Today

Class was cancelled today. I went to the bookstore to get my books and my card didn't work. I was mad. Now I'm trying to get a Bank of America card because they don't charge usage fees since they are an affiliate bank of BNP, a French bank. And it's Jack Bauer's bank. I have class from 8:30-2:30 tomorrow. Still no cell phone, hopefully tomorrow though. And I have to register my housing with the French Consulate tomorrow too.

I watched movies of Jack today and I got sad because the next time I see him he will be a giant baby!

À tout à l'heure!

First Day of Class!

So! Today was my first day of class! I was planning on making a little trip to the market, but I didn't wake up early enough! But I took my time getting ready and arrived at school about 2 hours before my class started! So I sat at a table and read a book on my phone. I won't say which one so people don't think any less of me (-cough-New Moon-cough) hahaha!

But I walked up to my room and the teacher was a like 10 minutes late and turns out she's from California. But she lived there 23 years ago. Because she's lived in France for 23 years. And she hasn't had a tv for 23 years. She's kind of a nutter. It's my Critical Thinking class and it's writing intensive. So today we had to interview a person and write a succinct paragraph about it. And I have to read 80 pages by next class :/ and I have to interview someone and write an "interview essay."

In other news, I flipped my comforter over today. Now I have some ferocious looking tigers staring up at me. I might start naming them.

I also picked up a paper fully expecting it to be in French

and it was English. But I felt like a Parisian sitting on the train reading a paper. Too bad it was the sports section of USA today.... No wonder it had a picture of the Saints on the front... :) So much for being a Frenchie.

I'm still excited for Alexa Bear to come on Friday!!!!!!!!! I promise I will have pictures then!!

À tout à l'heure!

Wireless!!!!!

So!! I HAVE THE BEST BIG BROTHER IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!! And he remotely controlled my computer and set up my wireless in my apartment so right now I am typing from the bathroom floor with NO wires!!! It's AMAZING! I'm on the bathroom floor because 1:47 am and I don't want to keep her up because Ben's trying to help me out with some more electronic things :)

But I'm so happy right now because there's no more internet sharing! Yaaaaaaay! It's awesome!

I should have a cell phone in the next two days!

I also got unlimited phone calls to any line in the world on skype for just 25€ for 3 months, so I can call home free! It's a pretty sweet deal!

Okay that's all for now! Things just got a lot better in the appartement!! :)

À tout à l'heure!

Louvre passes! Finally!

We finally got our Louvre passes! They were surprisingly inexpensive... only 15€ for an entire year! I'm looking forward to spending time there and just needing to get out of the apartment and deciding to hop on the metro and go to the Louvre. I also thought that if I just can't get homework done in the apartment I can just go to one of the cafés in the Louvre :)

After we got the passes I was planning on doing some shopping, but I didn't get much done because Raymond and Patrick came along too, and I felt really bad being like... okay sit here while I try on 9000 pairs of boots haha! So I'll go back Wednesday before class. I really like Rue de Rivoli, the area is really neat, and it's right by the Louvre, and I'm kind of a dork so it's like cool! Marie Antoinette probably walked around here at some point! Or an angry mob probably rushed towards the Palace right about here... Anyway, we also went to the mall by Les Halles and there was some good stuff there too. Like I said I'm going back Wednesday :)

I did get one sweater from Zara. It's pretty basic, but it's a pinkish color that will be able to go into the Springtime too.

Apparently tomorrow is supposed to be really cold. Bummer. But I'm planning on going to the little market that happens on Sundays and Wednesdays. They have fresh fruit and jewelry and stuff like that and it's right out side the apartment in the little Place that makes up our little neighborhood. I also need to get a notebook for class tomorrow. Hopefully I won't have homework yet though. Today was the first day of classes (I don't have any on Mondays), but they already have group projects that are due next week. I have an organizational behaviors class, so i'll probably have projects.. boo

I got a router today too. But we don't know how to make it work, so a kid who does is going to help us tomorrow. I'm REALLY excited about that!!!!! Reeeeeeally excited. Because this stupid ethernet cable doesn't even click into my computer and it comes out all the time.

