Hej! Kul att någon fortfarande kollar in min halvdöda blogg! Vad roligt med frankrike, jag har ju bara bott i Paris, men det är verkligen helt fantastiskt, (fast med några udantag, återkommer till det) Okej, jag kan bara prata om mina upplevelser i Paris, jag tror att resten av Frankrike är väldigt annorlunda mot Paris.

Till en början visste jag att jag ville plugga, och som tur var ville min bästa kompis också göra det. Genom ett par kompisar fick vi reda på att man kan läsa franska på universitetet Sorbonne, vilket man också får CSN + lån för kursavgiften för, kursen heter Cours de la Civilisation de la Sorbonne. Först tog vi hjälp av studieförmedlarna avista, men jag vet inte hur pass mycket smidigare det blev egentligen, och dyrare var det. Man kan lika gärna skriva in sig direkt på Sorbonnes hemsida,även om det kan vara lite krångligare.

Innan vi åkte hade jag inte läst ett dugg franska, men jag lärde mig sjuukt mycket under förra terminen. Jag läser nu också, men i år har jag inte orkat plugga lika mycket, så jag utvecklas inte lika mycket, men man lär sig så himla mycket mer när man är i landet. Men om du inte vill plugga, så är det ganska lätt för svenskar att få jobb här, men för det mesta måste man kunna hyfsad franska, om man inte gör som jag och jobbar som barnvakt eller au-pair, då är det oftast mindre noga. Jag jobbar nu förtiden som barnvakt åt en svensk/fransk kille samtidigt som jag pluggar halvtid.

Sen är det det där med boende.. Kan vara lite knepigt, har man massa pengar är det inte så svårt, då det finns olika agenturer som man kan betala, så hittar de ett boende åt en. men man kan absolut hitta ett utan en agentur . Vi åkte ner utan något annat boende än en vecka på ett hotell i förorten, men efter en veckas aktivt letande hittade vi en studio. Att dela med någon/några andra är ett tips om man inte själv vill leta samt komma undan lite billigare.. Men det är dyrt, det är det (fast inte värre än Oslo typ) Vi hittade våran studio genom en annons på svenska kyrkan i Paris. Svenska, amerikanska och danska kyrkan sätter upp annonser från folk som hyr lägenheter/rum. Oftast är det lättare än att försöka skaffa genom en fransk sida osv. eftersom de vill att man ska ha borgensmän osv.osv..

Anngående sparade pengar, jag hade inte jättemycket sparat, och det hela beror ju på hur länge man ska stanna och så, men vi hade så att det räckte till åtminstone två hyror. Det kan vara en bra idée att ha, eftersom nästan alla vill att man lämnar en caution = deposition (som man får tillbaka när man flyttar sen) på en eller två hyror. Men annars hade vi inte så många stora utgifter, som student med CSN får man ju lära sig att vrida och vända på pengarna lite ;)

Sen måste jag lägga till lite om Paris-livet, ibland är det helt knäppt, jag får nypa mig själv i armen när jag springer förbi eifeltornet eller louvren osv. Man vänjer sig trots allt vid allt det vackra. Paris är verkligen galet vackert och en helt fanatastisk stad. Iband är inte Parisare lika fantastiskta dock, snobbiga och snorkiga och villiga att dumförklara en när man inte pratar perfekt franska. Ibland blir det jobbigt och man vill bara packa väskan och åka hem till sverige, det måste jag erkänna.Men det går över och om man drömmer om Paris, ja, då är det verkligen värt att bo här. Just nu längtar varje por i mig efter sommaren och ljumma Parisiska sommarvindar. Åh!

Jag vet inte om jag har varit till någon hjäp och sagt något konkret, eller om jag bara svamlar. Om du har mer frågor höra av dig igen, jag svarar gärna :) Jag avslutar med länken till min partner-in crime Charlottes blogg, jag figurerar där ibland, och massa Paris-porr ;) http://girl-and-world.tumblr.com/

ps. Ursäkta för massa stavfel, och allmäna fel. Har inte skrivit på svenska på hur länge som helst!

/ Ellen 

Greetings from the couch

I am enjoying wasting some time on the internet, while Charlotte is skyping. This is a luxurious thing, as it means that we both have internet.. Usually we  share an internet code which we can only use on one computer at a time . But now it works on both! It happend last night as well, and it shouldn’t work, but now it does, so we better enjoy it when we can. 

We have just had our lanslords over, giving them the rent, and some awkward conversation in french. They’re the sweetest ever, but they’re so elegant like the french are, and well, im just not an elegant person. 

Other than that we  have been to the bank today, tomorrow we have an appointment to get our own french bank account. It went surprisingly well, and we also got a contact person, who seemed very very sweet. So happy and relieved that that went well, I’ve been a little terrified of french bureaucracy. 

On wednesday our job hunt starts for real. Oh my glob! 

I go to france and I stop blogging, I feel like I’ve done that before.. So I’ll do a quick update and hope I get back on track soon, because I like blogging, and I don’t want to stop..

So lately..

• I’ve been sooooo hungry all the time, like, it’s not even fun anymore, I keep on eating all my food, and food is expensive.
• On the other side eating is so much more fun when you’re hungry,and I have started cooking again. Something which I really really like, so I hope I can continue to do it this spring 
• Today I made an amzing tomato and carrot soup with garlic, parsley, lemon zest and feta cheese, it was really nice. I’ve also eaten loads of green lentil salads and an enourmous amount of soy youghurt. All so good. 
• Next week we will apply for jobs, I promise. I’m looking for baby sitter jobs, let’s hope I find a nice little kid and not a devil child, or mom ..  

• We are running again, 3 times a week. I think that’s how much that we will have time with this spring. 1 short, 1 fast, 1 long run a week. I like that plan
• Sometimes it feels that we don’t do so much more than drink coffee, eat, sleep, run and grocery shop, but that does not bother me so much, as I know that thing will change very soon. I rather enjoy it as much as possible when I can

So there we go, a quick update on what I’ve been doing lately.

Let’s hope that the parisian life gives us lots of sunshine and a temperature that goes above 10+ so I can spam this blog with lots and lots of pictures of ice-cream eating in jardin de luxembourg and spring runs in bois de bologne.. 

And we’re back. Back to the little studio. To hearing french all the time. 

Coming back was a little strange, we were home for quite some time, but we’re trying to make this as much home as possible, and I think we are succeeding. Yesterday someone knocked on our door, it was a friend, who works in the area. It felt nice to have some people you know in such a big city, and an unknown lady started talking with us in the grocery store in swedish. She thought it was nice to see that we bought so healthy things, in comparision to french youths. 

Today we ran in Parc Monceau, 3 laps, in snow-broth. Felt almost like running on the beach, except there’s snow and not sand. 

This spring will be more focused on health, running and eating well. In sweden that feels very natural, but it feel a bit trickier here, but I think all comes down to habbits. And finding ways which work here. 

Packing really is a process which helpes you to realize that you are leaving.. Duh, you are packing a suit case, but for me  mentally it helps with the transition of this home with this family to another (smaller) home and another (smaller) family. It’s like a small ritual and now I’m more set on Paris.

This spring will be good, different but good. And now I should go to bed and stop rambling on tumblr at this point at night! 

I’ve been a little worried lately, things have not fallen into place, just yet. Plans have changed, I thought I was going to be a full time student, it showed that I will instead have to take a part time job. 

School and money haven’t really worked out yet, and it’s making me somewhat anxious. 

Also I’ve had the stomach flu, and feel quite thrown off, I’m not sick, but I’m tired and weak. Which is absolutely influencing how I handle things.

However I try not to give in to my worry, or let it win. Try to find solutions or just do as much as I can, right now we can’t do so much anyways..

Tomorrow shall be a busy last day here, haven’t organised that much really, or thought for that matter. 

My motto right now is the quote in the title and that gives me comfort. If it’s not all right it’s not the end!

In the writing moment I’m sitting in my home with my dog next to me and eating a pinapple that my dad gave to me, all this feels very safe. 

Soon I will leave this home for my other home, in my other country. Even though France and Paris does not feel like my other country.  It feels different leaving this time, I go from being terribly excited to scared to the core.. 

It feels as leaving now is more final than it did in august. It feels like this time, things will be set into motion. I don’t plan to live home this summer nor this autumn, nor next winter or spring. I don’t for sure how reality is going to be, but my plans say that I will not return here, small town sweden, permanently. 

This summer hopefully I will stay in Paris and work, then I’ll head for Norway to save money, aaand finally I will fulfill my dream of charity working in south america. 

Big plans.  This is the first time in my life where I don’t know exactly how things will work out.. And it scares me and excites me at the same time.

To top it off I know I have to find a part-time job this spring. Which makes me a little nervous as well. 

I know things will be alright in one war or the other and I know that I will always have a home with my parents. I also have an amazing family, with a mum, a dad, a sister and a brother who I all love to the core. I  also know that now is the time, I don’t want to stay here, I know I want to do all these things. 

And for the first part of it I’m not alone, my Charlotte is with me and that is an enourmous source of safety! 

Let’s take the step, ready or not, here I come! 

Here comes the rest of year summary. The second part of the year was better than the first but very different, I mean the major part of it I lived in a different country..!

July

In july I realized and admitted to my self how lost I felt, I didn’t really know who I was. Also I really wanted to lose weight. So much of july was focused around that. But for some reason I did not succeed, and I was very frustrated about that. I kept on running and fell more and more in love with it, running really became my drug. The most nervous but also rememerable day was when I found out my grades. They were great, and I was so happy that all the hard work had payed off. I also attended a beautiful wedding, which filled my heart and stomach with warm fuzziness.  

