in which i am lost in paris.

In Paris. (Apparently the French have no need of exclamation points on their keyboards.)

I am at Reid Hall, which is the building where Wesleyan's classes are held. We are just near the boulevard Montparnasse, in the sixth arrondissement; the place we're staying for the next week, the FIAP, is about half an hour from here, closer to the edge of the city. I have no internet at the FIAP except what I can steal from the apartments across the way, which is highly unreliable, so at least until Saturday I will only have internet access here. It's possible but somewhat less than likely that I will bring my computer here for Wifi and be able to do Skype.

This morning, trying to get to Reid Hall, we got, well, lost. Rather thoroughly lost. A random French woman gave us directions to the metro, and we were already late for our orientation meeting, which none of us really wanted to go to anyway (not unreasonable considering that we have had what is essentially the same orientation meeting over and over for the past two weeks). Anyway, so I and somebody else wanted to take the metro, and the rest of the group decided to walk because it would take longer and they were in no hurry to get to the meeting. So my first experience with the French metro this morning; and it went fine. As I am happy to report. And then we were half an hour late to the meeting, which went exactly as expected.

We are very near the Jardin du Luxembourg here, which is lovely. I haven't heard anything about my host family, and won't move in there until Saturday. Having issues issues issues with my classes, which is less than surprising, and I should probably head over to the director's office to sit with six thousand other concerned students and wait for a meeting with him.

This afternoon: boats on the Seine (tourists BEEP BEEP BEEP) and shopping? The soldes are still going on. Must buy boots. Plus, there are the cutest kids' clothing stores here; I want to buy everything I see for Maddie.

Paris is lovely. You should all come visit me.