at 4pm. I had to work on Wednesday so I was going to need to take the Monday train. Unfortunately it was already full as of Sunday morning (which actually ended up being a good thing). So I booked a ticket for the Tuesday train, which meant I was going to miss work on Wednesday. However, Tuesday morning, as of 8am, my flight was scheduled to go so I headed to the train station to try and return my train ticket. It took FOREVER for me to get there since with my luck, the Pope was arriving that day to give mass in the main square. Of course, most of the buses weren’t running in the area I needed to go and neither were the metro, thus I walked for almost 45 minutes to get to the train station. Luckily, when I got there I was able to return my ticket. As I was doing so, a lady at another window was looking to buy a train ticket to Paris. So instead of me being charged the 10% administration fee, I got a full 163,20 Euros refund. But they wouldn’t put the money back on my credit card, he just gave me cash, it was a little odd. However, I then had to walk another 45 minutes just to get back to the hostel. I then noticed that people were starting to line up along a street near the hostel. When I asked the guy at the hostel why, he said because the Pope was going to be driving down the road next to the hostel. Great, what did that mean for the buses? I.e. how do I get to the airport? Luckily I gave myself some extra time. I waited for 30 minutes for a bus. The cool thing though is that I got to see the Pope, well his Pope-mobile anyways, as there were a lot of people between me and him and he definitely didn’t go slowly at all. I feel bad for all those people who lined up for at least an hour because it literally took 3 seconds for him to pass by.
However, once at the airport things weren’t over yet. I got to check-in with an hour before it closed but hadn’t paid for my checked bag so I was checked-in but had to go to the ticket office to pay. Unfortunately the ticket office only had 2 windows open and was the same place where people were transferring their missed flights due to the volcano the previous day. Needless to say I waited for about 45 minutes then finally I went to the window (simply to ask if I was actually in the right place) and the lady saw the baggage voucher I had and since I was paying in cash she took me right away. Sweet!!! So I returned to the check-in desk, got my boarding pass, headed to the long line at security and finally made it to my gate as they were calling for final boarding. So in the end it all worked out. Plus, despite the ticket office telling people the flight was full I had an entire 3 seat row to myself!!! Another wild adventure!

orly airport - a little delayed but oh well!

So on my way to Portugal it was my first time at the Paris Orly airport. It is a nice airport and fairly well organized. However, there were a few things that surprised me. First, how quickly I was through security. It took litterally less than two mintues. Secondly, while I was sitting waiting to board the bus to get to the plane a blue army tank-like vehicle drove by. There was a solider standing up half out of the top part as well as a Gendarmerie (police) officer popping out of another area. They drove back past where I was a second time. Clearly not in attack mode but still fairly odd. Plus the blue makes them quite noticable so they def don't have the whole camoflauge thing going. The third thing I thought was interesting was the route the bus took. As it winded in and out of areas it was very clear that most people who work at airports don't work all that hard, at least here. We went past an area that had litterally 15 grounds crew guys sitting having a smoke and a coffee. We also drove past an area where they load the baggage onto the cars to take to the planes and both the guys were there standing beside the stopped converyor belt as well as a car loaded with bags ready to go. One of the guys was reading a newspaper while the other was on his phone. I am sure they work hard when they do work but in typical French fashion they don't seem to work all that often! lol

