Mon Premier Jour à IFE!

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Somehow I managed to wake up after my 10 hour sleep to head off to my first day of IFE. My host left breakfast on the table, although I was slightly weirded out by the fact that the french do not refrigerate their milk, so I declinded the tea and just had a slice of bread. I left the apartment, and had major issues opening the front door—however I was able to convince a French lady (granted, imported from Chicago) to help me out. She then walked me to the metro. My first trip on the metro alone was successful, although finding the IFE building took about 45 minutes longer than it should have done… oh well! The 15 girls and 3 guys that make up the program sat in the main room and the three people who run the program explained the program to us and gave us a contact to sign saying that we wouldn’t speak English. There is an interesting mix of people in the program. Some are fluent. One went to a French school in California from K-12. Some have already done study abroad programs before. Some are just good with languages. And some try hard, but aren’t necessarily fluent yet… like me 😊

At the end of the orientation they pulled out wine and Kir Bretagne… I think they were trying to welcome us into a French way of thinking… wine at 11am!

After our mini-party, a few of us went to St Michel and bought baguettes and ate them in the Luxembourg gardens. After that, we went looking for cell phones so that we don’t feel so alone in the middle of Paris. So, my cell phone number that I won’t call anyone on as it’s expensive, but you can call me if you have a good long distance plan is: 06 37 98 92 92. Here is a picture of my beautiful box that cost $45:

After getting our cells phones… in French I might add… we went our separate ways. I decided that I wasn’t in the mood to go shopping for groceries and such, so instead I walked around the St Michel area. I found the Notre Dame and then wandered over to the Île de la Cité and the Île de St-Louis. Here are some very touristy pictures that I took:

After wandering around, I went back to the apartment and fell asleep. I completely missed eating dinner, but I woke up at 9pm, just in time to go out with some other people from IFE. We all met up around St Michel again and found a café in one of the back streets. We ended up sitting around for way too long and drinking cheap French wine, but it was a great way to meet people and we even talked some French while we were out.

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