chez moi

ok so we've been here a few days so far it's amazing. mostly because of our AMAZING APARTMENT. we're living in the 4th arrondisment, more commonly known as le marais. it's known for being the jewish neighborhood, the gay neighborhood, and an area with amazing nightlife i'll do a brief rundown of my time so far.

day 1.
we arrived at charles de gaulle at about 10:30 am, and having of course not slept at all on the 7 hour plane ride, i was pretty haggard. arriving at our apartment was almost surreal. you know the scene in annie when she gets to daddy warbucks mansion and sings the song "i think i'm gonna like it here"? well, needless to say, it took some extreme self control to not burst into song. here's the flickr album, check it out. it looks like i walked into an anthro catalogue, and i never want to leave.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maddiejane/sets/72157623072250023/

so from there we went to the fiapp, a gorgeous hostel where our orientation was being hosted. the food at orientation was to put it nicely, gross, so my roomates and i late nighted (JENNY) at an awesome pizza place around the corner from our apartment and after such a long day i was so thankful to pass out in my comfy comfy bed.

day 2.
we woke up and promptly had to take a french placement test, which luckily worked out really well for me. we then took the metro to our actual school, which was much easier and faster than expected and ate a GREAT lunch at a cute café by our school. i ate chicken and paid for it all day with terrible stomach cramps. the school is SO CUTE. one of the main building is behind an old church and the other is just beautiful. the staff reminds me of archmere; so quick to help you and get involved. in a school of 1,000 kids they really try to get to know everyone. dinner night 2 took place at an amazing israeli place in our neighborhood, l'as falafel. it pains me to say this but it put george's to shame. we drank jewish beer and you could even rent a yarmulke to eat with. we ended the night with a little party at a friends' place right around the corner.

day 3.
more orientation nonsense, trust me you don't need to know all about this. MORE importantly, heather and i cooked our first meal! we did the barefoot in paris (who doesn't love ina?) warm mushroom salad and a goat cheese crostini. see below. admire the cuteness.

we also had our first mini fête! things are going wonderfully. more later!

Sláinte.

come fly with me.

so i'm peacing out in about 4 hours!

this flight is brought to you by:

margot, my purple ipod nano



pride and prejudice and zombies, "an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem". SICK.


and finally, Paris, Je t'aime, a series of 18 interconnected vignettes that take place across my new city.


see you in paris!

Sláinte.

and so it begins.

So I'm hopping on the blogging bandwagon (thanks charlie). I'm hoping to record and share my exploits over the next 5 months or so with you guys. It's very "new media". Anyway, thanks for stopping by it means a lot to me. Hope I don't disappoint. I'll most likely be keeping the R-NC-17 rated portions of the trip (should there be any. see:Eurotrip) to a minimum, but don't worry if you really want to know all the gritty details (once again, CHARLIE) there's always email.
Tomorrow I leave for Paris. In less than 24 hours I will be in the City of Lights. I have officially entered panic mode. Bags are (relatively) packed, and I'm about to leave everything I've know for the past 20 years to a foreign city. Not to use a cliché hipster movie quote but: it's. all. happening. (I know you all thought it was going to be "the dude abides".) I will be attending the American University of Paris and living in Le Marais in the 4th arrondisment, and hopefully traveling to a plethora of countries while I'm at it. Should be a whirlwind adventure, and I hope you'll all come along for the ride, albeit virtually.

I'm probably going to try to spice the design of this blog up in the near future I can already feel the stark white oppressing me. I plan to write about school, travel, FOOD, and yes, sorry boys, fashion.
To get us started off right, here's a little slice of cuteness to set the mood.



Sláinte.