A call for productivity

School started again a few weeks ago and already the end of the semester is looming over me, when I will have to turn in the most important paper of the year. That I will then have to present in front of a jury. It's called a mémoire, I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but it's essentially a mini-thesis. Around 40-50 pages, it includes a translation of around 20 pages/30,000 characters. (They use characters in France--basically, the number of letters--which easily fixes students' clever "tricks" of double spacing, increasing letting, etc. Suffice to say, I would have failed out of my undergrad degree had I not used this to my advantage in the US.) In addition to the translation, also required: 30,000 characters of commentary, in French. This is the hardest part. Not so much that it's in French, although, naturally this is a concern. However, the bigger problem is the content. Knowing how to say things eloquently, with right terminology. Like any subject, translation has all kinds of its own jargon. I read grammar books like novels, but these are terms that go beyond the normal scope of grammar jargon. I have to look for, note, commentate different methods of rendering the translation from French to English, because as I'm sure you know, it's not just about replacing words. It's a whole game of transferring meaning, which can be represented in different ways..an example I like is the change of how English speakers see things versus French ones. So, where we would say lost property (ok, in AmE, lost and found, but follow my example..), the French would say objets trouvés (found objects). Where we see it as already lost, the French see it as found. Another few that I was just reminded of on my translation workshop on Friday :
The car does 15 miles to the gallon/ La voiture consomme 20 litres aux cent (The car consumes 20 litres to a hundred)
keyhole/la trou de serrure (the lock hole)
there's a smell in the air/ a smell hangs in the air/ l'odeur flotte dans l'air (the smell floats in the air)

Anyway, I love learning about these sorts of things, but when it comes to being a diligent student and writing long-winded graduate-level papers about them..oy. I am le lazy.  It's just that I have trouble doing things in advance when there's weeks and months ahead of me..I seem to only be productive under pressure, but I know that this paper is essential! imperative! to me getting into year two of my program, and I'd really like to do well. Or at least I need to have done my best so I won't beat myself up over it if I don't get in. I must be better or I'll find my ass kicked out of the country!

Which reminds me..I got my visa renewed!

Excuse the profanity, which I try to avoid in writing..but we're dealing with French bureaucracy, man. Definitely merited. I'm not throwing a "legal again!" party until I have said visa in hand. I can't pick it up until APRIL! Argh...akdjfaesdjfkajesrhweoifwtffrancelwkejlrkwje

This semester is much more hands-on. More workshops, less theory, fewer classes in English! I am continuing my German class but am losing hope in German.. I know I'll never be fluent unless I live in a German-speaking country, and it makes me frustrated because I'm really on the cusp between intermediate and advanced; I just need more time and concentration to really do something about it.

Alright well plenty, and I mean PLENTY of translations await me. And then work. And then sleep. And then work. And then school. And then translations. And then sleep. And then school. And then work. And then translations and work and school work translations work school translations social life...

Oh no big deal, just some dinner at the Eiffel Tower

**Was meant to be posted a few weeks ago..sorry!**

Thank god it's almost over. The last few weeks have been awful. And stressful. My apartment is a proper mess and I have been eating monstrosities like chips, cookies, ramen noodles, red bulls, and coca light..apparently I have reverted to being an 18-year-old college freshman again. Except for the coke light thing, it's a real 26-year-old problem.

 I have a serious addiction. Must. Stop. French people give me weird looks when they see my recycling but all I want to say is something along the lines of "Stop giving me your judgy looks, old woman! Where's your recycling..(muttered) you polluting hag?" Instead, I walk by stone-faced with my head up because that's the nice thing to do. (I don't use transparent bags anymore to avoid this problem, what level of addiction is this?)

