My first week!

Hello everyone!

Wow, I have waited too long to write another entry. Apologies, but it has been a whirlwind of a week, let me tell you. No really, let me tell you. Classes are pretty swell except for the very inconvenient schedule. Monday, Thursday and Friday I have an hour lecture from noon to one. Monday covers French Literature. Thursday is La Francophonie or French History. And Friday is Art History. Then, until October 6th, I have a phonetics class everyday from 2:30 to 3:30. To conclude, I have a language class from 5:00-7:00 everyday. It really fills up my day, but I've noticed that all my new friends don't mind the schedule much and make travel plans or skip or do whatever young people do. It makes me a little more comfortable to deal with my schedule with a more relaxed state of mind as well. Trust me, I don't plan on never going to class. Does that even sound like something I would do? But in order to get the cheapest flights or make the most of my time here, I plan on bending the schedule a bit (i.e., take a Friday or two off or fly back on Monday morning instead of Sunday night). I hope you don't mind. Here are the places I plan and hope to visit in no particular order:

Bruges, Belgium
Rome, Italy
Barcelona, Spain
Aix-en-Provence, France
St. Malo, France
London, England
Vienna, Austria
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Dublin, Ireland
Rabat, Morocco
San Torini/Athens, Greece
Geneva, Switzerland
Budapest, Turkey

Thoughts? I feel like I'm pushing it a little. I do wish I could spend a year here, but in order to secure that I graduate within the four year "plan" at university, I must return for Winter and Spring quarters at SU. And hey, if I don't make it within my three months here, I can always go back during the summer or even next year. The glass is always half full, friends.

Anyway, so my first week here was fantastic! I made such nice friends from all over the place. I was so wrong about not finding anyone to like me. In my language class alone, I found a great handful of people who are doing this program by themselves. Instant friends, I say! Shall I name them for you? Maybe that will make future stories more clear. Alright, here's a cast list:

Marisol from Mexico City
Josh from a little town in Georgia
Jack from Leeds
Daniela from Cancun
Isabelle from Sydney
Jose Luis also from Mexico City
Anders from Denmark
Mayra from San Diego
Andie from Washington DC
Jessica from London
Kevin from Dublin
Liz from Minneapolis
Michelle from...I'm not sure, but she's incredibly well traveled.

Voila! Your cast. So yes, let's get to the interesting part - my weekend! Friday I had made plans with Mayra to get some Asian food for dinner because we were both missing it. She was the first person I talked to on the day I took my placement exams. It took us a bit to coordinate but by Friday it had escalated to ten people! The more the merrier holds water here. We traipsed around Chinatown (yes, even Paris has a modest Chinatown) in search of Thai, but I spotted a cool looking Japanese place because we were getting grumpy from hunger and suggested we go there. It was reasonably priced and wouldn't you know, there was a perfect table for ten in the front of the restaurant. I call it fate. After a delicious meal (I had rice!!!! And gyoza!!), we decided to look for a bar. We let Kevin, the Irish guy lead...not the best decision, but luckily Andie (who is completely awesome in my book) and I decided to get Nutella crepes on the way. We finally made it to a tiny little cafe/bar and wedged our way in. The drinks were expensive, but after returning to the same area the next day, I realized we had gotten a pretty good deal. Most cocktails teeter around the 8 or 9 euro price. I got a nice little mixed drink (Legally, I might add, because I'm in Europe and American jurisdiction about "underage drinking" does not concern me.) and enjoyed my new friends' company. We all decided to exchange information and that's when the mini burn book happened. In Mayra's book people were drawing pictures of each other by their information...one thing led to another and it got a little silly. To put a slight damper on the night, the metro stops at 1am, so we had to break up at about 12:30, but I could definitely feel the beginnings of a mad party. When I ran into Andie today, she suggested we do something this weekend, so I'm not worried.
I got home around 1am and instead of going to bed straight away like any normal person, I watched a couple episodes of Bones. It's bad, man. I'm addicted. I watch it too much! I must stop!...tomorrow? Deal. Then, for lunch on Saturday I met up with Josh, Marisol, Liz, Liz's friend Diana and Anders. We ended up at this little Italian pizza place. It wasn't overpriced, but I wasn't exactly impressed so I'm thinking I'll keep it off my radar.  If I want good pizza, I'll go back to Rome. I'll tell you before I get into it that Saturday was a long day. We met at noon and I didn't get back until 2 in the morning. And really, a lot of it was wandering around aimlessly. We were trying to find rue Oberkampf which is known for its bars and such. And the friends who were supposed to meet kept pushing back out rendez-vous time so we sort of were at a loss. I'll tell you the best parts. We found a lovely canal in the 11th arrondisement and sat for an hour just chatting, getting lost in our own thoughts and enjoying the tranquility. I got a McFlurry! They are amazing here. The only thing is I wish there was an Oreo one, but they put hot fudge or caramel in it if you want! Talk about happiness in a cup. We went to three bars. I had two glasses of rose wine, a peach kamikaze shooter and some weird bubble gum shooter (never again.) Woo! But don't you worry about me, I had some McDonalds to help soak up the alcohol and as soon as I got home I drank a half liter of water. Smartie.
Let's move on to Sunday. It was definitely my favorite day. I met up with Liz and Marisol again and we tried to find  a vintage market which totally backfired and ended up being some street market for random odds and ends and old clothes and shoes. Old, not vintage. Thanks to Liz, we took the metro to the Jewish Quarter and had an amazing afternoon! We started with a delicious lunch at this great Israeli restaurant chock full of adorable waiters. We had to wait for a while, but it was completely worth the wait. I'm definitely going back. I had a shwarma wrap in soft and warm pita bread, shared a huge bowl of french fries and was lucky to have the cutest waiter in the whole place. Ha! Our new hobby is to try and covertly take pictures of cute waiters, guys on the metro, the street without being obvious. Wish us luck, we all got so giggly that first time. I'm sure he knew what were up to, but check out my facebook for my successful but slightly blurry photo. We walked a bit to help ease our full bellies and found ourselves in a vintage store. So. Many. Beautiful. Stores! Oh, I was so close to buying a gorgeous cocktail ring. I'm sure once I go back, I'll find it and buy it with the money I should be using for food. I know I'm bad. I probably won't do that, but I'll pretend and wear it around the store until we leave. I closed the closed with a Nutella crepe (please note: this crepe thing will be a very common theme) and mass at the Notre Dame. Lovely as it was, Marisol and I hope to go somewhere with a smaller congregation and empty of all annoying toursits and their endlessly crying babies.
I will continue to keep you updated, my lovelies. Let's try for every Monday? You might be lucky and I could throw in an extra one, but you might also be unlucky and I could forget to write one. Let's hope it's the former.
I love you and miss you all.

