Best juice ever?

I still haven't figured out why my hotel's wifi isn't working. However, I did set up my university's wifi account so I'm now typing this on a real computer!

I've been adjusting to Parisian life a little every day. I've learned how to do grocery shopping in a city. Since I don't have a microwave so half of my college cuisine is out of question and I also don't have a stove (not that I bake things anyway) I've been exploring various French cheeses. So far I've tried Cambert and Brie. My local supermarket has so many options, it's overwhelming! I've also bought baguettes (so French!) and discovered the wonders of Tropicana Rouge Plaisir. It's a 100% juice blend of raspberry, grape, pomegranate, cherry, and blackberry juice, I believe. It's a little bit thick, but it's very tasty. I'm almost convinced it's the best juice ever.

I also learned that Parisians do not talk to each other. You'll sit next to them on the metro for twenty minutes and never mutter a word. That's probably been the hardest adjustment for me. I am a very social person and coming from OU, everyone is welcoming and inviting. It's not that Parisians are rude, they're just very reserved. Also, it's not like I'd strike up a conversation with any of them anyways... I'm nowhere near fluent enough to do that and I'd look like a total tourist.

My classes started this week, and I can say that it was definitely much different than syllabus week back home. For starters, my university has allowed students to register for courses over the maximum limit. This means that while I am registered for all my courses online, I might not be allowed to take all of them. Also, half my classes didn't start this week- one course starts next Tuesday and the other in two weeks. I'll find out by early next week what my schedule really is, hopefully. The whole thing is quite confusing and unorganized, I hope to find out more information next week... we'll see.

Pleasant surprises

Probably the coolest thing that's happened to me all week was my discovery at the Musée d'Orsay on Friday. When I went to purchase my ticket, I discovered that all students (residents?) under the age of 28 in France get free admission to the national museums! This is pretty major for me because I love museums and I love free things!

I spent my morning at the museum looking at Renoirs, Monets, Van Gough's famous starry night. This was my first visit to the Musée d'Orsay and I must admit it might have stolen l'Orangerie's spot as my favorite museum in Paris. During my two previous visits to the city, the Musée d'Orsay was under construction. I'm not sure what it looked like before but the high ceilings and iconic clocks are absolutely beautiful. I would visit the museum for the architecture itself.

After passing a few hours in the museum, I wandered around the area and found more pleasant surprises. I'm not sure the name of it, but there's a bridge in Paris where couples place locks on it and throw away the keys- that way, even though your relationship might end, the lock will stay there as a memorial to the pleasant times you once shared. It was really sweet to see all the love notes scribbled on the locks.

I also walked around the Jardin des Tulleries. I must say, it's not very pretty in the dead of winter. All the barren trees are gloomy and depressing as they contrast with the Louvre in the background.

I stumbled across a Monoprix (similar to Target) and bought school supplies as well as my local boulangerie where I purchased some fresh bread.

Overall, the day was pretty exhausting and I'm still battling jetlag so I think I'm in desperate need of a nap.

Oh Internet, how I've missed you.

I've been in Paris for five days now and I'm slowly starting to adjust to the city life. I'm still incredibly jet lagged and my inability to sleep during normal hours has contributed to quite a bit of four A.M. dinners. It's also been snowing for a few days now. The city is really pretty but the sidewalks aren't shoveled so walking anywhere is a pain.

My hotel is quite lovely. It's situated on a quiet street in the 15th arrondissement, just two metro stops from the Eiffel Tower. Upon my arrival they said the hotel would be undergoing reservations this week and that the room I reserved, on the first floor, was unavailable. They upgraded me to a double bed on the fifth floor (there is an elevator) free of charge! I've yet to actually see any construction though.

The only problem I've had with my hotel is that I can't connect my laptop to the wifi (pronounced wee-fee) network. I bought the WIFI access code (€5 for my whole stay) and I've only been able to connect to it on my iPhone. I think they might have been having issues with their login page though because even my iPhone would only stay connected for 30 seconds at a time my first two days.

This leads me to what I perceive as the biggest lie in France. It's probably not an intentional lie, but as an English speaker it is somewhat false advertising. There is a French company, Free, that offers a membership to join their network of hotspots around the city. Free Wifi COSTS MONEY.