Back from the coke tangent. I had a week of classes right after break, followed by two weeks of finals, including two big assignments--in the same class. How rude. Good thing the professor has a lovely blond beard or I'd give him a piece of my mind! Ha. Anyway, in addition to school being beyond stressful (because I like this program about 739 time more than last year's and thus care), I somehow managed to drop my card wallet while on my bicycle. So I lost my citybike pass, my metro pass, library card, etc. All ridiculously important to me because I use them so much. (Luckily my bank cards and other important ones were in my wallet.) In the few days it took me to get these new cards, of COURSE I got controlled on the metro for not composting my ticket. I go to a uni that would be considered by some as a bit sketchy..people jump all the time. Er..not even jump. Just pass through behind someone else. So I decided to join this wagon, you know, to economize a little bit. ONE TIME, PEOPLE. And naturally I get caught. The worst part is that I actually had my passport on me that day. Just happened to have it with me, OF COURSE. So he could see the multiple visas I've had here, plus I am epically bad at pretending I don't understand French. My face always gives it away. So I couldn't be like "ohh..excusez-moi, m'seer..je ne speak pas French...I am..euh..american girl here..I have a defunct blockbuster card, is that d'accord for ID?" The man said I had a pretty smile so he "only" gave me a 50€ fine. Merci, monsieur, merci.

Anyway, last week was better, although still stressful. I was so flipping busy last week. The Great Dane turned the big 2-1, so I went out with her a few nights, including here :

Yes, you saw correctly. I ate at the Jules Verne restaurant atop the Eiffel Tower. (Okay, well on the 1st floor but atop does sound cooler, admit it. I rarely get to even utter this phrase, just let me have it.) Malia's godparents live in Paris, but they're American. The mother works at the classy private American hospital, read: they could afford to take us out. Malia, her Swedish friend that was in town visiting and I were invited. We had a delicious three-course meal, with wine, bien sûr. I can say with certainty that it is the classiest dinner I've ever had. Yet. Naturally I will dine at more exotic and less touristy places when I have the means. Give me a couple decades.





 

My cozy prison cell

I've been accumulating pictures of my small apartment for the last few months, and thought that perhaps you'd like to see my humble abode on the right bank. It's 10m², which google tells me is 107ft². I have a little storage closet down the hall, so all in all I have maybe 12m² at most. It's slightly smaller than the place I had last year, but the layout is different and I have a dormer window, so one of my walls is on a slant. Excuse my lack of architecture terms..in short, it's borderline claustrophobic.

All tidy. You're currently looking at my living room, bedroom, edge of my kitchen, chair to the desk in my "den." Notice my festive little sapin de Noël. (Courtesy of HEMA, a Dutch store in Paris that makes me want to just up and move to the NL)

My bed facing the "kitchen"

Sitting on bed, less tidy..mmm chips

Brittany by my bookcase (during her visit in November), next to the shower AND desk. It's..cozy

View out my window. Rainbow!

View out the window in the hallway. You can still see the Eiffel Tower, but she's itty bitty compared to last year's view. The colorful building in the back is Centre Georges Pompidou, blogged about  back in 2009, when I took more pictures in my abundant freetime. I kind of miss that year, but not nannying for that family!

I love the area I'm in, and the building is very nice despite my Bohemian (mostly) student-filled, paint-chipping-off-the-walls floor. The toilet is in the hallway--something I'm not a huge fan of, but god knows it wouldn't fit in here. I bitch about the seven flights of stairs, the old man next door that snores incessantly, and the constant cold drafts that in turn make the skylights rattle all night, but the truth is that I'm young, living and studying in Paris. I could be a lot worse off. It builds character, right? (And thighs, too.) I'd like to think that later in my life, I'll look back on these days and reminisce about how I had to fold up my futon every day, turn off my heater when I wanted to cook (so the fuses don't blow), and was far too used to grabbing a roll of toilet paper before making my way down the hall to the toilet shared with my numerous floormates. On second thought, maybe I won't miss the last one as much..

Bonne année!

Happy New Year to all. I got a little sad a few weeks ago, realizing that this holiday was the third in a row I'd missed. For whatever reason, I somehow thought I'd only missed two, but then I got to thinking about it, and nope..definitely three. Ah, well. Can't have everything. I would've loved to be home, but perhaps next year (..this year).

