It's only been about 3 days since I arrived in Paris but it feels like a month already. I met two of my flatmates, Lauren and Emma, at Gare du Nord train station and we took a taxi to our apartment in St. Germain-des-pres. our director karl was late so we had plenty of time to get to know each other. He finally arrived withour last roomate Ouida about an hour later. We have a door the size of a cadillac to push through once we enter a code and that takes us into this huge columned indoor/outdoor atrium. Another key works the panel on our titanic-style staircase entryway and up we go to the very top to our apartment. It's fantastic and we decided at 5:30 Sunday morning after an all-nighter that we'd try climbing through it to see what we could see. There's a 6 inch culvert thing and a balustrade so we have an unofficial balcony onto the city of Paris.
We got to meet the other people in the program Friday morning as we all met at St. Michel Fountain for placement test day. There are 19 of us in all and only 3 of them are boys. Our first stop was at the Sorbonne offices to get our IDs and pictures taken. Then onto testing. The placement tests went rather dismally for everyone or so we thought. I sat there and stared at the woman like a mute when it was time for the oral section. I managed to eek out one decent answer. After that we had a tortuous info session with Karl and then our welcome dinner. What was funny is that we had our dinner at the same exact place Shannon, Tabitha, and I had dinner at last year across from the hotel I normally stay at. The food was quite delicious and as is requisite in France it lasted for over 3 hours. It was my new friend Julie's b-day and we were going to go out but decided to leave it for Saturday night since we hadn't had time to change and it was already nearly 11pm.
Saturday we got up to do some grocery shopping at the Monoprix before our meeting with the group at 1:30. We had gotten the essentials and breakfast stuff the first night but we want to do alot of eating at home so it was back to the grocery store. We all have similar likes so its been working great to get some collective stuff and some personal stuff. We were scheduled to do a quick walking tour on the way to France Telecom so everyone could get cellphones. It's so expensive to call home but they're mostly for texting and calling each other here anyway. It took FOREVER. I really mean that. It was 3 hours after the estimate before we were released to go home. We were technically supposed to meet the Buci girls (we are all referred to by our apartment's street name) and the Rue de Four girls at the Buci apartment at 9. We didn't get there until midnight as we were waiting for Julie, whos living with her family, to get here after a Metro mishap. We played the loudest game of Never Have I Ever and then out we went at 1am. There are 14 strong personalitied girls so it's a serious battle in - a. getting a word in edge-wise and b. being heard even if you manage to speak. Heels-clacking we headed out. There is a really cool club that doesn't get going until about 2am and stays open until 6am that we stopped at first. There weren't too many people so a group of us left to go up Rue de la Huchette to a couple of places that I knew of from last time. After a quick stop at the scandalous Latin Corner we left the rude French bartender boys and headed to my favorite place Le Who's Bar. Julie and Rachel were immediately accosted by two French guys so we sat for an hour or so until we could escape gracefully. Back to the other club to see what the rest of the girls were doing and I could barely walk at this point as my new heels were NOT my friend. All-in-all it was a very fun night and we watched the sunrise from our secret balcony until we were too tired to do anything but go to sleep.
Sunday was SO much fun after we hydrated and got showered. We met the group at a metro stop in the Marais for our bicycle tour of the city. I haven't been on a bicycle since before I left Alaska and I was VERY SCARED the first 15 minutes or so. I was way too wobbly to be let loose in Paris. After a time though I was a serious pro and all was well considering we hit heavier traffic in central Paris than is normal for a Sunday. I don't even remember what the stops were, it was the fantasticness of whizzing through small streets by little brasseries and markets that was the most fun part. We did stop for the BEST ice cream EVER at this place near the Seine. There was a line about a block long but it was so worth it. After socializing and resting our sore behinds we rode the 15 minutes back and the rest of the afternoon was free. I have approximately 15 bruises, no exaggeration, including one the size of a softball on my leg from little disagreements with the peddles.
We decided to get to bed decently early as school was in the morning and we were all a little nervous about what to expect. I left a little later than intended from the house because one of hte girls called and wasn't sure about her class assignment. I used my brand new NAVIGO card and hopped on the Metro to go up the lame two stops. My classroom is right across from Notre Dame but I had a hard time finding the specific street. I made it with 5 minutes to spare. Our professor Mme Gautier is crazy and fun and I spent most of the class scared out of my mind but that's what I need or I won't pay attention. I placed higher than expected and am at the top of the elementary class, which sounds lame but there are 4 Debutante levels, and 3 elementary under me, which means I'll be intermediate when I'm done. There are only 3 intermediates on this trip anyway. I was pleased and relieved when class was done. It's only 2 hours but its a teensy bit stressful. I meandered home for some lunch and then took a much needed nap. When I woke up everyone was gone so I decided to see if the Telecom place was open. I ended up wandering around for a couple of hours through the streets below our apartment. My feet look like they've been in a blender due to the new heels so the only shoes I can wear are my Tevas which are getting grosser by the day. Luckily there is no shortage of fun shops here. It's all been very big-brothery since we got here just in that everyone got really familiar with each other really fast. It's been an amazing time so far. I just don't want the month to go too fast!
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