A Real Update

I've realized that I haven't really posted a serious update for awhile, and I want to give you guys an idea of what my life is actually like here. All kinds of interesting things are happening.

First of all, a new girl came into the office to work with me. Her name is Seven and she is Turkish, but grew up in Germany. Her family is originally from a city that was the ancient city of Troy. She studies English and French teaching, so speaks both languages incredibly fluently (as well of course fluent German and Turkish since they were her first languages.) She hardly has an accent at all. She shows me all of the clothes that are popular in Germany and teaches me how to say wierd things in German. It's great.

So anyway, our job is to go out every afternoon and visit old people. We talk to them, ask them about their lives, do things for them and be their friend. Then we have to come back to the office and write down as much as we can remember about what they said in little notebooks. Then we report on their condition, if they need anything, etc.

So the other day we visited a woman named Madame Gruau. She used to work in haute couture and lives in a very, VERY nice apartment above all the designer stores in the 1er arrondissement. She was so welcoming to us and so happy to see us. She had us sit down, got us some drinks, asked us how we were. She was very interested in getting to know us as well as telling us about her life. What an interesting woman ... she was a model for awhile, she knew Yves Saint Laurent, earned a very nice amount of money. She was wearing a very classy dress and high heels -- very well for a 95 year old! But she seemed unaffected. She had all of her jewelry stolen a year ago (including her great grandmothers bracelet from before Napoleon) but she told us about it like it wasn't really that big of a deal. She is half Italian and was born in Verona. She moved to Paris with her husband, and when he was of fighting during the war she become very close with his brother names René Gruau. He was a painter and illustrator for Christian Dior for awhile. (Here is a website with his pictures.) She considered him as a brother, and went on and on about how great of a person he is. It was so fascinating to us and we stayed far longer than we usually do. At the end, she told us that she would love for someone to come read to her because she loves all kind of literature. I told her that I study literature, also in particular French literature, and she was delighted. Then she recited parts of Inferno in Italian for us. Then, she wanted me to read parts of it to her from her French copy from the early 1900s. WOW. She saw us out to the elevator and didn't want us to leave. We didn't really want to leave either.

Seven visited a woman yesterday who was part of the French resistance and told her all about her experiences and all the times she was almost caught by the German police. I'm going to go see her with Seven next time. Yesterday I visited a 99 year old woman who told me about how happy she was to see her father when he came home from WWI, and showed her his bayonet and helmet.

It turns out that I can not change my plane ticket like I was planning on doing, and so I have to leave Paris on the 22nd. When I told people at the office they said "QUOI? Mais non, il faut rester!!!" And proceeded to give me all kinds of advice of how to change my ticket. It was overwhelming but they were like little puppydogs jumping all around me and begging me to stay. It made me sad. I really don't know if there's any way I can change my ticket.

I'll start writing real updates from now on. I don't know why I'm not writing all of this great stuff that I'm learning and doing. Also, I apologize for my bad writing. Even though my french isn't improving THAT much, and I absolutely pay no attention to grammar like I should, somehow my English is deteriorating quickly. I've started to use the pronoun "one" far more often and speak in phrases that I would use in French. It's bizarre and embarassing.
More posts soon.