Marie Antoinette had it made. Until she lost her head...

I had an incredibly exhausting but wonderful day on a bike tour of Versailles yesterday! All 20 girls who are part of the Abroadco fall semester here went together, so I got to meet everyone I hadn't yet. It turns out that four - FOUR - of us are from UCSD, so it's been great to have that in common. We had to get up super early and ride the metro to the tour office, from which we biked to the train station, loaded our bikes ONTO the train (yes, all 20!) and rode to Versailles, which is about 20 minutes outside of Paris. We had 9 bikes stuffed into our car, and needless to say we got a lot of less than friendly looks from the other riders. Once we arrived we unloaded and biked to the nearby Versailles market, which is a giant square lined with boulangeries, patisseries, caves du vin, boucheries, you name it. Almost every day of the week the interior of the square is filled with vendors selling all manner of food and sometimes fabrics and other textiles. We were set loose to eat a snack and buy lunch for a picnic later, and most of us got some variation of bread, cheese and meat :) We then biked to the chateau grounds and got a quick history lesson from our awesome guide (a young American woman from Philadelphia), then rode to our picnic spot next to the lake. A few of us had decided to splurge on a 20 euro bottle of champagne, which was EXCELLENT and the perfect way to wash down a sandwich. Our guide insisted that drinking did not hinder, but enhance the biking experience - and our resident director Tawna, who is a total lightweight apparently, was red-faced and giggling after a glass of red wine at lunch. Needless to say, she was an endless source of entertainment for the rest of the day! By this point, I totally could have gone home and been happy as a clam. But we still had to bike up to the chateau and take the audio tour of the interior. I had already seen it years ago, so it was less impressive but still cool to see. We then had to retrace our steps completely until we ended up back at the tour office at 7pm - a full 12 hour day! My legs still were a little wobbly when taking the Metro stairs today - I hadn't biked in literally 6 years, and the grounds were NOT flat! I started today by walking to Shakespeare & Co., a famous English-language bookstore pretty close to the apartment. I bought a used copy of The Pelican Brief for 3 euros and then met friends for lunch near the Catho. I had a gigantic slice of quiche lorraine (ham and cheese) and tried not to think about the nutrition behind the utterly creamy and delectable filling and perfectly flaky and buttery crust. I started classes today with my contemporary French cinema class. My friend Connie is in it with me, which is great, and our professor is HILARIOUS. We're going to cover 4 different genres of film by watching movies in class and discussing them. I'm very excited for it, especially because it's in English and I'll be able to absorb everything. I found out today at the Bureau de Poste that stamps to the U.S. are 0.85 euros. I love you guys a lot, but I think I'm going to have to hold off on the $1.50 per postcard and spend it on food souvenirs for you instead. I send my love virtually :)

Getting my bearings

Have I only been here for 3 days? I feel like I'm already a Parisian, although it's probably quite obvious to real Parisians that I'm a total newbie. I still get excited when French people ask me for directions :) Yesterday was kind of exhausting - we had our placement test early in the morning at the Catho and then went on a "Bateau Mouche" boat tour on the Seine. It was great to finally see the Catho campus, which takes up a city block and, like all Parisian universities, high schools and elementary schools is enclosed from the sidewalk by a wall. It's almost easy to miss the entrance, and once you get inside there is a green courtyard with picnic benches and the doors to a few different classroom buildings. While we were waiting, Connie and I got coffee at a cafe nearby. I noticed that 1) if you sit at the bar instead of a table, the drinks are literally half the price and 2) there is no such thing as a mocha in France. There's coffee, coffee with milk, and hot chocolate. I explained what a mocha was to the bartender and he managed to make a very good one! I'll have to train the people when I find a regular spot! The ten of us picked up our finalized class schedules and were interviewed by a faculty member to verify our French levels. I was obviously a little intimidated and the woman who was interviewing me literally asked me my name and nationality before deciding that I was in too high of a level and needed to be moved down. I was so confused and she was speaking very quickly at this point, so I'm sure I sounded like an idiot. Before I knew it she had dragged me into the secretary's office and was telling her that I was not that good at French (I was believing it at this point too!). But when the secretary started talking to me I had regained my composure and was able to sound pretty intelligent - to which the interviewer reacted by saying, "Wow, you must have been just really stressed before, you don't sound that bad now." So they didn't move me, but I think it took a good two hours and a sandwich to make my heart rate slow to normal... We shall see how class goes on Tuesday... After our boat tour (very standard and touristy but it was a BEAUTIFUL day), Connie, Tenny and I walked along the Seine and bought posters from the vendors who have permanent stalls there. They sell a lot of 19th century lithographs and maps, which are very pricey but I decided to splurge and get one as a souvenir because it was a lithograph of French desserts :P After shopping for home goods and lugging them all home on the Metro (again, I would have perished along the way without CrossFit), the three of us decided to get the cheapest meal we could and go to another crepe place a block from our apartment. Tenny and I had checked out a place called "Fizz" the night before and were still reeling from the absolute amazingness of it, so we decided to try another place. It wasn't chi-chi like Fizz (think flat screen TVs playing music videos and mauve wallpaper and suede chairs) but it was a stone-walled family-run place that was very homey and still delicious. Today was a free day of exploring for the three of us, and we got to check out different neighborhoods and sights including Notre Dame, the Pantheon and the Louvre. We investigated rue Mouffetard, which is a tiny cobblestone street filled with the biggest assortment of inexpensive foods we've seen so far. It's only a few blocks from our place so I will definitely be going often. We got gelato at a shop that serves it on a cone in the shape of a rose (they scoop small chunks of gelato and smooth them on as petals so it looks like a two-tone flower when you pick your flavors. SO GOOD. In an attempt not to blow our budget for dinner, we picked up a bottle of cabernet sauvignon, a baguette, some brie, and made a salad with sliced deli chicken and homemade salad dressing (grainy mustard, EVOO and a splash of wine). It was FANTASTIC and we all ate for under 14 euros. Definitely going to repeat this often, both to offset the enormous meals and enormous bills of eating out. One interesting fact is that French cafes and restaurants have lunch specials that give you a full 3-course meal (often with a drink) at a much lower price than dinner. Traditionally lunch is the largest meal of the day (opposite from the U.S.) so I'm going to try to spend my money on lunches instead because I can get more for my money and be stuffed at 1pm instead of 9pm :)

