exploring

Salut!

It is Tuesday and I have been here since Friday. Sometimes it feels like just minutes have passed since I stepped off the plane and other times it feels like years. On Saturday Marie helped me get a phone, which was great because she and I need to keep in touch about somethings... like the other random woman who lives here who appeared tonight and did not have a key so I had to let her in... ok weird, but whatever. Marie is wonderful. She is a comedienne... so I am not sure what she does all day, but she is also studying to become a theater professor which is cool. On Sunday (I slept forever! Jet lag is a really really weird thing!) and then she went to the library to study. That evening she and her mom and I went to see a movie (it was actually in English it was Bright Star a BBC movie about the life of John Keats I highly recommend it!)But then we walked back to her apartment most of the way and just talked about things and got to know each other a little better which was very nice. She is very patient with my french and corrects me when I need it, and tries very hard to understand me when I am making no sense. I couldn't have asked for a better situation. The majority of kids doing IFE live in foyers which are kind of like dorms. I could have done that but I am so glad to have Marie. I come and go as I please like the other students who live in the foyer but I have someone to talk to and help me learn faster, and to answer all my questions and to have dinner with and all of those things. It is really great. You have seen the pics of my room, which is really nice, and to top off all of my good luck I found a working straightener tonight on the rue de saite michel so I don't have to look like a crazy person at IFE tomorrow!

I mostly spent the weekend walking around the city and exploring and resting up for IFE. I took some random pics which I posted yesterday.

IFE is not at all far from where Marie lives (and me too now!) but she it is a 20 minute walk to the metro in the mornings so I have to leave about 45 minutes early so that I wont be late. But don't worry I plan on stopping at the boulangerie (bread and pastry shop) to buy a cheap and yummy breakfast everyday. The woman who owns it already recognizes me and calls me by a little pet name which is funny! But in the mornings I brave the rush hour traffic on the Metro (which is really easy to navigate and get around on... I only have gotten on a train going in the wrong direction once!) Which makes me feel very grown up (like I am going to work or something not at all like at DPU) and I ride a few stops down, get off and walk to IFE. There I have one class in the morning with a very nice, funny and very french professor about the history of the French state and French politics. Then I have an hour and a half for lunch (which I already packed my lunch for tomorrow, aren't you proud mom?) I am having a yogurt and bread and cheese and chips and an apple. maybe some nutella for dessert... we shall see. Then in the afternoon i have a class which has the homework... several presentations and a paper over the next 5 weeks. The professor for that class is a young journalist who writes for Le Monde (a french newspaper) but he is much more serious and talks a lot faster which makes him difficult to understand sometimes... but I guess I will just get better at french quicker if that is the case. At least I hope so.

I have even made some new friends... Laura, Sarah, Ryan, Matt (my friends) and I all went out to lunch on Monday and had a glass of wine together after class on Tuesday... and we are all going to go on an adventure to a discotheque on Friday night... which I will be very interested to see how it goes. It is weird because starting this program is kinda like starting a DePauw 2 years ago... we all want to be friends cause all of us are pretty much alone here. It is funny and a little strange, but we all get along well and understand the french each one speaks so that is good. It is weird to think that my program has only been going for 2 days... and tomorrow it is back to the books. I know that the next 5 weeks are going to be a challenge and then my internship is probably going to be a different kind of a challenge after that... but I am doing well and hopefully going to continue to learn quickly. But I have to get up early tomorrow, which if you know me at all you know that is not going to be an easy thing to do... but I will! I'll write again soon!

Bonne Nuit!