Chez-Moi et Cette Semain à ce Jour

So I've decided I should finally let people know what my new home looks like! I was trying to wait till my landlord out my new countertop in, but I'm not even sure if that is happening anymore, so I thought I would go ahead and give everyone a little peak. (WARNING: this room is tiny, I don't know if I can stress this enough, think of your freshman dorm room, take away a roommate and add a kitchen counter and shower/bathroom area in that same small space, thats basically it) But! I do like my room nonetheless because its nice to have my own space, and I couldn't ask for a better location. I live in the 6th arriondissment, which according to wikipedia is known for being, "deeply-rooted intellectual tradition, prestigious history, beautiful architecture and central situation, the arrondissement has long been home to French intelligencia. It is a major localization for art galleries and one of the most fashionable districts of Paris, as well as Paris' most expensive area."

Me in front of my door on move in day (SO MANY BAGS)

The view from right inside the doorway to my building.. an entrance to the Luxembourg Gardens!!

Staircase in my building (I live on the 6th floor.. thank god for the elevator!)

The view of the front door from inside the lobby

Now after looking at these beautiful photos, please lower your expectations a little before looking at my room!

Bathroom Area (It's not even safe to call this a bathroom it's so small) 

Kitchen Area

Shelf and what I like to call the Wall of Fame

Basically my entire room fits in one picture

So there you have it, it's very tiny but I must admit I do love it anyways. I love having my own space and its in a very beautiful and convenient location!

Besides that this week has been good, I've mainly just been busy with classes which gets in the way of exploring Paris as much as I would like to. Thanks to my architecture class, though, I get the opportunity to explore Paris during the week on our field trips, with basically my own free personal tour guide! This week we went and saw Notre Dame and the Sainte Chapelle. I had already seen Notre Dame, but I learned so much more on my visit this time. The real highlight was definitely Sainte Chapelle, though, it was much smaller than Notre Dame but I have never seen more impressive stained glass windows!

Notre Dame again

Completely missed these painted columns my first time around at Notre Dame! 

The lower floor of the Sainte Chapelle

Beautiful ceilings

OMG CRAZY STAINED GLASS WINDOWS (this is the second floor, it was formerly attached to the King and Queen's chambers)

So you're definitely not allowed to climb up there I'm pretty sure this man just wanted to ruin my picture. (Behind me is where the relics were kept.. The most famous being the crown of thorns)

Mes Cours

Monday marked the ending of my Parisian vacation with the start of classes. So far, though, all of my classes seem interesting and not overwhelmingly difficult. I am taking an intermediate french class that meets for over 5 hours every week (eeek, but it is necessary to hone those skills!), an art history class called Paris through its architecture, films and their meanings, and media globalization.

This week was a little bit more calm with settling into classes, and while it seemed to be going slow at first, it ended up speeding by.

My great accomplishments for this week were:

my first creme brulee here!

hot chocolate from angelina's across from the louvre  (WARNING: tastes literally like melted chocolate, chaser much needed)

jim morrison's grave

edith piaf's grave

le week-end

My first official weekend here was a great start to my semester! On Friday, AUP's SGA organized a pub crawl of some of the bars in the 5th arrondissement, it was a great time exploring a new neighborhood, although I will admit the highlight may have been the roadside stands with super cheap crepes and more hot dog baguettes.

Saturday I explored the 6th a little more before going to a walking tour of Montmarte organized by AUP. It was a great opportunity to see a lot of sights I hadn't gotten to see (the cafe Amelie worked at, the Moulin Rouge and Sacre Cour). Afterwards, we tried a real French fondue place which was so delicious.

Le Passe-Muraille

Sacre Coeur

Paris!

Sacre Coeur

cheese wheel fondue- amazing!

yummm

On Sunday I went exploring around Notre Dame and then around the Louvre. It was such a beautiful day and I may or may not have almost been pick-pocketed by Quasimodo. Afterwards, we took a Bateaux Mouche, which is a boat that rides up and down the Seine. It was beautiful, but hard to take pictures because it was so dark.

