1 Month, Swwaatt?

Yes, I have been in Paris for one month already. There has almost 20 days since my lost post, my bad. But since my last post SO much has happened...

First of all, I finally started school! Super exciting. I am taking French Language, Written French and Oral French. Yes, I know sad, I'm not actually taking an art history or anything fun like that. But sounds like my French will really be improving right? Well I hope. I have class Tuesday through Thursday. On Tuesday I go from 9am-1pm and on Weds and Thurs I have class from 9am-5pm. Those two days will be super long and exhausting but I mean tots worth not having class on Monday and Friday (4day weekend.) Having those two days off means I get to travel!

Speaking of travel, I have an official travel date!!! and its to........Tangier, MOROCCO!! I finally get to go to Morocco! Bucket list item! Not only is going to Morocco on the list but also camel ridding, which...will be done, Yay! I looked into some hostels for the Trip, and there is one in particular that I would love to book. The hostel is called Dar Jameel, and it looks super super cool. The rooms are covered in colorful tiles, the views look beautiful and there are really good reviews. Another really exciting aspect of Morocco is the cuisine, I have a feeling I will be in Vegan heaven. Eating in Paris is awesome but just a bit challenging because everything contains milk...everything. Tangier will will be a break from always having to be super worried about what I am consuming. Not only from the food but also, I will be getting out of Europe. I think Morocco will be a nice relaxing experience.


So what have I done in Paris? Beaucoup(a lot)! I've been to the Louvre once with the flatmates and once alone. It's so cool cause I always wanted to go to a museum by myself and I finally got to go, and I mean how cool is it that I got to hit up the Louvre. I went around 7 ish and as I was walking around, the sun started setting, it was beautiful! You could see the horizon and the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the Pyramid. I was tots overwhelmed at that point! I was taking pictures when one of the museum security guards asked if I was in Paris on vacation. I explained that I was here for a semester and guess what, he actually said that my French was pretty good! yeyaa! I mean I know its not but that's a confidence booster.

Alright what else has there been? I've been to some pretty cool Cafes, meet some pretty cool people, bought a few things, spent an unnecessary amount of money, finally have my bank card (long crazy process) I actually now understand the majority of what people are saying to me (HUGE deal), I'm vegan again, visited Dzifa in Besançon, I no longer feel like a total American I feel more Parisian, explored paris a little more since the weather is way better, visited the nearby park which is really nice on Sundays because everyone is out jogging and with their family, gave myself a budget, checked out
Cézanne à Paris at the Cluny Mueseum, had many
adventures with trying to get home after the metro
stops running (which are just as fun as the actual
night this includes asking a hooker for directions,)
went to the movies to see War Horse and sprinted
in the station to make it on time for the
last train, and overall have had a blast for the past month!

A little on taking the train here in Paris. Not the Métro but the SNCF which are the trains that take you out of Paris. You can buy your tickets online, at the agencies that are all around town, or right at the station. So the day before I was going to Besançon, I wanted to go pick up my reduction card and also figure out the train system before my 7am journey the next day. In order to get to Gare de Lyon, I took two trains and about 30 mins. Not a big deal at all, it was all pretty fast and transferring was a breeze. How ever once I arrived it was a little crazy. Basically, everything is done at machines. People just show up and confirm their ride in this big yellow machine and you are done. The machine prints out your ticket and then you are set to go. There are people to help people out at counters but everyone mainly uses the machines which are actually in many languages. This was nice because without having the options in English I would  have had no clue what to do. Not that I actually successfully printed out my ticket from the machine or anything because I had trouble with my card. When you get ticket, you need the credit card that you used to purchase the ticket as confirmation. My card from Chase has given me many problems over here in Paris. The card does not always work even if I go have the sufficient funds. I think the card is rejected mainly because it is missing a chip that allows machines to read your card. So if you are coming to Paris anytime soon, it would be a good idea to get a card with the little yellow square at the front so there are no problems when paying, because I never knew when the card would actually work and sometimes had to have my roommates pay for me :/

Anyway, the trip itself was only 2hours long and went by super fast, seats are comfortable and the conductors were very helpful. Another note about the train is that seats are assigned. I of course did not know this and just plopped down on the first available seat I found. However I soon realized that I had a designated place once I saw people looking at their tickets and then looking up at the seat numbers. I quickly grabbed all my belongings and went to find the seat that was indicated on my ticket. Places by the way are established based on cart and on seat number. The disaster of the trip however was that there were two Besançon stops, and I obviously was not aware. So when we get to the first I get off the train but am not sure if that is my stop!!! I heard the conductor say the name of the stop and then I heard him say that the last stop would be Besançon center. What was I supposed to do?! Was this my stop? So I ran over to the conductors and asked what the difference was between the two stops. He asked for my ticket and said, well this is the ticket you bought so this is your stop but yes there is another one after. He asked if I had someone at this particular stop to pick me up I told him no, he gave me a disappointed look and said, okay, just get on its fine. I could tell he was not too happy but he was compassionate and let me slide. However, I was not at total ease, I wasn't sure that the next stop was where I wanted to go! Luckily, I made  the right choice by hopping back on because Dzifa was at the Besançon Viotte stop waiting for me! YAY! happy ending right? After, well I had a blast visiting her and finally got to see a city other than Paris. Seeing Dzifa was great! we had some Thai food, went to a museum, went to a princess looking café, caught up because we hadn't seen each other since freshmen year, and partied on Saturday night.

