First Days in Paris!

Arrival- Came in to Charles-de-Gaulle airport Monday at about noon. Long, direct flight from JFK, but ended up alright. Tried to sleep on the plane, not so much haha. Landed, was greated by my CEA rep (Cultural Experiences Abroad- the company that my abroad program is through) greeted me after an agonizing wait to get my luggage and through customs. She escorted me to the chauffeur and gorgeous Piguot town car, in which I don't know any other study abroad students who are picked up like this! Riding back to the CEA office from the airport was a pretty awesome ride. My eyes were tired but I glued them open and to the window, just to try and take in everything that was going on. We arrived at the CEA Office, which is in a very nice downtown part of Paris called the Marais, in the 4th arrondissement (district). Basically it's a European version of Dupont. But very old and glamourous. I got my first little orientation packet with my apartment keys and a snack pack, along with meeting my headed Student Services Coordinator and some useful tools for navigating the City of Lights. Still feeling like I wanted to pass out of exhaustion, the chaffeur drove me and another girl from CUA to our housing destinations. I'd google earth-ed my address in the 11th arrondissement (Bastille and Oberkampf area) many times since I found out where it was, and pulling up next the building and seeing the gorgeous park across the street felt like out of a movie. The building is a typical Parisian apartment building, with several stories, shops and storefronts along the bottom, and cute window screens that open up onto the cobblestone alleyways. I pushed my ancient key in the lock and was greeted by my roommate Kyle, a great girl from Chicago who goes to U of Wisconsin. We'd been talking online the week leading up to our departure, and noticed we had a lot in common like sorority life and French. Overall we are a great match :) The apartment is on the second story, a shared one-bedroom fully equiped apartment. Though small, the quaint daintyness of the place has a nouveau riche feel in the neighborhood. I did my best not to fall asleep while attempting to unpack, and Kyle and I decided to cross the street and do a bit of grocery shopping. Which was interesting, they do not enjoy providing you bags for your food. But we used our french to get our bags :)
Next we got ready and went to the CEA Office and headed to the Marais area for our arrival dinner, a chic little restaurant paid for by them! Yeah, I'm loving orientation week. Went home, tried to sleep, and had our official first day of Orientation today. Mostly maps and getting oriented with the city. Other than navigating it, I feel not as badly in culture shock as I would have expected. But I'm assuming the French and how much I researched the city really helped to decrease the culture shock. In terms of being overwhelmed, overcoming the small problems like finding the heat knob in the shower, connecting adaptors, getting our door locked properly, have been what has been making these last couple of days worthwhile. The bits of confidence I get in facing these will hopefully attest for the larger challenges that lie ahead. Tomorrow is our academic day and we'll get our schedules- wish me luck!! Enjoying life here so far... Paris is amazing :)

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