First Week

It has been raining for DAYS. Granted, it hasn’t been pouring, but just enough that you go outside and go about your business, hoping the drizzle will let up, but it DOESN’T.

Despite the rain, I am having a fantastic week!

The first week here at SciencesPo has been very welcoming and informative. There have been scheduled activities and tours nearly every day for the international students, and the other French students have been gracious and enthusiastic in making us feel welcome here. There was also a Methodology course required for everyone enrolled in the Welcome Program, taught daily from Tuesday through Saturday. This course taught the international students the French methodology for written and oral work in class, proving to be very different and often more complex than the work that the typical American student is used to presenting at their home institution. Nonetheless, the course was very informative and guided us to understanding the sort of quality of work that would be expected of us this semester.

The Welcome Program also helped the international students to socialize amongst themselves and meet other students from around the world. I myself have met many other American students, as well as students from all over Europe, China, and Australia, to name a few. It has been a wonderful experience to meet other students from all over the world.

Additionally, I also had some college friends from the U.S. stay with me for a few days last week, which was awesome. They had been doing some traveling of their own, and came to Paris for their last stop before going home. I showed them around my area of Paris, and we did a lot of touristy sight seeing as well, including Notre Dame, Versailles, and the Eiffel Tower. All places are very much worth the visit.

We started off with going to Versailles on Thursday morning, not really having a clue as to how to get there by train, and having to figure it out as we went along. We did eventually make it there without too much trouble. It was cloudy, but nice enough that we could walk around the gardens, which, even in January, are breathtaking. The fee to walk through both the palace and the gardens was decent, only 15€, and I say that’s decent because I could end up spending that much going out for drinks with friends. I was very pleased to see the hall of mirrors again, this time only filled with tourists instead of scaffolding (or d’échafaudage, I love that word) like it had been during my last visit when they were cleaning it, I think.

We came back to Paris in the afternoon for lunch and to tour Notre Dame. I left them around 2:30pm (14h30) to go for a ride on a Batteau-Mouche, which is a boat tour on the Seine. It was a free ticket through the Welcome Program, so I took advantage of the opportunity.

It was freezing out on the water, but at least I chose the afternoon tour instead of the evening one. I can’t imagine how cold that would have been. Not many of the other students chose the afternoon tour, so I’m guessing the rest went at night.

I had taken a similar ride on the Seine a few years ago, though with the added experience of getting up and walking around the deck, it felt more surreal than touristy. It really hit me then. I live in Paris. I’m not here to take pictures of everything from every angle, placing myself in front of historical monuments with two thumbs up, none of that. I get to live here. The way I see it, I’d rather experience seeing everything with my eyes, not through a lens. Besides, if I want pictures of most of these sites, I could find them online. No need to waste my time. I will take pictures with friends, for sure, but I see no point to having a million pictures of the architecture.

I met up with my friends again later that night in front of the Eiffel Tower, though we kept just missing each other and met up a little later than expected. And by then it was very, very cold. The tower was beautiful all lit up, but all I could think about was finding my friends and where we would stop for dinner. Since the Tour d’Eiffel is one of the most touristy places you can go in this city, naturally there are people wanting to sell you souvenirs. The place was nearly buzzing with them, men walking about selling light up miniature Eiffel Towers and Eiffel Tower key chains.  I am glad I remembered then how to say, “No, thank you, I don’t want any,” in French (Non, merci, je n’en veux pas,) but I had to say it a LOT. I do feel bad in a way turning them down, but they were everywhere and approaching anyone who looked like a tourist, trying to make a deal every few minutes. By the time I did meet up with my friends, I was very ready to leave.

We stopped for some food a few streets away, then headed back towards my apartment. We then went out to visit some bars in my neighborhood. We were lucky enough to meet up with most of my new friends from the Welcome Program, and we spent the evening hanging out with them.

I have since heard that my friends returned home safe and sound last Friday, and since then I have been mostly working on finishing my Methodology course, and participating in the last of the Welcome Program activities. Yesterday I participated in the Buddy Program with SciencesPo, which pairs international students with a French ‘buddy’ from SciencesPo to help guide them through the semester if they need someone with whom they can ask questions. My ‘buddy’ is very nice, as are the other ‘buddies’ in the program, and they showed us around the city some more last night, with a few games and challenges in between, including but not limited to: giving ‘free hugs’ to tourists in front of the Louvre, making a human pyramid in the Jardin des Tuileries, and ‘looking like tourists’ for a photo in front of l’Obélisque. It was all very silly and fun.

I have no classes this week since I am in the English program, so I will be taking the opportunity to visit as many art museums as possible; I’ve heard that the Musée d’Orsay is free after 6pm on Thurdays to students, as is the Louvre after 6pm on Fridays.

On a final note, seriously, why had I never had kebabs or gyros in the US?? I may become addicted to them here…

À Bientôt!