To catch up...

Ok so it’s the weekend again here now, so maybe I’ll have a chance to catch you up on this past week because it’s been long. I can’t believe it’s only been a little over a week since I arrived because so much has happened. So lets back up so I can tell you things I forgot to mention.

Well first of all I forgot to tell you that I was in Paris on the anniversary of Princess Diana’s death (although if you looked at my pictures you already know) so I went down to the Liberty Flame monument that is the unofficial memorial to Diana. The monument had existed there long before the accident, but because it is situated right above the tunnel, people adopted it as a monument to her. There were lots of people down there, and news crews. Flowers, candles, and messages in every imaginable language around. Hard to believe it’s already been 10 years.

So I think we are caught up to last weekend. I figured I needed to make good use out of my time off since orientation started the next day. I needed to buy my monthly transportation pass for the public transport system since it’s the beginning of September. So I go to the closest metro stop to buy my Carte d’Orange, only there isn’t a ticket window, only an information window, and the lady tells me that I can only buy one from the automatic ticket machine. That’s all well and good except that the machine only takes coins and bank cards. A monthly pass is a little less than 55 euros, so I certainly don’t have that much in coins, and American credit cards are not the same thing as a french bank card so you can’t just go sticking them into any card machine and expect them to work. What’s more, you have to have an identity photo on your card, and to get one of those you have to go in one of those automatic photo booths. They used to be in almost every stop, but evidently they’ve taken a lot of them out, so i ask the lady where I can find one and she’s not sure but suggests another stop. So I have to walk all the way down to Opera which is a larger terminal, and I go in the first photo booth and there is a coin stuck in the slot. And I’m thinking I’m in trouble cause I don’t want to go traipsing all over the city looking for another photo booth and I can’t use my card without a picture because if they catch you you have to pay a 30 euro fine on the spot or they can take you to jail immediately. But as it turned out there was another booth at the other end of the stop and I got the picture I needed, although I look scared in it. The reason being is that for french I.D. photos to be legitimate you can’t smile in them. I’m not even kidding. On the outside of the photo booth there’s a picture of this serious lady and a big sign saying “you musn’t laugh in your I.D. photos”. Someone should tell them that that really isn’t helping the stereotype of the snotty French. Of course this is the home of the Mona Lisa, so maybe they are just following her example. Thus, I was trying to have the recommended "neutral" face, but instead I look slightly terrified. Oh well, if I'm getting in trouble with the metro police that's probably the face I'll have anyway.

After all that, I thought maybe I could get some errands done, but I guess I had forgotten more about French life than I thought because I failed to remember that most stores aren’t open on Sunday. It’s kind of funny because France is a very secular nation, so before you go thinking that it’s a religious thing, it’s really just a fewer hours of work thing. The ones that are open are only open for a few hours, usually in the morning. So since the stores I needed were all closed I ended up just wandering about the city. I strolled back to my old neighborhood to check out my former street and such and it was nice to reminisce. I used to live in the Marais which is one of the oldest sections of the city and home to the Jewish neighborhood and is now a trendy place for shops and galleries and bars. I loved living there because of the history and all. My apartment on rue Vieille du Temple was built in the 1700s and still had the original floors and windows. It was always so crazy to me that my apartment was as old as the U.S.A. I was once talking to a young french person about America and he made some comment about "I think America is a young country with a very bright future." I remember thinking that it was such a werid statement because America seemed so old to me. But when you realize how long the French have existed, in one form or another, and how many hundreds of years of national history they have, America does seem pretty young.

I should probably explain for those of you who don’t know, I spent a semester doing UF’s Honors in Paris study abroad program back in Spring 2005 when I was a freshman. It was great, especially for a first experience living abroad, because they took care of everything for you. Housing, tours, excursions, classes, etc. etc. And you had a built in support group because all the other students were UF students and the professors were UF professors. But as good as it was, I’m looking forward to being more autonomous this second time around, and being more immersed in French life. I don't think I would have been ready for an exchange program the first time around, but I'm older and probably wiser now, and so far things are going fine.