Notre Dame

The Louvre

Longest unobstructed city view!

lovelovelove

the eiffel tower from the bateaux mouche 

6eme arrondissment

hello everyone! wow it feels like so much has happened since sunday night. monday i had my highly anticipated housing meeting and after discussing what i was looking for (a chambre de bonne near school, private bathroom, internet, etc) I was presented with 4 choices. from those 4, i got to pick one to visit, and only one of them had pictures(which were not pretty) so it was basically a shot in the dark. i picked to look at an apartment in the 6^th arrondissement right on the luxembourg gardens because of its location, price, and most importantly it has an elevator. after a rush through paris's metro and the 6^th (my landlord needed to leave in 20 minutes but wanted to show me the place so i could make a deicision) we arrived at 38 rue de guynemer. Before even seeing the inside i turned around and saw that directly in front of my building's door was an entrance to the luxembourg gardens and my mind was essentially made up. my chambre de bonne(a converted maids room) is very small (10 sq meters) but, hey its in paris and its my own place! my landlord told me i could not move in until wednesday, though because he wanted to repace the countertops and do a little work on the place before i moved in.

mon premiere crepe a paris (sunday)

my first taste of escargot: surprisingly so good!!

tuesday i helped a friend move into her chambre de bonne which is a block from l'arc de triumph! after helping her move in we explored les champs elyssaus, which provided me with some great pictures. 

in front of 'arc de triumph!

so pretty!

hotdog in a baguette!

yesterday, i was finally able to move into my apartment, however my landlord is not finished replacing the countertops and some other minor work so i'm going to hold off on pictures for now.

today i woke up for the first time in my chambre do bonne and after finalizing my classes on campus i decided to explore the catacombs with some friends. i'm not even really sure what to say about them other than there were more skulls/bones than i had ever imagined! it was kind of hard to take pictures because we weren't allowed to use flash.

FIAP

bonjour from the FIAP! so i arrived in paris yesterday at 940 AM after a brief stop at the london heathrow airport. the flight in to paris was quite interesting, when we were descending into the Charles de Gaulle Airport I immediately pressed my face to my window and searched for the eiffel tour! however, all i saw was farm land, i had a brief "home alone" moment where i worried if i had managed to get on the wrong plane, however, this was not the case and i landed safely in paris! after finding my luggage with some other northeastern students we quickly found students holding "AUP" signs for our shuttle bus. (not being able to find them was my biggest fear) we then arrived at the FIAP, which calls itself a "student center" but it's more like a really nice hostel or a super strange hotel, which ever way you want to look at it.

my view from the FIAP (the actual room itself is so small it was hard to get in a picture, and also really not that glamorous)

AUP doesn't actually have student housing, but they do help set you up with a landlord and apartment, so until we find our permanent housing we are staying here at the FIAP. i have 3 roommates in my room, but it is surprisingly spacious and my roommates are all very nice so it is working out well.

yesterday wasn't a too exciting day, i actually never even got to venture outside of the FIAP between the orientation events and my jet lag. i fell asleep immediately after dinner, but woke up today extremely refreshed!

today, however was much more exciting! after an interesting french placement test (eep my real decision on it will be decided after i have my results haha) i enjoyed yet another delicious meal at the FIAP (not at all really, it actually makes NEU's cafeterias look pretty good) but! afterwards i got to see AUP's lovely campus! AUP is located in the 7th arrondissement which is absolutely beautiful (it's most famous for the eiffel tower!) after that a friend and i ventured off from the group & i finally saw the eiffel tower! yay yay, it was especially pretty because the sun was setting.

pre sunset

so prettaaayyy!

afterwards, my advisor took our group to a lebanese restaurant which i have never tried before. those of you that know me well, know i am not the most adventurous when it comes to food. however! it was actually really good and i enjoyed all of it! i will def eat it again while i am here. afterwards, some other students and i went to a canadian bar called the moose. it was just a quick stop, but american sports were playing on all of the TV's and i happened to be with two eagles fans with me so we enjoyed watching the beginning of the eagles game. (however we're 6 hours ahead and not the best at the metro system yet so we had before the first quarter was even over)

gross, but eagles fans à paris! :)

well that's it for now, tomorrow is my housing appointment, i hope it goes well!