My First Week

This is my seventh day in France. Wow. I feel like a lot has happened so far.

Yesterday we had a lot of important things to do. We went to the Sorbonne to see Mme. Dimopolu for our registration, or, in French inscription. But, it was strange. There was a step that we didn't have to do, and we got rushed to the front of the line. I felt kind of bad though. We also explored the Sorbonne a little. I think I will often get lost. We searched for a cheap sandwich place only for students, but alas, we were unable to find it. So we all got vending machine sandwiches instead. We then continued on our journey to 214 blvd Raspail. Where we had to do our placement test.

We were really early. So we sat around and "studied." We met some new people. One, a girl from South Flordia and another from Holland/England. We chatted and studied with them. We proceeded to the test rooms. The test was shorter than I thought it would be. There was definatly some stuff that I didn't know on it, like, for example, emouvoir. I now know that it means to be moved/touched.

Monday was probably my most favourite day yet. Hannah had slept over the night before. We slept in. The first thing we needed to do was to get our navigo passes. Which, are way better than the metro tickets. We also took the RER for the first time. It's cooler because its a double decker train but it comes less frequently than the metro and its more confusing. I don't think it's any more efficient. Then we met Jeremy at the Eiffel Tower! Some humorous things happened here. The first was seeing all the policiers chasing all the men trying to sell little Eiffel Tower trinkets to tourists. They all just ran away...there was a mass exodus of these men with Eiffel Towers on a huge key ring looking thing. The Eiffel Tower was huge. It's a little bit ugly, but somehow, probably because of its size you just stare at it. But, it's still not that big, not compared to the CN Tower. I think the Eiffel Tower will be better at night.

We walked along the river and we saw a beautiful sunset. But, we also saw a not so beautiful site. We saw a man with no pants on. An old man with no pants on. I felt like I was a little kid cause the four of us just giggled. I avoided looking while some others in our group took photos. Then looking back, he was wearing pants. I was so confused!

The four of us went to a grocery store called Monoprix and we bought our ingredients for supper...stir fry. Hannah and Jeremy came over to our place and we all had supper together and some wine. Our first bottle of wine was finished. We'd bought it for 1,99 euros.

On Sunday we went to the Baptist church for the first time. We brought our lunches and ate together with the congregation afterwards. There were some interesting people there. I felt very welcomed there. I hope we will be able to build relationships there. Rusty also took us to see the Sorbonne for the first time. I was excited to go to a school that has a history of more than 25 years. We also went to Notre Dame for the first time. It was beautiful! We sat down and listened to the organ. That was amazing!

I am starting to get the hang of the metro system. Now that I know how to navigate it I feel like I can go anywhere in the city. I still always feel disoriented when I come out of the metro, because I never know which one to come out of but, this too will come.