I made myself a little dinner tonight too. Salad and carrots and some bauggette and goat cheese. It was really good. The carrottes are really easy to make and salad is too... I picture myself eating this meal a lot. Which is fine by me and it's relatively healthy! I'm excited for mom and dad to come because I'll get fancy food :) But I kind of want to make them a little dinner in my humble little abode.

I'm going to try to get unlimited skype minutes! Apparently it's really cheap!

À tout à l'heure!

This as good as it gets because I got these from Facebook.. :) sorry!

Found the Shopping!!

I emailed mom and she told me where to find the good shopping :) Aka not the Champs Élysée because it's expensive. But I got on the metro and went to the Louvre-Rivoli stop, and voilà there it was! Everything is closed today since it's Sunday, but I will be visiting again tomorrow since I don't have class. :D

I need to find out what I'm going to eat for dinner since the market was closed...

A couple more pictures

Okay so the one with three people is Emily, Corey, and me at our apartment building. At our school all the kids from our building are the best :) Then the one at the Pyramid is Tina (my roommate), Patrick (the only other person from GSE as of now, the other people come in February), me, and Sarah (she is Emily's roommate, and they live right above us). The night one is of Sarah and me if we would have been taking the picture instead the Eiffel Tower would have been in the background... hahaha So there you go! Now I have four pictures in Paris!!

The Only Picture I Have :)

So this is the only picture I have so far... I'm on the left and my friend Emily is on the right. We went to the Bastille neighborhood after we went to the Eiffel Tower and I had my first Bellini! We were just doing funny faces. I promise!

What happened today

I got up pretty late today because it's the weekend and I didn't have to get up for anything in particular. It was pretty nice, although I'm still tired. I guess I'll have to get used to the busy-ness of the city sometime. I walk a looooooot which is awesome, but most of my shoes don't have very good support at all. So it's like walking barefoot. I'll have to invest in some nice boots and flats. It's definitely worth it.

So since you all are dying to know every detail of my day I guess I'll fill you in :P

After I got up and showered I went out and walked around for a while just around my neighborhood. I found a park that has a soccer- excuse me- foutball field with a track around it that is really not far at all that I can run on :) Another girl here wants to run too and went around today to try to find a running route so we'll have to exchange info on what we found. So I walked around for a long time and then got on the metro to go home. I figure I can get as lost as I want because all I need to do is find the metro and I can make it home no matter where I am. That's a really comforting fact. And since I was walking I couldn't get that far so I was still one of the lines my stop is on. So when I tried to get through the gate my Navigo pass wouldn't work (Navigo is a metro pass that you just reload every month and you get unlimited rides). So the guy at the window called me over and saw that it should have worked and gave me a one time pass and said in 8 minutes it would work. So hopefully it does the next time I go! I tried to reload it for this week too, but my card was rejected because it doesn't have a chip in it like French cards do... I don't know if that had anything to do with it. Or maybe it was because my phone and it were in the same pocket? But my phone's on airplane mode so that couldn't have been it.. I have no idea! But as long as it works next time I don't really care!

Then after I got off the metro at my stop I walked to the boulangerie and got a bauggette for dinner and breakfast and lunch tomorrw. Then I walked to the Monoprix to get some l'eau avec gaz and some Coca Light avex limon (in case Aunt Mary is reading this it feels like old times and every time I hear Diana Krall The Girl in the Other Room and drink Coca with Lime I think of our Parisian adventures :) )

Monoprix was so busy... there were tons of people there because it was right after work let out and right before dinner- not the best idea for me to go then. But I got my stuff and walked back to the apartment. I didn't have my bag with me so I got a good upper body workout from walking the couple of blocks and up the stairs to my place hahaha

And now I'm sitting here about to grab the rest of my Kebab from the other night for dinner telling you all every detail about my day.

Hope it wasn't too boring!

À tout à l'heure!