my first real travels for the year

So my trip to Portugal was much needed but it was off to a rough start. I had packed the night before and was all ready to go. All I had to do was get up, shower, get dressed and head out the door. That all seemed to go well despite it being 7am. I headed to Gare du Nord to catch the RER B to take it to the airport. i paid the 8euros for the special ticket to get me there. however, this is where the fun began. As I was getting to the lower level of the tracks an annoucement came on saying that the train would wait on the tracks for a moment due to a suspicious, abandoned bag at the net station. The announcement then said the train would stay there until further notice. By 8:10am the train still hadn't moved and there was no indications of it moving anytime soon. So I headed upstairs to go grab a taxi outside. However, I was clearly not the only one with this idea. I got to the taxi stop and waited. And waited, and waited and waited. After about 30 mintues of waiting, an older man behind me noticed my luggage (which by the way was only a small carry-on bag, and my purse. For those who know me and my packing habits should be very impressed!!) I was next to get a taxi and he asked if I was going to the airport and if so, which one. Luckily he was heading to the same one and asked if I would mind splitting the cab. I said not at all. Oh but the fun didn't stop here. Because obviously there had to be more traffic and more construction than normal espceially since it was now 8:45. The problem is that my flight was at 10:50 which means the check-in closes at 9:50. Finally, 20 euros and almost an hour later (9:38 to be exact) I arrived at the airport. Luckily my check-in gate was a 2 minute walk from where the cab dropped me off. Plus it was obvious that I was not the last one to get there. So although my cab cost me less than I had expected it was still just as stresful. Leave it to Paris to have no other way to get to the airport quickly or cheaply if the trains don't work! lol
At least I got there and was off to Portugal!! More to come!

another gymnatics competition in Paris!!

My girls had another gymnastics competition the other weekend. My girls did great and I am super proud of them. Both of my girls qualified for the next level which is the zones. Basically it is like provincials back home. It is all of Île-de-France. However, it was still a fairly stressful day. Things are a little different out here. All competitions are free to watch and the judges are provided by each club at no pay. However, if your judge isn’t there you must pay a fine on the spot. The same goes for any gymnasts who don’t show up, unless they have a medical certificate. And of course the registration fees for the club need to be paid on the spot or the athletes can’t compete. So with my luck, I was the only coach from our club there that day. This meant I had to pay all of the charges which included 1 judge fine, 2 gymnasts’ forfeits and the registration fees. Of course the club will reimburse me, eventually; it just sucked to have to pay the money up front myself. However the success of my girls makes it worth it!!

going to the dentist in Paris

So I had my first dental experience here in Paris today. I was babysitting the two little boys and one of them had to go get his retainer fixed at the orthodentist. So his brother and I accompanied him. We got to an apratment building, buzzed in, and then headed up to the 6th floor. We rang the door bell of a normal apartment door and the receptionist answered and let us in. The first odd thing, was that she complained that we were early and we were going to have to sit in the waiting room and wait. Obviously we were going to have to wait, but would she have rathered we were late instead of early. This being France, probably. Secondly, the fact that the dentists office was in an apartment. It literally had a bathroom, which was just off the waiting room (which is about the size of a large bedroom), the receptionists desk which would have probably been the old kitchen, and then the dentist' actual office which had a raised floor on half of the room which is where the dentist chair was and all the equipement. When the boy had to go in, his brother and I went with him and sat in chairs on the office side of the room. It was an odd experience. It is like the doctors offices out here, most of them are in apartments too. I guess in Paris that is the only real estate that is available. Oh well, there is always a first for everything, this was my first dental appointment, Parisien style!

it has been awhile - international competition in Paris

So I know it has been way too long since I last posted but my internet has been acting up lately and as much fun as it is to sit in an internet cafe, I prefer not to spend too much time there. So let's do some catchin up.

On the weekend I went to the 17th International Gymnastics World Cup competition held here in Paris. WOW is all I have to say. It was amazing. The level of some of the athletes was just incredible. It was pretty cool too that there was a Canadian competiting in the event finals. The competition was all weekend but my athletes and the other coaches I work with out here only went on the sunday for the event finals. It was long since it was the men and women but it was totally worth it. I mean we saw some of the best gymnasts in the world. Gymnasts that could possible be competiting in two years at the 2012 olympics in London, especially the little chinese girls who I swear weren't even 16 years old. It was really amazing to see the World Champion Elizabeth Tweedle on floor. There were a few injuries as usual, as well as some major wipe outs (mostly on bars and on vault). It was cool though. I even had my athletes cheer for the Canadian flag as they did the presentation of the 35 nations that competed. Of course it wasn't as loud of a cheer as for the French flag, but it was good all the same. I have to say as well that the French were very classy about the Polish tragedy. While they had all the flags run across the floor one at a time, the Polish flag was there but was wrapped around the stick. They then had the Polish athletes and the flag bearer stand in the corner of the floor and we stood for a moment of silence while they played the Polish national anthem. It was very touching and an important moment. I was very impressed with how they had handled it. There was one thing that I really noticed was a ittle different than back home though. The fact that the concession stands only sell snacks and drinks, there is no pizza, or nachos, or hot dogs, etc. Just chips, chocolate and chewy candies. I mean really people are there from 10am to 12pm (if you left the stadium between that time you could not get back in until the afternoon competition started, which was a little frustrating too. you also couldn't get in after 10:30am). So if you wanted to eat anything it had to be candy, as you in theory couldn't bring anything in either. Other than that it was a fantastic event and it was great for our athletes to get to see some of these athletes. Another fun event in Paris

