Paris Week 2

Hi Everyone! So I've spent a little over 2 weeks in Paris now. I'm happy to say that my BC intensive program is finally over! It was a bit ridiculous actually, I had 5 hours of class a day then would arrive home at 3 and work up until 1 or 2 am in the morning! Finally, Monday was our last day, even though I do have this professor and BC class once a week from now on!
Last week was better than the first, it's still a difficult adjustment but I'm trying to get used to it! I went food shopping again and this time looked up all the food I wanted in French so it was easy to know what I was getting! Also, last week was my first week at the apartment without Courtney staying with me which felt weird but I'm hoping once we both settle we can meet up a couple times a week! So last week was pretty busy with work but on Thursday we went on a tour of St. German des Pres (my Uncle Michael's favorite area of Paris!) It was very pretty and quaint, but seeing as we had a 15 minute presentation the next day, not many people enjoyed it. Still, I took some nice pictures which are below:


This is my host sister from high school Justine. Senior year, I stayed with her family for a week and last Saturday, she came to visit! We spent the day shopping, going out to lunch, more shopping, then just talking in my apartment. It was so nice to see her and I'm glad that we kept in touch all of these years so that she could come visit. Hopefully, some weekend in the spring, I will be able to return to her family's house in Nantes and relive senior year!

This is one of the Metro stations that is very cool! The entire wall and wall are covered like this with letters and I felt it merited a photo. There are some other artsy metro stations that I have yet to take a picture of-- one of them being the Louvre stop that has replicas of some of the paintings in them!

Ah the Louvre! This is the famous glass pyramid to enter the museum. I haven't been inside yet but during our tour we passed it and I couldn't miss out on the photo opportunity.

Here is just a tiny portion of the Louvre. Even though I've seen it before, it struck me again how huge it was!

I edited this picture a bit (can you tell) I thought it looked very "old Paris" I took this photo from a bridge on the Seine river.

This is a street we walked down in St. Germain des Pres, I really liked these apartments, they seemed so quaint and Parisienne!

This is a picture inside the church of St. Germain. The stained glass windows were very pretty and there was a tiny bit of sun that day so they really lit up!

Apartment

So I don't want ot give too much information about the location of my apartment because (according to mother) there may be some CRAZY PEOPLE actually reading my blog! But I am living in the 15th arrondissement which is not in the central tourist part of Paris. I don't really mind though because I can take the metro into the tourist part anytime I want. I get the real experience of residential Paris where I live, with a boulangerie and patisserie just down the street! I enjoy my area, it's right next to the Metro and seems to be safe since their are always people are cars around. Plus, there are a couple restaurants near my apartment so it's well lit. The supermarket situation is a little different here however. I shopped at a supermarket around the corner, which has most of the things I need, but is only slightly larger than a cumberland farms or city convenience store. The French don't buy in bulk at all, they shop 2-3 times per week. I think I'll be good shopping once a week, which is a little different than my method last semester of buying food in bulk, freezing it, and avoiding food shopping as often as possible! But anyways, here are some pictures of my apartment :-)


This is my room (please ignore the mess I took this photo the first day I moved in!) It's not really supposed to be a room persay, rather an office but my bed is a futon that converts to a bed so I just leave it open all the time. I like my room though, it may be small, and windowless, but I have cozy bed, a closet, and a desk for some extra storage! The onyl issue right now is the white walls-- I plan on stopping by the Musee D'Orsay and getting a couple prints to brighten up the room a bit!

In the space between my room and the other bedrooms is a little foyer with this strange urn that has it's own decorative light. We're not sure what it's all about, but we like it!

This is my kitchen! We actually got lucky with a stove, oven, and microwave! One of my friends doesn't have a microwave which would severly cut down on my food choices since I'm not exactly the next great chef. Apparently last semester I relied too much on my roomie Kelley to feed me chicken with her garlic and herb sauce...mmm! But perhaps I'll teach myself some simple recipes!

Outside our living room area we have a nice big balcony that over looks the street. Right now it's too cold to sit out there but it will be lovely in the spring I hope. If you look very closely at the street corner you can see a little yellow M which is where the Metro stop for me is-- convenient!

