Premier Post!

I can't believe I've only been in Paris for a week and a half! I figure I'd better start this blog so that I don't start to forget all the interesting things I've done and seen here. I can't have my camera with me all the time and therefore I haven't been able to immortalize even half of all the moments in photographs, but ouais, c'est la vie et donc c'est pas grave. Let me just say---I love it! My host family, Miles and Diane, and my roommate Jess are so nice and I really like living with all of them. Ask me about them, about our cute apartment, about anything!, anytime over facebook or skype. I'd love to hear from everyone and keep in touch.

I'm taking my classes here with a co-op organization called IES from which all my credit hours will transfer back (non GPA) to IU. I've been in an intensive grammar course for the last week called a propédeutique and on Thursday my 3 real courses with IES begin. More to come about those if anything particularly fascinating or relevant should be learned. On Wednesdays starting next week I will be taking one literature/mid-20th century French drama course at l'Institut Catholique de Paris and one sculpture workshop course at l'Academie de la Croix Nivert. This will be so awesome and a great way to meet French students! I hope so anyway because I am expecting these to be mostly unsuccessful experiences since French universities scoff at syllabuses and there is absolutely no way I will have any idea what is going on.

Besides museum strolling, mainstream shopping, and going to boulangeries, student cafeterias, quaint cafés or bars with new friends from IES I have gone on a few more adventurous excursions to different neighborhoods of Paris. This past weekend my roommate and I visited the Marché aux Puces de St. Ouen, the largest Paris flea market. The weather was rather dreary but we armed ourselves with crêpes stuffed with nutella and grated coconut and sought refuge in tiny antique clothing shops where eccentric old women gleefully tried ancient theater/battle jackets on me while the older mumbled about how we couldn't buy her "fleurs anciennes." She had nearly hidden in a basket on a shelf some tired old silk flowers that were falling apart but apparently nearly priceless. I was piqued yet disappointed to discover here, as in most vintage places I've encountered, that the French love to guard their treasures. If you want to take something old or beautiful out of its musty corner you will pay a hefty euro for displacing a relic of the city's history, a testament to its glory ever-fading with onslaughts of greedy tourists and heady debates over social policy reform. Many of the French proudly believe that they are privileged to be French, and being French comes before any other aspect of their person.

I had hoped to start an etsy business for the overflow of my vintage finds while here but it is more difficult than I thought. Even if this does not work out, as the search continues I am finding beautiful neighborhoods and meeting all sorts of different people which is really most of the fun, and all of the adventure.

Stay tuned for stories, pictures, fun finds, and other stuff!