Christmas was in the midst of my crazy hours at work, so I was happy for the day off. I watched Home Alone, made a vegetable platter, and headed for the Orphan Party one of the managers at work was having. It was good to not be alone (all my friends were home!) and in good English-speaking company. Mostly Americans, but there were a few Canadians, an Ethiopian, a Frenchman (who let him in!) and maybe another nationality or two, you never know with expats who's going to show up.



We ate, drank, watched movies (yes, that's A Christmas Story), had a white elephant gift exchange (I got a head massager, awesome), played Charades, chatted, etc. Fun times for all. And so much food, as it should be! I stayed a good part of the day and into the evening, but had to work the following morning so headed back to mine to make some calls to the respective families who were still in full Christmas Day mode.

I didn't make it to the Champs-Elysées this year, but a few recent pics from my iPhone around Christmastime:


 



New Year's was pretty last-minute. Hung out with The Great Dane, aka Malia, and a French girl I work with, Flo(rence). She's actually the only French person I can really call my friend--the French are more of acquaintance type of folk; friends are a small, select group of people. She is also one of the most Americanized French people I've ever met, which probably explains our friendship, ha. I'll take what I can get! We ended up at a house party, and for the sake of my own dignity, I'll just post a picture from earlier in the evening when we weren't quite so indecent. It was a moustache and leather party, unfortunately we only found that out right before leaving, so voilà our solution!


Stay tuned for pictures of the closet I call my apartment!

Bring on December

Glad November is over. Long-hated month of mine; I especially feel the effects of short days here in Paris, which is roughly at the same latitude as Montreal. Daylight is fading by 4:30 and by around 5, any traces of the sun are nonexistent. Of course, December is worse in this respect, but you at least have the upcoming holidays to distract you. November seems to drag on forever here. No Turkey Day festivities to break up the month! There are two bank holidays, but it's not the same. (It is, however, lovely when they fall on a Thursday, Friday or Monday. Long weekend! Especially on a Thursday--everyone "makes the bridge" and takes Friday off, too.)

My weeks pass faster than I think they will. Mostly because of my two set schedules that pack everything together in a few days—work and school. I work Saturday-Tuesday at the café, around 25 hours. I get very little schoolwork done on the weekend, but I do have Monday and Tuesday during the day off. I theoretically consecrate these days to catching up on schoolwork. However, real life often gets in the way. Laundry, bank, supermarket, tidying up, catching up on sleep, remnants of a social life, etc. I know I said it last year, but the biggest thing I’ve had to learn from working and going to grad school is time management—something I admittedly struggle with. Growing up kind of sucks sometimes…

After my four days of work, I have the following three days for school and studying. My classes are all day Wednesdays and Fridays, so those days are effectively blocked out of my schedule. I leave for school just after sunrise and get back long after sunset. I come home so tired that I practically fall into bed! Classes are three hours long and I have trouble concentrating for that long in a row, even if I enjoy the material. It’s just tough to keep my brain active for so long in a row. I can’t space off too much because the classes are so small and I can't really get away with it. Of course, it wouldn’t be France without a coffee break halfway through the class, but by the end of the day, my brain is fried. My eyes hurt from looking at a computer and being under bright florescent lights, in the same room, all day long.

On the metro ride home, I should, but don't always read a book. My eyes kill me. (Note to self : Go to the eye doctor!) I just listen to music and close my eyes, peeking them open every now and then to make sure I don’t miss my transfer. I like my uni, and I like living in Paris, but I have to say, it’s pretty disheartening to walk off campus after 9+ hours straight in a classroom and know that your bed is a multi-transfer metro ride, walk home, and seven flights of stairs away.

But it’s worth it. I like my program and it’s small enough (on a good day, 6 or 7 people) that I get direct contact with my professors, something I missed last year in my giant Communications program. Two of my classes are in English, and although I would prefer that they all be in French, I have to admit that it’s nice to have a little bit of familiar. I prefer the way Americans teach but I also prefer that cost of education in France. One of these classes is with an Australian guy, maybe mid-30s and pretty cool. Asks if we understood, jokes around, allows discussions off topic, uses an online website to submit homework, etc. All the things that I miss about traditional French education. 