Some observations so far...

I spent another day exploring the city, starting with my oral exam at the Institut Catholique (or "Catho") and ending with a delicious dinner near my apartment. The weather was fantastic, the food was even better and I am falling in love with Parisian life! I did find myself continually struck by very obvious differences between life here and at home (at least how I've experienced it). 1. FOOD IS RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE. There is honestly no comparison in price that I've ever seen in the Bay Area, which is also pretty darn pricey. I'm not kidding when I say that it is close to impossible to eat dinner out for less than 6 euros ($9). That will buy you one very simple crepe (ham, cheese and egg) and tap water. If you actually want to be satisfied, you have to realistically plan on paying at least 12 euros ($18) - 20 euros for a meal and a drink is pretty middle of the road. It is possible to buy a sandwich at a boulangerie for 4ish euros, but you can only eat so many sandwiches before even the foodgasmic Parisian baguettes start to get a little old. I am now cooking scrambled eggs in my apartment for breakfast and got some supplies for snacks and salads at the supermarche, but I'm limited in what I can cook and store. Besides, it's so hard to resist the amazing food here!!! 2. GROCERY STORES are waaayy smaller here and carry only the essentials. I think that it would have the same selection as an American Safeway if you just took out all the prepared foods minus cookies (the French do love their biscuits!). Also, when you check out, the cashier just pushes your purchases to the end of the conveyer belt and you have to bag them yourself. There are only small plastic bags, no large paper bags, and most everyone brings their own reusable bags (or rolling carts). I'm not sure how I feel about the bag-your-own thing, but the noticeable conservation of bags is great to see! 3. To branch off of #2, stores here carry either ONE thing or EVERYTHING. I was in a store today called Carrefour that literally was the size of a city block and was essentially a full grocery store plus a Target plus a CVS. I was so overwhelmed. My friend Connie and I were looking for hair straighteners and literally spent an hour combing the store only to discover when we asked someone that it was on the one aisle we had somehow missed. On the other hand, most neighborhoods have very specialized stores that only sell bread, pastries, raw meat, cooked and processed meats, chocolates, wines, cheeses, fruits and veggies, or little 7-11 type things. It feels like the city is stuck between the old ways of going to a vendor with a lot of specialized knowledge and quality product and the modern demands for an "everything" store. I definitely love the feel of the small shops more, but sometimes a girl's got to get a hair straightener, lettuce and laundry soap in the same trip. 4. NO SEAT COVERS. Self-explanatory. 5. THE METRO IS AWESOME and although it's kind of a pain to have to walk a couple of blocks with bags of heavy things from the supermarket, it's also really really nice to not have to deal with cars and parking and gas. There are frequent enough stops that it's really not that bad - although I moan and groan about having to walk 3 or 4 blocks to the nearest one. 6. FRENCH PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY NICE. No, really. I have not encountered any more rude people here than I do at home, and a lot of people are very friendly and helpful when we ask for directions or help finding something in the store. 7. French people DRESS. Not necessarily fancy, but they obviously take a lot of pride in what they wear and realize that it makes a loud statement to others. I have not seen a single sloppily dressed Parisian - they dress for the most part more conservatively than Americans (less skin for the girls, absolutely NO boxers showing for guys) and no one wears ripped or acid washed jeans or sweats or yoga pants (gasp!). Lots of boots, scarves, dark tailored jeans and flats, few tennis shoes and just a clear attitude that the extra 20 minutes it takes in the morning is worth it. 8. The VAT makes life WAY EASIER. It's such a refreshing change to not have to mentally add tax and tip every time you order food. What you see is what you get, from menus to supermarket aisles. I'm sure we're paying the government through the nose, but everyone gets healthcare and I always know exactly what I'm paying for everything. Lots of round prices and no annoying pennies to collect in the bottom of your wallet. I believe those are the important points :) Of course, this is only the 2nd full day I've had in this beautiful city, so I'll keep you posted on groundbreaking observations. One side note is my new obsession with crepes. I cannot thank the French food gods enough for making something so versatile and so divine. For two nights now I've had a buckwheat crepe with egg, ham (which is SO much better here) and fromage for dinner and split a dessert crepe made with the traditional white flour batter you find at home. Tenny and I shared one called "La Creole" which had bananas and warm, melted dark chocolate folded into a crepe and topped with a scoop of caramel ice cream and whipped cream. I almost died. Now hopefully I can get some sleep tonight - my body woke me up at 3am and was wide awake unil 8am when I had to get up anyway. Boo :( Wish me luck!

