One Week in Paris

A request for an update reminded me that I haven't told you much about Paris at all!
So, basics? I live with a girl named Tori in the 7th floor of an old apartment building, with our hostess, Catherine. She is very kind and patient with us, correcting our French and offering alternative ways to say things. Sometimes her daughter, Clara, stops by, and Catherine is in a chamber music group which practices in the living room, le salon, and that is lovely, for me. I'm not sure Tori appreciates it, but I do! She sets out breakfast things for us; brioche, which is a sweet bread we eat toasted (or not) with butter and jam, yogurt, and OJ, coffee. She also makes us dinner every night. The meals are usually simple, but have been delicious!!

I love the food here! It is divine, for sure! Lots of cheese and milk and cream, fruit, bread, all the wonderful things haha. I haven't had a crêpe or crémé brûlée yet,  but I did have a few macarons and they are delicious!!!!

We have class twice a week for about 7 hours a day. The days are long, and even though I love the classes, I am usually very tired by the end. In our french conversation class, we are given many weekly assignments of places to visit and things to do, and we write, talk, or present about them in class. After that is a cinematic look at Paris, which means we are watching 20 movies about Paris this quarter haha. So far, I love watching the movies and the in class discussions are engaging as well. We usually have 3-5 essays a week to read in that class, which keeps us busy. The last class of the day is critical theory. I sort of dread that it is last, because he is definitely a dry lecturer, but the subject matter is fascinating and I find that I enjoy it anyway, long as it is. So far we have discussed Plato's Ion, books 2,3,10 of Republic, and are moving on to a bit of Aristotle.

We take the metro everywhere, and even though it is super hot and usually smells bad, I don't mind it a bit. There are lots of ways to get around the city, and they reccommended we take the bus to see more of the city, but so far I haven't had the time haha I am seemingly always runnning late. I am already getting sick though, despite the fact that one of the first things I bought in Paris was vitamin C haha. The metro stop closest to us, though, is not too safe at night, or by yourself, and I've been told my blonde hair makes the situation worse, so we have to walk to other stops or transfer. It's not that bad, because we have about 7 stops within a 10 minute walk, which is very conveniant.

I've learned it can get very expensive to buy lunch every day, and I've usually been buying cheap grocery store sandwiches, so I try to keep that to a minimum, but it's true that things are much more expensive here. Monoprix is the store we use most often for 'stuff', it's sort of like a Target? But like I said, things are expensive. A three pack of socks in 9.90euro, and I'm not talking nice socks, I'm talking plain white boring short socks. Thats about 5 dollars a pair! wow! This week is a sale week in Paris though, so I am trying to buy things on sale now, anticipating my needs for the winter. I also learned I have to stop converting into dollars, because everything looks outrageous, (though some of it is-4.50 for my Coke at lunch today, even in dollars thats a rip off).

Tonight is la nuit blanche, which is a national culture festival. Museums open their doors for free after 8pm and stay open late, street artists take over, there is art installations everywhere and muscians, djs, and film is involved as well. I'm definitely going out, so I'll make sure to share any fun stories from tonight!

The strangest thing I've found since being here, is that even though it is beautiful, strange, and I don't know the language or the city, the feeling of being a tourist wore off about one day after being here. This feels like my home. My strange home whose customs or language I don't understand, but my home. I don't know how or why, but it does help me feel less lonely, being on a different continent from all of you!

I'll post some pictures on facebook from a few class outings, I hope you enjoy them!

PS, I am sorry if there are any typo's, I tried to proofread this, but my spell check is set to French, and so EVERYTHING is underlined haha