Today marked the second day of classes for this semester. Things are thus officially in full swing. I'm taking four classes right now at the IES center and will be adding another class soon once I can sign up for my university class at L'Institut Catholique de Paris (which is only about a 20 minute commute from where I am living--I'm finding more and more that I really do live in an ideal spot in the city). I am taking a literature class (one of only two classes I have left before I am done with my French major, whoot!), a political science class on the European Union, a French language class (it's been drilled into my brain that it is NOT a grammar class by IES) on translation, and a service learning class where I will be learning about French social policy as well as volunteering somewhere in the city (probably with organizations like OXFAM and Goodwill-like places) for 4-6 hours a week. I should have my placement sometime in the next few weeks. I'm really excited that I'm going to have the chance to interact with French people in a context that I would not have otherwise had the opportunity to work in if I wasn't currently studying abroad. It should also be a great way to meet French people and test my French speaking skills. There are only four of us in the class, so that should be kind of fun (we're all girls and we all speak French well and seem to get along great--plus our professors for that class are super funny and really helpful).
I've started to tone down the tourist-y activities as of late. I've kind of exhausted myself a bit with playing the tourist. Don't get me wrong, I've loved every moment of it, but I'm ready to start having a bit more routine in my life. I'm sure I'll be doing lots more tourist-y stuff in the future (even revisiting some of the places I've already been probably). I've seen the Eiffel Tower, been to the Musee d'Orsay, explored a small part of the Louvre, have seen the Arc de Triomph and the Champs Elysees, walked along the Seine, seen a few castles in the Loire Valley, and fully mastered the subway system (or so I like to think lol) as well as some of the cultural norms. Even though I'm living in a very western country, the cultural differences between France and the U.S still manifest themselves everyday. For example, today I had to go to Office Depot to buy a mini stapler (IES seems to not have any staplers and it's kind of an organization nightmare for me lol) and I some how managed to make one of the sales people angry just by saying I didn't need any help since I was just looking for a few small things when he asked if he could help me. This would have been fine in the States, but apparently smiling and politely refusing help is kind of offensive here--whoopsies! I'm slowly learning that I'm going to make mistakes, and most often, they're going to be when I think I'm doing nothing wrong or when I'm being perfectly nice. Oh well, you live and learn, and I'm sure learning a lot. I have a feeling I'm going to be learning a lot more outside of the classroom than in it this semester.
Other than a few crazy adventures with the metro this past weekend and a trip to the Louvre, live has slowed down a lot and I'm starting to feel more at ease. It'll be even nicer when my schedule is completely set sometime in the next two weeks, but for now I'm just learning to take things a few days at a time. And, before I know it, I'll be back in the States (I can tell I'm already going to be sad to leave this amazing city).
Love from Paris,
Sarah
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