Orientation Day 1

So today we started our orientation at Reid Hall. After not being able to sleep for much of the night, since I had slept till so late on Sunday recovering from the flight here, I woke up early since I expected a long commute to Reid Hall. It actually only took 30 minutes and le métro was pretty much empty--not like the rush hour sardine cans I was used to in NY. One difference is that you have to unlatch the train doors to get in and out, which I thankfully figured out early on. Transfers are crazier here in the sense that they can be like mazes and the passageways aren't as spacious as in NY, but it's all clearly marked.

Orientation itself was fine, I got to see people from school and a bunch of new faces. After that a couple friends and I walked around the neighborhood and saw les Jardins de Luxembourg, which were closed. Then we went to a café near St. Germain des Prés, which is where I've also found a Spanish mass to check out, and I had un chocolat chaud. The cathedral was nice; quiet and dark and ancient. A friend and I decided to keep exploring the city and we walked to the Seine were we saw the famous moonlit water and we crossed the river on le Pont Neuf and we then went on to l'île de la Cité, home of Notre Dame. There was a mass going on and it was amazing that despite that the cathedral was still open to tourists. It was really amazing, especially with the choir singing in French. I'll be sure to go back to it and take better pictures since my camera battery died. We then continued on to the small village like streets of l'île St. Louis and we crossed back to the right bank to make our way to the Bastille métro station to head home.

Tonight's dinner was also amazing, a traditional Southwestern French meal (my host family is from Bordeaux). We had fois gras (which I actually liked), potatoes and steak cooked over the fireplace, cheese and bread, and the dessert was une galette du rois (a traditional dessert for la fête de l'éphiphanie) all acompanied by Southwestern wine. The French are christian in some of their customes but the majority are not practicing Catholics. Still it's interesting to see how religion still influenes their culture.

Tomorrow we have our first exam--another language placement test--and we start nos parcour de Paris; trips around the city to show us the Parisian life--I'm in the vie politique group. I'll be sure to take more and better pictures. That's it for now I guess.

Bonsoir