Je suis allée à Paris un jour pluvieux. Mais c’est le seul fois que j’ai froide et mouillée et contente. Le photo au-dessus c’est la vue a l’extérieur de ma chambre. C’est très belle, malgré la pluie.
Number one on the to pack list that I already messed up on: clothes suited for rainy cold weather. Perhaps I am too spoiled with California weather that I basically only packed clothes suited for a California summer. Unfortunately, we hit a rainy weekend at the start of the program. 60 degrees and rainy, Angelenos. It’s real. As for the rest of la ville, it’s surreal. I almost feel like I’m walking around in Vegas. I mean, it seems just ridiculous and impractical to have such grand spectacular buildings intricately embellished with gold detail around every corner. All the buildings actually look like façades. Walking around at night, I felt like I was walking through a studio after hours, where there were very few people on the streets and all was quiet.
Speaking of night, there is a very different idea of night here. The sun sets at around 10:30. Ten thirty. Vingt heure et midi. C’est vrai, you read correctly, 10:30 pm here looks like 8:00 pm in California during the summer. No wonder things move at a slower pace here! It has been two days here, less than 48 hours spent in this continent and I’ve already made a series of observations and have begun to orient myself according to the nearest body of water here: La Seine. Granted it is slightly windier than what I am used to (the Pacific), but nevertheless my mysterious 6th sense of always knowing where the water is did help me miraculously find my way home today. But more on that later, first,
12 fun(ny) things I have observed à Paris:
1. They have random public bathrooms in the street. I’ll take a photo next time I see one, but it’s basically like a permanent portapotty, in the pretty green color that matches the rest of the city but still weird to see a random kiosk with a toilet inside as you walk through a major street.
2. People read the newspaper. That art that has been lost in America is thriving here. In just my two days here I have seen dozens of Kiosque Presse scattered along the street selling magazines and newspapers, a beautiful sight after our only one in Westwood recently closed.
3. Everyone smokes. Walking down the street you just get wafts of cigars and cigarettes. By the afternoon it’s hard to find people not smoking (except tourists). People smoke while pushing their kids in strollers, which is slightly concerning.
4. There are so many tourists. It seems like half the people in this town in July speak English because they are American. It’s fun to try and pick out tourists. Of course, it’s also dangerous to act too touristy because that immediately makes you a prime target for pickpockets!
5. All bread is delicious. Like even if you are in a mediocre place with mediocre looking bread and expect it to just taste like plain “meh” bread like we’re used to in America, no. It will taste good. It is the weirdest thing, but I love it.
6. If your order un café, you get espresso. If you ask for milk they will hardcore judge you and try to explain that that is a different order and costs more.
7. Nothing is open on Sunday. Just google “What to eat in Paris on Sunday” and the number of lists that comes up should give you an idea of how much so #thestruggleisreal.
8. The pedestrian street signs are just for looks, and for tourists. Real French people cross when there are no cars, not when it says green. You just go go go!
9. What is wifi? Jk, but seriously, how can the home of the Enlightenment have so little wifi? I’ll rant more about this, but #murica saved my butt today when I got lost.
10. What are elevators? After dragging my suitcases up four flights of spiral staircases, elevators seem like a distant fantasy. That being said, I know why Europeans are skinny now. And man has UCLA trained me well. In communication I struggle, but stairs I own! (Although it is embarrassing how sore I am today from the suitcase incident yesterday)
11. Hanging your underwear is ok and acceptable and not embarrassing at all. (I’ll just keep repeating this to myself until I accept it).
12. Smoked salmon on cheese pizza is really good. I know. It’s weird. You have to taste it to believe it. I was skeptical at first (and this is coming from someone who has seen the art that is Taiwan’s pizza hut) but it was oddly delicious.
#protips
1. Bathrooms cost money, even at McDonalds. So always have coins on you. Protip, quarters work in McDonald bathrooms in place of 50 cent euros. Source: experience (and desperation).
2. Don’t act American. Speak softly, don’t smile and never make eye contact. Bad things will happen. Because you’ll get pregnant and die. Gym coach, preach.