For this very reason, I have yet to connect my laptop to the Internet here in France. The places I've found with wifi gratuit (actually free wifi) are public parks around Paris. I could lug my laptop to the nearest one.... But there's currently an inch of snow on the ground and I don't love my laptop enough for that.

As a result, I'm currently writing this post from the Blogger app on my phone. I attempted to find the Internet cafe in my neighborhood today but I didn't check the hours and it's closed on Sundays, oops.

TL,DR;
Jayme wrote a really boring post about the #struglife in Paris.

Feelings.

Earlier in the week, I was texting one of my college friends about studying abroad. My university's classes started. Monday, so while all of my friends have returned to Norman, I'll be passing my time in a Parisian cafe until my classes start the following week.

I mentioned something in passing about how I was slightly jealous of his return to school. He was quick to remind me that Paris is much cooler than Oklahoma. Even then, it made me think about all of my feelings I have associated with this experience. Excitement. Fear. Nervousness.

The weeks leading up to my departure, people would always tell me "You're so brave." "You're fearless." "I could never do something like that." I always brushed off these compliments. I didn't want to think about the magnitude of what I was about to do. Sure, I moved halfway across the country for college. I've traveled to Europe, without my parents, twice. I'm a seasoned traveler and a smart girl. But it only recently started to sink in that I've never had to do any of this alone.

In the next five months, I'll be pushed out of my comfort zone. If my comfort zone is New York, I'll be in New Zealand. I'll make mistakes. I'll be embarrassed. I'll be nervous. I'll be scared. But you know what? I'm also going to have an unforgettable experience. I'm going to meet so many people, make friends who will change my life, travel to places I've always dreamed of visiting... and no amount of nerves will ever scare me away from the opportunity of a lifetime.

#AirportProblems

I left my house at 4 a.m. Monday morning, bright an early, to catch my flight out of SeaTac at 8. My plane was a little late leaving because there was frost on our wings, but that's no big deal, I'm all about airline safety. I had a small 2 and a half hour layover in Chicago O'Hare before continuing onto Paris which was just enough time for me to call my parents, grab some dinner, and charge my phone.

Of course, here's where the fun begins! When my flight is scheduled to begin boarding (4:35 p.m.), the front desk announces that maintenance hasn't finished running their tests and we will be experiencing a slight delay. Hey, that's cool- I'd rather them make sure my plane is fully functional before I fly transatlantic. 30 minutes later, it is announced that my plane is unsafe to fly (boo) but they found us another plane that can be boarded almost immediately (yay). Unfortunately..... for some reason that plane could not be flown to Paris (it might have been broken too). The front desk announced that they were finding us a new plane (3rd time's the charm, right?) but it looked like we wouldn't leave until 9:30 p.m. Keep in mind, this is a four and a half hour delay from my original departure time.

Dinner vouchers were given out. $12 of airport food is always delicious. Most of the passengers on my flight were rerouted to other flights because of their connections, but there were still many people sticking it out for the later flight. It is confirmed that our plane has landed from London and is being quickly refueled and checked before moving to our gate. The flight crew and pilots have arrived and the morale around my gate is pretty positive, given the delay. The plane boarded lightning fast and we were all seated before 10 p.m.

I've been in Chicago for nearly eight hours now, so I'm eager to sleep on the flight. I'm frantically texting my friends and family goodbye as the flight attendants begin the pre-flight procedures. I wait for them to tell me to turn off my phone, but they never do. We sit 45 minutes at the gate.

Then, we hear an overhead announcement. My pilots, because of this delay, have gone over their legally allowed hours in the cockpit and cannot fly the plane. We have passengers, we have a working plane, we have flight attendants. We don't have pilots. Awesome.

There are looks of sheer exhaustion, disgust, and anger on everyone's faces. American Airlines put me up in a fancy hotel outside the airport (and the nice consierge gave me a suite!) as well as $24 additional dollars worth of airport food vouchers and a boarding pass to Paris on a flight that leaves at FIVE O'CLOCK THE NEXT EVENING. Well, looks like I've gotten a complimentary vacation in the Chicago suburbs courtesy of American Airlines.

