Is it actually possible for someone to be excited to start classes again?

The answer is: yes. I’ve had an enormous amount of free time this past week. What? Free time in Paris is everyone’s dream? Unless you’re a broke American college student…

Then you visit museums and mournfully window shop.

Just kidding. While I have already visited several museums, I’ve mainly just been wandering around Paris finding the shopping malls, avoiding the tourist areas, and noting down cool restaurants like “Bagels and Brownies” to check out later.

But a girl can only do so much walking a day before she starts to get cranky. So Sunday I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and read my French Sci-Fi novel in my neighborhood park.

The only thing that would have made that day even more perfect would have been a tall cup of sugary iced coffee… Uhh I mean Perrier.

Sorry guys. I swear I haven’t set foot in a Starbucks yet, but the instant coffee that the French love to drink is anything but satisfying. Either I’m going to figure out how to work a French press, that I can buy at Monoprix for pretty cheap, or I’m going to be a regular customer at a French café. Be prepared for a blog post all about coffee in the coming months.

But thankfully, I started classes today! Well, my classes with Sweet Briar at least. Sweet Briar is the college that runs this particular study abroad program in Paris. They hold excursions throughout the year and serve basically as a bunch of adults willing to hold our hands (if necessary) through life in Paris and classes at the Sorbonne. We take half of our classes with Sweet Briar (all French professors though) and half of our classes at the Sorbonne.

The class I had today was the “Atelier d’écriture” or a nitpicky French grammar and writing class that Sweet Briar highly recommends. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed a class about grammar. The professor basically gave us a few complicated English sentences to translate into French and then taught us the “French” way to write them correctly. She then made us practice over and over again using hilarious sentences such as “No matter where you go I will find you.”

All in all a good first day of classes. Stay tuned for updates on the rest of my classes including an Art History class that supposedly meets in the Louvre? I can’t wait!

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