My First Day as Dora the Explora...minus the Dora part

It has been a while since my last update, I know. I'm sorry, but I got a bit sick and I'm well on the road to recovery. In fact, I spent today exploring and walking my healthy and able body around the city. I for got my camera which was a huge no-no, but that just means you get colorful, rich and detailed descriptions. Doesn't that make it all better? I thought so. First, I should tell you I spent all of yesterday poring over the Paris guidebook my host mom lent me. It's great - a detailed book that covers all bases pretty well. I decided to start with one of the city's well-known flea markets and end with mass at the Notre Dame. I found out the one at Porte de Vanves was only a half hour walk from my apartment, so I decided to take a stroll. Best idea I have had all week, I tell you. It took me so much longer than a half hour to find this place because A) I have the worst sense of direction and B) I had spectacular stops along the way.

I was doing great with the map after I got lost just five minutes after leaving my place. A friendly local pointed me in the right direction and I was golden for a good while. Then, I ran into this lovely weekend book market. Oh, how I wish I had my camera! But it's every weekend, so I am quite a lucky duck. Along with a beautiful and varied array of books from dozens of vendors, I came at the perfect time - lunch time - to see all the vendors enjoying their meals. There were these three men that stood out in particular. The shared this small round table and each of their stalls were just behind them. On their plates they had this delicious looking roasted chicked and potatoe croquettes. Yum! And of course there was a great big bottle of wine in the center for them to share. I wish I could have joined them. I continued on my way through the books and found a stand of little books. Wait, let me describe what the place looked like becase there weren't any separate stalls or shelves or stands at all. I don't know what to call them, but they looked like gigantic unpolished wood crates. The books were all neatly organized, piled, and displated on them. Have you ever been to Costco? And you've seen the books and movies section, right? Yes, well, it's sort of like that, but so much better. The books are just out, doing what they do, waiting to be picked up and looking gorgeous. Oh, I must take pictures when I go next weekend. Back to the little books I found. They were so lovely! I found these purple leather ones that enticed me so. There was one on zodiac signs, another on the lines in the palm of the hand and the third (the one I wanted to buy the most) was on the language of flowers. All three were goldleafed on the front and the edges of the pages were tipped with gold as well. Delicate old books were wrapped carefully in waxpaper. I loved that. It made them so fragile despite the wax paper being meant for protection. There were pocket version of Moliere plays, Romeo and Juilet, books on the lives of saints. And I found a few copies of Tristan and Iseult which reminded me of Juan and Dr. Matriotti.

