December, January & February 2020

I love snow -- even though this is in Amsterdam, it's still beautiful. But it represents how I felt during that winter.

So. In December, I was going to class but the SNCF decided to do a "greve", which means that they don't work and instead protest over something. It's usually related to their disagreement over work conditions but can be something else. The SNCF is the national company that controls the trains, so this meant that we couldn't take the RATP (métro in Paris) to class. I was walking at 7/8 in the morning to class in the cold. Anyways, I was finally able to finish my essays -- and what a change! I had to write in the English-style, which is more like stacked sentences to me than the usual five paragraphs. I remember googling different ways of writing an English essay, but I was overall happy with my marks (also called grades). In January I came back and the trains were running, but it was pretty cold! I was going to classes and decided to start baby-sitting part time, because I had a lot of free time in the evenings and thought it would be a good experience. Even though I was a student, I was able to work for a certain amount of hours and it was my first interview in France - great stuff! I interviewed for a babysitting agency called Speaking-Agency, who re-branded in 2021. I was interviewed in a group, succeeded, and eventually was paired with a French family. I worked for them for a few weeks -- picking them up from school, bringing them home, and created games for them to participate in.