Pictures of Besançon:

The river that crosses the town

A plaza...I think it was downtown?

Victor Hugo was born in Besançon
 This is the house he was born in 

 Alright so an observation that I made while in Paris: people here are very independent. Everyone does their own thing and does not seem to care about what others think. All the Parisians are in their own little world. They cross the street without caring if a car has to wait for them, they spends hours at cafés alone reading the paper or a book, and they ride the train with their headphones blaring and enjoying the music. This is really nice and I feel like I totally fit in with the scene. Only because I kinda live in my own little world and can have a blast even if I am walking down the street by myself. What I do not like however is that people here are not very friendly. Well, they are help if you ask them something, but nobody stops and takes time to give a smile or say hello to the person sitting next to them on the métro. I guess just being overly friendly is not a necessity here, even waiters and ticket agents are very much straight to the point and strictly about business.

A few Pictures of Paris:

Becoming a Parisian?

The Flatmates on our first days in Paris
Super late but I just wanted to put them in here

Woke up super early today and decided that it was the day to finally be productive. Now, as the flat has been at freezing temperatures, I did not want to get out of bed so I was all covered and snuggled up while attempting to stay warm. With the least amount of movement possible, I did not want to move to the cold side of the bed, I bought my "carte de reduction" for the French rail system. Now, if you are in France and planning on making trips to places like Amsterdam, Milan, and Cannes (yes I maybe going to all these cities!!!!) it's a very good idea to get one of these cards. Basically it is a 50euro card that will save you about 50% on the average train ride. AKA, it is very much worth the purchase. It kinda sucks because you pay 50euro up front but don't get a special gift immediately or anything like that. Once you book a ticket, its obvi how much you actually save. By the second ticket purchase, you're already getting your money's worth. I'll post the link at the bottom incase anyone wants to take a peek. After you buy the card thing online, you can go to the gate place and present the debit card used for the purchase and a valid form of identification. I think I'll do that tomorrow? Yeah, I'm still not totally sure on the picking up part, but I'll update once I know fer sure.

For flying, Ryanair seems to be the least expensive. However, it sounds a little sketch, the flights are (too?) cheap. The airline is able to keep prices lowers because they fly into airports that are not right in the city. For example: Ryanair actually only flies out of two airports that are 1hour plus away from Paris. However, there are shuttles that can take you from the city for 15euros. So overall as my research has concluded... booking with Ryanair is okay if you don't mind being on a shuttle for about an hour. Which I mean, when first arriving in Paris, it took me 2 hours to get from the airport to the apartment, and for one of the girls it took 4 hours.

So I may seem totally travel savvy here but OH MY GOD! Trying to figure travel is "a joke and a half" (my fav Natalie phrase.) It has been super stressful. I of course want to go everywhere and pay little to no money. But I've come to find that it's not totally possible. For the past few days, I've been glued to my laptop trying to find the cheapest way around Europe. The whole time I was just thinking dang, this is so expensive. Then I took a second, wait, I've been saving up as much money as I can (mind you, I am a shopping addict and crave buying clothes) so that I could finally travel to all the places on that bucket list of mine, and now that I have the opportunity I'm going to back down? NO! In reality, travel is actually not that expensive. When going form C-bus to Chicago, I've spent around $100 on the bus or even more on flights, and that's just to go home. So why am I being so cheap? This is Morocco, Italy, Netherlands, and Spain we are talking about here! Being in Europe maybe a once in a life time opportunity (hopefully not,) I'm gonna go crazy! So yes, actually, after this blog I'm booking everything now! I've inspired myself. Ok, wait no, I'll slow down and I should see who's going with me first. But I'm still going (yep, just typed out my whole thought process, don't judge.)

Here is what the title is referring to: Speaking French!. After all the internet research from the morning, I got ready (by this I mean getting dressed and searching frantically cause I thought I lost my passport) and went straight to my school (Institut Catholique.) I was on a mission to make a few copies/print some things Once there, I got on the word's smallest elevator that according to a sign, fits 4 people, but there were 3 and we couldn't even move. The library was a bit crazy, the librarian spoke no English. I somehow managed to forget how to say computer and paper, which I mean is a big problem if you are wanting to print and make copies. With much confusion, we managed to understand each other and I left with a copy of my passport and the conformation for my reduction card... on green paper.

