Apartment Photo Tour.

front doorbuzzerkitchenfridge and washer porchbookshelves dining roomother proch shower

Busy Week of School.

Since I started classes on February 2nd time has been flying by. I haven't gone to 6 hours of school a day since sophomore year of high school and it is hard to get used to again. I'm starting to understand more of what is being said but still having a hard time speaking. It's interesting to see that all the American students in my class are good at writing and reading the language, while the other people from Chile, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and some asian countries can speak alright but don't know how anything is actually spelt or the grammar of the sentences. I had my first exam today and, although it was simpler than expected, I don't think I did too great. Now that I know how the exams are laid out hopefully the next one will be easier for me to prepare for.

The pictures I added are of: the front of my school, the Catholic University of Paris, of the courtyard that connects most of the buildings and of a hallway when you first walk into the main building.

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Intensive Class.

Yesterday, February 2nd, was my first day of classes. Somehow Abroadco never got the student schedules so everyone had to meet and figure things out before we could go to class. I met Kathy, my neighbor, at 8:30 AM and we took the metro to get to the Catho. After one transfer and about 20 minutes we arrived at the Catho and waited for the rest of the group. Tawna, the resident director, then took me into an office where I received my schedule and student ID. She then showed me a map and I had to go find my classroom, it wasn't in the same building so I had to go back to the street and down a few buildings. I was a little frustrated that I was going to be late for my first class, it started at 9 AM and I didn't get into the room until around 9:15.

Once I got into the skinny, tall room I found my way to the only open seat and sat down. The teacher was speaking in French very quickly and I couldn't pick much up. Class ran until noon. I then had a 2 hour break before my next class started so I was going to get lunch and a notebook and pencil. The other American girl met me by the door and asked if I wanted to get lunch with her, so we started walking around and introducing each other.

Perry was from Chicago and was in Paris to study for 3 weeks and then just to live in the city for 3 months. Her family runs some of the Hilton hotels around the world including one in Spain, a few in Mexico and some throughout the states. She was telling me about one in Beverly Hills and how it holds the Golden Globe Awards. She also mentioned some of her friends that live in Europe and she was going to travel around and visit them while she was here. Perry and I found an electronic type store with books, so we went inside and bought pocket dictionaries. Then we went to Monoprix and I bought a notebook and pencil. On our way back to the school we had lunch at a cafe on the street and chatted some more about being in Paris, our class and ourselves.

The next class was held in the same room, with the same people and a different teacher. He talked a lot slower and was a little easier to understand. This class ran from 2 PM until 5 PM, and by the middle of the class I was so tired of paying such close attention. In both classes, the students just listen to the teacher and try to understand new words and phrases and then we do quick activities and the teacher talks back and forth with the class, it is really conversational.

After I got out of class for the day, I caught the metro back home and relaxed for about an hour. Then Alia, a girl from Abroadco, came over and we talked for a little bit and then went to the Tour Eiffel. I wanted to take pictures of it at night and she said she would come along. We were going to go ice skating on the first level too, but it was closed due to something leaking.

Explore.

My first full day here I walked around the city alone just to get a feel for the streets and where I am living. I walked from Rue Leon-Maurice Nordmann to Rue de la Sante to Boulevard de Port Royal and then made my way to the Luxembourg garden, I'm pretty comfortable with that area now and could find my way around without a map. I then started towards the river and walked down random roads, it seemed like a good way to see things I wouldn't normally find. I saw a photo shoot going on by a church. I walked over a bridgefull of locks and made my way to the Louvre, where I saw another photo shoot. Then I walked along the river to the Tour Eiffel, down the park and began to make my way home. On the way home I stopped off at Galleries Lafayettebecause I was freezing and wanted to warm up a little. By now my legs could have fallen off, they were so tired from walking about15kms. I finally got home about 5 hours after I had left and then laid around for a little bit.

First Dinner out and a Day of Shopping

On Tuesday night I had no plans for dinner so I asked the girl that lived near me, Alison, if she would go eat out with me. Her and her roommate Kathy took me to a restaurant called 'Deux Raisons' I think and we met up with 3 other girls that are going to school in Paris as well. We left the apartments around 8:30 and didn't get to the restaurant until around 9. The restaurant was tucked into an alley, you'd have to know where you were going to find it. For 16 euros I ordered off the fixe menu. I had soupe de l'oignon, confit de canard, and fondant au chocolat avec la glace cassis and split a carafe of vin rouge with Alison. It was delicious. We got back home around 1:30 am.

