A Little Clarification...

I am well aware that I have had more luck than I had expected or asked for in my life in Paris, and although I still consider myself one of the lucky ones, I need to make the point that I have been working since January of my senior year to get here. Luck played a part, but hard work and determination have had and continue to have much larger roles in the creation and maintenance of my new lifestyle.
The initial work consisted of online research, long talks with various persons who had spent time abroad through different studies and/or jobs, a gap-year/city-year programs fair, and working my small-town job as a hostess in a restaurant while working towards my high school graduation. After choosing the program I would follow, the au pair program, I then looked into various organizations as well as private sites and independent profiles before ultimately selecting an organization, which I applied for. The paperwork was entirely in French, and involved several weeks of acquiring recommendations, certificates, legal documents, and a personal profiling and work preference file. After all of the papers were received and the contract with Fee Revee was signed, the woman who was going to set me up with a host family and get me into a language school gave me a phone interview before sending out my profile. After that, I still had to go to my doctor for her to run some tests and fill out my medical forms and vaccine history, as well as hire an under-oath professional translation service for my diploma, have my school re-create an official certificate of my French language level in French, and revise and translate my resume to be submitted.
For a few weeks, I read the profiles of families that were interested in me based on my file, and when I found one that stuck out as potentially too good to be true, I replied with great interest and started exchanging emails with the woman who's now taken on the role of my second mother. She and her family had actually been living in New York City for the past two years and were looking for a nanny who could maintain their toddler's English abilities. Before they left NYC, she wanted to meet me and be certain that it felt like a good match, so I drove out there with my mom to meet them and we signed our official work contract before the afternoon was over. It was then sent to Fee Revee's office outside of Paris and I was left to wait for it to be approved by the French labor department, and also to get my official pre-inscription certificate from France Langue, my school.
There were problems with the post system and, during an extended period of waiting impatiently, my documents never left France. I had planned to visit Germany for two weeks before the commencement of my new life and job in the city of lights, and then take a train from Bremen to Paris once I got there. Unfortunately, work requires a visa, and my visa was dependent on the contents of that envelope. And so, I took my vacation with Nina's family while waiting to find out when my future landed in New Hampshire, and had my flight's return date changed to the end of August and went to the consulate in Boston after I came back. A week later, when I got my passport back in the mail, I was able to book my new flight to Paris, and my mom graciously put it on her credit card.
My visa was not the long-term eleven-month visa which I had applied for, but instead expired in December, with a note to get a residency permit upon arrival at the prefecture, which is essentially a complicated police department that also performs a lot of the functions which a town hall performs in America. I have been there a total of five times, with my constantly growing file of paperwork, and have$ been sent to the wrong office and told that I was in need of more documents on multiple occasions. In November, they made me an appointment with a doctor's office in Paris to check me over and put me into their medical system before they finally gave me my permit. Which, again, expired within three months. They never told me I needed to have finished payments for all three trimesters of school in order for them to approve my student status needed to remain in the country.
Since, I have been back to the prefecture and attempted to renew my student status, and am currently set up with an appointment to do just that.
All of this is only the official/professional piece of the equation. Factor in travel planning, moving adjustments, culture shock, homesickness, school, the job itself, setting up phone and bank accounts, etc. and it becomes exceptionally clear that being here and being happy here is not and never was a simple gift or an act of magic.
That said, and hopefully understood, my experience in Paris has been and continues to be absolutely fabulous. I just hope I've made it clear that there has been an abundance of direct effort, hard work, and determination that has gotten me to this point. Our lives are what we make of them, and we are responsible for creating our own experiences -- this is no exception.

Paris, mon amour...

