Yesterday I met up with Melissa and Rafaella by their place in the fifth and we decided the beautiful day merited a nice promenade through the city. We strolled through the fifth, seventh, and a bit of the fifteenth and passed by the garden of the Musée Rodin, where we saw The Thinker and nearly escaped The Gates of Hell, Les Invalides, which we had a hard time navigating our way out of thanks to a large, empty moat, and La Tour Eiffel, where we spent a good 15 minutes taking some obligatory photos of ourselves jumping. (See pics above for evidence.) When I returned home for dinner and to get ready for the evening, the owner of my apartment, Madame Labat, was initially disappointed to hear that I had spent the day with American friends, but changed her tune after I (truthfully) assured her that we had actually spent the majority of our day speaking en français.

On a side note, it’s great to have companions who are just as giddy about living here as I am because I don’t think my random outbursts of delight and squeals would go over quite as well with more nonchalant types…. Because, seriously, I still can’t believe I ACTUALLY live here!

Last night, the group of us UC students who had had dinner together, plus a few more (Ara, Matthew, and Song-My), got together at The Long Hop, a Brittish pub in the fifth. Thanks to the pub’s “student night” we enjoyed cheap drinks and a good DJ who played some familiar American pop, rap, and oldies. We all concurred that this will be a great getaway in about three months when we tire of European House music and just want a little Beyoncé in our lives. We left that bar at closing time and the more adventuresome of us (or perhaps the less prudent, depending on one’s perspective) made our way to a pirate-themed pub, Mad Maker, where we ended up joining a small group of locals and the club’s bartenders for a serious dance party—complete with blasting techno and some dancing atop the bar.

I got a late start today thanks to our late night last night and did a bit of shopping (word to the wise: if you’re ever going to Paris in the winter, sweaters are a good idea!) before meeting Rafaella and Melissa at the Louvre to take advantage of Friday night’s free admission. The three of us were a little overwhelmed by the extensive collections there; from Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s Seasons to Michael Angelo’s L'esclave mourant, everywhere we looked there were paintings and sculptures we’d read about in our art and history books. I’m quite glad that we’re here for 5 moths because I’m going to have to take this museum little by little to fully absorb and enjoy all that it has to offer.

After our growling stomachs defeated our hunger for culture, we returned to Rafaella and Melissa’s apartment, ate, and eventually met up with the rest of our group for a more subdued evening of conversation over cocktails at a chic, albeit overpriced and pompous café. I did enjoy my Syrah though, and I’m really starting to get used to the liberty of ordering un peu du vin anywhere I please.

For now, we’re all just taking advantage of the time we have to ourselves and doing as much exploring as we can before we start International Student Orientation on Monday. Frankly, though, I’m quite looking forward to orientation, and to my courses for that matter because: (1) I’m a huge nerd and not-so-secretly LOVE school and school-related activities, (2) I’m hoping that the Intensive Language Program during orientation will do my French a world of good, and (3) I’m really looking forward to expanding our group to include other international students and some true Français(es) alike.