A cool bird and a painful eye

Hello all, I started my classes this past week which was actually a good thing because I was itching to start just a little bit of work. In the first class that I had, I soon found out that I had already read two of the four books that we were going to read this semester and I didn't really fancy doing them again so I had to change out of that one. My art history class is great, since we will be visiting different museums every week, and history is a welcome change too. So, I tried the other lit class but it was brutal [the teacher thinks we're idiots and most of us (I'd like to exlude myself when I say "us") are]. So, 4 class changes later, everything seems to be figured out and now I'll be taking two outside classes at the Sorbonne. 

I'd forgotten to mention this before, but my host family has one pet and it's a little bird. There actually used to be two little birds but one made too much noise and had to be given away..... anyway sometimes the family lets this little bird named Pimms out of its cage and it gets to fly around inside the house. However, the best part about this is that Pimms really likes flying onto the top of people's heads!! Yes, however bizarre that sounds and/or annoying, it is really cool and makes me want to have a little bird of my own. Pimms weighs practically nothing so you don't even notice he's there, and somtimes he just moves down to your arm and hand and sits there. For example, last week I was reading a comic book in their living room and Pimms just flew onto my head and chilled there for about 10 minutes. I mean..... who wouldn't want a little bird to come and sit on their head right?!

As for the eye, I now have another story/experience to tell which involves a trip to the hospital. Don't worry though....there are no tubes involved. Alright, so last night, Arjumand (the prospective student living in Paris) and I arranged to play tennis at some public courts. We found them and started to play..... Arjumand is a good player and (to Coach) could be a good addition to next year's team, especially if he plays seriously for another year here. We'll see as the semester goes on....anyway, at 2-2 he hit a first serve which jammed me right down the middle so I ran around my forehand (a terrible tactical decision) but I was a little late getting my racquet out. The ball glanced right off the frame and went straight into my left eye, and I just dropped to the ground. I realized this is exactly what happened to Steve two years ago at Conference. Anyway, it honestly felt like the ball had just compressed my eyeball into my brain and it hurt like a bitch. Luckily, there was a nurse on the next court who ran over and took care of me for the next half-hour while the "pompiers" came--this is not an ambulance, but something inbetween..... they're like night-watchmen who patrol the city and take people to the hospital if need be. I couldn't open my eye for the first 30 minutes but once they came I could just get it open and they thought it wasn't abnormally bad. However, the doctor they called insisted I go to the hospital, so off I went with a bag of ice covering my eye. I was very worried that this night I was going to have to pay a huge amount of money to go through all this, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this service was free! France - 1, USA - 0 on that note. Plus, everyone was 99% sure that my insurance would cover any costs. Two hours later, I saw a doctor who took a good look at it and I'm happy to say that it'll be fine. It is much better today and I can pretty much see everything out of it 100%, except for the fact that it's still pretty sore and sensitive to light. How unlucky is that though eh? I should be able to play tennis again in a few days and I'm still praying that I can afford to subscribe to that club I was talking about. Everything else is spendid. Yesterday afternoon, some friends and I had a very French picnic in les Jardins du Luxembourg (a huge park) with several baguettes, various cheeses, a bottle of wine, and Prince biscuits. A la prochaine....

An AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME Weekend

Alright let's start on Friday......... the program I'm in gave us a free tour of the Eiffel Tower which I have never seen before so I thought it was REALLY cool! We got to go up all together and we started by having lunch in the restaurant half-way up the tower. In my opinion, it's one of the most amazing and most beautiful structures I've ever seen. period. So, after lunch, a troupe of us decided to walk the stairs to the next level and that was particularly thrilling/terrifying since I'm afraid of heights!?! However, it had to be done, and funnily enough, I thought we were at the top, then when I was expressing a little too much enthusiasm, some guy told me to turn around and look up. HOLY COW! I was only half-way up the tower so I said "whoa" and was even more amazed. So then, I was hoping that I could walk the rest but alas, the stairs were closed, so I took the elevator to the top instead. To say the least, it was just incredible. I could see forever and paris just looked miniscule, so of course I took many pics--I think I'll just have to start a flickr account. 

Alright let's move on to Saturday....

