La première semaine

I can officially say I have survived my first week abroad, which amazingly enough i can not say for some of my fellow trinity programmers! I am finally getting a routine down and figuring out how to not spend a bagillion dollars in a single day which Paris seems to think has been a perfectly normal thing to do :) After a week of sight seeing the weekend was a much needed repose, where I slept in each day until noon! I have never slept so late before but I am finally over my jet lag and am ready to take on Paris for another 5 months!  Friday we officially signed up for classes which is such a relief. i am so excited to finally have my schedule and my classes are pretty outrageous!
1. french culture in french - this is the required core class that is just basic french culture and I think we do cool walking tours around different neighborhoods and other things like that
2. french 301 theater - Each week or so we read a different play in french and then have an excursion to a different small theater around paris to actually see the play! it sounds amazing and an experience i never would really have if i wasn't in the class. I am really excited to see the different areas we will be visiting and the teacher is supposedly really great !
3. exotic fare - basically french food and wine class !! So far we have already had a required wine and cheese tasting which was sooo just awful! i mean who wants to go to a fabulous winery, learn how to understand the different types of wine and cheese and french culture ..and all before the sun's gone down? the teacher is really hard but we only have a midterm paper a final paper and a final presentation so it sounds pretty amazing! o and for an extra .25 credits we get to go to restaurants and try the foods and wines and experience the different things we have been taught! - what a pain right??
4. Paris: A Museum City or a City of Museums - each week we have two classes, one in the classroom and one exploring a different museum around paris! there are only reading assignments throughout the semester and then a final project where we pick a specific museum and design a pamphlet explaining how we would personally change the museum in its layout and pieces and in our specific tastes
5. Paris: Art and Architecture  - similar to the museums class but we go all around the city taking walking tours and just looking at the gorgeous architecture around the city

i never have been legitimately excited to start classes before but this semester i can't wait.
this weekend we also went as a group to a pretty cool bar called "bar trois."  at first it seemed weird and sooo small but then they lead you downstairs and its a big cave with different rooms and a little dance floor. we all had a great time and it was great hanging out with all of the kids from trinity! then finally i went to bed and it was soo nice to be lazy on sunday. everyone had been so exhausted from the orientation week that i barely saw anyone. we had an assignment to see the luxembourg gardens. our teachers thought it would be fun to send us on a scavenger hunt around to get a better sense of the park... i don't think they realized its been 30 and raining everyday and the map at the kiosk had all of the different places they were telling us to go to. after about 20 minutes my three friends and i gave up and went to our respective beds to curl up and continue the lazy sunday. all and all it was fabulous and a perfect way to end an exhausting and amazing first week!

so one week is over and still nothing to complain about! i miss everyone from home!! but its been great!! more adventures to come... xox Magpie