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Published: February 11th 2009
OK. So I have been in France for a week now. A whole week without my own private internet. But I have been luckier than my friends Liz and Alysha. At least I can check things out on my phone; it's not the same but it is better than nothing.
Alright so let me just give a general discription of how things have been here since if I go into a lot of detail this would turn into a small book. After all I wrote 8 pages in my journal last night (en francais!!!) and that was for just one day.
Last Monday was the most exhausting day of my life. Getting to Cergy was very easy; finding our residence was not. We were lost for more than an hour. The crazy part is that the street we kept turning around in was the one we needed, but even that wasn't as crazy as finding out later that the student who offered to help drive us had a GPS in her car. (Side note: her name is Elodie and she is the second best française.) After finding the place we discovered that it was closed until three and we could not enter. That I think was the highlight of my day.
Since we couldn't get into our residence halls they took us to the university to eat lunch. My first meal in France consisted of french fries and egg rolls, très français, n'est-ce pas? There we were introduced to five other American students from Arkansas State, one who is staying the whole year.
Once we had eaten we all gathered together so that the exchange program facilitator Mme. Arrizabalaga could give us all information and it was a lot of information. A lot of which I felt like I should have had before I left, but it is a new program so I'm not going to complain too much.
After that we went back to the residence halls and got all our paperwork done for that. My friends Liz and Alysha are together in a suite and then I have a room in a different building, but two other girls who are from ASU are there too. Plus Liz and Alysha are very close and therefore I think I am in there room more than mine.
Having put all our luggage in our rooms we then headed to Auchan which is sort of like a French Wal-Mart but I must say I am partial to the American version. There we got some of the essentials like sheets and food. Afterwards we kind of just went to our rooms and past out as we were exhausted and that was my first day in France!
For the rest of the week we didn't really have that much to do. Mostly we just hung out in Liz's room. On Wednesday we took the placement exam to see what level of French we are in. All three of us passed into level 6 which is the highest level!
One night we did go see a movie, completely in French, called Lol and it was très drole (haha sorry I know). But anyway it was really good.
Friday we went to go get our student IDs, as we were told. However that plan was finished even before it began since the international office is closed on Fridays!
Saturday was good though. We decided to go into Paris to meet up with our friend Kellie who is studying there on a different program. She however has been here since about mid-January. We were going to meet at the Eiffel Tower but the sights that we had planned to see she had already seen so we decided to meet up later. After the Eiffel Tower we decided to go to the Musée d'Orsay but the lines were extremely long. So we got back on the métro and headed toward the Catacombs.
The Catacombs were interesting. It is filled with a lot of ossuaries, which creeped out my friend Liz! All the bones there really make you think about all the people that have been on this earth and died. I don't mean in a way that depresses the mind but in a way that inspires awe.
Afterwards since it was really cold we warmed ourself up with a little help from Fred....and his crêpe stand! The most amazing crêpes ever (except for Sophie's)! Then we returned to Cergy exhausted but pretty much satisfied and putting an end to my first week in la belle France.
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The most amazing crêpes ever (except for Sophie's) Ahah I feel bad now that you know what a good crêpe is supposed to taste like. I had never made crepes before !