INTERNET

Living and studying in Paris is more than just another tourist trip – it’s the second time I’m trying to integrate myself into a different culture, and it’s a big step in embracing responsibilities. This lodging in Paris is my first independent apartment. I negotiated with the landlord, and I’m dealing with the paperwork. I’m working on my legal status here in France. I’m getting myself registered at the appropriate university. I’m calling the internet companies and making the room hospitable. I’m making a list, checking it twice, and buying all the daily essentials from shampoo to fitted sheets to a microwave to groceries. I’m living alone and learning to take care of myself. I’m balancing school, a part-time job, and life in a foreign country where – if I don’t try really hard – I have no idea what anyone is trying to say to me.

Surprise: I GOT INTERNET SET UP in my room!! (Finally) It's day 22 of my Paris adventures - which means I've gone 3 weeks without internet in this day and age.

Ok ok, I know what's in high demand: pictures of my room. Here they are:

The door-side of my room: with its little kitchenette, mirror, and coat-hangers

What I call the "shower-side" of my room: equipped with a (duh) shower, foldable desk, chair, a bad, and an ever-looming slanted ceiling. They call this sort of lodgement a "chambre de bonne" - what used to be a maid's chamber. I share a bathroom with a lady downstairs in the hallway. 

Now, this is a definite upgrade from my hostel lodging - which, despite being a room shared with three other girls, had its share of benefits. For instance, I could take a shower there (albeit having to press the water button to have a stream) without a time limit. Here, my hot shower time runs 3 minutes on full water pressure and 7-8 minutes on wimpy. 

Hostel room sink: decent

hostel room: 4 girls, 8 suitcases, 10 days, and a heck lot of stress = not so good

This the St. Germain church literally half a block away from where I live - one example of the fine historical architecture found all over Paris.

I live on this street: diagonally above a Dior and across the street from a Louis Vuitton  

My first Metro (subway) ticket!!

I walked past a chocolatier right by Odéon

... and of course had to go in!

But most excitingly, Bryan! Arriving in 5 hours. I'll be taking the RER to the airport to pick him up before he has the chance to get himself lost in scary Paris. We all know he'd rather drop out than speak a word of French... We'll be having delicious crêpes and crème brulée and enjoying the scenery.

Pics!

These are the first few pics my friend took of me in Paris! Here they are:

With Margaret! She's from UT - we're at a little café right outside of Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle) where we were having our intensive French courses 

With my friend Lauren! She's also from UT. We're by the boats on a dock on the Seine, super close to the Eiffel Towel

See! You can see the towel in this one :) 

Will send more pics from my own camera once I get internet in my own room - hopefully next week!!

Waiting...

Still taking care of business!
-getting myself registered at l'Institut Catholique de Paris (a traditional old Parisian school in a historical old building located in the heart of Paris - also a brisk 10 minutes' walk from my home in Paris)
-getting my Visa VLSTS done for my "carte de sejour" a.k.a. being able to legally stay in France
-potentially need to get a visa for going to the UK after the French visa VLSTS... once in a while it's inconvenient not being a US citizen :(
-STILL WAITING on the snail-paced service typical of France - my internet will get here... eventually! (within the next 2 weeks, if nothing goes wrong, I'll be able to access the internet from home)

Re: Bryan's posts!

Bryan is very funny. He is very amusing when he tries to be, and even more amusing when he isn’t trying to be. Methinks he is also a more adept blogger than he ever imagined – exotic pictures, fun stories, and advice! What more could a blog-reader ever want?!

1. Caiqian is confused as to how Bryan has had so much time as to figure out said coin system, and would like to comment on the French coin system! Here there are also just… too many coins J They come in the denominations: 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, 1 Euro, 2 Euros. Who needs 2 cent coins, really?
2. Caiqan also admires Bryan’s bravery for drinking that orange concentrate. She feels a little bit warm and fuzzy because both she and Bryan shared experiences from OJ burning at their throats upon first getting to Europe.
3. Caiqian would ALSO ALSO like to suggest to Bryan that he switches plastic bottles at least once in a while, so he doesn’t get poisoned from all that plasticky toxicky stuff. At least Edinburgh doesn’t sound too warm.

        

As nice as it is to follow my master’s adventures, it’s quite hard from across the Atlantic Ocean. I’ll be handing over the keyboard to Caiqian herself next time. My sore paws need the rest!

Surviving in Paris

Today Caiqian decided to sleep in rather than go to her Intensive French Course. Have no fear, the whole intensive course doesn’t count for anything towards her academic career. She has only been going to them at all solely for self-motivated educational purposes. She can sleep in once in a while.

She, however, does NOT have a place to stay on Tuesday night at the moment. She cannot reserve her current room with a wonderful new friend, Taryn, for Tuesday night due to hostel policies, so they would have to share rooms with strangers. Plus, she’s tired of bleeding Euros. She’s thinking of bumming a night off of a friend at her small studio (everything in Paris is small, especially when you’re used to Texas). It’ll only be one night. How bad could it be? She will make sure to feed the friend later (or realize that her friend isn’t as much of a glutton as she is, and purchase her some wine instead).

