So although I'm already over three months into my Year Abroad, this is technically my first post. Before this I was trying (and failing) to keep a written journal so have decided to jump on the bandwagon and start a blog! Hopefully it will be a lot easier to keep updated and I won't feel as guilty about not documenting my travels around Europe.
Before I launch into what's going on at the moment I'll do a quick recap of my Year Abroad Part One so that this remains somewhat chronological:
So as I'm sure most of you know for the past three months I've been living and working in Paris, France. I was working in Marketing and Communication for Zurich Insurance Group and living in a studio apartment at Madeleine, in the 8th arrondissment. The location was great as it was pretty much bang in the centre of Paris. For those that don't know Paris well, I was about a 15 minute walk from the Louvre and 20-25 minutes walk from the Arc de Triomphe if that gives you a better idea! (For those of you that do, it was a 15 minute walk home from O'Sullivans... enough said.) The apartment itself was "cosy" (22m2, which doesn't go that far you've got 6 visitors trying to stay) but very well equipped and quite modern. The only (slight) catch was that it was on the 6th floor of a building with no lift so needless to say I've left Paris with more leg muscles than I knew existed!
Everyone at work was lovely and very accomodating. Although I was based in Communications, I also spent some time in HR, Claims, Customer Relationship Management and Legal so got to do a bit of everything really! I did a lot of translations and powerpoints, and also helped out with events - badges, welcome booklets, meet and greet etc. It was pretty varied and all completely in French so I had a great time despite the initial shock of working full-time and how tiring it can be.
I won't lie and say that I settled in straight away as I definitely had times where I felt the 'Year Abroad Blues'. This probably wasn't helped by two things; the fact that I was living alone and also how 'touristy' the city is, which does make it harder to feel the home there and meet locals. However, I did keep busy, did plenty of sightseeting and also had quite a few visitors (which was without exception hilarious).
I left with some amazing memories and looking forward to starting the next part of the Year Abroad. Highlights include the first time I saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle at night (such a tourist!), the 'Magnum' night, my birthday (and birthday lunch at work), the Abercrombie night, Boursin as a foodstuff in general and last but by no means least, the one and only O'Sullivans! All of these could be blog posts by themselves so I'll just leave them in a list and apologise to those who won't get them!
I'll upload some pictures later to give you a little overview of mon petit séjour à Paris!
