Bienvenue! Et autre choses comme ça

After a long (and delayed) flight (broken up by a layover in Montreal) on which I didn't really sleep (instead I watched The Kite Runner, Atonement, and half of The Golden Compass), I arrived in Paris. I found someone else on the program at the airport, and we took a taxi to CUPA, which is in an area of Paris where a lot of students are, and it's the building where we're going to be taking classes.

I got lunch with some people on my program, and then wandered the area around CUPA. It's right next to the Jardin du Luxembourg, which is a park where you can walk, jog, picnic or whatever, and it's also the location of the Palais du Luxembourg, where the Sénat is located. Then we waited for our host families to pick us up. It was kind of like being an orphan-each time someone walked in, you wondered whether they were to be your "parents."

My family has three adorable little boys (Louis, 5 months; Calixte 2 years; and Maxcence, 4 years). The day I arrived it was Calixte's birthday, so I met my host father (Xavier)'s parents and sister, who came for a visit and some cake. Because I hadn't slept much, the second half to their visit was a struggle to stay awake. I kept nodding off, and I think I sort of fell asleep as they were getting ready to leave. I then went upstairs to my room and slept for a couple of hours before dinner. Dinner starts with some sort of appetizer and yesterday and today included a sort of champagne. (At this time the boys have gone to bed, so it's just Xavier, Lorraine et moi). Then we move to the dining room table where we eat dinner (yesterday was rice and chicken, basque-styled, and today was a tasty salad with endives, tomatoes, mushrooms, apples, cheese a couple of other things). I also have the choice of vin or water. Then there's a bread and cheese course, followed by dessert-we had an apple tart/french version of apple pie the past couple of days, and then tea or café.

The house I'm staying in is 3 stories-there is a kitchen, toilet, living room and dining room on the first floor, my host parent's room/bathroom, Louis' room and toilet on the second, and my room, a bathroom (it's a little weird not to have a toilet on my floor) and a room shared by Maxcence and Calixte on the third. They also have a nice front yard/lawn, where the boys can play when the weather's nice. Yesterday was really nice, and today it rained. The house is right near the Bois de Vincennes, which is a nice place to walk, jog, play football (ie soccer), and has a lake and tje Château de Vincennes among other things. The picture above is part of the lake (it's taken with my cell phone because I didn't bring a camera with me today). Under that structure across the lake is this:
Today I slept in (until 12:30). Side note: last night was also when France changed their clocks, so I lost an hour. Which really didn't mean much, seeing as I was a bit jetlagged anyways. My family is Catholic, so they go to church on Sundays, and then today had lunch with a friend, and their niece's birthday to attend. I could have accompanied them, but I wanted to sleep in and get settled, and it was awkward enough meeting the kid's grandparents on my first day. Instead I almost got lost in their neighborhood (well, I wasn't really lost, because I found home easily, I just didn't have a good idea of how far I'd gone, or in what direction). I bough a small baguette at a patisserie which was all I ate before dinner. Oddly enough, I was never that hungry today. I also found the métro station (well, 2 of them because I couldn't by passes at one of them), and got some passes so I could get to Cathy (my professor's) place tomorrow. Then I walked over to the Bois du Vincennes, which is only a couple blocks away from the house, and walked to the lake and around it. There was some sort of carnival with rides and all that jazz, and I'm not sure if that's always there or not. There were a lot of people walking or jogging, even though it was wet.

I'm pretty much situated in my room now. Today I was reading Le Misanthrope (the first book we're reading-it's a play by Moliére that we're going to see performed in a couple of weeks) and fell asleep, so it looks like I'm still jetlagged. Oh well, I don't have anything until 3pm tomorrow (we're meeting with our professor at her place, but normally we don't have classes on mondays). Also, tonight my host father told me the history of France in 10 minutes, followed by a very short description of the state of politics/the president right now. And yesterday he pulled out a map and showed me Paris in a nutshell, telling me about the various quarters. Also, fun fact: my host mom Lorraine was named for Jeanne d'Arc, who was also Jean de Lorraine-a region in France (and her patron saint is Jeanne d'Arc).

Guess I'll be getting to bed now. It's about 11pm. I would have updated earlier, except I didn't get the password for their wifi connection until after they returned, which was around 7pm today. And even though I got a small nap while I was reading, I don't think I'll have a problem falling asleep. And now tomorrow I get to try out the métro on my own for the first time. I'll leave you with one last picture from my walk today, which is of the structure above the caves on the lake: