Paris Day One, or: Can I Stay Here Forever?

Bonjour!

I have safely arrived and spent my first day in Paris, and I can already tell that this trip will feel way too short for my liking.

Recently I looked back upon my blog from Mannheim, and I appreciated the amount of detail I put in. There were things I never would have remembered! Regrettably, I never got around to posting my adventures in Amsterdam and Brussels... In any case, I will strive to make this blog as detailed as possible, so I apologize in advance for any seemingly pointless description.

I left the tiny Gainesville airport around 10:45 on Saturday morning. I flew with another girl from my program, Vanessa, who is from Gainesville and studying French and Criminology at UF. Our connection in Atlanta went smoothly, and then we were in Houston. The Houston airport turned out to be very confusing, with little signage to tell us we had to take a bus to a different terminal. We had to rush, but fortunately we made our final connection to Paris with Air France. The plane was huge and one of the nicest I've been on. I was able to choose and watch movies on my own personal TV screen (I watched a French movie, Le Siffleur, as well as Away we Go- which was great). The flight was also pretty bilingual, so I was able to practice my listening skills a bit. I also managed a bit of French with the flight attendants. For a flight, the food wasn't bad either, and also strikingly French. They even offered complimentary wine and champagne, although I didn't partake. The worst part of the flight was just its duration of close to 9 hours. Plus there was turbulence throughout most of it, so I never got a chance to walk around and stretch. We got to Paris around 8:30 am local time, which translated into 2:30 am Gainesville time. I was pretty tired but ready to move on with the day.

Vanessa and I first went through immigration uneventfully. Then we got our baggage without problem and were ready to get into the city. I hadn't really realized it before, but Charles de Gaulle airport is quite aways out of Paris. We could either take a taxi (expensive) or the RER train, so we opted for the train. My first real French interaction then was buying the ticket. I was understood easily and replied to in French, so all was well. I bought a round-trip ticket that I can use at the end to get back to the airport. We found the track and hopped onto the already waiting train.

Fortunately, neither the airport nor the train was particularly crowded. I had anticipated a stressful journey, but it really couldn't have gone better. We also had tons of time, so it was really relaxed. We could get lost for a few hours and still have plenty of time! We took the train for about half an hour until we got to our stop, where we switched from the RER onto a regular metro. We had directions from our program, so it was all very easy, except for a bit of lugging my suitcase up and down stairs.

Now, I almost don't want to admit to this, but one noteworthy incident did occur. The turnstiles to the metro are pretty narrow, and there are also doors to push as you go through. It ended up being a little difficult to get through with all our baggage-- practically a getting caught scenario. Something must have happened- my backpack getting caught on something, I don't even know. But Vanessa and I made it through the turnstile and went down to the tracks, and then a guy comes up to me, with my purse in his hand! He said in French that he found it upstairs, as it had fallen onto the ground. I couldn't believe it, but sure enough, my backpack was open. At first it seemed suspicious- had someone tried to take my stuff? But he handed it back to me and told me to be careful. I looked inside and all my belongings were in place- including my iPod, camera, and phone. Fortunately I wouldn't have lost my wallet and passport, as they were elsewhere, but still I was mortified. I thanked him profusely and am so grateful that it was a good person who found it and that the consequences weren't worse. It really could have been disastrous and put a damper on the whole trip. Needless to say, I have learned my lesson and will be extra attentive from now on. I also have a higher respect for Parisians, especially after hearing horror stories about pickpockets and the like.

After that scare, Vanessa and I got onto the metro for a couple stops to get the exit for our hotel. It had just then started to rain, and we had to wheel around our stuff until we found the hotel. The streets can be a bit confusing, as there are often these kind of circular intersections with streets going every which way. Our first couple tries were incorrect, but we ultimately found the correct street and made our way down to the hotel, where we immediately saw others from our group. Overall, I had been pretty anxious about getting to where we needed to be, but it went very smoothly. I was glad to have had a partner as well.

We got to the hotel around 11:30, but our rooms weren't yet ready. We hung out in another girl's room for a while just resting and napping. Then I was able to go up to my room until we had to leave for our orientation.

My first impressions of the area were good. There are tons of cute cafes and little boutiques, and overall it is exactly how you might imagine Paris to look. However, within the first 10 minutes of walking around, I spied a Starbucks, a McDonald's, a Subway, and even a KFC. Tsk, tsk. The hotel itself is also pretty nice. There's a small lobby where we checked in, and the rooms are on the higher levels. There is a spiral staircase going up as well as one elevator. The elevator was tiny! Literally one person and their luggage could fit. I am on the French 2nd floor (room number starts with 2) which equates to the American 3rd floor, as the ground floor counts as our 1st floor. The room is small but definitely sufficient. We have two twin beds, low to the ground, a desk and a couple chairs, a closet/bureau, and even a TV. The bathroom is pretty standard, but the shower is remarkably small. I would venture to say it's about 2.5 x 2.5 feet. All in all though, the room is fine and clean, and I expect that my two weeks here will fly by.

Around 4:00, about 5 of us from my program left to go to our welcome reception at the Paris Research Center. We took the metro since it was raining, but we could also walk there in about 20 minutes. While packing, I had found some left over Paris metro tickets from 2 years ago. I had hoped that they would still work, but no dice. So, I coughed up the 1.60 Euros for a ticket, and we only had to go about three stops before we were there. After a little navigating, we got to Reid Hall, which is where UF houses the PRC. It's a very pretty historic building that I believe was once a school and also some kind of American embassy or consulate, something along those lines. They had some snacks and drinks set up while we waited for everyone to arrive, which took quite a while. We have our main orientation tomorrow, but we got a brief introduction to the building and to Paris. We also got student ID cards and transportation pass good for our stay. Interestingly, we are all listed as Art History students on our IDs. Apparently, this will allow us free access to a lot of Paris' museums. Our director justified it by saying that at the moment we go to those museums, we are Art History students-- clever, I say. We also got an introduction to the other courses and professors (I know mine quite well already, though), as well as the PRC staff. Everyone was very friendly and eager to help with any of our concerns.

It was around 6:00, so the entire group of students (70 ish?) and professors went out to our welcome dinner. It was about a 20 minute walk and I enjoyed seeing more of Paris along the way. We got to the restaurant, and we were led to the back to all sit together. We grouped ourselves by class, so our group of 7 (will be 9 tomorrow) sat with our professor. The dinner was great, and so was the service, especially considering our number. We had our choice of beverage, entree, and dessert, and we all had the same appetizer and bread. My meal thus consisted of bread, white wine, mozzarella and tomato pesto appetizer, chicken and mashed potatoes, and a warm crumbly fruit cobbler-esque dessert. Everything was delicious. The restaurant was also hosting an improv show simultaneously, but unfortunately we were in a different area and didn't get to watch. We had a very nice time talking, though, and we all got to know each other better. It looks like we're going to have a great little group.

Dinner took about two and a half hours, and we just walked back to the hotel afterward. That brings us to the present, as I am sitting writing! The hotel technically has really expensive internet, but I was able to latch onto another nearby network for free.

Tomorrow is our main orientation as well as our first real day of class. We won't be doing a lot of classroom work, but rather doing activities out and about. We don't have the full itinerary yet, so a lot of the details are still a mystery.

Already I am having a great time, and I know it will just continue. I will hopefully get a bit more into my French, but I've still been fully successful so far. I also am greatly looking forward to doing some field work in linguistics! This may end up being the type of thing I do for a living.

I will try to update again tomorrow, but they warned us that we're going to be very busy. I promise to document every day eventually, though.

Bonne journée et à la prochaine!

Jenna