3. July is sale month. And as the month go on, the sales increase dramatically. Hey maybe by the time I leave I can buy my mom that Louis Vuitton purse she always wanted! So postpone that shopping.
4. Itching to snapchat but don’t have wifi/data? Snap your heart out everywhere you go and hit send to everyone you want it to go to. It’ll say it didn’t send but you can rack those up and once you do get wifi at the end of the day just tap each one to send all at once. My poor friends are getting an entire tour of Paris all at once, whoops.
5. They have Chipotle in this country. In fact, the biggest Chipotle in the world is in Paris. The majority of states that are deprived of Chipotle need to step it up.
Now, on to my day two adventures (trying not to make this sound like a diary!):
Le dimanche is orientation. After arriving at the center at 10 am, we went over basic information and survival advice and were given a survival book, student ID and Navigo pass. Literally with these three things I can just frolick around Paris forever (or at least until something expires). The Navigo pass is an unlimited metro card for the month, meaning I can go wherever I want as many times as my heart desires without paying per trip. The student ID gives free access to so many museums and discounts everywhere. The survival book has maps for each arrondissement and a metro and train map as well.
During our lunch time break we got to explore the nearby streets, not that many were open. However, on the main street a few steps out of the street where we take classes, there was Starbucks, McDonald’s, Chipotle, Hard Rock Café, Holiday Inn and a restaurant called Sunset Boulevard. Feels like home. We eventually ended up sitting down at a café on the street and ordered quatre cafés. Even so, we were brought the English menu. My goal is to not be handed the English menu by the end of this trip! All linguistic troubles aside, the espresso was just what I needed to get me energized for our walking tour to come.
We headed over to the Latin Quarter and did so via metro, my first experience on the metro in Paris. I would place it as a happy medium between the sketchy and often smelly New York subways and the shiny brightly lit Taipei MRTs. On a Sunday, the metro was not crowded at all, and we made it to Saint-Michel very fast. From there we began to walk.
The Latin Quarter is a great place for students, full of book stores and affordable food and bars. We circled through the streets and passed by the very crowded Shakespeare and Company bookstore before making our way to the Notre Dame. I still can’t get over the fact that I’m seeing all of these things in real life, these things that I have only seen in photos. I need to go back and touch all this beautiful architecture to prove to myself that it is indeed real and not some sort of mirage.
We walked across the Seine and passed by a flower market, through the Luxembourg Gardens in the rain, and saw the Sorbonne and Pantheon before ending our tour at a café where we enjoyed warm beverages and huge slices of fruit tart. After that we were free. And that was when the real adventure began.
Since most of us had only arrived a day earlier and since orientation day was on a Sunday, a majority of us had no phones and no way of contacting each other or google mapping our way home. This made things really interesting. I must say that I am now grateful for all the city maps posted around the streets. Even though it reminds me of being at Disney, it comes in great use, and I have no shame in just standing there and staring at the convoluted graphic until I figure out where I am and how to get where I want to go.
The metro itself wasn’t too hard to figure out. As long as I knew before hand which direction I wanted to go and which stops to pay attention to for transfers and stops, I could basically get to the destination station. What was more difficult was the part after climbing up four flights of stairs to see fresh air.
I got off the metro at Étienne Marcel. When I finally made it above ground, I felt like a disoriented gopher. I probably stood at that intersection for a good five minutes just trying to figure out what to do next. I had no idea where I was, all I had was a screenshot of the google map near my host apartment, not very helpful in trying to figure out where I was in relation to that, however. Also, street signs here are difficult to read for near-sighted people like me.
At this point, I didn’t feel particularly stressed for some reason, I actually felt totally fine alone without a phone or anything to communicate with in a city that I have only just arrived at. I thought to myself, whatever, I’ll just wander in the direction my gut tells me. I never once thought that I would actually get lost for some reason. I felt like the Seine was behind me, not sure why. So I took a left and started walking. Even though I spent half my attention on my phone trying to figure out how to get back, I still made observations around me. Nothing can be better to get to know a city than to walk its streets. I made mental notes of street names, metro station names and things that stood out to me nearby, that way if I ever ended up in the area again, I would have an idea of what I was near.
