Friday, January 3, 2014

Woo, I made it!

Jan 2, 2014

After being delayed on both my flights (Hartford to Chicago, Chicago to Paris -- don't question it, it's clearly the most efficient route possible, okay??) because of snow, I made it to the Charles de Gaulle international airport in Paris a couple hours late.

I was nervous about calling a taxi to take me to API's (my study abroad program) orientation hotel, but the process was actually really easy. All I had to do was wait in line outside of the terminal and when it was my turn, I got a cab. One thing I noticed during the ride over to the hotel was the number of motocycle and electric scooter drivers! They would constantly zip in between traffic and cut everyone off -- they were cray!

After about a 20 minute ride, I arrived at my destination: the Citadines "apart-hotel" on boulevard richard lenoir in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. The rooms are apartment style and they're pretty nice. Because I arrived a day earlier than scheduled because of flight scheduling, I'm only the API student here right now. My hotel room has two beds so I wonder if another API student will be sharing the room with me when he or she arrives tomorrow?

The weather here in Paris was beautiful though! It was 10 degrees celsius, which is about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The Citadines gave me a map of the area so I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go exploring.

I had read that there are a lot of pharmacies in France, but holy shit! There seems to be one every other street. A big difference between pharmacies in France and in the US is that the French pharmacies are really small and they don't sell a lot of things. While you can get a large variety of products in US pharmacies, French pharmacies seem to have only the "basics" -- like shampoos, soap, toothpaste, etc. I've been into 3 different pharmacies and they were virtually identical, except one focused on organic products. That was the only difference.

I also found two different supermarket chains in the area, Casino and Carrefour. Like the pharmacies, they were really tiny compared to US "supermarkets." Eventually API will give me a 40 euro/month grocery stipend card that's good at any Carrefour location.

I don't know if this is typical of Paris in general or just the area I'm in right now, but I also noticed there were a ton of Japanese restaurants. I must've seen 5 or 6 within 1-2km of the hotel.

I found a French McDonald's and you can order your food on a touch screen off to the side on an ATM-like machine. I was tempted to get a cheap meal, but I abandoned that plan once I learned that it was not going to be cheap. A McChicken meal was about 7 euros (~$9). I did get some cheap pastries at a local bakery though.

I wasn't even walking around for 40 minutes when someone tried to pickpocket me! I was walking with my bag over my shoulder and I passed a man standing outside a store. I turned the corner and saw in the reflection of a store's windows that he had followed me around the corner and was speedng up towards me. I clutched my bag tighter, sped up and looked over my shoulder. Once he saw me look at him, he stopped dead in his tracks and then turned around and went back around the corner. "Swiper, no swiping!" (lol).

I had been up for more than 24 hours straight and was jetlagged so after a couple hours of exploring, I returned to the hotel and passed out around 5pm.

Here are some pictures of the Citadines "apart-hotel":



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