After that, I finally made it to the bank. Ok, so I must say I am a bit proud of myself. Banking is complicated in the states, so imagine in France! For one, banks are set up very differently from American banks. In these Parisian banks, there is only a front desk, some offices that are not just cubicles, and a bunch of ATMs. If you need to deposit or withdraw money, this is all done solely at the ATMs. You put in your card and you can do everything at the machines, even change your money from bills to coins. So why are there people bank? Well, they are there to help you open your account, get loans, start a mortgage, all that bank jazz. So I went into one of the offices, the lady spoke no English; challenge number two of the day. So, without going into too much detail, I now have a bank account that is actually only possible to open at BNP because the Catho (my school, I've heard that's what the cool kids call it here) has a partnership with this bank. So now, I have this French bank account and about 93809128309 pieces of paper regarding the rules and regulations. As I told Adrienne once I was back at the flat I am hoping that by the end of the semester, I will be able to know exactly what I got myself into with said account. I understood most of what the lady was saying, but some times she would speak too fast and unfortunately there was no available info packets in English. Needless to say, I am not 100% sure of what the rules of banking are here in France. Since, I am already an established Parisian banker, I should just stay here to live right? Oh Mon Dieu!

These are the current addictions. Photo cred: Natalie 

The remanning of the day has consisted of a flat-wide nap, Glee, speaking French with Adrianne, Emily, and Liz, and buying cereal and bread. Actually two very important things, I found my fav cereal and we got free bread from our fav bakery. The bakery is our fav because we love the lady that works there. She speaks some english and we speak some french, perfect. Also she's always happy and I mean she gave us free bread, yum. OK, this is my favorite cereal, its granola with crasins, dried bananas, some sort of nut, and almonds!  Yes, everything I love. Oh yeah I also went shopping, bought a coat. See, I told ya I shop till I drop (...dead cause I won't have anymore money after Europe!)

Train card:  http://www.12-25-sncf.com/accueil/     oh I forgot you have to be between the ages of 12&25

Paris, Je t'aime

Basically, it finally sunk in last night that I am living in Paris. There have been those little moments where I am walking down the street I turn to the left and BAM there is the Eiffel Tower, and that's when I do feel like I am à Paris. Other than that, I do not realize I am in Paris partially because I speak a lot of English, school hasn't started and its been too cold to really go on day long exploration sessions. But last night, I watch Midnight in Paris for the first time (awesome movie by the way, Woody Allen is totally awesome.) It finally hit me: hey wait a minute I can walk outside and head straight to those place! I know this is beyond cheesy, but I honestly had dreamed about this all my life. And when I say all my life I'm not exaggerating. Before coming to Paris I was cleaning out my room and I found a "portfolio" of 6th grade writing class. The assignment was to research and write about the one place in the world where you wanted to visit, I obviously wrote about Paris. 12 year old Elvialuz wrote all about the Louvre, the food, and the Eiffel Tower and now I've actually seen all of that and can go there or eat any of that whenever I please.

McDonald's Coffee 

Ok, done with the corny moments. So now to the interesting stuff like bars and what not. Back in the states everyone was watching the superbowl around 4 (?) I was "watching" the Giants win around  4:30 am. Yep, that's right, I was at a Canadian bar called The Moose from 11pm-4:30am ish for the super bowl. Obviously, I do not care much about football but I was going there for the crazy people yelling and the excitement. While, I was pretending to watch the game, I managed to somehow spend about 50 euro but also met some cool people and ended up having a great time. After the game was over, Natalie, Emily, Charlotte, and I decided to start walking back home since there was about only 30min before the metro started. Cabs can be kind of expensive and I mean we all bought Navigos so it only made sense to walk around Paris for half hour. By the time the clock struck 5am, we were already home. Apparently my very American roommates were hungry and were craving McD's and guess what! I bought something there. Granted I only had a coffee but I still felt so weird supporting McDonalds. Oh and yes, my shoes were really bothering me so I ended up walking a barefoot (I had tights on) in Paris, mind you its really really cold here. But I guess I have some sort of super powers and can't feel the cold. I think its that whole beer blanket sort of thing.

