How I shot the arrow and threw a cat.

Well well well.  I had my first day of orientation yesterday, and by orientation, I mean a lot of stuff that was already in our packets.  (Oh and I happened to sit down next to my sister, sorority sister that is.  She happened to ask me if I was Greek and if so what house.  When I said Pi Phi- well yea...she told me that she was too, so I shot the arrow.- She is a Texas Delta, TCU)  That was the only thing that one may say was "familiar."After having some lunch at a little brasserie near the school with some people I met, I got back to the Paris metro stop without any difficulty and got back to my stop without pulling out my map.  The metro ain't too bad, and it's really efficient.  Nothing like the green line trains of the Boston T, or the waiting outside for the slow Chicago El.  Two minutes or less waiting time and off you go!  

 

So I got back to my station just fine (Billancourt on ligne 9) and then I tried to go out the exit that my "brother," Romain, told me to use.  Except...I guess it failed because I had no idea where I was.  I knew the names of about three streets at that point and that was about it.  None of which were in sight.  So I decided to walk… I had half joked earlier that I wanted to get my self really lost (on purpose) and then just wander.  Well I accomplished that, minus the on purpose part.  I walked around for about two and a half hours, sometimes trying to find my way around, sometimes in a panic.  Needless to say, I got back to the house. And I learned a lot of stuff about my city, Boulogne Billancourt (B B) in the process.  After dinner that night, I bought some prepared stuff from a local grocery store, I went online and made a map of B B. 

 

Today, Saturday, I got to wake up late (10 am) and lounge around for a bit, and chase their cats away from my room.  One of them is not too intelligent and pretty ballsy, therefore he likes to jump all over stuff without a care in the world for what it is...  For example on my desk, and then over and ON my computer…at which point I throw him off.  (He stopped after the second time when he hit the little chair next to my desk.) I went out this morning to pick up some stuff that I had forgotten at home, such as a comb and gym bag. There is a “gym” nearby that I am going to join called Club Moving.  It is really small but really high quality.  For example, the front hallway has a mahogany desk at the entrance.  It looks like it has some cool classes and such.  I want to do something different from home of course, so I think I want to try some of them.  It should be especially interesting to get “pumped” to a French instructor.  I will surely let you know how that goes.

 

After lunch with the fam, who are amazing if I haven’t already made that clear, we went for a walk so they could show me around a bit more and show me the town library.  Because most students live at home, they use not only their school library, but the town one as well!  I guess my brother and sister go there a lot because it’s quiet, and has a lot of materials to use.  I am sure that I will be hitting that up sometimes too.  (The IES “library” has about three little walls of books so it is a bit lacking…) Later I wandered around a bit more, which is actually really helpful because I learn the streets and landmarks well.  It is fun walking by a French pastry shop and smell the fresh croissant or tarts.  It is not as fun to walk by the fresh fish stalls and smelling the fish…

 

I called one of the IES students, who is staying with my “mother’s” good friend down the street.  I think we might head into Paris tonight. Should be interesting if it works out… (Initially my mom thought that she went to the same school as I do because she goes to school in Chicago.  Close enough.  Brittany goes to Depaul.)

 

Bisous!