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 :)