An unfortunate incident involving old world staircases.

This week my mom came to visit me (all the way from Canada) to see the city and to help me figure all the things I had left to do. This seemed like a good idea, as she was going to stay in the apartment I would probably be living in and figure out Internet, help me with phone plans, and generally be a mom when I needed it the most. Unfortunately, things did not work out this way. The first night she was here I took her out for gelato to show her around and introduced her to some of my friends, which was really nice. However, her third night here she took an unfortunate tumble down some stairs and broke her foot in four places. From this experience we learned one crucial lesson: Paris is NOT friendly towards those on crutches or in wheelchairs. For example, the apartment my mom was staying in is four tiny flights of stairs up with no elevator. Most metros do not have accessibly elevators either, and at the stop I usually get off at you literally need to hop over the gap. However, I also learned that many French doctors, while they do make you wait, are incredibly friendly and helpful.

So, while it was amazing to get to see my mom (for the short time she was here), the trip did not exactly go as planned. Today, after spending around an hour at the airport trying to find a porter with a wheelchair, she managed to safely catch a much earlier flight back home. It made me homesick to only get to see her for such a short time (and sad because she couldn’t really do any of the exploring she had planned), but it was still amazing to have a little bit of home here. In a week I will have been here for a whole month! Somehow it still feels like I arrived yesterday.

Tomorrow I finally have my first real class. I planned my schedule so I have Mondays and Tuesdays off for traveling, but that means that I have eight hours of class on Thursdays and Fridays. I’m starting to get a little nervous about the course load; this is definitely NOT the casual year abroad I had anticipated. For my lecture on “Cities and the Urban Experience” on Thursday, I already have over 150 pages of articles to read. (I’m taking 7 courses…starting to really wish I had opted for “the world of wine” instead of things like “Violence, Memory and Amnesia in Chile”). However, I have a feeling that if I were still at UBC taking a full course load of 3rd year poli stuff I would have around the same amount of work, just with a little less of the French rigidity.

While this entry makes it seem like I’ve had the worst week ever, I have still been having fun despite the unfortunate foot incident. This week I decided to lay off the wine a little bit and have a look at some more cultural aspects of the city. By comparing Chateau de Versailles with a graffiti exhibit called “Nee dans les Rue”, I realized that I’m probably going to be more interested in the less touristy attractions. (What an amazing discovery!) Versailles is amazing of course, but it was so packed it was hard to really appreciate it. However, the graffiti exhibit was so well done and unexpected in comparison that it got me really excited for the contemporary cultural scene that is huge in Paris. I also visited my first Parisian techno dance club (aptly named the social club), but I don’t think I’m quite trendy enough to become a regular.

Last little note – I bought a hair dryer today! This shouldn’t be that big a deal, but after blowing a fuse in my friends building with an unfortunate incident involving a faulty converter (or just my own stupidity), I have been terrified of using North American heating appliances. So, tomorrow I’m going to have a shower before my first real class and get to blow dry my hair and hopeful dispel the stereotype that I have propagated that Canadians don’t really know how to groom. Pretty exciting stuff…
A bientot!

Chasse au Trésor

I don’t think I am ever going to get used to how beautiful everything is here. As am I easily distracted in the best of times, it usually takes me twice as long as it should to get anywhere because I cant walk a block without stopping to look at something. (I probably walk into at least four patisseries a day, just to admire the colorful macaroons and tiny little cakes). However, especially after a summer of working two jobs, it is very nice to be relaxed enough that it doesn’t matter if I take the four winding side streets opposed to the one main road. My commitments for this week have been my welcome classes, but that ends today giving me a week before I have to start real school. Lots of time for exploring…

Last night was probably one of my favorite group organized activities: a treasure hunt around the big monuments. I’m using the term “treasure hunt” loosely, because it ended up being running from monument to monument based on a clue (such as – title of a Victor Hugo novel = Notre Dame), to be met with a challenge and a lot of alcohol. As you can imagine, after the first two stops we started going pretty slowly. The fun thing about the treasure hunt was that it was the first time I have seen a lot of the monuments here since I arrived. And really, wandering around the outside of the Louvre at night looking for a clue is very different then cueing for hours with your parents waiting to see the Mona Lisa. There was so many moments when we would all be running in a slightly drunken frenzy to suddenly stop and be completely taken aback by where we were. There is some cheesy “treasure” metaphor in here but I’m not going to go there.

Despite stopping for French fries along the way and being horrible and throwing a cork into a cup our team still managed to win a basket full of French food, which we ate on Pont des Arts*. After sitting around until we were all almost frozen and hungry again, we went on a search for “cheap” food. This does not really exist in Paris, as a learned my first night out when I spent an hour in the rain searching for a 24 hour kebab stand. (It seems like the best bet is to stay out until the metros start running and the boulageries open up again). However, we did manage to find some affordable-ish Japanese food, which I have to say was the most un-Japanese thing I have ever eaten. (Beef with rice and cheese???) While eating our food, I spotted a group of French boys all holding vespa helmets. Feeling unusual courageous from the combination of liquors distributed throughout the treasure hunt, I asked them for a ride around town. This was probably one of my better ideas, as they offered me and my friend a mini tour of Paris, sitting on the backs of their scooters with big round helmets…It was just as cool as I thought it would be, but unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of my first vespa ride. I guess this just means I need to do it again?
*Cars aren’t allowed on this bridge as it is rather fragile, it so every night it is full of groups of people sitting around eating and drinking. I have somehow managed to end up there most nights, as it is a really good meeting spot for meeting new people and reuniting with the few people I know here.

