If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.

I have officially been in Paris one week as of right now. It blows my mind that I have done so many things within these short seven days, and yet I have gone through so many cultural transitions in my everyday life.

The rest of my week has been full of monuments, amazing food, and lots of people. The biggest shock to me thus far is the immense amount of people around you anywhere you go. It is a lucky instance when you find yourself walking a street alone. Near my home, by the Gare du Nord, it is rarely not busy. I find this to be more comforting than anything, and interesting to watch the countless travelers with their suitcases hustle to their trains on time. The area I live in is definitely alive day and night, and one especially has to be careful after nightfall. It’s not a horrible area, but anywhere near a big train station has some rough characters.

Wednesday, I had my oral placement exam at my school. This test was just to ensure that I was in the correct classes according to my ability to speak and understand French. As one can imagine, with me doing horribly in those areas, I was extremely nervous for the test. We all lined up outside a classroom and a teacher would call you in to take the exam. Sitting down, I realized how unsuccessful I currently am at understanding spoken French. The professor asked me a simple question, and I nervously mumbled an answer, and then continued to speak several sentences (that I had practiced numerous times beforehand) to her. She stated that the classes I had signed up for will be good for me, and that I will be challenged, but it will be good for me. I am very happy with my schedule:

Monday, from 14:30-18:30 (yes, four hours), I have contemporary French cinema. Somehow, I ended up signing up for this class because I had to have 16 credits instead of the 12 that I thought you could take as a minimum. I am actually excited for it, however. I think it will be really interesting to watch the movies and discover different styles of film in France.

Tuesday, I have French Language Intermediate from 10:00-13:00. This is basically like a general French language course, teaching grammar, vocabulary, and things like that.

Wednesday, I have Phonetics. I am really amped for this course, because I have heard that taking phonetics in any language can really boost your ability to comprehend the spoken language and spelling.

Thursday, I have French Language Intermediate again from 10:00-13:00, then Oral French from 14:00-17:00.

Friday, I have…nothing! A great three weekend means weekend getaways! I have to figure out where I want to go, but I know I will be traveling as much as I can afford.

If you are wondering about the odd times, over here they use the 24-hour clock system. It is actually easier if you think about it; they never have to use a.m. or p.m. when telling the time. An easy trick I have found when trying to convert the times into the 12-hour clock, is to take the second number and minus it by two. For instance, for 16:00, I would take 6-2=4, so 16:00 is 4:00 p.m. (for Central time).

Mon amie Claire.

After my oral placement, a handful of students and I went to a Le Crous, which are several student cafeterias located around Paris. You can get several different combinations of meals, all for only 2.90£. Considering the cost of everything else in this city, I am looking forward to many meals in these cafeterias. After lunch, I went wondering the city per usual with three others from the program. We got really tired, so we decided to go to the Louvre to warm up from the cold and relax for a bit. It was completely packed upon arrival, and it was suffocating inside. We saw the Mona Lisa for my friend Betsy who hadn’t been there yet, then went and saw a mummy in the Egyptian area.

Mia, a friend from the program as well, had to get her computer fixed in the one Apple store in Paris. Can you guess where the store is located? Correct: the Louvre. Underneath one of the main glass pyramids, lies a large Mac Apple store, identical to the ones in the States. I found this extremely humorous, and thanked the Louvre for its great taste in quality computers.

Later that evening, we all were given tickets from our program to go on a Bateaux-Mouches, which is a boat tour along the Seine River. It was awesome to see all the monuments and buildings from a different angle and at nighttime.

Thursday was spent in the Bastille area, a great place full of restaurants. I had the most amazing Panini of my life, and will most definitely be going back there again soon. Next, we visited Notre Dame again and finally went into Shakespeare and Company. It is an awesome little bookstore, completely English owned, full of books in English. The look and feel of the place is what really makes it awesome. It looks like a small quant house that has been overrun by books. Really cool!

This weekend I walked north from my house with some friends to the Montmartre area, which has a great vibe and really cool street performers along the stairs of Sacre Coeur. The view doesn’t hurt either! We basically walked all across Paris within the next two days, as the sun came out for most of the time.

Today, I joined my friends down in the 15e (arrondissement) to celebrate the Chinese New Year in the Parisian Chinatown. Somehow, my friend Johanna and I ended up walking in the parade, taking pictures of all the performers and people in costumes. Lots of amazing colors and drums were the highlights of the parade.

Tomorrow is the beginning of classes, and I am so excited! It has been hard to try and pick up as much French as I can just being here without having been in French class for more than two months prior. It will be great to be in a learning setting again and gaining more ground on the language. I’m sure the next few weeks will fly by, but I plan on exploring and discovering as many things as I can just as much!

Affectueusement,

George.

Sunday, 21 February 2010