As hoped, things ARE finally starting to wind down. (Though unfortunately not as quickly as I would like.) After finally getting my laptop in working condition last week I have been working to keep up with e-mails and school and the bureaucracy of France.
In short, I am loving it here. It is still like a dream to me though. Every morning I have woken up only to be shocked to find out where I am. I have to walk across the room to turn off my alarm clock (the only way I can be sure I will get up!) and then I go straight for the window and open it wide open. There is no such thing as a screen here. Supposedly there are bugs but I haven't seen any yet. My room overlooks the park at the Cite U and there are always a hand full of runners. Unfortunately, they haven't inspired me to join them very often yet. Its been hard enough to find time to eat and do laundry, so running has been put on the back burner. I'll be joining them tomorrow as it is the first morning yet that I don't have some French agency mandating my attention. I have my very last day of language class at 2pm. This also means that tomorrow officially marks the end of my 2nd week in Paris. In truth, I feel like I've been here for much longer, though my poor French skills would tell otherwise.
Before arriving in Paris I had taken 4 semesters of college French courses. I knew that I wasn't fluent but I think I was a bit overconfident. For our 2 weeks of intensive French courses, I was put into level 2. There are about 20 different groups of all levels 1-5 and they are each named after a different metro stop. My group is Menilmontant. After my first day of class, all of my confidence was blown away. Most of the other students were speaking at the same speed as the instructor and I soon learned that they each had 6-9 years of French under their belt. My immediate thought was to switch into level 1. Day 2 was much better however and even though I am easily the worst in the class, I decided the challenge was worth it. 2 weeks later, I can't say that my speech is anything similar to theirs but I can now understand most of what they are saying. A few of my close friends here are also really great at French and they keep telling me that I just have to get to the point where I think in French (and stop trying to translate from English every time). Right now, I am hoping that that moment comes very soon. :)
I am lucky to have made some really amazing friends here already. Kath is from Perth, Australia and Carly is from Adelaide, Australia. We do almost everything together and its been so great to have them when dealing with the ins and outs of moving to Paris. We cook dinner together as often as we can and spent most of last week/weekend going together to look at apartments and buy groceries, etc...so that we wouldn't get caught in some dodgy area by ourselves. This last Sunday we decided to finally get some sightseeing in and be real tourists. We went to the Eiffel Tower and dressed up in scarfs and berets (and even brought a baguette) to take pictures. I swear the other tourists thought we were really French. I have SO many pictures that I want to put up. BUT, (as has been the case with EVERYTHING so far) my camera is not letting me connect to my computer right now. I'll post them all as soon as I can.
I got a surprise phone call last night. Stephanie, my best friend while I grew up in Minnesota is studying (by coincidence I swear) in Paris for the year as well. I knew that she was arriving soon but I think that the craziness of this past week made me lose track of time. She is going to a different school (that is not far from the Cite U) and is living with a family in the 16Th arrondissement (a very nice residential quarter). We met up and I got to play tour guide for the first time showing her SciPo and the nearest Post. We are going to make a day of it on Saturday and go to Notre Dame and St. Chapelle on the two islands in the Seine that mark the heart of Paris. It is so nice to have someone here from home. Since I arrived I have asked myself a thousand times why the HECK I made this choice and put myself in such a different world when the one back home was so perfect. Not a day goes by though that I haven't learned/seen something that I would never have experienced in Colorado and I realize all over again why this is a good thing. Steph's arrival yesterday made all of this much better and I'm glad that I will now have someone who I can watch cheesy American chick flicks and make pumpkin pie with in November.
Wow, this post has turned into a novel but hopefully its not too boring. Keep your eye on my previous post, I am still adding things to it...
In short, I am loving it here. It is still like a dream to me though. Every morning I have woken up only to be shocked to find out where I am. I have to walk across the room to turn off my alarm clock (the only way I can be sure I will get up!) and then I go straight for the window and open it wide open. There is no such thing as a screen here. Supposedly there are bugs but I haven't seen any yet. My room overlooks the park at the Cite U and there are always a hand full of runners. Unfortunately, they haven't inspired me to join them very often yet. Its been hard enough to find time to eat and do laundry, so running has been put on the back burner. I'll be joining them tomorrow as it is the first morning yet that I don't have some French agency mandating my attention. I have my very last day of language class at 2pm. This also means that tomorrow officially marks the end of my 2nd week in Paris. In truth, I feel like I've been here for much longer, though my poor French skills would tell otherwise.
Before arriving in Paris I had taken 4 semesters of college French courses. I knew that I wasn't fluent but I think I was a bit overconfident. For our 2 weeks of intensive French courses, I was put into level 2. There are about 20 different groups of all levels 1-5 and they are each named after a different metro stop. My group is Menilmontant. After my first day of class, all of my confidence was blown away. Most of the other students were speaking at the same speed as the instructor and I soon learned that they each had 6-9 years of French under their belt. My immediate thought was to switch into level 1. Day 2 was much better however and even though I am easily the worst in the class, I decided the challenge was worth it. 2 weeks later, I can't say that my speech is anything similar to theirs but I can now understand most of what they are saying. A few of my close friends here are also really great at French and they keep telling me that I just have to get to the point where I think in French (and stop trying to translate from English every time). Right now, I am hoping that that moment comes very soon. :)
I am lucky to have made some really amazing friends here already. Kath is from Perth, Australia and Carly is from Adelaide, Australia. We do almost everything together and its been so great to have them when dealing with the ins and outs of moving to Paris. We cook dinner together as often as we can and spent most of last week/weekend going together to look at apartments and buy groceries, etc...so that we wouldn't get caught in some dodgy area by ourselves. This last Sunday we decided to finally get some sightseeing in and be real tourists. We went to the Eiffel Tower and dressed up in scarfs and berets (and even brought a baguette) to take pictures. I swear the other tourists thought we were really French. I have SO many pictures that I want to put up. BUT, (as has been the case with EVERYTHING so far) my camera is not letting me connect to my computer right now. I'll post them all as soon as I can.
I got a surprise phone call last night. Stephanie, my best friend while I grew up in Minnesota is studying (by coincidence I swear) in Paris for the year as well. I knew that she was arriving soon but I think that the craziness of this past week made me lose track of time. She is going to a different school (that is not far from the Cite U) and is living with a family in the 16Th arrondissement (a very nice residential quarter). We met up and I got to play tour guide for the first time showing her SciPo and the nearest Post. We are going to make a day of it on Saturday and go to Notre Dame and St. Chapelle on the two islands in the Seine that mark the heart of Paris. It is so nice to have someone here from home. Since I arrived I have asked myself a thousand times why the HECK I made this choice and put myself in such a different world when the one back home was so perfect. Not a day goes by though that I haven't learned/seen something that I would never have experienced in Colorado and I realize all over again why this is a good thing. Steph's arrival yesterday made all of this much better and I'm glad that I will now have someone who I can watch cheesy American chick flicks and make pumpkin pie with in November.
Wow, this post has turned into a novel but hopefully its not too boring. Keep your eye on my previous post, I am still adding things to it...
2 comments:
You are amazing. I am writing you an email soon. I love reading your posts and seeing that you are just loving it out there and having such an incredible time. Every second is going to be worth the difficulties. Have the time of your life! Look for an email asap. (its the weekend here and I have some time finally!)
Jamin
Another great adventure blog!
Did I detect a slight case of homesickness for the first time?
Post a Comment