First week of classes.... hoping things will slow down a bit!

Things have slowly started to calm down a little bit after the start of classes today. I had a great weekend sightseeing and taking it easy after going out Thursday and Friday night. Saturday Adrianna and myself went to Montmarte with 2 guy friends that we made through ABS (American Business School.) After having a delicious panini sandwhich we went to visit Sacre Coeur, a giant basilica on top of the Butte de Montmarte

Some friends for breakfast: John, Adrianna and my self.

The Sacre Coeur was beautiful..... It was a huge hike to get to the top though which was not fun at alll but was worth it once I saw all of Paris once I was at the top. Montmarte is famous for its bohemian  and artist culture, especially through the early 20th century. There were a lot of tourists because it was a Saturday, but we able to avoid some of the tourist areas and even do some shopping.

The bottom of Montmarte.... Sacre Coeur is huge!



Sacre Coeur was amazing.... You aren't allowed to take pictures inside because it is such a holy place but I literally got goosebumps as soon as I walked in. The stained glass, different praying areas with saints and just the aurora was incredible. I would recommend going if you are ever in Paris! I would love to go to Mass there sometime.

While sitting outside Sacre Coeur, we witnessed our first Paris dance street show.... very entertaining! After doing some sightseeing and shopping at this crazy department store called Tati, which literally was a dollar store/jc penney/walmart all mixed together. In France, they only have sales in January and in June dictated by the law, so we got some great deals. After having a crazy week, we decided to stay in and chill Saturday night.

The view from Sacre Coeur of Paris.

Sunday we decided to do some more sightseeing, starting with the Champs d'Elysee and the Arche de Triomphe. It has been freezing in Paris, so after bundling up we were off. It was crazy how the cars drive around the Arche, with 12 different roads coming into one circle. I really don't know how there isn't 100 crashes a day!

It was a beautiful day however and it was awesome to walk around the differnt shops on Avenue Champs d'Elysee... there was a Lambourghini paris, Louis Vitton, Cartier, and some other rediculous stores. They also had an H & M but it was much more expensive than the one in the US. It was great to see so many different stores, people and also history at the same time.

For dinner, we met up with some friends that we met in California for this really neat fondue place in the 18th arrondisement. You had appetizers, cheese or meat fondue, and then desert.... Another weird thing was that your meal was served with wine, in baby bottles!!!

Very strange but a refill is only 2 E which is very cheap in Paris. When I went out with friends on Friday night, the cheapest beer that they had was 6 Euro, which is about 9 dollars!!! It was very fun, authentic French, and of course delicious.

Today was my first day of classes. After staying up too late the night before, waking up at 7 was difficult. My french class was okay, our teacher knew that we were all exhausted and luckily was pretty overexcited to compensate. My global marketing class was great, I will be doing a semester long project and I was put in a group with a Frenchman, a Bosnian, a Lebanese, and a Lithuanian. It was be interesting to work with all of these different cultures. After class, the Frenchman asked us all out to drinks and it was my first encounter hanging out with the French outside of school. It was fun to get their advice on places to travel, tips about Paris, and just what is like to be European vs. American. Only 2 more days of class left until I can enjoy my weekend!

Louis Vitton!

First nights out

Things have definitely become a little less stressful since I arrived in Paris. On Thursday we had orientation most of the day about cultural differences. I never realized how much culturally the French is different from us, and some how some other cultures that were there (South American, Mexican, Hawaiin, Canadain and Asain) were so different from the Southern United States. For example, In France, their upbringing is really strict and their children are not told that they are "the next generation that will change the world" like in the USA. The french also have to have a strong balance between work and play, while in the US work is more strongly emphasized. It was really cool to see all the differences. After that we had a wine and cheese social where I met some awesome people from ABS, a guy from Brazil who spoke 5 languages and owned his own business, a really nice German guy, someone from Ghana. As we were the last ones leaving, the dean of our school came down to enjoy the social but everyone was almost gone. We talked to her about internships and as one of girls in our group is a fashion major, she asked about fashion internships. Our dean, Mme.Bert called her son who works for a designer and got us tickets to fashion week on Monday!!!!!!! It is a dream come true and we were so surprised and happy about going to one of the most exclusive events in the world!