Spring Break Idea :)

I also forgot to add that my school is doing a Spring Break Trip to go skiing in the French Alps for 370€. That's pretty good for a week of skiing! It's all inclusive too :)

Weekend :)

So yesterday we got out of orientation at 1 and went shopping! I went to Gallaries Lafayette and bought a Longchamp purse for 50% off. I love it. I'm on my way to looking like a "vrai Parisienne hahahaha. It will take more than a Longchamp to do that! But before that I looked in H&M with a friend and then we went to the Gallaries together and she looked around while I picked out a purse. It's a messanger bag so if a gypsy throws a baby at me I won't have to drop my bag to catch the baby!

Last night we went (in a group of 9, don't worry Mother) to the Eiffel Tower and walked up to where Hitler got his picture taken with it (I don't remember what it's called). Then we took the Metro to the Bastille and I had my first Bellini at a bar there :) it was pretty tasty!

Later today I'm going to explore my neighborhood a little bit and find a place to run.

The internet is really really fickle and we only have one ethernet cord. I was thinking about finding a wireless router so our room could just use that, but that will probably cost money. Which is a problem.

Mooooore Orientation and stuff..

We had another 2 hours of orientation this morning. We did a workshop on "stereotypes." And we pretty much pointed out all the negatives about Americans and then all the positives about Mexico. I mean, Mexico is cool, but so is America.

Anyway, that was really boring. And then we went on a boat cruise and it went to Notre Dame and turned around and came back. But not before we went through 7 locks on the canal and then through a 2000 meter tunnel... sooooo anyway hahaha it wasn't an incredibly successful boatride.

Then my friend Emily and I went to Tati (it's like a Target... kind of) I got some pillow cases and a comforter for 20€. It's a pretty good deal! And the comforter adds a lot of color to the drab whiteness of the apartment. I'll take some pictures of the apartment soon so you can see it :) it's a very humble abode.

But anyway, on the metro on the way to Tati it was rush hour and we were literally jammed into the metro. I was crushed up against the guy in front of me and the guy behind me and the wall beside me and the lady on the other side. it was actually a little bit ridiculous. I literally couldnt move at all. Not a good metro experience. Next time i'll wait for the next train. Definitely.

Tomorrow we are going to go shopping after our General Meeting for ABS :) I'm pretty excited. I am going to get a Longchamp bag because they are very cheap here, and it's the big sale period too! So things are like 30-70% off! Who knows maybe I'll get two ;)

We are going to go get our Louvre passes tomorrow since it was closed when we tried to go last time. I'm looking forward to being able to just think "I have nothing to do, I think I'll go to the Louvre for a while." I am my mother's daughter!

I'm still a little jetlagged I think. Or maybe I just need to get used to the city. It's pretty stressful just to go from one place to another. I'm not used to all of this and I'm on sensory overload! But I do love it. I wouldn't be surprised if I end up staying a little longer than the semester, or coming back later in life :) hehehe. But I'm really liking it! even though it makes me exhausted.

I, unfortunately, will not be able to take a French language class while I am here. This will be news to my parents when they read this, but I am taking a French Civilization class. Which I don't really have the opportunity to take at Missouri State. Especially not when I can just go outside and walk around the topics of discussion in the class. There was a mix up with the school, and they aren't going to do a placement test so the French language classes are full. But I am very okay with my schedule, and a lot of people are in the same classes as me so I won't have to come home on the metro by myself at night (don't worry mom!! :)

I have been reading more Marie Antoinette and it's very interesting to be in the city where all the horrible stuff that happened to her went on. I'm pretty excited to visit Versailles now that I know more about Marie Antoinette, and know that she spent a lot of her time at Versailles. I really want to visit the little village she created too! I can't think of the name of it right now. It's Petit Trian or something like that... it sounds really cool :)

It's been fun to know what I do about French History (learning from the many museum visits and walking tours given by Mrs. Marilyn Frederick's Guide to Paris) because the other kids ask what this is or what that is and I'm like, well you see... hahahaha and they're like wow.. that's really cool! So that's fun.

Anyway, I'm going to go get some soup and read a little more Marie Antoinette.

I love it when I get comments from you guys :) it lets me know you are actually reading what I write and want to know what's going on en Paris :D

Merci pour le lire!

À tout à l'heure!

Orientation Starts...

