Officially Oriented?

Except, not really. Hello! I'm technically now finished with my orientation sessions, except for the tiny detail that I won't begin classes for another week (my university starts later then the rest of them). So, to prevent my having actual free time, Middlebury gave the Paris 3 students a second week of orientation that focuses on getting acclimated to Parisian university life. I'll still have a couple hours free here and there, and Monday I'll have nothing at all, so I definitely see some more museum visits in my near future. We're actually kind of lucky to have these extra methodology sessions, as dry as they might be, because a French university is, in short, nothing like an American university. Starting with, in France they will read, out loud, to the entire class (which is typically upwards of 150 people), your name and your grade for each assignment. Oh. Cool.

So speaking of my French university, I'm assuming y'all want to see what it looks like. Uh, this is not Bowdoin:

I like what you've done with the place.

So, stimulating factory of knowledge that it is, I'd better get used to it since I'll be spending 6+ hours there a week (the other 6 are at the Midd Center). Well, hopefully. The reason we went to the University was to inquire about how we can go about registering. For literature classes, the answer was essentially "Show up really early next Friday morning and wait in line and we'll see." One of the women in the office was pretty nice, and I showed her my course list and she pointed out the ones she felt would be very popular and thus full by the time I was able to register ("The Writer and His Salons," is apparently quite the course to take and is already full... good thing it was my last choice... and supposedly nobody is interested in "Writing World War II" so there should be a spot for me! Whoo). 

I don't have much other to say about orientation week, since I doubt most of it will be quite interesting to all my dear, sweet pea readers. The Paris 3 group got a 'buddy' from the university, a ridiculously pretty and skinny law student named Marie, and she's planned a couple of excursions around Paris with the group of us in the next couple of weeks, which I am looking forward to even if a big loud group of Americans is probably not the idealist situation I could picture myself in here. In between orientation sessions, I've mostly been doing some housekeeping, buying civil responsibility insurance (for if I have a spaz moment and accidentally injure someone else, I don't have to pay for their hospital bills) and finally opening up a French bank account, a process that was far easier than I expected it to be. Lookin' forward to my sweet carte bleue (French debit card) in the mail next week!

A couple days ago, I had just enough time between orientation sessions to hop over to the Marais district with a couple of Americans to visit the (free!) Musée Carnavalet. It's essentially a museum that lays out the history of Paris, but through the lens of decoration and architecture, via themed rooms. So, each room is a reconstructed room from another part of Paris at another point in history. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside (I sense a reoccurring theme...) but here's two I snuck when nobody was looking (sorry I'm not sorry):

The museum was incredibly large so we didn't have nearly enough to time to finish it all - but since it's free, I'm sure we'll be able to go back soon. The main point of my wanting to go to the Marais was to head over to the main street that houses all my French Jewish brothers' (my Jew-bros'?) restaurants. Also known as, incredible amounts of delicious cheap falafal. Oui oui oui. But I made a wrong turn (unsurprising) and it was too late in the day to go back the other way, so we ended up with some baguette sandwiches from a boulangerie nearby before heading back into the world of orientation overload. Another time!

Today (Saturday), I had to wake up super early to go take the very exciting "Knowledge of French Test," which was at times ridiculous (ex: Picture of a woman eating salad, "What is she eating?") but also a little tricky in parts. There was also an oral part where we had to go into a room with the proctor and they recorded a conversation between the two of us (where I was asked rather random quasi-philosophical questions, such as "Should city-dwellers not be allowed to have cars?" and "What if there was a universal language?") Oh, and a quick sidenote: the worst part about waking up anytime before 9am is that it is always pitch-black outside, even after 8am. It feels like the middle of the night! But various little birdies have told me that it is blizzard-weather stateside, so I am considering myself quite lucky in the weather department. Anyway, after the test, I went with a couple Americans to a restaurant I found in my Clotide's Edible Adventures in Paris guide (yes, I own a Parisian food guide) in the 2ème that was all organic and rather veggie-friendly. I had (because I know you wanna know) carrot and coriander soup and a cheese, olive and tomato panini. Yay! After the museum, I walked around for a bit but because it was not exactly walk-friendly weather (mist-rain, classic Bowdoin weather) I went to the Musée d'Orsay (also free for card-holding Parisian students, of which I am now finally one, although the woman at the ticket counter was very suspicious of my card and demanded to see 'proper identification.' Luckily I had a copy of my visa on me). I've been to the Musée d'Orsay once before, but as it was six years ago obviously the exhibitions have changed! There were so many gorgeous paintings, especially in the Impressionist exhibit (Monet's water lillies!!). The only thing that was, well, stressful about the museum was that it is so large and so crowded with art that I found myself feeling quite overwhelmed about where to look - hallways would open into rooms that would open into smaller rooms that would open into smaller hallways, but depending on which paths you took, you ended up in a different part of the museum and so missed things that you would've seen if you didn't go into any of the smaller rooms. I ended up going up to the 5th floor first (Impressionists) and working my way down to the main floors because it was just an easier way to tour the museum. Again, no inside pictures, but apparently this didn't count for the famous view-out-of-the-giant-clock tourist spot inside the museum, so voilà:

I suppose this is a nicer picture on a nicer day...

Outside the Musée d'Orsay.

View into the courtyard of the Musée de Légion d'Honneur, just across the street.

And thus concludes official orientation week!

x R.

PS - On Thursday night, to celebrate the one week anniversary of my arrival in Paris, my host mom surprised me with champagne and chocolates at dinner. :) The best life. I have it.