Historic Paris, Frenchmen, & Chocolate Chaud

I guess this post will be a random rundown of my first week...

*On thursday I moved into my apartment and got to meet my roomate (who's name is Rebecca Rockey). She's really great and we've had a fun first few days together. There are about 20 other American students in our building and the one next door and I've got to meet about half. There is a girl Kelly from Atlanta who lives on the floor above us who we've been hanging out with. She actually cut her finger open while pulling a cork out of a bottle of wine so we had an interesting experience at a French pharmacy...
*As for our apartment (I'll put up pictures when I can) it's actually larger than I expected and we have a nice balcony with a pretty decent view. I can't the same about our shower...I was expecting no water pressure and I was pleased to discover we have a firehose for a showerhead, plus it's one of those handheld ones so there is no possible way to remain warm and shampoo your haird at the same time. I fully anticipate getting in many fights with that stupid thing. On a lighter note we have a nice little kitchen and Becky and I have made some pretty sweet meals. It's nice to be able to make our own food-makes me feel very Parisian :)
*Just started orientation for school...we have language placement exams tomorrow which I'm sure will be a party. Other than that we finish up orientation on tues. and on wed. begin our language intensive classes. Regular class begin Feb 9th. Hopefully they won't consume too much of my sweet life!
*We've done some sightseeing but it's so nice because I know I don't have to hurry to go everywhere since I have so much time here!! Plus, I'm waiting to do some things until Kelly gets here in March, it will be more fun to go with someone who hasn't seen these things. Soooo looking forward to her coming! Did the whole Champs-Elysees walk, saw the sparkling Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame and of course sat at a few very french cafes. For anyone who doesn't know, in reference to "chocolate chaud" in my title, it means hot chocolate and I love it here! It's so fancy, at one cafe they even give you the melted chocolate in a little pitcher and you add it to the hot milk-always milk NEVER water.
*ohhh the Frenchmen. Overly bold and always ready to talk. Becky and I are going to start a book on our adventures. Everyone from waiters, random men on the street, security guards, and old men on the subway...we've been creeped on by all of them. Ask for details if intrigued...

Looking forward to what this week will bring. In Paris you just never know...c'est la vie.
KP

Traveling is fun.

Slightly frustrated at the moment because I just spent over twenty minutes writing a new entry and of course I lost internet connection and everything I had written as I was submitting. So I apologize in advance if this message is not very detailed-I'll do the best I can to be patient.
As some of you already know because my flight leaving MSP was delayed 2 hours because of the weather on sunday I didn't get into JFK until about half an hour before my flight was going to leave for Paris. Of course the weather was horrible in NY as well so we sat on the tarmack for almost 40 min because the planes waiting to leave needed to be de-iced and were hogging all the gates. Once I finally got off the plane it was ONE MINUTE before my flight to Paris was leaving. After hunting down a couple very enthusiastic (insert scarcasm) airport workers I discovered I had to go outside to get to a different terminal that was flight was leaving from. Picture me sloshing through the slush and dodging traffic then running through a terminal as long as 2 football fields only to get up to the security gate and have the woman look at my ticket and say "Oh you're Katherine...they've been paging you. The plane just pulled out from the gate." Perfect. So after a minor breakdown and lots of help from my wonderful family I found out the next flight to Paris was 5pm monday and I would need to stay in the airport. Thankfully my cousin Ann lives in Brooklyn and she got my family's call for help and invited me to come stay at her place. So I hopped in a cab and headed to Brooklyn, finally getting there about 2am. So nice to have a safe place to sleep. Took the subway back to the airport early monday afternoon allowing plenty of time so I couldn't possibly miss my flight. Since it's JFK the flight still left an hour late...why not.
I arrived safely in Paris about 6:20am tuesday where Marie met me and then we proceeded to traverse the city with my luggage by subway and bus where I managed to only get sworn at a few times in French. Not so bad :) Planning on watching the inauguration which will be on at 6pm Paris time and trying to relax and take in the fact I'm in PARIS. It still hasn't hit me yet-and I really don't feel like I'm actually in Paris. I just don't think I've truly taken the time to think about what I'm going through and allow myself to be excited. Tomorrow Marie and I plan on checking out the neighborhood where I'll be living. Hopefully that will be the trigger I need.
So until my next update I look forward to hearing from everyone and if you have skype my name is kputnam4.

Bisous,
Katie

Une semaine...

When I decided to do this blog I told myself I would make my first post one week before leaving. I never thought this time would come so fast but I can honestly say I'm ready. The anticipation of leaving has been what I feel will be the most mentally trying time from this entire experience. I look forward to everything these next 4 months will bring and am ready for the challenge of living somewhere new and stepping out of my comfort zone every single day. I hope that through this blog I can attempt to show you through my eyes what I see and feel. There will be no rhyme or reason to my postings but if you choose to stay updated on my life abroad I will do the best I can to entertain.

For this first post I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

"When they die all good Americans go to Paris. Some of us have always tried to get there early to beat the crowds." (from Paris to the Moon)

I appreciate the support and encouragement from everyone who has helped me prepare (both mentally and literally). I'm lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.

I look forward to keeping in touch from Paris.