paris diaries, vol. ii

It feels like it’s been a long time since I last wrote. Which, of course, it hasn’t been a long time. It’s been like a week. But I am beginning to find that time here feels different than time at home. I have done more here in a week than I did at home all summer. Well, kind of.

The last post was my journey here, as well as my first day leading to dinner. Since that dinner, I have been what feels like everywhere, and walked dozens of miles. After I signed off on the last post, I joined some of my group mates and we went on a little walk through the city. It turns out that a lot of shops in our arrondissement close around 7:30, so we simply explored and found ourselves in Le Jardin du Luxembourg. It was lush and full of life, from both the flowers that lined the gardens themselves and the people playing basketball on the courts off of the gravel paths. We cut our walk relatively short (because the garden was closing fairly early as well) and headed back to campus. Kelcie (my roommate) and I unpacked the rest of our things and quickly fell asleep for the night.

Friday

Friday morning was an early start. We woke up and ate some breakfast, then had yet another orientation meeting for a few hours. We broke for lunch, then regrouped for “tour groups.” My tour group was led by a guy a few years older than us, who took us to get French phone plans and our Navigo passes for transportation. Once we took care of the mandatory things, we went to this garden on the roof of a building and just hung out for a few hours, talking about our lives at home and our new lives in Paris. After a little bit, we noticed a group of kids playing soccer (football, anywhere outside of the US, I guess) so we asked to join in. It was really nice to interact with people speaking the language we didn’t understand but connect through something we’ve all been familiar with for our whole lives.

We lost to half a dozen little kids, but it ended up being a super fun first day in the city. They brought us waters and these cute little smiley-face chocolate cookies, which made the loss a bit sweeter. After the sweat dried and our cookies were half gone, we walked out of the park and waved goodbye to the sweet Parisians that had sponsored our midday snack time. We went on a bit of a tourist-y walk, seeing the Hôtel des Invalides and the Palaces, with a small sight of the Eiffel Tower in the far distance.

Returning to the dorm, we chilled out for a bit before getting dinner and then hanging out some more. That night, we met some other people staying in our dorm and went out and explored the city for hours, meeting French people and riding the metro from arrondissement à arrondissement. We ended up somewhere up in either the 17th or 18th, I’m not really sure. We were out until three in the morning, which did not really work for my jet lag. We stayed up for another hour, eating the rest of our soccer (football?) cookies and talking, still high on the start of our new chapter.

Saturday

I woke up in a panic, remembering it was my job to go to the grocery store and get stuff for breakfast to bring back to the dorm. 9:00 breakfast, 8:53 wake up. I pulled on a sweater and jeans and my clogs, grabbed my reusable shopping bag, and sprinted out the door. Luckily, the Carrefour is a two minute walk and I only had to grab fruit, cereal, and milk. I made it back by 9:10, sweating, and dropped everything in the kitchen, only pausing to send out a text to let everyone know where it was. I then ran back up the stairs and got back in bed, jeans and all. I proceeded to sleep until one in the afternoon. Kelcie and I awoke to a banging sound as Jamie knocked loudly on our door. I ran out of the room to shower and get ready, doing it in record time.

We all met down in the courtyard and walked to Le Bon Marche on the corner, getting coffee and pastries and starting our day. We then went to a Kilo Shop, a chain thrift store, where we all had to make a purchase. Leaving the thrift store, we ran into our tour guide from the day before as we were walking the streets. All of a sudden, in the middle of exchanging pleasantries, the bikes that normally zoom down the streets increased in number and we witnessed a protest… I think for climate change?

The rest of our day was pretty slow though. No more protests, at least. We went in a super cute bookstore and then visited Église Saint Sulpice, a beautiful church that was built in the 1600s. Then we took the metro back and stopped at the Carrefour for a snack before dinner at our director’s apartment. After dinner we took a walk to the Eiffel Tower, a lot of us FaceTiming our families to show them the tower lit up in the Paris sky before us. I hung up on my parents in time for the sparkle to begin. So we stood there, staring at the glow like moths to a flame. After a while, we sat down, did our Duolingos and talked, then left.

The wind down to our day came as a challenge, because how do you move on from such an amazing night?

Sunday

I had planned to have a bit of a slower day, just church and lunch and some writing. But no, after church at the American Cathedral in Paris we walked up the Champs-Élysées to see the Arc de Triomphe. After taking a couple pictures we began to walk to the metro, but got stopped by this crowd surrounding a trio of street dancers. We waited a few minutes for the show to restart and watched them dance. They were lively and drew the crowd in, like any good performer.

Sidenote: @streetdanceparis on Instagram!

Once the show had finished, we went down into the station and took the train back to our dorm. Kelcie and I changed and then went for lunch with Gaby and Jamie (Jamie from my Chicago post), and we went to the Luxembourg Gardens again. I branched off to journal alone for a bit, then found them again a bit later. We finished our day with dinner with our entire Paris group and a walk to end the night.

Monday

First day of class! Though I didn’t have French until 1:30, I had a meeting with my director at 9:00. I put on my most professional-chic outfit (vest coming from the French thrift store) and packed my bag with all of the necessities: laptop, paperwork, lip liner, phone, and metro pass. I hopped on the 10 and rode the train five or so stops to Starbucks. We went over tons of tasks and other small things, hunched over our laptops and lattes. After a bit we left to go to the site of one of our classrooms to make sure everything was in order and ready for class a couple days later. Missing a couple cords, we made a note to buy replacements and split ways. I grabbed a salad on my way back to the dorms and ate quickly before leaving for French class, which was four. hours. long.

