L'aventure commence: The Adventure Begins

Paris is one of the most beautiful and most loved cities in the world. I am so lucky to have the experience to even visit a city so legendary, let alone live here for a whole semester. I would love nothing more than to share this experience with my friends along the way. Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

So... the first few days here in Paris have been quite a wake up call...

It started out with my flight to JFK, where it was interesting to find my next terminal, but eventually I found Elise (another dancer from Point Park studying in Paris), my next terminal, and a lot of the other girls going on the trip (not to mention a wine bar to loosen up a little with an overpriced glass before the long flight, lol). About 7.5 hours later we landed in Paris and were escorted from the airport to the Fondation des Etats-Unis (United Stated building) in the Cite Universitaire campus by our Program Director, Anne Marsella, and her young, parisian assistant, Charlotte. The Cite Universitaire is a whole campus of dorm buildings for students in Paris from all over the world: there is the American house, the German house, Argentinian, Japanese, etc. and it is a beautiful campus with lots of green parks and lots of people running and picnic-ing and such. Anyway we pulled up to our beautiful ivy-covered, red brick dorm building and settled into our (single!) dorm rooms for a few hours before Anne and Charlotte brought us a Lebanese dinner (sooo good!).

The next day they let us sleep in a little and once we met up in the lobby we were given a tour of the campus and showed how to take the RER train to the Metro to get to our French class every morning (MTWF). Then we walked down near where the Wells studio is to have a lunch of cous cous and vegetables (which we learned was also a 3-stop metro ride), after which we actually went to the studio. The Wells studio is just like a one-room art studio with a small office and kitchenette where all of the art history classes are. While we were having a meeting there we learned that our French classes are in a separate place from the Wells studio, which is separate from all the art classes, which is also separate from the dance studio which is in a totally different part of town. All of our studio art classes take place all over the city, in the studios of our professors, so we will be riding metros all over town all day every day pretty much, which has all been a little overwhelming, so far. After the visit to the Wells studio we hopped on the metro to see where the bookbinding studio is, saw a beautiful view of Paris from up by the Basilique du Sacré Cœur in Montmarte, and walked around the area for a while. We had some time after so Elise, Emily, Anna, Ashley, and I couldn't help but head straight over to the Eiffel Tower :)

The next day, Monday morning, we headed to the French school at our normal time for our first day of class/ placement tests at 9:00. After my first exhausting, 3 hour, French class which does not really cater to beginners, even though it is the Beginner level, we met back up at the Wells Studio to have lunch with some of the art and art history professors to hear about their courses. We finally got to hit up a grocery store after, which proved to be a challenge with french labels and lack of familiar food selections. That night I went to my first photo class, which I think I am going to really enjoy, and then I went home to frantically study all my new french packets from the first day.

This morning French was not much easier. My studying did not help as much as I had hoped it would, and we ended up learning a lot of new stuff, too. It's already becoming overwhelming. We met up at the Wells studio again after to have a meeting about dance classes and were shown how to take the metro over to where the studio is. When we walked in the studio I exhaled the biggest sigh of relief at the sight of something familiar. Music, dance, classes, a studio, I seriously started choking up a little bit because in the middle of all my overwhelming new places, experiences, and a new language, it was so unexpectedly comforting to walk into a familiar atmosphere. Movement is a universal language, and I think dancing will serve as my comfort food, here. I met up with Elise and Emily after their painting class and we tried to get our pay-as-you-go phones near the Centre Pompidou but the store where we got our phones wouldn't let us buy prepaid cards there and we were sent from place to place to end up with, what do you know, no prepaid phone card. UUUGGHHHHH We did find some cool shoe stores and a vintage clothing store which lightened our spirits ever so slightly, but after all of this we were so exhausted and frustrated we took metro to metro to go home.

I hope I don't sound like I am complaining too much. I want to paint Paris as a beautiful place and share how truly amazing my adventure is and will be, but I also want to present an accurate portrayal of all the challenges I never anticipated. It makes me smile as I have to remind myself every so often that, "I am in Paris. I LIVE in Paris," it will just take some settling in and getting used to before I feel comfortable and blend in as a true Parisian.

Bisous, Leah