Update 1 from Paris!

Hello all! Sorry I have been so bad about updating this blog that I advertised over a week ago! A few updates from Paris so far:

We have now finished our very intense week of French language during orientation, which was pretty miserable. We had to be at school 10-5:30 everyday, which sort of made it difficult to see the city. We have this week mostly off however to try and figure out what classes to take (which is also proving to be quite difficult since the only class that will work for my major and that I will not die trying to take, is during my 1 mandatory class. They are now having me take a year 3 political science/law class which is likely to kill me. I need to find a good compromise now....) and to visit museums and different quartiers.

My host family is wonderful! They have 4 kids who are 21, 19, 18, and 7. The 3 youngest live at home and they are very helpful at telling me good places to go in the city and about nightlife and the social scene of teenagers and young 20s here. The 7 yr old is obviously not helpful with this, but she is very cute (though also a handful!). I am living in the 7th very close to the Seine which is a fantastically central location and which is also very beautiful and nice.

The other exciting bit of news was that the Pope was here last weekend. It was pretty cool to see him, although I did not see any of the masses he gave, just him driving by in the "Papamobile" as it is known in French. Below is a photo of some of us waiting to see the Pope outside of Notre Dame....a pretty cool backdrop for the Pope! (St Francis would be so proud!)

All in all though things are great. I am loving the other students on my program and we have a group of about 15 of us that are very good friends. Having such a big group does make it a bit difficult to arrange outings and traveling and such however.



Miss you all lots!

Love,

Kaitlin