First week in Paris

Hello all! I'm writing from my little room in Paris, on the top floor of my family's apartment building. I've been in Paris for almost a week now, although it feels like a lot longer.

This week has been crazy! Dealing with jetlag and orientation and adrenaline and sleep deprivation all at once and all in French has been quite a challenge. Paris is of course beautiful, and the past few days have been such a whirlwind that I'm not quite sure where to start.

I guess I'll start with my host family. I'm living in the 16ieme arrondissement, in the southwest of Paris a few blocks from the Seine on ave. Mozart. I'm staying at the DeMiramon residence, with M. and Mme. DiMiramon and their three daughters- Aline (15), Charlotte (13) and Louise (10). And their Brittany spaniel, Crunch, who's 5 weeks old and likes to chew on, well, everything. My host family is very nice, although living in the 16ieme is a bit of an adjustment culturally. Everything is very haute-bourgeoisie, which is very different to what I'm used to. I live above my family's apartment in what are known as maid's quarters, because that's what they were originally used for. I have a window from which I can see the Eiffel tower, a little wardrobe, dresser, bookshelf, and tv. I share the bathroom with Aline, the oldest of my host sisters. There are all sorts of little, day-to-day changes that I'm adjusting to- from having 4 keys and having to use 2 just to get downstairs to trying to shower in 3 or 4 minutes to have hot water to my laundry escapades. I'm not quite sure how much integration I can really expect with my family- I'm their 5th IES student and 11th American student overall so I sense that at this point I'm more of a boarder than anything else. The neighborhood is lovely, with the metro just across the street and a little fruit stand downstairs. If I get off one metro stop earlier I can walk home and stop at the supermarket, as well as pop into the chocolate shop, stop by a wonderful little bookstore, or pick up a french baguette or even chinese food.

This past week has been orientation, both at the program center and Cite Universitaire, the center for international students in Paris. The theater restaurant there, where we had lunch twice this week, is very French and very delicious. IES is on the most adorable street called the rue Daguerre, which is just packed with vendors of every kind, from fruit vendors to seafood stalls with the biggest prawns I've ever seen, with all types of cafes and boulangeries (bakeries) every few steps. The center itself is very compact, as is everything in Paris, but quite nice. It's in Montparnasse, in the 14ieme arrondissement. It takes me about 30 minutes on the metro and then 10 or so minutes of walking to get to IES, but I'm really lucky- the line I transfer to from the 9 (my line) is the 6, which happens to be above ground. Which means that every morning I get to watch as we go across the Seine right by the Eiffel Tower, which certainly brightens up the metro.

The metro makes it quite easy to get around, and I already have my metro pass. I've been all over in the past few days, exploring with various other IES (quite a few of them Oxy) students- the Ile St. Louis, St. Michel, Notre Dame, the Champs Elysees, the Marais, etc. I'm quite taken by the Latin Quarter in the 5th- it's currently my favorite Parisian neighborhood. I also walked around the Montparnasse cemetery, with the tombs of Baudelaire, Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Alfred Dreyfus, and the joint tomb of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. I've certainly walked several miles over the past week- but everything is so pretty that walking is the best way to get around, and the weather's been nice- cold, but not rainy. It's all a little surreal- the other night I ate dinner across the Seine from Notre Dame, with a view of the cathedral, and we ended up eating crepes right in front of Notre Dame and watching the street performers.

I've also seen all kinds of things that I just think could only happen in Paris, haha and mostly on the metro. One evening two men got on my metro car with accordions, and proceeded to play very French music the whole ride. I have not only seen dogs in the metro, but also in stores and yesterday I saw a little scottish terrier wearing a tartan sweater walking on the moving sidewalk in the large Montparnasse station. One metro station I walked into had a full string orchestra performing. I've seen Parisians climbing out onto their apartment window ledge to smoke, and in front of the Hotel de Ville there's an outdoor ice rink flanked by, yes, two igloos.

Yesterday IES sponsored an open bus tour of the city, so we could see the landmarks from the top of a double-decker. It was quite lovely, but very very cold. Luckily, cafes with hot tea or coffee or chocolate are everywhere.

Classes haven't started yet, although we do have what are called "propedeutiques." These are grammar-intensive language sessions held every day to revise and prepare our French. We were placed based on a test we took during the first few days- I placed pretty highly, so my class is a little intimidating. These grammar sessions will continue throughout the semester as our language class, with the same students and professor. My professor, Mme Teyssandier, is very nice, although, like a lot of Parisians, a bit intimidating. Everything is very on the spot here in classes, and the French are not shy about correcting you. My registration time is tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be taking 3 IES courses and two outside courses. There's my IES language course, a nineteenth-century literary course, and an art history course that takes place throughout Paris in different museums. Then I'm hoping to take a comparative lit class at the Sorbonne, that consists of studying the myth of Faust in it's different forms, and requires each student to read at least one of the texts in its original language (other than French). Luckily, Marlowe wrote his Faustus play so I can likely do my presentation in French about an English text- which is kinda weird. My other outside class, I hope, will be a class on Orientalism and the Feminine at Paris VIII, which is Helene Cixous' school for women's studies, and it will be very lit-theory heavy (yes I know I'm a freak). My classes are Monday-Thursday, which leaves weekends for the occasional IES excursions, exploring Paris, and eventually probably some Euro-hopping.

I hope all is well with everyone at home, and love and miss you all. A tout a l'heure!