Bienvenue à Paris! Or, how this place is exactly like everyone says it is.

Hey all! So this is my blog. Essentially, I'm going to use it as a distribution for the equivalent of a long email at the end of each week I'm here - this is just a lot simpler.

For those of you not aware of what the heck I'm doing here in Paris, I'm taking a class on European and French History, organized by the University of Chicago but taught by French professors. It qualifies as my history requirement for the Chicago Core curriculum, and I'm essentially doing ALL of European History in 10 intensive weeks. And the catch is that all my classes are in French. So hopefully, the going on 9 years of French language and literature I've taken will prepare me for this, but who knows.

ANYWAY. My first 2 days here have passed pretty awesomely.

I got on the plane at Dulles Airport at about 5:30 PM on Friday, and actually immediately ran in to two girls who are on my program - one was transferring through DC from Chicago, and the other from North Carolina. We didn't sit together on the plane flight (which I slept through most of, anyway) but we decided once we got to Paris to take a taxi instead of the train down to where we're living, which is in a student housing complex on the southern side of the city in the 14th arrondissement. This WOULD have been an economically sound decision, had it not been Parisian rush hour when we got there. As it was, we were in traffic for about an hour and a half, and ended up spending 70 euro - even split between the 3 of us, was way more than we planned. We were treated to a very entertaining dialogue on the flaws of Parisian drivers from our own totally nutso taxi driver, who also was nice enough to point some sights out to us.

So we got down to where we're living, a place called Cité Universitaire, which is a group of buildings originally built by various countries' governments to house their students studying in Paris. I'm actually living not in the American House, but in the Maison de Provinces de France, which was built by the French Government to house French Students, so everyone in the building who's not in my program is French- lots, and lots, and lots of opportunities to practice French. It's not the most social building, but I always run into people in the kitchens and such, and despite the general stereotype, French people are REALLY friendly and talkative, which can be quite stressful when I haven't had my cup of tea yet (as some of you who've lived with me I'm sure can imagine). The rooms are pretty bare, and the beds are awful, but I have a gorgeous view of the street, and we have a great location, right across from the RER (commuter train) line, which transfers directly in to the metro. We're also walking distance from another metro line, and supposedly a 45 minute walk from Place de Saint-Michel itself - I'm hoping to try that out today. It's definitely not a touristy area at all - it's very residential and middle-class, and I've heard essentially no English on the streets.

So after we all got settled in on Friday (and I took 2 whole hours to set up my internet, because I'm dumb), I took off with the two girls from the plane to find a grocery store, which turned out to be about 5 blocks from us - at the time, it felt longer, given that we were (and are!) horrendously jetlagged. We moved everything in, and then went over to a meeting at 4, which turned out to be entirely useless - we've yet to be really "oriented" in any meaningful way, which is kind of fun, actually - we're really having to figure out the city for ourselves. But we got the way pointed to an awesome boulanger (bread and sandwich shop) and got sandwiches and eclairs to eat in the park. And then I went to sleep. At 8:30.

And woke up at 12 the next day. We met up with my friend Jessie, who's already been here for a couple weeks taking French in preparation for our program - she's been a real lifesaver in terms of getting to know the city. We took the train down to Notre Dame, which took all of 15 minutes, and wandered around the cathedral. There is nothing like it. I mean, I'm a fan of cathedrals. I feel like I know cathedrals fairly well. But Notre Dame is a whole other ballgame. The light in there is absolutely stunning, and everything is so intricate - the fact that it was built entirely by hand is mind-boggling. The number of people there on a Saturday afternoon is also mind-boggling; I'm looking forward to going back sometime soon at a different time of day. It was nice, though, to be a bit of a tourist.

We then went and got cell phones, a bit of a daunting task in a foreign language. I do now have one and it does recieve international calls, but Skype is much, much better if you want to talk to me - my Skype name is sarah2333. We grabbed croque monsieurs (open faced ham and melted cheese sandwiches - REALLY good) at a café and headed home. The food here really is better than anywhere else - you have never had a baguette until you've bought one at a local boulanger for 90 centimes. I think when I leave here, my body will be comprised entirely of baguette, wine, and cheese, with some ham thrown in occasionally. It's what I can afford - and you could do a lot worse.

We ended the day by grabbing some bottles of wine and lounging about on the walkway by the Seine - as far as traditional city pastimes go, this is an excellent one. We headed out to a bar (a bar! I can buy alcohol here!) near the Bastille and then home, and I again slept until 12 today - not exactly over the jetlag.

Anyway, I think I'm going to take off and see if I can walk down to the Jardin de Luxembourg to finish up my reading in preparation for my class tomorrow (oh, right! I'm in school!) But all in all, this city is truly just as amazing as everyone says it is. I've been struck by the fact that the Parisian "stereotypes" - carrying a baguette down the street, drinking wine by the Seine, going to little tiny grocery stores where people know your name, oh, and smarmy french guys, are in fact absolutely correct, and not touristy at all - real live french people do these things. There's a timelessness to the city that you just don't get back home.

Get in touch with me! If you're reading this, I probably miss you. Skype is sarah2333, AIM is squirrel2333, you all have my email.

Bye everyone,
Sarah