First Day

Today we had our orientation session with the ACCENT staff. It was concerning classroom and Paris logistics. The staff member was a stereotype of a Brit--quite amusing. After that Nadége talked with us a bit about our schedule and assignments for tomrrow. On friday we have our excursion to Chartres to see a nearby town, and one of the best cathedrals in Europe.
After class the whole 9 of us went across town to see the Eiffel Tower and to have some dejeuner. We at a t a really good restaurant. Our waiter was incredibly nice to us, and looked like the perfect image of a french waiter. The limonade is different here. It is not yellow, but more like a sprite (of course without the lime, just lemon). Our bill came to over 165 € for the 9 of us. And with one bill we had a slow time to count up who owed what. We went across the street afterwards and bought international calling cards and exchanged some american dollars at the Tabac. We went back to the Eiffel Tower to take closer pictures. After that the group split up, half being touristy and took a double-decker bus (les rouge cars) to sight see. The other half of us wanted to walk around and see Paris. First stop was to La Poste to buy some stamps. Then we walked to the Seine and down to the Assemblée Nationale, which was quite impressive, and the Grand Palis. We saw a statue of Lafayette given to Paris by the "school children of the U.S." I said you're welcome. We walked over to la Place de la Concorde where there is an oblisque, from ancient Egypt, where King Louis xvi was publicly beheaded in 1793, confirming the new French Republic. We then took a rest in a park for a bit, while I enjoyed a crêpe with chocolat. Très bien. We headed backto meet up with the others for dinner. The plan was to meet at l'Arc de Triomphe at 18h. So about 20 minutes til the hour we started walking down Champs Elysees. (Of course the song from french class was playing in my head.) There are shops galore for the second half of the street. Tres Chic et tres expensive.. Of course the random McDonalds and GAP were thrown in therem too, but but few French were in them. Once we got to the Arc de Triomphe, there were a lot of people there and police directing traffic. (A weird thing in Parisean driving...they are crazy drivers. No lanes and a while dashed line down the middle of roads. Horns are everywhere.) We saw a military band and the colorguard with some people with wreaths. We attempted a conversation witha french woman and asked what was going on. We only kind-of understood something abouit a french holiday or WWII something...America is great..we weren't sure. But she said President Sarkozy would be there next monday morning (she was a big fan of his). Maybe we can convince Nadege to let us skip class to come see him. ;) The woman was very happy with the new president. That he is young, smart, and ambitious. After waiting around and without seeing the other half of the class we decided to go eat dinner by the Place de Bastille across town, so we would know how to easily get back home on the metros. we at at the cafe called the Bar de Bieres. We got pizzas (each, thinking they were slices) and they were huge. I got one with cheese, onions, potatoes, and some kind of melted swiss cheese. not too bad. I had to get the beer Kilkenny, which was good. We wanted to go see a film, but realized it would be quite late after it got over, so we just visited la Place de la Republique. There was a big statue with a lady and a huge lion in front with the french motto (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) written around it. We went back home, dodging a few rain drops. I met Madame's family: 2 sons, and 1 daughter with husband and 5 month old. We had some basic (bad french-english) small talk and they left. I talked with Madame for a while, realized my french is horrible, and finished off the day with homework.

First Day