La vie quotidian

Bonjour everyone! Week two of college is officially coming to an end, and every day I continue feeling more and more settled in.

After shopping at the market in Rambouillet, I vowed that trips to the Monoprix (French equivalent of Schnuck's) would henceforth be only for necessities. Buying cheese and produce from a supermarket when there are fromageries and fruit stands on literally every block should be a sin.

On Tuesday, I experienced for the first time the unreliability of the metro. I had heard horror stories of trains that suddenly stopped running, sometimes even entire lines going out of service without warning, but enjoyed nearly two weeks of good luck. All good things must come to an end, though, and my good transportation fortune certainly did on Tuesday.

When I got to the station, people were pouring out, and one women kindly informed me there would be no trains for half an hour. Fortunately, I happened to run into a girl in my 9 am French class who told me she was walking and offered to show the way. I suppose the metro's malfunctioning ended up being a blessing in disguise, because it was a beautiful day and the 40 minute walk took us through the quaint Marais district, past the Hotel de Ville, across the Seine, and in front of Notre Dame. It's two miles from my apartment to school, but with scenery like that it felt like a breeze. What's more, I discovered that just a couple blocks down Rue Oberkampf from our residence hall there is a plethora of fruit/vegetable stands, fromageries, charcuteries, and patisseries.

Today was also gorgeous, so after class got out at 10:30, I decided to walk back home because I don't have class again until 3. I stopped at a tiny fruit/veggie shop on a corner close to home. Two friendly older women were working behind the counter, and I was thrilled when we conducted our entire conversation in French! Besides having fresher items, these smaller places have nicer people, and in many cases even better prices. I got a big bunch of spinach, a zucchini, and some garlic all for 2 euros. I can definitely handle that on my student budget.

Another part I love about walking is seeing all the Parisians with their chiens. I'm sure many of you have heard of the famous Humans of New York Blog. Well, I think Les Chiens de Paris deserve their own following, as well. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that site already exists.

I think someone is scared of the metro

So many things to smell!

Making friends

I would just like to suggest that perhaps my willingness to walk to school here can make up for all the times I drove the 1/3 of a mile from my house to the high school....

I must confess I felt a bit homesick earlier this week. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one, so yesterday Melanie  and I decided we would allow ourselves a moment of weakness. We went to Starbucks, because nothing says America like a pumpkin spice latte :) Afterwards, we had time to kill before class, so we just walked around the Latin quarter a bit. Maybe I was just looking for signs, but I couldn't help but notice these other little reminders of home

Saint Louis School, just around the corner from mine

LouLou-- "a friendly diner" according to their awning (my family has a tendency to call me Lou so this made me smile)

Some exciting news...my good friend Paulina who lives in Finland texted me yesterday, and said she booked a flight to come visit me the weekend of October 18! She was an exchange student at Kirkwood last year, so I'm really happy I'll get to see her again.

Also, tonight I'm meeting a bilingual family with two children whom I will potentially babysit after school a few days a week. Don't worry, we got connected through NYU, so I can assure you they're a nice who will not kidnap me. Hopefully it works out because it would be a great opportunity to practice my French and make a little extra cash! Also, being responsible for two French kiddos could add a new dimension to my make-believe game of being French :) Nobody would suspect the girl picking up deux enfants de l'école to be an American. Well, as long as I keep my mouth shut...