(upbeat music)
(cheerful music)
- I know that intro was a bit of a nonsense,
but I want to show you guys what the day is probably gonna
to be like with me.
I'm a little weird, but that's okay.
It's good for teaching online. Let's be real.
Hi everyone.
My name is Atavia,
and I'm an online English teacher in Paris,
and y'all want to see my view?
Oh, Oh, look at my window.
Real cute. Right?
Really cute.
So if you guys have any questions,
you want to know how I'm in Paris, wanting Paris,
all that jazz.
Now's the time to ask.
It is now 1:00 PM.
I work for QKids and I just finished my two classes that I
had for the day.
Usually my schedule is a little more full.
I do at least four to five, maybe even six classes per day,
but this week was very light, which is okay.
That means I just have more time to take you guys
around the city.
So, that's where we're going to go today.
But I want to give you guys a little background on Qkids.
I work online. You can see my little cute ears.
I have my props for Qkids.
I have like, a little box of stuff that I like to use
when I'm online teaching just to
make the classroom a little more interesting,
but I've been teaching online with QKids for a year now.
So I finished my TEFL certification last summer in June,
I started in May,
finished in June, and then right after I finished my
TEFL certification, I applied with Qkids,
and I got hired.
And since it's a beautiful sunny day in Paris,
I'm going to take you guys with me to one
of my favorite areas,
which is called, see, that's also something you gotta
get used to when you live in Paris,
you're going to hear ambulances
every single day, like clockwork.
But one of my favorite areas in Paris is called La Moie,
which is like the urban, youthful, funky area.
It's in the center of Paris.
Has a lot of cool, coffee shops,
cool parks, restaurants, all that stuff.
So, you guys are going to come there today.
I'm going to show you where I get my favorite
pain au chocolat from,
and possibly my favorite,
one of my favorite parks in Paris.
There are so many.
So, let's go.
This is called Rue Cremieux,
which is favored streets in Paris.
It's colorful, like, one of the few streets
that have color in Paris.
And today we're going to take Velib.
Velib is a bike service in Paris where you can rent a bike
for however long you need it for.
You pay per 30 minutes.
And it's a good way to see the city.
I do have that I pass that I like to use,
but with COVID going on,
and since it's a beautiful day, I just,
I like to take the bikes on sunny days to like,
get some fresh air.
I need it. I've been working from home.
So we gon' ride the bike.
Straight forward.
You open what time slots you were available for,
and they fill them up for you.
So I tend to work from 11 in the afternoon to like,
two to three, sometimes 4:00 AM, I open those slots.
but that's rough. I don't like.
You do have to have a visa to be able to stay and work,
but my visa situation was a little bit complicated
because I originally came with a family,
like taking care of the kids as an au pair.
And then, I got fired, it got complicated.
But now I'm working.
We are here.
This is one of my favorite pain au chocolats.
So, I put my mask on because I'm in a very populated area.
We don't have to wear masks in the street here,
but just for my own safety, but, we're in La Moie,
I'm going to show you guys famous library and museum.
I used to go here to, like, do work and stuff because they
have a great library,
but I don't think it's open again yet because of COVID,
and down there is like a very, I'm not gonna show you guys.
There's too many people over there, but this is the marae.
So here we are at Hotel D'Ville.
This is one of the well known areas of Paris.
I believe this is a government office or something.
I'm not quite sure.
But can you see the details?
Can you see it? There's a clock.
Look at those windows, y'all. I mean, stunning, right?
So, I teach online with a company called Qkids.
It's children ages five to 12,
but honestly I've seen children younger than that,
and children older than that.
And it's mainly Chinese students,
I believe I'm trying to reach out to different countries,
but for the most part it's kids in China.
Well, the thing is I already lived in Paris.
So I came as an au pair in 2017.
I stayed for seven months and then I came back last year
as au pair, but I got fired, that didn't work out.
So I just stayed and decided to teach here,
and settle my life here,
and do the reason I stayed in Paris is because
I enjoy the way of life.
There's a big focus on balancing your life out and not
just working, like having a work pleasure balance,
which is what I love.
It's not very centered.
I'm from LA, which is very work, work, work city.
Maybe you could have a vacation, maybe if you earn it,
but here it's like no vacation is important.
You can work.
And being out with your friends is also important.
And I just, I love the balance.
I will be doing a video on the apartment search
on my own personal YouTube channel.
I make videos about life in Paris.
'Cause if I talk about it here,
it's going to take up like 20,000 slides.
But it was a long process to find my apartment.
Talk more about my payment breakdown
when I return home.
But meeting people abroad,
Facebook groups is where I met all of my friends.
I was an au pair here before.
So I was in au pair Facebook group and met a lot of girls
that way, but also being
in Facebook groups, Facebook groups.
So, I want to set the record straight as someone who was
looking into getting a work visa when I first arrived,
people were like,
"It's impossible. No one can work in France.
