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Published: February 1st 2009
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Bonjour from Paris!
It’s official, I live in Paris. I moved in to my foyer yesterday. It is a really cute old building located on Boulevard St. Michel, in the 6th arrondissement, right by the Luxembourg Gardens. It is a really good place to be located because it is less than a 10 min walk to L’Institut Catholique where I will be taking classes and it’s in the Latin Quarter which is a really cool student area. I am really excited to be in Paris, but I am sad to have to leave my host family in Tours. I really liked it there and they were so nice to me. There is so much to do and see here, I don’t even know where to start.
My roommate’s name is Vitalie she is from the south-western part of France. She is very nice and invited me out to dinner with her. We ate at the RestoU just down the street. In Paris they have RestoU’s that are really cheap student restaurants. I think I will be eating there a lot to save money. I will have to learn to cook while I’m here. Everyone pray that I don’t burn
down the building. If anyone has any recipes for easy cooking I would greatly appreciate if you could email me them. We have the most amazing view from the rooftop terrace. It is indescribable; pictures just do not do it justice. It will be so nice to go up there and study or tan when it gets a little warmer.
After getting settled in I walked with Jenee (she lives in my foyer and is in the study abroad program with me) to Shelly’s (our director’s) office for a meeting. There was another manifestation. I don’t know if it was on the news or not back home, but there was a huge strike on Thursday to protest the unemployment in France. There were apparently, across the country, a million people that protested. It was a big deal, pretty much all of public transportation was not running in Paris. I heard that most of the flights into CDG were cancelled. The French are very “active” when it comes to trying to make a change in the government. There are over one hundred strikes a year. I think it is kinda cool that they gather together and stand up for what they
Again
Doesn't do it justice. believe in, but at the same time it’s annoying how it effects everyone else’s lives so much. The majority of people couldn’t make it to work on Thursday because they rely on Public Transportation to get to work. I would say there are some good reasons for protesting and some really unbelievable reasons. The protest on Saturday was IN SUPPORT of the TGV train bombings. If I were a cop, it would be hard for me to resist the temptation to tear gas them. Don’t worry mom, the strikes never really turn into riots.
After dinner, I went to the Supermarket to guy some groceries. I need to go to the Monoprix tomorrow and buy pots, pans, plates, etc. tomorrow. We had an all day pass for the Metro so Jenee and I decided to do a little exploring. We took the metro to the Eiffel tower, in hopes of seeing it lit up. It sparkles for about 10 minutes at 11, I think. It was amazing. I know it is kind of a little cheesy, but it’s Paris in my eyes.
Today I slept in a little bit and then went on a bus tour of Paris. Jenee and I walked up to Notre Dame to get on the bus. We got off at the Musee D’orsay. We had to wait in line a little bit, but it was worth it because it was free to get in. All the museums in Paris are free on the first day of the month. The Musee D’Orsay is a really beautiful museum. It is the old train station. It had an exhibit called “Picasso/Manet, Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe( The lunch on the grass).” Manet first painted “Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe and apparently it was very controversial at the time because there was a naked woman in it. Picasso was inspired by it and painted over 30 different versions of it to try and capture what Manet had painted in a more modern art kind of way. It was pretty cool to see all of the different versions.
After the Musee D’Orsay, we had some lunch and then took the rest of the tour on the bus. We decided not to get off anywhere else because it was so cold. It was really beautiful out at the start of the day, but it got really cold towards the end of the tour. We drove down the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe, then to the Grand Palais, then to Trocadero, where there is a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower, the we went by the Eiffel tower, by the Hotel Des Invalides, and then by the Louvre. I wanted to get off and go into more of the museums, but it was just too cold.
Tomorrow I go to meet with Shelly and then head over to the Institute for a tour and an oral placement exam, wish me luck!
I hope you are all enjoying reading my blog. If you have any questions feel free to email me. I miss you all very much, and I hope that all is well.
Au revoir,
Katie
P.S. The pictures aren't working, I will try to put them up later.
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Liz
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Wow, Katie I am so jealous right now. I did not know that the Eiffel Tower is only light up for 10 minutes at night. When we were there, we tried to take a picture with it in the background, but by the time we turned the camera on, the lights had already gone off. :( Good luck on your placement exam! Bon soir!