Lost and Theater!

Today I managed to get myself lost in Paris. But hey! At least it was pretty! I walked and walked and walked some more. Here are the photos I took on my long and aimless walk, which involved the Parc de Bercy and Bercy Village:

Sidewalk.

Monster Pole.

Graffiti.

Graffiti.

Graffiti.

Me in front of a hot pink fountain.

Neat buildings.

Me on a bridge.

Boats on the Seine.

Me in front of the Seine.

Cool statues.

Rose garden.

Red rose.

White roses.

Roses against the sky.

Me in the rose garden.

Perspective.

Pretty hill.

Willows.

Lake with mini Eiffel Tower.

Bercy Village Entrance.

Inside.

Bercy Village Street.

Neat old building.

Graffiti.

More graffiti.

Tonight I'm going to a play by directed my new friend/Wolfie's other godfather called "un songe d'une nuit d'été" and you can see the link here.

……...

Edit: Ok. Things did not go as planned. But! I did hang out with Feather, the other godfather, and the godmother/minister of Feather's church.

The Godparents!

Me and Feather. I don't know why I'm holding my head weirdly in this photo.

French Learning Ahead!

Well, I took my placement test yesterday and got into the highest level class. Woot! Unfortunately class went a little like this:

Picture of a penguin that says "Doesn't know the French word -
says the English word with French accent." You'd be surprised how often this works. 

Here are today's photos of me and my new metro card.


En route to school.

Cutest baby ever.

Feather and Wolfie at the supermarket.

Me and my new metro card.

Orientation Recap

Orientation was incredibly long and incredibly boring. We did a whole lot of sitting in a room being lectured at, plus some walking about the area with student tour guides. It was mostly stuff we could've figured out ourselves with minimal effort so it felt like a HUGE waste of time. The highlights were:

1) Lunch in the cafe under AUP. Theis was mainly a highlight because I got to meet my new classmates. But also they fed us decent Indian food and salad so that was cool. No pictures, though.
2) Welcome reception. This was another nice chance to mingle, this time with wine and cheese. Once again no pictures.
3) Dinner with other students at Cafe Rousillon. This was a highlight because I got to meet even more people and also I had a delicious cheese plate. The only picture I took was of the cheese plate. Ha!

Cheese plate.

4) Boat ride along the Seine. This time I took a TON of photos.

I'm on a boat! With lots of other tourists!

Look at this view!!!

Isn't this pretty?

Notre Dame.

Beautiful stained glass.

We passed another boat.

Ooooh.

Look at the sky!

Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower again with giant soccer ball.

5) My walk home. Because I came back the way I went to school and it's a really pretty walk. See?

Look at the sky!

Ooooh. Aaaaaah.

Apartment Tour/Photos So Far

Ok. As promised, here's a photo update. First, me in the airport and me arriving at my friends' house:

Me at the airport.

Feather and me looking crazed and jet-lagged.

Wolfie and Feather.

Wolfie and some cheese.

Now a tour of my airbnb apartment so you can see it. Here we go. First you go down my street…

Street signs are on buildings for some bizarre reason.

My street is pretty charming, though.

Next you get to my apartment. Through the door...

Me showing you the door to my apartment.

Up about a billion stairs...

I'm on the 6th floor. Oy.

And you reach my very gay front door. It opens into the kitchen/bathroom...

Doormat says "The friends of my friends are my friends."

Bookshelf and very narrow hallway-bathroom.

Kitchen.

More kitchen and washing machine. Isn't this charming?

To the right of the kitchen is my room. The bed can go up when not in use. Such a good idea!

Bed down.

Bed up.

I also have an adorable little balcony with a decent view of everyone's rooftops.

Tiny table where I eat my breakfast.

Not a bad view, eh?

Kind of nice actually.

And last but not least, here's where I catch the train to school:

Flowered street.