Paris: Part I

I made it! I am now in Paris, and I am pretty much exhausted from all the walking I've been doing in the past few days. The Million Dollar Stairs seem like a step stool now.

Maureen met me at the Gare de L'est, and we managed to get myself a Métro ticket for the day. Apparently a 3-day pass is more than 3 times the price of a day pass, which is funny, but not useful to my budget. We waited in line behind this guy who bought about 6 Navigo passes (like a Charlie Card), and then some ladies cut in front of us because they "thought we were with him." A likely story.

Fun things about the French Métro:

• in a 6-foot-long area, there might be 2 seats, set up as individual chairs; the French like their personal space
• the doors open before the train stops moving
• there are signs with the time of the next train!
• the advertisements are funny, like ones for a movie Les Beaux Grosses, which seems like the French version of Superbad (but more awkward and less crude), and a Hannah Montana poster where Miley Cyrus' eyes are clearly Photoshopped green
• it's still better than the T

On our way to Maureen's apartment, we went to the Longchamps store so Maureen could buy a tote-bag sized purse. They are so much cheaper here than they are in the US! I want to try to buy an orange one before I leave, but we'll see. Maybe at a duty free area in the airport. As we were crossing near the Tuilieries and seeing la Tour Eiffel in the background, we met a few of the BC girls who are also studying at Sciences-Po, including Sarah, from my Greek Philosophy class! It was crazy to see them in such a large city.

When we got to Maureen's apartment, I was able to shower and wash a few of my clothes, including my sweater! The apartment is really cute; apparently the family that lived here is sort of heading to the US, but it's completely furnished and all of the girls have their own rooms. I met Noelle first, then Cathy, then Nicole. I took French with Nicole back in freshman year, which is funny. Clearly she went further with it than I did.

I went to class at Sciences-Po with Maureen after, called Minorities, Politics and Society. It focuses on those issues in Great Britain, France and America, and I got to listen to a student presentation (in English; the whole class was, thank goodness), on Ali-G and what his ability to make fun of certain cultures might mean. It was really interesting, as was the discussion after, and I definitely didn't regret those two hours.

We headed back to the apartment afterward to change, because the same class we'd just gone to was going out for drinks at 18:30. We got crêpes (oeuf et fromage!) at a little Greek place on Rue Mouffetard, and ate them on the way to the Metro so we could get to DeLaVille on time. I got a Kir fraise (wine and a bit of champagne and some strawberry flavoring) and talked with Maureen and her class. They all seemed pretty nice, and had interesting things to say about the dynamic between French students and American students, and about racist mortgage scams that were going on recently, and where we were all from and the like. Love classy conversations with classy drinks.

Maureen had been texting her friend Kim because we were in her neighborhood and she wanted to go to happy hour. While Maureen and I go to Italy, Kim has finals, and while Maureen has finals, Kim goes to Greece, so clearly Maureen had to see her. We went to this little bar and sat outside ordering drinks with American names, like Tequila Sunrise (me) and Blue Lagoon (Maureen) and Long Island Iced Tea (Kim), then more Kir. The bartender made fun of our ability to say the names of the drinks, and kissed us all on the cheek before we left to go to the next bar, where the rest of the girls were!

The next bar was called The Frog, and since it was student night, I had to show my BC ID, explain that I'm from the United States, and get my hand stamped with a little frog. As I'm typing this, I keep thinking there's a spider on my hand and freaking out. Before we could go in, we watched the bouncer catch a guy who was trying to leave with a beer in his pocket. Awesome. We saw Sarah again, and Maureen's friends Katie and Jen, plus some other girls and a friend of theirs, Matt. Maureen and I didn't drink, and instead left after a bit to catch the Métro with Kim. I am now in sweatpants and my Street Team T-shirt, thanking the heavens that my semester is done as I listen to Maureen's roommates freak out over exams and papers due.

Tomorrow Maureen has class at 10:00, and I have to call Bank of America as soon as I wake up so they don't place a hold on my card, and then later I guess we'll window shop, hunt for postcards and go to a photography museum. Thursday we have to get ready for Rome (and hopefully send those postcards; comment with your address if you want one, but I might ask you for 0.50€ later!), and then wake up EARLY Friday morning to catch a bus to Beauvais Airport before our flight leaves at 9:00 for Rome Ciampino. We spend 2.5 days there, 2.5 days in Venice with Walter and the rest of the Practicing Mortality class, and then come back to Paris for final museum trips, shopping days, a scaling of la Tour Eiffel and lots of crepes and Kir.

Bonsoir mes amis,
Sam(bam)