We had orientation today from 10-6. We got there at like 10:15 because the metro broke down in front of us, so it was slow going (we left the apartment at around 9:20). The orientation was long. and boring. The first part of it we could have just read through. she read about ethnocentrism and she put herself in the collective "we" of the french "people" and then she did the same thing, only she put herself in the collective of the american people, but she emigrated from Canada... so that was annoying. The second half... I don't even really remember what it was about. The guy who talked was an Irish guy who was born in Austria that moved to Paris 20 years ago... and it was pretty much Americans are stupid, and they need to be more like French people. Which was frustrating.

We have it again tomorrow, but we don't have to go to the whole thing because we are doing a Bateau Mouche ride on the Seine :/ how much more "touristy" does it get? hahahaha if only I had a fanny pack...

I'm going to get my Marie Antoinette book and relax for a little before hittin the sack. :)

Oh! and I forgot! Miss Alexa Wilcox will be coming to Paris next Thursday, January 28 and will be staying until Monday, February 1 :) :) :) soooooooooooo excited!!!!

À tout à l'heure!

First Day on the Town

Today we walked a LOT. Raymond, our trip director, met us in front of the apartment and we got on the metro and rode to Bastille (which is only a few stops from Daumesnil). Then we got off the metro at Bastille and walked from Bastille to the Louvre. Which is a long way when you're walking straight there, but we took the scenic route, so it was quite a ways. We were going to get our Louvre passes (which once you pay, and mine is already prepaid through my program). Once you have the pass you can get in for free for a year! so i can go to the louvre as much as I want! hahaha

what else... thats mostly it i guess. we just walked a lot a lot. And we went to the grocery store and i got a bauggette (finally!!) and some sirop for flavoring water :) and some raspberry applesauce... and a bottle of red wine for 1,65! it's so cheap!

Now that you've read through my shopping list...

tomorrow is our first day of orientation at the American Business School. We have to be there at 10 am which means I should probably get up at like... 8. We have to meet Raymond at 9:30 i think so he can take us there for the first day. We have to learn the exchanges and stuff...

we were going to go to a basketball game (one of the kids who lives here plays for our school) but we found out it's like an hours train ride away... and we're all really tired from walking all day. I think were going to watch a movie later.

So that's it!

À tout à l'heure!

I'm here!

Yeah! I made it! And no Mom, Dad, and Paden it wasn't hard at ALL with two suitcases. I didn't have to pick them up until after going through security, and when I did I used a trolley and I took it all the way out to the cab. And the cab driver put them in the car and took them out and Raymond (trip director) helped me get them into the elevator.

The apartment's pretty tiny, but I have my own room kind of so that's nice. There are two rooms and they are connected to each other and my room is on the way to the bathroom. Which isn't a big deal. The beds are really comfortable so that's good.

That's pretty much it. I'm starting to unpack. I'm kind of putting off a shower, as gross as that is, because the heat is broken in the bathroom and it's pretty cold in there. I might just deal with it after a while though.

The neighborhood I'm in is pretty residential, and there are lots of families living here. It's weird to walk down the street and see little kids speaking French so well haha.

I guess I should get to it.

À tout à l'heure!

More Packing...

So today I put on Harry Potter and brought in all the stuff that was in my car that was in the hall into my room. And I've been sorting through it a little bit and putting stuff away. I have most of what I want to take piled on my bag... I need my mom to go through everything with me though! I have so much stuff I want/should take. I bought some space bags today too. There was only one travel one and the rest were vacuum ones. Well the vacuum's broken, so I just had to squeeze the air out of all of them. They don't really save that much room because my stuff isn't that puffy. But I have a lot to fit in this bag, so every little space counts I guess... This part of the trip isn't that exciting. So more to come later. And hopefully it will be more interesting :)

Packing!

I just started packing today! It feels better to have something done. But then it doesn't feel better because I see how much more I have to do. In 9 days... Oh well, won't worry about that now! :)

Oh. And I don't leave until the 17th. I JUST unloaded my car... and it is all sitting outside my room and I haven't even started to pack. But hopefully it will all come together in the end. I only have 10 days... woah.

So I'm not really sure how this works...

I feel kind of lame starting a blog... but I thought it would be a good way to let everyone know about my trip. So here it is. I guess I need to start telling people about it. So that's my next step.