Orientation

Today we had orientation starting at 9:30 at our actual campus. We decided that we were going to try and walk to school (instead of taking the metro) so that we could see more of the city and also save money on metro tickets. We left the apartment at 8:30 and stopped and got croissants and coffee on the way. The walk took us about 40 minutes, but that included stopping to look at the map and trying to find our way around the city. We talked to one of our advisers and she lives in our district so she was helping us find a shorter route.
During orientation we learned about Paris safety and also the various activities offered in our program! We learned that our health insurance covers all fees 100% which is awesome, and that instead of going to an urgent care, or emergency room, they actually have "house call" doctors that show up with the black travel bags and come to your house day or night. Isn't that nifty? I secretly I have to call them sometime just so I can see what it's like!
We have different excursions throughout the four months that we are here and they are included with what we paid for this program. Next weekend we go on a "mystery tour" where we show up at the train station and find out where we are going on the platform! My roommates and I are all really excited to see where they will take us, and the instructors guarantee it to be a good time. So I guess next week you will find out where I am going as well :)  Then in October we are going to Strasbourg and Germany for a weekend, and we will also be hiking in the Fontainebleau forest. Finally in November we will be taking a trip to Versailles. What's great about the excursions is that we will be with the CEA staff and since they are all native to Paris they know a lot about all the history and fun facts. Also, all bus rides, train tickets, admission tickets, and food is free for us (since it's included in the program cost).
Also included in the cost of this program are fun classes and activities. We signed up for some kind of wine thing, and are planning on signing up for a cooking class. We figure anything that they are offering for free is worth doing and experiencing. 
In addition to these excursions we have a "Fall Break" from October 29th- November 6th. My roommates and I are trying to plan a trip to go explore other parts of Europe. Each of them has traveled in Europe but as you all know I've only been to Italy. We are thinking of taking a train to Belgium, to Amsterdam, then Germany, to Prague, then back through Switzerland and then return to France. It's still in the works but we are trying to make it work! Our Parisian instructors say it's possible to do and would be a lot of fun.

After orientation we all walked to a restaurant and the school bought us lunch. It was delicious! Bread, salad, vegetable quiche, and then coffee and a sugar crepe for dessert.

Angela Weimer, that Perrier picture is just for you :) They only serve it in cans here, but it's just as delicious.

After lunch we walked back to campus and had housing orientation. They talked about the apartments and all the suggestions of how to care for them and use the heaters, etc. Afterwards we decided to go to a shop called Hema. It was a super cute and relatively inexpensive store where you can buy homey accessories. Gabby and Megan needed sheets for their beds, and we needed to get some kitchen towels to dry our dishes with. I was the next person in line when all of a sudden the lights went out. I guess it's a fairly common occurrence in Europe for there to be blackouts. They told us to wait a little bit, so we did. We waited close to 20 minutes before we decided we had to go. We had a meeting for a housing check-in inspection at 5 and it was already 4:15. We hustled to the metro but that station had shut down due to the power outage. We ran back to the street and walked to the closest metro station a few blocks away. Once we got down we hopped on the metro, then transferred to our train and then got home right at 4:55.
We had our check-in where they basically inspect your house and write down if anything is missing or broken, and that way we don't get charged for it when we leave in December.

Tonight we are going to make pasta that Megan brought with her from Italy, and then we are thinking about going to get drinks at a bar because it is Gabby's 20th birthday ! Woohoo! Happy Birthday Gabby :) We will see what the evening brings because I'm still extremely jet lagged and just exhausted.