Les premiers jours - what the what is going on ?!

good bye to me new summer friends :')

the hardest goodbye :-( jk all the goodbyes were hard! but reem is still in another dimension

IMPORTANT video (hope it plays...)!! Me and Naoni were planning to do this for a couple of days but of course didn't end up filming until I was literally at the PeterPan station. It was so nice because her, Aboni, and Gau had a last meal with me and escorted me to the station and were late to work for me and started crying (won't say who).

So everything went accordingly and I’m now in Paris! The flight went alright except usually I can knock out on flights but I couldn’t this time. I blame it on the fact I was in the very middle seat and the head rest is not made for shorties like myself. And then they didn’t even give us a meal???? We stopped in Iceland and had to get out. As in being outside in the freezing cold which I was not anticipating. The airport was pretty nice, I’ll give them that. But since I didn’t get to see those Iceland views, I give Icelandair 6/10 this time.

I met Doris at the airport so we could share a taxi to the hotel we would stay at for the night. Since we arrived together, we were also roommates that night (which is good thing for reasons I’ll explain in a bit). We took a stroll around the Jardin du Luxembourg (a very nice park! they got apiaries and ponies and a carousel and pétanque and tennis) and I got a pastry and then I slept a bit. Later I got LOCKED in the bathroom, which is why I say it’s a good thing Doris was there. I swear the lock wouldn’t turn and the hotel front desk guy was like what the…… But it could’ve been worse!

this a way

The next day, we had our first meeting at the Smith Center, where I’ll have some of my classes. It’s a really beautiful little building and courtyard! We went over logistics for a bit and later in the evening we met our host families. C’était la stresse totale! Just because it’s always like that meeting new people, ya know? As some of you may know, I’m staying with a dad (Jean) and his 15 year old son (Clément). They were both very nice and it was interesting getting into things with the language. When we got to the apartment I went on a walk with Clément while Jean prepared the dinner. It was a nice walk and I found out Clément goes to boarding school (called internat) in Rince (still dk where that is) and I asked him if he saw Spiderman Into the Spidyverse and he said no (i was trying to explain boarding school). The dinner was an interesting array. There was this one fish pâté thing that apparently Jean’s girlfriend gave him. It was funny because today I met her and Jean was like “oh yeah, it (the fish thing) is really good. See I ate most of it” and I was thinking hmmm me and Clément definitely helped. The audacity. Just kidding ofc!

un petit coin of the smith center! there's also a black cat that frequents the courtyard. Idk who they belong to because it's a closed building but v cute nonetheless

The next day I was, again, STRESSED, because when I went to the kitchen for breakfast Jean said that his other two older sons and one of their girlfriends were coming and I wasn’t ready to meet even more new people :-). But it was ok. They probably thought I was really bad at French or something because in general it seemed like an off day for me and I was off guard and the convo just moves so fast….. But we dropped one of the sons off at the train station and took a walk around the area (the 6th arrondissement). I saw the Louvre and the Seine and found out that in Paris they don’t do field trips. That’s crazy to me because there are so many museums and we all know that those are hot field trip material.

That evening I stopped being a bum and met with two other Smithies. They live in Montmartre so I got to take the metro. For all those public transport superfans it was a good experience. Pretty user friendly imo except Montmartre is a hill view so the stairs up were quite a lot. The view is definitely worth it!

Today (which is Monday because I have time and don’t want any demerits to my name) there was orientation. We set up bank accounts where I signed my name and bunch and prayed I wasn’t signing anything weird and worked a bit on figuring out academic stuff. The program directors here are godsends and I’m happy they’re here :’).

I hope this isn’t too much but everyday it’s like BAM here’s something new and uncomfortable. Which I know is good! I haven’t had any breakdowns yet but there are definitely moments of missing the feeling of having some semblance of knowing what’s going on. There’s a small artist performing tomorrow (so Tuesday) at this queer bar that someone in the program told us about so I might go. The description of the place is “un bar, mais aussi un espace festif, culturel et politique. C'est un lieu féministe, par et pour les meufs, gouines, bies, trans', queers, participatif et ouvert à tout.e.s.” so “ a bar but also a festive, cultural, and political space. A feminist place for women, dykes, bis, trans people, queers, participatory and open to all”. This sounds pretty cool so here’s to new experiences :-o

UPDATE: I did end up going to the bar with other Smithies and the concert was nice! There was a small artist called Lil8th and her music was kinda jazzy and r&b and lofi. She only has like one song out on Spotify at the moment but that one is good imo!

Also shoutout to Lana Del Rey’s new album! My favs are How to Disappear, California, and the Next Best American Record. I can already tell that I’ll associate it with this time. I also need to find a new perfume so I can associate it with this as well.