Finally in Paris!

So I am now finally in the place where I will spend the next 3 months living, studying, learning, walking, watching, speaking French, etc. It is crazy to be here and see what Paris is really like after having heard so much about it throughout the years. I'll get to that a little later on though...first I want to talk about my last week in Tours.

There's a lot that I've already forgotten, which makes me upset...I really just couldn't find the time/energy to update. Turns out you need a bit of motivation to keep a blog going! But I did have a very nice last week. Classes were extremely boring, but it did give me the opportunity to see SBC people every day and meet some new ones.

I also participated in a cooking class in which we made Tarte Tatin, which is kind of like apple pie. It was really good, although I don't think I could make one if someone asked me to....oh well. It was more about the experience of being invited into a French home and engaging in conversation with a lovely and helpful French woman. It did bother me a little bit that the girl sitting next to me was petting the cat on her lap the entire time, and the breeze caused all the pieces of fur that the cat was shedding to fly directly into my face/lap/plate...it was kind of gross. I can deal with cats being near me, just preferably not their fur all up on me.

On Wednesday night, I went out to the Loire and met a group of SBC people there. It was really nice just sitting there in a circle, passing around wine bottles that we had purchased for 3-5 euro/each, and talking about France and our host families and other random things. I also spent a lot of time talking to Heather, a super nice girl who also has a boyfriend at home....so we spent a good amount of time swapping I-miss-my-boyfriend anecdotes. It's nice that other people on the program are in the same situation as I am. We then ran into a small group of French guys, ranging from 18 to 20 years old, who took a rather keen interest in us. I was a little tipsy at this point and extremely excited about the prospect of practicing French with actual French teenagers, so I eagerly played along. We hung out with them for an hour or two, and they were really nice and fun to talk to. We had a good time, but around 1:30 AM or so realized we should probably go home and go to bed, since we would have to wake up at 7:30 AM the next morning.

Moi et Heather:

Yeah, the next morning. Ouch. I had a bit of a headache (understatement) when I woke up, but luckily Ibuprofen helped knock it out. That was definitely a difficult wakeup, though...

The next night was our last in Tours (Thursday), so of course we had to go out again. Tara and I purchased one bottle of wine instead of two this time, and headed to the Loire to meet SBC people. That night, there was a huge group of us and we all just hung out and talked about how excited/nervous we were for Paris. We also stopped by La Guingette, a bar/club outdoors right by the river, where they were having salsa night and we tried to dance to some salsa songs (French people can dance salsa surprisingly well). I also looked on with jealousy as I saw some girls from my program being twirled around by handsome French boys. Ah, c'est la vie.

Arrival in Paris:

When we got off the bus, we all piled into a huge auditorium to be paired up with our host families. Delaney (my new roommate) and I were paired up with Monsieur de Scorraille and his 5 year-old son Charles who was also there to greet us. We then pulled our suitcases to the metro stop, up and down metro stairs, on and off of the metro, etc. The metro was extremely crowded, so it was a little difficult, but we made it. M. de Scorraille (Bruno) was very nice right away, explaining to us how the metro works, telling us they would speak slowly to us at first, and complimenting our French.

When we got to the apartment, the eccentric and talkative host mom, Sandra, was there to greet us with the other three children: Godfroi (1.5), Amoury (10), and Antoine (12). All 4 are boys, and they all look very different from each other. Two have light hair, two have dark hair. Anyway, the kids are all very sweet and Sandra was very quick to explain all the rules of the house to us, tell us how things operate, ask us if we have questions, and just generally make us feel welcome. My room here is very cute and comfortable--there are clouds on the wall, an ice cream cone lamp, a fridge (!), and lots of shelf space for my clothes (which I will be able to retrieve from storage on Monday...can't wait). I really like my room and my family, although I've been a bit shy about interacting with them outside of meal times (4 small children can actually be quite intimidating...especially since they speak French really fast). I definitely want to be able to spend time with them outside of meals, but I don't know for sure how they feel about that...maybe they want our lives to remain somewhat separate rather than me being an actual part of their "family." Well, I guess we'll see what our relationship turns out to be. Sandra did say that she still keeps in touch with several exchange students they've hosted before, and that many have even come back to visit them. I think that is very promising and shows that they are actually interested in getting to know their students and establish a good relationship with them.