BUT: This is all perfectly fine. She’s perfectly content with Parisian life. (Even if even after she moves into her permanent studio, she still has to go down a floor to use a shared bathroom.)

BECAUSE: Yesterday Caiqian had the most DELECTABLE crème brulée in her life! Finally she has found the reason for being in Paris. She’d do this whole thing over again – puking OJ, living in hostels, being around mean French people – all for a little bowl of heaven.

Paris!

It's the first time since master got to Paris that she's had a little bit of time to sit down and just chill for a bit. Her beloved is out swing dancing, so she shall update her blog - offline, of course - while waiting for him to get back to being online. 

She arrived in Paris around 9AM on Thursday, January 6, 2011 (or as they say it here: jeudi le 6 janvier) at the Charles de Gaulle airport. During her trip, she sat next to a nice guy whose name she did not care to ask for from Stockholm who had been taking a vacation. Upon her arrival at the airport, she stumbled through customs and came out of the terminal where her uncle was supposed to pick her up. Nope, he was nowhere to be seen. She debated whether she wanted to get some change and call him or simply wait. She settled for conscious napping until he finally arrived. She was picked up in a car that took her to the BVJ-Louvre (hostel mainly for groups of young people) where, upon promptly exiting the car, she threw up orange juice several times out of her mouth and nose into a Parisian trash bag on the street. It wasn't until 2:30PM that she was allowed to check into a room 1/3 the size of a college dorm room with 3 other girls from her program. There were four beds bunked in twos. Giving that we all had just flown in to live here for half a year each, our suitcases (which we had to physically drag up 6 flights of stairs) left us no room to actually function. The shower requires a button being constantly pressed to actually let water out. Internet costs 5euro for 4 hours - sometimes it's still impossible to even connect. When she attempts to Skype with her beloved, most of the times she is unable to distinguish his mouth from his nose due to the horrifyingly lacking quality of the video. The terrible connection turns her already rhetorically impaired boyfriend into a stuttering idiot (just kidding. You are fantastic). She will be staying in said hostel until at least the 19th of January, and she has already slipped on the stairs three times. Once she slipped down 6 sets of stairs while her friend watched her, horrified. 

(She cannot upload pictures of anything due to the impossible internet speed - or the lack thereof, not to mention the fact that she can't actually CHARGE many of her electronics due to the fact there is only one outlet in her tiny room). 

On the very second day she arrived in Paris, she was expected to navigate herself through the Parisian subway to the study abroad program's office and then to the Sorbonne Nouvelle. Needless to say, she and her friends were very late. It's been crazy trying to get everything ready. She's had to take a written and oral exam in French, along with finding housing, getting metro passes, attending intensive French courses, and doing homework. All this before the real French university semester even starts in February. 

She thinks she will be attending a catholic school in a beautiful old building once school starts - which sounds like an experience she will only get once. She hopes she won't do horribly due to the fact that the classes are all taught in French, and she will be in a class with native francophone students. 

French people are quite scary. They really are discouraging, and they really don't smile nor laugh. They all dress in dark colors, and there is no politeness. They are very particular about things, yet the streets sometimes smell like urine. 

Things have been getting easier and happier, though:

• The sun came out for the first time
• 60euros for a pass Navigo which allows for unlimited subway, bus, and train rides within Paris proper (Zone 1 & 2)
• I've already made several friends whom I quite like (Americans)
• LES SOLDES (big sales!!) started today and will last until mid-February!!
• THERE ARE LOTS OF CUTE PUPPIES ON THE STREETS
• she has found a lovely TINY (9 m^2) place to stay, but it's quite cozy. Caiqian's first apartment ever will be in the very heart of Paris!! It's near the subway station Saint-Germain des-Pres and Odeon in the 6th arrondisement. It's a fantastic neighborhood very close to the Catholic Institute of Paris (l'Institut Catholique de Paris). She wishes it were already Jan 19 so she could move in already! She promises to send pictures once she gets cable set up there :) 

Calm before the storm!

Everybody is flitting around the house - what are they doing? Oh, that's right. Master is leaving today :(
In fact, she'll be gone within the next hour. Gone... just like that.

Her plane leaves today around 3:30PM and arrives around 7:30AM in Paris tomorrow - which sounds like a terribly long trip, but is actually only about 9 hours. This isn't her first trans-Atlantic flight, so she's not really nervous about that. She is, however, wondering whether she should simply nap the whole way, or be wary of her stuff. Meh! She's been scolded before for being overly paranoid. She thinks she'll just have a jolly nap so that when she gets there, she'll already be on Paris time!

Right now my master is on her laptop. She's smiling! Edinburgh is an hour behind Paris, so that even if her beloved adheres to his habit of sleeping at midnight, it'll be 1AM in Paris - prime time for a night owl like her. She quite likes him, that boy.

I approve! He has very yummy toes to chew on.

New Blog

My name is Cappy. I am 1/4 dachshund and 3/4 Maltese and two years old. Here are pictures of me!

This was me when I was still cute

This is me now!

I live in backpacks.

I like to wiggle

...and to sleep!

In two days my master will be taking a long trip away to Paris where many exciting things await her - I want to make sure her adventures aren't forgotten.