Hello again!
It's been a while since I've written here, it's been a busy week! On Thursday we went to Montmartre, such a beautiful part of Paris. It's the place where so many famous artists used to live, including Van Gogh, Picasso, and Dali. It's still a community for artists, and in the center of the town you can see all their art on display. We walked around for a couple hours and saw the whole town. The Sacre Coeur is in Montmartre and we went in to see it. It was so beautiful with tall ceilings and the only light was from the millions of candles. We got some lunch and sat on some stairs with a great view of the town. I learned in Montmartre that apparently Van Gogh did not cut off his own ear in a passionate rage, his friend did. Apparently his friend was an excellent fencer, and he and Van Gogh were playing and his friend accidentally cut off his ear. Van Gogh told everyone he cut off his own ear so that his friend wouldn't be thrown into jail. So it turns out Van Gogh was a good friend as well as an excellent artist. After Montmartre we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower and sat in the park and wrote postcards and napped. It was so relaxing and the weather was warm. It was pretty hot this weekend, everyone was in shorts and summer clothes. I love it.
On Friday we went to Versailles for the day. Versailles is the most amazing palace I've ever seen. The gates were painted with gold, there are thousands of statues, and every room is unique as it is excessive. It's pretty ridiculous how self-righteous and extremely rich the French monarchy was. It's no wonder people hated them. But as unfair as they were, they knew how to live in style.
We walked around the palace and then the gardens, and decided to walk a half hour to La Domaine de Marie-Antoinette (Marie-Antoinette's house and garden). It was so beautiful.
On Saturday we decided to walk the Champs d'Elysees and go shopping. There are so many amazing stores which are also amazingly expensive. The style here is so cool, I wanted to buy some amazing blue high heels, but I couldn't convince myself that they were worth 60 Euro. We went to the Arc du Triomphe which was of course full of tourists. Then some soldiers told us we had to clear the area and a bunch of them lined up next to the tomb of le soldat inconnu (the unknown soldier) so I think they were paying a tribute to him.
On Sunday my friends and I decided to have a picnic on the Seine. We went to St. Michel, a really cool part of Paris with tiny streets and all ethnicities of food. There was even a Mexican restaurant! I got a crepe with nutella. We sat on the left bank and ate our food and watched as the tourist boats sailed past. Some took pictures of us and we felt very french. After a while we began posing for the pictures, just to add some excitement to their photo album of Paris. It was very relaxing to sit at the Seine and pretend we were true parisiennes. Sunday night I went to Maggie and Molly's appartment for dinner. They are two very good friends from USD who are in Paris but go to the American school here. Apparently they became friends with a turkish guy in their class and he invited us over to hangout in his awesome apartment. We talked about how amazing Turkey is while drinking some very nice wine. He told us how he moved here when he was 15 because his parents made him. I couldn't decide if that would be fun or not, 15 is very young to be living in such a huge city by yourself. But it's cool because he knows all the cool clubs and bars and is definitely a good person to know here.
I don't have class on mondays so yesterday Carolina and I went back to the St Michel area of Paris. We walked on the other side of the seine where people set up little kiosks and sell things. Some people were selling their artwork, but it was mostly posters and used books. I found a book from 1890! I bought some really cool posters and postcards, I love the vintage art of Paris. We then met up with some friends and went to a little café, and I had to teach my friend how to ask our waiter to come out with us (she speaks no french).
Today was the first day of classes, I had french class for three hours. It was so long! My french classes are tuesdays thursdays and fridays and are three hours long, while my english classes are once a week but are 4 hours long. I don't know how Im going to stay awake. (a cappuccino and chocolate croissant, perhaps?)
After class we went to Marais, a part of Paris with really cool vintage shopping. It is also the Jewish center as well as the gay center of Paris. Definitely interesting.
Tonight my friends and I are going to the top of the Eiffel Tower, should be fun! Every hour after the sun sets the lights on the Eiffel Tower twinkle, so hopefully we will be up there when that happens!

I'm creating a Flikr account to share photos. Next post!

Paris, Je t'aime (I think)