The joys of the late night Paris metro!

The Paris metro is always fun but especially late saturday nights. To be honest, it has been a while since I took the metro home before it closes but it was definitely interesting this saturday. It was just after midnight and I was heading home. About two stops into my ride home, five 17/18 year old girls got onto the metro. At first, I thought they were just hyper, then one of them actually fell off the seat she was sitting in and onto the floor. The others simply looked at her and laughed, and then continued to discuss the level of their drunkness and how funny it was. The one girl even leaned over and placed her head on the shoulder of the poor man who was sitting beside them. Everyone else in the metro car could hear and see how drunk they were. They started making fun of the others on the metro and started asking everyone where they were from. I have to say it was quite an experience. I know me and friends were pretty crazy when we were younger but taking public transportation completely hammered and making fools of ourselves was never part of it. Gotta love that it's acceptable to be 17 and not care whether everyone knows you are hammered or not! lol Only in Paris!!

Canadian olympics while in France!!

What an experience it has been watching the olympics being hosted in your home country while living abroad. Everyday someone else would ask about it and how Canada was doing, etc. However, the best things was watching the Men's Gold medal hockey game between Canada and the USA. Me and some girlfriends decided to watch the game. We started at a Canadian bar but it got way too crowded and the game was still an hour away. So we headed down the street a bit and ended up at an Irish pub (just around the corner from another Canadian bar). We thought it wouldn't be too busy. Boy were we wrong. However, we were lucky enough to get a table so we could actually sit and enjoy the game. What a game it was too!! Those of you are interested in the actual game probably already know all the details so I am going to discuss the watching of it rather than the amazing-ness of the game itself :) It was actually pretty cool to have a whole bunch of Americans and Canadians (as well as some French who thought they were either Canadian or American) watch the game. What an atmosphere. Everytime someone scored, or almost scored, or there was a great save or a nice check into the boards the whole bar would roar. There was some definite rivalry between our table of Canadian girls and the Americans around us, but we had lots of support from all the Canadians in the bar. It was almost like being home and enjoying the game. I actually enjoy watching North American sporting events out here because of the mixture of cultures that show up just to witness the atmosphere. It is pretty cool and a lot of fun. You meet crazy, random people simply because you are going for the same team or because you aren't. Either way, it was a super event and definitely worth going out on a sunday evening for it. Up next, March madness!!!

snowing in Paris

So for the past two years that I have been here it barely snowed all winter. This year, now that it is February, it has snowed more than it did while I was back in Canada for the holidays. The difference is, in Paris they handle it a little differently. Firstly, the transportation system. A lot of the trains that go out of the city and are above ground are much slower, less frequent and much more crowded. The slowness and the frequency has to do with the snow on the ground and icy tracks. The crowdedness makes you realize just how many people either walk, drive a scooter or bike to get to work, or just don't like driving in the small amount of snow. So that makes the metros even more crowded and more stressful. Secondly, the sidewalks and roads aren't salted. There hasn't been a lot of snow sticking to the ground but enough, and some ice too. However, they don't have a street crew going around salting and no store owners or apartment building owners are outside salting either. Needless to say, the city is pretty slippery, which doesn't stop all the women from wearing their heels. Thirdly, you would think it had been raining as there are so many people walking around with opened umbrellas. Maybe it happens back home and i just never noticed it, but out here lots of people use umbrellas when it is snowing. It makes sense and all, I had just never seen so many people doing it. I guess it does keep your hair from being ruined from a hat but still, it is only snow! The snow made the past few weeks of cold, grey weather a little better though. It has been mostly grey and cold and with a few flurries. It is also funny that -5 degrees is seen as REALLY cold out here. I can only imagine how most people here would react if they lived somewhere else like Canada or Russia! lol

