Blogs from France, Europe - page 1240

I just took a HUGE risk with my computer by turning on iTunes, so hopefully it won't come crashing down for the 800th time in the last week. Luckily, I bought an extremely overpriced external hard drive this afternoon, onto which I loaded all of my music, video and word files, so if worse comes to worst, I am now a little more prepared. Today was full of mishaps and minor crises. I woke up still feeling sick this morning, but made it to our info session class on Versailles. Our prof was late, so we started late, which means I got out late and had to try to race over to my class at Paris VII, which was at 2 pm. After my friend Celina and I got on the bus to Paris VII, we ... read more

Hello everyone!!! I am so sorry it has taken so long for me to update you all on my time so far. The computer situation is a bit difficult right now. To use some of the computers and WiFi on campus we need our student id number and password, but we don’t have those yet…kind of dumb. There is a room of computers that you don’t need an id or password, but the computers are really old and half of them don’t work, the keyboards are different than in the US, and it smells really bad. Oh and my current host-mom doesn’t have the internet, and I can’t even use my computer because it uses too much electricity and is too expensive (I’m changing families, which I’ll get to in a bit). So for now I’ll ... read more

Bonjour à tous ! En cette belle journée ensoleillée mais froide du 23 janvier. Je reviens tout juste de la banque BNP Paribas ou j'Ai ouvert un compte afin d'Avoir FINALEMENT internet sur mon ordinateur. Et oui ! La compagnie d'internet demande un RIB (relevé d'identité bancaire) afin de faire les prélèvements de 15euro par mois pour internet illimité ! J'ai ensuite posté ma demande et je devrais avoir accès à internet sur mon portable dimanche en revenant de Genève et arrêter d'emprunter celui de VÉro (elle est trop gentille !!!) J'ai ensuite flânée dans le marche Jean Macé (ou je n'ai rien trouvé) pour ensuite revenir vers chez moi...quand tout à coup apellez cela distraction ou acte manqué je suis descendu à la mauvaise station de tramway pour ma correspondance...j'Ai du marché 10 minutes dans ... read more

Last Thursday me, my roomate Rachael and 4 other girls took an overnight train to PARIS!! This was my first time in France and I was absolutely blown away. We first got off the train at 9:15 Friday morning, quickly persuaded the hotel manager to let us into our rooms early, and hit the streets. Our first stop was the Notre Dame cathedral, which still had a Christmas tree out front (loved that, of course)! The stained glass windows are amazingly gorgeous and so bright and colorful, not to mention huge! Lots of people come just to pray and hear mass, but there were many other people that came just to look around and take pictures, like me. After a delicious lunch, croque madame , french fries and a much needed coffee, we headed to the ... read more

I don't think Hemingway was referring to the proliferation of sandwich and crepe stands across Paris, but we have certainly been having our own moveable feasts over the past few days--most of our lunches here on the go between classes and excursions. Sometimes we're lucky if we get to sit on a park bench. But the food is DELICIOUS. Today we ate the most incredible, beautiful pastries from a boulangerie near the Orsay--much more worth 3 euro than a can of coke (even coke light). And the nutella crepes are just as good from the stands as they are from the restaurants. Maybe you can tell I should have eaten more at dinner. I unfortunately have developed a slight cold over the past two days. At least I'll be able to use some of the medicine ... read more