The other class is with a French professor who spent a fair amount of time in Boston. He teaches a lot like in the States, but maybe not as much as the Australian. Still, I appreciate that he posts assignments for us online and writes key terms on the whiteboard. His English is impeccable, so much so that I have taken to noting his vocabulary :

Exhibit A (wherein I doubt any language ability I may have thought I had) :

tinker

elusive

akin

striking feature

utmost

engrossed

strike of a key

splice

…and many others that make you question your education

I know all these words in English, thank god. At least he has yet to use vocabulary that I don’t know in my native language! But do I know these in French? Umm…no. Granted, English has many more words and the word ‘akin’ probably just translates as comme,the usual translation of ‘like.’ But still, for a non-native English speaker--and French at that--I am certainly impressed. (Not that America is any better..) Now if only I would get my ass in gear and look up his words in French so I could match his vocabulary...

Anyway, bref, classes are good. I thoroughly enjoy the challenges that translation brings. I finally am enrolled as a real student at my university, which brought forth my favorite benefit as a student : access to the university library. I checked out a bunch of translation studies books and am hoping to read them a bit in my spare time. My program is a decent translation program, but I still feel like there’s some essential material missing, or at least it’s not been introduced yet. Vocabulary for what we’re actually doing, explanations of theories, etc. So I’m supplementing it with my own readings. I have very grandiose ideas concerning my academic plan that rarely come to fruition, but in my dream world, I think things like :

“If you’re going to do a Master’s, you should do it right. You should be reading extra material all the time!"

“If you start early, you'll avoid staying up until 4am the day before it's due!” 

"Stop getting on Facebook. Seriously, Rachel, no one is doing anything of interest. Really."

“You must study for three hours a day.”  HAR HAR. At least the intention is there, right? Right?!

**I promise pictures soon. Going to let my camera out of his closet dungeon this weekend!

Reporting from the right bank

Since I've moved to the other side of the river, I've had to change some old habits. You get used to your haunts, the same faces on the street, the baker that knows you by name and uses tu with you like you've known each other for years. Now it's new metro stops and bus lines to route out, a new grocery store (and I had just perfected navigating the aisles of my old one!), new shops and streets to learn. I'm enjoying learning a different part of Paris, even though I'd walked around this area many times before moving here. But it's not the same as actually living there. You have to know your neighborhood, especially in Paris (well, France), where most businesses are closed on Sunday. Luckily, there are little superettes--over-priced convenience stores that are open till around midnight--around the city, but you have to know where to find them. They're usually tucked away in an unsuspecting corner as to attract the least amount of people possible. Anyway, still getting to know my surroundings, and I see something new every day that I hadn't noticed before. Though I really hate schlepping all my crap around the city every year when I move, it's nice to get to live in different parts of Paris. I love getting closer to the "real" Paris with each street roamed, each metro stop used, each bakery visited. (The French may not be the best cookie makers, but they most definitely excel in making other baked goods.)

I've relocated to the République/Bastille area, a very posh and busy part of the city. It's actually the merging of three arrondissements (districts)--the 3rd, 10th and 11th. Lots of bars filled on the weekends, cute hipster-filled cafés, bike shops, art galleries, etc. It's cool and I've just barely started to discover the places around me.

Since there's no direct metro or bus to my work, I've taken to biking to work. I could take the metro, but even lazy Rachel admits that a 25-minute metro ride is just stupid compared to the 10-minute bike ride. Ask me about this in late November and I might have a different answer.  I take the city bike that I have a subscription to and have to go around this big statue:

It can get kind of scary. Plus, it's cobblestone that's not completely flat, and plus, incoming cars have the right of way. It's like a mini Etoile--maybe I'll try that one next. (With a helmet and insurance card.) But I like to think that biking around Bastille on a daily basis makes me a little more Parisian..or at least I pretend! (Two years in and I finally tie back to the title of my blog)  Usually, it's not this crowded, but this picture was clearly taken during a strike. And it is currently strike season, so I'd be lying if I said I hadn't already seen it look similar to this in the mere three weeks I've been living here. Pretty soon it will get cold and like magic! The strikes will go down to practically nothing. 

