... take a cinema class in France

Sorry no pictures today! I had my very first cinema class today and after four hours I have learned so much vocabulary that my head is spinning. French cinema is very different than mainstream American cinema: French cinema is mainly done for art while American cinema is done for entertainment. Which is why I looooove American cinema I want to be entertained, I dont want to have to think about what I am watching (ahem Zach)! We ate at the cafeteria at the dorm today and it was quite an adventure finding out what we could eat, what was in the student plan and what was actually good and what just looked like chopped up beets... We walked around down by the Opera house later and then went to the Champs-Elysees and got some Haggen Das woot woot! Then on the RER ride home we were talking and overheard this couple start yelling in English so of course we listened in, I mean we could actually understand what they were saying, and we found out the girl was from San Francisco and followed her boyfriend over here because he is from paris but she wants to go back to the states to get her MBA and they were yelling about it. All I can say is Awkward... very awkward. Tomorrow bright and early we are off to Normandy to see the beaches of D-Day and Mont St Michel the sometimes Island city sometimes not, great pictures are to come from this weekend stay tuned! I will not have my computer with me so you will have to go without my stories for a little bit (perish the thought!)!

... find the sweetest strawberries in the entire world

1. go to france
2. get on the orange tram
3. go to the random tiny shop by a random boulangerie
4. buy every dam strawberry they own
5. enjoy

We had a meeting today on how to LIVE in france not just STAY. Yes there is a difference...We learned where to shop for what and how to make travel arrangements and what tiny booklets to buy so we know everything going on in Paris. After that fabulous meeting I ran errands, I got a pillow that does not look and feel like the Eiffel Tower, thank goodness and I walked around a French bookstore and bought a couple notebooks for my classes. I then met Kelsey (from Austin!) at the Musee de Orsay and we walked around. Oh did I mention that it rained for the entire day? Yeah poured so the camera did not make it out of the bag very much but the pictures I did take arrrrrrrrreeeeee HERE! Anna and I walked around outside our dorm deciding what to grab for dinner when we went into the boulangerie referenced above and decided on Croque Monsieurs (basically grilled cheese with ham) and then went into the random tiny half a grocery store and decided on strawberries (for me) and raspberries (for Anna). It instantly became our new favorite food store in the entire world, sorry HEB, and we plan on becoming regulars at this tiny shop. I promise I will rememebr the name sometime...

... get a heart attack in France

Today I got to sleep a little more in the morning, which is great when you're jet lagged and exhausted! Hunter, Anna and I left the dorm around 10 and we went to see the ISA office and got breakfast from a little Boulangeire down the street, it was amazing (pain au chocolat) and the proprietor of the shop was very nice. We then walked to the Metro with our b'fast and went to meet Tyler at the metro stop by his homestay house. We get out of the metro after a 30 minute ride and arrive in sketch place paris france. While waiting for tyler to get there we decided to run into a random store so as to get away from some of the creepy people and what store do we walk into? A walgreens-ish place that had pretty much everything. Oh how big was this store? well lets just say if Hansel and Gretel walked beside it they wouldn't need breadcrumbs to find there way back... Tyler found us and we went to the Church of the sacred heart which sits on this huge hill and in order to get there you have to walk up this enormous amount of steps, hense the heart attack, I swear people must just drop dead on these stairs. So we went into the church, no pictures and no talking, and it was beautiful! Behind the church is an artist community with restaurants outside so we walked around looking at all the paintings and then had lunch. The others had to go to class after that so we went to the metro and they went one way and I went the other, I walked around my dorm a little bit to check everything out. Then after their class we met in front of a cinema and got our tickets for Prince of Persia! We had a quick dinner and then saw the movie, in French you ask? No way, we saw it in version originale aka English with french subtitles. We then walked back to the metro and came home! Day 3 pictures are Here!

...figure out "Le Metro"

So this morning we had an orientation with ISA and it was the firsts morning for us to go to the Catho (our university). We met at 9:30 in this beautiful courtyard in the Catho and then proceeded to one of the classrooms to get all the information we needed. The meeting was long and boring but we learned many things about how to say safe (dont use the metro after midnight), how to not get unwanted attention (no low cut shirts & dont engage a man if he tries to talk to you) and how to not get pick-pocketed (basically never unzip your purse and watch it like your baby was inside). After the meeting we were free for lunch, we went to a petite restaurant where we met this very nice man from germany who now lives in Florida who had come for a visit. He used to live in France, during WWII and the occupation (yes he is german and yes he said it was hard) and he thinks he is going to die soon so he decided to come back for a visit and return to all his old haunts. He was very entertaining and gave us some good tips. After lunch we went and walked through the Luxembourg gardens which were vast and wonderfully green. We then ahd to return to the Catho for another meeting in which they explained our French and culture classes. We got to meet our professors and they gave us a quick run down of our classes. After that we got our "Navigo" pass for the ISA leaders and we had to go charge it up in the metro station. A navigo pass is basically a pass for the metro that you load up with days, weeks or months. I put a week on mine today and on Friday I will go ahead and put on a month for the month of June. After that we came home to change for dinner and then went back out again for the welcome dinner at a small restaurant right by Notre Dame. It was a three course dinner that in the French fashion lasted three hours. We walked around Notre Dame and its surroundings after dinner and then made our way back to the dorm! Today was wonderful and I am so exhausted so I am about to go pass out! I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer! Au revoir mes amies! See Day 2 pictures HERE!

... learn how to use a blog

So pictures do not upload I guess so I made a snapfish album and will add to that! You can click HERE to see all my beautiful pictures of DAY 1!!!! Peace, love and french bread...

... pack for two months in one bag, get to France without losing anything, find my dorm, not die in my unairconditioned room, and find much needed items when there is a Bank Holiday in France and NOTHING is open!

So today and last night was incredible, amazing, LONG, and eye opening! I finally got everything I needed in my bag because it had to be under 50 pounds, so I had to nix many things! I got everything to France okay after being told at the gate in Austin that they had no overhead space left so my NEW camera and new purse were then packed up and checked all the way to France in my what was supposed to be a carry on bag. I finally found my group after going from terminal 2E to baggage claim and then to terminal 2C, lovely ten minute walks each way. We were then shipped to our dorm Le Foundation des Etates-Unis (Foundation of the United states). The foundation is on this hug plot of land where there are more than 37 dorm buildings that represent over 100 nationalities! You can find more out at feusa.org!  We dropped our bags in our room, mine is 147 which is on the second level as the level on the street is basically level 0, then got a tour from our resident director who is pregnant and is the absolute cutest thing. After that Anna, Hunter and I trooped out in order to find towels, a fan and something to cover the floor! We had lunch and dinner while we were out getting lost on the Metro and walking around trying to find an ATM that was not either 1) broken or 2) closed because it was a bank holiday in France today! Wen I got home to my room , which has beautiful bay windows (no one else has three, they only have one, mwahahaha! I unpacked, put together the fan I bought which only had directions in French... awesome, sharp blades, screws and not a full grasp of the language.... makes for a beautiful combination doesn't it? We have an orientation meeting tomorrow at 9:30 so we are all congregating downstairs to go find breakfast, imagine a gaggle of gesse running around campus, and then to hop on the metro, which I now have hopefully mastered, and get to the Catho (The Institute de Catholique de Paris) for our meeting! my classes do not start until Friday (I think) and then it is only my cinema class. My language class starts next Tuesday after the oral placement test on Monday! I miss everyone back home xoxo!