Alas, I had to move along and that's when my sense of direction began to falter. I ended up walking in the opposite direction of where I needed to be again, but I found this out on my own when my 15 minutes of walking came to nothing but more boring sidewalk. I take that back a little. My walk although useless was quite lovely. There was a bikers' path on my left and the rest of the sidewalk was wide and open for pedestrians. The French lightrail ran through the middle of the street and it was nice to watch because it was swift and quiet and it held so many people. There were these great trees. They looked like aspens, but I couldn't be sure. And so, I had to turn myself around and found myself walking into a fresh fruit and vegetable market. It was so alive! People were reaching above my head for the colorful hanging plastic sacks to fill them with fresh produce. There was a vendor yelling out to people as they passed to see how his fruits were the nicest. But the best part about it was there were a lot of Middle Eastern people (the vendors too) and they were talking in Arabic! Ahh! The other language I kind of know. No but really, I heard little snitches of things like Oh you're from Egypt?, Go!, Hurry!, No! Yes! Hello! I felt so cool to be able to be in a foreign country and understand two languages different from my own native tongue. I ended up buying four beautiful nectarines that had the unfortunate fate of hanging out in my huge purse all day. I'm glad I had such a big purse! Man, I fit everything in there. My cardigan, guidebook, day planner, wallet, sunglasses, four necartines, a bottle of peach iced tea, chapstick and a bunch of other little items. Whew! So awesome!

I moved on and got directions to the flea market I had intentions to go to two hours before, but when I found it the morning crowd was already packed up and leaving and I think the afternoon vendors were going to fill in but I didn't want to wait for hours just to see if it would open again. I have time! I'll go back. Instead, I took the metro the Ile-de- la Cite where the Notre Dame is. On my way there I found a beautiful scarf that someone dropped. I held it in my hand so that if anyone saw it and claimed it as theirs I could give it back. Lucky for me, no one said anything. Yeah! I got a new and beautiful scarf. So I made it to the 5th Arrondisement and got lost again so I had to gain my bearings. OH! I forgot to mention as I was walking out of the metro, I found myself at the beginning of another street market. This time it was for birds and pets. Seriously, cages of chickens, roosters, canaries, what-have-you. I was going to walk down it, but it was kind of stinky so I passed. After standing next to a rack of postcards for 15 minutes, I gave up trying to find myself on my map and I just walked straight. Boy, was I bit by the lucky bug but I stumbled upon Place de St. Michel - so close to my school! I realized I was hungry so I walked down a little alley off the Place and found Boulangerie de Papa where there was a little crepe stand attached to it. And for less that 4 euro I was able to buy and enjoy a huge ham and cheese crepe. SO GOOD. I'll definitely be going back. I spent an hour in their patio/sitting area looking over my book and making notes about where the good bars were. Don't worry, I'm not looking for a night a insanity...just a little harmless mayhem. I kid, but not really.

Afterwards, I decided to walk and just see where I would end up. Luck again, I realized I was walking down rue de St. Gernain which connected me to rue St. Jacques. Why is this important? These streets are just minutes from the main office of my program/school. I decided to map out where I would be going tomorrow so I didn't get (inevitably) lost. After 45 minutes of getting on and off track, I found it! Wow, it was a tiny, tiny street just behind the Pantheon which has about a dozen tiny, tiny streets leading off of it. I recorded the directions in my Blackberry and I'll be set for tomorrow. I bought myself a celebratory McFlurry. They put caramel or fudge in theirs! It was amazing, but I think next time I'll get a different type of candy.

Finished my treat and headed to the Cathedral. It's always nice just retracing your steps. You always know you're going the right way. Once I realized I was an hour early for mass, I checked out the little souvenir shops (cough-tourist traps-cough) and admired the pashminas. I was about to get three for 12 euros, but I remembered there was a shop in Montparnasse that had the same if not better scarves in more colors and they were three for 10 euro. I showed them! I decided to sit in the courtyard-ish area in front of the Notre Dame and wait until 6 to get in so that I would have a seat. Of course, I panicked because the line was so long that I ended up getting inside at 6. When I made my way in I panicked because I heard singing and I thought I got the time wrong. After about 15 minutes or so I realized I was sitting in on Vespers and so I enjoyed it and waited for mass. Good choice. After the singing, I moved up a bit and got a better seat. It was a really nice mass that could have been a billion times better if they closed it off to tourists who wander around and take flash pictures and sit in the service and then move and make noise after 2 minutes. Gosh! But it was sweet because a cardinal presided over it. I should have written his name down, but I got a picture of him on my phone, which makes up for it, right? He gave a homily that I could really understand. It was good it was on a topic and gospel reading I had heard many times. I would go back, but I think my goal is to find a beautiful mass sans annoying tourist boogers. Maybe it'll die down when summer is really over.

Right after mass I took the metro back to my apartment...you know, I'll need to figure out the bus and light rail system, but the metro map is just so much easier to read right now. I skyped with Tomas and then Juan, got my backpack ready for school and tentatively chosemy outfit. I am so excited for my first day!!! I hope everyone is nice. My goal is to make one stable, adventurous, nice and good natured friend. My expectations don't seem too high, right?

Wish me luck! I'm off to bed. Bon nuit!