Mon arrivée à Paris

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Bonjour tout le monde!

Well, here I am, safely arrived in France and beginning my grand adventure and my year abroad. I arrived yesterday morning and was picked up at the airport by a friend of my aunt, a very nice guy named Erick, and together we delivered all of my bags safely to the apartment of "D", the woman with whom I'll be staying this year. Well, that's the short story at least- in reality, Erick's car broke down on the way to the airport, so he had to call a cab and come and get me, so there I am in the airport wondering who it is I am supposed to look for, hoping he hasn't forgotten me...lol. I decided to make a sign with his name on it and stand there to wait for him, which worked out (although we did stand on opposite sides of the arrival hall for 15 minutes, waiting for each other!!!) But we got to my host mother's house at 11am and she welcomed us in and introduced me to her eldest son, who was visiting with his infant son (adorable!) and her other son, who will leave to attend Sciences Po (university) in several weeks. She is very nice: active, intelligent, interested in young people and in learning new things- and the three of us (Erick, her, and me) had a long discussion over coffee about some of the differences between American and French society. So all in all, a very reassuring and promising start!

I will be staying with her through June of 2007, and my bedroom is fabulous - it's got yellow wallpaper with a orange stripe up top, pinewood floors, a large window, and plenty of shelves and closet space for all my stuff. Her apartment is gorgeous- wood floors, high ceilings, bright, airy, with a HUGE terrasse outside on the roof. I am so lucky! I have the run of the apartment (within reason, of course) and we share the common areas. She is the assistant principal of the public high school which occupies first 4 floors of our building, and we live on the fifth floor. The quarter of Paris where we live is very calm and safe, especially during the weekends, because it's quite a ritzy quarter and filled primarily with businesses. So this morning when we took a walk through the city there was almost nobody in the streets surrounding our appartment. Everything closes in France on Sunday anyway, so little necessities like shampoo and metro cards will have to wait until Monday. Peu probleme. We had a nice long walk and I gawked at all the beautiful buildings (the style is "Haussemaniere") as I tried to make myself believe that I'm really going to be living here for ten months. It hasn't quite sunk in...


All of Paris is beautiful- I love it already. There is a very nice park only a block or two away, and we are a 10 minute walk from the banks of the Seine and the Grand Palais, la place de la Concorde, and the Champs Elysees. This morning we took the metro to my school (a 25 min trip) and walked back, passing l'Assemblée Nationale, le Grand Palais, the Pont Alexandre III (a famous bridge), the Musée d'Orsay, the home of the president (le palais de la decouverte), and l'Hotel des Invalides. It's amazing! No wonder everyone loves this city. L'avenue des Champs Elysees runs right through the southern part of our arrondissement (or quarter) and I can see the Arc de Triumphe and the Sacre Coeur from a nearby intersection.

Our orientation program starts tomorrow morning and lasts until early October, and our courses start on October 9th. Hopefully my french will improve rapidly in the meantime because, while adequate, it could use a lot of work! It got a little rusty this summer in Kennett Square, but a few more days of speaking entirely french ought to iron out the bugs. I spent the day with Erick's family yesterday (they have 2 boys- four and two years old) so I got to practise with a very forgiving audience - even I can say 'Superman' en français! They were adorable and I had a blast.

I think that's probably all the news you wanted to hear (and more!) so I will say goodbye for now, but I promise to keep in touch. I am going to set up a blog account where I can spill out all my news, so I will send the address once that gets started. I hope you're well and enjoying the start of the school year! Write to me, please!

love from Paris

Robyn

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Comments

[YemeniTravellor]

wow, so lovely and congrats of the tour de france
Lovely to read your journal.I am excited to read all you are going to write and i'll follow it day by day. Congrats and best of luck