In Brief...

Thanks to finally beginning orientation (yes, I am actually here for school), I’m going to have to be a lot more brief with these and maybe just point out some highlights of the past few days. So…here it goes:

• Saturday, February 7^th, I had some delicious crêpes followed by an evening of wine and cheese with a handful of people on my program at Andrea and Tami’s apartment. It was super fun getting to know each other better, and we bought a wheel of brie for only 3 euros. It was AMAZING! I’m definitely going to have to stock up when I come back to the States. (Pictured above are Andrea and I rocking ear muffs and matching bags and our initial wine and cheese spread).
• Sunday during the day, a small group of us visited les Invalides, a cathedral which contains the army museum and Napoleon’s tomb. Even in death, Napoleon was evidently compensating for his small stature by surrounding himself with extremely huge exteriors. His tomb is quite grand (see photo) and I found it (morbidly) hilarious to think about such a small man in such a large coffin. Rafaella and I decided he would have definitely had a Hummer.
• Sunday night, despite being pretty exhausted from the rest of the week’s activities, I mustered up some energy to join some of our group at a jazz club in the fifth and I was majorly glad that I did. Song-My, Ara, Matt, Neema, and some new French and Australian comrades had parked out in seats right in front of the band, and the very sassy Irish lead singer took the liberty of personally serenading each the girls in our posse. During one particular song, he even spent some quality time on Song-My’s lap—very embarrassing for her, but quite funny for the rest of us.
  
• Monday I had an information session at SciencesPo (in the 7^th), which again, was chuck-full of tons of data that I either had already read or could have easily looked up myself. I spent the entire 3 hours doodling, and I think I quite improved upon my sketch of a human eye.
• Today, I had my first real set of orientation activities at Sciences Po and began my two-week long Methodology and French courses. Both of my instructors are SciencesPo professors and they are GREAT. In my Methodology class, I learned that exposés, the oral presentations that constitute much of my final grade in many of my classes, are very similarly formatted to the extemporaneous speeches that I did in Speech and Debate in high school (well, except of course that they will be en français). Next, I headed over to my French class, which I have been petrified for ever since I found out that I was put in the level immediately before Fluent/Native Speaker. To my relief, many of the other students in my class were at a similar level to me and our professor seems extremely patient and helpful. I also have all of my orientation classes with Rafaella and Melissa which is wonderful, as they are both exceptional French speakers.

In general, I’ve had some really great conversations with my girls here over the past few days. I’m kind of getting the whole cliché about how an abroad experience is so “life-changing”, and I think it’s about more than just learning about another culture, studying in a different place, meeting new people, etc. etc. etc. It’s about taking a step outside of yourself and your life and it opens up a lot of time and capacity for reflection….and I’m digging it!