Wow. I'm in Paris.

It's official, I'm in Paris! It really did not hit me before today that I was actually in the city I had been planning so long to return to. I've had quite the interesting 24 hours (it feels like it's been so much longer), so I'll start from the beginning! P.S. Can you believe how little I packed to take for 3 months? I'm so proud of myself :) My flights and everything went very smoothly - Tenny and I met each other at security and sat next to each other on the 10 hour flight to London and the 45-minute hop to Paris. I have to give British Airways some props, their entertainment was amazing and the food was actually not bad. Everyone has their own TV screen and you can choose from about 30 different movies (new and old releases) and start/pause/stop them whenever you want! I watched Angels and Demons and State of Play, both of which I reccommend! But British airport Starbucks was NOT good. I ordered a double "skinny" mocha and it was seriously not blended at all and I think I drank all the chocolate first because the rest of it was too strong to finish :( We were picked up at the airport by a pre-arranged shuttle which was so nice, and got a thrilling introduction to Parisian rush hour traffic. The combination of pedestrians, bikes, motorcycles and cars ALL acting like they own the road can get a bit hairy... Once we got to 267 rue St. Jacques, we went inside Cafe Universel, found the landlady Fazi and she showed us to our apartment. We live on the 3rd floor (which in France is called the 2nd) and there is no elevator. I almost died taking my luggage up the three flights of spiral wooden stairs, but I think I would have actually killed myself had I not been weight lifting this summer :P The apartment is tiny tiny, as most are in Paris, but it will be comfortable for the two of us as long as we keep getting along so well! Noticeably absent was an oven, any kind of clothes storage and... toilet paper. Looks like we won't be doing any baking :( We've turned our suitcases into drawers under our beds so hopefully that will continue to not be super frustrating. A mere 2 hours after arriving at our apartment we were supposed to meet our advisor, Tawna, downstairs to walk to a group welcome dinner. Apparently the taxi/bus situation got really messed up for her, so we awkwardly waited in the bar downstairs and talked to the American bartender before deciding to take matters into our own hands and walk there. It was only a few blocks away so it was a good chance to test our sense of direction. Dinner was not only REALLY GOOD, it was a great chance to meet the 8 other girls in our program. Yes, only girls. It was an assortment of personalities to be sure, but they all seemed fun and enthusiastic so it should be a good time. The food was excellent! I had a Bordeaux which was AMAZING and the perfect start to my discovery of French wines. In France, there is pretty much always a fixed price menu to choose from, or you can get things a la carte. I had a goat cheese salad, chicken breast with mushroom sauce (all the entrees came with a side of fries!), and une dame blanche. The last one sounds super exotic, but it turns out it's vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce... works for me! By the time we finished dinner and a little orientation, it was 10:30pm, which is not atypical in Europe. Tenny and I waddled home and spent a few hours unpacking and checking our emails and Facebook to the sound of the French news channel. We get four channels, all in French. So much for digital cable and TiVo... By 2am I was falling asleep while watching the latest episode of Gossip Girl so I crashed. Up by 10 and out the door by 11, Tenny and I decided to randomly explore the city on our free day. We started the day with a FANTASTIC sandwich the likes of which will somehow never be found in the states, and proceeded to literally just walk. Everywhere. Once we hit the Seine, we grabbed an open tour bus to go down the Champs Elysees and around the Tour Eiffel. We hopped off in the 16th arrondissement and decided to look for food. We finally found a cute cafe (it was a very residential area) and proceeded to have the most amazing meal. Ever. We split a salad with herbed chicken breast, chopped apples, currants and tomatoes, and somehow it was so much more! The lettuce here is different and so so good, and it was the perfect antidote to our heavy meal last night. We then went grocery shopping nearby (TP, yummy French lettuce, eggs, olive oil, etc.) and decided to head home. Here's where the adventure begins - we have no idea where we are and we're now carrying heavy bags of groceries. Once we find the metro station, we have to go about 15 stops on two different lines to get to the one closest to our apartment. Which still isn't close. By this point it's also very warm outside. Earlier in the afternoon it was downright chilly (as you can see by my scarf and coat above) but we were soon stripping all those off and were sitting (or standing) on the metro sweating and generally not having a good time. And then we went the wrong direction from the metro station. Going the right way, it took us a good 20 minutes to walk to our apartment, so we shall see how we end up getting to school. I'm going to have to leave hours before at this rate... Speaking of classes, I got my schedule last night and it's perfect! I'll be honest and say that this is not going to be an academic quarter for me by any means, and that's how I planned it :P I'm taking classes on French cinema and fashion (in English) as well as an intensive language class. The electives meet once a week for 4 hours and the French class meets twice a week for 3 hours each class. That means I have Wednesdays and Fridays completely free, and only afternoon class on Monday and only morning class on Thursday! Hello long weekends :) Tomorrow I have a placement test (they try to call it a "conversation" but I know better...) at the Institut Catholique in the morning and then we all have reservations on a boat tour on the Seine for lunch. Then I need to find a hair straightener. ASAP. I miss you all SO much I can't even tell you. It's rough being this far from home and dealing with quite an inconvenient time difference, but I know I can't waste time while I'm here being sad! I'm keeping busy and trying to maintain my sanity, any and all prayers are appreciated :) I'm now laying on my bed debating a nap before dinner, since I have about 3 hours to go if I want to eat like a Parisian! I know this was an epic post, but I had to establish a little context right? Hopefully it will only get more interesting from here!

