I had a half an hour break during my international negotiations seminar on Tuesday which was plenty of time to run to the bank and back. (I'll talk about my classes so far in a bit). A Canadian friend (there are A LOT of Canadian exchange students at this school) in my class, Katelin, went with me because she needed to ask a question about her account. I remembered my passport this time and I finally picked up my debit card!
After school that day (about 5pm) Katelin and I went to the mall next to the train station to go to Bouygues Télécom to get French SIM cards. I signed a plan for 29.99 euros per month with no contract. It gives me unlimited calls and texts, 5 gigabytes of data, I can use data all over Europe (which will be perfect for travel), and I can call the US and over 100 other countries. I had a little bit of a struggle with my Google account and my new SIM card (android phones run on your Google account) but I was able to work it out. I finally have a French cell phone number! Immediately I got into contact with my Parisian friends from my exchange in high school so I could see them at some point during my time in France.
Normal classes start this Monday the 9th. Monday through Wednesday of this week I took an international negotiations seminar. I took an English section since they told us to do that unless our French was amazing. I feel pretty good about my French, but I prefer to err on the side of caution. I had already learned the majority of the negotiations material in my principles of management class at USC (South Carolina, not SoCal), but the rest of it was pretty interesting.
What I found the most interesting was just how laid back everything was. We had an hour for lunch for our professor said to be back at 1:30. I got back at 1:25 (I'm fairly type A and early for everything), the rest of the class got back at 1:35, and the professor sauntered in at 1:45 and we still got out on time. It's kind of refreshing that school is so laid back here compared to US professors that count you late after 5 minutes and absent after 10.
Despite taking my first class in English, my French is definitely improving. To finish up my international negotiations seminar we were assigned a group paper to analyze any negotiation. My group consists of two Canadians, an Indian exchange student who grew up in Hong Kong, and me. We're writing our paper on the Hong Kong student protests for democracy, coined the "Umbrella Revolution." We met Wednesday night in one of the study rooms in our building (we all live in Les Hauts de Cergy) to order pizza and write our paper. The only pizza delivery service that delivered out to us didn't let us order online, which meant we had to call our order in. All four of us are native English speakers. I took the challenge to call in our order and by some miracle, ordered in perfect French despite the guy's rapidity on the phone. I didn't even have an issue speaking with the delivery guy. My confidence in my French has been boosted thanks to that.
The negotiations seminar is over so I have a 4 day weekend. Yesterday I met two other fiends to spend the day in Paris. I met with Erika, a Canadian friend who I went into Paris with last week, and Veera, a Finnish exchange student who got here late due to exams at her home university, to head into the city. We got off the metro in the Montmartre neighborhood at Blanche. The first thing we saw when we got out of the station was the Moulin Rouge and the "We're in Paris!" excitement hit us again. We got crepes for lunch and walked around in the Pigalle area for a bit. Pigalle is the "red light district" in the Montmartre neighborhood. It wasn't super sketchy since it was 1 pm on a Thursday. We then walked up the hill to the Sacred Heart Basilica (Basilique du Sacré-Cœur). I've been there before but it's so beautiful I just had to see it again. On the way down from the basilica the peddlers and street vendors got aggressive. We tried our best to ignore them but one of them actually had the audacity to grab me to get my attention. I shook his hand off my arm and took off to get away from him. Thankfully we got out of that tourist trap without getting our pockets picked.
After taking in the basilica and the view of Paris (The basilica is on a giant hill so you can look out over all of Paris on its front steps.) we got back on the metro and headed to le Marais district.
Le Marais is the gay district ("gayborhood" as they're sometimes called in America) that has the piercing and tattoo studio called Abraxas. Erika wanted told me earlier that she wanted to get her ears pierced so I looked up the studio for her. I saw that they were very good and worked with the nearby hospital to set the safety standards for tattoos and piercing. Everyone at the studio was really nice and Erika got her ears pierced really quickly.
The studio was across from the Centre Pompidou just about ten blocks north of Notre-Dame. Naturally, the only logical thing to do next was to see the cathedral. After Notre-Dame we walked the Champs Elysee again, It was my third time walking it, but Veera hadn't seen it before so I didn't mind going again.
After dinner, Veera and Erika had to head back to Cergy. That day I reconnected with a Parisian friend of mine, Francesca, who I met on my exchange in high school and we decided to meet for drinks and to catch up.
I took the metro to the Grenelle neighborhood and met her outside the station. She then had me hop on the back of her moped to go to a bar in la Bastille area. I had never been on a moped before so I was both excited and a little scared, It was crazy speeding through the streets of Paris and weaving in between cars. She's an excellent driver so it wasn't scary at all after I got comfortable. The kicker, however, was that my helmet didn't fit over my glasses, so I couldn't see anything on the drive to la Bastille (of course I chose to protect my head and put my glasses in my pocket). I'm sure the ride over was beautiful, I just wouldn't have known.
We sat down outside at the Indiana, a café and bar, to have a drink and catch up (she got a non-alcoholic smoothie since she was driving). We hadn't seen each other since June, 2009. She's at a grande école (like a University, only better; ESSEC is a grande école) studying marketing and communications. When we finished up at the Indiana she took me on a short walk to the next bar, which she really wanted to show me. After walking for about 10 minutes we walked into a small pizzeria and kept walking through the back door. After walking through another set of doors we were in a 1920's style speakeasy called Moonshiner. I was absolutely blown away that an awesome bar was secretly tucked away behind a pizzeria. The bar was tiny and crowded with young Parisian professionals, the drinks were delicious (Francesca had a non-alcoholic mix of fruit juices), and the bar tenders liked to put on a show with every order. After getting our drinks we sat down in the smoking room so Francesca could have a cigarette we could talk to each other without yelling over everyone else.
We finished catching up around 11:15 and parted ways. I had neither the energy nor the money to spend the night clubbing in Paris again and decided to head back to Cergy.
When I got the RER station I missed the 11:30 train to Cergy by literally second. The doors had just closed when I got onto the platform, so I had to wait for the next train at midnight. I texted Francesca what happened and she said "now you can say you have real Parisian problems!" I found that much funnier and more apropos than she likely intended.
I got home last night at 1 am after an amazing day in Paris. Today, Friday, I'm going the ball for the masters students at school. Saturday I'm going clubbing with three friends of mine who I've known since elementary school or earlier. They just all happen to be in Paris. We haven't seen each other since high school graduation so we're all really excited to catch up.
I'm having an unforgettable time already and it's only been about a week and a half. Class starts Monday and it'll be nice to get into something of a routine here in Cergy. If nothing else it'll keep me from spending as much money as I have been settling in. I took a few more pictures yesterday in Paris and I'll attach them below.
The view of Paris from the steps of the basilica
My favorite angle to see la Basilique du Sacré-Cœur
The basilica from the bottom of the hill
After seeing Notre-Dame we stopped into a cafe for a glass of wine. I had the Bordeaux and that's Veera across the table from me. Erika's hand is the awkward floating fingers on the left.
Walking along the Seine at sunset on our way to the Camps Elysees
Hope that you'll enjoy your time here in Pari... Cergy :)
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