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.