Pereire a Ledru Rollin

After 3 airplanes, 4 airports, and quite a bit of travel, I'm safe in Paris!

I arrived at about 4pm on Saturday, and the radio was very quick to tell me that it was a holiday in France. Holidays in France don't just mean the ordinary- post office is closed for the day/grocery store closes at noon- it means the entire city shuts down. This definitely put a damper on my hopes to run some errands right away!

Once I arrived at my building, I met the landlady of the building that I'm renting a room in, as well as my homestay "mother". The woman who will act as my homestay mom- Francoise de Turkheim- is a terribly sweet, 70-something, typical old french lady. She is very welcoming and altogether delighful, although I cannot say the same for the landlady who seems, to me, a bit of a grump.

My apartment is in a nice neighborhood just inside the city's edge. The neighborhood is very much a mix of old and newer-suburban buildings, but has a great circular "place" that seems to be lively with locals (and the occasional tourist family that rents an apartment in the area to avoid crowds); the restaurants were even busy on a Sunday night! I'm lucky to have my Metro stop "Pereire" just a block down the street right in the center of Place de Marechal Juin. Dad, you will be extra happy to know that my stop is on the same metro line as "Sentier". My floor and my room are a bit less lively, but definitely still liveable. My room is about 12 feet by 12 feet but has about 5 by 7 of open floor space. It feels a little bigger than a Carleton single at least! One side of the room is lined with a desk and a bed, with the other side of the room housing a microwave, mini fridge, microwave oven type doodad, sink, and stand-alone shower. I'm very very lucky to have my own wireless box which took some figuring out at first, but I will have internet access whenever needed also!The toilet is down the hall and I'm encouraged to bring my own toilet paper and lock my room, with two turns of the key, just to be safe. There is a very intriguing ladder at the end of the hall that has a locked grate with access to the roof... more information on that one to come.

Its hot and humid and very near to unbearable in my tiny little studette, but it is supposed to cool down within a week, and I'm going to try to find an upgrade for my fan at the BHV (very large hardware and department store in the center of the city) in the next few days. Our building is lovely with gorgeous high windows in the stairwell, beautiful first-fifth floor apartments, and a lovely private garden out back. We also have access to a garden, open only during the day, that lines the center of our street. My room's window sadly doesnt open to anything but the stairwell, but I have a little peek out one of the small square windows at the back of the building to some classic parisian rooftops! the view from the hallway out one of the back windows

The only bummer: my climb up 7 flights of stairs whenever I want to come home.

it's a long walk up!

The apartment is a little far away from everything, but I think I will definitely enjoy this area and all that the building has to offer.

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening getting used to my "studette" as it is appropriately named (a play on words meaning small studio) and getting to know Mme de Turkheim and Lena, a nice German university student who is on the tail end of a 4-week summer language exchange program in Paris. She lives in a small bedroom in Mme's downstairs apartment.

Today I had planned to spend running errands and wandering the centre-ville (center of Paris) but realized it wouldn't work too well with very few things open on Sunday. Instead, I searched out a grocery store in a neighborhood just 1 metro stop away, and used the later afternoon to meet 4 of the girls from our IFE program to wander a bit, buy our Metro passes, and find our way around the school center so that we won't be entirely lost in the morning. It seems that our ability to speak French is varied but not too extremely that anyone felt uncomfortable. We covered some good ground all throughout the eastern part of the city and took quick walks through Les Halles, Pere Lachaise, and Place des Vosges between breaks to get cold drinks and food.

on our stroll through Pere Lachaise

Tomorrow we have a day of orientation, followed by class on Tuesday so we will see how our time with IFE starts off!

I promise these posts will become more interesting as the weeks go on. Nothing too out of the ordinary to report yet! The only story of the day involved the 5 of us girls and the street entrance to the IFE center. We had easily found the Metro station- "Ledru Rollin"- that is closest to our classes. And after a little bit of time with a map we found where the center is situated, on the very south edge of the 8th arrondisement. We were excited to see where it was, look in the window, and check out the neighborhood. We had been standing outside the front of the building for no more than a couple of minutes when Tim Carlsson, one of the directors of IFE, pops up out of nowhere (from just down the street, we think) to ask if we were some of his IFE students. I had met Tim before at Carleton and he had recognized me, and another of the girls in our group. His internet had broken down at home and he came to the center to try to use their connection, only to realize he had forgotten his key, which then led him to to run into us. A funny early introduction to one of our "directeurs" about whom I am sure there will be many more stories to come!a lovely evening with 4 lovely ladies