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?