Have you ever been in a language class that is four hours long? Specifically one that is completely in the other language and you have no idea what’s going on? Yeah, that was me. I suppose I should have expected the no-English thing, but somehow I still managed to sit there in class feeling like I was about to cry because I was so lost. Usually in a class where I don’t have a clue about the context, I can pull something out of my you-know-where and say something that sounds even an ounce of correct. But no, I picked up on maybe two words per hour and of course had no responses when our instructor asked questions. Nonetheless, I survived day one and went back to the dorm to watch Gossip Girl with my roommate, where we tried to distract ourselves from the level of difficulty our class had thrusted upon us.

At dinner, after a little Serena and Blair drama to calm our nerves, we realized that almost everyone was facing the same experience. We had all been shocked by the complete lack of knowledge of the language–crazy considering almost none of us knew French conversationally. We all put it out of our minds though, and a few of us went on a walk.

The sun was lowering in the sky as we walked out of the dorm. Gaby, Jamie, Kelcie, and I were high on the beautiful light being cast onto the historically-old buildings in our arrondissement, and we headed towards Pont Royal. When we got there, we could see the sun setting behind the Grand Palais in the distance, and the reflections of light hitting the

current of the Seine.

Before I go any further, I feel like I should go ahead and add the disclaimer that I have been listening to the Mamma Mia soundtrack nonstop since getting here. I mean, it has songs for all of the things I have been feeling. “Thank You For The Music”? Perfect for leaving home on a note of gratitude for the experiences that have gotten me to this point. “Slipping Through My Fingers” is the song of mourning for leaving my family behind. “Does Your Mother Know” is for the times that I go out on a walk alone or explore the city with French people I just met. Which, of course, I did tell my mother about (sorry mom, I know that doesn’t help with your worrying). And perhaps the most important song to me recently, “Our Last Summer.” I mean, come on, the lines “Walks along the Seine, laughing in the rain” and “We made our way along the river and we sat down in the grass by the Eiffel tower” are literally made for my first few days here.

Sidenote: if you saw my Instagram post, yes, the caption is from that song hehe

So yeah, we had the most perfect end to our first day of classes. A walk along the Seine, a stroll through the Jardin des Tuileries, hot chocolates and crepes, and seeing the Eiffel Tower lit up from our metro ride back to the dorm.

The Rest of the Week (Speed Round)

Tuesday I had two classes, French History and another four hour French class. French was a bit better now that the shock had worn off some. Our group of four went on a walk in search of gelato, which we found and enjoyed at the edge of the Luxembourg Gardens, laughing and assigning each other spirit animals.

Wednesday, two classes again. Art History and French class. Four hours long. I know I’m being redundant, but I feel like that much French calls for it. Between classes I went to this bakery in the fifth, and looked at a couple of the stalls on the bank of the Seine. Then I rushed to class and had a bit of a boring day after that (aka I went to bed at 7:30).

Thursday, I slept in! Hallelujah for no morning class. Once up and moving, Kelcie and I went to a bakery that was voted Best Croissant in Paris in 2018. I scarfed down my croissant as we stood outside the metro station in the rain before we headed back to the dorm. Thursday is the day our French class gets shortened to only three hours, so I think we were both excited about that, which made it a lot easier to get through. After class, we joined Gaby and Jamie and the four of us went on the metro to Sorbonne and then walked around for a while. We found ourselves at Notre Dame, and then tucked away into a small cafe as the rain picked up. Over cappuccinos and croissants we laughed about pigeons and the rain and the seemingly smallness of the city.

Heading back for dinner, we ate and hung out and ran to the carrefour for chocolate. We went to bed relatively early.

Friday was a long day. Kelcie and I had a tour for our French History class, so we got a little breakfast at Le Bon Marche before taking the metro to Pont Neuf. We waited in the rain (I overestimated the time it would take us to get there by like 25 minutes) and once everyone got there we began the tour. We saw Henri IV (the statue, not the person), the Palais Royal, Joan of Arc (another statue), the outside of the Louvre, and a couple of other big historical spots.

After the tour, we went to get lunch and returned to the dorm. I then went out on my own, riding the metro to Musée de l'Orangerie to see Monet’s artwork, then walked to the center of the Tuileries to sit and read. The clouds grew more gray and I felt a sprinkle that felt more than just the mist of the fountain, so I walked back to the dorm. Without a map! It felt freeing to walk like that and sort of know where I was going, especially since everything here has been looking the same since the day I got here.

Then our group of four once more went out, getting dinner from a little pizza place and feeling thankful the week was over. I had the best pizza of my life, elevated by this spice-infused oil our waiter recommended we use. Three out of the four of us ate our entire individual pizzas.

We ended with gelato and a walk back to the dorm, where we relaxed for a bit before

heading back out to explore Paris more. At the end of our night, we ran into some of the other people in our dorm (see? small city) and we all rode the metro back. Gaby, Kelcie, and I watched Gossip Girl before calling it a night.

And now, I am sitting in Starbucks (please don’t judge, I feel ashamed already but it’s the only place I can find an iced latte. And iced lattes are healing for the body and soul alike). I have taken care of most of the tasks for my assistantship, and now I am finishing up this post.

Sidenote: Molly Mc, I have found that Paris demands my attention, and when it beckons, I have to yield to its call. The blog may not catch up with its call to duty.

For the rest of my day, I hope to grab lunch with Kelcie and Jamie, shop a bit along the Seine, and maybe go out walking before a dinner at our director's apartment. And of course, finish with the Eiffel Tower.

Signing off, for now. Thank you for reading. Talk to you again soon! Au revoir.