I was with two other Whitties, another friend here, and her cousin. We were having a picnic in one of the biggest cemeteries in Paris (ok I know that's sounds really weird but that's really normal here since the cemetaries are like big parks and all you have to do is buy some baguettes and cheese. I mean people were having sex on top of graves the whole time... no biggie guys.... that's totally normal) Anyway, we heard about this parade that was happening that afternoon somewhere nearby and it was jusn't any parade, it was a techno-parade whatever that is. So, we started walking to where we thought it would be and we began to see huge numbers of young people (mostly teens) who were all walking in the same direction. This was a little odd but we thought they must be going to the parade so we followed them. Then, little by little, we began to fell vibrations through our feet that were coming from huge subwoofers and then when we got to the street, we saw an enormous truck coming down the street at walking pace. However, this was no ordinary truck, this truck was laden with the biggest speakers, screens, subs, etc. etc. that I have ever seen, not to mention about 25-30 people who were dancing on top of it. All of a sudden the street was absolutely packed with people (all teens again) who were literally just partying in the street! Even more amazing, when we looked down the street, there was truly no end to the number of trucks just like the first one that were coming our way. Eventually, we picked one with the best beats and just followed it, dancing along with everyone else. Let me remind you that this was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon which made it even more ridiculous. By the end, we saw at least 20 huge party buses that passed and the crowd started getting more and more wild mostly due to the alcohol that was being imbibed--guys were selling beers out of shopping carts!! Then, people started climbing onto bus stops and cars and trucks parked in the street. It was NUTS! By the end, about dozen trucks of the gendarmarie showed up and everything was wrapped up pretty well, but I think that will definitely be the biggest "party" I will ever attend in my life.

Moving on to Sunday.....

Sunday was a very memorable day because it was the first time I got to play tennis in over a month!!! Yaaayyyy! In fact, it was not with the contact that coach gave me (that's gonna be friday), but it was with my other contact. I called this club which is about 40 minutes minutes away from me and the guy invited to come and check it out. After searching for a little while, I managed to find it, and I must say it is really charming and very nicely maintained. I immediately saw two guys (my age) playing on the clay and they were very good! I knew this must be a good sign. Anyway, the pro gave me a run-down and told me the prices--hmmmm my hopes faded. They only offer yearly subscriptions and I'd have to pay about 600 euro which is ridiculous for three months. However, he invited to come hit that evening with another dude to see how I played. So, breaking out my racquets, I played with this guy (also 19 yrs old) who was a very similar level to me and we had a great time. I was a little rusty and having not seen clay for three years, I was all over the place, but I think I must've made a good impression on the pro because he said he might be able to work out a special price just for me! Hey hey hey..... my hopes flew high and hopefully by next weekend, I can join for a much reduced price! AALLLLRRRIIIIIIGGGGHHHHH' 

In summary, Paris is the bomb. check out picasa for pics.

Actual Pictures

I realized that it was going to take up way to much space to put my pics directly on my blog and I could only upload 5 at one time, so I've decided to put them all on my picasa account which you can view by clicking on the link. Enjoy...

Pictures and the Pope

I totally forgot to mention this, but I saw the Pope a few days ago!!! Isn't that crazy? I mean, how many people ever get to see the Pope?! I watched the whole ceremony just outside Notre Dame where there was a ginormous crowd of thousands and thousands of people watching the ceremony inside on big screens. It was really cool and you could really sense the joy that everyone felt at just being in his vicinity. Unfortunately I was at a bad angle and I couldn't understand his message to the youth but I just caught a glimpse of him exiting Notre Dame through the crowds. I took a vid of him leaving in a limosine. 

On continue...

