Bonjour tout le monde! So this is day one of Paris and also my first time ever using a blog. Hopefully this will be easier than trying to email updates to everyone, and this way you can just read them when you want since last time a few people complained that I wrote too much. I'm running on about 5 hours sleep for the last 48 hours, but being in Paris again is exhilerating. Things have changed some since I was last here but still it feels like I have only been absent from Paris for a couple of weeks instead of a couple of years. I didn't realize how much I had forgotten about the city until now, when I am here surrounded by it. The way the wind makes the leaves dance along the Seine, the smell of the city, the sound of the metro, the sunlight slanting down between the buildings, so many little things that had faded in my memory. I am checked into a hotel and have been running errands and wandering the city since noon to prevent myself from napping and making the jet lag worse. Today I am relaxing and enjoying being in the city because I know that tomorrow it begins hard-core. I'll have more than enough things to take care of for a few weeks so it'll be a while before I am able to really enjoy just being in Paris. Finding housing is still number one on my list and since orientation begins Monday, well time is limited. But as big a deal as not having a place to live seems, I know that it will all work out fine. I surprise myself by how easily I slip back into Paris life. I've been speaking French all day, I rediscovered my look of total disinterest to keep weird people from talking to me on the metro, and I can't wait to go get a pain au chocolate.
But I am starting to yawn and it's only 5 here, so that's my cue to go wander a bit more before it gets too cold for the outfit I have on. I love you and miss you all!