first days

(I wrote this yesterday...)

The last few days have been pretty crazy. I took three flights and finally got to Paris at 10 am Tuesday morning, after leaving Monday at 8:30 am and skipping 9 hours somewhere in the middle. I couldn’t find the people I was supposed to meet at the airport, so I ended up taking a taxi to the place we’re staying in Paris. It was definitely an adventure. (I had my first real French conversation with the cab driver, which was cool.) We’re staying at the FIAP, which is kind of like a dorm where people rent out rooms and stay. Our room is very tiny, but cute, of course. It’s about as wide as a queen size bed. It has two little beds, two little desks and a bathroom.

Yesterday our group went out for dinner at a cute little French restaurant and then walked to the Louvre and along the Seine. It was really nice out—a perfect first night in Paris!

Today we had class in the morning and learned about how to use the metro system, which is actually pretty easy. Then we went to the Musée d’Orsay and looked at all of the impressionist, postimpressionist, and neoimpressionist paintings from artists like Van Gough and Monet. I, along with two other girls, stayed until the museum closed. Then we walked around and ate crepes at a cute little restaurant, speaking French the whole time, or at least trying to. We also went and saw the little bookstore where Ernest Hemingway bought his books and Sylvia Beach published James Joyce’s Ulysses. Thomas Paine had also been there.

All in all, I’m loving Paris. I could live here for awhile, for sure. I feel like there is way too much to do and see. It is so overwhelming. But I’ll see as much of it as I can for the time being. And my French is already getting better.