Another week of school went by and I've started to get into a routine, finally. I hate the first few days of class because you're still figuring out logistics and trying to make a good impression, ha. I've got the metro route down (it is god-awful in the morning. Squeezed up against the walls, fun.), I know where my classes are, I know my classmates' faces, and (most importantly) I've gotten a temporary library card while I wait for my enrollment to be made official. France is slow with anything that involves filling out papers, and university is no exception. Being as I was accepted at the very end of September, my process has been pushed back. They're still validating my American degrees or something, I'm not totally sure. Even though I haven't had to pay yet, I'd rather just write the check and get this behind me. I had to reschedule my appointment at the prefecture because my current uni is taking so long, and I need my official "you're in school" certificate to get the cheap metro pass....sigh, France. You're exhausting sometimes.

The more I study translation, the more I think why didn't I just do this before? I've been a language enthusiast for a good five or six years. It made sense for me to finish up my journalism degree in the US and obviously it would have been a waste for me to have not finished my French degree after spending a year and a half in France. But all those months two years ago that I mulled over which degree to choose, what path to follow, how I could incorporate my language love and journalism..I don't know why I cast away translation so quickly. Probably because I know, here at the beginning, that it is not a job you do for the loads of money. It's more of a "Ok, I have these skills that would be wasted if they just chilled in my brain. Can I find something that can put them to use and I can make and ok living out of?"-career. I'm ok with that. I really enjoy translating between languages, learning new translation software, meeting other to-be translators with a huge variety of languages, tying in a lot of the communication studies I did last year, and *best of all* talking strict grammar. I love grammar, and can pull out subordinated clause, direct object pronoun, epithet adjective  and many others like no one's business. 

Did I mention that I'm taking German and Spanish classes for fun? Oh yeah. Might have gotten in a little over my head. Translating into French won't be allowed in my professional career, but is good practice for now. I have a high enough level that I do an ok job. However, translating from French to Spanish? Oooh là, a bit difficult. It's a challenge that I am enjoying, but so far is taking up a big chunk of my time. Eeek.

So, all and all, I'm really enjoying my second go at being a student in France. The commute is longer, and the school is a little rough, but it feels like I'm where I should be. And not watching kids anymore? Oh, the joy. OH THE JOY. 

It's definitely fall/On est bien en automne

I didn’t mean to be away this long! Four months later, I’m still alive, still in Paris. I had a few entries written, just waiting on pictures or a final read-over..but life caught up with me, what can I say. I might post one that I wrote in September because I had nearly finished it and then kind of forgot to publish it..

So, a short summary of Rachel's first full-length summer in Paris :

Finished with children on July 1^st. Left for vacation July 2^nd! I went on a little tour of the Germanic countries to meet friends. Berlin to see my friend, Brittany; Bamberg, to visit my two German friends ; and finally, to Vienna, to see a high school friend get married to an Austrian winemaker (not bad, huh!).

All in all, a good experience despite the crap weather in Berlin, again! I still like the city but I hope to see it in the sun one day! The cheap cost of living tempts me..maybe in a year or two I’ll head on over there. It was good to see Bamberg and friends again, and I went out with them and all their German friends to a pub quiz. It was fun, even if they had to translate a lot for me. All the more reason for me to finally conquer this language! Vienna was very pretty and classic. So many nice buildings and I loved that the trams were still old school with wooden seats and signs from the 60’s. The wedding was beautiful, and it was a perfect summer day. And the wine was abundant! But more than a week of traveling behind me, I was ready to come back to Paris. I love German, but sadly I'm not fluent (yet). After trying to express myself (poorly) for a week, it was so nice to hear French again. Enfin je comprends tout!