Overall, they seem like very good, level-headed, welcoming people. Now, the apartment--it is perhaps not in the best shape. The stuffing of the couch is coming out in a few spots, some floor tiles in the kitchen are broken, stacks of papers/books are laying around, etc. Okay, so they're not super organized, I'm thinking. However, the apartment doesn't seem "dirty" to me...there was a bit of dust in my room, but nothing I can't handle. My roommate, however, freaked out as soon as we arrived--she called Mme Parnet, the housing director, immediately and requested she be moved because she couldn't live in such a shithole, essentially. She didn't use that word, but that's what she implied. She also told me today that she had requested no roommate, which kind of makes things awkward. I feel like she resents me for being here, even though I didn't request to have a roommate either. It really just feels like she isn't giving the situation a chance to work out. It makes me realize that, compared to many people (especially upperclass Americans), I'm actually quite adept at adapting to new environments and situations. I didn't come to Paris with any specific expectations of what the family would be like, and I think that helped me a lot. All I knew was that those kids were going to be darn cute, and oh my goodness they are. They are adorable, and the parents are nice, talkative, and interesting, and really that's all I hoped for. Maybe the apartment isn't in the best shape, but I think it's worth the sacrifice. Also a side note--the meals are AMAZING. Well, at least the two so far have been. The mom loves to cook and said she's going to try to make a lot of different typical French meals for us (score!!). And I finally get to eat cheese at every meal (unlike in Tours), which is something I really felt I was missing out on.

Today, I met Laura and we set out exploring. We visited the following places: Sacre Coeur, Cimetiere de Montmartre, Moulin Rouge, Jardin de Tuileries, Louvre (didn't go in, but saw it...that counts, right?), Galleries Lafayette (incredible...and incredibly EXPENSIVE), H & M (too too crowded!), saw the Opera, saw the Obelisk, saw the Eiffel Tower & Arc de Triomphe from afar. Phew, I think that was it. This whole trip, including stopping for lunch, took us about 5 hours...and we walked the whole time with the exception of the metro from the Louvre back home. :)

Speaking of lunch...we found a GREAT deal at a boulangerie near Montmartre: 5 euro for a demi-baguette sandwich, a can of juice/soda, and a pastry. Yesss. I finally got to try a tarte a citron, which was wonderful and would have cost me 2,50 by itself! I hope I find amazing deals like that in other boulangeries....although I need to get out of the habit of eating so much dessert, haha.

Anyway, that's about it for today, I think...more exploration of Paris is in store for tomorrow! I

also saw some cheap shoe stores on my street today that I may have to check out....it's just so hard to resist!! Paris is amazing so far and I'm loving it, although it's different than I had imagined. Firstly, there are people EVERYWHERE. Did I come to China by accident instead of Paris? Also, only the true center of Paris really looks like Paris to me, probably because that's the area I had seen all the pictures of. When I saw the Louvre, and then the Arc de Triomphe, and then the Tour d'Eiffel, I couldn't help but have this big stupid, slaphappy smile on my face...it really started to hit me then that I'm actually here, in Paris--the infamous City of Lights, the city of love and art and architecture and wonderful magical things. :) I can't wait to get to know this city...there is so much for me to learn about it. First I just have to realize that yes, this city that I have only seen in pictures

(many

many of them) IS actually real and this is not all just a dream. Because honestly, when I saw the

Tour d'Eiffel, I really wouldn't have been surprised if I had awoken right then to someone shaking me awake from a wonderful dream...