After the wine and cheese social we went to some of the girls  apartment that we met from San Francisco State. After drinking some wine, we took the metro to a really nice club where we got tickets for the night from the school. The club  "Palais Maillot" was so much fun and a lot of people from our school were there. Unfortunately my purse was somehow stolen along with 20E, my metro card, license and credit card. After trying to wait for the night bus for about 30 minutes, we decided to take a taxi home.

The next day we had a short orientation about American Business School and then we were done by 12:30. After being exhausted and not feeling like cooking, we decided to try "le Macdo" or McDonalds. People in France love McDonalds which I find hilarious. It was actually really good, instead of fries I had deluxe potatoes which were delicous.  We were walking home and saw a huge outdoor market that is every Friday from 9-2. We decided to take a walk and see what the market was all about. It was awesome! They had literally miles of tents selling fruits, vegetable, clothes, scarves, meats, fish and shellfish. They had some really exotic looking stuff from Africa because there are a lot of North African immigrants here in France. Unfortunately there is a lot of prejudice and racism against "la beure" slang for Muslim North African. We actually saw their prayer ceremony at one of the 5 times a day that they pray during the market. I have never seen that before in real life so it was a little bizarre. In the market I got a kilo of tomatoes (2.2 pounds) for 1 E and 20 kiwis for 1 E as well. They also had some really cute scarves that I got for 2 E. It was a great experience and I felt very proud of my bargaining ability.

For dinner, we ate at Cafe Ronal on Rue de Voltaire. It was an amazing dinner.... I had roasted chicken with fries and a salad. The portions are smaller than in the US, but everything is so delicious. I definitely could get used to this! After meeting some friends from ABS at an Irish sports bar, we hung out and drank some Guiness.

Officially here!

Hello all! It is my second day in Paris and let's just say that it has been an adventure. After flying out of Atlanta Monday night, I arrived in Paris Tuesday morning. I flew Air France and it was awesome haha! All the seats had a touch screen on the back of each seat which had over 100 movies, games, tv episodes etc. We got a delicous dinner with free wine (which was a plus.) The only issue is that I only slept for an hour and when we landed it was 8 am French time. After I landed I tried to find Adrianna my roomate with my cell-phone not working and neither was hers. It was really frustrating and took about an hour to find each other after she talked to information about making an announcement to the entire airport. Then we waited an hour in the airport for the Shuttle which somehow couldn't find us. Finally was dropped off to our apartment which is on the 2nd floor (3rd floor in America) and our landlord showed us the apartment, entirely in French. Unfortunately she doesn't speak any English, and my roomate Adrianna speaks a little French so it was mostly me communicating back and forth about different things with our landlord. It was difficult at times to understand and communiate with her but for the most part we worked it out. She is Portugese and 5 feet and such a nice lady.

 Our apartment is awesome, tiny tiny tiny though! I will post pictures later. The only issue is there is noooo closest at all which is unfortunate for 2 girls trying to live. We are sharing a small bedroom with a bunk bed, taking it back to freshman year. The whole apartment is 317 square feet which is something that I am going to have get used to. After unpacking all of our stuff and figuring out the internet and tv(all in French) we decided to walk around and go grocery shopping. We have a cafe every 10 feet near us which is great! We ate crepes for our first meal in Paris. I had a crepe with chicken, potatoes, cheese and mushrooms, while Adrianna had a delicous nutella and banana. It was amazing! Definitely going to learn the recipe for authentic crepes.  After grocery shopping and buying 2 bottles of wine for 2 E euro each we dropped off our groceries and went to find the metro, and after arguing (in French) we got a metro card. Unlimited usage but each month cost 58E which is pretty expensive. The Metro card includes buses, trains, the metro train and the night train so 24 hour travel anywhere in Paris and in the immediate suburbs. 

