Bonjour!

Today is my fifth day in Paris but only my first with internet access. So I will try to summarize the last week as best as I can!

Sunday/Monday

On Sunday I departed Logan around 6PM. I was worried that the snow would delay our plane, but we only had to deal with slight turbulence. However, the plane was slightly delayed when a teenager left his bag unattended, triggering a security breach that resulted in bomb sniffing dogs and a lot of policemen. We had a layover in Dublin around 3AM Eastern time, but between customs and security I almost missed the connection to Paris! Luckily, I met up with 5 people from my program while in the line for customs so we battled security together and made the flight just as they were about to shut the gate. We made good time to Paris and arrived at CDG around 9AM Parisian time. CDG is HUGE!!!!! There was one room in the airport that was decorated in red lights and had bubbles floating around - very cool. At CDG we met Melissa, one of the program directors, after searching for the meeting place for a good hour with a lot of heavy luggage. Melissa looks and sounds exactly like a French version of Donna from the West Wing - she is very nice and has been extremely helpful. We took a shuttle bus to a hotel, and then went out to dinner at a French restaurant. There we met Anne-Marie who is our other resident director. She is extremely French, and like Melissa, very nice and helpful. The restaurant was nice, and we got to have a full french meal (complete with an entre, plat, and dessert) all on API's tab.

Tuesday

Today we had orientation at 9AM. Being extremely jet lagged this proved to be a bit of a challenge, but the hotel provided a breakfast buffet that was to die for. After orientation we had lunch at a petit cafe near the API center that serves excellent sandwiches on bagels. The sandwich was only 5 euro but my diet coke was 3 euro! That is around $5.50! In general soda is very expensive here, oftentimes the same price, or more, than alcoholic beverages. Later that night I went to dinner at a nice restaurant called Bianco's with friends from my API program. There, we learned the hard way that all restaurants here have fixed prices, meaning that tip is included in the meal price. Not knowing this, we ended up paying the waiter an extra 10 euro for dinner. Oh well, the food was excellent- Pizza and to drink I had a sex on the beach (vodka, and fruit juices, very yummy!).

Wednesday

After breakfast, we moved out of the hotel and into our permanent housing. I am living at the Foundations des Etats Unis (FEU). I have a single room with a nice view of the Cite Université campus. The rooms here are huge, and come complete with shelves, a closet and even a sink with a vanity! Luckily, my two neighbors (Ellen and Joy) are both fellow API students so we take the métro together when we go to class and/or the API office. (As a side note the metro here is extremely efficient and makes traveling around the city very easy- unlike the metro system in the States!). At night, we went on a boat tour of the city and saw the Tour Eiffel, the Louvre, and Notre Dame to name but a few. I took some great photos which I will post tomorrow.


Thursday

Thursday was packed with orientations at the API center (which is about a 20 minute metro ride from the FEU). Today we also began our "stage" at Diderot Universite, where I will be studying during the academic semester. The stage is essentially a week long class where we refresh our language skills and our knowledge of French civilization. It runs from 9-4, which is very long and sometimes results in me almost falling asleep in class.... However, the stage is interesting because we take it with other international students from places like Germany, Holland, Italy and Brazil. This means that we only can speak in French because it is the only language that everyone knows. At night, the API center held a movie night where we were able to make crêpes and watch the movie Amélie. After, some of us explored the neighborhood and went to the Banana Bar's happy hour. It was a very good time!

Today

Today we had class again at Diderot and then ice skating in front of Paris's town hall. I skipped the skating (due to my ankle) and instead went to lunch with my friend Christine. At 615 PM we had a guided tour of the Louvre which was incredible. I took many photos of the Mona Lisa (called La Joconde here) which I think is very impressive - even though it is small. After, some of us found a cute pizzeria near the API center and had dinner.

Tomorrow we have cultural orientation at 9AM and we are then touring another museum. I am having a wonderful time here in Paris!

Until next time,

bisous