The First Day

Bonjour! My first day in Paris is coming to an end now and I am EXHAUSTED.

I started off leaving home around 10 am, got some allergy medication and then my parents drove me to Sea-Tac Airport. About a half hour early, we arrived at the airport around noon and I said my goodbyes and walked into the airport. Checking in was a breeze and I had 2 hours to sit around until my flight to Iceland boarded. I had brought some food to eat on the plane but decided to eat something before I boarded, bad idea.. I order a hamburger and it did not sit well in my stomach.

My flight to Iceland was pretty easy though. I watched the movie "Wall Street" and "Eat. Pray. Love." and then fell asleep. The flight was 7 hours long but went by pretty quickly. Each row had 3 seats and, lucky for me, my row only had 2 passengers. The boy next to me was from Iceland and might I add quite cute. Getting off the plane was fast and then I went through Iceland Customs which was also very easy. I had about 30 minutes to wait for my flight to Paris so I just sat on the floor and stretched my legs out.

The flight to Paris wasn't so great. I had the seat right before 1st class so there wasn't a ton of leg room. I could not get comfortable or fall asleep, terrible 3 hour flight. Oh, and I also felt sick to my stomach, probably from the hamburger in Seattle. I never even eat hamburgers so I don't know why I decided today would be the day to.. The girl next to me on this flight was also studying abroad, somewhere about 2 hours outside of Paris. As the plane taxied into Paris, the boy behind me said he was studying abroad too and the girl next to him said she was as well and was from WSU. We all went to baggage claim together and talked more about the day and our next few months. As we waited for the bags to come another girl walked up to us and said we looked like Americans and wanted to come join us, she was studying abroad too. I got my bags, said goodbye to everyone and headed to find a pay phone.

I had to call 08 00 69 96 99 and I would be told where to go to catch my ride to my new home. Seems easy enough, I called and the man on the phone said to go 'catch the lift and go to exit 18'. So I got on the elevator and followed a bunch of people to the signs called shuttle pick up. Well, that wasn't the right place. I went back upstairs, called the number again and said I couldn't find exit 18. He said go to departures and find door 18. As I walked away this time I saw a girl that had come up to me in baggage claim, she looked lost too and lucky for me she was looking for door 18 too. We walked along the floor we were on and found door 18, stood outside the door for about 10 minutes and then realized there must be more than 1 door labeled door 18. This time we went downstairs to a different part and found another door 18, this one had cars picking people up and looked like the right place. We waited for about 10 more minutes and then our driver found us. By this time, I didn't feel tired at all; which was weird because it was 3 am for my normal time and I had been traveling all day.

We got in the van and headed for Paris, picking up 2 more people on our way. It took about half hour to drop them off and then he dropped Courtney off at her apartment. On our way to my place I chatted with the driver which was fun because I could practice a little French but he also new English pretty well. We got to my place around 2 pm and I was nervous I would get left on the sidewalk like Courtney did, which seemed very scary to me. Luckily someone was walking out of the doors and I held it open so I could get in. Then a girl asked if I was Taylor and said she was from Abroadco too and living in the apartments near me and I could follow her. Then even more lucky, my resident director came walking up. Tawna showed me the building, my new place and walked me over to the other Abroadco apartment where I talked to that girl for a little while. I was exhausted by now and went back to my place and got into bed.

I fell asleep and when I woke up my host-mom was home so I introduced myself and she invited me to a dinner party she was having later in the evening. I was hesitant and she said if I was up to it I was welcome to. I heard people arriving around 7:30 and at about 8 she knocked on my door and invited me out, so I went. There were 7 other French people in the living room. Mme Laurent poured me some greek drink and showed me a seat, she said just listen and see what you can pick up. Now these people are mostly French Scientists and I barely understood a thing they were talking about. Oh, and the drink wasn't good. We then sat down for the meal. It started with a spinach soup I think, it was pretty good, and some bread. Then we had quiche and I decided to eat it because I didn't want to seem rude, it wasn't too bad. Next we had salad and cheese and bread. Then a dessert. Because it is January, there is some traditional dessert they eat after Solstice. They hid a little toy in the dessert and someone is chosen to hand out each piece of the tart. I was chosen and I gave out dessert and after more talking and eating 2 of the men found little toys. They were awarded crowns and were the kings, they then chose queens. I was a queen :) I sat at the table for about 15 more minutes and then excused myself to go to bed. I could barely keep my eyes open.

What a day! I'm excited to go explore the city in the next few days.