Pictures: Our team holding our victory basket at pont des arts, David and I being tourists outside the Louvre and doing the "pass the cup of vodka with your teeth" challenge outside of notre dame

Settling In, barely

I have now been here for a week, but it still feels like I arrived yesterday. I think this is partially due to my terrible sense of direction as I’m still getting just as lost as day one, but mostly because things have been so busy it has not yet registered that I am in Paris. I also don’t really know where to start this because so much has happened in the past week it’s impossible to fit it into a short cohesive blog. I have a feeling I’ m going to need to eventually pick a focus or else this will just be even more all over the place then it already is…


I would have to say the 2 most important things that have happened this week are that a) I have started intro classes which leads to b) I have started to make friends. I have a feeling both are pretty crucial to eventually fitting in here. I didn’t quite realize it at home, but this school is going to be tough. It is a private school, which means it has well paid teachers and a large library selection, but it also means that all students here not on exchange are paying a HUGE amount of money to be here. Which means they take things very very seriously. I could write quite a bit comparing what I have experienced of the educational system here compared to the one back home, but I think I will save that for another day.

Friends – everyone you meet is from a different country. In my one class alone there are people from the Netherlands, Brazil, Latvia, Mexico, Czech Republic, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Finland, Norway, The US and of course Canada. The other night we all got together to go drink wine on the Seine* and I taught them how to play one of my preferred drinking games, whatthefuck, and the results were pretty funny. I probably didn’t create the best impression of Canada, but it was an overall success (people came up with pretty good names for themselves).
When I am not at school I am running around trying to sort out all the bureaucratic mess that is France. For example, to get a bus pass you need a bank account, but to get a free bank account you need a student card, but to get a student card you need to go on the date and time that corresponds with the first letter of your last name with all the correct documents, which you need to print off, but you can only access a printer if you have a student card….you get the picture. However, I have managed to get a bank account (step one –ish), a month long bus pass, and hope to get a student card tomorrow. Each new card feels like the worlds biggest accomplishment. However, despite all the moaning about getting stuff done and ALREADY having school work, there is a lot of time to explore and go on picnics and boat rides and eat pain au chocolate and drink amazing espresso and general have an excellent time pretending to be French. So in conclusion, to sum up my first week, I would say things are going good. I will try to be more on top of this next week so there can be more interesting anecdotes and less boring general information.

* Side note – The wine is just as amazing as you would think it would be. And just as cheap. Also, there are SO MANY rats running all around the seine. Its pretty gross, but also quite atmospheric?

I've arrived!

After an arduous 16+ hours of travel, I have arrived in Paris and settled into my room for a month. I’m staying in a dorm slightly outside of the city center while I (hopefully) find a permanent place to stay. Or else I guess I will be joining the hordes sleeping in all the lovely public parks.

My trip here was fairly uneventful, but the highlights would probably be:

- Checking in my bags to be asked if I had anyone to accompany me in my travels…aka implying that I was under 13, the age you need to be to travel alone. It’s like cmon, I know I’m not wearing any makeup but 13? Seriously? (sadly this is not the first time I have been asked this)

- Sharing the row with a Christian youth rock band that was going to Poland to spread the word. Which they proceeded to spread to me. In song. For 9 hours. OK I’m exaggerating, they didn’t actually sing on the plane, and as my awesome Dutch airline had games on the mini screens such as competitive tetris, it was great to make friends with my row-mates.

- Having 20 minutes in Amsterdam to make my connection, I realized that I needed to go through security again as it was my first landing in the EU. Once I finally arrive panting at my gate I am met with a group of very casual travelers, many drinking Heineken tall boys while waiting in line to board. The Dutch clearly know how to travel

- Experiencing my first taste of Parisian romance as the couple sharing a row with me on the flight from Amsterdam to Paris made out and drank wine the whole flight. Cliché? Nahhhh.

- Having an amazing shuttle driver who made up for being two hours late (yes, two hours) by driving me around the scenic route with commentary such as “This is where Diana died!” while swerving oncoming traffic. When he dropped me off he said he would look for me when dropping off other students…yay for first friend in a new city.


We didn’t have any classes to attend today, as it was course registration. I thought it was a little excessive to give a whole day off just to register online, but it was stressful enough that I needed it. I somehow managed to mess things up long enough that a lot of my first choice classes got full, but I snuck my way into most of the ones I wanted and picked up some interesting fillers such as “a comparative look at the Jewish experience” and “violence in Chile”. To celebrate finishing the ordeal I went out to explore and have dinner with a friend from UBC – it was nice to finally get away from my dorm area and see what all the fuss is about. Paris is pretty awesome.

Anyways, tomorrow I have my first day of intensive French classes and an international welcome party so I should try to sleep to fix up this jetlag. More later...



13 and eager!