Tuesday, September 6

September 6

Today I walked to class in the rain which was especially painful because of my burn…at least now I have a war scar to remind me of Paris. I found out the results of my placement test – I am in the second to highest intensive language class for my program (Program 1) and I will be taking the third year language (Conversation and Composition) when the intensive language class ends and regular classes begin. I had my first 3-hour language class in the morning. Afterwards, I went to the Champs-Elysees to buy some tennis shoes since my mom and I didn’t find any when I was in St. Louis. I was out of luck here too—the one running shoe store called “Courir,” does not carry shoes in my size since (according to the sales man), “women in Paris do not wear size 9 (or the equivalent European shoe size).” I’m going to have to go online and order some. Ridiculous! The fashion capital of the world doesn’t have enough shoe sizes!

After shopping with no luck, I went to cousin Lili Garel’s apartment and met her granddaughter and her granddaughter’s new baby who are both from Belgium. I visited for a few minutes but since I had nothing to talk about, I left to go do homework. I just wrote my first silly French essay—I had to pose as a babysitter asking for a job from a family. Good times. When I finished that silly assignment, I showered (finally…I have been showering every other day because water here is expensive and some of my friend’s host families told them to shower every other day, but my people haven’t told me anything! I have to ask them how often I can shower and if my friends come to visit, if they can sleep in my room (if they say no, I’ll let them sleep here anyway), but I’m scared to ask.

After the shower, I people watched from my balcony for a while before heading to McDonalds. I sat at McDonalds for 2 hours emailing and catching up, and I realized that they have the same 2 songs on repeat: a Hilary Duff song and Gangsta’s Paradise. And, since it is advised that you buy something if you’re going to sit and use the free wireless internet at McDonalds, I bought a bottle of Evian. You heard that right, they sell bottles of Evian at a McDonalds! As I was walking back to the apartment, I realized that everywhere in Paris smells the same—a mixture of moldy cheese, fish and other meats, old produce, the ladies wearing Patchouli, cigarettes, and the garbage that lines the streets. One thing I can appreciate about Kenyon is the fresh air.

Tonight I ate dinner with Monsieur et Madame Robertet (the people whose apartment I’m staying in)…it was tres awkward because I don’t know French table manners. I know that one is supposed to always use their fork AND knife and shouldn’t have their left hand in their lap like in the US, but that’s all I know. So, I only took a little bit of food so I could end the pressure as soon as possible. The food WAS amazing though, chicken in some sort of sauce and vegetables in some sort of sauce. I am usually a very plain person—plain chicken, plain vegetables, but tonight it was so good. AND, Madame is doing my laundry once a week—I have been doing my laundry during the school year since I was 14—I don’t know how I feel about someone else handling my underwear. After dinner, they offered me cheese, and I politely took some swiss looking one, but I guess I cut it wrong because I think I was eating the paper it was wrapped in. Since I was using a cloth napkin and since I was their guest, I had to chew it and swallow it. Let’s just say I am now a master at hiding my gag-reflex. Anyway, in the French way of doing, we ate at 9:30pm, leaving little time after dinner for me to do anything so I decided to stay in and plan out my museum visits for the next week: before next Friday, I will have visited the museums Rodin, d’Orsay, Centre Pompidou, and Picasso. I have free passes to all museums, and I will begin touring the Louve once the tourists calm down in a month or so.

Tomorrow: French class in the morning, lecture on Parisian and French history in the afternoon, and then in the evening a wine (the college student in me hopes that maybe they’ll serve Franzia) and cheese (I have been having a hard time acquiring a taste for it…it all tastes like mold to me) tasting.