The Long Post

Bonjour, tout le monde.

Alors, here is what I have decided. I am going to do my best to update my blog with des actualités de ma vie every two or three days. In between these longer posts, I will probably add shorter posts with links to photos, things I forgot to mention, little announcements, and anything else I happen to think of that doesn't quite merit a full post. En plus, c'est possible que I will upload a short video each week, just to say hi face to face (dans un façon). Goodness knows that I am rather terrible about actually following through with any sort of communication, so wish me luck.

So without further ado, histoires du Paris!
Alors, je suis arrivée à Paris le vendredi soir (Friday evening). It was a four hour bus ride, which wasn't terrible, but it was a little tiring. I met mon père d'accueil (host father) at the Alliance Française, and after a brief meeting we went back to the 11 arrondissement, ou la Bastille. Yes, I live down the road from the Bastille. I also live about a fifteen minute walk from the 3 arrondissement, which is very much the center of the city, and famously the gay neighborhood of Paris, which also makes it the nightlife neighborhood. I have yet to visit it, but I've only been here 5 days.

So mon père d'accueil s'appel François et il est un architect, et ma mère d'accueil s'appel Laurence et elle est psychanalyste. Ils ont une fille (daughter) qui s'appel Elsa, qui suit des courses de psychologie. They are all really nice, and Laurence and François have been endlessly helpful and very welcoming. François even offered to help me go over my writing assignments once the school year starts up. I get a very post-modern hippy vibe from them, which is how I would describe most of my friends and immediate family, so I think this is going to work out swimingly.

I have a decently large room all to myself, and my own shower, which is really fantastic. Laurence et François m'ont donné (gave me) un plan de Paris, which is posted on my wall. It's really useful! It has a little dot where the apartment building is, and it marks all the museums, monuments and metro stops. They also gave me some guidebooks with lists of cafés and restaurants, as well as a couple walking plans of Paris. I will post some photos of the apartment and the neighborhood as soon as I actually remember to take my camera out with me.

Seeing as it's been a few days here already and I am hard pressed to recall all the details of each day, a brief summary of events in chronological order.

Saturday I meandered about the neighborhood, getting my bearings and exploring a little. In the afternoon, I took a bus with Laurence to the 5 arrondissement and got off at les Invalides, near the Palais Royal and the Musée de l'armée, where I ran into several other Sweet Briar students. We saw Napoleon's tomb, an then I decided to go back to the the Bastille to relax.

Sunday I met up with my cousin Van, who is working as an au pair in St Germain en Laye, a suburb of Paris (small world, right?). We met at the Jardins de Luxembourg, and meandered over to Shakespeare and company, where one of his friends from school is working. I left him there, and then went on a bit of an excursion with my friends from Sweet Briar around the Opéra area. We walked all over the place, and I came home totally exhausted and quite content.

Monday we had an informational meeting at the Alliance Française, and I got my student id card for the Sorbonne Nouvelle!!!!!!! Even more exciting, I got my PARIS SUITCASE!!! I have all my winter clothes now and I am so thrilled. I went home and unpacked, which took me the rest of the day.

Yesterday was fairly uneventful. Oh! Except, we tried to find a coiffeur (hair salon) for my friend Caroline, whose hair is almost as long as mine but isn't in good shape. We discovered that getting a haircut in Paris is ridiculously expensive. This is a huge difference between the States and France, possibly one of the more jarring discrepancies I've encountered. The average price of an inexpensive "coupe" is the rough equivalent of 45 to 55 American dollars. So I'm probably not getting a haircut (I can already hear you all breathing sighs of relief).

Today I went out with Alanna, my roommate in Tours, and we ate the most amazing ice cream ever in the history of ice cream. Cassis ice cream. So good. This is their website. After that we went to la maison de Victor Hugo. That's right. His apartment was turned into a museum in the early 1900's. We rounded the day off with a good helping of The Mighty Boosh. Oh, Noel Fielding, I do so love your insanity.

Which brings us up to now. It's late and I should go to bed. I promise I'll have a short post tomorrow for pictures, if nothing else. I have methodology courses all day. Whee!!!

Bon Soir!