Paris - it has happened.

Hey blog family. 

Sorry I’ve been so bad about updating and what not, I’ve just been pretty busy. France has been really really great. My mom and I got here, and went straight to Cité Universitaire, where I live, to drop off my stuff and then head over to my cousin’s house. They were so great, they made dinner, and we played with the kids, and I ate meat!!

Yes, while being here, I’ve decided to start eating meat again. If I’m going to be buy all my own food now, as I’m not on a meal plan, I don’t want to be stuck eating pasta and breads every day. So I have jumped right into the world of meat again, and man…it’s soooo delicious. I forgot how great salami and ham are. So most days I get a baguette on my way home, make a sandwich with meat, some kind of stinky delicious cheese, and an avocado, with pesto. Its kinda been my go to meal for the past two weeks. I then save the other half of the bread, and make another one for lunch the next day.

My school is also going really well. Orientation has started, and we’re there every day in these super loooong meetings, which are pretty boring, but then we also have French class, which is more fun. My teacher’s name is Dominique – which she asked us to call her; which is very strange, because normally you have to be super respectful to French professors, but she’s really nice. Everything is completely in French too, so I’m really getting used to hearing it and using it all the time.

I now have a cell phone AND a bank account here, which is really nice. It’s crazy, but the simplest things, like opening a bank account, are the most terrifying in a foreign language. But one of my teachers, Natalie, who is our “cultural expert”, went with us, and helped translate the terms into easier French – still with no English!!!

I have been hanging out with Ms. Megg Farrell (for those of you who aren’t SLC folks – she’s from there) and she has a bunch of French friends, who are really nice and fun to hang out with. We went to Versailles the other weekend, which turns out is FREE for all French students and students staying in France for a “long time” – their words not mine! So I just show them my passport with my Visa in it – and I get in. Super easy.

Versailles was beautiful, and we went with two of Megg’s roommates and another one of their friends. Turns out two of them are art history students going to school AT the Louvre. So as we walked through all the rooms, we got this amazing art history lesson, all in French! It was really fun, and I was surprised, but my comprehension is really improving. I understood so much of what everyone was saying.

But, my room is really nice, and it’s only two stops away from my school (SLC). I went to Ikea when my mom was here, and we got some really cool stuff, like poppy flower wall decals…

My Leqoc classes haven’t started yet, and they won’t until October 3^rd, but until then I’m still just hanging around and doing orientation stuff. My SLC classes really start on the 27^th, and until then we just have these endless meetings ... I’ve also decided what seminar class I’m going to take at SLC, which will be History of Art in the 19^th century. I’m actually really excited! There is a time marked off for class every Friday for when we go to museums and actually go see the real art. It’s so cool, I figured that if I’m going to be living in Paris, I mind as well take it. The teacher also seems really nice; she gave us a lecture yesterday about art in Provence…

…Which we are going to tomorrow! We leave tomorrow morning, really early, and we take the train to Aix-en-Provence.  We’ll be staying Friday night and Saturday night at a hotel there, and during the day traveling around the city, and also to Avignon and Marseilles. It will be fun, because it’s all paid for, except for like…the lunches of each day.

Anyway – I miss all of you SO much, and I hope that we can skype/talk soon. My skype officially works, my name is cmoser90, and I’m normally online in the evening-ish.

I’m really starting to feel like this is a place I can live. I feel like a real adult here. I have to budget my money, go grocery shopping, pay for me cell phone, go to school, take the metro all on my own in a foreign country…and I’m really loving it! I think I’d really like to stay as long as I can. It’s even starting to feel like home. I can like, take pride in living here. I mean with New York I felt that way after a while, but it was different; here I felt it almost instantly. I’m just so excited for the year to come.

See y’all on the flip side.