Alrighty.... so I have pretty much given a good description of my living situation here in Paris. The first week or two is always exciting seeing as I get to meet about 150 new students and get to know the centre at which I'll be taking all my classes. All the staff are very nice and I'm sure are very supportive as the semester goes on and emotions run wild. As for the students I can't exactly say the same.... let's just say that a lot of them aren't here so much to study and learn French. Rather, they're here to spend all their money on clothes and go clubbing all the time. Well, I'm not going to say that I wouldn't want to do that once in a while, but not all the time. I dunno... they all just appear really shallow and insincere. Of course, there are definitely some fine people and luckily, there are also three other Whitties here (Iris, Ian, and Duncan) who I am going to get to know very well, seeing as how I hang out with them all the time here. The best part about it is that we actually speak French all the time, which is really cool and is the best way to improvement. Anyway, I've figured out that it takes exactly 30 minutes from my door to the classroom door, so I know that if I leave after 8:30 I'm going to be late. Hhhmmmm, well I can't say that I've been early so far but I've always managed to get their within 1 or 2 minutes of class starting which is just early enough not to get marked as late. Don't worry everyone.... I haven't changed. It's just my "acceptably late" gene. Haha, for those of you who like watching me run late to a class across Ankeny, you can imagine me doing that in the Metro station. As David said, the price of things here quickly takes a toll on anyone's bank account and I already search for the CHEAPEST possible thing of whatever I'm buying. You really cannot get by without spending about 20 euros a day on food, necessities, etc. and that translates into about 30 US dollars per day and upwards. I can see my summer earnings disappearing in about a month lol. One funny thing that happened to me took place a few days ago. I bought a pack of fish soup which is supposed to be kept in a freezer. Well, I didn't realize that at the time and after being in my fridge for two days...... I woke up the next morning and found a puddle of fish soup seeping through all the cracks in the tiles in my room. It really stank and I had to move a bunch of things to clean it all up but one can still get a whiff of it around the room. Thank goodness it was tile and not carpet.... I hope you like my pictures of random sites of Paris. 

* I watched Wall-e for the first time today and it was exceptional. Watch it. It will touch you.

The First Week (or two...)

Well..... I lied, it's been five days since my last blog and I said it was only going to be one or two. Anyway, the program itself (IES) has gone very well so far. The first week was just a bunch of orientation such as....how does one live with a new family in a foreign country in a different language? Luckily I have been to France (as well as other European countries) three or four times and so I would say that I already have a small understanding of French culture. For example, breakfast isn't really a meal like it is in N. America. Here, it's just a pastry and jam (and maybe cereal). However, it's a damn good pastry and jam and therein lies the difference between N. America and France. They definitely believe in quality over quantity when it comes to food. Of course, there are negatives here too. For example, hygiene is not of the highest priority.... people only take showers on average once every two days and since water is so expensive the shower lasts about two minutes. Also, I am lucky enough that my "mother" here does my laundry however, it takes a full day or two for the clothes to dry because dryers don't exist in France! Another really cool thing to experience here is the metro. Whhooaaaa! If you've ever stayed in a big city (ie - Justin in NY), then you've been on the metro. But, for someone like me, it was awesome! The fact that you can get literally anywhere in and around the city in no time at all is incredible. If only every city had big subterranean tunnels. Technically I don't live in Paris. I live in Neuilly-sur-Seine which is literally a 5 minute walk from the border of Paris so it's a suburb. If you look at a map it's just outside the 17th Arrondissement (district). The area is very nice and quite chic and I live in an old apartment block on a big avenue. I live indirectly with a family of six. Yes, that means four kids [three girls(16,14,6) and one boy (10)] and having met all of them, they are extremely nice and interesting. Both the parents are really nice to me as well and have done everything they can to set me up and make sure I'm ok. So, what's nice about my situation is that, I live in a tiny little room on the top floor (5th) of the apartment block and they live on the first floor. So, with a shower, fridge, sink, and microwave in my room, I have pretty much everything I need. And if I ever need company I can always just go downstairs to visit my family. So, with that all said, I think you have a good idea of how I am living in Paris.... next time I shall tell of my classes, other students, some outings, and the fish soup...

Bonjour!

Welcome to my Blog! Upon the recommendation of Coach Northam, I now have a very easy way to go about telling of my experiences here in Paris. I'll be sure to try to upload some photos too so just so you can have a few visual aids. I'll try to make it interesting but most of you know how good I am at telling stories.......... that's a joke because I'm horrible at telling stories, unless you like reaallly slow stories that take about 10 minutes to tell with no climax at the end. Alright, anyway, it's been nearly a week that I've been here and much has passed. I can't say I've done anything incredibly interesting yet, but I have walked kilometers and kilometers around the city and seen pretty sweet monuments and buildings. I must go for now but expect a much longer post in another day or two.