Worked my ass off. Following the summertime tradition of intense labor since 15, I put in a lot of hours at the café. I knew I'd have to find an apartment in September, so I started putting away money in a little jar on my shelf so I'd be reminded to add to it! Luckily tips were pretty good thanks to the tourists that were in there non-stop. It was strange for the first few weeks not having to frame my day around the school hours. I didn’t have to watch my kids except for one week—just picking them up from a daycare and waiting till the parents got home.

Spent a lot of time at the library. A French test in early August and watching kids for one week later in the month reminded me that September would be, in short, awful. Although I enjoyed my time off, I knew I had this 5-page project to write to get accepted to my Master’s program, due the first week of September. Not to mention completing the whole application process—various forms to fill out, a cover letter, a CV, translated transcripts, the aforementioned French test and the promise of my first-born child. Plus tons of time researching for the 5-page project—which was to explain the idea for my mémoire—a 50-page paper due at the end of your first year. Confused yet? Me too.

There was some other stuff in there--Bastille Day on my roof, gorgeous sunsets, cafés with friends, sales, the faux-beach "Paris Plage," a mini-trip to the Netherlands, the subsequent six-week obsession with the Dutch language, reading novels, eating baguettes and drinking wine on the canal, going to the outdoor cinema with picnics, enjoying Paris without the Parisians, deserted libraries, long days and warm(ish) nights.


(Of course there were also the plentiful grey skies, the tourists on every corner of the city, the lack of open bakeries or really anything, ridiculously hot days at work, the frozen state of the French bureaucracy, hearing about everyone else's génial vacations, the building concierge yelling at me for having too many people on the roof, the massive return of Parisians and their offspring..)


My  kids' school started back up in September, so there were 15 hours a week there, another 25-30 at the café, apartment searching and subsequent moving, the 5-page paper, interview and translation test preparation, and oh by the way, my visa expired at the end of August and I imperatively needed to get into school to be able to stay in France…

STRESS.

I’m pretty calm most of the time. I take things one at a time and deal with what comes at me. But here, I didn’t have the luxury of doing that. Everything culminated in a short period of time. For two days, I was convinced that my application hadn’t arrived at the office in time, and here I was, a day away from signing a lease contract without having a acceptance letter to get a visa to actually stay in France so I could fulfill the lease..

Cue the quarter (+1)-life crisis and scrambling to figure out what to do in the case that I had to leave France. Korea? Germany? New York? Marriage ad on Craigslist? It was not a pretty little freak-out session, I’ll tell you.

But. All ended well, or at least I hope it continues to be that way. Moved out of my 7^th floor apartment on the Left Bank to a new, 7^th floor apartment on the Right Bank. (I have FAR too many books.) Finished with my kids and passed off the job to the new girl. (Such a relief. Loved my family, but it was time to leave Nannydom.) Got a letter later in the week of freaking out that the university had received my dossier and it was being looked over. Then came the tests (ok), interview (horrible), re-writing of project (stressful), and acceptation to the program. (YES!) I am now a bonafide student of translation. Classes started last week.

So. That brings us up to about now. I have an appointment at the prefecture on Tuesday, and I know that I won't have everything I need to get my visa renewed. My new university is taking forever to get all my paperwork through and I’ve given up harassing them. It’s one of those “you just have to wait until it gets processed, it’s working..” type of things. I’ve had the visa appointment for two months, and it’s very likely that I will be sent away within five minutes with a new appointment in 2012. Sigh. I’m preparing my best defensive and slightly rude French phrases just in case.

Uni--so far, so good. The program is very time consuming, and I'm juggling work with that as well. I really enjoy doing the translations and am excited to learn more as the year progresses. I've always worked a lot during my studies, and though I'd obviously prefer to sleep more have more time to study, there's only so much you can wish for. I'm down two jobs (nanny, English teacher), so I already feel like I have an enormous amount of time in front of me. My school schedule is packed into two days, which makes for long days but less time commuting the hour-long trip each way. More to come as I settled into my program.