Paris, je t'aime

I know its been AGES  since I last blogged. I just got lazy. I'm back! I'm studying abroad in Paris for the semester, which seems like the perfect inspiration to get back to blogging! I've been here for about a week now. I'm studying with a Trinity program, so there are about 30 students from Trinity here and we all take classes together. I'm also taking one economics class at SciencesPo, which is a very renowned French university of political and social sciences. For the last week, only four Trinity students have been here because we have orientation for SciencesPo. The others get here on saturday and I can't wait!

Orientation at sciencesPo feel exactly like the first week of freshman year. There's a couple hundred international students "D'echange" (exchange) and luckily the Welcome Program is all in English! (So is the class, by the way). The other exchange students are taking full course loads at SciencesPo so I'm in a bit of a unique situation. We've been doing all the typical orientation activities: ice breakers, scavenger hunts, bar crawls, etc. We also have classes called "methodologique" which is basically teaching the international students how the academic exercises at sciencesPo work. It's pretty straightforward--oral presentations and essays--but I had to prepare a ten minute oral presentation on "Is art a public good?" on the second day of class!

We've been meeting lots of international students at the Welcome Program, which is really nice because I'm afraid the Trinity program will feel too small and too American. I'm also living with a host family-the Fermandois- here in Paris. They live in the 20th arrondisement right next to the Pere Lachaise cemetery (where Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, etc are buried). They have two kids who are in high school and speak very good English- Constance and Tristan. The parents speak no English, so I have been practicing my french a lot. Not as much as I should be, but at least every night at dinner.

I feel very comfortable with the family already- they have never hosted an exchange student before but they are very easy going and nice. I think their family dynamic is very similar to mine at home so it was easy to feel comfortable. I have my own room with a double bed and Valerie makes very simple, wholesome, delicious dinners most nights. It's nice to have some sort of family support because if I had chosen to live in an apartment I would probably be eating baguettes for dinner! (Not a bad idea...) It's also somewhat unique and a huge bonus that there are kids close to my age. The first day I arrived and had to go to the Trinity site to check in, tristan and Constance rode the bus with me there and then we walked around afterwards. I went out to a club with them last weekend, but after waiting in line for thirty minutes, they were turned away at the door because they were under 18! It was a very American experience. They are chic-er than I will ever be, but that is something I can live with.

I haven't started smoking cigarettes YET and the food is so wholesome and fresh that I feel very healthy. It makes me feel better about allllll the wine. (Which you can just drink in the streets, at the Eiffel Tower, on the steps of Sacre Coeur--wherever you damn well please. I will write more regularly now about the interesting things that happen here and that I learn. A bientot!