Holy crap, I'm in France!

Alors, je vous promets que je vais écrire encore avec plus de detailes -- le voila. (I promised you I'd write with details.)

Vous duvons me pardonner si j'écris trop de français -- en fait maintenant c'est plus facile pour moi (You'll have to excuse me writing too much in french, it's actually easier for me at the moment). Mais - but - thinking of you, dear reader-who-doesn't-know-French -- ne vous inquietez pas, vous n'êtes pas seuls, don't worry you're not alone -- I will try to write more English.

Anyway enough of that. So I have some pictures -- for the ease of reading, which I know is kind of ironic because I write schizophrenically, but in any case I decided to upload them to my photobucket album, which I'll link to au fin de ce poste (at the end of this post, I swear I did not do that on purpose).

Ooh la la. I am so tired right now. It was a long day. HOWEVER. I think for the purpose of this post, I'm just going to describe a few important places that have been in my life the past couple days.

1: The France Telecom public phone; Baggage Claim 5; Charles De Gaulle airport: I was there at roughly 16h00 dans l'apres-midi samedi, saturday afternoon, after a long time traveling and not a lot of sleep, though I did crash out during the flight from London to Paris. I couldn't sleep on the flight from Denver to London, although I did try. I watched Shrek 4 and a French romantic comedy. In any case, at this exact phone, I was trying to call the shuttle service --- and actually managed to figure it out.

"Bonjour, yellowvan," the woman said, in very fast French. I made a decision.

"Bonjour," I said, "je m'apppelle Gillian Rhodes, j'ai une reservation?"

"Ah oui," she said, and directed me, in French, to get my bags and then go to Porte 10 pour rencontre le conduisant (to meet the driver).

2: 1, Villa Brune; Le 14e arrondissement: I was first there around 18h00 samedi, after two hours in the shuttle through a strange and busy city; a city that is a little more urban and a little bigger than I was expecting, where the street signs can be found on the corners of the buildings, the street lights are on either side, and the streets themselves follow absolutely no logical directions or patterns. The trees are already turning and the air is a little chill. The streets are narrow and there aren't that many cars, but they seem to take up a lot of space. Motorcycles are absolutely everywhere; on the sidewalk, on the street, parked wherever you please in nice little rows.

In any case, I was -- and currently am - on Villa Brune because that's where I'm living. Le petit appartement c'est sur le quatrieme etape, which is actually the fifth floor in american terms, because the French start with zero. It's small, but cute. The kitchen is almost smaller than my room, which isn't saying much; it can barely contain the desk, bed, and wardrobe in itself. But it's very nice, and colorful (and those who know me know what I think about color).

3: Reid Hall, 4 rue de Chevreuse, 6e arrondissement: A quaint building, surrounded un petit jardin, a little garden and courtyard, it's very cute inside, though nothing special on the outside. Rue de Chevreuse is a little side street off le boulevard de montparnesse, qui est tres plein de choses et des voitures (it's a busy street). It is where I will spend most of my time for the next four weeks -- after orientation, we a have a language practicum pour ameliorer notre francais (to make our French better) et ça durée trois semaines (it lasts three weeks). It is the Columbia campus in France and must be deceivingly large, because it seems very small but apparently a lot goes on there.

4: Le Tour Eiffel, 7e Arrondissement: I was there at roughly 18h00 aujourd'hui, today, after orientation. I met a few people from the program and we hit it off immediately because we all wanted to speak french, not english, and so decided that we would be friends for the semester (one of the girls is staying for the whole year, everyone else leaves in December). Probablement que nous allons voyager ensemble si c'est possible (we'll probably travel together if we can). In any case, we went for a long walk through the streets of Paris -- got lost several times, but managed to find le tour eiffel --- it's hard to miss, yes, but it disappears often behind other buildings. However -- it is somehow bigger and smaller than you'd think, at the same time. The details are incredible, and it just seems so much more artsy than the pictures might suggest. You walk through it and people hold out stupid little plastic statues, but if you say "Non merci" firmly, they leave you alone. If you speak English, they'll bother the crap out of you until you buy something. Which you don't want to do.

In any case on the other side there was a little carousel -- there seem to be a lot of little carousels all over the place, which I don't understand but I love -- I am for whatever reason absolutely fascinated by carousels and I want to ride them. It probably comes from Mary Poppins. Whatever. So we walked by and went up to this giant building on the other side of the tower, and I was told several times what it was and can't remember now. There were fountains, it was pretty, and looking up at the Eiffel Tower, you think, wow, I'm actually in France. It's very surreal, actually. But cool. Just surreal.

I took the metro most of the way home and then walked. It's not far, I'll probably walk most of the time to Reid Hall. I will most certainly tomorrow because, in true French fashion, there is une greve, a strike, and the metro will be running slow. Welcome to France, n'est-ce pas?

D'ailleurs, je vais vous laisser la -- je suis épuisé maintenant parce que je me suis reveillée pendant la nuit et je ne pouvais pas m'endormir pour trois heures. I will leave you there, I'm exhausted because I was awake for three hours in the middle of the night. I blame jet lag, le decalage horaire.

I'll write again sometime soon. I don't know when, but sooner rather than later.

Pour voir les photos, clickez-ici.

A bientot, mes chers.