I am absolutely consumed by the love I have for Paris.
I made pancakes for the boys in the morning, took pleasure and sweet time in getting myself all dolled up and feeling fabulous, and spent the afternoon and evening with two exceptional humans. We watched La Vague, a German drama with French subtitles, and it really made me think after we left. It was very well done, and I highly recommend it. (The translation of the title is "The Wave," if anyone reading this decides to take interest in it and look it up.)
Afterwards, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe of Paris and ate American food with fruity cocktails and talked too loud and laughed too much. We walked through the Champs Elysses and decided to return when it's warmer to jump into the fountains at Concorde, and eventually went into Hagen Daas for dolce de leche with whipped cream and sat on a bench under the lights until midnight. It was a great night, and I realized as I was walking down the famous avenue, that all the work I did to get here is incredibly worth the results I'm living right now. Even when I feel lonely, I can walk through the streets and see the gardens and smile at the sight of my heart's desire.

Why I Love This Job

When the sky is grey and a drizzle tumbles down from the sky and dampens my trenchcoat as I walk by the bookstore, taking in the sweet smells coming from the flower shop around the corner, I know that I live in Paris. The vespas, smartcars, and ancient romantic architecture overflowing with small garden spaces set the perfect backdrop for these afternoon promenades through the city of my dreams. Late-night taxi rides back to my home in the sixteenth arrondisment showcase the illuminated city through my backseat window, and it captivates me. In the magical times that seem to generate themselves here, I forget about how much my feet hurt after dancing for hours in stilettos, and even how much I miss all the little comforts of my small-town New Hampshire life.
A midday cup of Carte Noir coffee and pleasant chats with Marie and Angela have provided me a new form of comfort, along with the bedtime kisses I receive from Etienne at the end of each workday. The thousands of reasons I could come up with to explain what it is that makes me able to truly enjoy the life I have here could never fully captivate the immense pleasure I get out of the rare and precious moments when the four year old I adore comes through and surprises me with small, yet at the same time grand, breakthroughs in his young life. Sometimes, it's just a smile that he gives me when the day seems long, and other times, it's the first ABC song or word or counting that he shows me he can do all by himself. Occasionally, it's a day of polite requests and unlimited laughter, or, my personal favorite, an hour or two of make-believe that enraptures the two of us so deeply that I forget that I'm at work.
To top off having the most incredible job I could have asked for in the most magnificent place I could ever imagine, my host family is a true second family who makes me feel worthwhile when I want to fall apart, and they do it without trying or even realizing it.
We went to Verbier, Switzerland, in the Alps, and the mountains were glass sculptures hand-blown by the universe for humans to admire for all time. Slow mornings in my own big, comfy bed, led to long breakfasts with Etienne and hours of snowman-building, slipping and sliding in slush, and sledding down the bottom of the mountain. Nearly every night was spent with Disney movies and room service before bed, and I wouldn't change it for the best restaurant in all of Europe. The landscape and long drive made me reminiscent of the White Mountain trips with Daddy every winter, and I wrote him a long letter telling him how much I wished he could be there.
Marie saw my manly old ski gear and insisted on giving me money to go shopping and buy a hot pink replacement, knowing I couldn't afford it on my own. She is the most generous woman I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, and I get to live daily in her presence. This is just one of the unlimited and ever-growing reasons that I admire her.
Upon our return to the city of lights, I enjoyed a day of relaxation, painting, self-pampering, and meeting up with a good friend for the evening. When work started again on Monday, it felt like a coming-home of sorts. In getting back into the swing of things and catching up on emails and re-writing my to-do list, I heard from my friend Ali from South Africa and decided to check up on the possibility of making a trip down to visit her, just to see if it's at all possible. As it turns out, it's not only possible, it's going to happen!
My payment for the Swiss vacation was much larger than I had expected, based on Marie's significant re-evaluation of my work during those couple of weeks. I was shocked and blushing when she informed me of the figure, and in all honesty, I'm still a bit mind-boggled at the concept of being paid to take one of the best vacations I've ever had. Nevertheless, it's this new-found financial surplus which is allowing me to make my African adventure next month a reality.
I'm more than aware that I've stated it over and over ever since my arrival, but it's something that cannot be proclaimed enough: I am one of the lucky ones.