roast duck and garlic potatoes

a pedestrian street with cheese shops and a fish market

Creme Brûlée - First time, delicious:)

Salmon and Broccoli quiche with salad

Pain au Chocolat with Oasis (clearly a balanced breakfast) ;)

Dorm

 

Will add more of dorm and area around dorm soon

For my first few days in Paris, it has been a whirlwind to say the least. We've already been on a bus tour, been "orientated" and have gone to have a real french lunch and supper. It may not seem like much, but when you're still jet lagged and have never been in another country before, everything is a small achievement. Take for example the bathrooms; they're small, cramped, and remind me of the 7th grade when we would go to the school forest and we would only have a small stall to .. go in, for lack of a better term. While the toilets are flushable and work like modern toilets for the most part, they and the shower water have a certain odor or stank (yes, stank.. its a bad smell) that smells like something most easily described as large amounts of everyone's stagnant old pee. It really truly is something. 

This smell seems almost unavoidable in Paris though. When we went to the metro for the first time, we had to get off at a stop called Chatelet Les Halles. This stop is one of, if not the largest metro stops in Paris., so navigating to our correct exit for the first time was one thing, but the smell that hits you square in the face is almost Paris's uncharming welcome to the city. It really could be one of the worst smells I've had to put up with. And it might not be the actual smell itself, trust me I've smelled mud pots that seeped sulfur and that was god awful in itself. I think it might be more the idea of the smell. The fact that this is Paris and I'm in her dirty underbelly where homeless waste, dog waste, dirt and grime have all accumulated to such an extent that it feels as if the smell itself is becoming a part of you.

Anyways! thats enough about the smell.. 

But another problem I've come to realize will be a main opponent to me and my group for this trip is the very clear and obvious language barrier. Most of us truly don't know a lick of french, myself included, and the stereotype of the rude French person, makes me very nervous to even try. For example, I tried to say pain au chocolat a few times in my head and out loud before I ordered, and completely butchered it when the time to order actually came. The man I said my order to simply smiled tightly and got my breakfast. It's SO intimidating, especially when they can mostly speak two languages, and I only have the ability to speak one. -Although sometimes thats questionable when I get ahead of myself.. haha. 

Another thing to get used to is the Euro. The bills are easy because they are basically what we have at home. Their size varies with the amount they are, but they are still all small enough to carry around like normal. The thing that gets me is the coins. Euro coins can be as large as 2 Euros and it's very easy to forget that I have them in my wallet when making a purchase. This is something I need to work on though, because I guess you can't switch them back in to American dollars once you receive them in coins which seems very odd.

But thats enough explaining for one night!

Going to Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter tomorrow and Bruges, Belgium on Saturday.

I will be sure to bring back chocolate and post updates and photos soon!