September 1, 2011 (morning)

Today is our first full day here in Paris. Last night we all got to walk around Paris for a little bit and then we all went to dinner. The owner knew Peter, his name was Sammie. He was very kind and patient with a group of 10 American girls. A few of us had the special of the night which was a turkey in a red curry sauce with basmati rice and “les legumes” which were haricots verts and broccoli (and they were also delicious).

Once we arrived at the airport yesterday, Tim and Peter were there to greet us. We sent our luggage on with Dr. Ellis in a car and then Peter took us on our first metro ride. It was nice, there weren’t a lot of people and there was a man playing accordion! Hopefully my ukulele gets here soon! Tim was giving me a hard time about it and joking with me that I should go play the ukulele on the streets for spending money.

When we got to our apartment building we had a while to settle in and unpack. None of us are on the same floor as each other, but we are all in the same building.

Our apartment is very nice. It is one big room for all three of us to sleep in, with three beds and a table to sit and eat at. Off to the side there is a kitchen, a bathroom, then a room with just a toilet. Our window looks out over the garden in the middle of our apartment cluster. All of the buildings around us are typical French architecture and they are so beautiful. My friend Bani and I were talking about it, and we wonder if the French even know how beautiful their buildings are. There is so much graffiti everywhere which kind of leads us to believe that they don’t.

After we got settled and took showers and got ready, we had a meeting at our school and then went to dinner (see above). Today we are meeting at 10 and going to the market for our first French lesson. It should be interesting! I am excited to learn how to go to the open air market and buy groceries. It is very different than America Peter has said. For example, in America when you handle produce you pick it out yourself, but in France it is rude to handle the fruit, you tell the vendor what you want.

After the market we get to come back and make lunch then we have class. Since it is Thursday we might not have class tomorrow (knowing Dr. Ellis we will though, since we missed Monday and Wednesday). Saturday from the looks of it will be free. Natalie and I might go to Giverny for the day, which is where Monet lived. His gardens are there too, and that is something I definitely want to see. Dr. Ellis said on the first Sunday most museums are open free to students, so Sunday after our city tour I want to try and go to the Louvre for a bit. We shall see!

The market was so much fun! It was so interesting and rewarding to figure out how to buy your own food. I got some delicious cheese from the mountains of France, some avocados, some kiwis, and a baguette. Some of us stopped at a small bakery and got a sandwich for lunch, and then we headed back to our apartments because we had about an hour before class started.

It was our first class with Dr. Ellis, and it went well. We had fashion forecasting for the first time. It was really interesting and I am excited to learn more about it. After class we went to get minutes put on our phones and then we went to their big department store called “BHV”. It was fairly expensive, so six of us decided to leave and get dinner. We wandered around for a while looking for a crepe place and we found one that was so delicious! I got “jambon emmental” which was a ham and cheese crepe. It was so good! After dinner we wanted to find a small grocery store and get some food and wine for the rest of the weekend. We stumbled upon a store called “marche francais” and got everything we needed.

There was a bit of a dilemma in figuring out how we would get back, because the bus we needed didn’t go back the same way we came, we had to find a different stop because it didn’t go in a circle. As conspicuous as six loud American girls are, we had been standing in front of the bus sign trying to decipher it so long, a woman came up and asked us if we needed help. She was very kind and told us how to get to the right stop. A short bus ride later, arms laden with grocery bags, we were back at our apartment. It had been such a long da, but such a good one as well. We were all in bed and asleep by 9:30.