Première Semaine à Paris!

Bon soir!! I have been in Paris for about a week and a half, and am starting to get settled into the Parisian lifestyle. A blog seemed to be necessary to really mark the beginning of my semester abroad!

Orientation was great for several reasons, the most important being that it provided housing until I could find an apartment. For the orientation week, I was in a hotel with two other Parsons students. It was so nice to have automatic friends for the first few days. It was pretty cramped in the hotel room but the convenience of being around the corner from the school was nice. The orientation events themselves were disorganized and not well attended but some of them were helpful for getting acquainted with Paris. The lowlight: a beyond-comprehensible "artsy" film that can best be described as migraine-inducing. We left early, after an hour of random textures being strobe-flashed at us. The highlight: the Centre Pompidou (which is a 5 minute walk from my apartment!). With the exhibitions, language learning resources and extensive library, I foresee myself spending a lot of time there. It doesn't hurt that the supposedly best cupcake shop in Paris is around the corner!

I moved into my apartment on Tuesday and am loving it so far. It is only one bedroom, but it is a very well-lit and spacious apartment. My roommate opted for the living room first shift, so I'm in the bedroom for the next two months. Classes started yesterday, but I didn't have my first class until today. I have found it nearly impossible to narrow it down to just 3 courses (my limit, as I'll have 12 hours/week of intensive French at the Sorbonne), so I'm attending 5 different courses for now and will have to decide before Drop/Add ends next Wednesday. The courses here are just so interesting and so different from anything I've been exposed to before. One of the courses today, Intro to Communication Design, is basically a typography course, and the other is focused on Information Design. I'm dreading having to make the decision to eliminate one or both of these courses! Tomorrow is class-free, but I might attend a lecture with the head of Communication Design at Parsons and a Dutch design firm (I'd love to go to the lecture, but it's dependent on me waking up on time...). In the afternoon, I plan to go to one of the larger marchés (markets) in Paris- I've discovered my new favourite way to shop! A bientôt!