Chez Moi

Everything has finally settled down and is falling into place. Apartment? Check. Cell phone? Check. Bank account? Check. Now all there`s left to do is get me out of this hostel and into my fabulous new place!! I lucked out more than anyone else in the program in the whole house-hunt debacle. I only looked at two places and fell absolutely head over heels in love with both of them. While everyone else was running around the city stressing out because nothing was in their budgets or nothing was good enough, my biggest problem was deciding which perfect apartment I was going to call my home. I had to decide between a small, but super cute apartment in a super nice neighborhood in the 5th arrondissement, or a humungous fabulous out of this world amazing apartment in an okay area of Paris in the 10th arrondissement. After hours of jumping from apartment to apartment, changing my mind and stressing both my potential roommates out, I decided the apartment was more important to me than the neighborhood. I figured once winter comes I`m not going to be wanting to spend most of my time outside in my neighborhood being cold and freezing my butt off, I`m going to want to be all cozy in my apartment.

And my roommate is fabulous too, he`s an American boy named Lance. He lived in Paris all last year so he speaks beautiful, perfect French and since he`s been here for so long he knows Paris like the back of his hand. I`ve been spending most of my time running around Paris with him, shopping and stalking every cute boy we see - gay or straight. ;D It`s reassuring seeing how comfortable he is here in Paris after only a year . . . it`s like a constant reminder of what I have to look forward to. Having a group of my own friends, knowing which metros to take without thinking twice, and of course, speaking the language flawlessly! Ooooh to reach that point, I can`t wait to be completely in my element.

As for the rest of my experience thus far, I`ve done some of the basic touristy things. A sunset boatride down the Seine River, I visited Saint Sulpice and Le Cimetiere Pere Lachaise . . . nothing super big or exciting. I have yet to see the Eiffel Tour in person or go to any of the big museums. But I have all year, I`m sure I`ll get around to seeing those things eventually. I`m trying so hard to find my place here and not look like an American tourist that doing all the touristy things have yet to really appeal to me. But like I said, I have an entire year to discover the city and I won`t rule anything out just because it`s "touristy." There`s still so much to do and so much to see but I`m just taking it one day at a time. Babey steps. Next step - turn my apartment into my home! :o)