We also went to a local cafe where we had some wine (vins rouges) and camembert which I ordered off the menu without knowing what it was. It turned out to be a half block of cheese with poppyseeds which was pretty good, even though I'm not a cheese person. A big difference in French restaurants is tip is automatically included in the bill, and the waiter won't come to your table unless you wave them down. Its very typical for the French to eat dinner at 8 or 9 at night and can take 3 hours of more. The waiter doesn't want to disturb you, and it feels rude to yell and wave at a waiter but its normal. One major thing that I have noticed is that Parisians love animals. There are dogs everywhere, from inside the airport to the supermarkets to on the street without a leash. Very different from in the USA. Also cars don't stop for pedistrians, I think they actually speed up! If you get hit by a car when you are walking its actually your fault.Also went Adrianna and I went to Cafe Menilmontant we noticed that a man had a cat sitting on his shoulder for the entire meal.... a little strange.  Jet Lag hit us pretty bad since we didn't go to bed until 1:30 am here or 7:30 pm in the US.

Waking up this morning was pretty difficult, especially after going to bed so late. We had orientation today at American Business School Paris, which is one of the Universities in the IGS group, a large university body in France that encompasses over 15 different French universities. It was some really important information about the different arrondisements of Paris, the Metro pass, traveling in France, and  some good tips for living in Paris. Orientation lasted until 2 and then we took a boat trip on the Sein river for 3 hours. It was beautiful! We saw the Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the National Assembly, Tuillerie Gardens and lots of other great Paris sights. I can't wait to tour all of these places later this week! It was cold and raining for most of the day, but luckily stopped most of the time that we are on the river. I met some really cool students that were studing abroad at ABS from all over the world.  After coming back to the apartment we tried to cook dinner and for some reason our oven/hot plate wasn't working. We called our landlord and it took about 5 minutes of speaking French back and forth to have her understand. After calling her husband and having him try to figure it out, he read the directions (in French) apparently you can't use teflon on the oven. Oh well! At least it works now. Tomorrow I have orientation almost all day so I will try to update :)

6 Days until Paris!

I really can't believe I am less than a week from going to France. Today is my last full day at home before I go to USC to spend some time with Zach, Wes and of course friends and Sarah :) I am trying to figure out how I am going to pack 4 months worth of stuff into one big suitcase, a carry-on and a personal item (bookbag.)
Everything for the most part is ready for me in Paris. I have an apartment with a really cool girl at USC named Adrianna on the border of the 11th/20th  arrondisement. Paris is divided into 20 districts
(arrondisements) and I am only about a 10 minute Metro ride to the university each day, which is in the 10th.

According to wikitravel, the 11th arrondisement is the edgy, ethnically diverse area of the city that houses sights such as the Place de la Bastille and its majestic modern operahouse. It's also a huge draw for students and fans of nightlife, offering a disproportionate number of the city's hippest bars and clubs.
I'm also very excited because I am literally a minute walk from the Edith Piaf Museum, one of my favorite French singers. (If you have never heard of her you should look her up.) Paris is one of the most expensive cities in Europe.... which means I pay double what I pay at USC for my apartment in Paris, which has 1 bedroom and  317 square feet for the whole apartment which is tiny! Oh well :)

I recieved my class schedule which I am very excited about as well because I got the 2 classes I needed to take in order to graduate in August according to plan. My class schedule is as follows:
Monday
Advanced French 8:30-11:30
International Marketing 4:30-7:30
Tuesday
Intercultural Studies 8:30-11:30
Wednesday
French Civilization 8:30-11:30
International Relations 11:30-2:30
I am very lucky to have a 4 day weekend every weekend, and I also have 3 out of my 5 classes with people that I have met from USC. Also, all my classes except my Advanced French will be in English. My French Civilization class is going to be awesome with lots of field trips around historical stuff in Paris :) I don't start classes until January 31st though and until then we have a 3 day orientation and spend some time getting used to my new home for the next 4 months!

Welcome!

Hello everyone! I have never written a blog before but I figured it would be a great way to update friends and family about some of my upcoming adventures. I will be in Paris, France at the American Business School Paris from January 25th until May 13th finishing up my last semester of college and completing my study abroad requirement for the International Business degree at USC. On May 14th, I will be going on a 10 day long Maymester class through USC called "Business in Europe" where I will be visiting the countries of Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia to meet with government officials, business contacts and learning about doing business in Europe. After that class is done, I will return back to USC to finish one more class before I graduate in August of 2011. I have never been to Europe so if anyone has any travel advice please let me know! I am really excited about the next 8 months of my life as it has been a lifelong dream of mine to travel in Europe!