Huge Bowl of Noodles I demolished 

Best Dessert EVER

Ok, so I decided that I basically love my roommates and I am super glad that I did not get stuck with weridos (ok no my flatmates are pretty weird but I guess I deal :P ) Yesterday was an awesome day with all of the. We woke up late as usual and finally headed to out the apartment around like 2/3. Well, let me tell you I had the best Vietnams food ever! We were in the Chinese hood and stopped by Pho 14. I had this huge bowl of noodles and managed to down everything, so good. Meg met us up there and we went to Tang Fere for our weekly grocery shopping. Once there, we went crazy and picked up everything that we could get our hands on. The fruit and the veggies all looked so fresh and even exotic. There was a "tropical avocado" that was about the size of my head and strange spiky red fruit. But, what was the most shocking to us was that after our two baskets full of food that we collected, we each only ended up pay 10euro at the register. Basically, Tang Fere is my new favorite market ever! After dancing on the train and being super hyper we got back home ate some candies and coconut balls we bought and watched Midnight in Paris. After the movie, I think we felt inspired so Adrianne, Megan, and I went to a café to end up having the best chocolate dessert of our lives.

A few things I've noticed: there is a mass amount of fur coats, movie theaters are in two parts (meanings there are two buildings on opposite sides of the street, each playing different movies), Parisians love jaywalking, and people here are not scared (like back home) of going to a café and just sitting there for ours by themselves.

Alright, so I am down for today as I need to get out of bed and get ready to go to my school to ask a few questions and then go to Shakespeare and Company, the Notre Dame, and Latin Quarters.

     Ok so this is random, but how cute is that, 

                a Hello Kitty vespa! I want this one.

Freezing and Blending In

So did you know that it's currently around 25 degrees here in Paris? Its COLD! Well, the weather can be compared to Chicago weather but I was not prepared. I was hoping to get away from frigid Chi Town cold but nope, it followed me to Paris. The thing is, I do not have my big jackets or nice warm boots so I freeze. But I guess I am better prepared then my flatmate Natalie who is from sunny Cali and actually had to buy winter clothes before coming here. In the past few days I have bought a few things here in Paris. I took advantage of the soldés (sales) purchased a very large scarf that can probably double as a dress and some cute headbands. I also bought boots which I love but, I did not realize that I grabbed shoes that were not really a pair. They are size 37 and size 39. Now I have to go back and try to explain in French my little problem.

So, there have been more typical touristy things going on recently. Today we went to the cutest and yummiest macaroon place, Laudrée right on the Champs Elysées. Took us a while but we finally made it to that landmark of pastries. We also walked by the Lourve today, I must say, that whole area is gorgeous. Filled with English speakers but still great. Oh and also, I have found that so many people speak Spanish here! I think I find myself speaking more Spanish than French. Which is an error on my behalf because I do not need to practice my Spanish, its the French that I need to improve.

Sorries, a little blurry. But, c'est Laudrée

Last night Megan, her roommate Norma, and I went to a bar called Violon Dingue. It is an American bar with happy hour until 22h and at 12 they open the cave section! Yes, there is a legit cave that is a bar and there is no cover for girls! How fantastic is that? Even better is that they always play old school American Music! I def remember jamming out to Jump Around by House of Pain. The bad thing about Parisian bars however is that they are crazy expensive. There are always long lists of drink but prices are way higher than in the states. However, do a little flirting with the bartenders (or any guy for that matter) and they buy you free drinks! Apparently, luring a guy in France is not very difficult. All you need is a little eye contact and a smile. Which by the way, I believe I have accidentally perfected. On various occasions I have found myself being talked at by bums. Apparently I tend to smile a lot and make eye contact, so I ended up luring these  half drunk men. Yeah, need to smile less and be a true Parisian. Note to self, look mad more often.

The Flat has definitely become our little home. After walks in the cold we all come rushing in the door and it actually feels good to be "home." The girls and I prepare "gourmet" dinners, watch movies, make extensive travel plans, and just lounge around in the apartment. The big but is that our heating does not work very well, so the apt is pretty cold. We need layers to wear inside, have put towels at the door to stop the draft from coming in and we even close the kitchen door because it is the coldest part of the house. Yet, I can finally say that I have my own apartment, how cool is that? And I did not start off badly, my first apartment is in Paris, not bad not bad. I've come to realize that choosing an apartment over a home stay was the right choice; I get to come home late, have guests, play music, there is no awkwardness or feeling like you are an inconvenience. Last night, after the bar, I crashed Meg's room because I did not want to take a taxi back alone. So we get to her apartment and we get yelled at by here mother! She is not really allowed to have guests and especially not loud ones at 3am.  Here at the apartment, nobody minds.

Tomorrow will be great! The day will consist of a large lunch (so we don't get too hungry and have to spend more money, we are poor college students remember?) the Lourve and finally around midnight we will be heading to the Moose, a Canadian bar to watch the Superbowl. Yep sounds really French right?

It Snowed Last Night!

Gourmet Cooking 

On our visit to l'arc de triomphe it was FREEZING!

ok so random tidbits

1. I have a cell now

2. It snowed yesterday

3. I kinda want to start school already

4. I have adjusted to the time  '
5. I bought tickets to go see Tune         Yards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not today, but yes I <3 Paris