Paris part one

Salutations de France !

Wow! Paris is absolutely incredible! Every street, and every little thing I see has such beauty, I can see why Parisians want to sit down for a while and eat meals! It's such a surreal experience, kind of like being in a movie! The organic, original content is just pouring in. Spectacular shots of all the major landmarks are piling up and pictures of Parisians enjoying their city in unique hard-to-capture moments highlight the Realia that I'm finding. I can't wait to see the final product.

There are many beggars in Paris. Some try to get you to sign fake waivers pledging money to phony organizations. I was asked to sign a form for a fake organization claiming to support deaf, mute people! 

Today marks the first day I was able to order a baguette au thon (a tuna baguette) at a local boulangerie without feeling stupid and I even made small talk with the shop owner! Speaking of food, the taste and flavors have shattered my perception of real food. Even a €.85 baguette is edible without slathering with butter and garlic. 

In terms of the people, Parisians are proud of their city and language, they warm up nicely if you can speak even a little French. I'm not fluent in French, but so far the Parisians I've talked with helped me learn more about the French language. If you're learning French, this is the way to do it.

More adventures and Realia are left to be found, stay tuned for part two from the trip to Paris!

À demain !

How to Get a U.S. Passport

I’ve never been outside of the country, so I never had the need for a passport. You even need a passport to get from the U.S. to Canada. With a limited amount of time before the trip to Paris, this is how I got my passport.

To get a passport, you need to have your original birth certificate with a raised stamp. If you don’t have your original birth certificate, you’ll need to go to the county in which you were born and have them reprint it for a nominal fee. You can also have them send it to you by mail if you live far away from your birthplace.  There are applicable fees depending on how fast you need your passport. You need to have two separate checks to pay the two different departments.  This is what I took with me to the local post office:

•       My original birth certificate
•       A check made out to the post office for the $25 execution fee
•       A check made out to The Department of State for $212.72 to expedite the process

To protect my passport from people wanting to "borrow" it, I bought a passport protector. I could wear it inconspicuously underneath my shirt hung at my side. I looked at many different under-shirt passport holders, and I went with this one because it was cheap, lightweight and well-hidden.

After three weeks worth of waiting, and ten minutes at the post office, I finally got my passport!

Bonjour tout le monde !

Welcome to My Big Blog of French Realia! I'm Chad, a merchandising manager at Teacher's Discovery where I produce original high school foreign language classroom materials. In this blog you can expect to see the preparation and highlights of my upcoming trip to Paris and Brussels, where I'll be gathering "Realia." Realia brings the foreign language experience to you straight from the source. Café menus, parking tickets, metro maps, street signs, university applications... The Big Book of French Realia will bring resources from around France, Belgium, and other francophone countries right to the classroom.

I leave in just over a month, and there's lots for me to prepare for ... a passport, language interpreters, couches and many other things. So sit back, relax, grab a baguette and enjoy the read.