Nothing but Adventures in Paris

Hello everyone!

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve last posted on here–and let me tell you, Paris has been good to me so far! It wasn’t too hard to adjust here,  though there were a few bizarre things I’ve noticed here that took a little getting used to! The washing machine is in the kitchen, the “bath” part of the bathroom is on one side of the apartment, while the toilet is on the other side, just for starters! I’m used to it now, although I found it quite baffling my first day here. I really can’t complain about my home stay. My host mom is absolutely the sweetest and her cooking is something me and my roommate look forward to after school everyday. (Is it bad that I’ve already started talking about food a few sentences into this post?)

[the classic Louvre Picture…we just had to do it! Emily took this one for me! Thanks Em!]

Anyways, Orientation week was really busy. We would go to ISA informational sessions and right after, groups of us would venture out on our own to see the “Paris must-sees”-The Louvre, The Eiffel Tower, etc.  Some of us even picnicked by the Seine to enjoy our bread. Our side excursions really gave us a chance to make new friends and meet everyone in the program. I quite enjoyed myself, my feet, on the other hand, beg to differ. People are not joking when they say “bring a pair of comfortable walking shoes!”. I think a lot of us in the group would have benefited from that advice. Let me add in a second part: make sure that you’ve broken them in, too! Paris is definitely a walking city and you will enjoy it much more when your feet aren’t crying for help the whole day. Aside from the feet mishap, it was a great week to just meet everyone in the program (getting to go to Versailles during the first week with ISA was a definite plus, too!), It was great to see everyone so excited to be in Paris like I was and it definitely didn’t hurt to already have  the ISA-ers as friends before heading into school!

[Versailles]

This past weekend we got to go on an ISA excursion with everyone to Normandy and Mont Saint Michel. It was a great experience, filled with history and gratitude as we went to the museum, cemetery and Point du Hoc. We also went to an apple cider-making place where we got to have samples of cider and honey! The honey was absolutely delicious! It was probably a good thing I didn’t bring any back or else I’d gain like five pounds off of that stuff alone. So sweet and pure! & then there was Mt. St Michel that I can’t even begin to describe. Perhaps just a picture that I took, so you can see for yourself:

Then, this past Tuesday after class (I think some of us forgot we still had to go to school while here…myself included…) all of us went to the Opera Garnier to watch a ballet. We all got dressed up and went–everyone looked so amazing and the ballet was beautiful (it was Phedre and Psyche). I had issues trying to understand the story because I’m just kind of slow like that when it comes to the arts department, but it was fun nonetheless :)

Well, I better get going. Here’s just one of several pictures that we took the night of the Opera:

Talk to you guys soon!

Debbie Nguyen
Paris, France
Fall 2011