When thinking back on july, I wish I could have let go a little bit of that  anxiety over the body.. 

August 

August was a lot about waiting and preparing for Paris. I got in my best running shape ever. But I also realize something very important, which I wrote about vanity over sanity http://healthy-happy-food.tumblr.com/post/29844397035/vanity-over-sanity. This is my favourite post and a  health philosophy I keep returning to. Having realized that we picked our bags and headed for Paris without having an apparment. 4 intense (and I really do mean intense!) days later and we had ourselves an apparment. 

Coffee and cake the night before we left Sweden. I remember being very happy but also very nervous. 

September

So we come to september. A busy month, I’ve had some busy months before but this one was busy but in a fun way. School started, have I ever talked about my french teacher? A very fascinating lady, who did not hesitate to complain about her students, she acutually called one mediocer. But other than studying there was just so much to do, people to get to know and places to be discovered. When talking about september I have to mention that I tried to get my normal hair colour back. Mistaaake. Now everything is ok, but it wasn’t so fun at one point. Once again I’ve learned my lesson, and I can safely say that red/brown is not the colour for me. Other than that, september was a lot of fun. 

Notre dame symbolizes september very much for me, we used to have our phonetics classes on the opposite street.  

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Look at this beautiful (but big!) boy i’m baby sitting this weekend.. He’s a yellow lab and there’s a special place in my heart for labs, my first dog and best friend was a black Labrador. I’m without a doubt a dog person

I’m leading a dangerous life here.. Eating raspberry banana ice-cream in my parents white bed. 

Still have some time before school starts again, and I’m doing my best not to turn crazy from restlessness. 

Having all this time have made me think a lot, and after reading a couple of running blogs there’s a thought that is forming in the back of my head. The thought of running a half marathon. I have no idea how or if that will work with my life, mostly because I don’t know for sure how it’s gonna be with time and all. And if I will have the time to train and commit to such a thing. 

Well well. Perhaps this year, perhaps next year  we’ll see. There will be plenty of time for running in my life.

Although we’re a bit into january I thought I would do a summary of 2012. 

2012 were full of changes, and it took me this whole year to adapt to these changes. 

January

January started off in Ecaudor where my brother, his girlfriend and I visited my sister. I remember spending the first day of the new year, floating on a rubber ring in a river in the jungle. It was probably one of my happiest days of the year. I came home and felt happy, calm, I  were very happy with the person I was. Towards the end of january things started to get busier with school and work. 

February 

I had a lot of work to do, and mock exams in school. But as always both school and work came in waves. I remember one afternoon where I desperately wanted to go out and run to blow off some steam, but I couldn’t because it was too darn icy, it ended up with me sitting in the car crying out of frustration and exhaustion. It was heavy, but towards the end of the month things calmed down. I could see that I had actually achieved something. 

I’ll let this picture symbolise february, this is my office before an event my organisation had. (Yup I used to have an office) 

Adding a read more here, otherwise I will clogg your dash.. 

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Here I am again. This blogging thing, I’ve thought about it a lot. Whether I should keep doing it or not. But the joy of interacting with you guys, and the fact that it’s a way to document ones life, a way to save little pieces of feelings or events convinces me that I should stay. 

I thought I was going to make a whole new blog, but I decided to keep this one. Then I can look back and see how I’ve changed. How life has changed. 

However I will change my URL soon. 

I feel really motivated to start again, but from now on I’ll write not only about life in relation to fitness and health but life in general. Although I guess a lot will be health related because health it’s a passion and interest for me. On this blog I want to focus on health in a new perspective, how my body feels and how I feel. Not how it looks. How my body  looks or my weight is not relevant. 

New year, a new start to this blog!

Christmas market at Champs Elysées. Christmas decoration must be hung up, even if you have to put the table on the guest bed, then put a chair on top of the table on top of the bed, and the finally put a Charlotte on top of it all… But now it’s on its place, and it looks great.

Final exams is coming up soon, and one would think that I want them to be over. But that would mean that I’ve finsihed my course, and still  don’t know what I am going to do next year, or how I am going to pay the rent. I really must decide soon, and I cannot chose. Anxiety. Oh well, besides from that all is well. 

Saluuut!

I keep on making these random posts.. But whatever, it’s my blog. 

This weekend we have Charlottes friend Amanda visiting us. Today they’re going to disney world. I’m not joining due to financial crisis in the wallet.. 

Which means that for the first time in 3 months (almost) I have a day all to myself. But it seems that I have forgotten what that is like. Very weird. But I used to see myself as a lonely wolf, but now I’m not so sure anymore. Charlotte and I have established our little family here, I like company more than I ever thought. But I think I’ll manage one day at least. I’m thinking of casually walking around in Paris today, probably to jardindes Tuileries and home. A suitable sunday walk. And perhaps do a little yoga, my body yearns for some stretching me thinks. 

But first les devoirs..