I've been here for nearly a week, and I'm starting to get used to it. I've definitely been spoiled in the states, I realize I had every reason to LOVE my bed as much as I did, and honestly now I'm wishing I spent a little more time in it before I left. Every night I sit upon my european twin camping pad (in comparison to my former queen size double pillow-top mattress), manouvering my way between the sheet and blanket, the frame squeaking relentlessly until I am settled and plan on not moving any more at all while I sleep. But as I said, I am getting used to it, despite the fortissimo squeak that awoke me around 5 am this morning. I've found a configuration of my two pillows which I find to be the most comfortable, and even if my feet hang off the end of the mattress, wearing socks prevents my toes from getting too cold - it is still summer after all. My room is pleasantly dark thanks to my curtains, but also thanks to my having to wake up just as the sun is rising in order to make my metro commute.
My alarm on my new french cell phone rings it's ever annoying techno tones to urge me out of my bed. Straight into the shower, which is limited to 15 minutes (Dad would be proud after all the years he spent pounding on the bathroom door when I was taking twice that time). Get dressed, eat breakfast and out the door by ten after 8 am to walk to my metro stop not even half a block away. I scan my super spiffy navigo pass (only losers use individual tickets) and before I know it I'm on my ligne 8 à Créteil for my 30 minute moment to observe all the people on my metro - but very conspicuously. The metro at all times - well at least when it's full of French people and not tourists or elementary school students - is completely silent. On all forms of public transportation, people do not talk. There is the occasional woman on her cell phone in the corner, or the couple who chat but so quietly you'd swear there's nothing coming out from their mouths. It's pleasant, everyone is in their own private space for a few minutes; sleeping, listening to music, or reading books, the paper, or doing the magazine crossword that every parisian seems to be obsessed with. After the first couple days of observing everyone around me in this peaceful setting, I started bringing my own book to enjoy for my own few moments in my world. After 19 stops, my train pulls into Ledru-Rollin and I'm even so pro now that I can open the door and jump to the platform before the train fully stops. Pass a jaunty russian folk band or a romantic solo cellist, up the stairs, cross the street and voilà, I'm at school.
I've become a big fan of the metro, it's taken me everywhere I've gone in this city, and with its various musicians, performing beggars, and everyday people, there's something beautiful about it. I guess that's the one word that I've been limited to when describing Paris - beautiful. I'm still too stunned to really try and grapple for more adjectives, that could be more descriptive and inclusive, I'm just in awe. From the metro, to the parks, to the markets on Thursdays and Sundays, to the architecture, to the food in windows on the street - it's a different, beautiful world.
I've spent more days in parks, luckily sans bird poo. The other day I ventured to the 5è arrondissement, the Latin Quater and the Pantheon of Paris. It was probably the most interesting area I've been to yet in Paris. I wandered around in the crypt of the Panthéon, looking at the tombs of Voltaire and Jean-Jaques Rousseau and Madame Curie, but just down the street, Rue Mouffetard in the latin quarter would soon be bustling with students - real French students, not posers like me. The 5è arr. is also home to La Sorbonne, one of the most prestigious, and definitely the most widely known university in Paris - there are 14 total. The university itself was gorgeous, we only got to walk around the outside of it, but already I'm jealous of the people who actually get to go inside - it made my school made up of about 10 classrooms look quite pathetic and boring...maybe grad school? This area of Paris is therefore the go to when looking for cheaper food, cheaper drinks, and some fun; it's the complete student atmosphere, day and night. Plus the name of the street is just fun to say - Mouffetard!
Luxembourg gardens is just next door in the 6è arr., the phenomenal grounds of the Luxembourg Palace. I went with a few friends, and there's only one patch of grass, open for the public to relax upon, or at least it seemed that way since we walked in and only one was covered in young french people - students as it was the last day of summer. Our group shared a bottle of wine, and surveyed the garden and the back of the palace; I swear the enormous fountain is the same one in which Madeline used to float her toy boat.
I watched as the children would cheer after their boats, shrieking for help from the man wading through the water when theirs got stuck or flipped over in a gusty breeze. The day was completely different than any I have experienced yet in Paris, and I think it was all because I was doing the things French people my age would do in the same place that they would do them. The city is slowly becoming more and more crowded as la rentré has begun - you see, during August everyone in France goes on vacation. Hardly anyone stays around in the city, as evident by all the shops with darkened windows and signs saying "nous allons rentre le 7 septembre". It's wild, generally no one in the states takes a full month off for vacation - we're lucky if we go somewhere for a week, let alone a weekend. School started today, and everyday this next week I will be squeezed closer and closer to people on the metro, will be more likely to be run over by a car, but will be able to go to all the stores that caught my eye, but had been closed.
I also managed to have a picnic with friends in the park beneath La Tour Eiffel. Collectively we bought some cheese, tomatoes, mirabelle plums, saucisson and a baguette (I brought my gluten free bread) and enjoyed our little picnic in the afternoon, again with some wine - we must do as the french do! The day was beyond perfect, with is partly cloudy blue sky and a light breeze, it was so relaxing we could have stayed there for the rest of the day. We did decide to be a little touristy at one point though and take a funny picture with the tower in the background - it's simply something that everyone has to do!
After, we wandered around the 16è arr. a bit, trying to find a place to buy our navigo cards for the metro, always getting distracted by something. The first being a group of rollerbladers in front of the Palais de Chaillot. Apparently the U.S. has missed the memo - rollerblading is back in. I'm just starting to wonder when fanny packs will start to become acceptable again (yes Grandma, even your small paisley navy and white one is not acceptable). But nevertheless, these guys were intense; playing hip hop as loud as their boom box would allow, and ramps and jumps rigged out of cement blocks, sheets of wood and metal bars. They would start at the end of the drive and work up enough speed to send them up the ramp and over a strip of plastic raised at least 6 feet off the ground in contorted positions- some of it was quite impressive. There was some skateboards, mainly longboards that would cruise down the long drive that had a slight grade to it - each 15 year old wearing glasses, no helmet and holding a cigarette just to help you be sure they were cool in case you were having any doubts. The youth in France is quite interesting to observe - how young girls dress, how they interacted with these obviously irresistible rollerbladers, how the boys got along with one another. We almost saw one fight break out, and as we walked up the stairs of the palace we saw a group of boys sprinting through a crowd with police chasing after them - after we passed the crowd, we saw the other two boys with the police that had apparently been the victims of the former posse.
We've found the best thing for foreign students - cheap food! Paris, although an extremely expensive city, is student-friendly. There are dozens of cafeteria-like University Restaurants all over Paris. All you have to do is bring proof of school attendance in the city, purchase a meal card for 2€ and charge it with whatever amount you'd like, and purchase meals for 2.70€ each time you attend. It's brilliant, and a nice break on the wallet. Students get discounts for nearly everything in Paris; even if you're not a student, if you're younger than 26, you can get a discount on almost anything - museum tickets, train tickets, tickets to the opera or ballet, it's insane! I'm used to the youth discount being 12 and younger, or even younger. It's wonderful, but my ACCENT card doesn't hurt either. This little card with my picture states that I am an art history student studying in Paris until December, and just by showing it to people behind windows, I get in most places for free. Today, after lunch (and grabbing the most amazing chocolate meringue I've had in my life), I entered the Louvre gratuité (FO' FREE), I roamed around in the Spanish and Italian renaissance paintings until my little feet were tired and blistering then finally left, BUT I can go back whenever I want...for free. I'm liking this deal.
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