(I am writing this post from the comfort of my fancy hotel bed as I try to think of ways to fill the time before my flight.)

Paris hotels on a budget

I'm fortunate enough that my university is providing housing for a majority of my stay. However, for reasons beyond control, my apartment lease won't begin for almost 3 weeks after my arrival. For the past month, I've been searching for short-term housing options in the city. The whole ordeal has been quite stressful but I'm  happy to announce that I've finally booked a place to stay!

As I'll be living traveling to France alone, safety and affordability were huge factors for me. Also, because I'd be staying for eighteen nights, I wanted a place that I felt comfortable in. I also wanted a place close to the metro line to make my commute easier. The search was not easy: I browsed dozens of sites and read hundreds of reviews. In the end, I booked my stay at a small hotel in the 15th arrondissement for $50/night.

Originally, I planned to stay in a hostel because they're inexpensive and relatively secure. I preferred to use hostelworld.com for my search because it's easy to adjust the search filters and view room availability. I found majority of the Parisian hostels are located in the northeast corner of the city, far from my university. Also, I feared that 18 nights with minimal privacy would be draining. I sought a hostel that provided lockers, all-female dorms, and positive reviews (an impossible combination). After two weeks, it appeared that my needs wouldn't be met in a hostel, so I began to look at other forms of residence.

I also looked into renting a room in a Parisian residence. There are many websites (like www.paristay.com) and even a Craigslist page dedicated to this. I had many of the same concerns as I did with hostels. In the end, I decided that as a young, female foreigner, renting a room wasn't as secure as I wanted: what if the people I was renting from were slobs, thiefs, or creeps? Plus, living as a guest in a home can be awkward, particularly if there is a large age difference or cultural barriers. If I was more fluent in French, this option would have probably worked out just fine, but as a first time resident in France, I wanted a little more structure during my stay.

Hotels in Paris are not like hotels in America, though. Many of the budget hotels don't have ensuite bathrooms and some don't even provide linens. Also, single rooms can be pretty pricey, ranging from $50-175 a night. Trip Advisor, Orbitz, Expedia, and Hotwire and Hostelworld are all good search engines for English speakers. I prefered Trip Advisor and Hostelworld because they provided more budget hotel results. In general, most hotels listed on the major search engines appear to be quite nice until you read the traveler reviews. I found out that a really cute hotel in the 10th only had one shower for all six floors. At another hotel, the management gave everyone the same code, so you could freely enter any room. The worst review wrote of a concierge drunkenly attempting to enter a woman's room during the night with the master key.

In the end, I'm staying in a hotel that accommodates to longer stays. Originally, my mom found it on Trip Advisor at a listed price of $70/night for a single sofabed room. That was a little higher than I had budgeted, particularly for a sofabed, but the hotel many amenities. It included a shower, WC, kitchenette and linens in the room. I pulled up the website for the hotel and was pleased to find they offered discounted rates for extended stays. By booking the room for more than 15 days, I got a 30% off the listed price! At $50 a night, my parents and I decided that I probably wouldn't find anything better and I booked it right away. I'll write more about it once I arrive, but until then, it's such a relief to have found a place to live!

TLDR;

 Start your search early. Look at all the options. READ TRAVELER REVIEWS.

Reflections & Resolutions

I've got such an exciting year ahead of me. In a little more than a week, I'll be boarding a plane to Europe to spend the spring semester as an exchange student. Then, in the fall, I will return to the University of Oklahoma where I'll be reunited with my campus and friends after a nine month absence.

2012 was good to me. I met many wonderful people who helped me grow into a better person. I was fortunate enough to spend my summer working at my childhood summer camp with some of my oldest and truest friends as coworkers. I achieved great things both inside and outside the classroom, learning fascinating things on a daily basis.

It's only fitting that I list my resolutions for the new year on this blog. My resolutions are simple and personal. They might not be super serious, but hey, I'm only nineteen! However, they are all things that require constant vigilance to achieve success. In a year where I'm presented with so many life-changing opportunities, I feel it is only fitting to maximize my personal growth. Without further adieu, here are my resolutions for 2013.

I will....

• be more assertive 
• try harder to get what I want.
• be a better flirt.
• not be bothered by the little things.
• travel a lot.

2013, please be nice to me.