Fantastic voyage

Hi everyone! I don't have the time to write much this morning and last night was crazy busy, but I wanted to say that I got here in one piece and am jet lagged beyond belief! For those of you who know me well, going to bed at 2am and waking up at 10am still tired is just not going to cut it... gotta start scheduling myself! My apartment is TINY - one bedroom, one bathroom and a small kitchen (no oven = not ok) and doesn't have any storage space! Tenny and I will literally be living out of suitcases for the next three months. We have wifi internet, but the landlady didn't give us toilet paper. Hmm. Last night, we got to our apartment around 5pm and had to meet our advisor to walk over to a welcome dinner at 7pm. So we barely had any time to unpack and freshen up before that! It was definitely a whirlwind. But for some reason, Tawna was super late meeting us and at 7:30, Tenny and I decided to take matters into our own hands and just walk to the restaurant. Luckily we were only a few blocks away, but we felt pretty good about our navigating skills! More to come tonight when I have a chance to upload pictures and describe more! Love to everyone, I miss you so much!

Last days!

I now have less than 48 hours left in the U.S. and it definitely has NOT hit me yet that I'm going to leave so soon! My next post will be from my apartment in Paris - and I've had requests for my address there so... 267 rue St. Jacques Paris, France 75005 I miss and love you all SO much already - these goodbyes are getting harder every summer - and I thank you for your overwhelming love and support (in my life in general and especially in regards to this trip)! I'm so blessed to have such amazing friends and family in my life :)

19 days till takeoff!

Guess what? I don't need a visa. I'm only going for 88 days and the requirement is over 90 days. My advisor told me that I should apply for one, so I obediently did all the paperwork (and handed over a lot of $$) and was actually physically turned away at the French consulate. Literally handed over my huge stack of paperwork and was told by the lady behind the desk that DUH I was only going for 88 days and so I didn't need one. And she wasn't going to give me one - no way pal. Needless to say this is a little frustrating. But I now have a translated copy of my birth certificate in case I ever, you know, need it. I also found out about my roommate and my apartment! I'm living on rue St. Jacques in a one-bedroom apartment above Cafe Universel, a JAZZ CLUB with live music until 2am 6 days a week. I honestly couldn't have picked a better spot. This shall truly be an adventure :) My roommate's name is Tenny and, lo and behold, she just graduated from Gunn High! Rather ironic that my roommate in Paris lives about 10 minutes away. She's going into her freshman year in college, so that means she'll be spending her first semester abroad and then starting classes at Berkeley after she gets back. I'm so excited to meet her, hopefully we can get together before we leave!