Language Blues

I've been oscillating back and forth lately as to whether or not I want to maintain this blog. Partly because I'm lazy and partly because I'm less anonymous now than before causing me to think carefully before publishing certain posts. I've decided that for the time being I will keep the updates coming and I will try to be a little more disciplined regarding the frequency.

So what have I been up to? Well I celebrated my 1 year anniversary in Paris several weeks ago (please feel free to send presents my way). I also took a 1 week long intensive French course. Overall the course was great and I'm thankful to the company for paying for it. However, I'm doing myself a huge disservice by not speaking more. Even though I've listened to my fair share of Frenchies stumble to speak English on my behalf I'm just really not comfortable enough to do the same, yet. Honestly, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to do the same.

Before I came to France I had this fantasy that when I arrived in Paris, I would magically, through some sort of osmosis be able to speak perfect French. Now that that isn't the case I'm really struggling. When I first got here people were a lot more understanding of my lack of language skills but now that I've been here over a year their expectations have definitely changed and I'm almost embarrassed to tell people how long I've been in France these days.

Things will get better I'm sure. I have my second intensive week of one on one French classes in two weeks. I think I need to change my mindset and step out of my comfort zone more so than I have done in the past.

Today Paris Surprised Me

Today I went my bank to open a savings account because I'm officially rolling in the dough these days. Actually the previous comment is entirely untrue, I wanted to open a savings account to ensure that I put enough dough aside to pay my income tax bill when it arrives. Being the fiscally responsible person that I am I decided that it really doesn't get any better than a savings account setup with automatic transfers.

Alas, I digress. Those of you that have been reading my blog for a while are probably aware of my initial banking woes and if not you can read all about them here. So today during my lunch break I decided to head over to my bank to accomplish the impossible. I stand in line and 60 seconds later I'm speaking to the welcome agent and I tell the gentleman that I want to open a savings account. Because his English wasn't so great and my French is borderline horrible there was some initial confusion regarding my request. After we figured out my intentions he looked on the computer to determine the name of my specific banker. Several key strokes and one voila later he ascertained the name of my banker and tells me that shes not there at the moment. Bummer I thought to myself, my trek across town was completely in vain. Several seconds later he says to me, "Oh but I can open the account for you". Yippie I thought.

Less than 30 minutes later and after signing only two forms I was out of there and the proud owner of a savings account which yields 4% interest, has no additional monthly fees and I can withdraw the money at any time without penalty. As a bonus he set up online access to the new account and changed the cellphone number the bank had on file for me.

I walked out of the bank thinking this has got to be too good to be true and that something was definitely lost in translation. Only time will tell folks.

J'ai grossi

Since moving to Paris last September I've stopped exercising all together (when I lived in NYC I would run and practice yoga regularly), I turned 31, and I have an insatiable appetite for baguettes and wine.

What does this translate into in simple English? Well it basically means that I've gained more kilos than I have fingers to count and aside from changing the name of my blog to something more descriptive I've decided to take some major action. Firstly, I will be checking out a yoga class this afternoon and if I like the class, instructor, location and all that god stuff I'll be back on the road to a fitness regiment in no time. I've also been invited by my colleague (yes you read that correctly) to check out the Gym Suedoise which is basically the French equivalent of Jane Fonda aerobics. That class is on Monday so we'll see how it goes.

Wish me luck.