"No one's going to give you a work contract."
That's not true. Okay.
As someone who's living in Paris and working in Paris,
it's not true because before COVID,
I was actually hired at brick and mortar school to teach
English on the visa that I had.
So all the naysayers who said it was impossible, it's not,
but Paris is like a city where it's kind of,
you have to come here and just get the ball rolling,
put yourself out there.
So, I recently like very recently decided
to go full time with Qkids.
As I said before, I was au pair.
so I didn't need to work more.
But now that I'm working English teaching,
I do other digital work on top of that.
Like, I write blog posts.
I make YouTube videos, and make money from those sources.
So, in my experience,
I can't say that QKids is enough income
to sustain my life,
but I don't believe Paris is a city where you have
to have so much money.
I do have a little bit more expensive things.
You know what?
I'll stop rambling and just list my breakdown of expenses.
Those are my basic expenses.
I do believe I pay a lot more for rent because I decided to
have a studio that was furnished.
And that's in a certain area, like in the city center.
So, I did of course pay for that.
And there are these things called chambre de bonnes,
that you can get that are very tiny,
but they're your own space.
I've heard those go for as little as 400 Euro per month,
if that's what you're looking for.
If you're living in the suburbs,
Paris is a very well connected city.
So even the suburbs are great places to live.
A lot more space than I have for cheaper,
different arvin diesmos,
You really just have to look around, get creative.
And also I don't pay for my Metro pass
per month until October.
Because when I was an au pair,
the family paid for my Metro pass per year.
So I'm still using that.
That saves me quite a bit of money per month.
I fend for myself in French.
A lot of people here speak English.
It's not a big issue,
but you will get treated better in a lot of situations
If you do try to speak French,
and obviously dealing with the government,
it's a lot easier if you speak French
here we are at La Seine.
I don't know if you guys know what La Seine is,
but it's the river that runs through Paris.
This is one of the benefits of teaching online.
You can be outside during the day when everyone else
is at home or at work, and get to explore the city.
There are people on the boat, as you can see,
and over there is a little beach that Paris
sets up every summer, basically a beach along the river,
I guess, for those who may not travel
or just want a beach experience
while they're in the city.
It's really a beautiful thing.
Girl, I don't know.
So this is actually my first month living
in my own apartment in Paris,
but I would say you might need to get creative.
I don't think Paris is too expensive city.
I do come from.
Kitchen, a small little kitchen, very functional, cabinets,
toaster oven, mini fridge, sink.
This is actually a pull out table that I still haven't used.
And there are some bar stools under there.
Now, mind you,
this place did come furnished.
I rented furnished, just like this.
All this stuff came with it,
except for a little knickknacks that I brought.
So like this stuff, for example, came with it.
I brought this on my own
and then we come to my little work living area.
So I have a little pull-out sofa bed,
and all of this was already on the wall when I came,
the couch was here, a coffee table, as you can see,
this is my workstation.
Not very good for my back,
but I don't know what else to do about that.
And then we have the view, the beautiful,
typical Paris window view.
To my little babies. That is Bertha. And that is Shirley.
All right. I'm living luxurious with a fan.
So rare in Paris. And then from here we have just a mirror.
Of course, my tripod, because I film videos, my closet,
that's where all my clothes are.
That's the only closet space I do have.
Random storage. Don't look at that.
Then I have some space. 'Cause I like to have empty space.
This stuff was over here,
but I moved it because I love an open space.
We have some more cabinets up there.
There's really nothing in there.
I brought all these personal things.
The furniture did come with the place,
but I put those things on there.
And then here's my bed, a full bed, and a couch.
That was so important to me when I was looking for a place.
And then we have my shoe rack here.
We have a little mirror that is,
this mirror is very inconvenient cause I'm tall.
So I often can't even see myself in it, but all right,
here we go.
We're moving on because this post is going to be super long.
So here's my toilet's area. My toilet.
Let's go.
Wow, so beautiful. So stunning.
So actually I have a pretty modern bathroom, like,
there's a rain shower for Paris, here's my mirror.
Y'all don't need to see my reflection.
You saw my face all day.
Here's my sink. Very modern,
very cute, cabin space, and a washing machine.
Let's take a moment.
A washing machine.
The last full look at my place.
This is what it looks like.
Pretty spacious, in my opinion.
And, yeah.
Alright, y'all that means this takeover is finitio.
It's done, guys. I think you guys so much for staying tuned.
I know it's been pretty long, and you guys are amazing.
Thank you for all the questions.
If you have any further questions,
you're going to have to ask me
on my own personal Instagram account.
I'll put it here.
And if you're interested in my life in Paris,
I do make YouTube videos.
You can follow me on my YouTube channel here.
I'm trying to make it to one K this month, y'all so come on.
If you're interested, if I was entertaining at all,
follow me on YouTube, and that's all I got to say.
Bye, y'all! I hope this was helpful.
Bye-bye!
(upbeat music)