i don't even know where to start. paris is absolutely amazing - the food, the people, the buildings, everything. the only thing that's not so great are the prices. things are a little expensive, but really only because the dollar is only worth a little more than half of a euro and tax is included in the price for everything.

friday, our second day, we had two different sessions of orientation with dr. costello, the program coordinator, and our placement test. the only other thing we did that day was go to a bar on mouffetard, a street here in the latin quarter (or for the paris-savvy, the 5e arrondissement). it's where all the student bars and hang-outs are, and all the kids just mill around in the street. everything's pretty laid back and it was really nice. six of us went, and we got wine or kir to celebrate leah's birthday.

i guess i should give a little more context for where we are. paris is divided into 20 arrondissements, or neighborhoods. we are in the fifth, which is also known as the latin quarter, and it's where all the universities and publishing companies are. there's a long history of education and general learning here.

today, we walked the grand axe, which is a straight line of awesome sites from l'arc de triomphe to the louvre that you can see all the way down (as you'll see in the following pictures). it was a long way to walk from there all the way back to the area we reside in, but it was such a beautiful day and everything here is just really amazing.

yesterday we all took a charter bus to part of normandy. we spent the morning in rouen, where joan d'arc was burned at the stake, and giverny, the small (and very beautiful and cute) town where monet spent the last few decades of his life. rouen was really fun and, though part of it was a little touristy, was a lot less stressful than paris. though paris is great, it is much more urban - obviously. everybody wears neutrals and dark colors, so our bright-colored american fashion is kind of not mode here right now. it's fine, i planned for that and didn't bring very many bright things, but it's still a little strange. in rouen people wore colors though. we went to the hermes in rouen, and their scarves are so beautiful... too bad buying one would eat up half of my money.

our classes start tomorrow. the fourteen of us - ten girls, four guys - will find out which level language class we're placed in. that class will be from 9h to 11h every weekday. we have our culture class, called paris as spectacle and taught by dr. costello, from 14h to 16h (that's two to four) four out of five weekdays.

we're thinking of going to normandy next weekend, which would be great because the sixth is the anniversary of d-day. it's just a train-ride away (yay efficient, inexpensive public transit!), and hostels aren't very expensive if you can find a room. more on that later, most likely.

and now, 193 pictures. i apologize for the speed at which the pictures switch, i can't control it. i took the captions off of this slideshow because it scrolls too fast to read them anyway, but if you'd like a little more info you can follow the link below to the picasa web album and check them out there.

[web album, paris 5.31]