The first transport strike of 2010

So today was the first fairly significant transportation strike of 2010. Of course, it happens on the day that I need to use 2 different RER (regional trains), both of which are affected by the strike. It probably wouldn't be so bad, if I wasn't on such a precise schedule as well. So first off, I am thankful I wasn't heading to the airport. Not only was it one for every two trains running, but they were only leaving and returning to Gare du Nord and from the upper platforms, which is you are not from the area or haven't been here for awhile, could make things more complicated for sure. However, the trains I needed were still one for every two trains running. Thankfully, I left for teaching early enough that when the one I usually catch was cancelled, I still had enough time to get to work with the following train. However, coming back into the city was a little tight considering that on a good day, I have a 15 minute window to get from that train to the one that takes me to coaching, and of course the one I was on was 10 minutes late getting into the station. Needless to say, I did the unpleasant but sometimes necessary metro station dash. Luckily, the train I was supposed to catch again was cancelled and the one following it was only 10 minutes later. So eventually, I made it to coaching and only 10 minutes late. All things considering it could have been a lot worse. However, coming home tonight was a royal pain in the butt. First, the bus to take me to train station came by 15 minutes early which was while I was still in the gym, therefore I had to wait another half hour for the next. Then I got to the station and the usual trains weren't running and had to wait again for another half hour for a train. This train however, kept switching when it was going to get into the station, it increased by 5 minutes twice, then went back to its original time, then went to 5 minutes early then finally went back to the original time, which was when it arrived. SO after a long day of travels I can honestly say that eventhough I had some difficulties, it did not make my life riduculously crazy, and I was still able to get where I needed. Therefore the whole concept of a strike which would cause major problems in the city, didn't really work out so well. Most people were either not affected at all or very minimally, so if I was the negotiating parties, I would not have been eager to make any changes since the strike didn't really shut down the city as most strikes do back in Canada. Although I can't be too upset because I was still able to get to work and it would have been much worse if I hadn't :)

Gymnastics in France

So I just competed in my first competition a) in France and b) in 10 years since I stopped training. It was definitely a different experience. First the warm up was in a separate room and there was no actual floor to practice on rather, a bunch of small mats placed on the floor beside eachother. So we had an hour to warm up in this room, with the vault going into a foam pit. Then it is competition time. So we head into the other room and there is no presenting of the teams at all, the competition simply starts. They give a total of 1:30 minutes per event as warm up. I started on floor. I hadn't heard my music cut before so it was a little iffy with the ending but I threw my back tuck which was good :) Then it was onto vault. First, I've never competed on the newer round horse so that was different. The runway was a thin piece of carpet that is rough and actually physically hurt my feet to run on! But I survived! Beam was my final event. I managed to stay on (mostly) :) but it wasn't bad. Then came the scoring. This was also my first competition with the scoring system where a score could be more than a perfect 10. They give you a start value which gets added to an execution score of 10. SO basically you could get a score higher than 10. I then had to go coach my other athletes for their competition and then it was finally awards time. After everything, I still managed to qualify eventhough I only competed 3 out of 4 events. So how that is actually possible I am not even sure. Their system is a little odd, and for each level only a certain number of gymnasts qualify. Some levels had 15 competetors but only 13 qualify. It had nothing to do with specific scores but rather simply numbers. So overall it was fun but not as fun as it used to be when I was back in Canada. My old teammates weren't there and my coach was good but not my original one and the other competetors weren't as friendly either. I enjoyed myself, but I had a lot more fun when I was back home (and 15 years old :))