Helpful tip: if you turn on wifi, smartphones actually use wifi to determine your location. Meaning if you don’t travel far and already have maps loaded, you don’t need wifi to see where your blue dot is headed! Since the station was less than a kilometer away, I was able to figure out when I got to the correct street and which turns to make.
Finally, I ended up at the circle. I spent another 10 minutes being confused since it is a circle and all looks the same and the numbers were separated by odd and even numbers…long story short I finally found the entrance. Only to realize that I had accidentally offloaded and deleted all my photos from the day before, including the screenshot that had the code to the main entrance. I weighed my options. It was sprinkling. I headed to the only place I was sure I knew. Back to the CIEE office. But the inside door was locked. Plan B, Starbucks around the corner. Voilà.
Jokes, Starbucks closes at 5:30 here (at least on Sundays). Plan C, McDonald’s. Thank you, America for being a beacon of hope, freedom and wifi even halfway around the world. As commented by one of my fellow travel study students, Starbucks “feels like the US embassy.” Regardless, it feels a little like home and gave me security by allowing me to finally contact people and to download my code.
It probably wasn’t the best idea to try to meet up with people for dinner that night, given that communication was next to impossible. I’ll skip the frustrating details.
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We had dinner at the famous Café de la Paix next to the Opera. We sat outside with a perfect view of the grand Opera against the evening sky. The inside of the restaurant reminded me again of Las Vegas. Particularly the Venetian where they have all those paintings on the ceiling. That’s what it was like on the inside. Even though the terrace had a separate “fast meal” menu (not to be confused with fast food), the price still matched the luxury of the place. I’m pretty sure the French onion soup was marked as 22 euros. Even a coke was 8 euros. It almost ruined my appetite. Maybe I should come back when I have more money. From here on out, it’s time to find cheap eats in Paris! 
After dinner, we felt it was time to see the icon of the city. So we metro’d and trained our way to the glistening Eiffel Tower. It was dusk and the view was breathtaking. Hundreds of people from all around the world were scattered around the area but even that didn’t detract from the magic.
After making our way back, my friends walked me home from the station. Even though it gets dark really late, after waiting a while for the RER, by the time we made it out it was 11:30, and it was dark. The streets were pretty empty, more so than I was used to at that time, especially in such a populous city. Perhaps it was because it was Sunday. Walking through the empty streets at night, I had a flashback to walking through the Sony lot after a screening, when all was dark and quiet and the buildings looked empty. I tiptoed back into my room, and skyped my parents (who happen to be in Taiwan). Between me adjusting to the time difference and keeping track of my family and friends’ timezones, I have been pretty overwhelmed. California is 9 hours behind and Taiwan is 6 hours ahead. Regardless, the best feeling is crawling into bed after a long day and knowing that when I wake up, there will be more adventures to come!
Looking back, I think it is really helpful to be observant and to orient yourself to the water. I used to think it was just a weird habit of mine, but it is extremely reliable. Knowing where the Pacific Ocean is in California always gives me an idea of what is north south east and west. Here, it gives me an idea of which arrondissement I am in and what direction I should take.
Also, I am so thankful that I was observant and took mental notes throughout my trip. At the airport, someone mentioned stopping at McDonald’s to use wifi. I made a mental note that I could do that in the future. Walking from the study center to dinner the first night, I noticed that we passed by a Starbucks on the nearby main street. I took note of that. I worked with what I had and that really saved me. I think it is very important for travelers to always be aware of their surroundings so that they will never feel too lost or helpless. Even when I have trouble communicating with friends, since service is spotty in the metro, I always know that even if plans get canceled, I know exactly how to get home and I know of a few other places I could go safely alone. 
The arrangement of the arrondissements are already starting to make sense, and I feel like I can navigate the streets nearby. I can’t wait until I get to know more places better! And, I can’t wait to start class (believe it or not) and improve those language skills. But for now, football. Off to a Canadian sports bar (don’t ask). #ibelievethatwewillwin