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