This is our living room/family room kind of area. I took this when Courtney was staying with me so that's her hanging out there!

This is our "big bathroom". We do all our makeup and teeth brushing in this one because it's bigger than the other one. But if you notice, there is no curtain for the bathtub shower, so French. We all get too cold so instead we all shower in the other bathroom in a teeny tiny shower (about the size of our one down the Cape for those who have been there)

So those are the pictures of the apartment, I hope you enjoyed! Next to come-- week 3 in Paris, my first experiences at French University. Over and Out America

xoxo Kerry

Thoughts from Paris

Paris Week 1
So here I am writing this from Paris! Sorry for the delay in a blog post but I haven’t had internet in my apartment and have had to resort to visiting the McDonalds here (I’m so American) to get free wifi. Finally, we realized that we get one tiny bar of signal from an unsecured network in our apartment until our internet arrives God knows when! But on this blogI will post updates about what’s happening here in Paris and some pictures for the millions of people I’m sure are viewing this blog ;-)
This week:
Sunday: Arrived in Paris around 7:35 am Paris time. I found my bags with Courtney and went to wait at the exit of the terminal for Myriam. I found this waiting to be very nerve-wracking since I hadn’t slept at all on the place and I was waiting for a woman and had no idea when she would arrive or what she looked like. Myriam finally found me around 9:30 along with another BC student and brought my to the shuttle to take to my apartment. I said goodbye to Courtney, who had to take about 3 Metros to get to my apartment since she wasn’t part of the BC program but was staying with me for the week. The shuttle picked us up and then took us to terminal 2 where we waiting 30 minutes for four more people to be shoved in the van. The driver dropped off everyone else first and I finally arrived at my apartment a little after 12. Courtney was already there waiting for me to let her in with the key as well as one of my roommates, Amy. We looked around the apartment, which is very chic except for some slightly odd decorations like the ceramic elephant and the urn. Overall it’s very nice. Upside: I have my own little room! Downside: It’s not really a room but rather an office that connects the living area with the other bedrooms. I sleep on a futon but it’s surprisingly comfortable so I’m not complaining. Note to those traveling to Europe: EVERYTHING IS CLOSED ON SUNDAYS. Everything. Thus, we had no food and the only store we could find that was open was a tiny convenience store (kind of like a gas station store) where we got a bag of pasta and some cookies and water for dinner.

Monday: This was our orientation, BC style. This means that I wasn’t touring the city or climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower, but rather taking notes about how to act French.

Tuesday-Friday: Four hours a day of intensive language revision for writing and oral French. Not exactly fun but a nice way to meet the 15 other BC students on the program. I already knew two girls relatively well who I have been hanging out with during class and get lunch with. Each of these days, I would return a little after three and go out with Courtney to buy food and look around the area. We live near Montparnasse, which is a very nice little center with low tourism but lots to do! Courtney was also very patient with me in looking for a fan, since I’m a light sleeper and am having some trouble being so close to the common area and getting a good nights sleep. Unfortunately, fans are MIA during winter in Paris so my parents are kind enough to send me one so I can get a good nights sleep along with my SNUGGIE which makes me happy J

Saturday: Courtney and I went shopping with my friend Annie on the Champs-Elysees and around Notre Dame. Unfortunately, the driving rain and freezing weather made it a less than pleasant day for sightseeing so we returned to Annie’s AMAZING apartment (her own king size bed?) to watch Paris, Je t’aime. After we returned, Courtney and my roommates were all exhausted so we stayed in and did some homework.

Sunday: Courtney and I decided to scope out her area of Paris, the 19th, since she leaves on Monday. I am going to miss her, it feels like she is one of my roommates, but hopefully we’ll be able to meet up often.

Overall, it has been a truly crazy week! I can’t explain the rush of feelings of excitement and trepidation. Paris is beautiful, but I cannot wait for spring when I feel that I can truly enjoy the city in it’s finest. I’m hoping the future weeks will bring me more sleep, real food (still need to actually go food shopping!) I miss my family and friends so much, but Skype will definitely be my savior during this semester. Sorry for the long post, you must love me to have made it this far. I hope everyone is well and feel free to comment with questions and hellos. I love you all <3