Moulin Rouge tour...for FREE!!

INSIDE THE MOULIN ROUGE!

The line to get in to the Moulin Rouge...wow...

Museum Carnavalet...

Museum Carnavalet: The history of Paris.

Gardens at the Museum.

Worn by Napolean...kind of cool..

I'm a statue...Louis XIV!!

room before and after my trip to IKEA!!

Settling down...

So I have finally uploaded some new pictures onto this blog. When I first started this blog I thought that this would definitely be the best way to keep everyone updated with pictures, but I have quickly learned that facebook is probably the easiest way. So I went to IKEA the other day which is really not anywhere near Paris. In fact, it is WAY outside of Paris. But I purchased plenty of wonderful organizational items that have finally allowed me to live in my new place without it feeling like a storage closet. I say closet because it certainly is not big enough to be called a room. HAHA... We are about to start our "inscriptions" which means we are going to soon be signing up for our universities here in France and determining our course loads for the coming semester. This obviously brings about a whole new wave of difficulties but we shall see how it all goes in the near future. I'm actually extremely excited to start getting to the schooling aspect of life in Paris. I will be attending Paris huit (8), otherwise known as St. Denis. It has a very international flavor and a wonderful French as a foreign language department, which is exactly what I need. Oh yeah...I also went grocery shopping so now I can fix meals at home instead of always eating out. Paris is definitely not the place to always eat out...unless you are super wealthy. The first meal I fixed was dinner last night and it was actually surprisingly delicious. See MOM...I'M NOT HELPLESS!! It was pasta with chicken and tomato sauce. I know...not the most difficult meal, but it was still made from scratch. Thats all for now...

Dinner Parties and such...

Our dinner party pose...

Delicious food and wine (it is France after all...)

Sarah slaving over our meal...

Outside of the Opera

Inside Paris City Hall: Hotel de Ville.

My head out of my window!! And my first piece of mail!!

Well, I am officially moved into my new apartment and it is awesome...now I must head to IKEA or somewhere and get some stuff for it. I currently have no where to put clothes and no food in the fridge. But it is home...

MY ABODE cont...

My humble abode!!!

my kitchen and the long way up to my apartment

the facade to my building!!

MY apartment...!!!

Burrito dinner...yumm...

yamini being crazy...and the eiffel tower...OH...la la....

My temporary housing bed and room.

My mom and sister at the "bon voyage"

here is a picture from the bon voyage party...ahaha...I just felt that this blog needed some kind of picture!!

HOMELESS NO LONGER!!

Bonjour everyone,

Today was an early start. I woke up and went with all of the MICEFA kids to take a french exam to determine our levels. This will help them determine what classes and universities we can go to later on. After that I went with a friend, Alina, to get her a cell phone because our American ones don't work here in France. Almost immediately I went to my housing appt. with a French lady in order to see a tiny apartment in the 17th arrondissment of Paris. It is 9 meters square and on the 6th floor with no elevator...haha...but guess what?!!?? I signed the lease! It is absolutely tiny, but the best thing is that it is mine! I am no longer homeless in France, and all of the initial worries I had about that are gone. Now, my main focus for the next few days is to remained settled and get my bank account here in France. Once I do this, I will truly be on my way. Once I move in, I am going to post lots of pictures.

Paris

I'm HERE!!!!!! It was a long time coming and a long way here, but I am finally at my new home for the next year. Tomorrow I am going to be setting up some housing appointments because as many of you know I am homeless at the moment. But no worries, I am sure that it will all work out. We (the MICEFA kids) start our general orientation tomorrow. That should be fairly exciting because we will learn about banking, metro, housing, classes, etc. With all that good stuff out of the way, this adventure might seem just a little bit more real.

Au revoir,
Andy