So I've been here for 3 days and I am already starting to fall in love with the city. Not only is it beautiful, but it's so easy to get around. I have a Navigo pass which allows me to use the metro, trams, RER and buses whenever I want. Although I love the metro, I've had some problems with the public transportation. For example, today my roommate and I were trying to get home from the southern most part of the 14th arrondissement. The 2 places are extremely far apart (compared to the rest of paris). We decided to take the RER, a faster train/metro with fewer stops. We didnt know, however, that there were 3 different trains at one stop. Of course, we got on the wrong train, got off, got on another wrong train, then finally figured out where we needed to go and then got on the right train. It was confusing and annoying, but pretty fun because we got to see more of Paris.
Another thing I don't like very much is that you can't see the sunset. I guess that's something that I've taken for granted but I miss it! The tall appartment complexes and buildings make the streets dark around 6. Even though I can't watch the sunset I still love walking down the shadowed streets.
Something else about Paris that no one told me was that contrary to it being fall, it is super hot. Everyone is wearing SHORTS and SANDALS. (I write these in all capitals because my dear Auntie Val would not let me pack these items. And I quote "Oh, no, it will be much too cold! NO ONE wears shorts! Or sandals! No way! They are much too stylish" Au contraire, Auntie, au contraire.). Hopefully the real fall will kick in soon. And by hopefully, I really mean I hope it will stay this warm until I leave. (Global Warming may have its advantages)
A lot has happened in the past couple days, mostly more orientation meetings. I have so much information about Paris, now I just have to go use it.
Yesterday we did the Bateaux Mouches, a cruise of the seine. Bateaux Mouche means "Fly Boat", and I definitely felt like I was surrounded by flies or some sort of insect species. There were so many tourists the cruise felt like a moving insect colony. People repeatedly would stand up and take 500 pictures of the same monument/bridge/statue/homeless person. Some people were ever video taping. I just wanted to ask them if they were ever going to watch the video again, or just store it in their closet of vacation tapes? Also, there were so many people having their picture taken by themselves. Not even smiling, just kind of grimacing, like even they knew how awkward it would turn out. But even with all the tourists, it was beautiful.
This morning Carolina and I slept through our alarm. Ooops. Usually we've been waking up at 4 or 5 in the morning so I think we didn't expect to actually sleep in. This morning we had to take a placement test to see what level of french we are in and we showed up 2 hours late.... Luckily since there were so many people it didn't matter.
Then all 40 of us went to the Resto U, a big cafeteria in Paris strictly for students. The food was surprisingly good, for 2 euro you can get a full meal. There were so many people it was quite overwhelming but I guess thats just something Ill have to get used to.
We then walked around Luxembourg Gardens which are really close to our school. We watched the little kids push toy boats around the pond with bamboo sticks and tried to listen to them to try and learn more french. Unsuccessful, but still fun. The pond was also filled with ducks and I did understand one mother tell her son "No, you cannot take the duck home". I sympathized with him.
Tonight we helped Amelie study for her English test she has tomorrow. Not only is she learning English, but also Spanish and latin. She showed us her English notebook and her writing is perfectly linear and straight. She said that at the end of the year the teachers give them a grade for their notebooks based on neatness. It was intensely neat.
That's it for now, I will attempt to upload pictures tomorrow. I miss you all!

Bonjour Je suis Ici

So, I'm finally here! After 15 hours flying I arrived at CDG. Tired and hungry, I went through passport check and got my bags. I realized I was in the wrong place so I walked to a different terminal and met up with 3 other students in my program. We sat and talked for an hour waiting for the program director to pick us up. Apparently we were in completely the wrong spot and then walked what seemed like the whole airport to meet up with the other students. Everyone was very friendly and the program directors gave us all the information we will need for this week (which is orientation). My roommate, Carolina, was there and we became fast friends. We were then taken to our host family's apartment which in the 17th arrondisement. Carolina and I both had 2 huge suitcases (plus a carry-on bag) to lug through the first door which led to a courtyard and then another door which led into the building. We ran into a problem though because we were given the wrong door codes! Eventually someone helped us to get in and our host mom, Madame De Menthiere, came down to get us. Her eyes basically jumped out of the sockets when she saw our bags! Somehow we made it up to the first floor and into the apartment. It is beautiful! Apparently the building is more than 100 years old. The ceilings are lined with intricate crown molding and everything is just perfectly french. Madame De Menthiere lives with her 13 year old daughter Amelie. There is one bathroom and one toilet room (not next to each other) and Carolina and I share a room. The kitchen is small but we all fit around a small table.
While unpacking, Carolina and I realized that we had a storage problem. There is one 4 drawer dresser and small closet space in the corridor. We successfully unpacked everything into the dresser, closet, and under our bed. The room is cozy and looks out onto a small courtyard. After a small nap, Madame made us some dinner - pasta with eggs. Not such a bad combination after all. Carolina and I passed out after dinner, we were exhausted!
Today we had our first day of orientation. There are 40 of us, 8 of which are guys. The program directors informed us of everything we would ever need to know about anything concerning our stay here, and we still have 3 more days of it! It was hard for everyone to stay awake, but somehow we managed. I made some new friends- Vincenzia (pronounced like francesca kind of) from New York (Sienna University) and Sara from LA (UCLA). After our seminars we walked around the area for a while. My school, the Catholic Institute of Paris, is in the 6th arrondisement next to Luxembourg Gardens. I really like the area it's busy and interesting (and there are some cool stores!).
When we got back the apartement was bustling. Amelie was blasting music in her room and madame was singing along. We took our huge siutcases down to "le cave" the basement like cave under the building. It was basically a cave and each tenant has a grotto like room to store things. Apparently women hid there during WWII.
I can feel my french improving already. I'm hoping to be fluent by the time I leave. A cool word I learned today was "poussiere" meaning dust. They liked my blue nail polish so I taught them nail polish for the french word varnis. (See grandma, it's stylish!)
Pictures to come soon, until then just use your imagination!
xo Shan