part two of my travels over the holidays

Sorry this took so long to add but I have been having problems with the internet at my place (the difficulties with stealing internet! lol)
Anyways,
So I headed back to Paris on the 3rd of January (a sunday). I had called the airport that morning to confirm that there weren't any problems getting through and to confirm the new restrictions. Apparently, they are only for American flights. If you are flying anywhere else, nothing has changed. lol So we went early just in case. There was definitely no need to do so at all! However, when I got there man did I get scared. We saw this line that went on for miles. It was crazy. But all the people still had all their luggage and hadn't checked into their flights yet. That was only one area. My mom and I walked around the corner and found my international flight company (I was flying with LOT Polish airlines). They weren't even open yet and weren't going to open until exactly 3 hours before the flight. So we went and sat somewhere and ate and watched all these poor people trying to fly to the states. Eventually I checked in with my two checked bags and my carry on bag and walked past the super long line and right into security. It took me literally 15 mintuesto get through! lol I went and waited to board my flight which ended up leaving a little about a half hour late. That didn't really matter too much to me as I was heading to Warsaw and going to have to wait 5 hours before my next flight anyways. So we got to Warsaw and disembarked from the plane. There were a bunch of people who were stressed and may have missed their connections but as I said, I had a lot of time.I headed to security again and unfortunately they don't know how to do it as well as north america does. They had two lines and that was it. Considering there were at least 6 flights that had all landed around the same time and people were trying to go through security and customs they probably should have had more lines. Oh well, I made it through and went and found some comfy chairs and slept for a few hours and then did some work while waiting for my hour long flight from Warsaw to Pars. All went well and I arrived in Paris at the same time I was supposed to have. No problems this time!! All I can say is thank goodness I was not going to the states. We will see what happens when I head home in the summer! lol

The trials and troubles of travalling at holiday time

So here are two tips when travelling. 1) don't do it close to the holidays or anytime in winter for that matter! lol and 2) suck it up and pay the extra money to avoid being with a stand alone airline.

This will be a two part blog:
1) My flight from Paris to Canada for the holidays.
I arrived early at the airport Charles deGaulle. There was a transportation strike so I left myself extra time just in case. When I first walked out of my apartment it was lightly snowing (flurries really) and I was pretty excited to see the snow. However that changed a few hours later when my flight didn't board when it was supposed to. We still hadn't boarded three hours later and had no information about when or if we were going to board a plane that day. All the information was in Dublin and they weren't giving any of it to the poor man at the gate in Paris. He therefore had no information for us which made it even harder when he tried to explain it in broken English. About four hours delayed they gave us a 5euros food voucher to be used in the airport. Finally we boarded the plane and sat on the runway for another hour and then finally took off for Dublin with no idea of what would happen once we got there.
Once we got to Dublin they seperated us into groups to help us figure out where we would stay for the night and what flights we were on the following day. Most of us got our flights all figured out right away and then some of us didn't and were told to head to our hotel and they would fax our information to us that evening. So I went to my hotel and relaxed, had a nice bubble bath and headed to the restaurant fo dinner with my meal voucher. What a delicious meal it was too. I ate with one of the other girls who got stuck on the same flight. After dinner we hung out at the hotel bar but I still hadn't heard from the airline. The receptionist called the airline to see if they had any information but they were closed. So all she could suggest was call back at 7 in the morning. So I went back to the bar with the others and we hung out there for the evening.
So 7am I got up and called the airline to see what information they had for me. Thankfully I was packed and ready to leave because when I called they told me my flight was at 11am which meant I had to be there at 9am. So I went and grabbed my free buffet breakfast, then got on the shuttle t the airport. All was fne with my flight information and I got through security fine but apparently not everyone got their flights all figured out. Unfortunately the flight they put me on was from Dublin to Shannon, Ireland, then o Boston and finally to Columbus. It all went smooth and it wasn't a horrible flight. I finally made it to Boston and then had t take my bags off the baggage claim, go through customs, recheck my bags, then take a shuttle to another terminal. I then got on a small plane to Ohio. I arrived in Ohio a day late but finally!! :)