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.